Have you ever wished that you could split yourself in two? Maybe you could sneak into a club by sliding your finger under the door and getting your duplicate in for free. Maybe you could call yourself at home while you are simultaneously in the hot seat on a nationally televised game show and whisper “Jimmy Carter” in your own ear to win a million dollars. Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox did all those things and more.
Daniel and Joan Madrox discovered something strange on September 7, 1953. They had both worked in a Los Alamos nuclear facility and their DNA had been altered by radiation. They had no clue until their son was born. Little Jamie was a mutant. The doctor smacked the newborn Madrox on the backside, and then there were two.
The parents of young Jamie Madrox took the term “multi-managing” to a new level. Every time their son took any significant physical contact, he twinned off into a complete clone of himself. The duplicates re-absorbed into the original Jamie whenever he willed them to. If he allowed his doubles to exist, they functioned as completely independent copies. This provided a bit of a challenge when it came to child rearing.
Mr. and Mrs. Madrox resorted to extreme measures. They completely isolated themselves and refused to allow their little mutant to have any contact with other people. (They moved to Kansas.) Daniel Madrox invented a special suit for his son that would completely absorb all percussive contact so that Jamie would not be forced to use his powers while he was growing up. They lived off the land as a farm family. It was a simple existence and it seemed to be a happy one.
Jamie was not allowed to know anything about his mutation. His parents kept telling him that they would explain when he got older. They never got the chance. When he was fifteen years old, the Kansas farm family was ripped apart by a tornado. Daniel and Joan Madrox were dead. Jamie Madrox lived a few more happy years on the farm, but then his protective suit broke down because his dad wasn’t there to maintain it anymore.
Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox had a rather intense awakening. Not only did he begin experimenting with his duplication abilities, but the young mutant’s body was also being filled with large amounts of power via the defective suit. He wanted a wild nightlife, so he was drawn to New York City.
Jamie Madrox was finally able to cut loose in the Big Apple. For the first time in his life, his Multiple Man powers were allowed their freedom. Things got messy. After struggling with the confusing mind expansion that he always experienced after absorbing his clones (with their separate memories and experiences), Jamie Madrox went completely berserk. His protective suit overloaded and blew his mind. He became a public danger and was eventually subdued by the Fantastic Four and Professor X.
The Fantastic Four were actually losing the battle against the army of dupes splitting from Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox until Charles Xavier secured the victory by shutting down the minds of all the copies. After his defeat, the young mutant was convinced to go to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters for counseling. He learned the full truth of his mutation and the powers it afforded him.
Jamie decided to move to Muir Island and work for Moira MacTaggert. He became a model superhero. He was the ideal lab assistant, and he saved the day when Moira’s son flared up into his Proteus bad-guy persona and threatened to destroy the world like he always does when he gets mad. Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox split himself into a crowd of targets, and Proteus was captured when he possessed one of the dupes with his energy powers. The clone actually died. For the first time, Jamie Madrox did something that none of us will ever be able to experience—he watched and felt himself expire, and then he walked away.
Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox then started traveling with his friend Siryn and having a bizarre ride on the duplicate side. Many of the copied bodies struggled with him to stay apart when he was ready to re-absorb. There were some really crazy times when no one could be sure which one was the clone and which was the original. As a part of the Fallen Angels, Jamie and his other selves messed with each others’ heads quite a bit. Eventually, they all found peace of mind and continued to fight the good fight as a unified and integral member of X-Factor.
One day when he wasn’t hanging out with the team, Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox had the adventure of his life. He was sent with Quicksilver to investigate a young mutant high school teacher who had murdered a school board member. The girl with the X-gene was called Rhapsody and she taught music. There was only one problem—her superpower caused her audience to melt into a puddle of pure pleasure whenever she played. The kids were getting too happy in class, and she was causing it with her mutant melodies.
Rhapsody got fired from her position as a music instructor. As a last ditch effort to keep the job, she tried to force a change of heart in the man who was responsible for her dismissal by showing up at his house and giving him a private concert. Her song made the poor man feel so good that he was overwhelmed. He died of excess pleasure via a heart attack. Rhapsody fled. When Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox caught up with her, he was also treated to one of her personal performances. Since she was not as intent on being so persuasive this time, Jamie was not killed. He was, however, in love. She caused such bliss in him that he could think of nothing else. Luckily, he had split off into a few copies before he got seduced. The dupes were not under Rhapsody’s spell because they had not heard the music. The clones finally convinced their source-body of Rhapsody’s villainous true nature, and Jamie left her in jail. He was heartbroken.
Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox pulled himself together and put back the pieces of his life. He has carried on into the future and was even honored at the highest level of his field by being given his own comic book. And just wait until you see what he does to our game!
Vs. System can be played in many different ways. It’s a strange feeling to fill at least one fourth of your deck with 1-cost Army characters. On the whole, your strategy begins to seem like a swarm of ants against a gang of rhinoceroses. Sometimes, the ants win.
Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox rings so many bells in my head that I have a hard time keeping focused when I think about the card. In an attempt to organize my mind and keep myself somewhat sane, I will talk about all the wild and crazy things that this weenie can do on the kitchen table. Let me start with a list of Golden Age goodies.
- Flame Trap has lost its fire. I can’t stop giggling inside when I imagine my opponent staring down the barrels of six copies of Madrox while I am holding twelve more in hand.
- Longshot, Rebel Freedom Fighter is jumping out of card binders the world over. I am obviously pleased.
- Cyclops, Slim looks forward to being recovered and readied for the win—almost as much as he is excited about being used with all his other versions in Vomit.
- Search and Destroy and Senator Kelly are now officially nuts. Nuts, I tell you, nuts!
- Commissioner Gordon and his GCPD Officers have a new friend, and another new friend, and another new friend . . .
- Rigged Elections is back in vogue. Come to Florida; we’ll show you how it’s done.
- It’s not really my place, and it’s not exclusively Golden Age, but I desperately want an Infestation Extended Art card now. Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox does, too.
- A single copy of Sentinel Mark IV with a board full of Madrox copies and a fist full of Press the Attacks? With no Overload to worry about? Are you kidding?
In my weekly column, I will be publishing multiple ideas about Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox as part of a feature called “Multiple Man Monthly.” This time, we have one Silver Age robot-fest and one prayer for Atlanta.
Manhunting Multiples
Perry “capnoni” King
Characters
14 Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox
4 Manhunter Clone
4 Lana Lang
4 James Jesse ◊ Trickster
4 Rocket Red
4 Manhunter Conqueror
Plot Twists
4 Plans Within Plans
4 Only a Friend Can Betray You
4 Conscription
2 Funky’s Big Rat Code
4 War Without End
4 The Fall of Oa
Locations
4 Birthing Chamber
This is a Silver Age combination that could make a splash in the Pro Circuit San Francisco metagame, but right now, we are less than two weeks away from Pro Circuit Atlanta and a Marvel Modern Age $40,000 prize. With all eyes on that, Team Tiniest Threat is going to leak our secret tech here for the world and just dare you to beat it. Zach “Batshido” Cullimore heard the call from his home in Philadelphia when I made a plea for a Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox team attack deck that would allow us to turn the Pro Circuit hall into our own personal Playroom. Batshido has been one of the most dynamic and entertaining members of the VsRealms community forums for a while now, and I cannot tell you how much this means to me. He wrote the turn-by-turn analysis, and it is Pure Jank Genius. He keeps telling me not to use Legendary Battles and stuff, and the deck will change a bit before we decide if we are actually going to play it. Either way, Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox has Georgia on his mind. I’ll see you there.
Marvel Modern Age Deck of Multiple Ridiculousness
Zach “Batshido” Cullimore
Characters
4 Natasha Romanoff ◊ Black Widow
3 Captain America, Steve Rogers
3 Quicksilver, Mutant Avenger
2 Carol Danvers ◊ Warbird
3 Jolt
3 Joystick
3 Dallas Riordan, Mayoral Aide
14 Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox
Plot Twists
4 Win-Lose Deal
4 Enemy of My Enemy
4 Stormfront-1
3 Justice for All
4 Mutant Massacre
3 Chaos Magic
Locations
3 Playroom
Try to get the odd initiatives. This deck works pretty well on either initiative, but abusing Natasha’s ability on turn 3 is just sick.
Turn 1: Play Multiple Man ◊ Jamie Madrox. Attack if able. You probably don’t want to use his ability yet. This isn’t Squadron Supreme, and you may need those cards for Enemy of My Enemy.
Turn 2: In a perfect world, you would play Natasha on turn 2 of every game. This world, however, sometimes has other ideas. Don’t waste resource points on copies of Madrox if you don’t need to. Play a combination of Dallas Riordan and Joystick if you have them.
Turn 3: Play either Captain America or Quicksilver. This is the turn that Enemy of My Enemy comes online, so if you don’t have them, you can probably search for them. Assuming that you have odds, you should easily be able to clear your opponent’s board and have enough bodies left over for Mutant Massacre on the nastiest body in the opposition.
Turn 4: Jolt is your primary play here, since her stunback potential is truly ridiculous at this point. It’s not unusual to have three or four ready copies of Madrox on the board.
Turn 5: My favorite play here is Carol Danvers and Dallas Riordan in my visible area. Dallas’s ability may draw you the extra Madrox that you need to keep your board full. Danvers can toss your opponent’s 5-drop back to his or her hand, saving you some serious pain next turn.
Turn 6: Honestly, this is where it gets a little shaky. A good Joystick goes a long way. Captain America and probably another Natasha help to fill out the rest of this turn. By now, you should have enough board presence to survive the initial attack and still attack and burn for the win.
This deck is designed to control the board and burn down your opponent through team attacks and a party in the Playroom. It runs a very specific complement of team-attack support from the Avengers and card draw and oversized bodies from the Thunderbolts. So far, it has proven to be very stable, as is usually the case with this type of weenie- or Army-based deck. It does seem to lack finishing power, though, since there really aren’t any heavy hitters in the lineup outside of Jolt.
On the Avengers front, Playroom is your money card. The potential to do 8 to 12 more burn damage a turn while you have the initiative is what keeps this deck in the game a lot of the time. As I’ve said before, it lacks the big, game-ending bodies and effects that a lot of other decks are packing. A Playroom flipped on turn 2 has the potential to generate anywhere from 20 to 40 points of damage over the course of the game, especially when you consider that you will always have bodies to counterattack with . . . thanks to our new best friend Jamie Madrox.
Rian Fike is also known as stubarnes and he would like to thank Jason Zhang for coining the term “multi-managing” in relation to Multiple Man. If you have any ideas for The Mutant Who Copies Himself, send them along to rianfike@hattch.com.