Multiple Man and His Multiple Men!

I've never taken the time to get to know who Multiple Man is in the Marvel Universe, so I thought I would give this title by Matt Rosenberg a shot—and man is this title hilarious. From my experience, many solo titles involving smaller characters just don't work for some reason. It could be that the writers do not know what to do with the character or how to write them. The only other solo title that I'm thinking of checking out is the Sentry run by Jeff Lemire. Mostly because it's Jeff Lemire and he has written so awesome stories like the first 25 issues of the current Old Man Logan story line. I really recommend that you check out that Old Man Logan run and the first two issues of Multiple Man, which are out now.

Let's get started with a pretty recent history of Multiple Man, or at least what I know about him. Essentially, Jamie Madrox is a mutant that has the ability to duplicate himself as many times as he wants. However, his duplicates can only create one duplicate of themselves. An interesting thing about the duplicates is that they retain a character trait that "Jamie Prime" has and it becomes more pronounced the more dupes and Jamie Prime stay separated. For example, if one of the dupes inherits Jamie Prime's angry traits, that duplicate is going to continue to be an angry guy, and will develop into his own person with anger issues. Jamie is linked with his duplicates telepathically, meaning he can see their experiences. If he absorbs his duplicates he gains all of that duplicate's memories and experiences. Nobody really knew what would happen to the other duplicates if Jamie Prime died up until the start of Inhumans vs. X-Men.

Yes, the original Multiple Man died a couple years ago during the Inhumans vs. X-Men story line. Essentially, what Jamie Madrox was doing was studying the effects of Terrigen Mist on mutants, which is the chemical mist that gives the Inhumans their powers upon exposure. What Jamie found out was that Terrigen is actually toxic to mutants and will kill them. Here's where things are gonna go very south very fast. The Inhumans released two Terrigen clouds. Essentially these clouds are exactly what the name suggests. This cloud is pretty much moved by the wind and turns people into Inhumans all around the world. The only thing, there are people all around the world who are mutants (they may not know they are mutants) and could get killed. Not only that, but over time the clouds will disperse Terrigen throughout the Earth, exposing all mutants to the chemical, making them go extinct. I actually really enjoyed certain aspects in that story so I'll cover it in a different post. Really all we need to know is that Prime Jamie is dead, but I felt that it was important you know how he died, as well as other tidbits of information to help you understand what is happening or being referenced to in the first issue of the title.

The first issue of the title kicks off with an X-Team (I'm not too sure which one, but considering that Madrox was a member of the X-Factor, I'm going to guess that it was that team) finding Jamie Madrox in an undisclosed location. I think that it was likely Muir Island because that is the largest mutant research facility in the main Marvel Universe. Any-who, they find that Madrox is alive and bring him to Beast (Hank McCoy). Beast and the team that found Jamie wonder how Jamie is alive when they all know that he died, and not peacefully. And that is when this Jamie wakes up and says that he is a duplicate (also called 'Dupes' by Madrox and many many others) that found out how to not die if the prime Jamie dies and that he was experimenting on himself to further his research. Now what we could gather knowing what we do about Prime Jamie, that this duplicate has inherited his knack for science from his parent clone. What Madrox says is that he actually does not know what kind of Madrox he should be. To him it feels different, more than just being the science version of Jamie Prime.

While Madrox is awake with Beast running tests on him, we find out that though Madrox may have delayed his death when Jamie Prime died, he is actually currently decaying and will die pretty soon of "catastrophic organ failure." On that note, this is where things start to get quite funny. After finding out that he is going to die, Madrox makes Beast promise to find a cure for him. Now I'm not too sure what makes Madrox do this, but he decides to inconspicuously ask Ilyana Rasputin (Colossus's Sister) where he can find a "time-cop." Unsuspecting of Madrox, Ilyana leads him to Bishop (a mutant from the Days of Future Past Era, which explains the "M" brand on his face), where Madrox knocks him out and steals a time-travel device that he has.

This is where things get funny because Madrox has a time machine that can take him literally to any point in time in the past or in the future, and what does the man do? He goes forward in time by 15 minutes and asks Beast is he finished making the cure. Madrox didn't do this on purpose, but this was still a scene that I found absolutely hilarious. Beast, wondering how Madrox could think that he made a cure for his ailments in fifteen minutes, begins to talk with Madrox when ANOTHER MADROX SHOWS UP. This Madrox, who we are going to call Jamie 2.0, went further in time than Madrox and realized that it was best that the cure not be made by Beast. So what happens is Jamie 2.0 is trying to stop Madrox from getting the cure by fighting him.

Beast, pissed off that there are two Madroxes (some characters call the plural of Madrox Madri) now, and they're fighting in his lab. Not only that, but now Beast is genuinely just as confused as I was when I first read this story. So what Beast does is stop the Madri's bickering and makes them talk, and that's when Jamie 2.0 absorbs Madrox so he can speak without being interrupted.

Beast and the rest of the X-Men currently present at the X-Mansion decide to call a meeting with Jamie 2.0 to explain what in the hell just happened. What Jamie 2.0 says is that he went forward in time to get the cure, and found out some really bad things happen in the future when Beast completes the serum. At this moment is when someone decides to start attacking the X-Mansion. The X-Men believe that he knows what is going on, but really he has no idea what's going on too. And that's when someone that looks like a mix of Deadpool and Wolverine jumps through the window, a person that looks like Cable, a sorcerer that says they aren't here to harm or fight anyone who then immediately turns into a Hulk. If you ask me, saying you come in peace, and then proceed to turn into a being that people know is a giant green rage monster is not your smartest play.

I really enjoyed the first issue because of the lighthearted and comedic approach that Rosenberg takes. The issue itself is not funny because of jokes that are made within the issue, but because of the dialogue. The dialogue is quick, smart, and witty. But the best part of all it was the reveal of the three duplicates that have powers. Historically, Jamie Prime's duplicates don't have the ability to adopt new superpowers upon duplicating. So it'll be interesting to find out how these duplicates came to be. It's almost like Mutliple Man has his own Avengers team with different versions of him. Issue #2 is currently out, but man am I excited for Issue #3.

Another aspect of the comic that I really enjoyed was the portrayal of Multiple Man in this comic. He's just one unlucky guy that has the weirdest things happen to him and I think that the way the character deals with these situations is really enjoyable. I don't know much about Jamie Prime, but if he's like this in other stories I definitely want to read more Multiple Man. But it seems like Rosenberg is doing something completely different and short term because this title is only five issues long.

One additional aspect I like during this premier issue is the use of a duplicate instead of Jamie Prime as the protagonist because it saves the writer for coming up with a convoluted way to bring Jamie Prime back to life. Also, having a dupe helps change or revamp Multiple Man because even though he is technically the same person as Jamie Prime, his personality is supposed to be different.

So, all in all, I really like this title, and highly recommend it to anyone that is looking for a comic with witty humor. This concludes the post, but there will be more Multiple Man posts coming out, Marvel 2-in-1, Captain America, X-23, Weapon H, and Venom posts coming out very shortly. Until then please feel free to check out any of the other posts I've made in my profile, and see you in the next post!

Note: I do not own the character, panels, and art shown in this post. All panels, characters, and art belong to their respective owners.