M-Twins
M-Twins are twins who feature in Marvel Comics.
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History
Nicole St. Croix and Claudette St. Croix were born in Sarajevo, Bosnia as the children of a rich and eccentric Afro-European father Ambassador Cartier St. Croix from Monaco, and his Algerian wife. Thus, they were born into a family of wealth and influence
They were the younger siblings of Marius St. Croix and Monet St. Croix where their birth was wrought with complication. The twins, identical physically, were two very different entities; Nicole was the typical, talkative daughter, while her twin Claudette suffered from a severe case of autism. Cartier tried to get Claudette treatment, sending her to the best doctors money could buy, but there was nothing they could do. The twins were treated well by their parents and were their mother's favorites, but they could never be as perfect as their big sister Monet and never wanted to be as misunderstood as their big brother Marius. Life for them was typical until the day their mother died. They took the death of their mother badly. Nicole could not explain it, but she knew that her brother had something to do with their mother's death. Enraged by his son's professed lack of knowledge about the death of his wife, Cartier threw Marius out of the house. Afterward, life returned to relative normality until the day Marius returned.
As an ambassador, their father did not have much time for his four children, and he would usually spend his little spare time with his favorite daughter, their older sister, Monet. Additionally, their mother was taken away too soon, when their brother, Marius, manifested his mutant power to feast on other people’s bone marrow, turning him into the hideous creature called Emplate. On top of this unfortunate series of events, Claudette grew up to be autistic for reasons unknown, with Nicole taking the lead on looking after her twin. When they were eight years old, Nicole and Claudette went to check out some noises coming from Monet’s room, only to discover that Emplate had returned home. In his company was a red-skinned female with spiky hair, who looked almost as freakish as he did. When Nicole demanded to know where Monet was, Emplate gloated that he had taken her away and that they would never see her again. Not paying attention to the autistic Claudette, Emplate realized too late that she drew a circle around him with a piece of chalk, thus opening a dimensional portal to banish Emplate from Earth. Their evil brother and his strange companion gone, Nicole feared their father’s reactions when he would discover that his favorite daughter was missing. She reached a rather unusual idea in response. Using their own mutant power to merge with each other, the two eight-year old twins became a 16 year old teenager looking exactly as Monet. (Generation X v1 #40)
The twins, always together, entered their sister's room only to find a red skinned creature and a transformed Marius, now dubbed Emplate. Angry that Marius returned home despite their father's protest, the autistic Claudette used her powers to banish him to another dimension along with his red "pet". The twins were left confused as to who the red creature was with their brother. Later, they realized that Monet had mysteriously gone missing. Afraid their father would break down and the household would fall apart, the twin sisters merged bodies and replicated Monet. Everything about the twins' version of Monet was almost a perfect match, including her physical body, personality, and powers. However, since the twins' personalities were combined, Claudette's autism would sometimes take effect, leaving "Monet" in catatonic stupors. When Cartier returned home, he found the twins gone and 'Monet' unconscious. Cartier grew concerned about his daughter's constant "black-outs". He first considered enrolling 'Monet' in Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters at the suggestion of her governess, retired colonel Gayle Cord-Becker. According to her, 'Monet' had gone three months without speaking.
The twins, still posing as their sister, were soon set upon by the Phalanx. 'Monet' along with Husk, Blink, and Skin were rescued by Emma Frost, Jubilee, Banshee, Synch, and Sabretooth. Afterwards they went on to join Xavier's school, which had been reopened in Massachusetts. Now operating under the codename M, they quickly established themselves just as egotistical and snide as the original Monet, creating an immediate rivalry with Jubilee. While they quickly proved to be powerful members of the team, the catatonic episodes worried the staff and students, and Beast eventually diagnosed Monet with autism. In order to protect their own secret, as well as those of their family, the twins refused repeated offers of seeking professional help. While the Marvel Universe is being threatened by Onslaught, Emma Frost is unknowingly influenced. Instinctively seeking to protect the team, she uses her power to make them to behave like children, and moves them to her home in Canada. Toad, who she had earlier given permission to live there, takes advantage of this and easily captures the kids. Nicole appears in Emma's mind (Emma mistakenly assumes Nicole is Monet) to warn her of the problem, prompting Emma to confront Toad and free the team.
When the powerful Onslaught made his move and started to attack New York City, Emma Frost was one of the first to sense the danger. Still traumatized by the loss of the Hellions, she was affected by Onslaught and brought Generation X to a safehouse in Canada. There, she took telepathic control of them and made them feel happy, so that they wouldn’t question her decision. However, this also left them vulnerable to an attack by the Toad, as they could not fight back anymore. At that point, “Monet,” or actually just Nicole St. Croix, managed to enter Emma’s mind. The teacher barely recognized the astral form of the eight year old girl as her student, but listening to what she had to say, Emma realized that protecting the kids by taking away their freedom was not the right decision and let them go. After the Toad was defeated, the students soon forgave Emma. After all, she had only been acting out of concern for their well-being. (Generation X v1 #19) When the Beast guest-lectured at the Massachusetts Academy, he witnessed one of M’s catatonic spells first hand. Actually, the class was writing an exam and “Monet” finished the test within four minutes. Having to wait for everyone else to fill out the test sheets, she zoned out once more, and ripped her test page apart, creating an origami model of an old mansion from it. Quite concerned, the Beast told Banshee and the White Queen that he had seen this condition before - he suspected it to be autism. (Generation X v1 #21)
Later on, it was finally revealed that 'Monet' was truly Nicole and Claudette in disguise: while in a battle with the Prime Sentinels, 'Monet' was blasted and buried under a pile of debris. When teammate Synch cleared off the rocks, he did not find one M, but the twins. However, this left the twins in a coma, and in an effort to find out more about them, Banshee presented the case to Dr. Moira MacTaggert, who, while admittedly stumped, theorized that the twins initiated their fusion (voluntarily or not), and that the coma was the result of some other problem. Soon after, Emplate came back to terrorize the young mutants, accompanied by Chimera and her minions. During the battle, the twins merged (at Claudette's suggestion, one of the few times she ever speaks) to become Monet, and then merged with Emplate, creating a new persona, called "M-Plate". When the three of them separated, they had learned each other's secrets, including what really happened to the true Monet St. Croix. The twins kept the secret for a short time, though Synch eventually found out when he accidentally synched with the twins' telepathy and found out their secrets. He managed to convince Nicole to finally reveal the truth to the rest of the team.
Immediately after, the twins merged back together to form "M". They then switched bodies with Penance, leaving the twins trapped in the Penance body, but returning Monet to her original body. Emplate later returned during a school dance, and Jubilee caused a massive explosion which separated the twins from the Penance body. Though Penance was initially thought to be an empty vessel at that point, she quickly proved this inaccurate and became her own being. Cartier St. Croix, upon hearing of the return of the twins, decided to visit his three daughters. When he arrived, he came face to face for the first time in years with his son Marius, who was severely injured from the same explosion that freed the twins. Cartier tried to make amends with all his children for having neglected them for so long. When he apologized to Marius, his son finally revealed his darkest secret. Marius was the one who killed his mother, which infuriated Monet. Cartier‘s way of showing he cared was to transfer his daughters away from the academy. While the twins left permanently, Monet returned shortly after.
Overview
Nicole and Claudette have various telepathic abilities, including reading minds, projecting their thoughts into the minds of others, and defensively masking their minds against telepathic intrusion. They have also used telepathy offensively to limited degrees, such as mind control and memory wipes. The twins (and all their siblings) are somehow able to merge into various combinations with each other (the false Monet, Penance, M-Plate, etc.), each resulting fusion generally having a distinct personality and unique set of powers. However, the fusions can be undone by considerable trauma, typically a large explosion. Claudette has shown the ability to open inter-dimensional gateways into alternate planes of existence, a power she shares with her brother Emplate, though not with (or as) her sister Monet. Nicole almost always initiates any use of the twins' combined powers, but Claudette has proved capable of acting independent of Nicole on rare occasions.
While posing as Monet, the twins displayed her myriad of mutant powers, including the ability to perceive mutant auras, superhuman strength, telepathy, superhuman intellect, a healing factor, nigh-invulnerability, enhanced senses, enhanced agility, superhuman speed and reflexes, and flight. However, while the twins (or Monet) inhabit the Penance body, they have access to none of their original powers, and instead are limited to the body's abilities: diamond-hard skin, immunity to telepathy, and razor-sharp claws for fingers, toes, and hair. This is likely because the body's original purpose was to be a prison for Monet, effectively taking away her beauty, voice, and many mutant gifts.
Members
- Nicole St. Croix :
- Claudette St. Croix :
Notes
- The M-Twins were created by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo where they made their first appearance in Uncanny X-Men v1 #316 (September, 1994).
Alternate Versions
- In Tales From The Age of Apocalypse v1 #2 (1997), an alternate version of the St. Croix twins appeared in the Age of Apocalypse reality that was designated as Earth-295]] in the Multiverse. On this world, they were known as the Monets and had fallen under their brothers control where alongside Emplate they joined Apocalypse's Elite Mutant Force and operated under the supervision of Mister Sinister. They were rendered useless after they witnessed their brother being killed by a Brood infested Corsair and what happened to them after that remains unclear.
Appearances
- Uncanny X-Men v1: (1994)
- Generation X v1:
External Links
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