Category Archives: Multiple Man

Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 8/8/20

I’ve had something of a crap week. Had a foible at work. The Fall Guys servers are failing left and right. The final episode of A Crown of Candy on Dimension 20 was merely fine. At least there’s some good comics to be had, like Far Sector, Strange Adventures and…

Empyre: X-Men #2 wins Comic Book of the Week, and not just because it features Multiple Man. I really am enjoying this helter skelter comic as it takes full advantage of everything Dawn of X has to offer.

More X-Men comics need Angel

Meanwhile, I can’t bring myself to keep reading the main Empyre series, so I’ve dropped it. Maybe I’ll read it and just not review it? I don’t know and I don’t care. In better news, I watched the first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks and it was hilarious! That will be a fun new show to have. Umbrella Academy season two was great! Such a fun show. And I’ve started reading an honest to god book again! Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis. Fun so far!

Comic Reviews: Batman #96, Empyre: X-Men #2, Far Sector #7 and Strange Adventures #4.

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My Ongoing Investigation to Determine the Truth of Multiple Man on Krakoa

A man needs a mission. What else do we have in this life but the urge to accomplish a goal? Why even keep this blog going after all these years considering it never became the biggest, most interesting blog in the world? I guess I just like having stuff to do. There’s my Strong Guy Watch, chronicling every random, minor appearance of Strong Guy. And now I’m going to dub this my Multiple Man Mystery!

Multiple Man is alive and well on Krakoa…but is he the real Multiple Man? New evidence arrived this week in Empyre: X-Men #1, the tie-in to Empyre. For the first time in Dawn of X, Multiple Man has speaking lines.

Madrox and Monet actually have a complex history

He’s also wearing his modern costume, which is mostly just a jacket over a stylized T-shirt. I really like the modern costume.

So in this issue, Multiple Man joins up with Angel, Monet and Magik to investigate one of the gateways on Genosha, with the lot of them getting wrapped up in the whole Empyre thing. Multiple Man is mostly used to help clean up the gateway.

He’s helping!

And that’s it so far! We’ll find out more as the story continues.

But here’s the big deal: not too long ago, Multiple Man was killed off. He was eventually replaced by one of this dupes, who had reduced powers and just wasn’t the same guy. This duplicate starred in an actual Multiple Man-titled comic book mini-series, the only comic to ever bear that name, so it felt like a big deal.

When all the mutants were resurrected on Krakoa as part of Dawn of X, Multiple Man came with them…but which Multiple Man? Did they resurrect the original? Or did they resurrect the replacement? I’d like to think it was the original, but considering the weird retcons and continuity flubs inherent in the replacement storyline, I wouldn’t put it past the current X-Office to just not care to get Multiple Man right.

Hence this new Multiple Man Mystery segment! I will track every appearance the character makes on Krakoa to hopefully determine, once and for all, whether or not this is the original Multiple Man back among the living. It’s important to me.

Also, he’s worn a different outfit in every appearance so far. That part is kinda weird…to the point that it’s gotta be intentional, right?

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Strong Guy Watch: Everybody’s Partying!

When it comes to comic books, one of my favorite things to do is watch for cameos from my favorite obscure characters. It’s one of the ways I built up my fandom in the 90s: searching out back issues where my favorite characters randomly showed up and had a line or two.

This is the entire basis behind my ongoing Strong Guy Watch series. I’m a big fan of the Strong Guy character, and for the past several years, he’s been making random cameos here and there. It’s fun to keep an eye out for the big lug.

Strong Guy Crucible 01

Here he is at the recent Crucible

With Dawn of X bringing back every single mutant character who ever lived, the Watch has quadrupled to include every favorite mutant I’ve ever had! Multiple Man, Maggott, Stacy X, Abyss, Blob, Mimic and so many more! None of them are starring characters in any of the Dawn of X comics, so I’ve got to stay eagle-eyed for when any of them might pop up at any time!

This week’s X-Force #9 features the best yet showcase of a bunch of my favorite characters! Everybody’s hanging out at The Green Lagoon!

Green Lagoon 01

Click to enlarge

Obviously we’ve got Strong Guy, who seems to be macking with Selene at the top middle of the picture. We’ve also got a couple Multiple Men hanging out on the bottom. He’s still wearing his classic costume, so the ongoing debate of a new Multiple Man costume remains ongoing. Writer Benjamin Percy continues to be the only Dawn of X creator to use Multiple Man, even if it’s only for quick, wordless cameos. Also, of note: this is the first comic book panel in literal years that features Multiple Man, Strong Guy and Wolfsbane…even though none of them are hanging out together.

This image is also the first reveal of what Blob is doing in Dawn of X: bartending!

I’ve been eagerly anticipating the Blob since his star turn in Age of X-Man last year. Bartending is a fairly good use of the character and I hope to see him get some attention soon.

We’ve also got Maggott canoodling with M at the bar, so that’s neat! And the rest of the scene in the actual comic features quick appearances from Avalanche and Toad!

I love panels like this in Dawn of X. This is a smorgasbord of mutant cameos in a way we’ve never seen in comics before! I hope they keep it up every now and then.

Still no sign of Mimic…

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I think Multiple Man Has a Freaky New Costume

Multiple Man is my all-time favorite comic book character. After a rough couple of years, during which he was unceremoniously killed and replaced by a poorly written duplicate, I’m fairly certain that he’s back among the living on Krakoa with all of the other mutants. Several months in, Jamie Madrox hasn’t actually appeared in any active scenes or had any dialogue in Dawn of X, but we have had at least one flashback appearance…during which a couple dupes were horribly murdered.

I think Multiple Man has made another appearance in the new Wolverine #1…but I don’t have any confirmation other than this dude just looks like Multiple Man…if Multiple Man was given a freaky new costume.

Madrox New Costume Freaky 01

Really? Those eyes?

This character isn’t named and doesn’t speak. He just appears in this single panel.

But here are my clues:

1.) This looks like a Multiple Man costume. It’s new and freaky, to be sure, but dark blue body suit with yellow lines and dotes and a full-head covering are signature to a classic Madrox costume.

2.) There are others. In this scene, this character is looking over some of the Krakoan flowers. And the camera does show other figures doing the same thing…but the camera is too far away to see any details. So either a bunch of different people in dark outfits are looking over flowers, or they’re all the same guy in this costume.

3.) The writer is the same. Benjamin Percy wrote Wolverine #1, and he also wrote X-Force #4, which is the issue where the Madrox dupe was killed that I linked to above. So if Percy used Madrox in X-Force, it stands to reason he might throw in another Madrox cameo in Wolverine.

4.) He’s using a clipboard. The freaky new costume guy is using a clipboard while looking over the flowers. The Multiple Man cameo in X-Force #4 was also using a clipboard to look over stock. Can it then be extrapolated that Benjamin Percy has given Multiple Man the job of looking over Krakoa inventory? I wouldn’t put it past him!

Look, I’m just a guy who likes Multiple Man and wants to see him with a proper appearance in Dawn of X. And if it takes a freaky new costume to make that happen, so be it! I kinda like the costume.

Though it could use a trench coat

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Multiple Man is on Krakoa…and is Instantly Killed!

Welp, I finally got my Madrox sighting in Dawn of X! Jamie Madrox the Multiple Man, my favorite character in all of comics, has made his first appearance as part of the big X-Men relaunch in X-Force #4.

Where he’s promptly killed. And is shown to be wearing his dumb original costume.

Madrox Killed DoX 01

Marvel just loves twisting the knife!

Thankfully, that’s just a duplicate. There’s dialogue in the rest of the issue stating that Jamie Prime is still alive. We don’t get to see him, but I’ll take what I can get. Multiple Man is back!

But seriously, what’s with the old costume? When Multiple Man was leader of X-Factor, with Peter David writing, that comic ran for 100+ issues! When was the last time an X-Men comic ran consistently with the same creator for that long? PAD made that comic work, and Multiple Man is a hugely popular character!

Why the hell would you ignore the past decade of Jamie Madrox character development by putting him back in that old costume? And why keep killing him?!

I’m just not allowed to have nice things. Though this issue also mentions Shortpack, another favorite obscure mutant of mine who didn’t make my list, but is fun to see regardless!

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