It's a new year, and Madelyne Pryor deserves a new appreciation thread.
Why are so many deep insights about Maddie posted in other characters' appreciation threads?
I'd like to see Anodyne at one extreme and the Goblin Queen at the other, with Madelyne caught between them, struggling to overcome her demon-conjured persona and reclaim her Healer self.
Note: All future quotes in this post are from Madelyne's 2021 appreciation thread.
That characterization was created by Maddie's true enemy: Not Mr. Sinister, but Louise Simonson, who deliberately set out to drag Maddie through the mud. Would it really have ruined Scott and Jean's future happiness if the realization of her son's peril had jolted Maddie back to sanity, and she'd sacrificed her own life to save his? Of course not! But Ms. Simonson, by her own open admission, didn't like Madelyne and relished the opportunity to do a hatchet job on her. I'm still waiting for a writer to redress this injustice--and for an editor to allow this redress.
Yes, Claremont first introduced the Goblin Queen, but at least he made it clear that Madelyne was tricked into dealing with S'ym. "It's only a dream, right?" Her failure to recognize S'ym's true nature only shows that she didn't judge people by their appearance. After all. S'ym didn't look any more demonic than Nightcrawler.
It was the 80s, and divorce had become a huge social issue. The public dud the deal with it well, nor did the government. So poor Madelyne was turned into a baby killing which all because of Marvel not being able to conceive that Madelyne and Scott just could have had a divorce and worked out a co-parenting arrangement.