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Marvel’s From the Ashes relaunch of its X-Men comic book line has drawn praise for focusing on some unexpected characters and putting them in unexpected places — but there’s one fan-favorite character that people shouldn’t be expecting to see that much of any time soon, because the editor in charge of the line feels she might be a bit too messy.

“I will say that poor old Madeline Pryor is a bit of a mess of a character, one whose entire backstory and history has been revised to the point where her existence doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense,” Brevoort wrote in the latest edition of his Substack newsletter. He’s not wrong; the character was originally introduced as a new love interest for Scott Summers (Cyclops) who looked like the then-deceased Jean Grey… only to later be retconned into a literal clone of Jean Grey upon her revival. Oh, and she also became an actual demon around that time as well, and has since been killed herself (and brought back to life), because why not?

“The X-Men ‘97 show did a much better job with her, largely by knowing where they were going from the start and so simplifying her background in that series,” Brevoort continued. Pryor is a big part of the show’s first season, but her storyline is significantly re-written and simplified with a defined end-point clearly in place from the start.

In comics, however, Brevoort argued that Pryor is “one of a number of X-characters whose history is messy, and it’s difficult to truly get a grasp on who she is and what she wants, at least consistently. Until and unless somebody cracks that, she’s likely going to mostly be sidelined. I don’t want to field a character just because they’ve appeared in a bunch of comics previously.”

Bad news, Madeline fans — unless, of course, this is all a misdirect and there’s a writer out there who has already cracked things, and is working on bringing the character back in secret right now…

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights:

• Marvel Studios has accidentally created a new Phase that predates Phases 1 - 6: the MCU Phase Zero
• Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak
• The biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows
• Donald Trump is the landlord for Marvel's House of Ideas
• Marvel Studios swapping out Doctor Doom for Kang offers the chance to jettison the Multiverse Saga
• What Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige is saying (and not saying) about the MCU X-Men franchise says a lot about the future of the Mutant Saga
• If Marvel is going to bring Loki back for Secret Wars, it's time to give him an upgrade
• With Daredevil, and spinoffs from Black Panther, What If, and more, Marvel Studios' 2025 Disney+ slate is bigger than ever, and that might be a big deal for the future
• If Kraven the Hunter flops, Sony's Spider-Man Universe could look for a Marvel-assisted reboot
• In 2021, Sony's boss said people won't miss Spider-Man in its Spider-adjacent movie. Turns out, they do.