Alexander Flynn (Gladiators leader)

Occupation: Talent scout and later leader for the underground Mutant Theater and the Gladiators; would-be conqueror of Latveria

Affiliations: Gladiators; Shadow King (Farouk, possessing Karma (Xian Coy Manh));
(against their will): Magma (Amara Aquilla); Sunspot (Roberto Da Costa)

Enemies: Beast (Hank McCoy); Dazzler (Alison Blaire); Dr. Doom; Heartbreak Hotel mutants; Hugo Longride; New Mutants (Cannonball (Sam Guthrie), Magik (Illyana Rasputin), Magma, Sunspot, Warlock, Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair)); Rachel Summers; Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde)

Known Relatives: Dr. Victor von Doom (alleged father; see comments); unidentified mother

Powers/Abilities: Flynn is a mutant who has a low-level telepathic ability to hypnotize people to do whatever he tells them to do. The number of people he can hypnotize at once time remains unknown; however, he can use his powers to hypnotize people alone or in groups of two or three and thus gain control of a large group of people in a short amount of time. His influence can be shaken off by someone who is sufficiently strong-willed or who is under the effects of strong emotion. It is currently unknown if he has any other telepathic powers like mind-reading or empathy, or if he has any mystical abilities. Flynn also has some knife-throwing skills though it is yet unclear how good he is. Flynn also had for a short time a suit of armor that looked similar to Dr. Doom's. While the full capabilities of this armor are unknown, it was shown to have a laser gun mounted on the wrists.

History: (Beauty and the Beast#1 (fb)) - Alexander Flynn was born to an unidentified Gypsy woman in Latveria. When the woman tried to present Alexander to Dr. Victor von Doom as his son Doom responded by sending both mother and son into exile, saying that it is his (Doom's) destiny to rule the world alone and thus cannot have a male heir exist. Where he spent the next several years is unknown; what is known is that he came to Hollywood when he became an adult and hooked up with producer Hugo Longride to found the Underground Mutant Theater and the Gladiators.

(Beauty and the Beast#1) - Alexander Flynn attended a party where he introduced himself to the Dazzler (Alison Blaire). After hearing her story of how her singing and acting career was ruined after she outed herself as a mutant, Flynn offered to introduce her to Hugo Longride, the producer of the underground Mutant Theater. After Dazzler signed up with the Theater, Flynn took her partygoing for the next several days, making sure she got sleazy headlines in the tabloids and secretly spiking her drinks with a drug designed to make her lose control of her light powers and brainwash her into thinking of the Theater and its members as her only friends in the world.

(Beauty and the Beast#2) - Several days after Dazzler and Beast started their tenancy at the Heartbreak Hotel Flynn showed up with the Gladiators "Bouncer," "Barker," and "Byter" to bring Dazzler back to the Theater. Alison agreed to go with them after Flynn used his hypnotic powers on her. Later that night after Dazzler's "disastrous" debut in the Arena Flynn used his power in conjunction with Max Rocker's drugged drink to convince her to stay on with the Gladiators.

(Beauty and the Beast#3) - A week after the fight, Flynn took Dazzler down to the Gladiator's gymnasium and had her practice her fighting skills with Horns, and started to usurp the leadership of the Gladiators from Longride. Later that day Flynn, Dazzler, Rocker, and Ivich confronted Horns in the locker room and gave him a last warning about his behavior in the Arena and warned him what would happen if he broke the Gladiators' Code of Conduct one more time. That night after watching both of Dazzler's fights in the Arena, Flynn intervened when Longride tried to have Dazzler and Beast executed and ordered the Gladiators to choose which of them, Flynn or Longride, they wanted to follow and to kill the other. Flynn watched with satisfaction as the Gladiators killed Longride.

(Beauty and the Beast#4) - That night after he had Dazzler and Beast tied up in the dungeon Flynn revealed to them that he was the son of Dr. Doom and that he planned to take his army of Gladiators to Latveria and overthrow his father. Later Flynn was obsessing over the coming mission in his war room when he remembered that Rocker and Ivich were still with him, and angrily dismissed them. After Dazzler and Beast escaped the dungeon Flynn and the Gladiators confronted them in the Arena. Flynn ordered the Gladiators to kill them both before leaving for Latveria; however the Beast, Dazzler, Link, Poltergeist, and the newly-turned Rocker soon turned the battle against the Gladiators. Desperate, Flynn captured Poltergeist and threatened to kill him until Link forced him to release Poltergeist. Flynn was then defeated by Beast and Dazzler, humiliated by Doom (who had arrived and denounced Flynn), and then abandoned in the ruins of the Arena by the rest of the Gladiators as they choose to follow Rocker from that point on.

(New Mutants I#30 (fb) - BTS) - Amahl Farouk, in the body of Karma (Xi'an Coy Manh), took control of Flynn and the Gladiators.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition#17) - Farouk used holographic images of the Gladiators' former leader, Alexander Flynn, to convince all but his inner circle in the operation that Flynn was still in control of the Gladiators' activities.

(New Mutants I#31 - BTS) - The Flynn that the New Mutants, Dazzler, and Kitty Pryde would encounter was never anything more than a holographic illusion, designed to hide the identity of the real puppet master (Amahl Farouk).

(New Mutants I#29) - After he witnessed a brief fight between the New Mutant Sunspot and the Gladiator Axe, Flynn appeared to them in holographic form and welcomed Sunspot to the Gladiators. When Roberto refused the invitation Flynn allowed Roberto's teammate Magma into the cell to explain to Sunspot about the runaways that Flynn was going to use to fight in their places if they refused to join the Gladiators. Unwilling to risk the possibility that Flynn was telling the truth, both Roberto and Amara agreed to join.

(New Mutants I#30) - After witnessing a bout between a victorious Sunspot and two unidentified Gladiators Flynn appeared to both him and Magma to congratulate Sunspot on his first "badge of honor" (aka a scar). When Sunspot mocked the 'honor' Flynn reminded him about the children that he held hostage to their good behavior and what would happen to them if either of them escaped or defied him.

(New Mutants I#31) - Shadowcat revealed after the final bout in the Arena that Alexander Flynn was never anything more than a holographic illusion. (see comments)

Comments: Created by Ann Nocenti, Don Perlin, and Kim DeMulder.

New Mutants I#29 & #30 are part of the Secret Wars II crossover that ran in almost all of the main Marvel titles in the summer of 1985. SWII #1 takes place between the two New Mutant issues. Which explains why Magneto showed up when he did.

So, is Alexander Flynn really the son of Dr. Doom and/or Valeria? Good question. I _think_ Nocenti intended him to be Doom's son, or at least to have the question open to interpretation. (Flynn does look very much like a young Doom, for example, and he's about the right age to be a son of Doom and Valeria, etc.) Snood over in Valeria's entry looked at the evidence and thinks ultimately she and Flynn aren't related. Me, I don't have enough of Valeria's appearances to say one way or the other if this could be her. (She could have, for example, decided to protect her son by handing him over to someone else to raise and deciding to never bring the subject up in front of Doom and reminding him of the matter.) It is also possible, though, that Flynn's mother is someone else altogether; another Gypsy woman that did have some definite magical abilities and who did have a fling with a young Doom and who was later sent into exile with a young son in tow. At the very least Doom was acting in the B&B series like he believed there was a good possibility that he might have an adult son running around someplace in the world. Now whether that son is really Flynn remains to be seen. (I have left Valeria out of possible known relatives, as it's almost assuredly never even intended to be her, but have left Doom in) - Madison

As for the revelation that Flynn never existed at all, I personally don't buy it. That was not a hologram that was running around in the B&B series; I'm pretty sure that both Dazzler and Beast would have been able to see through one (so to speak) in fairly short order well before the last issue, given the amount of experience both have had about badguy tricks over the years. Also, I'm fairly sure the Gladiators would have figured it out eventually and would have started treating him like a hologram well before the start of the B&B series. In addition, none of Doom's actions in the B&B series makes any sense if Flynn never existed as anything but a figment of the Shadow King's imagination; Doom's too smart to be fooled for very long by SK's deceptions and would have undoubtedly have made SK very sorry for the fraud he had perpetuated.

So until someone comes up with an explanation and/or better evidence that Alexander Flynn never existed other than 'because Kitty/Claremont/his editor(s) said so' (which was the sum total of the evidence provided in NM I #31, by the way) then the story I'm going with is that there was a real flesh-and-blood guy running around in the B&B series who may/may not have been the son of Doom, who was ultimately kicked out of the Gladiators, and who then either literally phoned in his NM appearance from the Bahamas (hey, given the level of technology available to the average super-villain in the MU that isn't as far-fetched as it might seem :) under the control of the SK, or whose NM appearance was totally faked by the Shadow King (maybe that was the evidence Kitty saw?), or something else altogether.

Profile by Elf with a gun

Flynn's mother was forced out of Latveria by Doctor Doom after she claimed her son Alexander was his. She may have possessed similar powers to her son.

(body) Beauty & the Beast Vol. 1 #3, p21, pan5
(face) Beauty & the Beast Vol. 1 #1, p7, pan1 (detail)
(Flynn's armor) Beauty & the Beast Vol. 1 #4, p9, pan5 (detail)
(Flynn's mother) Beauty & the Beast Vol. 1 #1, p2, pan5

Beauty & the Beast#1-4 (Dember 1984-June 1985) - Ann Nocenti (writer), Don Perlin (Pencils), and Kim DeMulder (inks), Michael Higgins (editor)
New Mutants1 I#29-31 (July 1985-September 1985) - Chris Claremont (writer), Bill Sienkiewicz (artist), Ann Nocenti (editor)

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