Madelyne Pryor 2024: Appreciation, Aspirations and Cheers for Her

[seccruz]

I noticed that X-Men '97 seems to have changed Maddie's energy signature from blue to pink, probably to differentiate her from Jean. (Although it would have been cool if she kept the the green/purple she had as the Goblin Queen.) When she overcomes Sinister's influence and attacks him, it's pink. Afterward, it's blue when she telepathically speaks to Nathan before giving him to Bishop, but it's pink again in this latest episode when she has a psychic flash (in contrast to Jean's psychic flash being blue).

I liked that! Makes them different people despite it all.

[K7P5V]

Thirteen, it's those pages that made me sympathize with Maddie. Scott sure had a cruel streak back then. In X-Factor, when Scott finally showed Jean a picture of Maddie, Jean went, "she looks like me." And Scott responded, "She should've been you." Jean threw the picture away.

Scott was not at his best back then.

--jthree

X-Factor #8, to be precise...

[EmeraldGladiator]

Funny while the X-Men 97 of it all is trying to rehabilitate Scott's unforgiveable behavior back then he still comes off as pretty much a creep but not the unforgiveable one he was back in Uncanny Outback era. Forever Team Maddy because I know the true story (in the books not the cartoon). Jean was never to blame but Scott sure as heck was. It seemed to kind of clean up Maddy too in a way not attempting to sacrifice lil Nate as she was spiraling and about to burn down all of existence. Outback to Inferno is my all time favorite run of the iconic Claremont Uncanny run, there is no way to do it justice in 1.5 30 minute episodes. To do it right might take two full animated movies but I am glad to have Maddy getting some wider exposure to the masses. Now the X-office needs to wake up and assign Maddy and Alex to their next project, (fingers crossed that it is X-Factor).

[JThree]

Funny while the X-Men 97 of it all is trying to rehabilitate Scott's unforgiveable behavior back then he still comes off as pretty much a creep but not the unforgiveable one he was back in Uncanny Outback era. Forever Team Maddy because I know the true story (in the books not the cartoon). Jean was never to blame but Scott sure as heck was. It seemed to kind of clean up Maddy too in a way not attempting to sacrifice lil Nate as she was spiraling and about to burn down all of existence. Outback to Inferno is my all time favorite run of the iconic Claremont Uncanny run, there is no way to do it justice in 1.5 30 minute episodes. To do it right might take two full animated movies but I am glad to have Maddy getting some wider exposure to the masses. Now the X-office needs to wake up and assign Maddy and Alex to their next project, (fingers crossed that it is X-Factor).

Why Maddie & Alex? Could you explain why you want them together?

--jthree

[JThree]

IMHO, Ever since X-Factor 1, Scott Summers lost his moral focus, and ability to lead. Thought I was the only one who felt that way. Since "Fire Made Flesh," it's been nice to find out that I wasn't the only one to feel that way. But for those of you who have been reading the Scott/Jean saga for years and years and years, has Scott ever told his feelings to anyone about how he treated Maddie? And in what issues or storylines that happened in. I stopped reading X-Men after Inferno. I'm just amazed at how X Men 97 has re-energized this debate.

--jthree

[K7P5V]

Thank you Emerald Gladiator. I was joking, but I couldn't remember that story off hand. Now that I saw the panels, I remember it quite well. However I think Claremont wrote those pages before X-factor's portrayal of her in Inferno. Remember, before the X-Men and Maddie "died" and went off into the Australian outback, Maddie talked to Scott on the tv screen. Still thought that had more honest emotion than anything going on between Scott and Jean at the time.

--jthree

I remember that scene, UXM #227 (XD)

[Havok83]

That same scene from Scott's POV

[EmeraldGladiator]

Why Maddie & Alex? Could you explain why you want them together?

--jthree

TBH I wasn't much of a Maddy fan until, the Mutant Massacre Outback era. Maddy felt less like a background Candy Southern character and more like a character that got a raw deal. Husband abandons without a word and then attacked by the Marauders and her kids taken and she is left for dead. Maddy is getting a raw deal but doesn't give in but decides to fight back, well actually she is overwhelmed and thinks about ending it all but Alex sees her and literally talks her off the ledge. Initially she is all about finding her son, joins the X-Men who are on the run themselves. Claremont made Maddy's plight real for me and while the X-men took her in. As all this is happening Alex is a kindred spirit. Just as Maddy always suffers in comparison to Jean by Maddy's x-family. So to did Alex suffer always being related to Scott. Lorna stans hate when Lorna is referred to as Diet Jean. Well there are no more diet characters than Maddy, diet Jean and Alex, diet Scott. During the Outback Maddy had lost it all, at that time Alex was in a similar spot because he was led to believe that Lorna was forever lost to the Malice possession. Them falling for each other in that situation made perfect sense to me. Why Maddy wanted to burn down the world after the demon influence made sense to me as well. She was created to be a Jean stand in, the character she always chaffed at being compared to, so if all the world wants Jean and not Maddy, the screw the world. When Inferno happened and the Claremont Uncanny had to work with the Simonson X-Factor, Claremont had to deal with the X-Factor whitewashing of what Scott did which was unforgiveable and he used Alex to voice how crappy a husband/father Scott was. Since I was very pro Maddy at that time the fact that Alex was the only character that saw Maddy for Maddy without any comparison to Jean, I could see why Maddy would want that more than anything and that was when I became pro Alex and Maddy. Claremont made me pro Alex and Maddy. When they were just in-laws and Maddy was semi-giving up she was like if you (Alex) believe we can get out of the hopeless situation so will I. When Maddy is on the cliff about to commit suicide it's Alex who sees she is in distress and talks her down. When Alex is hurting over Lorna's possession Maddy notices moreso than the rest of the Outback team. When Maddy goes full Goblin Queen and they are confronted by the O5 team the rest of the X-Men are happy to have Jean back, Alex is the only one that even considers Maddy's side of things. Sure he goes Goblin Prince but he is the one unwilling to let Scott off the hook for his crappy behavior. Unlike some x-romances that come out of nowhere with no explanation, Scott staring at Psylocke/Kwannon. Alex and Maddy was a slow seduction, I saw how it started, how it grew and then she "died". Then in soap opera fashion when that great love returns chaos happens.

[marhawkman]

Why Maddie & Alex? Could you explain why you want them together?

--jthree

They did an alternate timeline version with that pairing.

[EmeraldGladiator]

That same scene from Scott's POV

Simonson's trying to get their lead character out of a bad situation, it didn't work. Scott didn't even investigate, in a way he seemed all to happy that fate/The Marauders had solved his problem for him. I read X-Factor back then and until Inferno was in the works Scott didn't show any signs of "nearly going mad" or even investigating the death of this wife and child. That page is just an example of the Simonson getting Scott's excuse in place for later (Inferno).

[MythicalChicken]

Why Maddie & Alex? Could you explain why you want them together?

--jthree

They are a wonderful foil for Scott and Jean, and honestly as horrible as that relationship historically has been for Alex I was sold hard on that relationship during the Outback run (not so much Mutant X though I appreciated the nod), especially from the time they rescued her in San Francisco all the way up to Fall of the Mutants. After that, the Goblin Queen plot kicked in.

[EmeraldGladiator]

Thirteen, it's those pages that made me sympathize with Maddie. Scott sure had a cruel streak back then. In X-Factor, when Scott finally showed Jean a picture of Maddie, Jean went, "she looks like me." And Scott responded, "She should've been you." Jean threw the picture away.

Scott was not at his best back then.

--jthree

For me the Alex Maddy thing was written better, in particular Maddy was written better than any other character in Uncanny or X-Factor at the time. I guess since Claremont knew she wouldn't survive Inferno he felt an obligation to flesh out Maddy's motivations and do right by her. Even when Maddy broke bad we knew exactly why she did. If Maddy would have survived and her and Alex went the villain or anti-hero route afterwards I would have been all for it. The being absorbed as an aspect of Jean was a bs placating move that was disrespectful to Maddy as her own person. It made me no more a fan of Jean in X-Factor in fact it made me resent her.

[Havok83]

Simonson's trying to get their lead character out of a bad situation, it didn't work. Scott didn't even investigate, in a way he seemed all to happy that fate/The Marauders had solved his problem for him. I read X-Factor back then and until Inferno was in the works Scott didn't show any signs of "nearly going mad" or even investigating the death of this wife and child. That page is just an example of the Simonson getting Scott's excuse in place for later (Inferno).

Id have to disagree. Scott was having alot of hallucinations around that time and was questioning whether what he saw was real or his mind playing tricks on him. When he went to Alaska to look for her, his house was cleaned out and there were no records of her existing or Nathan's birth. It took him finding a baby rattle hidden behind a radiator to convince him that htey were in fact real. The fact that he even had to think that showed that he wasn't all the way there in the head. He was depressed and then started lashing out at Jean thinking she was Phoenix. He went back for Warren's funeral which led pretty quickly into the Hodge reveal, fight with the Right and Fall of the Mutants. This probably happened all within the span of a week

IA that he could have done more to investigate but he thought they were dead. I dont recall what the story given was but he had no reason ot believe she was alive. I think a failure at the time was not telling the X-Men. Regardless of how he felt about Magneto as headmaster, you'd think he'd still inform the people that went to his wedding and supported her, that she was dead. Had he done that, so many things would have been different but X-Factor working relied on the two teams not communicating

[MythicalChicken]

It made me no more a fan of Jean in X-Factor in fact it made me resent her.

I took a lot of time a few weeks ago explaining this very thing.

[EmeraldGladiator]

Havok you might be right, i wasn't really reading X-Factor as closely as I was reading Uncanny. I remember paying close attention when Warren went Archangel but not paying attention to X-Factor until Inferno. There was a completely different kind of protrayal of Maddy in the two books however. Maddy wasn't protrayed sympathetically at all in X-Factor. While there was never any Jean bashing in Uncanny, and the only Scott bashing was from Maddy and Alex. Maddy didn't seem like the same character in the two books. True all the X-Men had the demon Inferno affect to them when the teams met up but they still behaved as they typically do. Uncanny Maddy was a tragic spiralling character, X-Factor Maddy was a child attempted murdering spiteful harpy.