Aurora & Jeffries in Weapon X #22(SPOILERS)

[beetleblack]

Merci - as Aurora might say

[kozzi24]

Yes, Weapon Omega, I think that Jeffries is a little to tough to stay controlled for too long. He is my second favorite character, so I too would like to see him back in full action.

I tend to go to the source creator or the team that made a character possible when analyzing how a character has been used. In that analysis, It's not really strange that Madison has been brainwashed (1) so easily (2) so often and (3) so completely for the past years since Volume 2.
Byrne created a man who was a ditch digger because that was easier for him than dealing with his powers. I like Jeffries, but he's not a team leader, definitely a follower. The only time I did not like the character was when he was Mantlo's first mouthpiece for disdain of the original team. It's those scenes from Mantlo's run that exonerate Aurora in leaving her old teammate. Jeffries was NOT nice to her.
In further support, aspects of how he's been handled by almost all creators since fit the personality pattern. Heather took an interest in Madison, strong enough that they almost got married. Why didn't they? X-girlfriend Diamond Lil came back, and she fought harder than Heather did. Madison seemed to let other people make his life decisions. Lil wanted a honeymoon, Madison and Lil left Alpha.
Madison's assumption of the Box armor further demonstrates his desire to escape the powers. Jeffries as Box can do some neat things, but is essentially weaker than mutant Jeffries who can manipulate all non-biological matter. Madison Jeffries is as potentially powerful as Molecule Man.
Now, he doesn't resist being controlled, first by Zodiac, then by the Director. That's very consistent with someone who doesn't want the responsibility of his powers.
Don't go looking for Maddy to free himself and go rescue Lil. I think Lil will be freeing herself and rescuing Madison!

[Weapon Omega]

kozzi:

I agree. I don't think it'll be a question of when will Madison "snap" out of it, as when someone will rescue Madison from the Director. For the record, I hated seeing Madison cower in fear in issue #22. He's my favorite Alphan! This is an injustice. IMO.

By the way, what was a really good synopsis of Madison's history!

[Garry/Al-Fan]

My two additional cents (that's about all its worth, 'cause Kozzi says it all) is Madison's brother might have messed with his mind, way back when Lionel was supposed to have "cured himself" of insanity.

I liked the original conception of Madison (gravedigger not happy about his powers), but didn't particularly like the ease in which he disposed of OMEGA FLIGHT all by himself, thought he was exceptionally hard on Aurora (Madison wasn't even a true member of the team when he started bad-mouthing her) and did too many things that made AF dependent on him (redesigned Bochs' armor, used the remnants of the robot Delphine Courtney to make Heather's "Guardian" suit, damn near built/controlled everything in their Mansion headquarters, convinced just about all of Alpha Flight that Lionel was a-okay, took over Bochs' armor [does anybody besides me wonder when Madison decided to alter the DNA-acceptance-matrix-thingamagig to allow Madison to phase into BOX?], and became the strongest member on the team).

I'm glad he was turned into a bad-guy by ZODIAC, but I didn't like him cowering in fear in Weapon X# 22. That just doesn't seem right, characterizationally. Madison is tougher than that.