Monet St. Croix (Character)

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Publisher: Marvel Comics

 

Created by: Scott Lobdell and artist Chris Bachalo

1st appearance: Uncanny X-Men #316, September 1994 (Twins posing as her)

Generation-X #1 November 1994 (As Penance)

Generation X #40, July 1998 (As herself)

Nationality: Algerian, Bosnia, Algeria and Monaco  citizenship

Real Name: Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix

Aliases: Formerly Penance, Penny, Black mutant Supergirl

Team Affiliations:X-Factor Investigations, X-Men, X-Corporation, X-Corps, Generation X

Legal Status: No criminal record

Height: 5’7              Weight: 125 lbs

Eyes: Brown             Hair: Black

Relatives: Louis St. Croix (Grandfather), Lenore St. Croix (Step-Grandmother, deceased), Unnamed grandmother (Deceased), Cartier St. Croix (Father), unnamed mother (Deceased), Marius (Emplate) (Older brother), Claudette and Nicole (M-Twins) (Younger sisters)

Skills and Abilities: Monet is a very intelligent, highly skilled hand to hand combatant trained by ex C.I.A agent Banshee over many years. She also speaks fluent English and French.

Powers: Monet possesses a mutated X-gene which grants her superhuman abilities. As a mutant she possesses a multiplicity of abilities these include:

Superhuman Strength: Which allows her to lift a maximum of ten tons.

Superhuman Speed: Which allows her to move at an accelerated rate far beyond human capabilities. She has been shown capable of moving faster than bullets fired at point-blank range.

Nigh Invulnerability: Monet possesses enhanced resistance to injury. While not completely invulnerable she is very hard to injure as she was mostly unharmed after exchanging blows with even ‘Hulk’.

Enhanced Vision: She has night vision allowing her to see clearly even in pitch blackness.

Heightened Hearing: Of an unspecified degree.

Genius Level Intellect: She can analyze and understand most devices instantly.

Accelerated healing factor: She recovers from injuries at a faster rate than a normal human though not as quickly as Wolverine. This also makes her highly resistant to disease, poisons and toxins.

Flight: Monet is capable of self-generated flight which combined with her superhuman speed allows her to fly roughly at 500 mph. She is also able to levitate in place with casual ease.

Telepathy: Monet can read the minds of those around her, cast illusions and impose her will on those around her both offensively and defensively.

Telekinesis: Recently Monet has displayed telekinetic abilities strong enough to knock over three vehicles with ease.

Monet and her siblings also have the ability to merge into different forms with powers a combination of them.

Biography

Monet Yvette Clarisse Marie Therese St. Croix is the second child of Afro-European ambassador Cartier St. Croix and an unnamed member of Algerian royalty. From birth she was her father’s favorite child (Generation-X #40). Monet was born in Sarajevo while her parents were on skiing holiday (Generation-X #46). Her family’s personal Pilot taught her to fly a plane at age twelve (Generation-X #51). Exceptionally gifted she used her beauty and brains to belittle her bumbling older brother Marius. When her mother mysteriously disappeared while alone at home with her brother he was kicked out of the house. She later found him in her room looking very different as his mutant powers had fully emerged. She again belittled him when he told her to join him in a bid to rule the world. This time however she found his response not so amusing as he used power he had harnessed from the nether-realm to transform her into a mute red skinned body as Penance for her cruelty over the years. When her sisters found them they used their powers to cast him into another dimension and she followed thinking it the only way to return to normal (Generation-X #40). In this new world she found herself her brother’s only form of food for years resulting in a deeply traumatized and emotionally scared Monet (X-factor V3. #13, January 2007).

Generation-X: Penance Years

She was rescued years later by the mutant Gateway who had become a mentor to her sisters (Generation-X #1, 1995) who had posed as her after her disappearance. She first appeared on school grounds from a portal created by Gateway, his only utterance being ‘Penance’ (Generation-X #1 1995). As Penance she woke up terrified almost completely feral and attacked the team. Luckily she saw a kindred spirit in disfigured mutant Chamber and came to her senses (Generation X #2-3 1995). She roamed the school grounds unable to communicate or make physical contact so the team often just gave her apples and treated her like a pet (Generation X #4-7).

When Emplate attacked the school and captured the students she realized that her sisters were the ones impersonating her. She also finally gained the courage to stand up to Emplate by rallying with Generation X (Generation X #12-14). Overtime Jubilee grew the most emotionally attached to her and nicknamed her ‘penny’ (Generation-X #21). When the school was attacked by Black Tom she was the one who defeated him and saved the day (Generation-X #25). When the team went missing Emma Frost almost exchanged her to Emplate so she could locate the rest of Generation X (Generation X #30) luckily Banshee stopped Emma thus saving her from a life as his sole sustenance (Generation-X #31). When her sisters were separated and unconscious she defended them from attacks (Generation-X #33). While defending her sisters she witnessed the birth of M-Plate the merger of her brother and her sisters (Generation-X #34). While on the adventure herself and Synch rescued Gaia a mutant who was being held against her will at the edge of time. When M-Plate was separated back into the M-twins and Emplate her sisters finally realized that she was trapped in the mute Penance body (Generation-X #34-39).

Feeling guilty for the trauma they had unwittingly caused Monet, the twins merged with the Penance form but when they separated Monet was free but they were trapped within it (Generation-X #40).

Generation-X: Free Again

 Free at last Monet was strangely not affected by the ‘Psi-War’ event which violently knocked out both Chamber and Emma Frost’s telepathic abilities (Generation-X #42). Monet quickly established herself as an even bigger  “bitch” than her sisters made her out to be (Generation-X #43-47). Unknown to all those around her  the time spent as a captive of Emplate and as Penance left her emotionally damaged; she battled depression, nightmares and suicidal thoughts (X-factor V1. #200). The only person with whom she felt safe was Synch. Monet started opening up to him about her feelings though she tried to play it off as nothing (Generation-X #45). Tensions finally boiled over between herself and Jubilee as they faced off in the danger room where Monet revealed she was ‘bitchy’ because it was her ‘nature’ and she was offended Jubilee had treated her like a pet (Generation-X #48). While on a trip to Boston she stole Synch away from Jubilee, took him to a tattoo shop and made moves on him “because they both needed to be touched”.

Before they could kiss they were attacked by Gene Nation and experimented on by Dark Beast (Generation-X #50). They later escaped with the help of Nate Grey (X-Man #50). When Banshee/Sean Cassidy the headmaster of the school was abducted she piloted a stolen aircraft so the team could mount a rescue (Generation-X #51). When the team journeyed with Paladin to Madripoor she remained at the school to spend time with her sisters who were trapped within Penance. Her teammates, especially Jubilee saw this as a sign she thought they were all beneath her (Generation-X #53). When Adrienne Frost trapped the team in an illusion to kill them as cruel punishment for her sister Emma Frost, Monet’s sensitivity and telepathic abilities though underdeveloped allowed her to briefly escape the illusion (Generation-X #55). Proving that she cared deeply for her teammates whom she tried to keep at arm’s length she used her powers to re-enter the illusion in hopes of saving them. Jubilee was also the first teammates she tried to awaken. Upon re-entering she was made aware of Synch’s growing affection for her which made Jubilee jealous (Generation-X #56). During the dance at the Massachusetts Academy which was now a normal school with only Generation-X as mutants Monet was now the most popular girl at school (Generation-X #57). During the formal dance however Jubilee beat her into asking Synch to be her date and she ended up carrying Angelo Espinosa/Skin. Emplate chose this moment to return and the team narrowly defeated him when Jubilee used her powers to blow up the building (Generation-X #57).

The unexpected side effect of this was that the M-Twins were freed from the Penance body. Emma and Sean used this time to contact their father Cartier who was overjoyed to have his family back. Against Monet’s wishes her father visited Emplate who was in the medical ward recovering. He revealed how he killed their mother. This caused Monet great emotional distress. Her father feeling guilty for his absenteeism and how that lead to Marius becoming Emplate decided to withdraw Monet from the school and send her somewhere safer while taking the twins back home with him (Generation-X #58).

Now enrolled in a private boarding school, nestled in the Swiss Alps she soon realized the school was not much safer than the one she left behind. Girls started being bitten on the neck and drained of Blood, Monet also missed her fellow mutants in Generation-X (Generation-X #60). She saved her new classmates from Vampires before returning to Generation-X (Generation-X #61-62). Upon returning to the school her relationship with Synch grew stronger and they started dating much to the dismay of rival Jubilee (Generation-X #67). With anti-mutant hysteria rampant and the return of Adrienne Frost and bombs being planted on the school grounds. While she shared a telepathic link with Synch she was unable to reach him fast enough which resulted in further trauma when he was killed after throwing himself on one of the bombs to save those who hated him (Generation-X #68-70).

After this death she was more emotional and found it hard to focus though Banshee started training them in a more militant manner which unlocked her potential for superhuman speed while allowing her to develop martial arts skills as well. She also bonded with Jubilee over their shared loss of Synch (Generation-X #63-66).

When Emma Frost had seemingly returned to villainy and Banshee became a drunk the Massachusetts School was shut down and the students went there separate ways. Before this though the shared trauma of losing Synch caused Jubilee and Monet to bond and spend more time together (Generation-X #67-75).

X-Corps and X-Factor

When the school closed she returned to Algeria. When Banshee created the paramilitary X-Corps, alongside teammates Jubilee and Husk they joined as special operatives “Banshee’s angels”. When he was severely injured the team fell apart [Uncanny X-men V1. #401-406 2002]. Seeing Banshee as a father figure she remained with the team and became a member of the restructured X-Corporation and aided the X-men against Weapon XIII [New X-men #128-130, 2002] and later Black Tom Cassidy [Uncanny X-men V1. #410-412, 2002]. After M-Day X-Corporation was shut down with the de-powerment of 90% of the world’s mutants. She took up a modeling career briefly and was on the cover of vanity fair.

She later joined the staff of Madrox’s ‘X-Factor Investigations’, a mutant detective agency run by former X-corps and X-Corporation teammate Jamie Madrox/Multiple Man.  Monet shared a one night stand with Madrox (X-factor V3. #10 October 2006) which ended badly when she realized he had done the same thing with teammate Theresa Cassidy (X-factor V3. #14 February 2007). She also finally admitted to psychiatrist Doc Samson that she still battled depression, nightmares and suicidal thoughts as a result of her time captured and used by her brother Marius/Emplate (X-factor V3. #13, January 2007).

When her former teacher Banshee was killed she befriended and bonded with Banshee’s daughter Theresa Cassidy. While the ladies were in France Monet crucified a mutant hater after he admitted to burning a house full of de-powered mutants (X-factor V3. #15-16) and her father was forced to grease some palms to avoid an international incident (X-factor V1. #200). During Civil War she registered her powers with the government under the superhuman Registration Act. She helped defend Professor Xavier during the events of ‘World War Hulk’. Monet also participated in the ‘Messiah Complex’ crossover. During ‘Secret Invasion’ her team is hired to locate X-man, Darwin. After locating him they leave him in his father’s care and Monet is seemingly oblivious to Darwin‘s feelings for her. Darwin is later captured and she has to rescue him. Along the way the team is restructured and Darwin joins their ranks. She briefly falls under the influence of the villain ‘Cortex’ (X-Factor v3. #43) and attacks her teammates (X-Factor v3. #44). The team soon splits as a result of tension between Theresa Cassidy and Jamie/Multiple Man. Monet remains with Terry hoping to stop her downward spiral. She is unsuccessful however and is soon informed by Val Cooper that her father Cartier was captured by terrorists (X-factor V1. #200).

Traveling to South America to save her father alongside teammate Guido/Strong Guy, their plane is shot down and Monet awakens in an illusion cast by Baron Mordo who hopes to use her life-force to stave off his Cancer  (X-factor V1. #201-202). The illusion causes Monet to think she has been transformed back into the mute and hideous Penance form (X-factor V1. #203). Mordo realized he needed more of her life force to permanently cure his affliction than he originally thought but Monet had escaped the illusion and bartered a deal where she would give him what he needed if Mordo would take her to X-Factor so she could help her friends. Mordo agreed thinking she was a woman of her word (X-factor V1. #203-206). Monet realizing he was far too weak to stop her used her telepathy to create a false reality for Mordo where he had been cured, thus ending his threat (X-factor V1. #207).

Monet recently revealed that she was a Muslim by religion and dated teammate Strong Guy after he was brought back to life without a soul. During ‘Hell on Earth’ she died from a brain injury after fighting Pluto, a hell god and later Strong Guy. When Guido become lord of hell however he resurrects her (X-factor V1. #256). After the trauma of being brought back to life she shared a one night stand with Darwin (X-factor V1. #261).

Life as an X-Man

Hoping to take a sabbatical from heroics she joined the teaching staff of the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning. Here she bonded with Karima Shapandar and irritated high school rival Jubilee while being caught up in an all female team of X-men [X-men (2013) #7]. She later witnesses Jubilee share a kiss with student Bling [X-men (2013) #8]. Monet joins the all female squad lead by Storm and faces the “Sisterhood of Mutants” [X-men (2013) #9-12]. She aided the X-men in defending the Jean Grey School when the estranged father of Jubilee’s adopted son Shogo showed up in a bid to win back his son [X-men (2013) #13-17]. They later battled the Exogenous in space and aided the Shiar warrior Deathbird [X-men (2013) #18-22]. Their last adventure involved a trip to the desert and an Inhuman mystery [X-men (2013) #23-26].

Uncanny X-men

After the Terrigen Cloud started circling Earth and threatened to sterilize and kill mutant kind she was recruited into Magneto’s Uncanny X-men strike team alongside: Psylocke, Sabretooth and Archangel. The purpose of the team was to deal with threats to mutant kind in a more proactive way. The first mission found them tracking down mutant healers who had been targeted by Apocalypse’s Dark Riders [Uncanny X-men (2016) #1-5]. Teamed with reformed villain Sabretooth, Monet failed to protect Elixir/Josh Foley and witnessed his death [Uncanny X-men (2016) #2]. She later visits Xorn in Tibet to warn him of the looming threat [Uncanny X-men (2016) #3]. After dealing with the Riders she and the team took Triage to Storm’s mutant sanctuary in Limbo.

There she callously dismissed Storm’s affections despite their years of working together [Uncanny X-men (2016) #5].

When her team as alerted to a new threat to mutant kind they were forced to split into squads and teamed with Creed they tracked the lead to the Morlock tunnels [Uncanny X-men (2016) #6]. Once there she quickly realizes that the Morlocks have fallen under the thrall of her brother Emplate. Marius’s plan was for his sister to save him [Uncanny X-men (2016) #7]. Monet made a deal with her brother since Mutants were dying out once more and he needed to feed on them to escape Purgatory. She would stay with him forever if he agreed to free his thralls [Uncanny X-men (2016) #8-9]. Monet however had no plans to fulfill this promise but Emplate was prepared and before he could fade from existence he merged with his sister giving her his hunger to feed on other mutants while keeping him in this dimension, anchored in Monet’s body [Uncanny X-men (2016) #10]. Only Sabretooth realized what had happened and offered to not only keep her secret but allow her to feed on him [Uncanny X-men (2016) #10].

When Psylocke grows more suspicious of Magneto’s secrets Monet tells her to just trust her and she will find out all his secrets. Monet infiltrates the Hellfire Club with whom Magneto has been allied as the New White Queen [Uncanny X-men (2016) #11-12]. Together the Uncanny X-men and the Hellfire Club investigated the disappearing mutants. Monet impressed even Magneto himself when she pulled information from a captured mutant that even Psylocke couldn’t [Uncanny X-men #13-14]. During the Inhumans vs. X-men event Monet Along with Sabretooth and Rachel Grey acted as Wardens in Limbo for the captured Inhumans. Here due to her contempt for the Inhumans because of Multiple Man’s death she fed on the captured inhumans. When Sabretooth tried to stop her she attacked him, having absorbed his claws and healing factor since she had been feeding on him regularly. Sabretooth ultimately allowed her to continue feeding on the captives and keep her secret [Uncanny X-men #17].

Check out Monet’s Generation-x gallery for more images

Be sure to view her speed, reflexes and Strength feats here

Gallery dedicated to Synch and Monet