Stepford Cuckoos

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The Three-in-One
The Three-in-One Art by Mike Mayhew
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New X-Men vol. 1 #118 November 2001
Created by	Grant Morrison Ethan Van Sciver
In story information
Alter ego	Celeste Cuckoo Mindee Cuckoo Phoebe Cuckoo Esme Cuckoo (deceased) Sophie Cuckoo (deceased) unnamed sisters (deceased)
Species	Human Mutants, clones
Team affiliations	Xavier Institute The 198 Weapon Plus Corsairs Brotherhood of Mutants
Notable aliases	Stepford Cuckoos, Five-in-One, Thousand-in-One, Weapon XIV (Units 1 to 5)
Abilities	Telepathic hive-like supermind, flawless diamond form impervious to destruction or emotion.

The Stepford Cuckoos are a group of fictional mutant psychically-linked quintuplets of the Marvel Comics universe, students at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Known properly as Celeste, Esme, Mindee, Phoebe, and Sophie Cuckoo; their names, when placed in alphabetical order, also denote their respective ages-- with Celeste being the first "born" and Sophie being the youngest.

Originally calling themselves the Five-in-One, with the deaths of Esme and Sophie the remaining sisters are now known as the Three-in-One in New X-Men #149-150.

First appearing in New X-Men vol. 1 #118, they were created by Grant Morrison. Their origin, as the artificially created "daughters" of Emma Frost, is revealed in X-Men: Phoenix - Warsong.

Their name is an allusion to The Stepford Wives and the The Midwich Cuckoos. The Cuckoos and their abilities are roughly based on those of the "Paper-dolls", telepathic quadruplets from a 1964 novel by L. P. Davies.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Fictional character biographies 1.1 Origins 1.2 Corsairs 1.3 Weapon Plus & Phoenix - Warsong 1.4 Post Civil War 1.5 Messiah Complex 2 Powers and abilities 2.1 Personalities 3 Other versions 3.1 Exiles 3.2 Here Comes Tomorrow 3.3 House of M 3.4 X-Men: The End 4 Trivia 5 In other media 5.1 Video games 5.2 Film 6 Footnotes 7 External links

[edit] Fictional character biographies

[edit] Origins

As revealed in the first issue of Phoenix: Warsong, the sisters are grown from ova cells harvested from Emma Frost while she lay comatose after the Sentinel attack that killed her students, the original Hellions, and are only five of many of such cloned daughters. The remaining hundreds (if not thousands) of Cuckoo sisters reside within incubation chambers inside a hidden underground laboratory at The World, the complex where the latest Weapon Plus living weapons: Huntsman, Fantomex, and Ultimaton, were created. They were planned to be powerful weapons able to kill every mutant by concentrating on their signatures. Like Fantomex was Weapon XIII, the Cuckoos were branded Weapon XIV

They were first introduced as the protégés and favorites of Emma Frost ^[1] and, along with Quentin Quire, were noted as the strongest telepaths among the fourth-generation students at the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning. It is still unknown though how they ended up being at the Institute in the first place and why they didn't remember being weapons. 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. ^[2]

Partly as an expression of adolescent rebellion, partly under the influence of the drug Kick, and partly out of a desire to impress Sophie, Quire incited a riot at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Sophie died stopping Quire, having used the drug Kick to boost her powers. ^[3] The Stepford Cuckoos held Frost to be partially responsible for Sophie's death and disassociated themselves from Frost at that time, declaring they would work with Madame LaFarge in Switzerland. 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 were still evident by contacting Jean Grey telepathically and informing her that Emma Frost was attempting to conduct an affair with Cyclops. ^[4]

Unbeknownst to anyone, Esme Cuckoo had been collaborating with Magneto, currently disguised as the X-Man Xorn. Taking control of the Cuckoos' telepathic groupmind, she steered Angel Salvadore to attack Emma Frost, shattering Emma's diamond body into fragments. After Jean Grey managed to telekinetically reassemble Emma and return her to life, she revealed Esme's guilt. As Bishop and Sage confronted her, they came under telepathic attack from the Cuckoos, who left the mansion.

Revealing himself, Magneto destroyed the X-Mansion and went on to launch an all-out attack on New York. With help from Esme and his Special Class from the Xavier Institute, he held the city hostage and began rounding up its human residents and preparing them for execution. During this, he accidentally killed one of his students, Basilisk. His plan was to use his powers to reverse the Earth's magnetic poles and remake the world for mutants. He is confronted by the X-Men, who were led into his headquarters by Beak, who had a key. Esme attacks him during the fight, angry that Magneto had not noticed her. She uses her powers to give Magneto Alzheimer's in fast forward, but Magneto grabs her metallic earrings and plunges them into her brain, killing her. Magneto is killed by Wolverine, but not before killing Jean Grey. ^[5]

The Magneto who collaborated with Esme and attacked New York was later retconned to have been Kuan-Yin Xorn impersonating Magneto, rather than Magneto himself.

[edit] Corsairs

Soon afterwards, the Institute was rebuilt, with Emma Frost and Scott Summers as headmasters and leaders of the X-Men. Frost and Summers divided the older students into several six-person training squads, each taught by a staff member. The remaining three Cuckoos, now calling themselves the Three-in-One, were assigned to the Corsairs squad, led by Frost's boyfriend Cyclops. The three girls were the co-leaders of the squad that included the now depowered Specter, and the deceased Dryad and Quill.

In X-Men: Phoenix Endsong (March-June 2005), the Phoenix Force came back to Earth seeking the body of Jean Grey. Kid Omega, still in love with Sophie, sensed the Phoenix and exhumed Sophie's body. Kid Omega sought the Phoenix, which resurrected Sophie, but she promptly chose to die again once she realized why Kid Omega had wanted to resurrect her. Following the return of the Phoenix to the White Hot Room, a shard of it in firefly form flew to one of the Cuckoos, who replied, "What took you so long?"

In the wake of House of M, in which the vast majority of the world's mutant population was depowered, the Cuckoos retained their powers. With few students left, the squad system was dissolved and Emma Frost placed the remaining students into an all-out brawl to determine who would be part of an in-training X-Men team. The Cuckoos, still resentful of Emma, refused to participate. Instead, they ran to Cyclops and informed him of Frost's plan, of which he was unaware.

[edit] Weapon Plus & Phoenix - Warsong

In New X-Men #154 (May 2004), Grant Morrison's last issue of New X-Men, the Stepford Cuckoos are identified as Weapon XIV (each girl being units 1 to 5, ordered alphabetically by their first names), the living weapon code between Weapon XIII (Fantomex) and Weapon XV (Ultimaton). ^[6]

Manipulated by both the Phoenix and Sublime, the Cuckoos awoke their dead sisters and traveled to the World, a laboratory created by Weapon Plus with technology capable of manipulating time, where Fantomex, Huntsman, and Ultimaton were created. During the sisters' visit to "The World," they were greeted by a computer image of John Sublime. It is revealed that the Phoenix fragment has manifested in order to destroy the Cuckoos and all of their clones to prevent them from being activated as a weapon and kill all mutants - Sophie and Esme being the first such casualties of its purge. Emma, Mindee, and Phoebe were successful in stunting Celeste's linkage with the Phoenix; only to be ambushed by Sublime's machinery, which absorbed the cosmic fragment and distributes it among each of the cloned telepaths. Now referring to themselves as the Thousand-in-One and under Sublime's control; the cosmically-empowered psychics proceed to enact their programmed destiny of mutant destruction. Celeste however, is still in partial control of both herself and her sisters' supermind, alerts the X-Men that they can short-circuit the girls' linkage by destroying Sublime's machinery; which they do. Phoebe, distraught at having lost access to the cosmic power, sends a bolt of her last remaining energy through the facility's floor... prompting an explosion that would destroy everything within a half-mile radius. Celeste, at Emma's behest, accepts her role as a Phoenix host, and stops the explosion by temporarily freezing localized time. She then goes on to destroy the thousand-strong Cuckoo clones, by shattering their newly-manifested Diamond forms; before casting the entity out of her body. It however, refuses to depart the area; to which Celeste reacts by reabsorbing force into her own and her two remaining sisters' diamond hearts. Unlike their mother's diamond composition, the Cuckoo's hearts haven't a single flaw; and as such, nothing can destroy, enter, or escape them... even the splintered Phoenix itself. The price the sisters must pay for this, is that they can never again feel emotion; thus leaving them even more cold-hearted and detached from their fellow man than they were before. ^[7]

[edit] Post Civil War

The Stepford Cuckoos are being considered as "potential recruits" for the Initiative program. ^[8] The girls are next seen helping Elixir master medical and anatomical knowledge via Beast's brain. They are soon after teleported to Limbo with the other students and captured by Belasco who has helmets placed on them to keep them asleep to prevent them from using their powers. They were freed by a newly revived X-23 and turn the tide of the battle against Belasco. At the battle's end, Magik sends them and the rest of the student body back to Earth. ^[9] When the Hulk attacks Xavier, the Astonishing X-Men, and the New X-Men, the Stepford Cuckoos contact several other X-teams such as Excalibur, the Uncanny X-team, and X-Factor to get their help. ^[10] They then help Prodigy access all his forgotten knowledge and abilities to compensate for his power loss as thanks for when he saved them during the Purifiers' attack on the school. ^[11]

[edit] Messiah Complex

When the Sentinels attack the X-Mansion, all telepaths are knocked out, and the Cuckoos are found unconscious by Beast. Later, Prodigy manages to restore Cerebra. ^[12] The Cuckoos use Cerebra to track down Cable, who has the missing mutant baby that the X-Men are looking for. ^[13]

When the X-Men arrive at the location indicated by the Cuckoos, the baby had already been stolen by the Marauders. For reasons unknown, the Cuckoos are unable to relocate the baby telepathically, so Emma Frost orders them to focus on finding the Marauders who stole it. ^[14]

[edit] Powers and abilities

The Cuckoos are a telepathic hive mind capable of transforming their individual bodies into indestructible diamond. Powerful telepaths individually, their combined power is even greater than the sum of its parts. These powers allow them the psychic standards of broadcasting/receiving thoughts, mind control, planting illusions, force blasts of pure psionic energy, astral projection, etc. Their gestalt mind allows them to communicate with one another instantaneously, though the strength of their gestalt depends on their proximity to one another; the further they are from one another, the weaker their ability to connect.^[15]

Though they most often function and act as one unit, they are indeed capable of thinking and operating individually. When all five sisters were alive, Sophie was the dominant consciousness and often commanded the Cuckoos. However, as implied by Esme's actions, it is possible for another one of the Cuckoos to wrest control of the gestalt and perhaps even use the powers of all sisters without the consent and knowledge of the others. With the loss of Sophie and Esme, The Cuckoos are not as strong as they were with five.^[16]

Like their mother, Emma Frost; each Cuckoo sister also possesses the ability to transform herself into an organic diamond, and as such becomes completely impervious to harm. Unlike Frost, however, their Diamond forms are flawless; such that nothing can enter or escape their core. Also unlike their progenitor; they can never feel the effects of emotion, even when in their "normal" tissue form, due to their hearts' perpetual diamond status. During the Warsong series, the Cuckoos were also observed to have gained the power of flight, presumably from Phoenix-induced telekinesis. ^[17] With the Phoenix fragment splintered and held captive inside of their diamond hearts, it has yet to be revealed if the sisters have retained their ability to fly.

The power level of the Cuckoos, in all of their incarnations, have been reported by many of the staff at Xavier's School to be extremely impressive and strong; these staff members include: Professor X, Jean Grey, Emma Frost, and Henry McCoy. ^[18]

[edit] Personalities

• Esme: She was the first to split from her sisters, falling in love with Shi'ar-soldier-in-disguise Kato/Stuff. ^[19] This led to a recurring joke about the other Cuckoos always disliking their sister's boyfriends. After this failed relationship she seemed to return to her sisters, though she soon attempted to murder Frost. She failed, and when she was discovered by Sage and Bishop, Esme fled the X-Mansion. It was also revealed that Esme was the one responsible for the events that killed Sophie. Wanting to seize control of the Cuckoos but having a hard time doing so because Sophie was resisting the takeover, Esme used the drug Kick on herself to augment her own psychic powers and take control of the Stepford Cuckoos's group mind. Esme manipulated her sister Sophie into also using the drug Kick in order to overexert her telepathic powers to the point of death. Esme returned in the Planet X storyline, in which it was revealed that Esme had been working for Xorn the entire time, and that she had developed a crush on him. However, Esme turned on him and tried to destroy his mind in New X-Men #150 (February 2004) after he rejected her affections. Xorn reluctantly was forced to kill her by manipulating her metal earrings into bullets that repeatedly pierced the inside of her head. She died in Emma's arms, who told Esme that out of all the Cuckoos, Emma was most proud of her. ^[20] Esme was resurrected in the Warsong series along with Sophie ^[21], but a Phoenix-powered Celeste destroyed them both in her judgment to burn away what doesn't work. ^[22]

• Sophie: Sophie didn't manifest individuality until just before her death. She was, however, the dominant mind amongst her sisters, which ultimately led to her death. When Quentin Quire began a riot on the Xavier Campus, Sophie got high off Kick to strengthen her power and fight him. The strain killed Sophie (though it was secretly Esme's psychic influence that ultimately pushed her toward death) and caused her sisters to distance themselves from Emma Frost. She returned once when Quentin Quire and the Phoenix awoke her, but disgusted by Quentin, she decide to die again. She later returned, along with Esme in the Warsong series; only to be incinerated by Celeste.

• Mindee: She was the next Cuckoo to become autonomous. She had a relationship with Germaine who was killed by a mob when the students were trapped in the X-Corporation building in the aftermath of Planet X. She then had a combative relationship with Jay Guthrie who was always interrupting her while she played the piano. She also helped Gambit during Exodus' Brotherhood's attack on the School and in Black Tom's defeat.

• Celeste: She was the third Cuckoo to fall in love, this time with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jake Oh. She was then chosen by a Phoenix fragment to be its next host, resulting in the Warsong events. While being empowered by the Phoenix Force fragment, she was able to freeze time in order to protect the X-Men from an imminent explosion. She then apologetically proceeded to kill her recently resurrected sisters Esme and Sophie, as well as the Thousand-In-One sister clones as part of her judgment. When the Phoenix Force fragment refused to depart afterwards, Celeste split it into three and sealed each part into the diamond hearts of Mindee, Phoebe, and herself, trapping the Phoenix Force fragment there forever at the price of rendering all three permanently emotionless.

• Phoebe: Phoebe demonstrated a power-hungry personality during the events in Phoenix Warsong. In contrast to Celeste, who feared the consuming power of the Phoenix, Phoebe desired power out of the sheer affinity for wielding it. She readily embraced the Phoenix and enjoyed the destructive power it gave her.

• The Thousand-In-One: numerous clones of the Cuckoos, they were only seen calling Emma their mother before being killed by the Phoenix, using Celeste's body.

[edit] Other versions

[edit] Exiles

In a reality where after the Hulk was jettisoned into space and discovered by Annihilus, killing him and taking the Annihilation Wave to Earth, Sophie, Esme and Mindee appear as one of the few remaining superhumans. Sophie has detached herself from the two remaining Cuckoos and is dating Quentin Quire, while Esme and Mindee remain very Cuckoo-like.^[23]

[edit] Here Comes Tomorrow

In the "Here Comes Tomorrow" timeline, 150 years from now, Celeste, Mindee and Phoebe are members of the X-Men and operators of Cerebra, having merged with the machine, and calling themselves Three-in-One. Their psychic powers have also been amplified, allowing them to see the future. They also appear to be in their early to mid-twenties, despite the long time that has passed. While not made explicit, a healing factor could be responsible for their youthful appearance. With the release of the Warsong series this can be attributed to the nanites in their bodies and the fact that they are manufactured "weapons". ^[24]

[edit] House of M

In House of M, the quintuplets were part of the New Mutant Leadership Program at the United Nations. From the five, Sophie appeared to be the one with the stronger personality. Sophie joined Prodigy, Surge and the rest of the New Mutants on their trip to Japan to find Seiji Ashida, while Celeste, Esme, Mindee, and Phoebe remained on New York, though they agreed to maintain the secret. Sophie was later killed in Japan. ^[25]

[edit] X-Men: The End

In the alternate future depicted in X-Men: The End, Celeste, Mindee, and Phoebe have each developed their own look and now call themselves the Spikes. Interestingly, each of their new looks corresponds to the appearance of one of the Frost sisters on the night of Winston Frost's huge party. ^{[26] [27]}

• Phoebe has long, brown hair like Adrienne Frost.
• Mindee has long, blonde hair like Emma Frost.
• Celeste has short, black hair like Cordelia Frost.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The first appearance of the Stepford Cuckoos was in New X-Men #118 (November 2001); however, they were not identified by name. They were first called the Stepford Cuckoos in New X-Men #123 (April 2002), which was also the first issue in which Esme was named. Sophie, Phoebe, Celeste, and Mindee were named in New X-Men #134 (January 2003), New X-Men #149 (January 2004), New X-Men #153 (April 2004), and New X-Men #156 (June 2004), respectively. In the New X-Men: Academy X Yearbook, their last name was confirmed as "Cuckoo" and their codename as the "Three-in-One". ^[28]
• Originally, the first letter of each of the Cuckoo's names was supposed to spell out the word "spice" when put in proper sequence, Sophie, Phoebe, Celeste and Esme. However, Grant Morrison never mentioned the name of the fifth Cuckoo (the one whose name was supposed to start with "I") during his run on New X-Men, and it was only later on that this fifth Cuckoo was named "Mindee" by Chuck Austen, who was unaware of Morrison's easter egg. Mindee was Austen's pet Cuckoo during his subsequent run in X-Men (vol. 2).

[edit] In other media

[edit] Video games

The Stepford Cuckoos appear as antagonists in the video game X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse voiced by Jennifer Hale. They were the ones who boosted up Holocaust's powers at Apocalypse's Madri Temple.

[edit] Film

Three identical blond girls were shown in the background in an Institute Scene in X-Men: The Last Stand. Writer Zak Penn confirmed in a chat that these were indeed the Stepford Cuckoos. [1]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] External links

• Stepford Cuckoos on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
• Stepford Cuckoos on MarvelDatabase

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