X-Corp #3: The Madrox Workflow

[superboyprime]

"I -only- love the X-Trash teams! I'll take old X-Factor. Madrox, Layla, Ric, Star, Siryn, Strong Guy. Monet is my Queen." - Tini Howard

Comments

[silverhammerman]

Oh hey, is that Vulcan? Had he turned up anywhere else since Hickman gave him a spotlight issue in X-Men that gave him a cool new gimmick that seemed connected to the larger myth arc of the X-line?

Deeply funny to see Monet's swaggering violation of other people's autonomy bite her in the ass.

Also, I know I already joked about the Madrox dupes needing to unionize, but the more I think about it the more I really don't like using the dupes like this. They're at best a lazy way to evade the actual question of what work looks like in a near-utopia, at worst it's wildly fucked up if you think at all about the implications of any of it. At least the Inhumans stories acknowledge how messed up the Alpha Primitives thing is!

[alliterator]

I mean, they are all copies of him and they all pretty much seem fine with being reabsorbed. He even tells them he's going to re-absorb them and he hates when they are destroyed because that's memory lost.

Now, there have been dupes who don't want to be reabsorbed, but they pretty much leave as soon as possible. I think there's a lawyer in San Francisco and a priest somewhere.

[nyadnar17]

I am deeply uncomfortable with the situation....and I think that's the point.

I mean I don't have a problem with Naruto having a billion expendable clones he tosses to their deaths every fight; I don't have an issue with AIs forking processes to get things done faster; I didn't have a problem with Dr. Manhattan; What's the difference here? Why does this make me uncomfortable when the other situations don't bother me at all?

I honestly couldn't say and I think that's really cool.

[laughing_tree]

I’d say it’s because the dupes are clearly subservient, in a way you don’t really see in other versions of the concept. Like, Madrox Prime is explicitly their boss, and they have to follow his orders.

[tinygaylaura]

I really don't see any difference between Madrox now and other characters with the same powers or with Madrox before. In fact if anything it's better because Madrox before this used to deliberately send his dupes into situations where he knew ahead of time there was a high risk they would very likely be killed while now the worst he's asking them to do is serve drinks and canapes at a party or working at a lab

[laughing_tree]

With most characters with similar powers, like Dr. Manhattan, it isn't so much duplication as one mind simultaneously puppeting multiple bodies. When there are two Dr. Manhattans, there isn't a prime one and a copy -- they're both the actual dude, one mind in two bodies.

But with Madrox, there is that distinction, which introduces a whole iffy power hierarchy. Like, what gives him the right to tell the dupes what to do when they have the same skills and knowledge as him? They're not mentally inferior to him in any way, so why does he get to order them around?

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Are they? From what I've seen here, they seemed largely unified in purpose to me.

[laughing_tree]

He's literally their boss. Look at that whiteboard, with his laboratory rules and schedule they have to follow.

I mean, the dupes have the exact same memories as him, at the moment of duplication -- they should have identical levels of skill and experience. When there's disagreement, why does he get to call the shots?

[mastermahan]

Tini Howard likes Monet? You could have fooled me. X-Corp's version of Monet flies into a rage at someone for wearing psychic shields. Next issue she's going to propose using blackmail and extortion.

Monet can be a great character, but this version is unbearable.

[tinygaylaura]

"Next issue she's going to propose using blackmail and extortion. "

No she just did it

And I loved her for doing it because it was a brilliant and clever way to put an end to a threat to mutantkind

It was also far FAR more merciful than what I would have done if I was in her position

[scorntx]

Why is it writers saying "omigosh, I love Character X!" in interviews fills me with a deep dread?
Oh, yes. Stuff like this.

Referring to X-Factor as a trash team (whatever that means, and that's a rabbit hole I'm no going down, thank you very much) is not in her favour either.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Those camera shots near the end of the last scan-- is Monet attacking her?

[tinygaylaura]

Monet is the kind of boss who I'd come to saying I'd do just anything for that raise

ANYTHING

wink wonk