Madrox - PI
Before
Multiple Man was previously working for X-Corps in Paris until he quit. [New X-Men (1st series) #128-130] At an undisclosed time, he had also sent a number of duplicates out into the world to gather various skill sets, with the intention of reabsorbing the dupes at a later date.
Recovering from a heart attack, Strong Guy rejoined Lila Cheney as her bodyguard on her intergalactic adventures. [Strong Guy Reborn #1] He later returned to Earth after falling out with her over an unknown issue.
Wolfsbane joined the Xavier Institute as a member of the teaching staff [New Mutants (2nd series) #9]
Following the recent population explosion of mutants, a large number settled into a section of Manhattan called Mutant Town. [X-Men Unlimited (2nd series) #2]
Chronology
Jamie Madrox won one million dollars on a TV game show and decided to use the money to set up a detective agency. He bought a building and set up shop under the name of XXX Investigations. Former teammate Strong Guy quickly joined the agency and the two started investigating small cases. Wolfsbane showed up on their doorstep one day, curious as to what Jamie was getting himself into. She went to meet Strong Guy in a bar and was shocked when a dupe of Jamie’s fell into the establishment, having been shot in the chest. Jamie Prime arrived and reluctantly absorbed the dupe, learning that he had been murdered and decided that he needed to go to Chicago to find out the truth. Using some of his local contacts, Jamie started piecing together the fragments of memory he had absorbed off the dupe. He discovered a woman called Sheila Desoto, the fiancée of a rich and corrupt businessman Edward Vance, was involved in the dupe’s attack.
He managed to meet with Sheila but was quickly taken hostage by Edward, at which point both Edward and Jamie learned that Sheila had married Jamie’s dupe. Jamie soon after managed to escape with Sheila and dropped her off at a motel, whilst he went to confront the man he thought he shot his dupe. Jamie’s assumptions were wrong, however, as the suspect was murdered by Sheila, who was not only secretly a mutant herself but had been killing all of Chicago’s gang leaders so she could take control of the criminal underworld. In the final showdown, Sheila was shot by Edward before she could kill him. It was at this point that Jamie realized it was she who had arranged for his dupe to be shot when he had discovered the truth about Sheila and her true intentions.
Back in New York, Wolfsbane and Strong Guy took a job from a woman who was sure her quadriplegic husband was having a psychic affair with another woman. The two monitored the husband and, after witnessing his astral form leave his body as he slept, they followed the projection across the city until it entered another apartment. As it turned out, they discovered the wife was right. He had been having a psychic affair, only it was with another man. When the astral projection spotted Wolfsbane watching him and attacked her, she accidentally destroyed the projection in self-defense, inadvertently killing his physical body as he slept. Afterwards, Wolfsbane and Strong Guy lied to the grieving wife and said that her husband was an honest man. However, their cover was blown when the man he had been having an affair with overheard them and revealed his identity. Afterwards, deciding that XXX Investigations sounded too much like a porn agency, Wolfsbane took it upon herself to change the name to X-Factor Investigations. [Madrox #1-5]
In-between
- The Scarlet Witch warped reality to create the House of M, a world where mutants were the dominant species. When she was forced to revert the world back to how it was, she uttered the words “no more mutants” and depowered most of the world’s mutants. The depowering would be known as “the Decimation” or “M-Day.” [House of M crossover]
- Layla Miller first appeared in the House of M world and was a key player in making the heroes remember the reality warp. [House of M #4-8]
- M, Rictor and Siryn all worked alongside Multiple Man in the Paris branch of X-Corps until it closed after the Decimation. [New X-Men (1st series) #128-130]
- Wolfsbane left the Xavier Institute after it was revealed she had been having a romantic relationship with a student. [New X-Men (2nd series) #12]
Chronology continued
Alerted to the situation by a news report, Jamie went to talk to Rictor, who was about to throw himself off a building. Watching from another rooftop, Jamie created a duplicate and sent it across to talk Rictor down. Rictor revealed that he had been depowered by the recent decimation and the dupe explained about Jamie’s current line of work, offering Rictor a job as well. Wolfsbane arrived and chastised Rictor for trying to kill himself, so much so that Rictor relented and stepped away from the ledge. However, the dupe revealed his true nature and pushed Rictor off the building in a bid to murder him. Fortunately, he was saved by Monet and she flew him off so they can talk. Jamie managed to chase down the dupe that pushed Rictor and was alarmed to discover that he was the part of Jamie that couldn’t be trusted. Jamie absorbed the dupe but was unsure as to when the dupe would appear next and what damage he would do.
Elsewhere, Siryn was in a café with a client who was helping expose her corrupt boss. The woman handed Siryn a folder full of documents that would expose the man but, when she inspected them, Siryn discovered the pages were blank. Before she could act, a car drove by and the client was shot dead. The car sped off, avoiding Strong Guy who had only just arrived at the café. Siryn caught up with the car but the assassin killed herself rather than risk being caught. Later on at the agency, Siryn was dwelling on the day’s events when a young girl called Layla Miller arrived and announced she was joining the team. To the annoyance of the others, she immediately started digging into their paperwork and warned Siryn off chasing after Singularity Investigations, the company who sent the assassin. Displaying knowledge of the future, she convinced Siryn and Strong Guy to take on the case of Gloria Santiago, whose sister has started acting strangely. Trusting Layla’s cryptic hints, Siryn took on the case and discovered the woman’s sister was having an affair with a movie star. Gloria was confused by the situation but was happy with the work and left the agency.
After being saved by M, Rictor declined another offer to join the agency. Layla randomly gave him a money-off coupon for some gas and he drove away on his bike. He stopped at a station to fuel up and got caught in a violent altercation between a man and his girlfriend. After saving the woman’s life, Rictor returned to the agency with a new outlook and decided to join the group. Later that night, the team received a call from Gloria and learned that she was under arrest for the murder of her sister. [X-Factor (3rd series) #1-2]
Since M-Day, the tensions in Mutant Town were running high and soon riots started to break out. With some of the team helping to calm the streets, no one noticed when a man sneaked into the agency and knocked Rictor out. Singularity had hired the man because they saw the future was in flux and had deduced that it was a new element to do with X-Factor, which they surmised to be Rictor. Before he could kill Rictor, the assassin was stopped by Layla, who revealed that it was she of whom Singularity should be wary. The assassin attempted to kill Layla but she managed to manipulate events so that he was electrocuted to death.
When Siryn and Jamie first investigated the scene of the crime, they were removed from the building by Damian Tryp Jr, an executive at Singularity Investigations, which was looking into the crime. Stymied there, they next attempted to speak with Gloria herself at the police station and called M to use her telepathy to read Gloria’s mind. M quickly figured out what really happened and then tracked down the movie star that her sister was having an affair with. It was he who had killed the woman and so M used her powers to exact revenge and forced him to come clean. With their assassin dead and one of their clients behind bars due to X-Factor’s interference, Damian Tryp Jr. had Siryn savagely beaten to send the agency a warning. [X-Factor (3rd series) #3-4]
When Siryn didn’t arrive at the café where she had said she would be, Rictor went searching for her and found the site of the attack. Siryn was nowhere to be found but Rictor soon tracked a trail of blood to a disused theater, where he discovered she was being held hostage by a crazed man. Killing the violent man, Rictor saved Siryn and took her back to X-Factor HQ. [X-Factor (3rd series) #5]
As Siryn recovered in bed, the rest of the team argued between themselves over the events of her attack. Rictor blamed Layla, as she knew that the attack would happen but did not warn anyone. Layla called the orphanage where she used to live and left the team, despite Wolfsbane’s protests. Wolfsbane wouldn’t let it lie though and visited the orphanage to see that Layla has been beaten up by the other kids. She persuaded the woman running the center that Layla was safe with them and the young girl rejoined the group. Meanwhile, Strong Guy and an army of Jamie’s dupes tracked Damian Tryp down to make him aware that they would not be intimidated. [X-Factor (3rd series) #6]
In-between
- When the long-forgotten Vulcan woke up after M-Day, he went on a deadly rampage that cost the life of Siryn’s father, Banshee. [X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2]
- After a fight between the publicity-seeking New Warriors and a group of villains resulted in the death of over 600 civilians, a Superhero Registration Act was swiftly enacted by Congress that mandated anyone wanting to be a superhero would have to register on a database. Many heroes chose to oppose this law and soon battle lines were drawn between the pro- and anti-registration forces. [Civil War]
- Quicksilver was depowered after M-Day but managed to get his hands on the Inhuman’s Terrigen Crystals, which apparently gave himself the ability to repower mutants. [Son of M]
Chronology continued
Siryn, still recovering from the attack, received a visit from Cyclops to inform her that her father had died. Whilst everyone else was in shock, Siryn went into denial, as she believed he was simply pretending to be dead to fool his enemies. Jamie, meanwhile, was invited to the head office of Singularity Investigations to meet with Damian Tryp Jr. and Sr. They offered to buy out X-Factor Investigations for $50 million but Jamie declined and laughed in their faces. The Tryps did not take the rejection well and Jamie was thrown out the window of the skyscraper. However, it was not Jamie at all but a dupe, which Jamie Prime absorbed it before it hit the ground. [X-Factor (3rd series) #7]
Having been clued in to some things by Tryp, Jamie sent Siryn to question some of the heroes about M-Day, despite Layla trying to convince her not to. Siryn soon tracked down Spider-Man and used her hypnotic voice to get him to tell her everything he knew about M-Day. Back at base, the rest of the team were confronted by another duplicate of Jamie’s who worked for SHIELD. He wanted them to register under the new Superhuman Registration Act, to which Rictor and M agreed. During their previous meeting, Jamie managed to get a DNA sample from the two Tryps and to their confusion discovered they were identical. Later on, Siryn contacted Jamie to inform him that she knew the Scarlet Witch caused M-Day and the other heroes were covering it up.
Meanwhile, Quicksilver arrived in mutant town and started using his new abilities to repower a number of residents, unfortunately to dire effects. He ran into Layla, who immediately declared herself his nemesis, and then met with X-Factor. He tried to get them to stand against the Registration Act but, when everyone turned to the rarely decisive Jamie for an answer, he walked away. He confronted Layla about her knowing the truth about M-day all along but she just gave him cryptic answers, including the possibility that they would marry one day. She sent Jamie off on a mystery task that ended up with him saving one of the New Warriors from the government, an encounter and action that helped Jamie make up his mind. The X-Men soon showed up looking for Quicksilver and, despite his animosity towards the speedster, Jamie stood up to the X-Men and the Registration Act too. [X-Factor (3rd series) #8-9]
After celebrating the press conference in which they took their moral stance, Jamie woke up the next morning to discover he and a dupe had slept with both M and Siryn. However, due to the nature of his memory once he had reabsorbed a dupe, Jamie remained unsure which of his selves slept with which girl. Neither woman knew about the other’s tryst and Jamie tried to keep it that way. A distraction came along when Strong Guy saved a man from being shot by a rocket launcher. The man, Henry Buchanan, worked for Singularity and was looking for X-Factor’s protection. He explained that he had created a deadly virus that could kill mutants but had regretted doing so and desperately wanted to destroy his work before it could be used. Jamie sent Strong Guy with the man so he could retrieve back-ups of his work from Singularity. However, when they were alone in the car, Strong Guy murdered Buchanan on the orders of Damian Tryp Jr.
Meanwhile, after hearing Quicksilver could restore his mutant powers, Rictor met with him to discuss his possible repowerment.
When Strong Guy returned to base without Buchanan, Wolfsbane immediately smelled blood on him and attacked. M managed to get into Strong Guy’s mind and discovered he had been brainwashed by Tryp. The psychic intrusion sent Strong Guy into a berserk mode but he was knocked out by Quicksilver, whose new powers seemed to short out those of a mutant’s. After assessing the situation, the team decided to raid Buchanan’s office to get the original copies of his work. They called a bomb scare in to get Singularity’s offices evacuated and then they snuck in to steal the information. They split up with Jamie, Wolfsbane and M going to Buchanan’s office, whilst Rictor and Siryn headed to the computer room. In Buchanan’s office, Jamie’s team found an elderly version of Tryp, who explained his recent actions and motivations. He claimed that he existed at all points in the timeline and in fact the Tryp Sr. and Tryp Jr. they had previously met were simply younger versions of himself from earlier in his timeline. He further explained that the future was doomed because X-Factor would be responsible for repowering mutants and he had been trying to stop them from doing so. Even after being shown visions of this horrible future by Tryp, Jamie and his team were still adamant that they would oppose him, so Tryp revealed he had Buchanan’s wife hostage and would kill her unless they left the building. Unbeknownst to him, Layla has been working behind the scenes and had manipulated events to give herself a chance to free Buchanan’s wife and escape with her.
Meanwhile, Rictor and Siryn managed to break into Singularity’s database and get all the information they needed. As they began to make their escape, they ran into the two younger versions of Tryp, but managed to knock them down, meet up with the rest of the team and exit the building. Just as they thought they had won, the two Tryps came across the building’s armory, where they discovered one of Jamie’s dupes wearing a suicide vest made from some of the armory’s explosives. They had no time to react before the renegade dupe blew up the building, killing the two younger Tryps and trapping the elder one in an incorporeal form. [X-Factor (3rd series) #10-12]
After the recent events, Jamie decided it was best if his team visited a psychiatrist to air their problems and fears. Jamie told the psychiatrist, Doc Samson, that he slept with both M and Siryn and he didn’t know what to do about it. Wolfsbane revealed that the elder Tryp had showed her a vision of her own future in which she would be responsible for the deaths of Jamie and Layla on their wedding night. [X-Factor (3rd series) #13]
When the X-Men needed help with battling the Hulk, they sent out a call to all of their allies. X-Factor raced to the school and dove right in to battle with the green goliath. Despite their best efforts, the teams were no match for the Hulk and he swatted them away like flies. [World War Hulk: X-Men #2-3]
After talking with Samson, Jamie decided to come clean to both Siryn and M, and naturally received a violent response. Siryn gave him the colder shoulder, whilst M beat him up until he created the dupe she slept with. After being scolded by Layla, the two women buried the hatchet with each other and went to Paris on a shopping trip. Meanwhile, Strong Guy met with Buchanan’s wife and confessed he had killed her husband. In a surprising response, she forgave him and told him he was just a pawn in Singularity’s game. Jamie, having had enough of his dupes causing him trouble, decided to go collecting any stray ones he had around. He snuck in to SHIELD to collect the one working for them, but was confronted by Val Cooper, who explained she had been watching X-Factor closely. As Jamie left, he was kidnapped by Hydra, who thought he was the dupe working for SHIELD. [X-Factor (3rd series) #14]
Jamie was taken to a Hydra base and brainwashed by the same man who put Strong Guy in control of Singularity. Unfortunately, when the man went to show off the new Jamie, he had trouble controlling him and Jamie continued to create duplicates. He created so many that he crushed all the Hydra agents to death before falling unconscious. SHIELD showed up to take down Hydra but instead found everybody dead, all except Jamie. The dupe working for SHIELD was absorbed back into Jamie when no one was looking. Afterwards, Jamie tracked down another of his dupes whom he had sent to study religion and found him working as a pastor in a church in Vermont. Upon seeing Jamie, the dupe fled and, thanks to a bit of mistaken identity, Jamie went home with the dupe’s wife and child. He discovered the dupe had called himself John Maddox and, when the family went to bed, John confronted Jamie. After a tense discussion, Jamie decided to let John live on without fear of being reabsorbed in the future.
On the other side of the world, M and Siryn were shopping in Paris when they became involved in anti-mutant riots. They were arrested for trying to break one up and, when they returned to the scene, they found a destroyed building and an orphaned young girl. M took pity on the girl and decided to bring her back to America, despite Siryn’s protests. As they left, they were watched by a mysterious figure from the shadows who helped them evade the authorities. [X-Factor (3rd series) #15-16]
In Detroit, Jamie tracked down another wayward dupe, only this one had been learning detective skills for the past few years. Curiously, this dupe was manically depressed and killed himself before Jamie could absorb him. Before he could investigate further, Layla phoned Jamie to inform him he needed to get back to New York, as a situation was about to arise. Wolfsbane and Rictor were out walking when they saw someone being attacked and went in to help. They helped the victim escape, only to learn the “attackers” were SHIELD and the “victim” was a wanted terrorist from a group of depowered mutants called X-Cell. Rictor and Wolfsbane were arrested whilst Strong Guy and Layla were also stuck under house arrest. When Jamie arrived back in New York, he was met by Val Cooper, who explained the situation and freed the two captive members of his team. The team met up to discuss what to do but Layla assured them it would all work out, regardless of whether they helped or not.
At this point, Siryn and M returned from Paris with the young Nicole in tow. Layla was genuinely surprised to see her, as she hadn’t foreseen the girl’s appearance. X-Factor insisted on becoming involved in the X-Cell situation and so Layla gave them all tasks to do that would help. Jamie and Rictor were going about their mission when they got into a fight with a depowered Blob and Fatale. After stopping the two escaping, the rest of X-Cell showed up and faced off against X-Factor. In the chaos, Rictor was knocked out and no one noticed Quicksilver pick up his body and abscond with it. Eventually, X-Cell managed to best X-Factor and afterward left to meet up with Quicksilver, who had a plan to repower them all. Luckily for X-Factor, Blob had been captured and, after some threats from M, spilled the beans on the plan. Elsewhere, Quicksilver used Rictor as a conduit to repower some of X-Cell but, before he could finish, X-Factor showed up outside. X-Cell confronted them and a fight broke out in the streets, creating enough of a distraction for Layla to sneak into X-Cell’s base and meet with Quicksilver. She revealed she had a tape recording of X-Factor, Quicksilver and the X-Men talking about M-Day and the fact the Scarlet Witch was involved. Marrow and Callisto, two of the X-Cell, were shocked to learn this and turned against Quicksilver. Outside, one of the X-Cell members spontaneously combusted, due to Quicksilver’s repowerment. Fatale, Reaper and Abyss were forced to jump into another dimension in the hopes of stopping themselves from combusting too. With X-Cell gone and the truth revealed, Quicksilver tried to kill Layla but was stopped by Rictor, who expelled the Terrigen Crystals from the speedster’s body. [X-Factor (3rd series) #17-20]
Whilst Jamie managed to patch things up with M and Siryn, Rictor was feeling even more depressed after his ordeal with Quicksilver. Wolfsbane went to comfort him and the two ended up sleeping together. Later on, a couple came to X-Factor, as they wanted the team to help them see their grandchildren, who were being used to help promote anti-mutant sentiments across the country. M and Siryn went to investigate the kids but were captured by two mercenaries once they arrived.
Meanwhile, Nicole showed a positive pregnancy test she had found in the trash to Layla, who was surprised once more, as she had no idea that someone was pregnant. When Layla went for a walk to think over the recent revelation, Nicole followed her and attempted to kill her. Layla was saved by Quicksilver, who in turn captured her and tried to kill her himself.
Back at base, Jamie was met by a man called Joseph Huber, who proposed that he gather all mutants together so they could have a rally to declare themselves an endangered species. What Jamie didn’t realize was that Huber was a mutant himself who involuntarily channeled other mutants’ powers, regardless of how far away they were. His telepathy was driving him insane and so he wanted to end all mutants by gathering them in one place and murdering them all at once. Huber’s plan seemed to work and X-Factor and the X-Men were on board, all except Rictor though who seemed immune to his influence. Layla, having escaped Quicksilver, phoned Jamie and told him of her ordeal and that Huber was the one who ordered Nicole to kill her. Huber was forced to reveal his true nature and a fight broke out, which ended up with most of X-Factor being teleported to the Arctic.
M and Siryn escaped the mercenaries and managed to complete their mission to reunite the children with their grandparents. When Siryn didn’t get a response from base, though, she suspected something was up and M flew back. In New York by himself, Rictor attacked Huber and discovered he could negate the crazed mutant’s powers. No matter what Huber tried, Rictor subconsciously counteracted him, thanks to some Terrigen crystals still lodged in his body. Just as the crystals finally dissolved, M arrived and attacked Huber, giving Rictor enough time to use a device to teleport the rest of X-Factor back. Realizing Layla was still alive, Nicole tried to kill her again but ended up being hit by a train, revealing she was a robot created by Huber all along. With Nicole out of the game and the odds against him, Huber retreated, leaving X-Factor confused as to what his problem was in the first place. [X-Factor (3rd series) #21-24]
When the first mutant born after M-Day was abducted by an unknown assailant, the X-Men contacted X-Factor for help. Cyclops wanted Rictor to infiltrate a group of religious zealots called the Purifiers to see if they knew where the so-called “messiah” baby was. After tracking down a group of Purifiers, Wolfsbane attacked them and was scared off by an undercover Rictor in a bid to get them to trust him. The plan worked and he was drafted into the group, easily passing a genetic test to see if he was human. Rictor quickly realized the Purifiers didn’t have the child but was alarmed to discover that Lady Deathstrike and her Reavers were working alongside them. Complicating matters more, a group of the X-Men’s students had also infiltrated the Purifier base on their own accord, forcing Rictor to reveal his identity. After a bloody battle with Lady Deathstrike, Rictor managed to gather the kids and help them escape.
As things began to escalate, Cyclops also had need for Multiple Man. Forge had built a machine that could send someone into the future and two particular timelines of significance were isolated. Jamie created two dupes and sent one into each future to see if they could gather any useful information. As the second dupe was about to be transported, Layla jumped into the machine and was also sent along with him. Together, the two landed in a dystopian world decades in the future and were quickly apprehended by human authorities. All mutants were forced to live in camps and so the two were taken there and branded with “M” tattoos on their faces to show that they were mutants. After doing some investigating around the camp, they discovered that a young Lucas Bishop also lived there and held a particular resentment to the messiah baby. Feeling they had enough information, Layla managed to get hold of a grenade and used it to kill the dupe, sending him back through the timestream to Jamie Prime. In the present, Jamie had fallen into a coma soon after sending the dupes off, but suddenly woke up and relayed to the X-Men that Bishop wasn’t to be trusted.
The rest of the team helped out the X-Men as best they could, and Wolfsbane even joined an ad-hoc X-Force team. When she fought some of the Reavers, one of them mentioned that her father was now a part of the Purifiers.
Jamie was correct in his assumption as Bishop did indeed turn on the team in a bid to kill the child he believed would grow up to cause a great catastrophe. The baby was eventually found in the hands of Mister Sinister on Muir Island and the rest of X-Factor joined in the assault. In the end, the baby was saved and X-Factor went back home, though Layla was now stuck in the far future. [Messiah Complex]
Reeling from the revelation that her father had joined a deadly hate group, Wolfsbane decided to quit X-Factor. She couldn’t bear to break up with Rictor face-to-face, so she left him a note and quietly slipped away. Jamie was struggling to deal with the loss of Layla too and sought out a small Purifier base and took down everyone inside. In the midst of this, Siryn admitted to M that she was pregnant with Jamie’s baby and that she was going to keep it. [X-Factor (3rd series) #28]
After reading Wolfsbane’s note, Rictor decided to leave the X-Men as well and, despite Jamie begging him not to go, he still left. He hadn’t make it off the front step, though, when a trapdoor opened in the pavement and he fell into it. He woke to find himself upside down and bound to a wooden cross, with a giant, swinging blade getting closer and closer. Having witnessed Rictor’s abduction, the rest of X-Factor was already searching for their teammate and quickly realized they were dealing with Arcade. After M managed to help Rictor break free, the team found Arcade and discovered he had been hired by the Purifier who had vouched for Rictor a week ago. He had been kicked out of the group and sought revenge, specifically on Rictor. Ultimately thwarted, he killed himself before X-Factor could capture him. Arcade managed to escape but not before setting off a number of bombs around Mutant Town. The team fought valiantly to save as many citizens as possible but, by the end of the day, most of the district was in ruins.
Once again, Val Cooper was on hand to help with the clean-up. However, she also made it clear that X-Factor could not continue as they had been and offered for them to become de facto government agents. After a team vote, X-Factor declined, instead deciding to relocate. For five months they operated in Detroit, hoping to evade notice by the government. However, when Val contacted Jamie again, it was clear that she had known their location all along. Reluctantly, Jamie agreed that X-Factor would take on jobs assigned by Val and the US government, though he would not inform his teammates of this fact. [X-Factor (3rd series) 29-32]