X-Men and X-Factor alumnus Jamie Madrox, aka Multiple Man’s ability to create endless duplicates (dupes) of himself and reabsorb them has to be one of the most practical powers to apply to everyday life. The average person may not have much use for laser eyes or sticking to walls but everyone has wished they could be in two places at once at some point. A whole lot can get done when you can make as many copies of yourself as a situation calls for, and Multiple Man takes full advantage of that fact in X-Factor Volume 3. Unfortunately for him, some of those duplicates aren’t as willing to be reabsorbed as others.
When Multiple Man reabsorbs a duplicate of himself he also absorbs their memories as if they were his own, regardless of how long they’ve been separated. Knowing this, Madrox decides to send different dupes all over the world to gain various forms of expertise that he can later employ himself after reabsorbing them. As part of what he calls his “great odyssey of learning,” he sends a dupe to join S.H.I.E.L.D, he sends a dupe to master investigation, but to his shock, the dupe he sends to study religion joins the clergy and starts his own family.
In X-Factor #16, “No Dominion,” written by Peter David with art by Pablo Raimondi, Multiple Man enters a church after successfully reabsorbing his S.H.I.E.L.D. agent duplicate, and after listening to the sermon, plans on doing the same to the reverend. The duplicate Jamie Madrox has sent to learn about faith is now going by the name John Madrox, he has a wife and a son, so when the time comes to rejoin Jamie, he’s willing to kill Jamie to hold onto the life he’s made for himself. While Jamie attempts to appeal to John’s beliefs, telling him that he is a vital piece of their soul, he ultimately decides that letting John live independently is worth feeling incomplete.
Things get even more disturbing in the following issue when Madrox travels to Detroit to reabsorb the duplicate he sent to become an expert investigator. The dupe, jokingly claiming to be “the world’s greatest detective,” is an emotionally hollow alcoholic, the result of learning too many harsh truths about the world he has lived in. He warns Madrox that knowing the truth will ruin him, then he shoots a crooked police chief dead in broad daylight and commits suicide by cop. Madrox is understandably traumatized after essentially witnessing his own bloody demise, but not as traumatized as he may have been if he’d learned what drove that dupe to do what he did.
Jamie Madrox’s dupes are extensions of his personality. One may represent his sensitivity, another his libido, but the dupes he sends into the world to acquire new skills end up making those skills their entire identities for better and for worse. Having duplicates would be great for things like move-ins and conflicting schedules, but the longer you send a version of yourself on a separate path, the more they become a separate person. Multiple Man learns this the hard way when his “great odyssey of learning” ends with heavy life lessons for this key member of the X-Men and X-Factor.
Go to Source
Author: Nickolas Williams
