Monday, May 28, 2012

Mind control a la Asgard part 2: Double Trouble

As detailed in the first part, Loki had the Enchantress bring Storm and the New Mutants to Asgard. Storm was to be Loki's queen and Asgard's new thundergod. And the New Mutants? Well, they were expendable and would have died, if not for Illyana Rasputin's failed escape plan that separated and stranded the team across all the nine worlds.

Illyana was the only one left behind and remained in the Enchantress' clutches. Yet, despite the fact  Amora ordered her troops to go out and find the other New Mutants... they came up empty handed. That's when the Enchantress decided to get... creative.


Did I say 'creative'? Well, that and a good dollop of sadomasochistic lesbian dominatrix superhero cosplay thrown in for good measure. C'mon Amora, playtime's over... Hop to it.


Now we're getting somewhere...

Enchantress magically yanked out Magik's evil counterpart... The Darkchilde, a manifestation of all the corruption Illyana's soul suffered during her time in Belasco's Limbo. Dressing her up in Asgardian garb, Enchantress set 'Dark Illyana' out to find her friends... with the little sadistic twist of having the real Illyana feel all the pain her friends might inflict on her evil counterpart.

'Dark Illyana' had little trouble finding most of the New Mutants and she was equally swift in getting them to see her side of things...


"Encased in this suit of eldritch armor, thou art now as much the Enchantress' eager, dutiful slave... as I. Isn't that nice?"

Sunspot not only gets defeated, he's also mind controlled and pressed into service. The same thing happens to Wolfsbane by the way, who was already more than mesmerised by the passion she felt for her wolf prince. Doesn't matter, Illyana can add a double mind control whammy...


"That precious love... is now forever gone from thy life. Thy heart is forever found... to evil!"

"Rahne!" indeed.

She tried to get Cypher next, but Doug was able to escape because Warlock happened to show up at the exact same time. Together, they fled the scene and started looking for the others. The trail led them to the desert, where Karma had lost about all her excess pounds. As luck would have it, both Mirage, Cannonball and Magma showed up in the desert as well... Right on time for Dark Magik to pop in and try and complete her set...


On a non-mindcontrol related topic: just look at how clever Art Adams got while drawing Warlock. His finger actually yells 'scream', while an exclamation mark pops up in his mouth. Nice visual... But, lets get back to the fighting bits...It didn't exactly go well for the New Mutants...


Needless to say, 'Dark Illyana' seemingly manages to snatch them all away and returns them to the Enchantress' lair, much to Amora's delight. But her joy is shortlived...


"Surprise, fiend!"

Karma actually remembered she had the ability to control more than the desert lizards she had for lunch and possessed the fake Illyana and her henchmen. Reading 'Illyana's' memories, Karma learned all she had to know and took the team back to the Enchantress. While the others kept Amora busy, Karma tried to free the real Illyana.


After reuniting Illyana with her 'evil' part, the full New Mutants roster stood united against the Enchantress... and Karma made her move once more.


Illyana took care of Amora by teleporting her to Limbo and placing the Enchantress in the care of her pet demon S'ym. A major victory to be sure, but they were still stuck in Asgard with Storm firmly in Loki's clutches...


Enter... The X-men. The Norn queen Karnilla, an old rival of Loki's, had gotten wind of his plans to use Storm to ascend the Asgardian throne. So, she subtly informed the X-men of the New Mutants' plight in Asgard and also helped them reach the golden realm.


The wolf they saved turns out to the wolf prince that had been courting Rahne. He is desperate to find her, and his enhanced senses along with Wolverine's allow the X-men to look for their lost pupils.


Next time... Mind control a la Asgard part III: Coo-coo-cachoo, who controls who?



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