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Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4
February, 1975
Len Wein - Writer/Editor |
Plot Synopsis:
"MADROX The Multiple Man!"
On his way to a football game, the Thing runs into the mysterious Madrox, who is blocking his train and seems thoroughly confused. Already struggling with his temper this day, Thing is quick to attack Madrox, and soon discovers that Madrox possesses amazing strength, as well as the ability to duplicate himself.
Thing is knocked out and recovered by the Fantastic Four, when they discover that Madrox is somehow draining power directly from New York's power grid system.
Meanwhile, Madrox walks aimlessly through the darkened city, as his past is revealed. In it, his father worked at the Los Alamos Nuclear Research Facility, which apparently caused a mutation in his son, James Arthur Madrox. His father then quit his job, isolated the family away from others, and constructed a suit that Madrox had to wear all the time in order to contain his powers. Before his father could explain any of this to him, his parents were killed in a Tornado when Madrox was fifteen, leaving him to live in isolation for another six years, until a freak electrical surge destroyed his house, leaving him to wander aimlessly and eventually appear in New York.
It isn't long before Madrox finds his way back to the Fantastic Four, and another battle ensues. Madrox, enraged by the unprovoked attacks, has duplicated himself several times, and each clone is aiming to kill.
Professor Xavier of the X-Men arrives just then, quickly explaining the rest of Madrox's history, including the fact that Madrox's mutant ability is to duplicate himself, that the suit was designed to prevent this, and that Xavier was the one who advised Madrox's father to move to isolation and, presumably, on how to build the suit. Xavier then realizes that Madrox's strength, his drain on the power grid, and his ability to duplicate are being caused by a mechanical failure on his suit, which is draining power and somehow converting it into raw strength instead of preventing duplication.
Xavier then snuffs out the minds of the duplicates, while Reed Richards quickly repairs the suit while restraining Madrox. Madrox then passes out, while Xavier decides to take him into his custody.
TCXR Review:
This is presumably the first writing/plotting collaberation between Len Wein and Chris Claremont. Wein will go on to restart the X-Men series with Giant-Size #1, co -write the next few X-Men issues with Claremont, and eventually give the book over to him. Their different styles are evident in this issue, suggesting that Wein plotted and wrote dialogue (in his usual highly imaginative, but somewhat far-fetched, way), while Claremont wrote the narration (which is dramatic, charming, and complex).
The story, itself, introduces Jamie Madrox, an intriguing character who will become a second-string X-Men for many years after this, before finally landing a role in the X-Men foreground. This issue first reveals his origin (tied to nuclear radiation, as was often the case in Marvel Comics from the '60s and '70s) as well as the purpose for his suit, though the issue tells us very little about his personality.
As is typical for a Wein plot, minor details go unexplained, like why Xavier advised Madrox's father to go live in seclusion for the rest of his son's life rather than accept Madrox into his school for mutants (especially since Madrox is approximately the same age as the rest of the original team), how Madrox "wandered" from Kansas to New York (he would have shorted out any vehicle), how a suit designed to suppress duplication could malfunction to start draining power grids and give the person wearing it super powers, or why Madrox was attracted to the Fantastic Four building like "a moth to a flame" (maybe Xavier had something to do with the last one). Similarly, Xavier's willingness to kill Jamie's duplicates, despite the fact that they're all said to have their own minds in this issue, seems troubling, though it obviously wasn't intended to be taken that way.
Though Xavier supposedly takes Madrox into his custody, we won't see him in the next X-Men issue (Giant-Size X-Men #1), which is only three months away, nor will Madrox appear for many, many issues after. In fact, we won't discover what actually happened to Madrox until X-Men #104, which is still two years away.
As a side note, the purpose of Madrox's suit is to suppress his duplicating ability, at this point. In later X-Men issues, we'll see him use his duplicating abilities with his suit on, suggesting that the suit's purpose has changed, and is now used to keep his ability under control. It's also worth noting that Madrox is one of the few mutants who has manifested his/her ability from birth, rather than developing it at or around the onset of puberty.
Pages 30-53 reprint Fantastic Four #28 (the fist time the Fantastic Four met the X-Men).
Key Character Developments
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Madrox: xmadrox |
1st appearance. Name given as James Arthur Madrox. Can create multiple copies of himself, each with their own mind. Must wear special suit to control abilities. Origin revealed. Taken into Professor Xavier's custody. |