Spoiler warning - this blog/thread/rant has full scans so the reader gets a full explanation
is anoyone else as pissed off with Steve Grant as I am? For those of you who don't know Steve Grant is the guy who tried to write in that The Madelyne Pryor that appeared in XMan #5, was in fact and had always been an Evil Jean Grey from an Alternate reality. Or that she subconsciously influenced Nate to create her as a Door way for Evil Jean to walk through, Or That she had replaced Madelyne Pryor months ago, when Madelyne Pryor had appeared in mainstream continuity at least a year pryor to that. I know confusing right. Okay so taking that into consideration, I think Steve grant owes Madelyne Pryor Fans a huge apoogy that we'll never get but in the mean time I decided to write this blog to clear up the confusion.
What I am going to do is list appearances of Madelyne Pryor and list why it's clearly still Madelytne and definitely NOT the Evil Queen Jean Grey Imposter.
In her first appearance in mainstream continuity since her death in the inferno saga, Jeph Loeb Write's Madelyne as an Amnesiac with only bit's and pieces of her own memory. She remember's her name.Most notabely though in XMan #6 Madelyne's reaction to the Name Sinister is the biggest hint we have that this is indeed our Madelyne.
Now Madelyne was a psionic entity, which makes her unique from the alternate reality version of jean grey. There aren't many psionic entities in comics, but off the top of my head I can name a few, Onslaught, and the shadow king. There are even fewer psionic entities that have managed to achieve corporeal manifestation. Nate was the key factor in Onslaught becomingcorporeal. The first psionic entity he pulled into the physical world was Madelyne, and he did this subconsciously and it was only inferred and never shown on panel. The second was prof. X's astral form, and we got to see how it looks first hand in X-Man Issue #10.
So we Know that Nate has no issues doing things like pulling a mind out of the ether and into the fold, because he does it...over and over again. Okay so moving on
Madelyne later splits with Nate and becomes Selene's protege. During this period of time, Madelyne goes through a series of experiences, hinting at Madelyne's new Nature a a psionic entity. This is hinted at most strongly when Madelyne cut her hand. The wound didn't bleed until she looked at it and a day later, the wound completely healed without so much as a hint of a scar (X-Man #14-15)
Had Madelyne Truly been resurrected in a biological sense, the wound would have hurt, and it would not have healed in a day. Why is this important, because the Queen Jean imposter had a body, she was composed of flesh and blood. I will elaborate on this further as we go on, but the basic premise is that she didn't realize that she was a psionic entity, and therefore her "body" only reacted to things the way she thought she thought it was suppose to react (case in point, bleeding)
The next on the chopping block is madelyne's memories again. Madelyne's memories are unlocked when she gets into a psychic confrontation with Tess, now known as sage (X-Man Anual 96). After laying the psionic smack down on Tessa, madelyne's memories are unlocked, though not completely. She remembers the X-Men, she remembers sister, she remembers her husband, and her baby, and Jean.
Note worthy moment, madelyne ravaged tessa so badly in this confrontation that it actually woke Jean Grey from a deep sleep. So this was indeed still our Our Madelyne.
Next we have the confrontation between Madelyne and Threnody which took place in giant sized issue #25. (One of my personal favorites) In this issue Madelyne meets Threnody in a cemetary while trying to track down Nate. Threnody is a stereotype with all her "Sister girl" Rhetoric, and tries to make a dramatic exit, when Madelyne grabs her shoulder to stop her. Threnody grabs Madelyne's wrist and starts talking sh!t, calling her a delusional dead clone. Madelyne in response releases all of Threnody's destructive death energies and drains them, killing her.
What is note worthy about this moment is that this is the moment Madelyne realizes she actually did die. This is when she realizes her nature as a psionic entity which opens the door for a vastly different array of abilities. Also anyone with personal association with Madelyne felt this moment telepathically Why is this important...again because an evil alternate reality Jean grey would have no personal affinity to Cable or Havok.
More proof, these are madelyne's memories. She has a complete revelation about her past life, and her death. (Can you tell I like this issue a lot?)
this finally leads to a confrontation between Nate, Madelyne and surprise JEAN GREY! Madelyne makes short work of them initially as the aggressor in
the battle. Madelyne is highly knowledgeable about the X-Jet and it's alien shi'ar technology (Why is this important, because Madelyne was a pilot in her past life, therefore still not evil queen jean)
Madelyne tries to fight Jean, Nate tries to break it up. It gets very Jerry Springer, before Nate gestures to help Jean and madelyne unleashes a flash fire psi power seeing it as a personal betrayal (are we noticing the trend of how jealous she is) Nate realizes that he actually "brought her back" and tries to undo his mistake by unmaking her. It doesn't work She resists him, and again putting the psionic smack down on both of them before making a dramatic exit, revealing she has the ability to teleport. Basically Awesome! Again all that was from X-Man #25
We next see during operation Zero Tolerance. She's gotten very cozy with Sebastian Shaw, which strikes a bad cord with Selene, and Tess, and Trevor Fitzroy, who presumably join forces to plot against Madelyne. yawn. This turns into a foreshadowing that is never fleshed out at all. X-Man 29
The next time we see madelyne she is in the Astral Realm, and she has High Jacked Cables mind, and the two bond over some very tense conversation, as Madelyne explains her side of the story. Cable #44 why is this important. Because Madelyne's relationship with her son would not be a priority to an Evil Queen jean from an Alternate reality so yet again this is still our Madelyne.
She Later on meets up with cable in Cable #50, "Hellfire hunt" where she gives cable a journal she stole from Sebastian shaw revealing information about raising some Apocalyptic secret weapon.
We next see Madelyne reunite with Nate at the end of X-Man #38. If there were going to be a time for an imposter to step in, now would have been the time. Nothing eventful to write about in this reunion. They hug.
In the next issue we see Madelyne taunting Nate who has had a vision of the future where he accidentally destroys half of the world trying to battle Stryfe. This is initially made me suspicious because she did show some characteristic differences, but one thing she strongly hinted at was the symbiotic nature of her bond with Nate. See Nate's powers were so potent they were killing him slowly but sure. meanwhile Madelyne was a psionic entity that could drain psi energies to maintain corporeal form. She also talks about the great beasts and how she learned about them when she was the on monitor duty for the X-Men. Knowledge that evil queen Jean wouldn't have been privy to. Again still Madelyne.
after this Nate defeats the "great beasts" and passes out from exhaustion. Madelyne literally comes out of Nate, further implying she is composed solely of psionic energy before teleporting them both away. X-Man #41
Madelyne
tries to nurse Nate back to health when he when he ventures off into the astral plain to search for the long dead threnody. Madelyne Confronts him in the astra
l plain. She's angry that he's looking for his ex girl friend. This happens at the same time that the psi-wars are going on and shadow king released a shockwave that sent every telepath into shock. Madelyne Disappeared, and Nate was left nearly mind blind. She shows up again at the beginning of the next issue
(X-Man #42) which apparently takes place some time later. Nate has ventured from somewhere up in Canada to Dublin. They chit chat about what happened before with the astral plain blowing up in her face and having to "pull herself together" (more indicative of the fact that she is composed of energy)
it it is around this time that most people speculate that Madelyne was "replaced" by the imposter Jean Queen. That would be inaccurate though. In X-Man issue 44, Holocaust/Nemesis Samcks Madelyne accross the room and jokes "Where'd you dig this one up Natey?" to which Madelyne says "He knows." Insinuating that he knows that she actually the ghost of a dead clone.
Okay so moving on. after this we have the blood brothers crossover, with stryfe, cable, and X-Man.
first big hint that this is still Madelyne and not the imposter.
Nate sends a Very resistant and reluctant Madelyne to save Jean and Cyclops from Stryfe goons.
Madelyne talks about how much nate is asking of her in sending her to protect them. here's the scan
There's this kind of touching moment that's kinda creepy and peeping tom-ish. anyways here's the scan. Point being evil Jean wouldn't have the eerie moment with her alternate self. X-Man Issue #46. Note worthy Highlight. Madelyne Kills a cyborg by psionicly activating all of his cybernetic weaponry at once. definitely worth checking out.
at the end of this issue, Madelyne sees Cable who makes a family comment.
This pannel is repeated in Cable issue 63. Madelyne confirms that she is indeed Madelyne when she refers to the last time she saw cable before he went to london on a lead she gave him.
Okay so after this Madelyne Switches sides, and helps stryfe against Cable and Nate, but as it turns out it was all just a ploy so she could slowly drain energy from stryfe and weaken him enough so Nate and Cable could beat him. She pretends to blast Nate with energy that was suppose to hurt him, but she actually used it to recharge him. When stryfe realized what was happening, he drained nearly all of Madelyne's Excess energy, almost destroying her body. Check out the scans, from X-Man issue #47
this issue confirms what had been hinted at since madelyne's resurection. That her body was composed of psi-energy. note that Cable says she's leaking psi-eneries by the bucket, and he has to use his telekinesis just to hold her together.
eventually Madelyne recovers from this battle, but she mainly takes on the role of the designated driver, taking Nate where he needs to go. This all comes to an abrupt halt when they are confronted with a team of psi-operatives
Madelyne gives the last of the energy she can spare to nate before trying to teleport out of the battle and getting caught up in the fall out of an explosion, To protect her Nate uses his telekinesis and covers her in rubble. in X-Man Issue 52.
Still true to the similarities she shared with Selene, after exerting too much energy she appears aged, and withered, and only had enough power to disappear.
This is the last panel we see Madelyne in the physical world in the pages of X-Man. Her energy depleted she couldn't maintain corporeal manifestation. She disappears and we don't see her again in the "real world" for a while.
after this we don't see madelyne again until the "Twelve" Crossover storyline in Cable #76 at which point Madelyne Pulled cable and Cyclops' minds into the astral realm.
This is Madelyne's Last on panel appearance. Showing she was not destroyed, or replaced by some imposter evil Jean grey from an Alternate reality. She was indeed Madelyne Pryor, equipped with all Madelyne's Memories, personal relationships, and her grudges. The reason she was "Powerless" to help them is because she spent the last of her active psionics on Nate, not to mention why would she help the X-Men?
this is where steve grant comes in and ruins everything, disrespecting years of loyal fans, and established continuity and story lines.
In X-man #67, Madelyne is back with nate, and there is no explanation of how these two linked back up, in spite of Nate having abandonment issues. He is back with her. The reader is lead to believe that madelyne was over the past 6 months been manipulating nate into doing her bidding in his sleep Which he realizes after a nightmare in which he destroyed a small city called quito. Check the scans.
Now here we have it, on panel, she says "You created your maddie yes. I'm not your Maddie." She goes on saying that he created a phantom, a doorway for her to walk through. When Nate asks "who are you?" she says "I'm madelyne Pryor, the only true madelyne Pryor You've ever known." Which is clearly a lie or some manipulative tactic, because, she just said "You created your Maddie yes, I'm not your Maddie."
For more confusion check the next scan.
Then she says "I replaced your Maddie several months ago. I have been worming my way into your head ever since." At this point The real Madelyne had been missing for several month. Nate had joined the X-men prior to the twelve saga, been abducted by aliens, had his powers taken away by the high evolutionary, dealt with the purple man, the fantastic four, met up with a pregnant Threnody, who was being hunted down by the Zombies of the people she had killed, crossed paths with spider man. Several months went by in Madelyne's Abscence, and somwhere along the line (with no respect to the reader) this imposter stepped in and pretended to be Madelyne, says a lot of confusing crap and throws continuity into a blender. Nate takes her "home" to an alternate reality through his great powers, and her vicarious telepathic tutelage. Pin head from "Hell Raiser" is there waiting to great them. you'll be happy to know all of his pins have been successfully removed.
In X-Man Issue 68 she contradicts herself yet again when Nate says "You're not maddie." And she says "I am."
I can't with the contradictions. Okay so she is trying to claim that she was the one responsible for him (Nate) creating Madelyne Pryor, a psionic entity having it's own memories, emotions and thoughts, and experiences, completely independant of Nate, and having free will, all so this "Phantom' could act as a Door way for this imposter to step through. if that were true, where did the memories come from? Why the interest in establishing a bond with Cable? I'll tell you why, because the imposter is a liar and she is obviously trying very hard to Manipulate Nate....(and Steve grant is an idiot) PS: This art work is worth piss.
"Queen madelyne Pryor" goes on to explain her fetish for the Nate greys of alternate realities, and how she has manipulated and destroyed them all, and of them Our nate is the most powerful.....or something like that.
Side note: In a world where a Nate Grey Exists, there is no need for a Madelyne pryor, as Madelyne Pryor was created for the purpose of producing Cable, and Nate Grey was the short cut version. Just sayin....
Nate escapes, breaking her telepathic hold on him. (Notice she doesn't teleport to go after him, she doesn't have that power, cause she never learned magic from Selene) He meets up with the native Nate Grey. He explains Evil Queen Maddie's M.O. Check the scan
This is the real kicker though...this next scene.
(My sentiments exactly, Why am I even reading) But like any true fan I kept going lol. (It's like steven Grant realized what a crap shoot this was, so he included failsafes and contradictions in his entire run.)
The native Nate Grey of this world takes our Nate to meet Forge...the corpse. (X-man issue 69)
Nate under the coaching of Native Nate, reanimates forges corps, and who ends up telling us an even more confusing story about evil "Queen madelyne Pryor" That she is in fact an Evil Jean Grey, impersonating the long dead madelyne Pryor of this world. (Hmm noticing a trend) and she has been posing as madelyne pryor ever since. Check the scans.
So there you have it. We officially know that this is not Madelyne Pryor we're dealing with, it's the Evil Jean grey lol.
anyways the story ends with Nate being cured of his genetic instability through a mixing of his own molecules with the crazy version of himself from an alternate world. Nate going all looney toons and thinking he's a Shaman. The key point in this though is when he destroys the queens Mechine, he points out that she is trapped in that world not. Lastly and killing the Evil Queen Jean by smothering her with the psionic equivalent of a star. Check the scans. Long live the queen guys.
So what have we learned?
What I learned is that Steven Grant never worked on another marvel title after this one (that I know of) and there isn't a single wonder in my mind as to why. None of the crap that went on in this should be treated with any canonical legitimacy. It was nonsense all of it from issue 67-70. But at least we have made sense of it. The easy answer to these on panel contradictions is...that Evil queen Jean was a manipulative liar. She had no means to project her influence accross the span of reality because she couldn't even travel accross the span of reality without the means of her machine. So she likely had nothing to do with Madelyne being ripped from the astral realm.
My theory is this.
Madelyne's essence never truly faded into death. in fact it stayed in jean for a long time after inferno, until she finally manage to expel it. Madelyne's essence essentally lay dormant in the astral realm with no true consciousness to do anything at that point.
When Nate grey Crossed over into mainstream continuity every psi-sensitive mind on the planet felt the first time he used his powers.
I think this overspilling of power is what would have awakened madelyne's essence (rekindling the inferno if you will) and reaches out to Madelyne who is at that point reaching out for the power source that's awakened her, drawn to it, and just like he had done to professor Xavier in X-Man Issue #10, he pulled her through. this is just my theory but it's supported throughout the post with all the quotes and site's, scans, and issue highlights.
Our Madelyne had nothing to do with Queen Jean, and was not seen again until the Hellfire cult/ sisterhood story arc, where she is still a psionic entity, only now she is trying to get a body for herself. Personally i hope that never happens. Her being a psionic phantom makes her different from jean, and rachel, and the dark phoenix.
as pissed off with Steve Grant as I am? For those of you who don't know Steve Grant is the guy who tried to write in that The Madelyne Pryor that appeared in XMan #5, was in fact and had always been an Evil Jean Grey from an Alternate reality. Or that she subconsciously influenced Nate to create her as a Door way for Evil Jean to walk through, Or That she had replaced Madelyne Pryor months ago, when Madelyne Pryor had appeared in mainstream continuity at least a year pryor to that. I know confusing right. Okay so taking that into consideration, I think Steve grant owes Madelyne Pryor Fans a huge apoogy that we'll never get but in the mean time I decided to write this blog to clear up the confusion.
What I am going to do is list appearances of Madelyne Pryor and list why it's clearly still Madelytne and definitely NOT the Evil Queen Jean Grey Imposter.
In her first appearance in mainstream continuity since her death in the inferno saga, Jeph Loeb Write's Madelyne as an Amnesiac with only bit's and pieces of her own memory. She remember's her name.Most notabely though in XMan #6 Madelyne's reaction to the Name Sinister is the biggest hint we have that this is indeed our Madelyne.
Now Madelyne was a psionic entity, which makes her unique from the alternate reality version of jean grey. There aren't many psionic entities in comics, but off the top of my head I can name a few, Onslaught, and the shadow king. There are even fewer psionic entities that have managed to achieve corporeal manifestation. Nate was the key factor in Onslaught becomingcorporeal. The first psionic entity he pulled into the physical world was Madelyne, and he did this subconsciously and it was only inferred and never shown on panel. The second was prof. X's astral form, and we got to see how it looks first hand in X-Man Issue #10.
So we Know that Nate has no issues doing things like pulling a mind out of the ether and into the fold, because he does it...over and over again. Okay so moving on
Madelyne later splits with Nate and becomes Selene's protege. During this period of time, Madelyne goes through a series of experiences, hinting at Madelyne's new Nature a a psionic entity. This is hinted at most strongly when Madelyne cut her hand. The wound didn't bleed until she looked at it and a day later, the wound completely healed without so much as a hint of a scar (X-Man #14-15)
Had Madelyne Truly been resurrected in a biological sense, the wound would have hurt, and it would not have healed in a day. Why is this important, because the Queen Jean imposter had a body, she was composed of flesh and blood. I will elaborate on this further as we go on, but the basic premise is that she didn't realize that she was a psionic entity, and therefore her "body" only reacted to things the way she thought she thought it was suppose to react (case in point, bleeding)
The next on the chopping block is madelyne's memories again. Madelyne's memories are unlocked when she gets into a psychic confrontation with Tess, now known as sage (X-Man Anual 96). After laying the psionic smack down on Tessa, madelyne's memories are unlocked, though not completely. She remembers the X-Men, she remembers sister, she remembers her husband, and her baby, and Jean.
Note worthy moment, madelyne ravaged tessa so badly in this confrontation that it actually woke Jean Grey from a deep sleep. So this was indeed still our Our Madelyne.
Next we have the confrontation between Madelyne and Threnody which took place in giant sized issue #25. (One of my personal favorites) In this issue Madelyne meets Threnody in a cemetary while trying to track down Nate. Threnody is a stereotype with all her "Sister girl" Rhetoric, and tries to make a dramatic exit, when Madelyne grabs her shoulder to stop her. Threnody grabs Madelyne's wrist and starts talking sh!t, calling her a delusional dead clone. Madelyne in response releases all of Threnody's destructive death energies and drains them, killing her.
What is note worthy about this moment is that this is the moment Madelyne realizes she actually did die. This is when she realizes her nature as a psionic entity which opens the door for a vastly different array of abilities. Also anyone with personal association with Madelyne felt this moment telepathically Why is this important...again because an evil alternate reality Jean grey would have no personal affinity to Cable or Havok.
More proof, these are madelyne's memories. She has a complete revelation about her past life, and her death. (Can you tell I like this issue a lot?)
this finally leads to a confrontation between Nate, Madelyne and surprise JEAN GREY! Madelyne makes short work of them initially as the aggressor in
the battle. Madelyne is highly knowledgeable about the X-Jet and it's alien shi'ar technology (Why is this important, because Madelyne was a pilot in her past life, therefore still not evil queen jean)
Madelyne tries to fight Jean, Nate tries to break it up. It gets very Jerry Springer, before Nate gestures to help Jean and madelyne unleashes a flash fire psi power seeing it as a personal betrayal (are we noticing the trend of how jealous she is) Nate realizes that he actually "brought her back" and tries to undo his mistake by unmaking her. It doesn't work She resists him, and again putting the psionic smack down on both of them before making a dramatic exit, revealing she has the ability to teleport. Basically Awesome! Again all that was from X-Man #25
We next see during operation Zero Tolerance. She's gotten very cozy with Sebastian Shaw, which strikes a bad cord with Selene, and Tess, and Trevor Fitzroy, who presumably join forces to plot against Madelyne. yawn. This turns into a foreshadowing that is never fleshed out at all. X-Man 29
The next time we see madelyne she is in the Astral Realm, and she has High Jacked Cables mind, and the two bond over some very tense conversation, as Madelyne explains her side of the story. Cable #44 why is this important. Because Madelyne's relationship with her son would not be a priority to an Evil Queen jean from an Alternate reality so yet again this is still our Madelyne.
She Later on meets up with cable in Cable #50, "Hellfire hunt" where she gives cable a journal she stole from Sebastian shaw revealing information about raising some Apocalyptic secret weapon.
We next see Madelyne reunite with Nate at the end of X-Man #38. If there were going to be a time for an imposter to step in, now would have been the time. Nothing eventful to write about in this reunion. They hug.
In the next issue we see Madelyne taunting Nate who has had a vision of the future where he accidentally destroys half of the world trying to battle Stryfe. This is initially made me suspicious because she did show some characteristic differences, but one thing she strongly hinted at was the symbiotic nature of her bond with Nate. See Nate's powers were so potent they were killing him slowly but sure. meanwhile Madelyne was a psionic entity that could drain psi energies to maintain corporeal form. She also talks about the great beasts and how she learned about them when she was the on monitor duty for the X-Men. Knowledge that evil queen Jean wouldn't have been privy to. Again still Madelyne.
after this Nate defeats the "great beasts" and passes out from exhaustion. Madelyne literally comes out of Nate, further implying she is composed solely of psionic energy before teleporting them both away. X-Man #41
Madelyne
tries to nurse Nate back to health when he when he ventures off into the astral plain to search for the long dead threnody. Madelyne Confronts him in the astra
l plain. She's angry that he's looking for his ex girl friend. This happens at the same time that the psi-wars are going on and shadow king released a shockwave that sent every telepath into shock. Madelyne Disappeared, and Nate was left nearly mind blind. She shows up again at the beginning of the next issue
(X-Man #42) which apparently takes place some time later. Nate has ventured from somewhere up in Canada to Dublin. They chit chat about what happened before with the astral plain blowing up in her face and having to "pull herself together" (more indicative of the fact that she is composed of energy)
it it is around this time that most people speculate that Madelyne was "replaced" by the imposter Jean Queen. That would be inaccurate though. In X-Man issue 44, Holocaust/Nemesis Samcks Madelyne accross the room and jokes "Where'd you dig this one up Natey?" to which Madelyne says "He knows." Insinuating that he knows that she actually the ghost of a dead clone.
Okay so moving on. after this we have the blood brothers crossover, with stryfe, cable, and X-Man.
first big hint that this is still Madelyne and not the imposter.
Nate sends a Very resistant and reluctant Madelyne to save Jean and Cyclops from Stryfe goons.
Madelyne talks about how much nate is asking of her in sending her to protect them. here's the scan
There's this kind of touching moment that's kinda creepy and peeping tom-ish. anyways here's the scan. Point being evil Jean wouldn't have the eerie moment with her alternate self. X-Man Issue #46. Note worthy Highlight. Madelyne Kills a cyborg by psionicly activating all of his cybernetic weaponry at once. definitely worth checking out.
at the end of this issue, Madelyne sees Cable who makes a family comment.
This pannel is repeated in Cable issue 63. Madelyne confirms that she is indeed Madelyne when she refers to the last time she saw cable before he went to london on a lead she gave him.
Okay so after this Madelyne Switches sides, and helps stryfe against Cable and Nate, but as it turns out it was all just a ploy so she could slowly drain energy from stryfe and weaken him enough so Nate and Cable could beat him. She pretends to blast Nate with energy that was suppose to hurt him, but she actually used it to recharge him. When stryfe realized what was happening, he drained nearly all of Madelyne's Excess energy, almost destroying her body. Check out the scans, from X-Man issue #47
this issue confirms what had been hinted at since madelyne's resurection. That her body was composed of psi-energy. note that Cable says she's leaking psi-eneries by the bucket, and he has to use his telekinesis just to hold her together.
eventually Madelyne recovers from this battle, but she mainly takes on the role of the designated driver, taking Nate where he needs to go. This all comes to an abrupt halt when they are confronted with a team of psi-operatives
Madelyne gives the last of the energy she can spare to nate before trying to teleport out of the battle and getting caught up in the fall out of an explosion, To protect her Nate uses his telekinesis and covers her in rubble. in X-Man Issue 52.
Still true to the similarities she shared with Selene, after exerting too much energy she appears aged, and withered, and only had enough power to disappear.
This is the last panel we see Madelyne in the physical world in the pages of X-Man. Her energy depleted she couldn't maintain corporeal manifestation. She disappears and we don't see her again in the "real world" for a while.
after this we don't see madelyne again until the "Twelve" Crossover storyline in Cable #76 at which point Madelyne Pulled cable and Cyclops' minds into the astral realm.
This is Madelyne's Last on panel appearance. Showing she was not destroyed, or replaced by some imposter evil Jean grey from an Alternate reality. She was indeed Madelyne Pryor, equipped with all Madelyne's Memories, personal relationships, and her grudges. The reason she was "Powerless" to help them is because she spent the last of her active psionics on Nate, not to mention why would she help the X-Men?
this is where steve grant comes in and ruins everything, disrespecting years of loyal fans, and established continuity and story lines.
In X-man #67, Madelyne is back with nate, and there is no explanation of how these two linked back up, in spite of Nate having abandonment issues. He is back with her. The reader is lead to believe that madelyne was over the past 6 months been manipulating nate into doing her bidding in his sleep Which he realizes after a nightmare in which he destroyed a small city called quito. Check the scans.
Now here we have it, on panel, she says "You created your maddie yes. I'm not your Maddie." She goes on saying that he created a phantom, a doorway for her to walk through. When Nate asks "who are you?" she says "I'm madelyne Pryor, the only true madelyne Pryor You've ever known." Which is clearly a lie or some manipulative tactic, because, she just said "You created your Maddie yes, I'm not your Maddie."
For more confusion check the next scan.
Then she says "I replaced your Maddie several months ago. I have been worming my way into your head ever since." At this point The real Madelyne had been missing for several month. Nate had joined the X-men prior to the twelve saga, been abducted by aliens, had his powers taken away by the high evolutionary, dealt with the purple man, the fantastic four, met up with a pregnant Threnody, who was being hunted down by the Zombies of the people she had killed, crossed paths with spider man. Several months went by in Madelyne's Abscence, and somwhere along the line (with no respect to the reader) this imposter stepped in and pretended to be Madelyne, says a lot of confusing crap and throws continuity into a blender. Nate takes her "home" to an alternate reality through his great powers, and her vicarious telepathic tutelage. Pin head from "Hell Raiser" is there waiting to great them. you'll be happy to know all of his pins have been successfully removed.
In X-Man Issue 68 she contradicts herself yet again when Nate says "You're not maddie." And she says "I am."
I can't with the contradictions. Okay so she is trying to claim that she was the one responsible for him (Nate) creating Madelyne Pryor, a psionic entity having it's own memories, emotions and thoughts, and experiences, completely independant of Nate, and having free will, all so this "Phantom' could act as a Door way for this imposter to step through. if that were true, where did the memories come from? Why the interest in establishing a bond with Cable? I'll tell you why, because the imposter is a liar and she is obviously trying very hard to Manipulate Nate....(and Steve grant is an idiot) PS: This art work is worth piss.
"Queen madelyne Pryor" goes on to explain her fetish for the Nate greys of alternate realities, and how she has manipulated and destroyed them all, and of them Our nate is the most powerful.....or something like that.
Side note: In a world where a Nate Grey Exists, there is no need for a Madelyne pryor, as Madelyne Pryor was created for the purpose of producing Cable, and Nate Grey was the short cut version. Just sayin....
Nate escapes, breaking her telepathic hold on him. (Notice she doesn't teleport to go after him, she doesn't have that power, cause she never learned magic from Selene) He meets up with the native Nate Grey. He explains Evil Queen Maddie's M.O. Check the scan
This is the real kicker though...this next scene.
(My sentiments exactly, Why am I even reading) But like any true fan I kept going lol. (It's like steven Grant realized what a crap shoot this was, so he included failsafes and contradictions in his entire run.)
The native Nate Grey of this world takes our Nate to meet Forge...the corpse. (X-man issue 69)
Nate under the coaching of Native Nate, reanimates forges corps, and who ends up telling us an even more confusing story about evil "Queen madelyne Pryor" That she is in fact an Evil Jean Grey, impersonating the long dead madelyne Pryor of this world. (Hmm noticing a trend) and she has been posing as madelyne pryor ever since. Check the scans.
So there you have it. We officially know that this is not Madelyne Pryor we're dealing with, it's the Evil Jean grey lol.
anyways the story ends with Nate being cured of his genetic instability through a mixing of his own molecules with the crazy version of himself from an alternate world. Nate going all looney toons and thinking he's a Shaman. The key point in this though is when he destroys the queens Mechine, he points out that she is trapped in that world not. Lastly and killing the Evil Queen Jean by smothering her with the psionic equivalent of a star. Check the scans. Long live the queen guys.
So what have we learned?
What I learned is that Steven Grant never worked on another marvel title after this one (that I know of) and there isn't a single wonder in my mind as to why. None of the crap that went on in this should be treated with any canonical legitimacy. It was nonsense all of it from issue 67-70. But at least we have made sense of it. The easy answer to these on panel contradictions is...that Evil queen Jean was a manipulative liar. She had no means to project her influence accross the span of reality because she couldn't even travel accross the span of reality without the means of her machine. So she likely had nothing to do with Madelyne being ripped from the astral realm.
My theory is this.
Madelyne's essence never truly faded into death. in fact it stayed in jean for a long time after inferno, until she finally manage to expel it. Madelyne's essence essentally lay dormant in the astral realm with no true consciousness to do anything at that point.
When Nate grey Crossed over into mainstream continuity every psi-sensitive mind on the planet felt the first time he used his powers.
I think this overspilling of power is what would have awakened madelyne's essence (rekindling the inferno if you will) and reaches out to Madelyne who is at that point reaching out for the power source that's awakened her, drawn to it, and just like he had done to professor Xavier in X-Man Issue #10, he pulled her through. this is just my theory but it's supported throughout the post with all the quotes and site's, scans, and issue highlights.
Our Madelyne had nothing to do with Queen Jean, and was not seen again until the Hellfire cult/ sisterhood story arc, where she is still a psionic entity, only now she is trying to get a body for herself. Personally i hope that never happens. Her being a psionic phantom makes her different from jean, and rachel, and the dark phoenix.
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