Monet St. Croix / Penance Appreciation 2020

[Havok83]

We have seen Magik use her magic to fight Siena Blaze, something she never could have done in the New Mutants days. Her powers work just fine on earth.

Oh, and when she went Darkchilde she tore the gem right of on Juggernaut. Did not even need to use the soul sword.

As for the racisl aspect he mentioned, there are way more powerful characters on Krakoa and there seems to be a huge bias against female or female characters of color.

He didnt say she cant use her magic on earth; he said she rarely uses powerful sorcery which is true. One would be more hardpressed to find examples of that then not.

[RamaBird]

I technically could do without the Penance form but it doesn’t make her overpowered. Frankly she doesn’t he’s it her other powers and I don’t really see what benefits it gives it.

But I don’t hate it either.

The cynical part of me thinks the penance form is to say "we're doing stuff with her" without actually doing stuff with her. The main benefit from their view must be that it turns her into a Wolverine type character and we always needs more Wolverines!

Instead of trying to limit her powers, just give her more weaknesses. There's stills much mystery about her past and family. That based with her being so overconfident, I bet there's some weaknesses they could naturally give to her that would help "limit"her powerset.

[ChronoRogue]

I don't think you need to limit her at all.

She can't do anything Rogue, Wolverine or Emma can't already do on the battlefield.

There are more powerful X-woman and X-Men.

[yogaflame]

Originally her limitation was her random, unresponsive trances she would go into out of nowhere. Ms. Perfect would just freeze and stare off into space. We later found out about the twins, and how one was extremely autistic, and they were actually fused and pretending to be this amazing teenager.

Of course by then everyone loved Monet, so they ditched Lobdell's original idea and the did the whole 'the real Monet is in Penance' thing. I think it's fair to say the character hasn't been on solid footing since then(PAD's M was a mess). With Hickman showing an interest in her, I hope at some point we get a solid story redefining Monet, the twins, the Penance form, and Marius(and their parents, and their connection to Gateway), all of which has been left very ill-defined since the 90's.

[Havok83]

That should have been the premise for a Giant Size X-men: M/Penance book. If they were to bring Generation X back as a title, that would make for a good arc

[Kingdom X]

Originally her limitation was her random, unresponsive trances she would go into out of nowhere. Ms. Perfect would just freeze and stare off into space. We later found out about the twins, and how one was extremely autistic, and they were actually fused and pretending to be this amazing teenager.

Of course by then everyone loved Monet, so they ditched Lobdell's original idea and the did the whole 'the real Monet is in Penance' thing. I think it's fair to say the character hasn't been on solid footing since then(PAD's M was a mess). With Hickman showing an interest in her, I hope at some point we get a solid story redefining Monet, the twins, the Penance form, and Marius(and their parents, and their connection to Gateway), all of which has been left very ill-defined since the 90's.

Novice question, but what happened to the twins after the reveal? I don’t remember seeing them show up anywhere else after that and the one panel in New Mutants.

[4sake Baned]

Novice question, but what happened to the twins after the reveal? I don’t remember seeing them show up anywhere else after that and the one panel in New Mutants.

If I’m remembering correctly I think there Dad came pick them up & took them home..

[Havok83]

Novice question, but what happened to the twins after the reveal? I don’t remember seeing them show up anywhere else after that and the one panel in New Mutants.

If I’m remembering correctly I think there Dad came pick them up & took them home..

After the big reveal (Gen X 31), they merged with Emplate to form M-Plate until they were seperated and went back to the school with Gen X. Thats when they revealed that Penance was the real Monet and they switched places with her in Gen x 40. In Gen X 57, Emplate returned for Penance, but was defeated. The building exploded and Penance's body appeared dead and the twins emerged as seperate beings. Monet decided to leave the school in #58, which was when the three sisters were reunited with their father and he took the twins. So the twins actually stuck around for about 30 issues following the plot twist

[Ikari]

Originally her limitation was her random, unresponsive trances she would go into out of nowhere. Ms. Perfect would just freeze and stare off into space. We later found out about the twins, and how one was extremely autistic, and they were actually fused and pretending to be this amazing teenager.

Of course by then everyone loved Monet, so they ditched Lobdell's original idea and the did the whole 'the real Monet is in Penance' thing. I think it's fair to say the character hasn't been on solid footing since then(PAD's M was a mess). With Hickman showing an interest in her, I hope at some point we get a solid story redefining Monet, the twins, the Penance form, and Marius(and their parents, and their connection to Gateway), all of which has been left very ill-defined since the 90's.

Yeah what they did to Monet was completely baffling. What the heck were they thinking? Lobdell's original idea where Penance was just another mutant unrelated to St Croix siblings was much better. It really hurt the character big way and not just M, whole Gen X suffered.

[Ikari]

I technically could do without the Penance form but it doesn’t make her overpowered. Frankly she doesn’t he’s it her other powers and I don’t really see what benefits it gives it.

It's pretty much this - I don't see what it adds to her already overcomplicated character? It's not even like Emma's diamond form which has the justification of protecting Emma in combat, since normal M is already strong, fast and invulnerable. Penance form doesn't even fit to her 'her mutant power is perfection' concept.
Some people still complain that criticism of M is unwillingness to see female characters to be strong - actually my favourite X-men era is Claremont/Byrne, when the strongest X-men were Jean and Storm. M was billed from the beginning as the potentially strongest mutant of her generation (when Phalanx analyzed her) and I loved the early M, so that's hardly the problem. My beef with the character is not her absolute power level, which is not - as noted - near the absolute top, but her having too many powers which after a certain point actually start to detract from the character.

I know some people like her as she is now, but I am just pointing out what the others might see a factor ultimately inhibiting her popularity.

[Havok83]

Yeah what they did to Monet was completely baffling. What the heck were they thinking? Lobdell's original idea where Penance was just another mutant unrelated to St Croix siblings was much better. It really hurt the character big way and not just M, whole Gen X suffered.

it ruined Penance but saved Monet. Ultimately Im glad that retcon happened bc Monet was more important as a character than Penance was. Also thats not what ruined Gen X. Permanently removing Monet from the table would have done more damage to the book at that time. She was the best thing from Hama's horrible run. His writing wasnt that good and without her, it would have been far less enjoable

[RamaBird]

It's pretty much this - I don't see what it adds to her already overcomplicated character?

It "adds" by making her a savage fighter that guts people. Like Wolverine. She was already a good fighter, so making her fighting more savage, to me comes off as their way to "develop" her without having to "develop" her (aka delving into her personal background) but it also contradicts their complaint that she's too OP already. To me, Savage Brawler > Perfect/Good Brawler.

The Penance powers should be left to the twins who should be developed.

[Beetle]

One of the many things I really liked about Monet's appearances in GS Storm and X of Swords was that she used her other powers while in Penance mode

She was flying while Penance, Astral Projecting in the middle of battle

[BroHomo]

it ruined Penance but saved Monet. Ultimately Im glad that retcon happened bc Monet was more important as a character than Penance was. Also thats not what ruined Gen X. Permanently removing Monet from the table would have done more damage to the book at that time. She was the best thing from Hama's horrible run. His writing wasnt that good and without her, it would have been far less enjoable

They coulda told a better story and left poor Penny her own damn character

[blinkingblah]

Love the fact that they reminded us of her intelligence. She came up with a plan that Beast and Forge couldn't come up with. Thank you whoever the giant sized Storm writer is.