In Binary #1, the power of the Phoenix Force was transferred from the X-Man Jean Grey to the Avenger Carol Danvers following Jean’s death during the Age of Revelation event. Taking on her former codename Binary once again, Carol chose to use the power of the Phoenix Force to protect the town of Beverly from the X-Virus rampaging across the United States of America, now known as the “Revelation Territories”. While some in the town are grateful for Binary’s assistance, some in the town resent Carol’s involvement, even going so far as claiming that the X-Virus is not real. Despite the townspeople’s resistance to her aid, Carol continued to offer her assistance to keep the X-Virus from infecting the people of Beverly.
At the end of Binary #1, it is revealed that a mysterious redheaded woman has been observing Carol from the shadows and is conspiring with a man in Beverly to make moves against Carol. In the final pages of Binary #2 that woman’s identity is revealed to be Madelyne Pryor aka the Goblin Queen. Longtime X-Men fans will know that Madelyne was introduced in Uncanny X-Men #168 as a love interest for Scott Summers, aka Cyclops. Bearing a striking resemblance to the late Jean Grey, Madelyne caused trepidation in Scott, who was apprehensive about getting romantically involved with a woman who looked so much like his former girlfriend. However, Scott and Madelyne quickly fell in love, and the pair were married in Uncanny X-Men #175. In X-Men and Alpha Flight #1, it was revealed that Madelyne was pregnant with Scott’s child. By Uncanny X-Men, the baby was born, a healthy boy named Nathan Christopher Summers who, for reasons I won’t get into now, will later grow up to be the time traveling mutant hero Cable.
Madelyne Pryor was created by Chris Claremont with the intention of retiring Scott Summers from the X-Men and giving him a happy ending of sorts with a wife and child. Those plans were complicated when Jean Grey was brought back from the dead in the pages of X-Factor, a new title featuring the original five X-Men from the Silver Age X-Men run teaming up again for the first time since the original X-Men title was cancelled. In X-Factor #1, we learn that Jean Grey did not actually die during the events of Dark Phoenix Saga, and that the real Jean Grey was in a cocoon at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. Scott Summers abandons Madelyne and his child to go and be reunited with Jean Grey after hearing the news that she is alive. Later, during the 1989 “Inferno” crossover, we find out that Madelyne Pryor is a clone of Jean Grey and was created by the nefarious mad scientist Mister Sinister in an effort to create a genetic offspring from both the Summers and Grey bloodline. This revelation enrages Madelyne, causing her to be corrupted by the demonic influences of Limbo and transformed into the Goblin Queen. As the Goblin Queen, Maddie tried to sacrifice baby Nathan as part of a plot to consume the Earth with the forces of Limbo and battles the X-Men and Jean Grey until she takes her own life.
The villain of Binary is revealed to be Madelyne Pryor, aka the Goblin Queen, who has come to take the power of the Phoenix Force for herself. Credit: Marvel Comics
In Binary #3, Madelyne has returned as the Goblin Queen to try and steal the Phoenix Force from Carol and take the power for herself. This raises some questions, as the last time we saw Madelyne Pryor in Magik #6, she had aligned herself with Illyana Rasputina aka Magik, to suppress a threat to Maddie’s sovereign rule over the Hell dimension known as Limbo. Magik previously transferred ownership of Limbo to Madelyne Pryor in the pages of New Mutants by Vita Ayala. Before that, Maddie had a somewhat sympathetic arc in Hellions by Zeb Wells. Madelyne Pryor also recently fought against Doctor Doom in One World Under Doom #3 along with many other heroes and villains, including Carol Danvers. These recent arcs for Madelyne show that she has come a long way since her days as a demonic supervillain driven mad who tried to commit filicide by attempting to sacrifice her child in order to open a gate between Limbo and the Earth.
Madelyne Pryor’s characterisation in Binary #3 resets her back to being a flat one-dimensional villain with no nuance behind her motivations and decision-making. There are also some dangling plot threads that would have benefited from further explanation. What has Madelyne been up to for the last 10 years while the Age of Revelation has been going on? Has she retained her title as Queen of Limbo? Is she working for Revelation now? Why does she want the Phoenix Force? Binary being compressed to three issues definitely presented difficulties for fleshing out and establishing all of this background for introducing Madelyne as the big bad of the book, but I believe that her inclusion in the book would have benefited significantly from having a fourth issue, which could have elaborated on these missing pieces in more detail.
Binary #3 also features the climactic, but not surprising, return of Jean Grey who reveals that she did not die, at least not in the traditional way we think of life and death. As Jean explains to a bewildered Carol, “I exhausted my physical body with the psychic barrier I created around Earth to keep the virus from spreading off-world, and need a little time to rebuild”. Carol is justifiably upset and frustrated with Jean for burdening her with the power of the Phoenix Force. Throughout this book, Carol has constantly felt as though she is a failure and has not lived up to Jean’s legacy as a host for the Phoenix Force. Carol and Jean embrace as Jean tells Carol that she has done a better job with the Phoenix Force than she gives herself credit for. It’s a nice moment which validates Carol as a brief host for the Phoenix Force and shows that if Jean Grey is unavailable, Carol would be a fine substitute for the future host of the Phoenix Force. The issue ends with Jean and Carol defeating Madelyne Pryor and Carol being redeemed as the hero we all know and love her to be.
Overall, Binary was an entertaining cosmic adventure that gave us some worthwhile character beats for Carol. Despite her short time as a host of the Phoenix Force, Carol proved to be a worthy substitute for Jean Grey as a host of the Phoenix Force. Although there are some problems with how Madelyne was characterized in this issue, I did find her to be a fun and formidable antagonist for Carol to fight in this book. While I am unsure of how much this particular title will impact future Carol Danvers or Jean Grey storylines, I am certain that the character Jean Grey will return next year in the Shadows of Tomorrow initiative. Whether she will be Jean Grey or Phoenix remains to be seen.
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