Summary

  • Originating as a Fantastic Four villain, Multiple Man's time in Marvel Comics canon is more complicated than just an X-Men hero.
  • Multiple Man creates sentient life with each duplicate, impacting his own experiences upon reabsorption.
  • With every dupe he creates, Multiple Man opens himself up to increasingly interesting adventures in X-Men canon.

Jamie Madrox aka X-Men canon with the power to duplicate himself a great number of times, creating what’s known as ‘dupes’ who all experience life independently until their collective experiences automatically transfer to the prime Multiple Man once they reabsorb. For instance, if a dupe learns to speak another language or even gets a law degree, that transfers to the original upon re-merging. However, the same is also true for an injured dupe, as their injury impacts the original Multiple Man when they re-merge as well.

It’s immediately easy to see that Multiple Man is a bit more complicated than simply being a mutant with the power to make ‘clones’ of himself, as he’s creating sentient life any time he duplicates, which he then snuffs out and effectively assimilates once they’ve served their purpose. A character like this is worth paying attention to, especially since Multiple Man and his dupes have had some pretty insane experiences throughout Marvel Comics canon. Here are 10 of the most memorable Multiple Man moments!

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10 Multiple Man’s Birth Immediately Set Him Apart from Other Mutants

X-Factor #11 by Peter David, Renato Arlem, and Roy Allan Martinez

From the moment Multiple Man was born, his mutation was immediately obvious. Since his duplication power is triggered by physical impact, Jamie Madrox multiplied for the first time as an infant when the doctor smacked his bottom. This is especially noteworthy as most mutants don’t develop their mutation until they hit puberty, yet Multiple Man was immediately identifiable as a mutant at birth - which technically makes him a Changeling, a genetic predecessor to mutants in X-Men canon.

While his actual birth was shown much earlier, the implications of his powers manifesting when he was a newborn was explained in X-Factor #11, which only adds more significance to an already memorable moment.

9 Multiple Man’s Origin was as a Fantastic Four Villain, Not an X-Men Ally

Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4 by Len Wein, Chris Claremont, and John Buscema

Jamie Madrox might be more widely recognized for being d with the X-Men, but Multiple Man actually made his debut as a villain of the Fantastic Four - though not on purpose. Originally, Multiple Man had no control over his powers, and had to wear a power-dampening suit his parents built him. However, when that suit began to malfunction, he went to New York seeking help. That’s when Multiple Man ran into the Fantastic Four, who were no match for the amount of dupes he could create with every hit the heroes landed.

In the end, Professor X stops Multiple Man with his telepathy, stunning every dupe at once while Reed Richards repaired Madrox’s suit. Xavier’s intervention may have opened the door for Multiple Man to become a long-time ally of the X-Men, but originally, he was a Fantastic Four villain.

8 1 of Multiple Man’s Dupes was Possessed By an Omega-Level Mutant

X-Men #126 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

After Professor X took down Multiple Man, he gave him the option to the X-Men. However, Jamie decided he’d rather work with Moira MacTaggert on Muir Island, assisting in mutant research. During such research, the Omega-Level mutant Proteus (who is the son of Moira MacTaggert) uses his reality-altering powers to escape from Muir Island. Proteus makes his escape by possessing those around him, using them as a vehicle to get as far away from Muir Island as possible - and one of those people was Multiple Man (kind of).

Since every dupe created by Multiple Man is their own person, they all have a consciousness that can be overpowered by an entity capable of possessions - including and especially one as powerful as Proteus. While this is one of the more startling examples of dupe autonomy, it certainly isn’t the only one.

7 1 of Multiple Man’s Dupes Worked for Mr. Sinister as a Villain

X-Factor #72 by Peter David and Larry Stroman

Multiple Man learning that his dupes have free will.

The same duplicate that was possessed by Proteus went on to become a villainous member of Mr. Sinister’s Nasty Boys. Not only that, but the dupe conspired to become the prime Madrox. This storyline stands out not just because it shows one of Multiple Man’s dupes deciding to become a villain of his own volition (which is revealed after he seemingly dies), but by the introduction of the very idea that these dupes could do that at all.

Before this issue, Madrox thought that his dupes were, “as independent as a toenail clipping”. But after encountering this one, Multiple Man realizes that they are all separate beings with their own thoughts, feelings, and possibly souls. Which is why it’s even more startling that this dupe used his autonomy to become a villain who works for Mr. Sinister.

6 Multiple Man Used His Dupes to be the Ultimate Playboy (& Creep)

X-Factor Vol. 3 #10 by Peter David and Renato Arlem

Multiple Man with a dupe he used to have intercourse with two women at once.

Usually, Multiple Man uses his duplication powers to fight villains alongside his fellow mutant heroes, but that’s not exactly what his dupes are used for in this X-Factor issue. After a night of drinking, some of the X-Factor feel like getting a bit intimate, with Madrox feeling that way about more than one person at the same time.

So, Multiple Man duplicates himself so that he can have intercourse with two women - Monet and Siryn - at the same time, and also separately, in a move that permanently cements Multiple Man as the ultimate playboy (albeit a bit of a creep).

5 Multiple Man Goes on a Mission to Track Down Rogue Dupes

X-Factor Vol. 3 #13 by Peter David and Pablo Raimondi

John Maddox, a Multiple Man dupe who became a paster.

This issue, Madrox discovers that one of his dupes (that he didn’t creating) went off to become an agent of SHIELD. After getting himself tied-up in some SHIELD nonsense that he initially had absolutely no stake in because of his rogue dupe, Multiple Man decided that he needed to track down every dupe in existence - which led to some pretty wild encounters.

One of his rogue dupes was a pastor who changed his name to John Maddox, and another dupe became a world-class detective. While Jamie had the opportunity to reabsorb both of them, he decided to allow them to live their own lives, abandoning the mission for the sake of his dupe’s newfound autonomy.

4 Multiple Man Learned How to Use His Dupes at Maximum Efficiency

Madrox #1 by Peter David and Pablo Raimondi

A Multiple Man dupe who became a Shaolin Monk.

Over the years (including and especially in the above entry), Madrox learned that his dupes could go on to live full lives without him, gaining knowledge and wisdom that Multiple Man could never gain alone. So, Madrox started creating dupes for the sole purpose of asg them something to master, after which they’d return, be reabsorbed, and Multiple Man would learn everything they learned instantaneously.

This would come in handy for the actual plot of this miniseries, but before anything dramatic happens, readers see that Madrox did this with a dupe who he created years earlier to become a Shaolin Monk. Multiple Man did this simply because he wanted all the knowledge and skills that being a Shaolin Monk entails, which confirms that he can do this with just about anything to learn multiple lifetimes worth of skills simultaneously.

3 Multiple Man Comes Up with a Hilarious Name for his P.I. Firm

Madrox #1 by Peter David and Pablo Raimondi

Multiple Man revealing the name of his business as XXX Investigators.

After X-Factor lost its government funding, the team decided to take a page from the ‘Heroes for Hire’ playbook and monetize their superhuman abilities and proven skill sets. This eventually led to Madrox opening his own private investigator firm, and this issue reveals the name Multiple Man chose for it: XXX Investigators.

The name makes Multiple Man’s business sound pornographic in nature, which is something that’s not lost on the characters. In fact, when one of his colleagues tells him exactly that, Multiple Man’s reply is, “I can live with that”. This moment isn’t as grand or impactful as some of the others, but it’s every bit as memorable, as it puts Jamie’s hilarious personality on full display.

2 Multiple Man Creates His Own ‘Days of Future Past’ (With AWESOME Variants)

Multiple Man #1-5 by Matt Rosenberg and Andy MacDonald

Multiple Man and his variants: Cable, Deadpool, Cloak, and Hulk.

When one of Multiple Man’s dupes was found buried in a bunker, he was given a second chance at life. Beast created a serum that not only allowed the dupe to live on without the original Madrox (as he was dead at the time), but granted him the ability to create duplicates of his own, effectively allowing this dupe to become the new Madrox Prime. Unfortunately, that was all a part of his plan to usurp that position from Jamie, and use his newfound power to take over the world, which ended up being a ‘Days of Future Past’-like future.

The resulting fallout of this villainous Multiple Man created incredibly interesting (and awesome) Multiple Man variants, including one that was Cloak, another that was Cable, one that was Deadpool (with Wolverine-like energy claws), and one that was the Hulk. This was one of Multiple Man’s most notable standalone storylines, and it was definitely a memorable one.

1 Multiple Man’s Death is a Moment No X-Men Fan Will Ever Forget

Death of X #1 by Jeff Lemire, Charles Soule, and Aaron Kuder

Multiple Man and his dupes killed by the Terrigen Mist.

When Black Bolt unleashes the Terrigen Mist upon the Earth in the hopes of awakening the latent genes of humans who were actually Inhumans, he unknowingly releases a deadly poison to all mutants. The Terrigen Mist kills mutants who inhale it, and it does so gruesomely. One of the first mutants to suffer this fate, and the one who warned Cyclops and the X-Men of its danger, was Multiple Man, along with a small army of his dupes.

While Multiple Man would later come back to life, this moment was still incredibly significant, as it showed Multiple Man dying a hero’s death, with the horrific sight of dozens of his dupes lying dead all around him. That’s why this is one of the 10 most memorable Multiple Man moments in X-Men history.