I’ve said this several times on this blog: Multiple Man is my all-time favorite comic book character. And I should be thrilled that he’s back in action. Not only did he have a recent Multiple Man comic all to himself, but he’s in the current Uncanny X-Men storyline.

But here’s the thing: this isn’t really Multiple Man.

The current creators working on the X-Men found a workaround to put a simulacrum in place. And based on this week’s new issue of Uncanny X-Men, they can’t even get that right.

Quick recap: Jamie Madrox died several years ago during the M-Pox storyline, killed by the Inhuman Terrigen Mists. In the recent Multiple Man comic, it was revealed that one of his duplicates had gone into hiding years ago, working on a serum to separate duplicates from Madrox’s umbrella. Then through a series of time traveling hijinks, all of the various Multiple Man duplicates died…except for one. And he took the serum, which somehow granted him the crown of “Jamie Prime”.

For some reason, only Jamie Prime can make duplicates now. Those duplicates can no longer produce their own duplicates.

That’s not how Multiple Man’s powers work. So either the current creators don’t know that or it’s a change brought about by this false duplicate “rebirth”. I’ve read everything that the new Madrox has appeared in so far and the change in his powers has never been mentioned, so…

But yeah, his powers are different now, reinforcing the fact that this isn’t really Multiple Man back from the dead. It’s a weird, mutated duplicate simply living as Jamie Madrox.

That stinks.

To make matters even worse, the current creators don’t seem to understand the character at all. They seem really into the idea that Jamie Madrox is an incompetent coward.

Like, it’s mentioned twice in the new Uncanny X-Men #9.

Where is this coming from? And from Kitty and Storm of all people? Did nobody read the 100+ issue X-Factor series? Jamie Madrox was a team leader, and was a prominent X-Men supporting character for years. He’s never been a coward and he’s never been incompetent. Those aren’t his character traits.

It doesn’t matter in the long run. This is just one guy whining on his blog, and that’s really all I’m doing, whining. I get that. But it’s my blog, it’s my favorite comic book character, and I felt like whining about it. So take all of this with a grain of salt.

Comic books move ever onward. Someday the real Multiple Man will come back from the dead. Cyclops died in the exact same way in the exact same story, and he’s coming back. I’m sure Multiple Man will be back too, eventually.

I’m just gonna be really dorky about it until then.

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