WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Multiple Man #4, by Matthew Rosenberg, Andy MacDonald, and Tamara Bonvillain, on sale now!


Playing with time lines can have dire consequences in fiction. It can lead to a character’s premature demise or erase them from reality all together by having them almost make out with their own mom (gross, Marty). However, comic books, specifically superhero titles, don’t seem to worry too much about paradoxes or anything tangentially related to the quantum mechanics of time travel in stories of journeying to the past to fix the future.

While the stakes in comic book time travel tales are often just as dire as any other story in a different medium, they don’t let themselves get hemmed up by the scientific minutia. To quote Bruce Willis in the film Looper, “This time travel crap just fries your brain like an egg...” This should probably be the mantra for superhero time travel stories.

RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: First Look Inside Uncanny X-Men #1-4

Time travel stories featuring the X-Men, in particular, have a devil may care attitude about the platitudes of disrupting the placidity of past, present and future for quite some time. While one could argue a story like “Days of Future Past” played things pretty close to the chest in terms of balancing the cause and effect of time travel, very few stories since have handled things with the same care.

This, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes tossing out the rules and just winging it makes for some great storylines and can integrate characters who had only existed in one timeline into the main X-Men Universe continuity. Matthew Rosenberg and Andy MacDonald’s miniseries Multiple Man is shaping up to be one of these stories. However, the trajectory of Jamie Madrox’s poor decision-making does have us wonder if the world would have been better off if Multiple Man had stayed dead.

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='OK%20-%20How%20Did%20Jamie%20Madrox%20Screw%20Up%20This%20Time%3F']



Multiple Man #4 brings readers back to where this whole mess started by giving us a history lesson in how a gang of Madrox(es?) with wildly different abilities came together to abscond with their past self in order to save the future from…um, themselves. (Look, that sentence was as tough to construct as it was to read; again, just remember the aforementioned Bruce Willis mantra.) But as the old adage goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. But while Jamie Madrox is a lot of things, altruistic is not one of them. Or, at the very least, it isn't the go-to adjective when he comes to mind.

As the origins of the various Multiple Men are explained, all their paths lead back to the same moment, which also leads to the tyrannical army of Madrox clones coming to the present, looking for blood in all the wrong places (namely, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters). The final page of Multiple Man #4 puts the second in command of the futuristic Madrox clones with his sights on the X-Men. Now if Madrox had just stayed dead after being exposed to the Terrigen Mist, presumably, his former teammates and friends wouldn't have to deal with a malicious army of even more annoying Madroxes.

RELATED: Multiple Man: The New Jamie Madrox May Be Uncanny X-Men’s Main Villain

Now, the X-Men timeline is already squirrelly, especially right now with the time displaced original five X-Men figuring out where (and when) they belong, a younger Cable assassinating an older version of himself, and don't get us started on the insane conundrum that are the characters Rachel Summers, Hope, Bishop and Old Man Logan. But Madrox essentially creating a new villain by being the self-preserving jerk he usually is, well -- this revelation shouldn't be anything the X-Men can't handle. Worse villains from more horrific futures have come knocking at their door more than once, but they currently have their hands full (when DON'T they?).

For the record, we kinda love Multiple Man. After all jerks can be heroes too. (Isn't that right Reed Richards?) But while he's the star of this miniseries, maybe he isn't the hero in the end. The band of evil clones does lend some credence to our theory regarding Multiple Man possibly being the villain in the upcoming Uncanny X-Men relaunch. The cover for issue #2 of the series featured a team of Multiple Man clones taking up the roles and poses of the X-Men team featured on the debut issue.

It was pretty easy to pass this off as a fun little visual gag, and perhaps a bit of a coincidence considering the character's current adventure through time. But now, we're not so sure. The only thing that is for sure is that Multiple Man started out as a great comedic miniseries, but there is pretty strong chance it will end as a tragedy.