Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 164. Who is Madelyn Pryor, AKA The Goblin Queen, in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 164. Who is Madelyn Pryor, AKA The Goblin Queen, in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:15
  Music Hi guys it's Megan from Vigilante Vibes and I am here
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  with another character breakdown and today I want to talk about a
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  mutant that I cannot believe I have not talked about before.
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  I love her character so much, so much more than her clone
• 0:31
  counterpart. So today I want to talk about
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  Madeline Pryor the Goblin Queen. So who is Madeline Pryor AKA the
• 0:39
  Goblin Queen AKA Maddie the Baddie?
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  Maddie first appeared in Marvel Comics and Uncanny X-Men #168 in
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  1983 and was created by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith.
• 0:51
  Back in the 80's, the X-Men were dealing with the loss of Jean
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  Grey after the whole Dark Phoenix Saga, That whole thing.
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  Taking advantage of the chaos, Nathaniel Essex AKA Mr. Sinister
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  introduced Scott Cyclops Summers to Madeline Pryor, a clone of
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  Jean hoping to create the ultimate mutant.
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  So what I think a lot of people don't realize is that her name
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  Madeline Pryor was actually she was given the name Pryor, kind
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  of like a joke from Mr. Sinister as she's a clone.
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  So thought that was a fun fact. Not fun for her, but it's fun
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  for us. But things went sideways, and
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  all that pain twisted Madeline into the deadly Goblin Queen.
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  Now, as she takes control of Limbo and leads the Dark X-Men
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  in 2023, it's worth diving into her tragic and villainous past
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  when Maddie the baddie showed up in 1983's Uncanny X-Men #168 as
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  a pilot working for North Star Airways, a company owned by
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  Scott's grandparents. Scott met her while visiting his
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  grandparents in Alaska and was immediately struck by how much
• 2:02
  she looked like Jean, who had apparently died.
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  Which is all right. Soon after Scott and Madeline
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  started dating, Even though he cared for her, Scott couldn't
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  shake the feeling that something was off.
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  He wondered if she might actually be Jean, or even the
• 2:20
  Phoenix reborn. And there was reasons to be
• 2:23
  suspicious. Madeline said that she was the
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  only survivor of a plane crash on the same day Jean died, and
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  she didn't remember anything from before then.
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  I'd say that's suspicious, Scott.
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  Later, the villain Mastermind played on Scott's fears, making
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  it seem like Madeleine was the Phoenix back from the dead.
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  But once the X-Men defeated Mastermind and broke through his
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  illusions, Scott realized his doubts were wrong.
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  Madeleine was just a regular woman, no mutant, no Phoenix
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  powers involved. Eventually, Scott and Madeleine
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  got married, and he stepped away from the X-Men to settle down
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  with her in Alaska. But even in retirement,
• 3:01
  Adventure still found them. Madeleine briefly became a
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  superhero called Enodin after Loki gave her healing powers.
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  Around that time, she also found out she was pregnant.
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  Scott didn't handle retirement well, though, and kept getting
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  pulled back into the X-Men missions.
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  That put a serious strain on their relationship, especially
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  when Madeleine had given birth to their son Nathan Summers, AKA
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  Future Cable, alone while Scott was off on a mission.
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  Tired of being second in a superhero life, she asked him to
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  retire for good. Instead, Scott got into a fight
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  with Storm over who would lead the X-Men in Professor X's
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  absence. Madeline, still unawakened
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  psychic powers, may have subconsciously influenced the
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  fight because Scott lost and the two headed back to Alaska.
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  But Scott's break from superhero live did not last because it
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  never does. When Jean Grey came back from
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  the dead, he left both Madeline and baby Nathan behind to
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  reunite with her and form The X Factor.
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  Madeline took a job flying to San Francisco with Nathan in
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  tow, but things went S when the Marauders, mutants who worked
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  for Mr. Sinister, abducted Nathan and left Madeline for
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  dead. She survived, reconnected with
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  the X-Men, growing especially close to Scott's brother, Alex
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  Summers. I guess.
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  I guess the appeal is in the Summers family.
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  While staying with the X-Men at their base in Australia,
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  Madeline witnessed Scott and Jean together, which pushed her
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  over the edge. She passed out from the
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  emotional blow while Uncon, a demon from Limbo named SIM,
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  began tormenting her. With visions of Scott's betrayal
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  and abandonment broken by everything she'd gone through,
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  Madeline made a deal with a demon to help her find her son.
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  In doing so, she unlocked powerful psychic abilities and
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  combined with her new found skills in dark magic, she
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  summoned goblins and demons and transformed into the Goblin
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  Queen we all know and love. Not long after her powers,
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  Madeline tracked down Mr. Sinister at his lab, and that's
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  when the truth came out. He told her she was actually a
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  clone of Jean Grey. After Jean died, the Phoenix
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  Force entered Madeline and basically jump started her
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  existence. Sinister had set the whole thing
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  up. Her meeting with Scott, their
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  relationship just so they could have a child he could later
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  steal. Once Jean came back from the
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  dead, Sinister tried to eliminate Madeline to keep his
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  twisted plan under wraps. That revelation pushed Madeline
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  over the edge. She had always struggled with
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  being compared to Jean and now she found out she actually was
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  Jean. But just a copy I guess.
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  That breakdown kicked off the Inferno storyline, where
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  Madeline teamed up with the demons of Limbo to invade Earth,
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  which involved sacrificing her son Nathan.
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  She also started an affair with Scott's brother Alex, who became
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  the Goblin Prince. Eventually, Jean defeated her in
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  battle, and when the Phoenix Force left Madeline, she died by
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  her own hand. After that, Madeline was mostly
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  gone. Those psychic versions of her
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  popped up occasionally around Nate Gray, AKA X-Men and Cable.
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  Her first real attempt at coming back happened in the 2000s when
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  she reappeared as the Red Queen of the Hellfire Cult.
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  She later put together a new Sisterhood of the Mutants and
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  tried to transfer her consciousness into Gene's body
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  since it was the only vessel strong enough to contain her
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  powers. But the X-Men moved Gene's body
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  and Madeline ended up destroying herself trying to force the
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  transfer. In the 2000 Tens, Lady
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  Deathstrike revived the Sisterhood again, this time
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  successfully. They created a brand new body
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  for Madeline, finally bringing her back to life for real.
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  During the Dawn of X era, the Helions stumbled upon Madeleine
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  and one of Doctor Sinister's labs, where she was torturing
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  zombified versions of the Marauders.
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  She was understandably bitter that the mutants of Precoa
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  hadn't invited her to join their shiny new mutant utopia, so she
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  planned to get revenge by attacking the island with a
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  cloned Marauder army. She also reunited with Alex
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  Summers, who sided with her and offered his help.
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  Things did not go as planned, because when do they ever?
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  The Hellion stopped her, and Madeline was killed in the
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  process. Her death kicked off a debate
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  among the Quiet Council. Should she be resurrected, even
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  though she's technically a clone of Jean Grey?
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  The question divided opinions, but Alex was furious at the
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  pushback. Eventually, Emma Frost convinced
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  the council to bring Madeline back.
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  At first she kind of drifted around Krakoa without a clear
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  purpose until the Labors of Magic arc in New Mutants where
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  Magic Who's Ileana? Rasputina handed her the throne
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  of Limbo to her. As the new ruler of Limbo,
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  Madeline embraced her power and got pulled into the dark web
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  storyline. Teaming up with Chasm, Ben
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  Riley's twisted clone version of Spider Man, Madeleine and Chasm
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  launched an attack on Manhattan, unleashing demons from Limbo,
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  all while Chasm obsessed over lost memories he thought Spider
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  Man had stolen from him. Spider Man and the X-Men joined
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  forces to stop the chaos. When Jean Grey confronted
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  Madeleine, it led to a pretty brutal showdown, driven by years
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  of resentment and loss. But things took a turn when Jean
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  realized that all Madeline really wanted was something
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  simple memories of her son Nathan.
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  In a powerful moment, Jean willingly shared those memories.
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  That act of empathy broke the cycle.
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  Madeline called off the attack, locked chasm away in Limbo, and
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  agreed to move forward. Afterward, with support from the
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  X-Men and Cricohen government, Madeleine opened a Limbo embassy
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  in New York. From there, she committed to
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  helping the rejected Ones, mutants who didn't have a place
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  to go. That mission became especially
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  important during the fall of X, when the Mutant Hating Group's
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  Orchid crashed the Hellfire Gala and exiled most of mutant kind
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  on Earth. As the world grew more hostile,
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  Madeleine formed the Dark X-Men A-Team dedicated to protecting
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  mutants and offering refuge to while The Maine X-Men fought
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  Orcas head on. Most recently, she, Maddie the
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  baddie, has grown into her role as ruler of Limbo, handling
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  everything there, handling the Limbo Embassy, and she has done
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  it all with the blessing of Ileana Rasputina.
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  So that is Madeline Pryor, Maddie the baddie, the Goblin
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  Queen. I love her character so much
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  because none of it is her fault. She'd leave her alone.
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  Her life started with problems from a man and they continued
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  with problems from another man. And all she wanted was to be
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  loved. She wanted to be a mother, she
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  wanted her son back, she wanted memories of her son.
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  And I like how clear her villain origin is.
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  I'm a huge Cyclops fan. I love Cyclops but he did her so
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  dirty it is bananas. Mr. Sinister.
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  It's expected for him to do everyone dirty.
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  So aside from the comics I mentioned before, check out
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  Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men from numbers one through 68
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  onwards to around like 243 #243 it it's the classic Madeline
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  Pryor arc. And you can't not check it out.
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  So with that being said, I hope you enjoyed all about Maddie the
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  baddie. I hope you learned something
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  here and I hope you will like and subscribe.
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  So with that being said, have a marvelous day.