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The concept of the comic is that a plot device passes over an American town causing all the (one hundred and thirty three) unborn babies to be born with incredible super powers, essentially creating pretty standard super heroes -- the twist being they all know each other, grew up together, went to school together etc. Those with powers are called 'specials'. All the 'specials' are assumed to have powers and are kept in a 'special' school; however some of the specials grew up apparently powerless. Often the plot of the comic involves such specials, now adults, stumbling across their (obscure) powers. One such case is Stephanie Maas who has never manifested any powers but was none the less made to go to school with super powered kids who could fly, burst into flames, exhibit extreme strength and so on. Year one of the plot involves a plot line in which, having discovered that when one of the specials dies all the others get a proportional increase in their powers, one of the specials is killing off the others. Who could it be? Who will die next? How can they be stopped? Oh the drama! Well long story short it's not any of the people we were led to believe it was, it's actually Stephanie Maas' evil multiple personality Critical Maas! Yes apparently Stephanie was sexually abused by her father and so developed Critical to shield her from the trauma! But oh my, multiples have different physiologies and Critical got all the powers and oh boy has she got powers... strength, flight, telepathic mind control over specials (after physical contact), broadcast telepathy... everything she needs to control an army of specials to kill off all the other specials so she gets all the powers. Oh and she looks completely different from Stephanie, different hair length, different face... oh and she's really really sexy and seduces men before taking over their minds! And obviously because she's the multiple personality of someone who's really nice, she's a complete evil sadistic psychopath! Apparently for years Critical wasn't able to take front from Stephanie at will and could only influence her to do things, so she influences her to seduce one of the specials and then takes over his mind during sex and gets him to start killing off his school friends. Soon enough people are killed for the increase in all the other special's power to be enough to give Critical Maas the strength she needs to take front from Stephanie (forever), completely change their body into her own body and become this comic's only super villian to date. Yippie! So let's see... she takes over the minds of half the specials, does seriously evil sadistic unspeakable things using the power of one of the specials who can bring the dead back to life, oh and she takes over the entire city of Chicago and turns it into a no-mans-land. So there we go. Oh, and don't forget the nuclear missile she tried to set off! But it's all OK because during the big final battle she sees a scared little girl, which reminds her that actually she's supposed to be a protector personality and look after Stephanie, which triggers Stephanie herself to come to the front and save the day by killing herself and Critical with her. Gotta love a happy ending! So what was positive about this portrayal of multiplicity? ...erm... OK nothing was... oh except a member of a multiple system got published in the letters page an issue or two later and gave a different view. If only TV shows had letters pages...
If you're finding this plotline familiar (and not just because it's the oldest multiple media stereotype in the book) [and not just because the premise is lifted straight from Village of the Damned - Ed.] , that's because JMS used pretty much exactly the same concept in a Babylon 5 episode, "The Corps Is Mother, The Corps Is Father", where a telepath (the people in that universe who have powers) turns out to have another system member who is massively more powerful (than any telepath ever experienced before actually). But let's face it, JMS isn't renowned for having original ideas (when it comes to plot that is); he's best at making a sort of cultural collage of everyone else's (and the bible's, and every culture going's mythology's) ideas, and don't get me wrong -- he does a damn good job of it and makes really great TV (and comics) but to be honest I'd be really surprised if he came up with a portrayal of multiplicity which wasn't a huge rehashing of all the old stereotypes.
JMS has had a long career writing for everything from the He-Man and Ghostbusters cartoons to the detective series Murder She Wrote. I wouldn't be surprised if this same multiple stereotype hasn't appeared before in his work, and it may well appear again in the future. Oh and he wrote the 1989 TV movie version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, how apt.
Alex
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