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    Madison Jeffries

    Character » Madison Jeffries appears in 777 issues.

    Madison Jeffries is a mutant with the power to psionically restructure metal, plastic, and glass.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Madison Jeffries last edited by Belmonte3 on 07/28/23 05:36AM View full history

    Origin

    The grumpy but goodhearted Madison
    The grumpy but goodhearted Madison

    Madison Jeffries and his brother Lionel are Canadian mutants with psionic transmutative powers. Madison's powers enable him to manipulate metal, glass and plastic psionically while his brother Lionel could psionically alter and manipulate organic substances. Madison hated his powers for making him different from other people, although they aided him in becoming a highly skilled mechanic and builder of machinery. Lionel, on the other hand, accepted his own powers and used them in his work as a surgeon.

    Like many other Canadians, the Jeffries brothers enlisted in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. Madison, became a mechanic first class in the army he enlisted in hope that it would let him forget about his power, but Lionel, became an army medic he hoped to use his powers to heal the Casualties of the War.

    The brothers served in the same squad on a mission when most of the squad were killed in an explosion. The blast scattered the parts of the soldiers' corpses. Horrified, Lionel Jeffries desperately tried to use his powers to rejoin the pieces of the corpses together again in hope that it would bring the soldiers back to life. But he wasn't powerful enough and failed to accomplish what he had set out to do, Because of this Lionel descended into Madness and his brother Madison was forced to use his power to manipulate metal and create bonds to restrain his now insane brother. Lionel's sanity did not return, and he became the menace known as Scramble, the Mixed-Up Man. Eventually, Madison had Scramble confined to a padded cell in Montreal General Hospital. To prevent Scramble from using his powers, he was placed in a special helmet and a straitjacket fed intravenously and denied any human contact. Meanwhile, Madison left the army after this ordeal.

    Creation

    Madison Jeffries was created by John Byrne and first fully appeared in Alpha Flight Vol.1 issue 16 (1984) but he had already appeared from a distance and unnamed in Alpha Flight Vol.1 issue 1 (1983).

    Major Story Arcs

    Losing Control

    Suffering severe PTSD and anxiety and depression, Madison lost control of his powers in a small Canadian town. As the ground and buildings began to turn into a rapidly changing and very volatile mess the Army was called in to help. Wolverine, who at that time was working for the Canadian government through Weapon X, was sent in as well. Everyone in the town was successfully evacuated and Wolverine slashed his way through all of Jeffries' chaotic structures to reach him. Subduing him, Wolverine told him it would all be all right and gave him to the government. Jeffries was then sent to Clinic Madison, a psychiatric hospital.

    Joining Department H

    The doctors at Clinic M tried to persuade Madison to overcome his feelings of alienation from the rest of humanity due to his Mutation. It was in this institution that Madison met another patient in the clinic, an inventor named Roger Bochs, a paraplegic who blamed the world for the loss of his legs. Jeffries and Bochs became friends, and together resisted the doctors' efforts to help them resolve their psychological problems.

    It was during his stay at the Clinic Madison was first introduced to Department H, It is a branch of the Canadian Department of National Defence and is also responsible for the recruitment, provisioning, administration and deployment of Alpha Flight. James MacDonald Hudson, the founder of Alpha Flight, learned of Madison Jeffries and Roger Bochs and persuaded them both to join Gamma Flight, the first level training program for candidates who are entering Alpha Flight, Canada's official team of superhuman operatives. Although Jeffries hated his powers, he, like Bochs, greatly respected Hudson. Jeffries and Bochs both graduated into the second level training program, Beta Flight.

    During the Canadian government's first sanctioning of Alpha Flight and its parent organization, Department H, Madison remained in the third-tier Gamma Flight program, while Bochs and his cybernetically-controlled robot, Box, reached the Beta Flight level. Madison had a fleeting relationship with another member of Gamma Flight, Diamond Lil, but the two drifted apart as the time went on.

    Disbanded

    After Beta and Gamma Flight disbanded along with the Canadian governments secret " Department H" which Alpha Flight and its training teams were run by. Madison and Roger Bochs, became the adventurer's called Box, and Marrina who were the sole trainees who did not turn into criminals. Other members of Gamma Flight eventually joined the criminal organization Omega Flight, headed by Hudson's enemy, Jerome Jaxon.

    Bochs, a brilliant engineer and mechanic who had no legs, had invented a large humanoid robot, which he called "Box" is a pun on his name. James MacDonald Hudson had helped Bochs perfect Box and had recruited him into Gamma Flight. Bochs had graduated into the next training level, Beta Flight, when the Canadian government disbanded Department H. Bochs went to live an ordinary life in Saskatchewan. Alpha Flight continued to operate, apart from the Canadian government. When the Canadian government cut Department H's funding, Madison left the organization completely and found employment digging ditches.

    Omega Flight

    No Caption Provided

    Sometime later, Bochs and Diamond Lil were recruited by Delphine Courtney, the robotic assistant to Jerome Jaxon, to join Omega Flight. Having discovered that Hudson was Alpha Flight's costumed leader, Guardian, Jaxon organized Omega Flight for the purpose of destroying both Hudson and Alpha Flight. Bochs, who was loyal to Hudson, joined Omega Flight intending to sabotage it from within the group itself. Jaxon discovered Bochs' plan and took control of Box himself. Controlling Box through Bochs' helmet, Jaxon sent the robot into battle against Guardian. Guardian destroyed the robot with an electronic blast from his own power pack, causing feedback that killed Jaxon. However, Guardian's power pack ended up blowing up and killing Guardian himself. Although seemingly killed when his battle-suit exploded due to the strain of energizing a multiple teleportation matrix systems (thanks to Jaxon), Guardian is in fact transported to Jupiter's moon, Ganymede.

    Madison and Roger

    No Caption Provided

    Six weeks later, Bochs met with Madison. Bochs felt responsible for Hudson's "death" since it had been brought about through Jaxon's use of the Box robot. Bochs was determined to track down Jaxon (who he did not realize was dead) and Delphine Courtney and bring them to justice for supposed death Hudson. Together Bochs and Madison created a new, bigger, and stronger Box, which Bochs could control from inside by "phasing" into the robot's body, or "armor."

    After Alpha Flight returned to Canada, Roger Bochs (who was still working independently) recruited Madison to rebuild his damaged Box robot, in order to seek revenge against Omega Flight. Roger and Madison were able to reconfigure Box using a sort of "living metal", which allowed Bochs to physically merge with the robot, freeing him from his physical limitations. While Madison remained behind, Roger joined up with Alpha Flight, only to end up donating Box to the disembodied soul of Walter Langkowski, a.k.a. Sasquatch. Walter Langkowski alias Sasquatch's body had been taken over by the Great Beast Tanaraq and Snowbird was forced to destroy the body. Alpha Flight managed to save Walter's soul and they projected his soul into the armor. Bochs tried to find a new body for him but failed once Langkowski's soul left Box. Bochs controlled Box once again and joined Alpha Flight as an official team member.

    Shortly thereafter, Guardian reappeared in Vancouver, fighting an armored criminal. The rest of Alpha Flight was astonished to see their former leader alive, but it was a ruse; "Guardian" was, in fact, Delphine Courtney, reconfigured to duplicate the abilities of Guardian's battlesuit as well as his appearance. Courtney, acting as Guardian, led Alpha Flight to the West Edmonton Mall, where they encountered Omega Flight, looking for revenge, as well as to recover their lost member, Smart Alec.

    Driven from the mall by the sudden appearance of the Beyonder, Omega Flight, led by Courtney disguised as Guardian, ran into Madison in the parking lot. Madison used his abilities to fend off the Omegan Flashback, inadvertently killing one of Flashback's future selves. He then turned to Courtney, forcing her to remove her Guardian mask, and then turned her inside out, destroying Courtney. Madison expressed his disappointment with Diamond Lil for turning criminal and turned her and the rest of Omega Flight over to the authorities while he met up with Alpha Flight inside the mall, witnessing the Beyonder's departure.

    Joining Alpha Flight

    Alpha Flight
    Alpha Flight

    Destroying Courtney made Madison realize that he could use his power's for a higher and better purpose than just being a mechanic, and he joined Alpha Flight as its resident machine smith. Working together, he and Bochs repaired Courtney's battlesuit, which is now worn by Hudson's wife Heather in her role as Alpha Flight's new leader, Vindicator. Madison and Roger worked together to reconstruct the interior of the house Walter Langkowski had inherited on Tamarind Island, which had been gutted by Walter's ancestor, Gilded Lily. The reconstructed house was dubbed "Mansion Alpha", and would serve as Alpha Flight's headquarters for a while.

    Jeffries and Heather
    Jeffries and Heather

    Heather Hudson, having taken leadership of Alpha Flight during this period, researched her missing (and presumed deceased) husband's files on Madison Jeffries, and discovered the existence of his brother Lionel. The database made no mention of Lionel's madness, and when she travelled to the hospital where he was kept, she was surprised to find out that he was a patient and not a staff member. Heather inadvertently allowed Lionel to use his powers, freeing himself and disfiguring Heather in the process.

    Madison was forced to confront Scramble once again, but this time Madison forced Lionel to use his power upon himself, allowing Scramble to regain a measure of sanity.

    Madison was then kidnapped by Kara Killgrave, a.k.a the Purple Girl, when she feared reprisal from Alpha Flight for her manipulation of Northstar. However, Madison would soon take to looking after Kara as a sort of father figure for a time, in the absence of her biological father, the criminal known as the Purple Man. The fact that Kara would look up to Heather as a mother figure while a member of Alpha Flight may have also contributed to Madison and Heather's budding romance.

    Scramble, The Mixed-Up Man
    Scramble, The Mixed-Up Man

    Madison served Alpha Flight largely in a support role, rather than as an active combatant, by applying Roger Bochs' designs (and a few of his own, learning from Roger) to create and repair Alpha Flight's technological equipment, such as the Omnijet. After suffering from the bends in the course of a mission with Alpha Flight, Bochs could not leave the Box armored body without serious risk to his life. In despair at the idea that he might be trapped within the robot forever, especially considering he was in love with his fellow Alpha Flight member Aurora, Bochs went wild aboard the Alpha Flight Omnijet. Madison Jeffries restrained Bochs by using his powers to alter the robotic body.

    Madison vs. Lionel & Roger

    Scrambler
    Scrambler

    Alpha Flight brought Bochs to Lionel Jeffries, who, although no longer licensed to practice medicine had established a clinic (the New Life Clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia) and secret research laboratory, both financed by an unidentified benefactor. Lionel Jeffries used his powers to separate Bochs from the Box armor safely and to cure him of the bends. Then Lionel Jeffries used his powers to give Bochs a new pair of legs, secretly using flesh from corpses to accomplish the task. However, Lionel's mental instability was not cured completely, and he had secretly begun experimenting again. Madison became suspicious when Lionel used his powers to radically alter Roger, severely reducing his body fat and giving him new legs, so that Roger could impress teammate and girlfriend Aurora.

    The disembodied spirit of an Alpha Flight member whose physical body had been killed, Walter Langkowski, the original Sasquatch, transferred itself into the Box robot in order to Battle Alpha Flight's enemy Pestilence, which had taken possession of the body of another Alpha Flight member, Snowbird. Pestilence was defeated by Alpha Flight, and Langkowski took over Snowbird's body, which now can take the form of Sasquatch. Aurora was overjoyed that Langkowski, her former lover, had returned. She told Bochs that he had merely served as a "distraction" for her after Langkowski's physical death.

    At the same time, Roger's new legs were deteriorating, because they had been taken from corpses (and not Roger's own mass as he had been led to believe). Driven to insane jealousy, Roger joined with Box and attacked Sasquatch. To stop Bochs' rampage, Madison Jeffries used his ability over metal to force Bochs out of the Box robot and to enter into it himself. (Previously only someone with Bochs' genetic structure could phase inside the Box armor, but Jeffries had secretly modified Box so that he could enter it as well as Bochs.) Bochs felt betrayed by Madison. Moreover, his new legs were quickly withering away. In his paranoid state, Roger began to believe that Madison had intended to take Box from him all along.

    Roger was taken back to the New Life Clinic, where Lionel Jeffries was still insane and had plans for Bochs. Bochs agreed to merge with Lionel Jeffries into a new being who would combine Lionel's transmutative powers with Roger's "inventor's imagination" for new shapes into which to transform. This composite creature, called Omega, dominated by Lionel Jeffries' mind, battled Madison Jeffries, who was now inside the Box armor, along with the rest of Alpha Flight. Jeffries had used his powers, to alter the design of the Box armor. Madison, having picked up some of Roger's skills while working together, altered the Box robot to be able to utilize Madison's own powers while merged with it, allowing Box to transform into any form that Madison was able to think of.

    Horrified by what was happening, Bochs' own mind reasserted itself, but Lionel Jeffries used his own powers to lobotomize Bochs psychically, removing Bochs' capacity for independent thought and retaining only his faculty for invention. A new Alpha Flight trainee, the Purple Girl, used her ability to control minds to put Omega under her influence. However, she was unable to cause Omega to fully restore Bochs' mind, for it was far beyond repair. Madison was finally able to reach what was left of Roger's sanity long enough to cause Omega to stop its attack. Madison Jeffries transformed part of Box into a cannon, with which he destroyed Omega. With Omega's death, both Bochs and Lionel Jeffries died as well.

    Madison, Heather, and Lillian

    Heather and Jeffries
    Heather and Jeffries

    After losing several members of Alpha Flight, the team consisted of three primary members: Vindicator, Box, and Sasquatch and junior members Purple Girl, Manikin, Goblyn and Pathway. When the rest of the team was captured by Bedlam, a failed creation of Department H, Box teamed up with Wolverine to defeat Bedlam and save Alpha Flight. Soon after, Alpha Flight was attacked by the Great Beasts, and Box used Bedlam's Arctic base to increase his own size in order to physically battle Tundra. Shortly thereafter, Box discarded much of the matter absorbed from Bedlam's base in launching Alpha Flight into deep space, with his remaining body forming a starship. Alpha Flight would eventually return to Earth by way of the Dreamqueen's dimension.

    During this time, Madison and Heather pursued a romantic relationship, and the two were engaged shortly after returning to Earth and disbanding Alpha Flight. However, the engagement was fraught with difficulty, as the Dreamqueen and subsequently Llan the Sorcerer would force Alpha Flight back together, and give the two little time for romance.

    Lillian and Madison
    Lillian and Madison

    It was during the final fight with the Dreamqueen that Lillian Crawley (a.k.a. Diamond Lil) re-entered Madison's life. Lil, having been paroled with the intention of being recruited into Canada's new official superteam, Gamma Flight, ended up fighting together with Alpha Flight instead. Although Madison would reaffirm his love for Heather during the final battle with Llan, the discovery that Guardian was, in fact, alive Brought an end to their engagement.

    After Alpha Flight had regained official status with the Canadian government, Madison and Lil remained with Alpha Flight for a time, fighting together as teammates. Madison provided support for Lil after she had discovered a lump in her breast; due to her virtually indestructible body, a biopsy was not possible with existing Earth technology, but an alien weapon recovered during an invasion of Toronto, altered by Madison, allowed a biopsy to be performed on Lil. The cyst proved benign, and shortly thereafter, Madison and Lil were engaged and later married, after which they retired from Alpha Flight. They eventually were forced into service once again during the Infinity Crusade, before Alpha Flight was again disbanded.

    Zodiac & Weapon X

    No Caption Provided

    When Alpha Flight was once more reassembled under the sponsorship of Department H , Madison joined the team again, although he no longer used the Box armor or its identity. Unfortunately, he was soon kidnapped by the Zodiac. Madison was then Brainwashed into becoming one half of the Gemini twins, Madison returned to attack Department H, stealing the powerful Nth Projector and releasing a creature that killed the bestial Sasquatch. (It has been suggested that Madison's Gemini counterpart is Lionel Jeffries, due to its power of transmuting flesh.) Despite Puck finding and unmasking him, he still Believed Alpha Flight were enemies of his.

    No Caption Provided

    The Zodiac was later attacked by the subversive Weapon X program, who hoped to kidnap Madison for themselves. The mysterious Director, Malcolm Colcord, had Madison further brainwashed, this time into serving Weapon X. He was manipulated to think that Director Colcord was his ally and not to question what the intended use of his projects was for. He was working on a new generation of Sentinels as well as using Box robots to keep the Neverland prisoners in line. Within days, much of the operations ran by the Director were facilitated by Jeffries, such as in the use of Boxbots, robots created by Jeffries. He didn't even realize that his wife Diamond Lil was one of the detainees in the camp. Following in-fighting within the project and an attack by Cable’s Underground, the Weapon X program was infiltrated and crippled. Colcord was almost killed by turncoat agent Washout, but was rescued by Madison, after Colcord persuaded Aurora, the three escaped the Weapon X complex using Aurora's superhuman speed to parts unknown, despite the Director's abusive behavior towards him.

    Decimation

    Madison Jeffries was one of the few mutants to retain their superhuman powers during the M-Day event.

    X-Club

    No Caption Provided

    Maison is later approached by Beast to join his scientist team that deals with the Mutant Birth Crisis because they need someone who is good with machinery. Jeffries claims he wanted to get away from people after being brainwashed into making Automated Mutant Death Camps so he moved away to create and get smarter. His robots learned to adapt and self replicate and decided they didn't need him anymore. They sealed off the bunker and have tried to kill Madison ever since. He planted a bomb and joined Beast's team. They then travel to Graymalkin Industries to meet their final member of the X-club Dr. Kavita Rao (who was formerly trying to cure mutation).

    Together, the team try to figure what can turn the X-gene back on. They also assembled a time travel device to help them locate Cable and the Mutant Messiah, Hope in the far future. However, the devices were only prototypes, brought together in a short time. The side effects included biological acceleration so therefore the travellers would have to return to the present in thirty-three and a half hours.

    X-club
    X-club

    Madison, who now appears to converse with machines frequently, brought up that they created a time machine to go to the future. He then suggests they alter the machines to travel into the past in order to study "The Origin of The Species" or pre-mutant DNA. Rao suggests studying the parents of a first-generation mutant which would enable them to see what genetic indicators and eccentricities made such an evolutionary leap possible. Nemesis brought up pre-mutant DNA from his parents as an example. Madison makes the time machine and they travel to 1906 San Francisco in order to procure blood samples from Dr. Nemesis' parents. He recently teamed with Dr Nemesis and Psylocke to defeat Dark Beast and Norman Osborn's forces on Utopia.

    Krakoa

    As a mutant, Jeffries was welcome on Krakoa, however, he was one of the first law breakers on the mutant utopia. He was locked up in The Pit, where prisoners were suspended by Krakoan vines with their minds trapped in a mind prison of Xavier's creation. However, when Sabretooth was imprisoned for killing humans, his angry psyche was able to take over the mind prison and manipulate it to convince his fellow prisoners to break out. This psychic interruption caused physical trauma to the island, so Cypher made a deal with the prisoners. They would be released and exiled from Krakoa to stop their breakout attempts from hurting the land any further. In addition, they would hunt Sabretooth down and use a special seed from Cypher on him.

    Powers & Abilities

    Mutant Powers

    Madison is a mutant technoformer able to psionically rearrange metal, plastic and glass into any form he can think of. He can manipulate items on an atomic level and can create highly complex and detailed machines, weapons, vehicles, and other technologies, and he is particularly skilled at psionically restructuring machinery into duplicating and enhancing the form and functions of parts of the human body. He also has a talent for intuitive design akin to that of Forge. More recently he has developed the complementary mutation of full technopathy, allowing him to both communicate with and control (in most cases) machinery, appliances, computers and artificial intelligence, etc. It has been remarked by telepaths that his mind seems more like that of a machine than of a man.

    Madison could also psychically sense the presence of his brother Lionel.

    • With Box

    Through an act of will, Madison Jeffries could "phase" into the humanoid robotic body called Box in order to control the armor from within. The Box robotic body is principally composed of a "living metal," the exact nature of which has not been revealed. Jeffries mentally controls Box from within its body, and he can perceive whatever its sensors perceive. Although Jeffries cannot actually feel physical pain while within Box, his psychic link with Box is such that he can feel psychic pain if enough damage is inflicted upon Box.

    The Box robot has vast superhuman strength and is highly resistant to physical damage. The Box robot possesses superhuman strength and at its normal size can lift (press) roughly 85 tons. Jeffries can cause the Box robot to grow to enormous size, thereby increasing its strength assuming there is enough metal, plastic and glass within his vicinity to draw upon. When he does this, the uppermost limit of Box's strength is unknown. Powerful jets in the soles of its feet enable the robot to fly at supersonic speeds. Box also contains many different devices to capable of fulfilling various functions. In fact, Jeffries can use his psionic powers to create new devices, weapons, scanners and utility options for Box, or to modify existing devices within Box including its shape, in any way that he can conceive. For example, he has caused part of Box's body to become a cannon and in flight, its arms to become wings with a rudder to appear on its feet. He has also caused drills to emerge from the soles of Box's feet.

    • Abilities

    Madison Jeffries is a highly skilled master mechanic and builder of machinery. Jeffries received training in hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms in the United States Army and from Department H.

    Alternate Realities

    Age of Apocalypse
    Age of Apocalypse

    Earth-295

    Madison Jeffries in the Age of Apocalypse reality was a member of the Brotherhood in this alternate reality, along with teammates Copycat, Spyne, and Yeti. They were charged with stopping the X-Men from evacuating a large group of humans in the "Great Sentinel Airlift". Using his technological powers, Box reprogrammed the Sentinels to target the X-Men. In the ensuing battle, Box and Copycat were able to sneak onto the airlift, posing as humans. They were later discovered by Weapon X and Jean Grey at a checkpoint. Weapon X killed Box, but the distraction allowed Donald Pierce's Reavers to pass through unnoticed. He had the same powers he had in the regular Marvel 616 universe.

    House of M
    House of M

    House Of M

    Madison Jeffries (alongside his brother Lionel) was in Magneto's mutant army. Magneto had them positioned in the Central American country of Santo Rico (after overthrowing El Toro) where they ruled it with an iron fist and experimented on its residence. He and his brother were killed when Hood's Masters Of Evil took over Santo Rico.

    Days Of Future Now

    In the alternate future depicted in Weapon X: Days of Future Now, Madison's ever-improving Boxbots have gained a sentience of their own, one of them even calling itself Master Mold.

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