Origin
Mr. Sinister, sensing the potential of Jean Grey’s powers wanted to kill her parents and take her to his orphanage but his plans were stopped since Jean was already being treated by Charles Xavier, and he thought that approaching a powerful telepath would be too dangerous. Although, he was able to take a blood sample from her. With the blood sample Sinister took, he cloned Jean Grey, and Madelyne Pryor was born. When the clone reached puberty she didn’t manifest any mutant ability, so Sinister was disappointed.
When Jean Grey died on the moon, the Phoenix Force returned to Earth and entered Madelyne’s body since it was looking for Jean’s genetic material. Sinister, seeing that his creation was finally reaching the potential he always hoped for, gave her the name Madelyne Pryor and created a background for her that consisted of her being a pilot and the only survivor of a plane accident. Sinister also noted that she had some memories that belonged to Jean Grey.
Sinister was obsessed with the Summers lineage, so he placed her to work for Philip Summers at his airline, knowing that one day she would meet with Scott Summers and inevitably fall in love since she was identical to Jean, and she had some memories of her.
Creation
Madelyne first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #168 and was created by Chris Claremont. Infamously, some years before this issue there was a red-haired child in a hospital in Avengers Annual #10 (also by Claremont) that called herself “Maddy Pryor”. She told a doctor that she had been sick, but was all better now. It was long rumored that this was the actuall Madelyn Pryor in her childhood years. It has since been confirmed that the child was not Madelyne Pryor and Claremont just happened to like the name which is in fact a homage to a folk singer called Maddy Prior.
More recently, an alternate version of Madelyne Pryor arrived in the 616 universe, first seen in the pages of Secret Wars issue 2 and then the tie-in series Inferno. She has since been seen in the pages of All-New X-Men Vol.2 and X-Men: Blue.
Major Story Arcs
Meeting Scott and Marriage
One day, when Corsair returned from space, he took both of his sons to go see their grandparents in Alaska. Madelyne was sent to pick them up. Scott was shocked; she looked just like his deceased girlfriend. Since they were both naturally attracted to each other, they started a relationship. Scott noted some strange things occurring, like her knowing what his favorite breakfast was and more shockingly, that the day she had her plane accident was the very same day Jean Grey died.
Scott told her about Jean; she became insecure wondering if he was in love with her face or in love with the person she was. But when Scott told her that he was a mutant, she began trusting him. She was introduced to the rest of the X-Men when she went to Japan with Scott to attend Wolverine and Mariko‘s wedding. When Corsair was ready to leave for space with the Starjammers again, he asked Scott to join him as a space adventurer. Scott was thinking over it hard and asked Madelyne if she would accompany him if he left Earth. She said that he should not hold back on her account. Scott soon asked her to marry him and finally decided not to leave Earth.
Mastermind was following them because he wanted revenge on what the Phoenix had done to him. Using his illusions he made Scott doubt even further to the point that he asked Madelyne directly if she was Jean Grey reincarnated. This obviously made Maddie angry and sad. As she ran off, Scott followed her and Mastermind made him believe he was pushed back by a force blasted from the Dark Phoenix. The battle extended to the Xavier Institute, but the ploy was finally discovered by Cyclops, and Mastermind was defeated.
After Scott said some words to Jean’s grave, he and Madelyne finally got married at the Xavier State. At their honeymoon they were attacked by some beasts. Scott realized that it was time to retire and start a normal life and a family, since his life rhythm puts Maddie in danger. They moved to Anchorage, the place were they first met, and began working as pilots.
Anodyne
On one occasion they were transporting some scientists, when they were transported by Loki into a magical realm. The X-Men and Alpha Flight were also carried there along with many people that were believed to be lost who were living surprisingly happily. In this world, humans could gain powers from a magical fountain. Madelyne gained the power of healing, and began calling herself “Anodyne”. Her power was so immense that she was able to give Cyclops and Rogue control over their powers. She also made Puck a normal sized human again.
Professor X confirmed what she was already suspecting. Madelyne was pregnant with Scott’s baby. She knew it was a boy and this made Rachel angry, since she thought that she was never going to be born. It was revealed that Loki had planned all along that when a person used the powers they received, they would lose all individual creativity and imagination. Also, for the fountain to work, it drained its energy from other magical beings, like Snowbird who was close to death. When everyone realized what Loki’s true intentions were, they went against him. Loki was forced by Those Who Sit ABove In Shadow to restore everyone to their original state. Every person healed by Madelyne was also returned to their prior state.
Motherhood
When she was far along with her pregnancy, Moira MacTaggert called, she wanted Cyclops to go and look for Charles for a while, since he was ill. When she felt it was about time to give birth to their child, she wanted Cyclops to be present, and she went to the mansion at Westchester, but Cyclops wasn’t there. None of the X-Men or New Mutants were present at the time. They had just come back from Asgard, and were attending Magneto‘s trial in Paris. So she entered labor and gave birth all by herself.
When Scott came back, he didn’t show any emotion towards his newborn child. He was more worried about the future of the X-Men, since Professor X left for deep space with Lilandra, to save his life. Scott wanted to lead the X-Men, but Storm thought that he needed to be with his family and challenged him to a duel for leadership and won. Scott left the X-Men and returned with Maddie and the baby to Alaska. The little boy was named Nathan, a name mentally implanted by Sinister. Both were having communication problems, mainly on Scott’s account.
Scott received a call from Warren Worthington telling him that Jean Grey was alive. This shocking news made a tremendous impact on Scott, and he immediately left Maddie and the baby to see Jean for himself. He didn’t even tell his wife what happened. Maddie told him that if he left them, he shouldn’t bother to come back. While Scott was away he formed the original X-Factor, with the original X-Men as members.
At this time with Scott away, Sinister ordered the Marauders to kill Maddie and bring the baby to him. When she was on a job, the Marauders shot her several times, left her to die and took the baby. She didn’t die, however, as she was taken to a hospital, where she stayed in coma for months. Sinister also erased every trace that could show that Maddie ever existed. When she woke up, no one believed her story about a missing baby and a husband. Since no record on her was available, she didn’t know what to do, so they called the X-Men (Scott was still with X-Factor). The X-Men appeared and saved her from a second attack from the Marauders. Havok swore that he would protect her all the time she needs and will amend for his brother’s mistakes.
Joining the X-Men
When the X-Men were battling The Adversary, Forge needed the soul of nine people to defeat him, since there were only eight X-Men present, Maddie offered herself as the ninth person . Since the whole incident was being televised she addressed the camera and said goodbye to Scott and asked him to look for their missing baby.
The X-Men were brought back to life by Roma. They kept it a secret to use it as an advantage with their enemies. They moved to a secret base in Alaska. During this time, Maddie and her brother in law, Alex Summers began a sexual relationship, since both of them were lonely and felt like they could understand each other. During all this time with the X-Men, she served as the technical and mechanical support at the base. One day she was watching the news, and X-Factor appeared on them, Cyclops was giving an interview and at his side was Jean Grey. Angry as she finally understood why Scott left her, she smashed the screen and the explosion rendered her unconscious. Various ideas entered her mind, that Scott only married her for her resemblance to Jean, that he never really loved her. The demon S’ym invaded her dreams and offered her the chance to get revenge on Cyclops, she accepted it and the demonic magic entered her body.
A while later she was captured by the Magistrates and taken to Genosha. They got strange readings on her she presented some kind of power manifestation but wasn’t a mutant. When she was taken to the mutate bonding process, the whole room exploded and everyone in it died, except her. When she was questioned about it she didn’t remember what happened. She was later rescued by the X-Men. She continued her relationship with Havok and made another deal with a demon, this time N’astirh,. He promised to find her baby and to help her get revenge on all who hindered her relationship and life in general. N’astirh turned Madelyne subconsciously at first into the Goblin Queen.
Goblin Queen
She visited Jean Grey’s grave, where John and Elaine Grey found her, and thought she was their daughter. This made Maddie angry and she turned them into demons. She followed a clue N’astirh gave her about her son and went to the orphanage were Scott grew up, she found Sinister, who finally revealed that she was just a clone created by him to have a baby from the Summers lineage and that she already served her purpose. She was much more powerful than he had imagined and she managed to escape from him. N’astirh convinced her that she should sacrifice the little baby Nathan, that way he could ensure the demonic presence on Earth. She thought that this way she could get revenge on the people that had hurt her the most, Cyclops and Sinister. She turned back into her normal Madelyne Pryor appearance and convinced the X-Men that Cyclops and X-Factor were after her baby. Both of the teams began fighting. She managed to take Havok and turned him into her “Goblin Prince”.
At one point the X-Men and X-Factor decided that they should be working together on defeating the demons, they did and finally destroyed N’astirh. Illyana Rasputin AKA Magik, managed to get all the demons back to Limbo, only the Goblin Queen was left. She had incredible powers and posed a real serious threat. At one point she encased herself and Jean at an impenetrable telekinetic bubble. Her hatred for Jean made her take the decision to telepathically link the two of them, and kill herself, so Jean would feel all the pain and experience of her death. When she passed away the portion of the Phoenix Force that entered her body and all of her memories went to Jean. Jean who inherited Maddie’s memories also inherited her maternal feelings too, she and Scott were raising the baby. Until he was infected by the techno-organic virus by Apocalypse. Scott was forced to take the difficult decision of sending him with an unknown presence, that promised that the baby would survive. This was how Cable was born.
The Return of Maddie
When Nate Grey came to earth 616 from the Age of Apocalypse, he was looking for a helping hand, and found Madelyne’s spirit on the Astral Plane. Subconsciously, with his immense power he gave her psyche a new material form. She remembered nothing of her life, with the exception of her hatred of Sinister and the existence of a group called X-Men. Selene who was at the time the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club recognized her and took her to Paris.
Over the following weeks Selene managed to tempt Madelyne with more power than she could dream, making her a psy-vamp of sorts. Selene sent Maddie to defeat and capture Trevor Fitzroy, she did it. Selene presented her to Sebastian Shaw as the new Black Rook, he tested her, and she passed easily by defeating the Scribe of the London hellfire branch and in the process pulling out Mountjoy from her.
One night Tessa was trying to probe Maddie’s mind, Madelyne discovered her and defeated her. She also erased her mind to make her forget the incident. This little encounter made Maddie recover her memories. Accessing her full memories she parted from Hellfire Club, and went to look for X-Man, but he was with Jean Grey, they discovered how she came back to life, and thought that she was no more than a psionic ghost, but when X-Man tried to reverse the effect of his powers he discovered he couldn’t, that she was a whole independent entity now thanks to Selene enhancements. Maddie was angry and went to look comfort with Sebastian Shaw and they shared a night together. During a time she continued her relationship with Shaw, even dated in public sometimes. But when the Hellfire Club had a confrontation with Cable, she decided to help her son and gave him the location of Shaw. She then quits the Hellfire Club.
Later she went to look for X-Man again, she helped him in a battle and insisted that despite his feelings she would stay with him. Eventually he grow fond of her, when he experienced a lost of his abilities, she was there to help him. Their relationship was weird, they shared traits of friendship, love and family. Eventually she left him, after being defeated and buried alive by some enemies, this left her withered and drained and so she retreated to the Astral Plane where she spent her time recuperating.
She had a meeting with her son, Cable, on the Astral Plane. She told him everything about who he was and how he was born. She offered him to join forces and rule the world together, he obviously refused her. He then met with her and made peace with his mother.
She was seen again seen with X-Man, she was apparently killed and placed at the astral plane. She remained as a ghost there. When Apocalypse gathered the twelve, Cyclops and Cable were among them. Cable who believed he was about to die, asked to be reunited for the first time with his father and mother. Maddie granted his wish and they reunited at the Astral Plane, she offered them to stay like that forever, but the felt that even if they were going to lose, they must fight Apocalypse. They asked for her help, but she told them that in her current state she was unable to help.
Red Queen and Sisterhood of Mutants
She remained trapped in the astral plane for a very long time, when she noticed that she was not as helpless as she thought, she still had access to the demonic powers she had as the Goblin Queen, so she manifested herself on the real world again, this time she went by the alias of “Red Queen”. As the Red Queen, she started a sadomasochistic relation with Empath, she wanted to learn everything on Cyclop’s current partner, Emma Frost. She even psionically impersonated Emma Frost and had sex with Cyclops, without him noticing the difference.
She managed to make Empath have a place among the X-Men in the mansion, so he could spy on them for her and even control them with his powers. She then assembled a team she called the Sisterhood of Mutants, it consisted of: Spiral, Lady Deathstrike, Lady Mastermind, Martinique Jason and Chimera. She promised several things for them. Her main intention was to look for a body that could sustain a powerful mind as hers, so she could finally fully return.
She needed to test the process, so she sent some of the members of the Sisterhood to capture Psylocke, and others to take Revanche body from the graveyard. Spiral reconstructed Revanche’s body as most as she could. Using the magical spell, she infused the body with the psi-force of Psylocke. She sent her Sisterhood to fight with the X-Men, while she tried to complete her plan, that was to put her mind into Jean Grey’s body. She thought she succeeded but at the last moment the X-Men switched the body of Jean Grey, with a decoy. This left Madelyne trapped in the body until it burnt out and was released into the astral plane.
Hellions
Madelyne returns in her original body some time after the formation of the mutant state of Krakoa, this time taking shelter in Mr. Sinister’s abandoned State Home for Foundlings. The newly formed Hellions encounter here there on their mission to destroy the facility, and are attacked by the Marauders, whom Madelyne has resurrected and controlled with her magic.
Angered at being excluded from Krakoa and treated yet again as merely the shade of a real person, Madelyne holds Havok captive and plans a ritual to summon an army of demons to invade and destroy Krakoa, so that when mutant history is written, no one will ever again deny that she existed. However, Madelyne is shot by Scalphunter before the ceremony can be completed, forcing the demons back to their dimension and leaving her to die in Havok’s arms. She tearfully begs Havok to remember that she existed, and says all she wanted for was people to know that she was “a real girl”.
Havok and Cyclops later request that Madelyne be resurrected by the Five, but after debating the issue, the Quiet Council decides against resurrecting Madelyne, as she was a clone of Jean and they do not want two of the same person on Krakoa at the same time. Havok angrily insists that Madelyne was a real person who mattered, but Cyclops explains that there is nothing more that could be done for her.
Powers & Abilities
As a clone of Jean Grey, Madelyne Pryor also possessed mutant abilities of telekinesis and telepathy. These powers remained latent while she was believed to be a baseline human, but later manifested in ways that Jean’s never had. As the Goblin Queen, her mutant powers were exponentially enhanced by demonic eldritch magic to the point where she could warp reality within a localized area. The black magic awakened and shaped her latent powers to tap into her small portion of the Phoenix Force and manifest telepathy, telekinesis, and transmutation powers that draw forth the physical and mental evils of others.
After her apparent resurrection by Nate Grey, Madelyne returned as sentient echo of psionic energy that could tap vast psionic energies funneled through Nate Grey, enabling her to utilize powers of telepathy, psychokinesis, and teleportation. Madelyne’s telepathy was reduced to a lower level, limiting her to reading minds, broadcasting her thoughts, creating illusions, changing or erasing memories, and defending herself against other telepaths. During her time with Nate Grey she is seduced by the power offered to her by Selene Gallio, essentially Selene makes her into a psychic vampire also, but unlike Selene who feeds off life energy Madelyne’s power is psionically based so she fed on psychic energy and even perhaps the astral plane itself (as we see her in last appearance in which she helps Nate out for the last time her appearance is old, drained and withered similar to that of Selene). This allowed her telekenesis to strengthen she would be able to lift and manipulate large objects, levitate, hit people with enhanced Psi bolts, Selene’s intervention also allowed her to teleport as her mistress could but Madelyne’s teleport was connected to the astral plane and eventually this ability became powerful enough to start taking other people with her. Another ability gained from this power enhancement is that of augmenting her physical strength and agility to superhuman levels making her a force to reckon with in hand to hand combat.
As Anodyne, Madelyne possessed the ability to wield Asgardian magic that manifested as eldritch flames with the power to heal and cure. Among her beneficial actions were fixing the childhood brain injury that prevented Cyclops from controlling his optic blasts, curing Puck of his mystically induced dwarfism, unifying Aurora‘s multiple personalities, and giving Rogue the ability to control her mutant power. When transformed into Anodyne, Madelyne also took on the stature of an Asgardian, possibly also gaining the hardier physiology and strength of that race.
As her newly resurrected status as the Red Queen of the Hellfire Club, and also the leader of a sub-group know as the Sisterhood of Mutants, the earlier mentioned abilities are still present, but at a much larger scale it seems her regeneration period had also enhanced her telepathy, but she was also returned with mystical abilities that one can only label as magic or sorcery, this may be as a result again with her power enhancement due to Selene’s psychic vampirism. Also, it has been revealed that the Red Queen is still not corporeal, which has motivated most of her plans and actions. Moreover, she mentions that her previous host had been destroyed and that there were only two beings in existence that could house her disembodied form, her original clone body and Jean Grey’s body. Her powers are massive and appear to be a coalescence of her past psionic and mystical abilities. In her most recent appearances, she has resurrected Psylocke’s original body, transferred Psylocke’s essence into that body, created a new persona from Psylocke’s mind, mentally controlled Empath and enhanced his abilities, channeled the combined abilities of her Sisterhood, and telekinetically atomized a gun.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5’6″(6’7″ as Anodyne)
Weight: 110 lbs.(230 lbs as Anodyne)
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red
Alternate Versions
Earth-1298 Mutant X
In the alternate reality known as the Mutant X universe, young Scott Summers was abducted into space along with his father Christopher and mother Kate, leaving his brother Alex to become one of the founders of the X-Men as Havok. As in the main Marvel universe, Jean Grey died and was replaced by her clone, Madelyne Pryor. But this reality’s Madelyne fell in love with Alex and had a son, named Scotty, with him.
She also made a deal with S’ym and N’astirh and initiated the “Inferno Crisis”, unlocking her latent mental abilities. As “Marvel Woman”, Madelyne survived the crisis and left with her husband when he formed the splinter group called ” The Six”. Her evil side resurfaced a number of times, first as the “Goblyn Queen” and later as the “Goblyn Force”. When it returned a second time, it merged with the Beyonder to form a nigh-omnipotent being. Havok supposedly saved Madelyne by placing the “Nexus of Realities” in her body, purging her of the malevolent Goblyn Force and reuniting her with her son Scotty, before Havok returned once more to the void.
Earth-91240 Secret Wars – Inferno
An alternate version of Madelyne has appeared after the incursion event in reality 616 in which the multiverse ceased to excist. In this new reality, a patchwork planet was made, which consisted of this Madelyne’s reality, among others. In this reality, Madelyne is also the Goblin Queen and managed to overtake a large part of New York City with the help of her demons, but was fought to a standstill. As such, for many years, a large portion of New York City was part of the Inferno-demon-infested reality, but the combined forces of the X-men and X-Factor managed to keep it at bay. Eventually however, an alliance with Mister Sinsiter made it so that Madelyne could overtake more of the city. She captured and changed her reality’s Nightcrawler into her own pet-demon. When the prime reality was restored, all the other realities vanished, including the Inferno reality. Madelyne however managed to enter the 616 reality thanks to a time-displaced X-Man, Beast. She persuided the Beast to let her into their reality so that she could help him in the teachings of Magic. Once she entered the 616 universe, Beast soon found out that she was trying to destroy this reality as she had done with her own. The young time-displaced X-Men managed to defeat her, but she has been an advisory to the time-displaced original X-Men on a number of ocassions.
Earth-2301 Marvel Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse title Legacy of Fire, Madelyne Pryor was reinvented as Madelyne Pyre, a powerful sorceress and possessor of the Phoenix Sword, who was training her sister Jena to be her successor.
X-Men: The End
Madelyne Pryor appears in an important role late in X-Men: The End, Chris Claremont’s limited series about a “possible future”. In the story, Madelyne – through circumstances left unexplained – makes a surprise return, implied as being the first time since Inferno, with no references to Nate Grey whatsoever (although she and Cable are later shown to be already familiar). Mysteriously joined with the X-Men’s alien enemies, the Skrulls and the Shi’ar, Madelyne affected a disguise to infiltrate the X-Men, planting herself near Cyclops for the rest of the series. No longer insane, but still seeking revenge against her former husband, Madelyne nonetheless hesitated and instead took to protecting him, after eavesdropping on him expressing remorse for everything that happened to her, and even implying that he genuinely loved her. Cyclops later admitted to having recognized her at some point, and an understanding and peace was finally reached between them, for the sake of aiding their son Cable in battle. When Cable’s effort leaves him dying, a grief-stricken Madelyne is accepted back with the X-Men again.
After Cyclops and Jean Grey are also killed, Madelyne cryptically reveals that, since the very beginning, she was always Madelyne Pryor – the essence of Jean that loved Scott with all her heart. That’s why it never worked afterward between Scott and Jean. Madelyne was the part that was willing to die for him – the part that made them whole. She says that she and Jean were never meant to be apart. But they were both to scared, too stubborn to be the one to yield. While she was speaking she began to turn into energy, into life. She merged her essence with Scott and Jean, resurrecting them. Her final words said about Jean and herself, “We thought only of what they had to lose…” we finished by Jean, “…Never of what could be gained,” once her energy was almost fully transferred. Madelyne sacrificed herself to repair all that had been lost – the lives of the X-Men and the relationship between Scott and Jean. Jean says, “Everything that went wrong about us (Jean & Scott) came from that fear. Until Now. I love you Scott. And You love Me. That’s all I needed to know.” Jean is able to use her power to its fullest again, which allows her and all the dead X-Men to merge with the Phoenix. Madelyne/Jean/Phoenix, along with several other X-Men, then recreated the âTree of Lifeâ from the Quabala and presumably transcended this plane of existence. In the story’s final panel, Madelyne’s image is present next to Cyclops’ among the X-Men who died heroically.
Earth 998
On Earth 998, at the end of the 19th century, Madelyne Pryor was a great warrior Queen, who ruled the British Empire and through it most of the world. When she died of old age, she vowed to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and return.
Earth-89112
In one alternate reality (Earth-89112), Madelyne Pryor and S’ym were successful in opening a portal between Limbo and Earth (having killed baby Nathan Christopher) and demons overran the planet. The X-Men and X-Factor were dead (with the exception of a possessed Wolverine), and the only resistance left was led by Doctor Strange, who attempted to summon the Phoenix Force through Rachel Summers, the reality-hopping daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. Madelyne however was successful in quelling the resistance and wresting control of the Phoenix Force from Rachel, but was ultimately betrayed and killed by S’ym, using Wolverine’s reanimated adamantium skeleton. Rachel, reassuming the mantle of the Phoenix, used the Force to cleanse the planet of the demon plague.
What if (2nd series) #74
Another reality saw Madelyne Pryor as a member of an “X-Men” team formed by Mr. Sinister alongside Cyclops (Scott Summers), Havok (Alex Summers) and Sabretooth. However this version of Madelyne had never been awakened by the Phoenix Force, so was simply a mindless shell inhabited by the psychic entity Malice. Scott noticed his physical attraction to Madelyne, but could not respond to her advances; when he encountered Professor Xavier’s X-Men and their leader Jean Grey, however, much deeper emotions were stirred. Sinister called for their deaths, and under his orders Cyclops and Havok infiltrated Xavierâs X-Men as double agents.
Earth-9250
On Earth-9250, most mutants in the city of Manhattan are vampires ruled by Wolverine. Madelyne wasn’t infected, but became the Goblyn Queen and planned on releasing a demon army to wipe out the vampire mutants and dominate the world. Madelyne made contact with the lord of the Dark Dimension, Dormammu, who became her ally. However, the vampiric Marvel Girl (Jean Grey) bonded with the Phoenix Force, became Dark Phoenix, and killed Madelyne and Dormammu.
Other Media
Games
X-men: Battle of The Atom
Madelyne is featured in the mobile card game “X-Men: Battle of the Atom” based on the comic book story with the same name. Her cards are:
- [Hellfire Club] Madelyne Pryor
- [Goblyn Queen] Madelyne Pryor
- [Phoenix] Madelyne Pryor
She is also a boss in the Hellfire missions.