JEANNE-MARIE
Full name: Jeanne-Marie Beaubier
Group Affiliation: Former member of Weapon X, former member of Alpha Flight, former associate of The Brotherhood
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #120
Creator: John Byrne

        Jeanne-Marie Beaubier was orphaned as an infant when her parents were killed in a car crash. Her twin brother, Jean-Paul was adopted by maternal cousins, the Martins. However the Martin family could not handle adopting two infants so they arranged to place Jeanne-Marie elsewhere. She ended up in a Catholic girls boarding school that adhered to the strict discipline of the Victorian era. Jeanne-Marie was a child with a delicate spirit, and the the school was precisely the wrong environment for her.

        Finally, after enduring years of psychological and physical abuse, the young girl decided to take her own life. At the age of 14 she went up on the roof of the school and flung herself off of it, expecting to plummet to her death.

        However, Jeanne-Marie did not fall. Tapping into her mutant abilities for the first time ever, she flew instead. When she came down, she went to Soeur Anne, the head nun at the school, and told her everything. However, since she could not understand what had happened, Jeanne-Marie spoke of the event in terms of divine intervention. The nun considered the child to be blaspheming, and administered the worst beating Jeanne-Marie had ever received.

        That night, while crying in the bathroom, Jeanne-Marie looked in the mirror and saw... another face. Her own, yet not her own. That night Beaubier flew away from the school and enjoyed the night life in the nearby city. This was the first manifestation of Beaubier's problem with Multiple Personality Disorder, and the first appearance of the personality that would become known as Aurora. Upon her return three days later, Beaubier was once again severely punished by the school authorities.

        Jeanne-Marie stayed on at the school, eventually rising to the rank of teacher at the age of 19. Her second personality had stayed buried for years. But on the eve of her greatest triumph, the gaining her teacher's position, Aurora took over once again, and Beaubier flew off to check out the night life in Montreal.

        While there, Beaubier's purse was grabbed by a mugger. Aurora proceeded to knock the man out with super-speed punches. A second mugger was "persuaded" to leave by a man named Logan. Realizing the girl was more than she seemed, Logan persuaded her to travel to Ottawa to meet James MacDonald Hudson. It should be noted that Aurora didn't need much persuasion. Beaubier then became part of Department H, and joined Alpha Flight.

        While with Alpha Flight, the Aurora personality remained firmly in control. Aurora even became romantically involved with one of her team-mates, Walter Langkowski, aka Sasquatch. Jeanne-Marie did not resurface until after Department H and Alpha Flight had been disbanded for the first time. When Alpha regrouped as free agents the personality shifts assumed a set pattern: Aurora would take part in Alpha Flight's adventures, and during the down-times Beaubier would return to the school where Jeanne-Marie would assume control. There were exceptions: during one adventure against the Master Aurora's personality retreated during a time of mental stress, and Jeanne-Marie's took over.

        After an adventure involving Deadly Ernest Aurora assumed control and kept it. Aurora quarreled with Northstar and then flew to British Columbia to get away from him. She promptly moved in with Walter Langkowski.

        Aurora then began to take measures to solidify her hold on Beaubier's life. Aurora convinced Langkowski to use his scientific expertise to alter her powers. Langkowski, for his part, hoped the procedure would enable Aurora to go undetected by mutant detector devices. It's unknown whether the treatment was successful in hiding Jeanne-Marie's mutant nature: the only time mutant detection devices were ever used against her the devices in question were malfunctioning. [A.F. #32 - C]

        After the experiment Aurora's speed was severely curtailed from its previous levels, and she gained the ability to generate light by herself, an ability she had previously only been able to use by clasping hands with her brother. Her control of this light was also much greater than the mutual power the twins had previously shared; she was able to use it in much more versatile ways. The experiment also had an unintended side-effect: any touch between Aurora and Northstar would cancel out the powers of both siblings for a short time.

        Beaubier's MPD also evolved during this time. Shortly after moving in with Langkowski, the Jeanne-Marie personality made an "escape attempt". Frightened by this, Aurora tried harder than ever to suppress her "other-half." This eventually led to a "merging" of traits from the two personalities, and it's possible that a third personality was created in the process.

        Beaubier's psyche went steadily downhill until she used her powers to cure her brother of a mysterious ailment. Having lost her powers in the attempt, and seemingly whole of mind, Beaubier left Alpha Flight and entered a convent.

        Beaubier eventually rejoined Alpha Flight to rescue Northstar from Asgard. With Jean-Paul's help she regained her powers. Her speed was back to its previous levels, and touching Northstar no longer had any side-effects. While still able to create light on her own, the twins' mutual light-creation power also returned.

        After discovering that her light-casting powers had the ability to aid the sick Beaubier decided to join Gamma Flight as a psychiatric counsellor. Unfortunately it was soon after this decision that Beaubier became the vicim of a mad telepath named Headlok.

        The end result of the encounter with Headlok was that Beaubier was back to her original split-personality. For a time, all seemed well. Jeanne-Marie and Aurora seemed to reach a sort of truce. The two personalities no longer fought each other for control, and Jeanne-Marie became an active participant in Alpha Flight for the first time. There were even hints that Jeanne-Marie might be starting a relationship with Walter Langkowski.

        Beaubier's life did not remain relatively uncomplicated for long, though. At some point during Alpha Flight's suspension after the Joshua Lord scandal Aurora became involved with her team-mate, Kyle Gibney. Gibney broke off the relationship when his mutation regressed to a point that he was physically unattractive. Aurora did not take the break-up well. After tracking Gibney to the United States, she attacked him in a rage that bordered on psychotic.

        Not long after those events Department H shut down for the third time in its history. What Beaubier was doing in the time between the shutdown and Department H's fourth start-up is unknown. However upon the revival of H Beaubier was kidnapped by Epsilon Flight troopers. She was rescued from this situation by Havok, X-Man and the Brotherhood of Mutants. During her stay with the Brotherhood Aurora allowed the Dark Beast to run experiments on her MPD. The Jeanne-Marie personality stayed dormant for most of this time.

        After the Brotherhood was dissolved by Havok, Aurora was again captured by Department H. She was infected with the Weapon X bacteria by H's Dr. Huxley. Aurora was rescued from Department H by Shaman, Sasquatch and Guardian. The four were soon joined by Northstar, and the group began a quest to cure Beaubier and stop the new Weapon X from infecting anyone else.

        The Weapon X bacteria were a gestalt being, with every single bacteria linked telepathically to every other one. The infection had an unusual effect on Beaubier's mind. Sasquatch claimed the bacteria were "eating" through Beaubier's multiple personalities, one-by-one. The bacteria were stopped when Weapon X reabsorbed them. The full details of what the Weapon X infection did to Beaubier were never revealed.

        At the end of the Weapon X conflict Jeanne-Marie Beaubier once again rejoined Alpha Flight, or at least the Aurora personality did. She remained with Alpha Flight until she was hospitalized after a fight with the malevolent sorcerer named Mauvais.

        Aurora was then forcibly "recruited" into the new Weapon X program by her ex-teammate, (and ex-boyfriend) Wild Child. [The Weapon X program has no connection to the previously mentioned Weapn X, who is now deceased. -C] Beaubier was brainwashed by the project upon her arrival. As a result her multiple personality disorder seemingly vanished, leaving a young woman who calls herself Jeanne-Marie while using the code-name of Aurora. After a self-destructive relationship with the Director of the Weapon X program, Jeanne-Marie escaped.

        Along with Northstar, Jeanne-Marie was kidnapped by a group calling themselves the Children of the Vault. Both siblings had their powers experimented upon and were brainwashed into attacking the X-Men. After being cured of the brainwashing, Jeanne-Marie decided to leave the adventurer life for a while. She has settled down in Montreal, where she is co-CEO of a sports equipment company with her brother. [This makes her one of the very few mutants left in the world not living on Utopia Island. -C]

        Jeanne-Marie Beaubier is a mutant whose powers have changed a number of times over the years. At all times she has been capable of moving at super-human speeds, although the extent of her speed has varied. She most often uses super-speed flight, although she can also run or swim at super-speed. Beaubier has used her speed in a number of offensive ways, including the use of super-speed punches against an opponent. The experiments performed by the Children of the Vault have apparently enabled Jeanne-Marie to reach the theoretical upper limits of the powers without harming herself or the environment.

        Beaubier also has the ability to emanate light from her body at will. She has used this light for a variety of purposes, whether to blind opponents, hypnotize them, or even in some strange way heal people. It has been shown that there are differences in how the Jeanne-Marie personality uses the light powers as opposed to the Aurora personality.

        Jeanne-Marie is also capable of radiating light in conjunction with her brother by clasping hands with him. This light appears to be brighter than that generated by Jeanne-Marie alone. Since being experimented on by the Children of the Vault the twins have shown the ability to add heat and explosive energy to the light blasts.

        In X-Factor #116 Aurora was shown to possess a concussive energy blast on her own. However she hasn't used that ability since that appearance.

        During her time with the Weapon X project Aurora gained the ability to cause other objects to speed up. She used this ability to kill people by causing their hearts to speed up until the individual suffered a massive coronary. Other applications of this power have yet to be revealed, and it is possible that she no longer possesses it.