Madelyne Pryor: Red Queen Appreciation 2018

[JudicatorPrime]

All Maddie needs is a duel with Magik so she can stab her with the Soul Sword and purge the demon from Maddie. She'll still have her mental powers. Or, at least reconcile the fact that the Phoenix force gave her a soul and the ability to have a child. I think this character is a lot of wasted potential.

I agree, but I still have my doubts as to whether Maddie will ever reach her potential in the pages of the X-Men. Especially now that Jean is back.

Whatever the case, please don't strip her magical powers. If anything, her time as Anodyne and Goblin Queen should make her quite adept, if not slightly above Sorcerer Supreme level in terms of the raw magical prowess dormant within her. I'm gradually coming around to the Red Queen moniker, since it reminds me not just of Alice in Wonderland, but of Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept books where the mystical masters of the realm all were known by color, i.e., Blue Adept, Red Adept, etc. Red Queen works. She could be either the villainess or heroine of the story with that name.

[WallStreeter]

I agree, but I still have my doubts as to whether Maddie will ever reach her potential in the pages of the X-Men. Especially now that Jean is back.

Whatever the case, please don't strip her magical powers. If anything, her time as Anodyne and Goblin Queen should make her quite adept, if not slightly above Sorcerer Supreme level in terms of the raw magical prowess dormant within her. I'm gradually coming around to the Red Queen moniker, since it reminds me not just of Alice in Wonderland, but of Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept books where the mystical masters of the realm all were known by color, i.e., Blue Adept, Red Adept, etc. Red Queen works. She could be either the villainess or heroine of the story with that name.

I'd definitely like to see her as the Red Queen and a powerful sorceress.

I think the biggest problem with Maddie is there's no remaining motivation for her to be a villain, and as for being a hero Jean is back, plus Rachel in in the team.

Cyclops is dead, so the scorned ex wife can't work.

Cyclops's marriage to Jean fell apart. Meaning the issue was with Scott, and there's no reason for Maddie at this point to have any beef with Jean. Secret Wars Goblin Queen trolled Jeen (who loves Scott and will go back to the past with him to become the current Jean) but such trolling would not work on Adult Jean.

With the o5 going back to the past, I don't even see Secret Wars Maddie being around.

If they decided to have a powerful Sisterhood of Mutants, Maddie could lead that. But both times writers created a Sisterhood, they never had the team stay together. I think the Sisterhood is Maddie's best motivation for being a villain and for having conflict with the X-Men, and along those lines I would like to see her as the Red Queen.

[AbnormallyNormal]

A piece I'm working on with Red Qyeen and Black Queen for a Psi Wars seuquel.....Attachment 71491

Looks really good.

I like Maddy in the same sort of space as Emma Frost a more ambiguous/neutral character

But if they make her a villain, they do I'll accept it reluctantly and just hope she is interesting

[WallStreeter]

All Maddie needs is a duel with Magik so she can stab her with the Soul Sword and purge the demon from Maddie. She'll still have her mental powers. Or, at least reconcile the fact that the Phoenix force gave her a soul and the ability to have a child. I think this character is a lot of wasted potential.

616 Maddie had no demon in her. The demon's magic unleashed the Phoenix fragment within Maddie, which was a fragment more or less in Dark Phoenix mode. 616 Goblin Queen Maddie did use magic, but her power base was her mutant powers plus the Phoenix and that allowed her to control demons.

In X-Man resurrected Maddie was still referred to as a Phoenix fragment, and she was Selene's protege.

The Red Queen picked up after that.

Hopeless in Secret Wars had a Maddie who never had any Phoenix powers, so she just had magic and at the end of Secret Wars she claimed the Darkchilde's demonic powers and took in that demon essence.

There's no reason for Magik to stab Secret Wars Maddie with the soulsword if they just use the Red Queen/616 Maddie, who is alive.

[WallStreeter]

Looks really good.

I like Maddy in the same sort of space as Emma Frost a more ambiguous/neutral character

But if they make her a villain, they do I'll accept it reluctantly and just hope she is interesting

The Sisterhood were just out for money and power. Marvel lately has used Emma Frost, Selene, and Miss Sinister has villains. Technically, they have used Maddie as a villain but it's been the Secret Wars Goblin Queen created by Hopeless. That's really the problem they're using the Secret Wars Parody instead of the real one for some reason.

[JudicatorPrime]

I'd definitely like to see her as the Red Queen and a powerful sorceress.

I think the biggest problem with Maddie is there's no remaining motivation for her to be a villain, and as for being a hero Jean is back, plus Rachel in in the team.

Cyclops is dead, so the scorned ex wife can't work.

Cyclops's marriage to Jean fell apart. Meaning the issue was with Scott, and there's no reason for Maddie at this point to have any beef with Jean. Secret Wars Goblin Queen trolled Jeen (who loves Scott and will go back to the past with him to become the current Jean) but such trolling would not work on Adult Jean.

With the o5 going back to the past, I don't even see Secret Wars Maddie being around.

If they decided to have a powerful Sisterhood of Mutants, Maddie could lead that. But both times writers created a Sisterhood, they never had the team stay together. I think the Sisterhood is Maddie's best motivation for being a villain and for having conflict with the X-Men, and along those lines I would like to see her as the Red Queen.

This is why I say that Maddie needs to have a life and reboot away from the X-Men. She should make it abundantly clear to the entire lot of them that if she so much as gets a psychic whiff of any of them, they're dead. In that sense she's not a villain, because she's doing everything to avoid them and live her life … and she did warn them. But by the same token, that makes her a villain, because, well, you can't just kill people that you don't want to see because they showed up on your doorstep. Of course, as X-Men plots go, there's always some reason for an X-man or affiliate to go looking for her, likely because they need her help in a dire situation. Like needing her help to resurrect Scott, or because Jean needs an organ transplant or something like that.

Those obligatory scripts aside, if I was a writer for Marvel working on one of the other team books, I'd beg, plead, offer first born, whatever for the rights to Maddie. Avenger, Defender, Guardian of the Galaxy, Ultimate, form a new dynamic duo with Monica Rambeau (Red Queen and Spectrum doesn't sound bad) or Adam Warlock, whatever, I'd add her to the fold and not look back.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Uncanny X-Men #173 Sep 1983
"To Have and Have Not!" Part 2 of 2.
Wolverine and Rogue get rowdy with the Yakuza in a Ginza district bar.
They get information from Akio that leads them to the crime lord Nabatone.

Elsewhere, Yukio seeks sanctuary for Storm and herself at one of the house of Yukio's friend, Tak.
He says that there is no sanctuary for her and leaves them on the streets, where some lowlife muggers attack both of them.

Wolverine looks for the Silver Samurai, who plans on killing Mariko Yashida, his half-sister and Wolverine's fiancée.
Their father was a crime lord, and the Silver Samurai wants Mariko dead so he can control that empire.
Wolverine invited the X-Men to Japan for their wedding, only for everyone but Storm to be poisoned by the Silver Samurai.

Wolverine and Rogue infiltrate Nabatone's estate. Rogue accidentally sets off a security robot, and Wolverine saves her from the laser blast.
They find the corpse of Nabatone Yokuse, who has been dead for over a week.
The man who arranged the meeting between Mariko and the Silver Samurai was an impostor.
Wolverine wonders if, while they have been wasting time chasing smoke, someone might try to attack Mariko and the poisoned X-Men in the hospital.

Elsewhere, Yukio easily defeats the muggers once Storm fries them with a little lightning.
Inspired by Yukio, Storm begins to embrace her emotions instead of suppressing them.

Wolverine's fears are verified: Viper and a team of ninja assassins attack the hospital and dispatch the posted agents.
Rogue flies in, grabs the whole gang of ninjas, including their leader, and tosses them aside;
Viper orders her ninjas to kill Rogue while she looks for Silver Samurai.
Wolverine challenges the Samurai and wins their brutal battle by breaking his arm.
As he readies his claws for the killing blow, Mariko begs him to spare her half-brother.

Viper pulls a gun on Mariko and Wolverine, demanding they let the Samurai go.
The Samurai faints just as Wolverine and Mariko make a run for it.
Rogue throws herself into the ray's path before it hits them.
Rogue causes the gun to overload, but suffers life-threatening injuries.
Viper uses her ring to teleport herself and the Samurai away.
Wolverine forces Rogue to absorb his powers to save her life.

A week later, while at the Yashida's ancestral seat preparing for the wedding, Mariko is visited by Mastermind.
At the wedding reception, the X-Men are introduced to Cyclops' girlfriend, Madelyne Pryor.
Everyone is shocked by her similarity to Marvel Girl.
Lilandra was so surprised that she almost attacks Madelyne, but Professor X and Colossus stop her.

Storm arrives in her 1980's punk look, much to Kitty's apparent horror.


Right before the ceremony starts, Mariko calls off the wedding in front of everybody.
Wolverine asks Mariko why, and she tells him he is unworthy.

Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Paul Smith and Bob Wiacek.

[FUBAR007]

I've always hated Madelyne's original hairdo. It looked like she had a mop on her head.

Say want you want about the Goblin Queen, but the long, wavy red locks looked way better.

[TheSupernaut]

I think there's a lot of potential here with Maddie now that Jean is back. Imagine if she lead her own team of merry mutants. 🤔

[AbnormallyNormal]

I think there's a lot of potential here with Maddie now that Jean is back. Imagine if she lead her own team of merry mutants. ��

Preach it my friend

BRING. US. MADDY!

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Uncanny X-Men #174 Oct 1983
"Romances"
Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor rest on the Starjammer and watch an "earthrise".
In the cockpit, Corsair introduces Binary as a member of the Starjammers.
Corsair offers Cyclops to join the Starjammers. Cyclops hesitates. In the medical bay,
Lilandra helps Professor X in his leg physical therapy. She tells him that she is going
to need to go back to the Shi'ar Empire since her sister, Deathbird, has ascended the throne.
She asks Xavier to come with her and he says that he must stay with the X-Men and New Mutants.
Back on the bridge, Madelyne tells Cyclops not to refuse his father's offer to join the Starjammers on her account.

In Japan, Wolverine enters the main grounds of the Yashida Clan estate. He is looking for Mariko.
He asks her why she will not marry him and she explains that she cannot marry her father's murderer.
Wolverine returns the clan's "Honor Sword" she had given him.
The Silver Samurai boasts that he is Mariko's new heir.
Wolverine is then told to leave the house and Yashida land forever.

At the X-Mansion, Ariel interrupts Colossus from his painting and brings him to
the mansion's attic where Storm has removed all of her plants. There they embrace and kiss.
Storm interrupts them and explains that she has changed her room to match her new attitude.
Nightcrawler tends to Rogue's wounds and she asks about Madelyne Pryor taking Marvel Girl's "spot".
Nightcrawler explains the story of the Phoenix and Dark Phoenix to Rogue.
He goes to his room and finds a package from Amanda Sefton. It is a doll of a witch on
a broom with a note telling him she knows he would prefer the real thing instead of the doll.

Meanwhile, Cyclops and Madelyne are back on Earth and headed toward Anchorage.

Cyclops walks the fuselage and encounters a priest who found a photo on the floor of Marvel Girl.
Scott does not recognize the picture as his and stashes it.

The priest seems to be plotting something for Scott.
The couple enjoy themselves at Madelyne's house where they begin to celebrate their relationship.

They do not realize that Mastermind is hidden in the garage.
Inside, Scott asks Madelyne if she is a reincarnation of Marvel Girl or the Phoenix.
She punches him and disappears. Scott recovers and looks up to find the Dark Phoenix
walking through the doorway. She attacks him and then stands over his burning body.

Story by Chris Claremont. Art by Paul Smith and Bob Wiacek.

[JudicatorPrime]

Reading the issues when Madelyne was first introduced. Wow. I tell you, when Marvel has a mind to really screw over a character, they don't play around.

[wano]

So, who's up for Maddie x Mimic?

[Anodyne]

From the Scott Summers--Cyclops Appreciation 2018 thread:

At that point, they hadn't.

IIRC, going by what's been shown on-panel, the first time they met Jean would've been at her and Scott's wedding.

The "Madelyne-is-a-Jean-clone" retcon made sense of her relationship with Scott, but it also stripped her of agency. Her love for Scott was programmed into her, both by Sinister and the fragment of Jean's soul given to her by the Phoenix Force, so she never had a true choice. That made her into a tragic figure.

I sometimes think "Inferno" should've had an epilogue wherein Madelyne got a fresh start at life. Marvel could've revealed the Goblin Queen to be a demon that possessed her rather than Madelyne herself and that, after her apparent death fighting Jean, the Phoenix resurrected her elsewhere, free of its influence and free of Sinister's programming so she could finally choose her own path.

As an aside, I've also long thought that, after Jeph Loeb resurrected Madelyne in the 90s, she should've been the one to put an end to Sinister. His creation, his "daughter," delivering his final comeuppance.

At any rate, Scott and Madelyne never should've married. I get what Claremont was trying to do, but it was a bad idea. For the purposes of having Scott move on and become a civilian, CC should've had him marry Lee Forrester instead.

I suspect Logan had similar thoughts. Remember his words to Alex? "Our Madelyne had her troubles, sure, but that thing's a demon conjuring!" If only Marvel had done much of what you said.

Your post really belongs on Madelyne's thread. I'm going to copy it there, along with my reply.

[JudicatorPrime]

I think there's a lot of potential here with Maddie now that Jean is back. Imagine if she lead her own team of merry mutants. ��

Hmmm...this could interesting. Who would the other members of the team be, if you could design a group around her? And what would the team's color designation be with red, gold, black, etc., already taken?