Art by Rafa Sandoval, and Matthew Wilson
- Name: Joanna Cargill
- Code Names: Frenzy
- First Appearance: X-Factor #4 (1986)
- Powers: Strength, Stamina, and Durability
- Teams Affiliation: Alliance of Evil, Femizons, Acolytes, X-Men
About
One of the most constant trope of the X-Men, and really comics in general, is a villain turning over a new leaf and joining the heroes. From Rogue to Magneto, Marrow to Sabertooth, the X-Men have a long history of accepting former adversaries with open arms. The problem from the fans perspective is that they know the status quo is king and readers have an even harder time believing these villains can be heroes than even the characters in the story. The struggle for writers is crafting an authentic redemption arc that stays true to a characters history while still propelling them towards their new life. One of the greatest successes from the world of the X-Men is that of Joanna Cargill, a former foot soldier for Apocalypse, Acolyte of Magneto, and disciple of Exodus who would go on to passionately fight to a better world for mutants. Frenzy was one of the greatest converts to the mission of Xavier.
Created by Bob Layton and Keith Pollard, Frenzy was originally conceived as a simple bruiser for X-Factor to fight. She belonged to a group who called themselves the Alliance of Evil and she was tasked with recovering Rusty Collins, one of the young mutants X-Factor had been training. She had been inspired by the recent trial of Magneto and found herself in the employ of Apocalypse as the Egyptian mutant was trying to find new and powerful mutants to align to his cause. She led the Alliance of Evil in several skirmishes with X-Factor but the Alliance was unable to defeat the experienced X-Factor.
Art by Ron Frenz and Josef Rubinstein
Joanna jumped around from book to book over the remainder of the decade. Writers saw that her no-nonsense attitude was unique, as was her ability to be a physical threat to male heroes. She showed up as a mook in Avengers, New Warriors, and Captain America before finding her real calling. The man who had inspired her was collecting disciples on Avalon and Frenzy became a new Acolyte of Magneto. There her anti-human beliefs were fed and she grew harder and harder in her bigotry. She became a star pupil of Fabian Cortez and found a way to hit the X-Men where it hurt when she killed Xavier Institute mainstay Sharon Freidlander when the Acolytes attempted to destroy a school filled with children after a botched attempted to recruit a young mutant. She was a villain through and through but she showed some sense of nobility. When Avalon was destroyed, with Cyclops on it, she rallied the remaining Acolytes behind their enemy as he seemed like their best chance for survival.
Art by Brandon Peterson, Al Milgrom, and Marie Javins
She continued with the Acolytes for a time, following as leadership continued to change before coming into a new role in Genosha. Magneto had been given control of the island as a sovereign nation and he needed people he could trust by his side. Though she hadn’t worked much with him directly, Magneto appointed her to be the United Nations ambassador for Genosha. She announced that Magneto would declare war against humanity to the leaders of the world and was quickly brought into custody by the US government. Jean Grey and the rag tag X-Men she had assembled rescued her but only to use Frenzy as a mind controlled weapon against Magneto.
Frenzy disappeared for a while before resurfacing after the decimation as one of Exodus’s new Acolytes. She participated in an attack on a SHIELD Helicarrier that confirmed the severity of the mutant race’s condition and it hardened her convictions to do anything to prove mutant superiority. Joanna worked with Exodus and Mr. Sinister in an attempt to recover the Destiny Diaries and battled the X-Men for possession of the first mutant child born after M-Day. At the end of the Messiah CompleX crossover Frenzy and the Acolytes recovered the body of Charles Xavier and worked to restore him to health (previously covered here) even enlisting the help of the then human Magneto. Even though she once looked to him for inspiration, Frenzy was disgusted by the homo sapien and believed that saving Xavier was not what the Magneto she follow would do and in the ensuing fight Magneto put her in a coma.
Art by Billy Tan, John Dell, and Brian Reber
When Frenzy awoke she found that she had fallen out of Exodus’ good graces. Against her protests he disbanded the Acolytes and Joanna Cargill was left without anyone to follow. She found her way to San Francesco with the rest of the remaining mutants but struggled to adjust to her new situation. She elevated tensions by turning the anti-mutant protests there violent. She was lost and directionless until Legion warped reality to a world where the entire mutant population was holed up in a single fortress and constantly assaulted by humanity. In the Age of X she was a fierce warrior for the remaining mutants, a peer in the eyes of her fellow X-Men, and the equal to this worlds Scott Summers. When the world shifted back to the way it had been most of the mutants had their memories of the event erased, but Frenzy refused. She wouldn’t forget the friends she lost, she wouldn’t forget the love she shared, and she wouldn’t forget being accepted by her peers. She shaved her head and modeled herself after the way she looked in the Age of X and made a pledge. She pledged to become a hero in her own right and requested to join Rogue’s squad of X-Men.
Art by Rafa Sandoval, and Matthew Wilson
Frenzy struggled against her more undesirable tendencies to become an upstanding member of the X-Men. After the Schism she relocated to Westchester and taught at the Jean Grey School, she battled her former master Exodus and held her own against She-Hulk and beating the tar out of Moon Knight during Avengers Vs X-Men. She faded into the background for a while until recently when she aligned herself with the Inhuman Crystal in an attempt to help mutants with the current Terrigen crisis. As that is at the forefront of the Marvel Universe at the moment it seems it won’t be long until Frenzy appears again.
Art by Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, and Rachelle Rosenberg
Must Read
Frenzy, like most members of teams of villains, hasn’t had many stories about her even though she had been in plenty. Age of X is probably her most high profile role but even there she was just another cog in the alternate reality wheel. The work the really sticks out to me comes from a one-off Avengers Vs X-Men tie in in X-Men: Legacy #268 by Christos Gage and David Baldeon. Here the Phoenix Five send Frenzy to an African village to conquer the militia who ran it and Frenzy has to confront her own past. She remembers her abusive father and how she accidentally killed him when her powers manifested. She reflected on how her past made her a villain but she had grown from that and was stronger for it. At the end of the story she instructs the Stepford Cuckoos not to wipe the minds of the villagers there, knowing that they would grow from the experience. This story can be found on Marvel Unlimited of in the Avengers Vs. X-Men: X-Men Legacy trade.
Art by Mark Brooks
Ranking
Frenzy is a character that most people couldn’t care less about and a handful of people love. Consider me in the first camp. The redemption arc that Mike Carey and Christos Gage put her on was fantastic but the rest her of story has just been that of an angry, generic, supervillain. I feel pretty similar to her as I do Marrow but the key difference is that I honestly think Joanna earned her redemption where Marrow never did. I think she is more interesting than Darwin and I would probably want to read a Frenzy story more than one with Omega Sentinel (another character Mike Carey really elevated out of nowhere). When it comes to someone like Longshot though I think we run into some trouble. I’ll smile every time I see him on the page and I’ll shrug whenever I see Frenzy. Maybe it is the inconsistency with which she has been written but I just don’t feel much of anything when it comes to Joanna Cargill, and because I that she will rank as the new number 18 in the Xavier Files.
Frenzy was requested by /u/Mckillagorilla on reddit. Thanks for the request I hope you enjoyed it! If YOU have a character you want me to do, leave a comment and I’ll get it added to the list.
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Next week (or maybe slightly later, this upcoming one is very busy), we get one of the deepest retcons in X-Men history and one of the worst ideas Chris Claremont ever had. Some jerk requested Sage. See you then!
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
