Stepford Cuckoos
The Stepford Cuckoos are a group that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
History
Origin
The Stepford Cuckoos were all Mutant clones created Emma Frost following a battle where she fell into a coma. During that time, Dr. John Sublime came to harvest her genetic material where he had thousands of eggs made from a single syringe. These were then grown by Weapon Plus as living weapons where they were designated as Weapon XIV and grown in a laboratory located in the World facility. (X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong v1 #3)
Five specimens of Weapon XIV were released into the world and sent to the X-Men so that they could develop their talents. These five sisters were Celeste, Esme, Irma, Phoebe, and Sophie who were unaware of their origins. (X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong v1 #3) They came to join the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters and were based at the X-Mansion where they came to learn under Emma Frost who was one of the teachers at the institution. (New X-Men v1 #118)
X-Men
They, along with student Quentin Quire, were noted as the strongest telepaths among the new students at the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning. Although Quire and the Stepford Cuckoos were rivals, Quire had a crush on Sophie. Sophie and the other Cuckoos considered him to be disgusting and rejected him completely. (New X-Men v1 #134)
Partly as an expression of adolescent rebellion, partly under the influence of a mutant drug called Kick, and partly out of a desire to impress Sophie, Quire incited a student riot at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Sophie died stopping Quire, overexerting herself after using the same drug to boost her powers. (New X-Men v1 #137) The Stepford Cuckoos held Frost to be partially responsible for Sophie's death - with Frost having "inspired her to heroism" - and disassociated themselves from her at that time. With the death of Sophie, the Five-in-One became the Four-in-One. Wary of having a part of themselves missing, they tested to see if their powers still functioned well by contacting Jean Grey telepathically and informing her that Emma Frost was attempting to conduct an affair with her husband, Scott Summers. (New X-Men v1 #138)
Unbeknownst to the others, Sophie was actually being influenced into these actions by Esme, who was also using Kick. (New X-Men v1 #141)
Magneto’s attack on New York had turned the human population against mutants once again and the remaining Cuckoos were caught in a riot when they visited the nearby Salem Center. When Emma came to help, she was struck on the head by one of the mob, causing the girls to reluctantly go to her aid. Taking shelter in a nearby building, they made it perfectly clear that they did not respect Emma and were only helping her out of duty. Mindee especially was having a hard time adjusting to the loss of another of her sisters and chose to spend her time with her boyfriend Germaine, a fellow mutant. Things turned tragic when the riot stormed the building, causing Germaine to use his fire powers to repel them. The Cuckoos managed to escape but Germaine was beaten to death by the mob, leaving Mindee even more devastated than before. (New X-Men v1 #156)
After the recent disruptions to the teaching staff and the student body at the school, Cyclops decided to split the remaining students into teams. The Stepford Cuckoos were named as joint leaders of the Corsairs under the tutelage of Cyclops. Despite being forced to interact with the rest of the students more, the Cuckoos still kept their distance, often avoiding the numerous dramas the other teams were enduring. (New X-Men: Academy X -- Yearbook Special v1 #1)
Utopia
Whilst using Cerebro, the surviving Cuckoos came under the influence of their clone sister Esme whose psychic presence still existed. She planted the idea in their minds to help restore their deceased sisters. (X-23 v4 #5) Thus, the Cuckoos secretly attempted to resurrect their slain siblings Sophie and Esme. This involved abducting the brilliant geneticist Dr. Helen Marks and using their telepathy to control her to aid in the resurrection efforts. (X-23 v4 #1)
Mindee managed to enter into the X-Mansion where she used Cerebro to amplify her powers and with the assistance of Celeste along with Phoebe they combined their efforts to stop their mad sister Esme. This allowed Laura to dislodge Esme from Gabby's body thus leading to her dying again where in the psychic plain Sophie sought to bury her psyche so that she could never be a danger again. (X-23 v4 #5)
House of X
After the establishment of Krakoa, the living island was declared a nation and homeland for all Mutants that were invited to reside on it. (House of X v1 #1)
Using the new Resurrection Protocols, the two deceased Cuckoos were brought back to life and re-joined the Stepford Cuckoos. (Marauders v1 #2)
At some point, the Cuckoos seemingly came to be involved with the younger time travelling Kid Cable. (Cable v4 #2)
The Cuckoos began acting as psychic emissaries for the United Nations ambassadors invited to the Jerusalem Habitat. (House of X v1 #1)
Two of the Cuckoos accompanied Emma Frost after the capture of Sabretooth by human forces. Creed came to be taken to the Project Achilles superhuman max prison where he was held on trial. Frost and the Cuckoos arrived with a release order from the U.S. State Department allowing them to take Sabretooth back to Krakoa. (House of X v1 #3) Afterwards, the entirety of the Stepford Cuckoos had gathered on Krakoa to help Professor X to make a connection to the X-Men team that were assaulting the Orchis Mother Mold station in orbit. (House of X v1 #4)
Emma Frost later looked to have the Cuckoos aligned with her as she made her moves to ensure control over the Hellfire Club from Sebastian Shaw. (Marauders v1 #2) The Cuckoos were among the Krakoan Mutants that had gathered to witness that Professor X had been assassinated by humans from the XENO organization. (X-Force v6 #2)
Afterwards, two of the Stepford Cuckoos notified Kitty Pryde to meet with Krakoa's leaders in order to discuss Franklin Richards. (X-Men/Fantastic Four v2 #1)
Esme Cuckoo came to help Kid Cable in investigating the theft of a young girl. (Cable v4 #2)
The Stepford Cuckoos were among the psychic mutants that were summoned to Genosha. (Empyre: X-Men v1 #2)
They were among those who witness3e Magik's fight with the Cotatinaught. (Empyre: X-Men v1 #4)
From the Ashes
Overview
In appearance, the Stepford Cuckoos were originally five young women with blonde hair and resembled Emma Frost. (New X-Men v1 #118) In reality, they were all genetic daughters of Emma Frost created from her eggs that were harvested from her by Weapon Plus. Thousands of such offspring were grown though only five were released into the world so that their talents could be nurtured. (X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong v1 #3)
It was said that the Cuckoo's celebrated their birthday with them choosing the birth date of their favourite actor Tyler Kircho after Small Town became Sophie's favourite show. (X-23 v4 #1)
Weapon Plus had engineered the creation of the Stepford Cuckoos to be a weapon of war. (X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong v1 #3) A thousand psionic Mutants were raised from the eggs of Emma Frost that were collectively processing information at an exponentially greater power than any living telepath with it being unleashed through a focal point which could be used to shatter a mind allowing it to be used to kill Mutants. (X-Men Phoenix Warsong #4)
Members
- Esme Cuckoo :
- Sophie Cuckoo :
- Irma Cuckoo : Irma "Mindee" Cuckoo
- Celeste Cuckoo :
- Phoebe Cuckoo :
Notes
- The Stepford Cuckoos were created by Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Sciver where they made their first appearance in New X-Men v1 #118 (November, 2001).
- The name 'The Stepford Cuckoos' was derived from a combination of The Stepford Wives and The Midwich Cuckoos which were two psychological, science-fiction thrillers.
Alternate Versions
- In New X-Men v1 #151 (2004), an alternate version of the Stepford Cuckoos appeared in the Here Comes Tomorrow reality that was set 150 years into the future on a world designated as Earth-15104 in the Multiverse. Only three of the sisters had continued to survive in this future with them being known as the Three-in-One. They remained as members of the Xavier Institute where they used their abilities to help Headmistress Cassandra Nova-Xavier in safeguarding the dream of the Xavier creed of peaceful co-existence.
In other media
Television
- In Wolverine and the X-Men, the Stepford Cuckoos appeared in the three part episode "Foresight" where they were voiced by actress Tara Strong.
- In The Gifted, the Stepford Cuckoos appeared in the live-action television series where she was portrayed by actress Skyler Samuels. They were referred to as the Frost Sisters who were five clones created as part of a secret illegal experiment funded by Creed Financial to create Mutants that served in the persecution of their own kind. Five such clones were made with two kept as hostages to force the other three to use their telepathy against others. This was until they decided to rebel leading to two of the sisters being killed.
Films
Video games
- In X-Men: Battle of the Atom, the Stepford Cuckoos appeared on cards in the iOS video card game.
Appearances
- New X-Men v1: (2001)
- Uncanny X-Men v1:
- X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong v1:
- X-23 v4:
- House of X v1:
- Cable:
- NYX v2:
External Links
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