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Name: Madelyne 'Maddie' Jennifer Pryor
Codename: Black Queen
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 110 lbs.
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Powers: Maddie can utilize a powerful telekinetic ability to generate and
manipulate energy, letting her fly, make concussive blasts of force, and
create force fields. She also has a minor telepathic ability allowing her
to communicate telepathically with anyone in a 5-mile radius of her and
read the surface thoughts of anyone in that same radius.
History: At some point the genetic engineer known as Mister Sinister
obtained a cell sample from Jean Grey, now known as Phoenix, of the X-Men.
Through advanced scientific means Sinister caused the clone to grow into
an adult double of Grey far more quickly than a normal human being would
reach adulthood.
The real Jean Grey was cast into suspended animation by the cosmic entity
known as the Phoenix Force. The Phoenix Force took on a portion of Jean
Grey's consciousness and created for itself a duplicate of Grey's body. In
this form the Phoenix Force impersonated Jean Grey within the X-Men,
calling herself Phoenix. Eventually, through the psionic manipulations of
the original mutant called Mastermind, the Phoenix became the insane Dark
Phoenix. Repulsed by the havoc Dark Phoenix was wreaking, the portion of
Jean Grey's personality within her caused Dark Phoenix to kill her own
mortal body.
When that form perished, the Phoenix Force sent its portion of Grey's
personality back to Earth, keyed to return to a body with Grey's genetic
code. This portion of Grey's consciousness made contact with Grey's
original body, which still slept in suspended animation. Appalled after
receiving the memories of the destruction wreaked by Dark Phoenix, the
original Jean Grey rejected this portion of her consciousness. The latter
portion then infused itself into the body of the clone of Grey that
Sinister had created, giving the clone consciousness for the first time.
Sinister programmed the clone with a set of false memories. He named her "Madelyne
Pryor" and programmed her to meet and fall in love with Scott Summers, who
was Cyclops, another member of the X-Men. Sinister's plan was that Pryor
would bear Scott Summers a child who would possess the superhuman genetic
potential of both Jean Grey and Scott Summers. Sinister would then take
the child under his own control.
Sinister sent Pryor to Alaska and placed her in a job as a pilot for North
Star Airways, the air freight company run by Scott Summers' grandparents,
Philip and Deborah Summers. It was in Alaska that Scott Summers first met
Pryor. He was immediately struck by her exact resemblance to Jean Grey,
whom he believed to be dead. However, after becoming convinced that Pryor
was not Jean Grey, Summers married her. Months later she gave birth to
their son, Nathan Christopher Summers.
Shortly after the infant was born, Cyclops and his fellow X-Man Storm held
a competition to determine which of them would be leader of the X-Men. As
yet, Pryor was unaware of her own superhuman powers. However, she did not
want Scott to divide his time between her and the X-Men, so she
unconsciously used her own awakening powers to influence the contest. As a
result, Scott lost, and he went to live with Madelyne and the baby in
Anchorage, Alaska.
Strains grew between Scott and Madelyne, whose fears that Scott loved Jean
Grey, not her, continued to mount. Then Jean Grey's original body emerged
from suspended animation at long last. Learning that Jean was still alive,
Scott went to meet her in New York, even though Madelyne had warned him
that if he left, their marriage was over. Scott remained in New York,
where he, Jean, and three other members of the original X-Men formed a new
organization, X-Factor.
Learning that the original Jean Grey was still alive, Sinister decided to
eliminate Pryor, lest the truth about her origin be exposed. When Pryor
was in San Francisco with her son on business, Sinister sent his team of
assassins, the Marauders, to kill Pryor and capture her son. Pryor used
her emerging powers to defend herself, although she lost the infant. The
X-Men found Pryor, and she decided to remain with them. Sinister placed
the baby in an orphanage he controlled.
Later, Pryor began experiencing dreams sent to her by the demons N'astirh
and S'ym, that played upon her deep insecurities and tempted her with
offers of power. The dreams further awakened Pryor's latent powers and
strengthened the darker side of her personality.
Pryor was abducted to the nation of Genosha. During her captivity the
vengeful side of Pryor's personality grew much stronger, and her latent
powers continued to emerge.
Finally, Pryor's superhuman powers fully emerged and she took on the
identity of the Goblin Queen. But although both N'astirh and Mister
Sinister attempted to make her his pawn, neither proved to be able to
control her. N'astirh launched an invasion of Manhattan by the demons of
the limbo-like dimension Otherplace. However, N'astirh was defeated and
the demonic invasion was turned back.
But Pryor, now apparently insane, had recovered her son and planned to
sacrifice him atop the Empire State Building in an occult ritual that
would permanently link Earth and Otherplace. By killing the baby she would
also take revenge on Scott Summers. The members of the X-Men and X-Factor
battled Pryor, and Jean Grey waged a one-on-one battle of psionic powers
against her far more powerful opponent. Finally, Pryor unleashed a massive
amount of psionic force in order to destroy both herself and her opponents.
However, the X-Men and X-Factor succeeded in shielding themselves and the
baby from the effects of the blast.
Dying, Pryor linked her mind to Grey's, intending to drag Jean down into
death with her. Pryor then died, but Grey survived, taking back into
herself the portion of her personality that the Phoenix Force had taken
from her and then bestowed upon Madelyne.
Scott Summers and Jean Grey together raised Scott and Madelyne's son,
Nathan, until they were forced to send him into the future to save his
life from a techno-organic virus. Nathan returned to the X-Men's time as
the adult known as Cable.
The genetic counterpart of Cable in the alternate timeline known as the "Age
of Apocalypse" was Nate Grey, the mutant also known as X-Man. When Nate
Grey first arrived in the "mainstream" timeline of the X-Men, the
disoriented Nate subconsciously sought to find his friend, the Jean Grey
of his own reality. Nate Grey's psionic powers are so enormous that he
thus subconsciously re-created Jean Grey's duplicate, Madelyne Pryor.
Hence, the Madelyne Pryor who is now active on Earth is not truly the
original Madelyne, but is a "psionic shell" that duplicates her
personality, powers, and memories.
At first the re-created Madelyne befriended Nate, but as her powers
re-emerged, so did her memories and her sinister personality. Sponsored by
the mutant Selene, Pryor gained admission to the Inner Circle of the
Hellfire Club, recently reorganized by Sebastian Shaw. She supported
Onslaught like the rest of the club, but remained hidden from the X-Men
and the world at large. Only the Hellfire Club knew she was alive.
When Onslaught was defeated she moved to Paris, leading a normal life and
not caring about mutants and super-people in general. A little while ago
she received a call from Sebastian Shaw, who was planning to restart the
Hellfire Club yet again. She boarded a plane to New York and has just now
arrived.
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