Sage (Marvel)
Sage is a female comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Tessa
Around 20 years ago, she was living by herself in the Hindu Kush where she tried to keep out of the conflict between the government and rebel forces. Armed with a gun, she was operating in the mountains where she felt a voice in her mind that drew her to a cave that was said to had been haunted by the locals. Going deeper, Tessa came to find an American man trapped underneath debris and was the source of the voice that spoke to her mind. This man was Charles Xavier whose legs had been crushed after a battle against a creature he claimed to be a demon. She looked to help the man who revealed to Tessa that her true nature as a Mutant and was among the first Xavier had encountered. Tessa came to help Xavier and tried to get him to the hospital where they made their way down the mountains. In this time, they came across a U.N. relief convoy that had been attackers by robbers who had killed the aid workers. She then exacted revenge on the victims behalf and brutally killed the pillager's in return but came to despise herself over her actions. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #44)
Hellfire Club
After saving her, Xavier called on Sage to his side when he returned to America where in this time he was gathering a team of teenage Mutants to be the first iteration of the X-Men. Whilst the others were heroes, Sage was to be trained as a spy and work in the shadows. In this role, she was sent to infiltrate the elite and illustrious Hellfire Club where she went about gaining the trust of Sebastian Shaw who was the Black Bishop of the New York branch of the club at the time. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #7)
Shaw had gathered other mutants around himself, including Tessa, as he made his way to the Hellfire Club's higher ranks. Initially, Shaw believed that the president of the club, Edward Buckman, supported Project Armageddon to commercialize mutant powers, though Tessa suggested him to possibly regard Buckman as an enemy. However, as one of Armageddon's Sentinel attacked Shaw's associates in one of his bases, he had his fiancée, Lourdes Chantel, teleport him and Tessa there. Not dissuaded by Tessa's warning, Chantel seemingly died to protect Sebastian. In response, Shaw assassinated the Lord Cardinals of the Hellfire Club with Emma Frost's help, as Tessa watched. (Classic X-Men v1 #7)
Under new mutant management, the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club made their way into direct conflict with the X-Men as the illusionist Jason Wyngarde brought the X-Man Jean Grey under his influence and presented her as a potential Black Queen to assure his own bid for membership. (X-Men v1 #132) While Tessa was in no position to defend one of Xavier's students, she would still regret her inaction. The rise of Sebastian Shaw also caused British S.T.R.I.K.E. secret agent, Betsy Braddock to be assigned to infiltrate the Hellfire Club. Tessa, seeing her as brave and innocent as Jean Grey, confronted her, reflecting a psychic attack and convinced her to abandon her mission as a way not to have Braddock corrupted. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #3)
During an arms deal between the Hellfire Club and Peter Coelho, Tessa spotted Ms. Marvel spying on the deal from above, which was enough to startle her into revealing herself. Ms. Marvel was defeated by the Hellfire Bishops Donald Pierce and Harry Leland and forced to flee. Ms. Marvel then boarded a flight to Hong Kong to seduce Coelho for information. In the following days, Tessa secretly watched Ms. Marvel's interacting with Coelho to gather data. After Tessa informed Shaw that Coelho was reselling the armaments to Mystique's Brotherhood, he died at Shaw's hands. (Marvel Super-Heroes v2 #11)
Magneto becomes more actively involved with the Hellfire Club after the X-Men's supposed death in Dallas at the climax of the Fall of the Mutants. Tensions between Magneto and Sebastian Shaw grow until, finally, Magneto ousts Shaw from the group. Although Tessa remains with the Hellfire Club after his departure, her role diminishes. Shortly thereafter, the Upstarts begin to hunt down mutant leaders, starting with former and current leaders of the Inner Circle. Shinobi Shaw seemingly murders his father, Sebastian; Emma Frost is put into a coma. Tessa continues to serve as Shinobi's assistant, much as she had his father, and she also begins to use her telepathic skills more openly. After Tessa prevents Shinobi from solidifying his hold on the Hellfire Club, however, the younger Shaw ceases to work with her. (X-Men v2 #29)
X-Men
Storm decided to collect Destiny's Diaries, a series of prophetic relates that inconsistently described the future of mutantkind, for not trusting Xavier's idealism with such knowledge. Having formed a splinter group of X-Men, Storm had Tessa to join them as Sage, the team's intel support. As Sage, the identity that had been forced upon her was finally behind her. (X-Men v2 #109)
In their first mission, the new team of X-Men was led to Valencia, Spain. There, they were ambushed by the military as their moves had been predicted by the enhanced warrior Vargas, who had had access to the diaries and wished to execute the X-Men. During this time, Sage managed to escape. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #1) The X-Men suffered heavy losses from this encounter as Psylocke was slain and Beast was mortally wounded by Vargas. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #2) To save Beast's life, Sage analyzed his genome to jumpstart and advance in his mutation and heal him of his injuries. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #3) As Sage kept track of all X-Men, she learned that Gambit has been framed for the murder of Australian crime-lord Viceroy. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #5) While the X-Men investigated, Sage found herself trapped in an illusion of her time as Shaw's assistant in the Hellfire Club. Being able to see through the ruse, Sage knocked out the illusionist, Regan Wyngarde, who was under Shaw's service. Shaw planned to get revenge on Sage for deserting him. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #6) Sage was freed thanks to the efforts of Heather Cameron, an Australian mutant with the ability to manifest various superhuman powers depending on what the current situation called for, and the X-Men defeated Shaw once more. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #9) In response to an invasion from a parallel universe taking place in Madripoor, Sage catalyzed the latent mutant powers of Heather's brother Davis, who subsequently joined the X-Treme X-Men as Slipstream. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #10) In order to better combat the invaders, Rogue soon demanded Sage's assistance in enhancing her mutant ability to grant her control over the manifestation of the powers and abilities she had absorbed over the years. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #13) Sage's infiltration of the invader's data network was instrumental in rescuing Storm from the invader's commander, Khan. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #16) During the initial invasion, Viper nearly paralyzed Storm so she could attack captured prisoners. After the invasion was defeated, Sage humiliated Viper and threatened her life if she ever crossed them again. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #17)
Sage revived from this state, without explanation. Referred to as Ambassador Sage, she had assumed a leadership position in the S.W.O.R.D. of an alternate reality in which sentient robots led by Prime Minister Danger had exterminated the human population. Sage observed her old teammate Dazzler and an alternate reality Wolverine called Howlett attempting to rescue Kurt Waggoner from the robots, and rescued them in a space-faring robot mech stolen from S.W.O.R.D. (X-Treme X-Men v2 #7) With her diplomatic role no longer viable, Sage joined Dazzler's group of multiverse-hopping X-Men. She continued to pilot the stolen space-ship as they hunted down "evil" versions of Charles Xavier. At Dazzler's request, Sage also lent the team her capabilities as a telepath. (X-Treme X-Men v2 #7.1) The sorcerer Lord Xavier later possessed the team's own 'Disembodied Xavier Head' and resurrected the 'Nazi Xavier' where he then proceeded to feed a multidimensional rift that contributed to the Exterminators escaping their prison. (X-Treme X-Men v2 #12) As the team attempted to deal with this threat they were joined by teams from other realities, and Sage and Dazzler were reunited with some of their former colleagues, including Wolverine and Gambit. Sage was teleported back to her home reality, where she interfaced with the "black box" of the Dreaming Celestial, uncovering the Exterminators' lost history. In doing so, she also ascertained that the only way to defeat them was once again to imprison them within a single universe. (Astonishing X-Men v3 #61) When this was accomplished, Sage was left in her home reality with her fellow X-Men. (X-Termination v1 #2) Several years of no-contact with her fellow X-Men ended when Jean Grey's worldwide call for all former X-Men to battle a Life Seed-altered X-Man. Sage combined her psychic offense with that of Jean, the Stepford Cuckoos, No-Girl, and Psylocke, together ending X-Man's possession of Legion. Despite this, X-Man released a final blast of energy that appeared to completely annihilate all of his opponents. (Uncanny X-Men v5 #10) Those caught in the blast were transported by X-Man to a reality he created through the power of a Life Seed and given new lives. (Age of X-Man Alpha v1 #1)
House of X
After Krakoa was declared a sovereign nation, the living island was declared to be a homeland for all Mutants who were invited to reside on its surface. Sage came to work with Cypher in the center of the interface for the Krakoa's gateway system. (House of X v1 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
To uncover Albion's plans, she created a new cover identity and persona of Diana Fox. (New Excalibur v1 #20)
In the past, she believed that only the weak called for help and that in the rough life of the mountains that the weak died. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #44)
According to her, the foundation of her life had always been control. She had said that though the world around her may be chaos but she always grounded herself always in control. For Sage, she was always in control of her life and destiny. (New Exiles v1 #13)
For a time, she came to despise herself for the brutality she showed in exacting revenge against attackers who massacred a U.N. aid convoy. This was a closely guarded secret and she felt that this made her a bad person which was why she was never invited into the ranks of the X-Men. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #44)
Powers and abilities
As a Mutant, she was born with unique abilities that marked her different from the people around her. This manifested as an ability who could never forget anything though she was not aware of her nature until Xavier revealed to her. It was said that there was a natural wall around the core of her mind that meant that she was somewhat safe from telepathy. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #44) Her virtually indominable will was further reinforced by Xavier allowing Sage to form a mental defensive force that reflected any offensive mental action back at her attacker. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #3) This 'fire wall' was effective in both directions nearly eliminating her own psionic abilities whilst it was active. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #41)
Her mutation was said to be the equivalent of possessing a super-computer for a head with her gaining total recall and kinetic memory meant she could recall any event she had seen. She could perfectly execute any skill she has had a single lesson in without the need for practice. In addition, she was capable of performing multiple complex tasks at any given moment. In one instance, she played a game of chess against a school chess club and another such game against a grandmaster whilst completely recalling the events of a film she had seen. Sage was said to be able to perform complex statistics in the matter of seconds. (X-Men Unlimited v2 #1) She was said to be fluent in over 123 different languages. (New Excalibur v1 #14)
Sage had complete control over her personal physiology. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #14) In one case, she consciously used her immune system to purge herself of mind controlling nanites. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #446)
Some called her a cyberpath who could process data faster than any computer with her operating both logically and through intuition. She remembered everything with technology allowing her to access any data network on the planet. She was, however, limited by the data contained in those networks and she was unable to access archives that were not stored digitally. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #40)
Sage made use of special glasses that offered her a range of abilities. These served as communication devices but functioned as sophisticated scanning arrays with full spectrum sensor capability and could be terminals for an equally powerful data network. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #7)
Other X-Men were made to be heroes whilst Xavier had trained her to be a spy. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #7)
On Krakoa, she was provided a special chamber called the Shadow Room that was designed by Beast. With it, Sage could go through blueprints, photos, surveillance video, eyewitness accounts and holographic recreations of crime scenes. It was described as being the C.S.I. version of the Danger Room where it was used by Sage for analysis. (Wolverine v7 #8)
Notes
- Sage was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne where she made her first appearance in X-Men v1 #132 (April, 1980).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Television
- In The Gifted, Sage appeared as a supporting character in the live-action television series where she was portrayed by actor Hayley Lovitt. She was shown as being a member of the Mutant Underground and aided in their activities.
Appearances
- X-Men v1: (1980)
- X-Treme X-Men v1:
- X-Men Unlimited v2:
- New Exiles v1:
- X-Treme X-Men v2:
- Astonishing X-Men v3:
- Uncanny X-Men v5:
- House of X v1:
- Wolverine v7: (2020)
External Links
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