1991: A Great Year For Myriad Mind Control

Not too long ago, Not Blog X reviewed one of my absolute favorite X-men issues of yesteryear: Uncanny X-men # 273. In today's entry, we will also cover this comic, focussing on the multiple, mostly unrelated, mind control elements at play within these pages.

Call it an homage

A little background info: this is the first issue after the massive X-Tinction Agenda crossover. X-Tinction (re)united the X-men and saw them fighting alongside X-Factor and Cable's New Mutants against Cameron Hodge and his Genoshan cronies. After defeating Hodge, the three teams returned home to figure out their next move.

As Not Blog X-writer G. Kendall pointed out in his review, this is actually one of the first 'down time after a big crossover' issue in the X-franchise. A moment to catch your breath, take stock and set out in new, exciting directions. For my money, Claremont first told that type of story right after Inferno when he had the X-men and women enjoy some time off back in Uncanny X-men # 244 & 245.

But in # 273, all three teams enjoyed some time off together. And most of their shared interludes involved mind control in one form or another...

The issue opened with Storm, Cable, Cyclops and Jean reviewing their many enemies. It's quite the list...

Ever the soldier, Cable proposed to take them all out methodically, essentially turning the X-men into a squad of mercenaries under his command. Disgusted, Storm and Cyclops refused his offer to turn the team into an army (... how times change). But Cable's rant did spark a little concern within Storm who wondered if both X-Factor and the X-men hadn't outlasted their usefulness.

"Are we fit caretakers for longer, for Xavier's school and his dream? Or has the time come to turn that role over to others.. as it was handed first from him to you and you to us?"

And to think Ororo doesn't even recall yet how Kid Vulcan, Petra, Sway and Darwin all but died as the not-quite-so fantastic fill in X-men serving in that brief interval between the original and Storm's team.

The answer to Storm's question just sort of hangs there though, like the black cloud she generated. After the confrontation with Cable about the future of the team, the issue gradually focused on several ongoing plot points... Like Banshee finally being able to contact his lady love Moira MacTaggert to inform he hadn't in fact perished when the Reavers (remember them from the global threat map?) blew up his plane.

Unfortunately, Moira wasn't exactly the way Sean Cassidy remembered her to be.

"What has happened to her?! It's as though the fiercest highlander side of  her nature has overwhelmed all her gentler aspects."

Unbeknownst to Banshee, Moira and the other people on Muir Island had fallen under the subtle influence of the Shadow King. The ever present malevolent psychic entity had been working from the shadows for months, trying to form a viable power base.

Not only operating from Muir, but also taking over another physical form, one detective Jacob Reisz. As Reisz, the King chased after Storm and Gambit, even taking a Shadow Queen in the process. But let's not get ahead of ourselves...

While Banshee struggled with how Moira had changed, elsewhere in the X-men's basement Forge and Beast pondered a somewhat similar problem...

"The more time passes... the more that genetic lock sets...
until it becomes permanent and unbreakable."

The two genius level mutants are talking about Rahne Sinclair. Back on Genosha, she was turned into a mutate which meant she not only lost all her hair, but also became a willing slave thing, blindly following the commands of the Magistrates...

But in her case, the genetic reprogramming harbored an additional, cruel twist. It also made mutate Rahne fall madly in love with Alex Summers, who had been reincarnated as a magistrate (long story). this provided a second layer of mind control: she wasn't just resequenced to obey a uniform, she was also bound to someone... body and soul.... Who didn't even remotely feel the same way about her. And what's even worse: the longer it remained untreated, the harder it will be to remove.

Ah well, no rush...

Let's move to another X-man who only recently recovered from excessive mental tampering...

"The Hand used magic as well as medicine to do the job.
Even Forge can't puzzle out quite how."

Y'know, for an alleged mutant miracle worker, Forge sure can be a bit of a let down sometimes. He was unable to figure out a cure to Rahne's mutation and now he's clueless on the subject of Psylocke's transformation... all the while, Betsy herself is openly wondering if she might not still be serving the Hand in some way.

She shared all this with Jean Grey, surprisingly enough...a woman she only met once, rather briefly, during Inferno. 

Yet here they are, conversing like long lost friends while one takes a shower and the other watches. No implied subtext there whatsoever. Ow, grow up... After her talk with Psylocke, and still mulling over the things Cable said earlier, Jean found herself in the Cerebro room.

And even though she'd lost her telepathy over in X-Factor, she still donned the mutant scanning apparatus hoping to trace the missing X-men on the astral plane.

"Cerebro. Essentially, a psychic scanning system, keyed specifically to my brainwaves... 

and yours, Jean... Designed to amplify your latent psi-potential."

In the years that followed, Kitty Pryde had redesigned Cerebro so even non-telepaths could use it to track their fellow mutants, albeit with significantly more trouble and headache. But apparently, even though she was presumed dead at the time, the Cerebro system was still keyed to Jean's brainwaves and off she went on to the astral plane.

 However, she discovered a bit more than she bargained for.

 "As I was, as I am... As I might yet become! An infinity of aspects...
But always the Shadow King."

 Oh Lord, not this creep again...

"Does this hurt? Don't worry. You'll soon come to love it."

The King does make a good point. After Xavier went into space back in # 200, they didn't give the astral plane so much as a second look. Psylocke used it once or twice during the Morlock massacre and Magneto put on the helmet on occassion, but it had been long since a proper telepath explored the astral plane or even updated Cerebro's protocols, allowing the Shadow King to grow more powerful and even bring allies like Lian, his Shadow Queen...

"Embrace my Shadow Queen, Grey. Be ONE with me."

Luckily, Jean had allies too. Psylocke used her psychic knife to literally cut her out off the astral plane, beyond the Shadow King's reach. So, another threat to add to the big board, eh? Well, kinda.

'Who was it that attacked you?"

In a bit of a convenient cop out, Psylocke's psi-knife messed up Jean's memories of the incident. She has no idea it was the Shadow King, even though Psylocke was in earshot when Lian called herself the Shadow Queen, so assuming the big monster might be the Shadow... King... wouldn't be the biggest stretch. For now, all they knew that there was 'something' wrong on the astral plane...

"There be dragons"

Still, the point is moot, because the issue closes with the X-men getting kidnapped by Lila Cheney to the Shi'ar empire where they'd fight an evil, mind controlling Charles Xavier for a couple of issues before realising in # 278 he was actually a disguised Warskrull. We all covered it here.

Point is: within minutes of being rescued, Charles (still naked and covered in Skrull bio-gunk) became aware of the Shadow King when Banshee mentioned Moira's odd behaviour and Storm started infodumping, trying to cover the events of the past 75+ issues in a single panel.

"By the eternal... the Shadow King!"

So, how's that for keeping the story moving forward? When you least expect it, Chris Claremont neatly weaves multiple plotpoints from # 273's 'downtime' issue into a single, mind control heavy thread as professor Xavier returns home to deal with the Shadow King once and for all.

... And oh yeah, isn't that Jim Lee art fan-f-ckin' gorgeous? 

Mind The Concealed Controller Part III: Oh Goth, Not This Again!

Y'know, every so often one has to feel a bit sorry for Chris Claremont.

Just this week, as I was compiling the third and final part of the X-men's war with the Neo, Uncanny X-men.net published a fascinating piece on how Claremont got treated by Marvel. Editors casually changed year long, already okayed storylines on him which caused him to think on his feet and still make the books feel organic. That takes talent, professionalism and a lot of patience.

"The comic that inspired X-men the movie"

The same editorial meddling occured in the Neo storyline. Originally, Claremont had planned to keep Wolverine's team seperate from Storm's X-men in their own titles. But all of those plans got trashed when the first X-men movie did surprisingly well at the box office and Marvel decided to capitalise on its success.

One problem though: even though Uncanny X-men had inspired the movie, the comic and the characters looked nothing like their movie counterparts. It would take Grant Morrison's 2001 New X-men to adapt the look and feel of the team to the movie with the introduction of all purpose black leather outfits.

But for now, the editors deemed it necessary to at least reunite the two teams and have them live at Xavier's school. And that's just what Uncanny X-men # 385 set out to do, in a workmanship style tale that tried to wrap up as many plotlines as possible while still relying on an awful amount of mind control.

Let's set the scene: several factions of the Neo had been kidnapping humans and X-men alike for the interdimensional slavetrade. Storm, Gambit, Cable, Colossus, Psylocke and Thunderbird had been abducted by the Neo clan known as the Goth. Eventually freeing themselves, the X-men struck a deal with the Goth and their fellow Neo the Crimson Pirates to work together, all the while planning to betray them at the first opportunity.

Meanwhile, X-men like Rogue, Wolverine, Phoenix, Beast and others had been searching for their teammates, unaware of the deal they'd struck. That's why when the two teams finally met in Madripoor during another slave razzia, they inevitably came to blows.

Unfortunately, the Neo weren't beyond mind controlling their X-men allies...

"You're being far too gentle. Let me help."

Beldame uses her powers to override Storm's control of her own powers and forces the weather goddess to push her abilities to the limit, thereby weakening Phoenix' defenses long enough for her to fall prey to the Neo slavers who recognise an opportunity when they see one.

"And that window of vulnerability is all Bess requires to affix a slaver cowl and take her prisoner."

But the Goth-allied X-men were less free than they imagined themselves to be. For instance, when junior member Thunderbird had trouble pretending to fight his fellow X-men, it seemed the Neo had a little assurance for cooperation built in...

"Thunderbird's wearing a slaver collar! Activated by remote control!'

Mind control made easy... It does make you wonder why the X-men didn't ditch their slaver collars the minute they escaped from the Neo's prison. The previous issue made it seem as if Gambit had convinced the X-men to simply play along and when the fight started in # 385 Phoenix claimed she didn't sense any mental coercion whatsoever... but let's see what happened next...

"Whoops?!"

Before Beast has a proper chance to investigate the workings of the slave collars, Colossus seems determined to kill him. Not exactly what you'd expect from a teammate who is actually working with you undercover. The same thing occured when Rogue finally had a moment alone with her paramour Gambit. She wanted to know what kind of game the ragin' cajun was playing. And the second he managed to win her confidence, this happened.

So, how mind controlled are they? It's never made clear. But for my money, if Gambit's team was uncontrolled the whole time, there's no reason they wouldn't have switched sides the minute the other X-men showed up so that the reunited team could take out the Goth, the Crimson Pirates ánd the Neo slavers at once. 

"It has nothing to do with Gambit's caper. This is something wholly within me!"

Ah yes, the actual story... Consider Cable's musings after defeating Wolverine. It seems he is being influenced from within. This might be the Neo, but it's more likely that Stryfe is inside him causing mischief. After Cable is able to knock out even Wolverine, Gambit's team takes Rogue and the others to the Goth's secret Chinese hideout and slaver distribution center. They present their captured teammates to slaver Tullamore Voge, the Goth and Killian of the Crimson Pirates.

"Dis how you treats your friends, Goth?"

Looks like the massive Neo known as Goth had all but forgotten the deal he struck with Gambit. And look, there's Colossus clearly enthralled and ready to as Sanguine claims 'once more embrace glory'. What could he possibly mean by that?

"You will rejoin your compatriots... as slaves!"

Things sure looked bleak for the X-men, still... it's always darkest before the dawn, as this scene proved between Beldame and Tullamore Voge, the gluttonous but ever indulgence ready slavemaster. 

"That sounds naughty. Like someone's breaking the rules."

Well, surprise, surprise... Beldame is actually Phoenix who used her telepathic powers to disguise herself as the Neo. The real Beldame was wearing a slave collar (even though it's never explained how  Jean was able to overcome the effects of the collar, but hey... comics). Naturally, this ruse meant Beast wasn't enslaved as well... and mama McCoy's favorite blue haired bouncing Beast used his scientific genius to do the thing everyone was expecting...

It's an interesting claim: thanks to Jean's telepathy Hank is now able to access the inventive genius of the mutant inventor Forge, which added to his own brain power, makes every task easily achievable. So unlocking a few slave collars really isn't that hard. Guess what effect that had in the Goth throne room.

"The X-men are now free!"

Talk about creating a diversion. With all of the X-men now uninhibited by mind control or slave collars alike, the Neo scrambled to defend themselves. While meanwhile in Tullamore Voge's control room, Psylocke made sure the Slaver's business would be critically crippled by destroying the operation's transmat teleportation system. Without it, they wouldn't be able to pop in all over the world and claim new victims...

But the Goth wasn't too impressed by this achievement and attempted one final, mind control heavy attempt at winning the day...

"I am darkness absolute, the avatar of iniquity! As I drain the brilliance of your lives, I shall lay waste to the landscape of your souls! Until you are but hollow vessels... aching to be filled with mine own corruption."

Gods of earth and air, that *is* an impressively verbose way of saying your evil is so intense and dominating it will eventually cause everyone to turn into a bunch of mindless vegetables willing and able to receive whatever programming you see fit.

It even makes you wonder why the Goth faction even needed other Neo or human agents for that matter. Wouldn't it have been far easier for them to simply use their transmat technology to transport the Goth into the middle of any mall in America? Just have the guy sit down at the food court, sit back and watch as his evil turns every shopper into a mindless zombie ready to be processed?

As the X-men are pelleted by the Goth's evil, Rogue kisses Gambit, takes over his mind and powers, learns of his secret plan to deal with the Goth and then proceeds to use both their mutant abilities to actually kill the big, bad Neo...

And that's the last we saw of the Neo in Uncanny X-men, the comic that inspired the movie...

Sort of.

Mind The Concealed Controller part II: Neo-thing New, Really...

When we last left the (Uncanny) X-men, the team was in Russia investigating outerdimensional slaver Tullamore Voge's motives for setting up shop in Moscow. During a routine mindscan, Phoenix was contacted by Wolverine back in New York that the Neo had assaulted his X-men team as well.

Before they could compare notes, another faction of Neo called the Crimson Pirates attacked the facility where Voge was being held. At the same time Stryfe attacked from the astral plane and mind controlled Cable, using his abilities to take out and imprison Storm and Gambit. Only Beast and Phoenix managed to escape to fight another day and they did so, showing up in Hong Kong with Wolverine's team in X-men # 104.

Y'see, the slavers in Russia were part of a larger trade system with ties to the Neo. Wolverine's team encountered the Neo in Salem Center, where they kidnapped a huge part of the local population, including Psylocke, Colossus, Archangel and Thunderbird.

There's a similar operation in Hong Kong and by making their presence known, the X-men hoped to provoke a response from either the Neo or the slavers.

They got one.

"We are the Crimson Pirates. Surrender... or die!"

The Pirates attacked the X-men in their own home, which is exactly what they'd hoped for. Rogue took over Phoenix' mental powers and fooled the Neo with mental illusions of the team. They actually were breaking into the Neo's headquarters to find out where their teammates were being held. Rogue escaped after the Neo found out, but not learning the sad fate of one of Nightcrawler's ex-girlfriends...

"And Kymri herself, bound to Killian's pirates as his own personal Hound."

Speaking of costumed heroes in chains... Let's check in on the X-men who got kidnapped by the Neo. Wonder what they're doing...

Chains? Check. Collars? Check. Gimp-esque face masks? Check. Needlessly sexual undertones? Check! For new villains, the Neo sure got the Claremont classics down... Now all we need is some mind control and...

"The cowl will steal away your very thoughts... and replace them with whatever I choose."

... Ahhh, there it is. Right on time. Good ol' mind control, you never disappoint.

Luckily, Gambit's able to use his powers just enough to break free and soon, the X-men are roaming around in the Neo's homebase, wondering where the heck they are and what to do.

"Wouldn't it be more prudent to find out where we are and establish a line of communication with the other half of the team?"

Yeah, what Cable said! ... Hey, waittaminute! Wasn't he supposed to be possessed by Stryfe and working with the Neo to take down the X-men? What was he doing chained up in the basement with them? And erm... why are they still wearing their cowls? Didn't they hear the Neo lady explain it steals away independent thought? 

Still, they were free and the other X-men were on their way as well. Will the two teams reunite and fight together? The answer might surprise you in part III of Mind The Concealed Controller: Goth, Not  This Again!

Mind The Concealed Controller part I: Tullamore's Mind's A Mess

Today's entry revisits Chris Claremont's 2000 run on Uncanny X-men and the early misadventures the mutants had, fighting their mysterious new foe: The Neo.

The Neo actually consisted of quite a few subgroups. Apart from the main clan led by Domina, the team also encountered the Shockwave Riders, the Lost Souls, the Goth and in Uncanny X-men # 383... meet the Crimson Pirates.

But first, say hello to Tullamore Voge.

This rather obese blue refuge from an alternate dimension is actually a slaver, who tried to profit from trading Russian mutants all across the omniverse. The X-men had already put a stop to that business an issue earlier, but now they wanted to know just who he was working for.

Conventional interrogation methods were getting them nowhere, and and this was well before 9/11 okayed the use of 'enhanced interrogation techniques' (though if you waterboarded a blue guy, who can tell the difference)... So they figured the best way to learn what's on his mind is to, well, go inside his mind.

Despite Cable's misgivings, Phoenix volunteered for the job.

"My telepathy will allow me to do virtually anything..."

Famous last words, Jean... Because inside Voge's mind, there just might be (Tulla)more than you can handle. And the first surprise is that inside Voge's head, she encountered Wolverine, of all people.

"I hate this flamin' fishbowl! My skull feels like it just got dropped in hot oil f'r fryin'!"

Yeah, let's call it an (unfortunate) coincidence... But the second Jean used her telepathic powers to conduct her investigation into the villain's mind, she's also contacted by Wolverine via Cerebro. 

"I'm fine, darlin'... But the X-men got serious trouble."

He just 'called' to give her an update on the Neo his team of X-men had been facing back in New York. But their little reunion is cut short when Voge realises someone's been using his mind for a conference call.

"Silly little piece o'fluff, wot. Figurin' t'match wits with a master?
Been breakin' mentats like you to the harness for donkey's years now."

For those of you not fluent in what appears to be an interdimensional take on cockney English, Voge is rather unimpressed with Jean's telepathic prowess and he plans to bend her and Wolverine to his will. He figures the combination of their genetic potential (i.e: kids) could be very profitable...

All the more reason to turn them into his slaves. Heck, he'd already constructed their new identities as his mindless Hounds. If those creatures beat Wolverine and Jean, they'd be taken over permanently.

Jean wasn't having any of this and took swift action. Just as Wolverine was getting transformed into a Hound (apparently he was already pretty close to one anyway), Jean pushed Logan out of Voge's mind and back into his own body, keeping him safe.

"Which begs of course the final question, o blessed matriarch... Who's left to rescue you?"

The mysterious fanged bad guy with awful dental hygiene makes a good point. But before we go into the question who he is, let's see if Wolverine survived the trip back from the astral plane.

"I was comin' apart inside, bein' twisted inside out like taffy. Happened so fast, didn't think such a thing was possible. I saw the collar of a Hound...
and suddenly, more than anything, I wanted to wear it."

So, Wolverine narrowly escaped getting mind controlled... But back in Russia, Jean was still trapped inside Tullamore Voge's mind. Her body had collapsed, which made the X-men more than a little suspicious and convinced Cable he'd better follow her in to see what was wrong. Upon arrival, he got a pretty good clue who the mystery mind mucker is...

"When you behold the face of the Gorgon, do you ever wonder if you're looking into a mirror?"

In a clever bit of misdirection, Cable thought he was facing both Onslaught and Jean herself. But he was actually facing, of all people, Stryfe. This was never revealed in the issue itself, Claremont planned to use Cable's clone turned master villain in future storylines... Unfortunately, he was taken off the book before anything could come of this. 

But while all this was going down on the astral plane, the X-men were under attack from this new band of Neo calling themselves the Crimson Pirates. They had come to free Tullamore Voge, which was something the team simply couldn't allow. They stood ready to take them on, even Cable had returned to his own body... Or had he?

"I can't sense a trace of the virus... it's been purged from my system. And my eyes... they're both normal! My scars are gone. I've never seen my face like this."

Yeah... In retrospect, it's pretty obvious Claremont was already writing Stryfe here. From his earlier comment to Jean, refering to her as 'matriarch' (after all, Stryfe's birth mother was Jean's clone Madelyne Pryor) to his comment to Cable about looking into a mirror. But clone and original were about to get even more intimately involved...

During the fight against the Crimson Pirates, 'Cable' suddenly switched teams...

"The Psimitar is a fabulous weapon and Nathan Dayspring Summers is the unchallenged master in its use. Such a shame the same cannot be said for his soul and for his body!"

Which is a rather wordy way of saying... Cable's mind has been taken over, which is something Storm and Gambit realised a bit too late. The Crimson Pirates then proceeded to free Voge and planned on capturing all the other X-men to use as their mindless pawns. However, Beast and Phoenix managed to run away to fight another day.

This conflict would be resolved a month later in Uncanny X-men 385, as we'll cover in part II of Mind The Concealed Controller: Neo-thing New, Really...

Madelyne's Mean Mind Control part III: X-tracting The Worst.

Assuming the role of the Goblin Queen during Inferno changed Madelyne Pryor.

A lot.

For one thing: she developed certain abilities... No doubt because she was a clone of Jean Grey, one of the world's premiere telepathic minds. Maddie's mutant powers however, focussed more on moral corruption... mind control, by any other name.

At the height of Inferno, she orchestrated a meeting between the X-men and X-Factor... An encounter rife with tension, because X-Factor didn't know the X-men were still alive (nor were they easily recognisable due to Inferno's demonic corruption).

And as far as the X-men were concerned, X-Factor was little more than a team of mutant bounty hunters. Hardly what professor Xavier had in mind when he assembled his first group of students.
It made for tense moments... and having Maddie there in the opening pages of X-Factor # 38 didn't exactly help matters.

And ow yeah, she had already overpowered Jean Grey. Of course, this was signified by Jean wearing a slave collar made of energy. Anyhoo... She gleefully revealed the nature of her new powers...

"I bring out the demon in things... and in people... as I have in all of you." 

Makes sense.

After all... What could keep the X-teams from attacking the Queen? Well, apart from a virtually unending horde of demons... mostly their own teammates, of course.

Y'see, remember how Madelyne had already started to corrupt the X-men well before she even turned into the Goblin Queen? Back in Uncanny X-men # 242, Alex finally and most willingly made the decision to serve as Maddie's lover...

 "Spoken, lover, like a true Goblin Prince!"

That explains why he was at her side, tattered costume and all, when the Queen confronted the X-people in Central Park...

"I offer...the spotlight! Center stage. The starring role!"

Bless Madelyne for knowing just how to seduce the already influenced X-men. After living with them for an extended period of time, she's fully aware of their deepest desires. Dazzler always wanted to be a world famous singer, before her mutant powers forced her out of the limelight. And Longshot, while not a mutant per se, was genetically engineered to be *the* star of Mojo's many movies.

It only makes sense their life with the X-men, living in the obscurity of the Australian outback and being believed dead by most of the world at the time, left them longing for... well, recognition. And they were more than willing to do anything for that spotlight.

"The world is watching! So play your parts like the stars I know you are!"

Dazzler and Longshot brought down X-Factor charter member Warren Worthington, formerly the Angel. But after Apocalypse gave him a pair of techno organic wings and pressed him into service as one of his horsemen, the now blue skinned Warren reinvented himself as the much more volatile and deadly Archangel...

Just the right tool for a mind controlling woman intent on causing carnage...

"We have been tainted by evil. But evil is the price of power."

The Goblin Queen managed to corrupt Archangel... somewhat. But his initial corruption by Apocalypse took precedence, in a way. His techno organic wings refused to obey Madelyne's commands long enough for him to inadvertently free the others, which led to a big fight between the two X-teams and Maddie.

Who won was never really in doubt...

"X-men and X-Factor confront Mr. Sinister!"

And indeed they did... As we covered *here*.

But there was even more mind control, courtesy of Mr. Sinister... As we'll cover in the next entry.