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The powers of X-Men’s Multiple Man make him a one-man think-tank, but the X-Factor leader can also put them to a far more spectacular use.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Corp #5, on sale now
One of the most exciting elements of the current era of X-Men comics has been how the mutants of Krakoa have been adapting to new situations and emergencies with impressive creativity, allowing them to bounce back from wild situations with unique solutions — experimenting with old powers to find new applications.
Jamie Madrox has quietly been working on “the Buckyball Principal,” as revealed in X-Corp ##5 by Tini Howard, Alberto Foche, Sunny Gho, and VC’s Clayton Cowles — a method to contain explosions and outbursts of energy with his duplicates as a human shield. Most impressively, it actually works.
Jamie Madrox has one of the most deceptively impressive superpowers of any mutant: the right kind of physical impact results in Madrox creating a new duplicate of himself. Over the years, Madrox has figured out how to draw out different elements of himself — gaining numerous skills and pieces of knowledge that he’d otherwise be incapable of using. When they refuse, they retain the knowledge and experience they picked up along the way — making Madrox a one-man expert in almost any form he commits himself to. With X-Corp, that means turning himself into a one-man research team, capable of maintaining all the devices and inventions that Krakoa’s newest corporation intends to use to help the world (and propel mutant interests).
But he’s also developed a unique new application of his power that makes him ideal for emergency situations. During the attack on X-Corp, Madrox-Prime is seemingly shot and killed. His duplicates do their best to contend with the fallout, including confronting the Fenris Twins as they try to set off the core of the lab and bring down the entirety of the building. But Madrox and his duplicates had conconted a new contingency to contend with such potential meltdowns. The Madrox duplicates all take hands and surround the explosion of energy. The plan — called the Buckyball Protocol — sees each duplicate in turn absorb the impact of the blast. In the process, the force in turn summons another duplicate.
The duplicate “fades” from the effort, but another stands in their place to tank more of the blast — which has reduced the overall output of the excess energy in the process. With enough Madrox duplicates at play at once, they’re able to effectively absorb the entire radius of the blast and prevent the Fenris Twins from doing any serious damage to the X-Corp. On top of that, the Madrox Duplicates are just that — duplicates — and don’t require the Five to restore any of them save for the already killed Madrox-Prime. It’s an impressive and creative use of their power, and an especially potent one considering the explosive technologies that X-Corp will inevitably be dealing with.
So far, X-Corp has already created an Omega-Level Mutant battery, so it makes sense for their to be fallback plans in case of emergencies. That’s why it’s inherently so exciting to see that Madrox figured out how to handle such situations entirely on his own. This method could even be used in other situations, providing the Multiple Man with the means to serve as an emergency bomb disposal unit as a result. While he may not be an official Omega-Level Mutant due to the specific nature of his powers, Multiple Man can argue that he and other specific mutants like Forge have proven to have enough adaptability to really stand out even in the era of Krakoa.
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