Throwback Tuesday: Ms. Marvel's Mind Control Turn

Now, strictly speaking, since Chris Claremont barely writes any new comics any more, every entry is potentially a throwback, despite the day it's published. But for now, let's roll with the meme, even if isn't Thursday. Today, we're covering the mess that is Uncanny X-Men I#269.

As regular readers of this all too infrequently updated blog already know, the events of this particular issue have already been kinda covered in this entry from late 08. Still, upon further examination, it turned out we barely scratched the surface of mind control weirdness. Let's start with the basics...

Uncanny X-Men I#269 tells the story of whatever happened to Rogue after she sacrificed herself dragging the lethal robot menace Master Mold through the Siege Perilous back in Uncanny X-Men I#247. The Siege is a mystical portal that leads to a conventiently undefined afterlife where higher powers examine who you were and use it as a basis for your next incarnation. It's like the John Lennon song Instant Karma without Yoko's backing vocals.

Master Mold would return years later as the mysterious, mutant hating Bastion but Rogue was the first one to come back... As, well, herself... So much for advancing along the karmic wheel. She was returned to her old room in the abandoned Australian outback town the X-Men had been using as a base when she went through the Siege. And the minute she returned, she was in for some bad news.

                "It has now been confirmed that Mystique, leader of the federal government's
                                          super-powered strike team... has been killed."

Talk about an ominous home coming... After learning her surrogate mother had been killed, not even noticing the dark, brooding figure of Jacob Reisz behind Val Cooper, Rogue rushed out to inform the  X-Men of Mystique's demise. But, much to her own surprise, she found the X-Men had long since been driven off by the town's former inhabitants: the Reavers. The cyborg mercenaries were ready to kill Rogue, regarding her as little more than the one who got away. But, she was rescued by the most unlikely of people...

              "Surprised, Rogue? Feeling's mutual. We have unfinished business, you and I."

I'll say... Not to mention unreal business. That's Carol Danvers, better known as Ms. Marvel... A woman whose powers, mind and memories Rogue infamously absorbed in between scenes of 1981's Avengers Annual I#10. The real Carol Danvers survived, though robbed of her personality, experiences and superhuman powers. Eventually, due to a supreme effort on Charles Xavier's part, she regained most of her mind and memories and the Brood would ultimately mess with her genetic structure to turn Carol into the white hole powered Binary.

So, in a sense, the one, true Carol Danvers was alive and well... Which left Rogue stuck with a copy of Carol in her mind. The two would often struggle and vy for control of Rogue's body, before she got herself sucked through the Siege Perilous. In the afterlife, Rogue and "Carol" were seperated, spewing both women back out as seperate individuals, because hey kids, comics.

"Carol" was ready to hand Rogue to a knuckle sandwich or two for having been trapped inside her head all those years and she didn't care if she had to punch a hole through the Reavers to do so. An added wrinkle: it seemed that Rogue no longer possessed Ms. Marvel's super strength and flight. All she had to rely on to keep her safe were her original mutant power and personality absorption abilities... Luckily she was able to think (and walk) on her feet: she headed for the teleporter Gateway sitting on the outskirts of town.

                                       "What you won't (ah hope, because you cant) give...
                                                          Ah'm afraid ah'll haveta take."

So, in order to escape from a furious victim of your mind control, you decide to... mind control somebody else? Well, that's one way to solve a problem and hey, it does give you one magnificent tan.

"The bull-roarer opens the gateway portal.
But you have my word, dear friend. I'll be back."

And with that, Rogue is gone moments before "Carol" can catch up. Rogue was able to teleport herself to the Savage Land where she was forced to fend for herself for an extended period of time. Without any powers other than her own, surviving in a dinosaur filled realm that time forgot, Rogue slowly regained her self confidence. But, whatever became of Carol?

           "Welcome to Muir Isle, Carol. How delightful t'see you seperated from Rogue at last."

... Without any explanation whatsoever, "Carol" finds herself on Muir Island where things aren't exactly as she remembers. Moira MacTaggert seems vicious and cold, the sorceress Amanda Sefton appears equally evil hearted and what's Polaris doing there strapped to a wall? All is soon made clear when "Carol" meets the villain to beat.

"Stop it, stop it... I just wanted to play with everybody's head!"

"Carol" quite correctly identifies the astral projection as being Charles Xavier's son David Haller... But, just like everybody else on Muir, the boy isn't himself. So, who's to blame for all these mind control shenanigans... Ow, you guessed it: the Shadow King. And he means business. So much so that he turns himself into a particularly penis nosed reptile to charm Ms. Marvel.

      "My province is the mind. As I claimed this boy, Legion... and all the others on this rock..."

Oh, you can guess what happened next, right?

The Shadow King made sure Carol was his to control, mind, body and soul forever. But just how she arrived on Muir Isle was never touched on in the actual comics. Well, as it turns out, Chris Claremont had planned this particular issue to be but a minor chapter in a larger Shadow King centered storyline that should have run all through Uncanny X-Men I#300. Along the way, it would have been revealed the King didn't merely control Moira and the people on Muir, he was also in command of both the Reavers and Gateway. This would have explained the fact Carol popped up in Scotland... *and* the Savage Land, moments after her conversion.

"We don't possess sufficient life-force between us to sustain two independent beings.
As one prospers, the other rots!"

Mind controlled by the Shadow King, "Carol" is determined to absorb Rogue's lifeforce in order to regain her full potential. All this in an attempt to be able to serve her new master even better. And as it turns out, even being near the monstrous Ms. Marvel's form infected Rogue with the Shadow King's deep, dark influences.

"Her face... she's like a walkin' corpse! Shoot... the same's happenin' to me!"

And, just when things seemed at their bleakest, salvation was at hand from the most unlikeliest of sources... That is, if you didn't spot his helmeted cameo on the cover a little earlier. But first, let's indulge "Carol" in what would prove to be the final speech she'd ever deliver...

"The Shadow King finally managed to track you down. Once you're dust, your powers added to mine... I'll be able to serve him that much better!"

And with a well placed magnetic force blasts, a certain magnetic mutant decided to involve himself. He chose sides and made his presence known.

                                                                       "I chose you."

A good half a decade before the Pokemon craze, Magneto already coined that franchise' most popular catchphrase. With "Carol" dead, Rogue was safe, even though she was roped into fighting the magnetically powered Zaladane along with Magneto, Ka-Zar and SHIELD. After that adventure, she'd find herself on Muir Island only to end up mind controlled by the Shadow King after all in Uncanny X-Men I#278.

                                              "This is wrong! 'Cept it seems so natural."

If only Rogue had told Magneto what she'd been going through, even before the final confrontation against "Carol" in the Savage Land. As it turns out in Uncanny X-Men I#275, the master of magnetism had his own run in with the evil entity. 

"At last I confront the Shadow King. Followed by sick shame at the awful cost of my survival."

Knowing Claremont, he would undoubtedly have revealed the circumstances of Magneto's initial encounter with the King, leading up to the proposed climax in Uncanny X-Men I#300. This anniversary issue should be marked with the death of Charles Xavier and Magneto taking over for the professor full time.

Alas, Claremont more or less willingly left Uncanny X-Men with issue 279, already co-written by Fabian Nicieza and Jim Lee. So a lot of plot threads were left dangling, though Claremont confirmed the connection between the Reavers and the Shadow King in 2001's X-Treme X-Men Annual. It's also not unthinkable he meant to reveal a lot of Magneto's horrendous, evil deeds were indirectly caused by the Shadow King's lingering corruption, which would have made Magnus' intended status quo a lot easier to digest.

Maybe someday we'll know for sure...

Anyone Mind Questprobe Taking Control part II: Ghosts In The Machine

When we last left the X-men in Marvel Fanfare # 33, the team had been surprised by the appearance of the alien Chief Examiner, a character from Marvel's shortlived 1984 videogame tie in Questprobe. The Examiner was on Earth to assess the abilities of superhumans in order to use their powers to defend his homeworld of Scadam from the invading Black Fleet.

After turning most of the team to statues, the Examiner somehow took over Magneto's mind and attacked Rogue who came to the party late. But as she escaped from this cage, Rogue was in for one more surprise...

"Suddenly got an itch to... va-MOOSE?!?"

After hitting the Chief Examiner's trademark dark portal, Rogue suddenly manifested the strength of the She-Hulk, the agility and spider sense of Spider-Man and the flame powers of the Human Torch. In earlier Questprobe issues, the Examiner copied their powers and apparently Rogue's mutant absorption gifts were able to tap into that as well. But while she fought a dressed up Magneto, the actual Erik Magnus Lensherr was somewhere else...

"Where... am I?! What am I?!? Not my living self, in any organic sense. I seem to have become a pattern of energy."

Gotta love that organic sounding exposition. We all narrate our own lives to ourselves in the third person, right? But Magneto found himself trapped inside a matter-energy egg with a chap called Durgan. He's the brain behind the Chief Examiner, who is revealed to be merely a computerised construct that. Wait, I could type up paragraphs of dry exposition, or I'll have Durgan tell you the same boring story himself... with pictures!

"I am master of magnetism. All electronics are vulnerable to my powers. Obviously, I disrupted the circuitry of your device and created a scramble feedback loop that trapped both our consciousnesses in its mnemonic system."

... Yeah, obviously.

Durgan and Magneto were trapped inside the Chief Examiner's operating system. But who was running the show then? 

"I felt another essence replace mine as I was drawn here. But whose...?"

So, if we can trust the omniscient narrator's explanation... Durgan didn't realise the seemingly decorative artifact he'd placed right next to his invaluable creation, was actually a sentient evil gem bent on taking over the Chief Examiner computer and use it for conquest and all that fine stuff. Ah, comics...

So how did Magneto escape? Simple. By convincing Durgan he was boss and demanding control of the device back. 

"I feel myself regaining control of the Chief Examiner, whatever force opposed us is now gone."

Now, isn't that might convenient? Whatever evil presence inhabited the Examiner or the gem it came from is just gone. And with Magneto back in his body, the Chief Examiner is ready to go on looking for suitable superpowers. But not before saying goodbye...

"Bozo's crazy"

When the mass murdering mutant master of magnetism starts quoting Ghandi and Jesus...  Worry. Or snicker. Or do a trademark Liz Lemon eyeroll. Whatever feels most appropriate.

Oh, and contrary to popular belief ánd common sense... this wasn't the last appearance of the Chief Examiner. The late great Mark Gruenwald, ever the champion of little known or used characters, brought in the Examiner during his run on Quasar. Still looking for super powers to poach, he homed in on Kayla Ballantine who had just become the unwitting host of the New Universe's uberpowerful Starbrand.

He asked to siphon this energy source and Kayla willingly agreed, figuring she'd be better off without them. It didn't go quite the way either one of them planned...

That's what you get when you try to make 1984 computer equipment compatible with anything more challenging than Pong.

Game over for Questprobe, but at least the Chief Examiner went out with a bang.

Anyone Mind Questprobe Taking Control part I: If I Mae Ask, Is That A Joystick In Your Pants*...

Today's entry couldn't be any more 80s if it tried... Consider this: what did just about every 80s kid love beside Marvel comics? Why, videogames of course!

So, why not combine the two and rake in the dough. Nowadays, with the Marvel movies dominating the cinema, having superheroes star in their own games is a no brainer. But it all started back in the mid 80s with Questprobe, a videogame series that incorporated actual Marvel heroes... in all their kinda 8-bit glory...

The guy in the middle with the purple gown and the Mysterio style headgear is the Chief Examiner. First appearing in comics in August of 1984, the Examiner's deal is to test Earth's heroes in order to determine whose powers are best suited for the defense of Scadam, his recently invaded home planet. By pitting hero against hero or villain and copying the victor's powers, the Examiner planned to form the perfect army.

As origin stories go, you could do worse. But if the Chief Examiner had truly investigated Earth's heroes, he'd have noticed their uncanny ability to lend a hand to just about every other race that came looking for help. Why not take everyone you can find?

Still, that tidbit of logic didn't stop Marvel from launching the Chief Examiner into his own series... It only lasted a handful of issues, yet he observed fights between Hulk and the US Army, the Human Torch and the She-Hulk and Spider-Man and his lookalike Mysterio. 

And then the series got cancelled. Because, well... having heroes and villains fight isn't that original and if you wanted to see most of the then current crop of bad & good guys duke it out in 1984, you'd just be better off buying Secret Wars. But no one told Chris Claremont, June Brigman and Terry Austin who produced an issue of Questprobe that never saw print. That is, until editor Archie Goodwin decided to run the story in 1987's Marvel Fanfare # 33.

By then, the status quo of the X-men and New Mutants had significantly changed. On the run, severly wounded after the Marauders and the Morlock massacre... Seeing them in their relatively carefree 1984 surrounding, on Magneto's Bermuda triangle island, was a welcome change of pace. Apart from the mind control, of course...

Yeah, such relative peace and tranquility never lasts too long. But even in 1987, it's nice to revisit the relative innocence of those three, short years gone by. Shadowcat and Colossus were still an item, as were Magneto and boat captain Aletys Forester, despite her ever so brief fling with Cyclops that led to her first meeting with the mutant master of magnetism.

If a story's called Shadows On The Soul, things tend to get weird fast. For instance, when the Chief Examiner appeared out of nowhere with his abduction portal all raring to go. Here we have Claremont indulge in some pretty hot tentacle porn featuring Storm... It left her hard as rock...

"She's petrified, a living stasis... suspended animation."

Unfortunately, Storm wasn't the only X-man who fell prey to this. Magneto watched helplessly as Colossus, Kitty, Wolverine and the others were turned to statues as well. Luckily, Rogue wasn't on the island when all this went down... That's why she was on hand to do this...

"Free! Miracle of miracles... at long last. I... am...free!!"

Somehow, the Chief Examiner had been able to gain control of Magneto's mind. What better way, after all, to defeat the cybernetic creatures dominating your homeworld than by possessing a mutant capable of controlling, disrupting or bending all things metallic to his will. 

Unfortunately for the Examiner, Rogue was still there, ready to stop him. But she didn't really have the best of luck...

So, after hitting the portal Rogue involuntarily took on the shape of the She-Hulk, unknowingly absorbing part of the jade giantess' essence already 'borrowed' by the Chief Examiner...

And that's just when the fun really began. Check back next time for part II of Anyone Mind Questprobe Taking Control: Ghosts In The Machine.

* Free after Mae West's infamous line from the 1933 movie She Done Him Wrong.

Do I Kar-if-Ima-Restored To Normal?

Owww dear.

Bless Chris Claremont for at least being consistent with his mind control.

Meet Karima Shapandar, an Indian police woman who was turned into a Prime Sentinel during Claremont's 2000 run on both X-men and Uncanny X-men. Claremont introduced Karima as future X-man Neil Shaara's love interest who, during the course of her investigation into Neil's brother's disappearance, ran into Bastion... the villain recognised her potential and decided she would make for an ideal Prime Sentinel. 

So, what happened to Karima? Eventually her Prime Sentinel programming took over, yet she still remained in control somewhat. See.... 

But that was in the final pages of X-men Unlimited # 27, the Karima Prime Sentinel wouldn't be seen until she attacked Xavier and the others in Excalibur vol. 2, issue # 4. Karima's initial assault proved ineffectual as Magneto hit her with an electromagnetic blast so powerful it caused her to plunge into the waters of Genosha's Hammer Bay... And that's where professor Xavier and Magneto met her next...

Disabling Karima clearly took a lot out of Magneto, who was struggling to keep it all together. But there was still more to come...

Magneto was willing to sacrifice his own life to end the existence of this creature. But Xavier opted for another solution. It was clear he saw a way to redeem Shapandar. This offers up an interesting junction within Claremont's writing...Naturally, Chris was the one who subjected the character to mind control... and yet here he is having Magneto and Xavier argue over whether to kill her or not... See what they decide on.

Both of them make valid points, while the air almost runs out and they're forced to act... All the while delivering a more than overwordy exposition on what's going down...

"She's been infected by nannites. Their task is to rebuild her on a cellular and genetic level. At the same time they "rewire" the organic wet-ware of her brain. Overwriting her innate character with Sentinel operational protocols".

So, there's very little left for the professor and Magnus to do... They might as well use their powers to end Karima's imprisonment... But how will they pull this off?

 "I'm the master of magnetism, yes? I'm also a living M.R.I.
And here's a real time picture of Karima's brain."

Using an extremely localised electromagnetic pulse, Claremont effectively had Magneto lobotomise Karima so she would abandon her core Prime Sentinel programming. Chris broke his own mind control and the Prime Sentinel was all the better for it. 

Sometimes the enemy of my enemy's mind control is my friend... even if it is the exact same writer...

Professor Xavier Doesn't Mind Controlling Genoshans

Remember when Chris Claremont decided to relaunch Excalibur as a series based on Genosha, starring professor Xavier and Magneto as they tried to help rebuild the devastated island after Charles' twin sister Cassandra Nova had demolished it with gigantic Sentinels? Hey, the year was 2004, it was a different time for all of us...

The first issue opens with Charles Xavier being dropped off on the shores of Genosha, carrying a casket that contains the body of... Magneto?

Yeah, this is a tricky one. Excalibur vol. 2 as the Genoshan adventures of the professor and company are called, follows hot on the tracks of one of Grant Morrison's final New X-men stories. Morrison had revealed the wise, peace loving mutant turned teacher Xorn to be Magneto in disguise... And before the X-men were able to stop him, Magneto had turned New York into a warzone, killing over 5000 people. Now, Xavier has come to Genosha to give his 'old friend' a proper burial. 

But it doesn't take long for him to get noticed by the local population who are trying to survive in the rubble of a once green and peaceful land. Charles is shadowed by a peculiar young girl...

Her name is Wicked and her mutant abilities take mind control to the next level. Y'see, she controls ghosts. Her powers allow her to summon the ectoplasmic forms of the dead and force them to do her bidding... It's mind control from beyond the grave. And, considering over 15 million people died on Genosha during Cassandra's Sentinel attack, she has plenty of cannon fodder.

Wicked and her friend, the young mutant shapeshifter called Freakshow, are forced to help out Xavier when he gets himself into a fair bit of trouble...Several Genoshan mutants aren't too pleased to see him, most notably the old X-men foe Unus the Untouchable who had gathered a band of mutant thugs to show Charles who was running the show. Unfortunately for poor ol' Unus, Freakshow ate him

"...My my, grandmother... what big teeth you have..."

With the threat of Unus dealt with, Charles decides to take on Wicked and Freakshow as his latest pupils... and that means exposing them to a little mind control.

"I'm a teacher, Freakshow."

"They're both exhausted. I merely made the thought of bed... irresistible."

Charles Xavier used his mental powers to simply... suggest... his young wards went to bed. Much to the surprise of....

 ... Magneto?

Yeah. It's quite the story to explain how the master of magnetism can be alive and well, levitating the coffin he's supposed to be in. But let's skip that...let's check in on Unus.

... Yup, eventually Freakshow reverted to his human form (the naked boy with the stop sign covering his genitals) and spit up the Untouchable Man. While Unus couldn't be hurt, his ego sure received a major pounding.

X-tremely Early X-men Mindcontrol

The year is 1991 and Chris Claremont has been forced into a corner.

During his impressive 15 year run on Uncanny X-men, Claremont made a bit of name for himself as a talent scout, handpicking the pencilers that worked with him on the title. Starting with Dave Cockrum and John Byrne, the selection of popular artists like Paul Smith, John Romita Jr. and Marc Silvestri were increasingly up to Claremont... and culminated with the pick of Jim Lee.

Lee's art was more than a little impressive. In fact, it was so stellar the X-men editors started to realise the artist might well be more important than the writer. Editor in chief Bob Harras spotted a rising star when he saw one and decided to cater more to Jim's needs than whatever Chris set out to do.

While Lee wanted to revisit X-men classics like the Sentinels and the Imperial Guard, Claremont wanted to look forward but was repeatedly overruled... until he finally decided to quit in 1991 after launching the second monthly X-men title with Jim Lee.

Adjectiveless X-men # 1 was a smash hit, with a record 7.1 million (!) copies printed up. It involved Claremont's final status quo changing story for both the X-men and their arch enemy Magneto... and oh yes, lots of mind control...

The story opens with a battle in space, near Magneto's orbital home base Asteroid M. Involving himself in the skirmish, the master of magnetism is stunned to learn one of the involved parties is a band of mutants who have come to pledge them to his cause. Intrigued, he takes them in...

The fight didn't go unnoticed on Earth either. The Russians picked it up, handed it over to SHIELD which sent Nick Fury to deliver it to the X-men.

The X-men go on high alert and split up into two teams: X-men blue and gold. A clever way to maintain seperate casts of characters for the two main X-men titles. X-men blue, scheduled to be X-men's main cast, was comprised of Cyclops, Beast, Gambit, Rogue, Psylocke and Wolverine. 

After fighting the X-men in the Atlantic, Magneto makes an appearance in Genosha where his newly minted Acolytes are cutting a bloody swath through the mutant oppressing magistrates. He has a bit of news to share with the world...

Proclaiming Asteroid M a sovereign nation and threatening to avenge any mutant is bound to get a response from the global super powers... But for now, the X-men fought Magneto and the Acolytes while Genosha burned. So just who are these Acolytes, what can they do?

Well, there's their red headed leader Fabian Cortez for one. After planting a kiss on Psylocke, he used his abilities to regulate mutant powers to amp her telepathy up to the Nth degree... Causing her to lose control of her self as her mind almost drowned in other people's thoughts.

Luckily, she recovered in time for the next Acolyte to make his move. Meet Chrome, he can do stuff like this...

Yup, he turned most of the team into living statues with just a wave of his hand. Of course, he could have done it half an issue earlier, but then it wouldn't have been much of a slobberknocker, now would it?  Magneto takes the X-men blue team prisoner as he and the Acolytes return to Asteroid M where a stunning discovery awaits them.

Someone has been messing with Magneto's genetic codes... And he knows full well who is responsible...

Way back in the 1970s, Magneto fought the Defenders and professor X with the help of Alpha, the ultimate mutant. During the fight, Alpha realised Magneto was the real enemy and turned him into a baby. Charles Xavier took the helpless child to Moira's Muir Island facility so the young Magnus might have a chance for redemption. 

Unfortunately, Moira instead used all her time to mess with Magneto's mind, in an attempt to 'cure' the once and future master of magnetism of his more... insane... tendencies. Let's see how Magneto appreciated her efforts.

Comparing Moira to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele might be a bit harsh... Then again, both doctors experimented on young children with complete disregard of their professional ethics and morality. 

It is truly horrific to see what Magneto puts Moira through. Torturing her until she agrees to something that will truly haunt her for the rest of her life: using the same techniques to mind control the captured X-men. The procedure goes off without a hitch and the X-men blue team swear allegiance to Magneto's cause, just as the X-men gold team is mounting a rescue operation. The clock is ticking though, because the UN has decided to blow Asteroid M out of the sky, no matter who's on it.

But, how can Storm, Jean Grey, Colossus, Archangel, Iceman, Banshee and Forge possibly beat their fellow X-men, the Acolytes ánd Magneto?

Not easily. 

But sometimes, the only way to end a fight is to fight.

Rogue's back to her old self again and the others are soon to follow as the third issue of X-men draws to a close. Y'see, Moira's mind control technique doesn't really stick because, well, let's have her explain it... She's the Nobelprize winning geneticist here after all...

Yup, Moira's mindwipe won't stick if a mutant has already used his or her powers. It's a bit of a pop psychology psychobabble cop out, but hey... At least it established Magneto's fully responsible for his own actions and can't pin his crimes on Moira's handiwork. With that established, the UN deadline conveniently runs out and, as promised, Asteroid M gets hit with an orbital laser cannon.

Preferring to go down with their home, Magneto and the Acolytes stay behind as the X-men race for their ship. And in the closing moments of a 15 year run, Chris Claremont has professor Xavier offer up a few last nuggets of wisdom