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.
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