Equal Opportunity Mind Control part II: Encore Ensemble Enslavement

When we last left the X-men... Oy, what a story.

Uncanny X-men # 257 saw Wolverine and Jubilee getting kidnapped by Lady Mandarin, who was actually their former teammate Psylocke, mind controlled by the Mandarin and the Hand to serve as their latest master assassin. The Mandarin took Jubilee under his wing, while the Hand tried to brainwash Wolverine.

Alas, the villains didn't have much luck with either of them...

But not for lack of trying, though. Psylocke actively kept trying to breach Wolverine's impressive mental resistance. She even tried to seduce him by taking on the form of his former lovers. Mariko Yashida, Yukio, even his old teammate Jean. Let's see how Logan responded to that...

"Seduction was but one... pathway to your soul!"

So, if the sweet and subtle way fails, you can always fall back on a bit of primal violence. After all, this is the Wolverine you're facing. You'd better fight fire with fire, right? Or as Psylocke herself puts it...

"My psychic knife... the ultimate focus of my psi-powers... is as deadly a weapon as your claws! With it... I make you forever MINE!"

Yeah, just like in the previous issue, Psylocke jams her psychic knife in his head... But this time, it doesn't subdue Wolverine. No, it actually forms a mental bond between the two combatants, which causes Psylocke considerable pain...

"Too late, bub!"

The reason for Psylocke's screaming is rather simple. Thanks to their mental rapport, she instantly experienced everything Logan had ever been through. From the Hand's recent, tortuous mental reconditioning to the abuse suffered at the hands of the Reavers... And let's not forget almost a century of anger, pain and frustration... It's a miracle she didn't turn completely insane.

Well, she did a little... Psylocke also got a taste of Logan's psychosis. Wolverine's healing factor had been failing, which resulted in unattended physical ánd mental ailments. And when it came to the brain department, it was a doozy: Logan had developed a major psychosis in which he envisioned being in the company of Nick Fury and Carol Danvers... Guess who came to visit Betsy.

"Summon lord Matsuo! ... He's returned to his island!"

Turns out lord Matsuo made the right call by leaving, because things were about to go from bad to worse fo the Hand. Their master assassin was fighting ghosts and now their main quarry was starting to wake up. And we all know what adamantium claws do best: go *snikt* and break stuff. Like glass sensory deprivation tanks...

"Any objections, shorty... to my shortening the odds?"

Wait, how come figment Fury is cutting those Hand ninjas to ribbons? Madness, you say? Well, yes... Psylocke's, as a matter of fact. After getting a taste of Wolverine's psychotic worldview, she considers  Fury and Carol real people whose actions have an actual impact on the world. So... if their bullets hit somebody, Psylocke uses her mental powers to convince the victims they have been shot.

Mind control to make a psychotic persona feel validated... that's a new one.

However, Psylocke eventually overcame the effects of the psychosis and tore Wolverine a new one. In fact... his last one.

"Dispose of the remains, if you please"

Seeing Wolverine's corpse was such a shock that Jubilee was able to shake off the dominating effect of the Mandarin's 'mento-intensifier' ring. Overcome with emotion, she lashed out with her mutant powers... Usually, that resulted in some blinding but hardly harmful fireworks, this time her pyrokinetics caused an explosion that tore apart the Mandarin's massive villa.

Psylocke took advantage of the Mandarin's initial shock to attack the master villain. Turns out she was no longer under his control either. But defeating Iron Man's arch nemesis is far easier said than done, as both X-women were about to find out.

"Eh?!? My arm... it will not move!"

Oh, sweet, sweet mind control... you never disappoint, do you?

"You forget, Mandarin... I have worn your rings... and touched your mind!"

But just as the Mandarin was about to overcome her mental domination... Wolverine turned out to be too dead after all. And with a third adamantium claw about to pop his head off, the Mandarin was suddenly rather open to discuss a truce.

Americans achieving peace with honor after a stalemated conflict in Asia...and they didn't even need doctor Henry Kissinger. Truly, these are more modern times...

"Gimme a break! She's a telepath, she could be playing with your head!"

Leave it to Jubilee to point out what the readers might be thinking... And it's not even that big a stretch. Who would trust this 'new' Psylocke, after all she's done? Well, Wolverine does...

But hey, hé's nuts...

Equal Opportunity Mind Control part I: My Fair Mandarin *the musical*

Uncanny X-men # 258 marked a unique moment in Chris Claremont's long and storied career.

He managed to write an issue in which every single one of his main characters get themselves mind controlled in one way or another. Even some of the unnamed bitplayers standing in the background get in on the action. Not bad for an Acts Of Vengeance tie in.

The fun actually started a month earlier. In # 257 Psylocke arrived in Madripoor on her first mission as the Mandarin's personal assassin. She was sent to take out Patch, who might become a problem once the Mandarin turned his attention to the island. Patch, of course, is an alternate identity used by Betsy's former teammate Wolverine.

He wasn't in the best of shape after getting kidnapped and crucified by the Reavers. Jubilee eventually freed him, but the damage was so severe his healing factor was no longer able to take care of even the slightest injury. Even worse: Logan's mind had started to break down too: he saw hallucinations of Carol Danvers and Nick Fury who he treated as real people, actually engaging them in conversation.

All Wolverine wanted to do in Madripoor is catch his breath and heal up. He didn't get his wish.

"Blast... somehow she nailed the kid."

Yup... That's Psylocke dressed as, well, she said it, you read it... Lady Mandarin. After mind controlling Jubilee, she found out where Patch was hiding and attacked. It wasn't really a fair fight, though... Psylocke clearly had the upper hand and that was even before she lost her head gear and Logan somehow recognised his teammate in her new Asian body, leaving him vulnerable to a knockout blow...

Well, guess his mental issues gave him some sort of unique insight. It wasn't enough to save him though. After stabbing him with her psychic knife, Psylocke learned that 'Patch' was actually Wolverine... and that he'd be far more valuable alive... That's why she brought Logan and Jubilee before the Mandarin and his partners in the Hand. They decided to give Logan the same mind wipe treatment used to make Psylocke one of their assassins... Yay, more mind control!

In Uncanny X-men # 258, the sensory deprivation sessions were already well under way... As shown in some rather visual and gruesome panels...

Psylocke had to monitor Wolverine's progress telepathically, because he was still "invisible" to electronic systems (courtesy of Roma, long story). That's why she was in his head, trying to sway him over, as the Hand's chief Matsuo Tsurayaba explained to a shocked Jubilee...

"Primal clay... that I, through Psylocke's telepathy, will shape and mold... 

into the image of the Hand."

But having one of the world's most potent psi talents use all her mental swaying power in a relatively small space caused some unexpected side effects... As the Hand scientist tried to explain to Matsuo while he was busy intimidating Jubilee...

"The resonances she's receiving from Wolverine and broadcasting to us... are beyond the capacity of even our strongest psychic dampers!"

In other words... Psylocke's attempts to mind control Wolverine splashed over to those around her, but mixed in with Wolverine's feral, bestial rage. You can guess what happens next, right?

"Some of our more susceptible personnel are bound to be affected!"

And then some... While Matsuo was busy stopping the Hand goons from killing each other, Jubilee took advantage of the confusion to make a bold and daring escape. Alas, she didn't get too far before she literally bumped into, well, as always, he'll tell you himself...

Have you no manners, girl?"

Ow, the Mandarin knows how to fix that!

"My mento-intensifier ring will give me dominance over your psyche...
And ensure your proper behavior."

It's interesting to note that the Mandarin didn't simply mind control Jubilee to stop her, no... He was actually apalled that 'a daughter of the middle kingdom' as he put it, had been 'sullied by the mongrel ways of the west'.

He meant to turn her into a proper Chinese lady... An Asian professor Higgins to Jubilee Doolittle... "My Fair Mandarin: The Musical".

"What about Psylocke and Wolverine? How do they fare?!"

A more than fair question, which we'll answer in part II of Equal Opportunity Mind Control: Encore Ensemble Enslavement 

See Psylocke Control Minds While Getting Mind Controlled Herself

A picture really is worth a thousand words... That's why today's entry focuses on a single panel from the past, but this time using a lot more words and a bunch of extra pictures to fully explain the magnitude of the mind control involved...

Case in point:

"I return these things... won in fair combat... to their rightful lord and master... who has for now and for all time... become mine."

Back in 2008, this image from Uncanny X-men # 256 was included as part of  a previous entry, but there's so much more mind control to cover from that issue. How did Psylocke go from a British, pink haired telepath and member of the X-men to an Asian assassin subservient to the Mandarin?

Well, remember how she mind controlled the X-men into entering the Siege Perilous, effectively having them commit suicide so the Reavers wouldn't ambush and kill them? Psylocke went through the mystical reincarnation gem as well, only to resurface in Uncanny X-men # 255.

Literally.

She washed ashore on a very familiar island, now controlled by the Hand. Naked and absolutely amnesic, no one knew who she was, until local crime kingpin Matsuo Tsurayaba arrived and got a good look at her...

"She is the mutant X-man Psylocke. And by all the gods who ever were...
I know full well what the Hand may do with her."

Tsurayaba's big plan unfolded in Uncanny X-men # 256 when he visited the Mandarin with an intriguing proposal: after some proper modification (read: mind control) Betsy would be ideally suited to be the Mandarin's mind reading premiere assassin. Taking care of his enemies ánd learning all their hidden secrets in the process.

Intrigued, the oriental warlord tentatively accepted Matsuo and the Hand's offer. They began Betsy's mental reconditioning using a combination of mystical influences and sensory deprivation, .

"Our ambition is to reconfigure her mental mosaic into a more... useful pattern"

Mind control by any other name, really.

Incidentally, probably the biggest reason the Mandarin appears in this storyline at all is the fact Uncanny X-men # 256 happened to be the first of three Acts of Vengeance crossover tie-ins. 

The big idea behind this Summer event was simple, yet elegant: tired of getting beaten by their archenemies, the villains decided to swap and attack heroes who weren't used to fighting them... Daredevil got Ultron, the Punisher fought Dr. Doom and the X-men had the Mandarin show up.

So, how was Psylocke's mind control going?

Honestly, who knows? Claremont writes a rather hard to grasp, perhaps purposely disjointed string of scenes that depict Betsy in the various stages of her life.

You remember how she started out as Captain Britain's blonde twin sister? Here she is, little more than a child, sitting in a prop Spitfire airplane on a carnival ride, imagining about really flying and killing Germans... And then the fantasy becomes all too real.

"A monster. A demon... No... Coming to claim me. No. No. Body and soul... No no no..."

After leaving the carousel, she finds a pretty ring. And pretty soon afterwards, she finds another. These are the ten rings of the Mandarin she is somehow collecting. But she's a bit too busy getting pushed around in her own mind to notice the villain's presence... or the rings' powers. Until she gets a make over that is...

"THERE you are, my naughty, naughty toy!"

By this time, she'd miraculously grown to adulthood, started wearing skin tight black leather outfits. 

"We can't have a westerner running the Hong Kong underworld. Art as life... I do love it so!"

By now, it's obvious we've reached the part of Psylocke's life in which she was under Mojo's thrall. Back in New Mutants Annual # 2, the ruler of the Mojoverse already mind controlled her and even transformed poor Betsy in a copy of himself. 

"And yet, for all that's changed... the oldest hurt remains"

And here we have the debut of the Asian style Psylocke.

There are just a few problems here: for one, all of this allegedly only plays in her mind. Changing Betsy's mental form should have no impact on her physical body. And yet it does. Also: what's with all the memories she has to work through? Didn't we establish earlier in the same issue she washed ashore a complete amnesiac?

Ah well, onward and upward... Betsy's about to resume her quest for the rings. And now, she knows they're powerful ánd that her former friends the X-men have them. With Storm conveniently enough standing next to her, she starts with Ororo who refuses... And this is when a mind controlled Psylocke uses mind control to get what she wants...

"You have no will but mine... That's my girl. Give it here."

So, a proven, strong telepath also uses the Mandarin's mind controlling 'mento-intensifier' ring (not to mention a flame blast) to get her hands on Storm's bauble. Well, one might call that overkill, but hey... whatever works.

Psylocke then goes on to kill Colossus, Dazzler and Havok for their rings. And, in a nice, foreshadow heavy nod to a future storyline, she doesn't have to fight Rogue, because she's already fought Ms. Marvel to the death...

Her brother Captain Britain would have been next on Betsy's hitlist, but then the unexpected happened:

"The impact beam is mine, Psylocke... And so now my pretty, at long last, are you!"

The disembodied voice belonged to the Slaymaster, a Captain Britain villain from back in the day who fought Betsy when she took over for the titular hero and was blinded by him in the process. The appearance of Slaymaster wasn't part of the mind control strategy the Hand and Mandarin had set out.

The whole idea was to force Psylocke to actively kill off everyone she cared for in her old life, so she would be hurt, vulnerable and open to whatever the villains wanted her to do. The Slaymaster threatened to throw the proverbial monkey wrench in that scheme. Luckily, Betsy overcame her fear for the villain and struck back, discovering not everything is quite as it appeared...

Smashing the Slaymaster's helmet, the face of the Mandarin was revealed. He immediately used whatever rings he still had left (count em in the upcoming panel, if the story makes any sense he could only have two out of ten). Not that he'd have time to count, because Psylocke was about to end him.

But even when caught at a distinct disadvantage, the mastervillain still tried to come out on top...

"Cast aside your boulder, Psylocke... And acknowledge the Mandarin as your lord and master."

Looks like he now has all his rings back. How come Psylocke doesn't have any left? Also why are Mojo and Spiral there, hovering in the background? And, more importantly, did Betsy just say 'no'?

"Your mind may control the ring... But mine... through my telepathy... controls your thoughts."

Ooh snap.

So, even while she herself is busy getting mind controlled, she controls others a record total of two times in the same issue. That girl sure is a pro. But surely, she wouldn't actually follow through on that threat now, would she?

Well, guess she would.

So, judging from this story... after witnessing her coming to terms with being changed against her will, after seeing her face and deal with childhood trauma and insecurities, not to mention having her stare down her greatest fears while fighting the Slaymaster ánd beating the tale's actual villain in the process... You'd think ... It's only logical to assume Betsy would end the issue a free woman.

Yeah, you'd think...

And so, with Psylocke killing everyone who tried to control or shape her, we come full circle, with this scene: Psylocke fully submitting to the Mandarin's rule after all. It makes very little sense indeed.

Y'know, not unlike an actual ring of the Mandarin.

Psylocke learned mindcontrol from the best

I suppose its inherent to the nature of telepaths, but most of the X-men's telepathic members have used mind control at one point or another. Back when Stan Lee was writing the team, Xavier used his powers to make Beast's parents forget all about him. Talk about a doozy, but while Claremont was writing, team telepaths made the mind their personal playground. Jean Grey, as Phoenix, was guilty of manipulating Kitty Pryde's parents for instance. But near the end of his run, Claremont had Betsy Braddock, aka Psylocke, commit several mindcontrol transgressions against members of her own team! Lets review some of the highlights...

After returning from a mission to the Savage Land, Psylocke sensed that the cyborg criminals known as the Reavers had invaded their Australian homebase. Knowing they were severely outmatched, Psylocke decided to give the team an easy way out: the Siege Perilous. This was a gift the X-men had received a while ago from the otherdimensional ruler Roma. The gem shaped device turned into a portal to the afterlife. Whoever entered through it, was granted a new leash on life, providing a form of instant reincarnation. Prefering this over certain death, Betsy used her mental control to convince her fellow X-men to enter the Siege as the Reavers approached to finish them off. Certainly a powerful moment, but also remarkable as she gives the other X-men no say in the matter. They have to die, because Betts says so. Doesn't really seem right, does it?

Still, Betsy also used the Siege and was got reincarnated. Sort of. I'll spare you the convoluted history of early 90s Psylocke, but basically: she didn't reincarnate into a new form at all. An amnesiac Betsy appeared on an island near Japan. There, she was recovered by Matsu'o Tsurayaba, a businessman who had close dealings with the crime syndicate known as The Hand.

One of their best operatives was the female assassin Kwannon. This minor telepathic hitman got severly injured on assignment, which gave Matsu'o a brilliant idea: lets combine the two women! He got his wish, thanks to the outerdimensional villain Spiral and her Body Shoppe. Spiral placed Betsy's mind inside Kwannon's body, much to Matsu'o's delight.

Also, because this storyline ran during Marvel's Acts of Vengeance crossover, in which heroes fought villains they were unfamiliar with... for that reason alone, the Mandarin showed up in X-men. One of the Mandarin's ten rings of power lets him control minds and... well, I suppose you can see where this is going, right?

"Next: Lady Mandarin!" Ow, next issue blurbs... sometimes you ARE downright profetic. Yes, I suppose because of the Acts of Vengeance, Claremont had Psylocke 'retrieve' the Mandarin's rings, binding her ever closer to his will. In a startling dream-like sequence, Psylock was forced to kill her fellow X-men and her brother Brian Braddock. They all had one of the Mandarin's rings. Once she completed the set, she was under his complete control, allowing for the transformation into Lady Mandarin. But in her new form, this Psylocke really was into mindcontrol. Lets see what she does when she encounters her former teammate Wolverine and his sidekick Jubilee...

"I am Lady Mandarin"... *SIGH*... I suppose I could fill another blog with THIS particular writing tick of Claremont's. At one point or another most of his characters feel the need to enter the scene shouting their own names. I get why he started doing this, its a great way to introduce new readers to the often confusing array of characters running around any given X-men comic, but still... its hardly realistic. Yet, 'Lady Mandarin' had 'nailed the kid', but her real target was Wolverine. The Hand wanted to forcibly recruit him as their new assassin. Mind you, this was in 1990, a good 15 years before Mark Millar introduced the same concept during his Wolverine run.

Yup, its mind control at its finest... using her telepathic powers, Psylocke tried to brainwash Wolverine, in an attempt to get his primal, violent urgings to work for the benefit of The Hand. It seemed to work for an instant or two, but Logan broke free. So, if at first you don't succeed... try, and try again... In her new body, Psylocke fought Wolverine and used her psychic knife, the manifestation of her mental powers, to get the job done.

Awww, Betsy Braddock... Once, your telepathy floated like a butterfly, now your knife stings like a bee-yotch!