The Morlocks under Masque

The Morlocks under Masque The Morlocks deserve a separate update for the period when Masque is controlling his own group in the tunnels. Their original introduction and this later story are dealing with very different situations. In the first Morlock story, Callisto has authority over Masque. She can tell him to stop. By the time of Uncanny X-Men #259–263, she is one of the people he is tormenting. That reversal says a lot about what has happened underground. The community has already endured the Mutant Massacre, and the familiar people from its early appearances are no longer simply gathered together under the same leader. Masque’s followers are a particular faction within that history. Treating them as the entire Morlock community would erase the people who were harmed, scattered or living elsewhere. This story also needs a different kind of breakdown from a superhero team. Masque has followers, but he also has captives. Someone he has physically changed does not automatically belong to him. Callisto, Jean Grey, Banshee and Peter Nicholas need to be discussed according to what is being done to them, not placed on his roster. The immediate threat is personal. Masque can reach into the features that make somebody recognizable and alter them. He can interfere with the body a person depends on to fight, escape or simply move around. He uses that ability to make people afraid of what he will decide to do next. So this is a look at the faction, the people caught in its control and the rescue that follows. It takes us beyond the original Morlock introduction without pretending that everyone in the tunnels thinks or acts like Masque.