The story became more complicated in 1986 when moves by the editors and other writers to reunite the original X-Men, for the new title X-Factor, resulted in Jean's resurrection and Scott leaving his wife and son.

[7][8] Marvel avoided addressing these problems, instead resorting to a deus ex machina, in the 1989 Inferno crossover (co-scripted by Simonson with Claremont), in which Madelyne is retconned to be a clone of Jean created by Mister Sinister to produce a child with Cyclops, and corrupted by her anger and demonic influence as the Goblin Queen, leading to her elimination and into an object of damnatio memoriae (and "nonperson" status) for several years.

Entirely for his own purposes, Loki bestows mystical powers on a small group of non-powered humans, including Madelyne, transforming her into a healer of virtually any injury, illness, psychological issue, or physical defect.

They walk away happily with the baby, leaving the naked and faceless Maddie to struggle alone through a blistering wasteland, burning her away until she runs into S'ym offering her a deal to become more than she had been and shows her images of a girl, a pilot, a woman, and a demon, which reflects what she was, is, and what she dreams to become.

[34] In the recorded images of the psychic probe performed on Madelyne, a connection is made to the Phoenix Force, and her attire reflects again her eventual change into the Goblin Queen.

[38][39] Broken in spirit and reduced to insanity by these revelations,[40] when N'astirh gives Nathan back to her, Madelyne willingly decides to aid the demon in the "Inferno" invasion of Earth.

[45] Madelyne mysteriously reappears years later as an amnesiac to Nate Grey (X-Man), the "genetic offspring" of Cyclops and Jean from the alternate reality known as the Age of Apocalypse and arrives into Earth-616.

[11] Under the tutelage of Selene, Madelyne eventually becomes the Black Rook of the Hellfire Club as well as Sebastian Shaw's mistress,[46] has her memories of her previous life restored by Tessa,[47] and meets Cable in an uneasy truce.

[55] Some years later, the X-Men investigate an anti-mutant group called the "Hellfire Cult", being led by Empath[56] who is secretly being controlled and taking orders from a mysterious woman under the name of Red Queen who is particularly interested in learning about Emma Frost.

[65] Lady Deathstrike, whose consciousness had taken possession of Colombian girl Ana Cortes, formed an all-new Sisterhood initially comprising the latter, the mutant Typhoid Mary, and the exiled Asgardian Amora (the Enchantress).

[68] Arkea is able to place Deathstrike's consciousness into Reiko, and seeing an opportunity, splices Jean's DNA to Ana's body, making it a fully compatible host for Madelyne.

She reveals her anger that no one cared about her return and then her seeming exclusion from Krakoa, and so plans to unleash an army of cloned Marauder zombies to attack the mutant island just to be noticed and prove her existence.

Wanting to transcend her traumatic past by distancing herself from Limbo, but needing to find a new ruler for the demonic dimension, Magik—over the objections of her fellow New Mutants—offers handing over rulership of the realm to Pryor.

Seeing Limbo as a second chance for herself and the means to cut any ties with Krakoa and all the people (i.e. Mister Sinister, Cyclops, Jean, even Havok) who she resents for always defining her entire existence, Madelyne accepts Illyana's offer.

[73] Some time after, Ben Reilly, the wayward and now-vengeful clone of Peter Parker and using the alias "Chasm", feels himself being drawn to and enters Limbo and encounters Madelyne.

Feeling they have much in common as victimized and outcast clones who both believed their mutual progenitors had destroyed their lives, Madelyne and Ben form an alliance and plan to strike back.

[75] Madelyne later finds Eddie Brock (Venom) wandering in Limbo as he seeks a way back to Earth and convinces him that participating with her and Chasm will be mutually beneficial.

Jean voluntarily shares all the memories with Madelyne, also revealing that she had advocated from the start that Maddie be granted a Krakoan resurrection, finally seeming to mend her last unhealed emotional wounds and making peace between them.

Having not succeeded in gaining what he wanted from his vendetta on Parker, both Chasm and Eve take Maddie's abandoning of their plotting as a betrayal and usurp Madelyne's power as ruler of Limbo.

As the Goblin Queen, Madelyne's long-dormant mutant powers were activated with demonic eldritch magic and exponentially enhanced to the point where she could warp reality, equivalent to Proteus's abilities, within a localized area, possibly over an entire city as demonstrated during Inferno.

After her apparent resurrection as a non-physical entity of psionic energy (similar to the Shadow King) by Nate Grey, Madelyne regained her natural mutant abilities albeit without the demonic enhancements, though her powers are still considerable.

"[85] In one alternate reality (Earth-89112), Madelyne Pryor and S'ym were successful in opening a portal between Limbo and Earth (having killed baby Nathan Christopher) and demons overran the planet.

Madelyne however was successful in quelling the resistance and wresting control of the Phoenix Force from Rachel, but was ultimately betrayed and killed by S'ym, using Wolverine's reanimated adamantium skeleton.

Scott noticed his physical attraction to Madelyne, but could not respond to her advances; when he encountered Professor Xavier's X-Men and their leader Jean Grey, however, much deeper emotions were stirred.

[93] In the alternate reality known as the Mutant X universe, young Scott Summers was abducted into space along with his father Christopher and mother Kate, leaving his brother Alex to become one of the founders of the X-Men as Havok.

[107] Following the events of the Secret Wars and the restoration of Earth-616, this version of Madelyne Pryor was able to survive the destruction of Battleworld along with her pet dragon Bamfy and a horde of goblins.

Now once again on Earth she had her horde of demons capture the small team of X-Men that were taking a break there and was on the verge of using them for her final sacrifice until her plans were interrupted by the arrival of the mystically infused time-displaced Hank McCoy which forced her to withdraw by using Bamfy to teleport her to some unknown place.

While Pryor's Dark X-Men eliminated the Orchis invaders, the demonic Goblin Queen worked to tempt 616-Madelyne to join alongside her in destroying the world due to their similar histories of betrayals and suffering.

[16] In X-Men: Grand Design, a limited series by Ed Piskor that condenses four decades of X-Men-related canon from the 1960s debut onward, Madelyne's introduction and early storylines are included but substantially rewritten in the second half of the title's "Second Genesis" chapter.

[117] As Jean Grey drifts between life and death after her assassination during Orchis' attack on the Hellfire Gala, she ponders what if she had made different decisions at critical chapters in her history -- including Inferno and towards Madelyne Pryor.