Monet St. Croix / Penance Appreciation 2020

[Havok83]

so what's the official reason for her one-letter code name?

Have her powers changed or evolved over the years?

The whole reveal/retcon of her being switched or merged with Penance threw me years ago, I haven't bothered to try and catch up. What's her deal now?

Since she's from Algeria, has she been shown exploring the cultural aspect of her backstory?

There is no official reason or in story explanation for it. Lobdell used it as a clue to her true origin. A capital M looks like two individuals holding hands

Her deal now is that she is the real Monet St. Croix that was trapped in the early issues of Gen X as Penance. Currently she can morph into a Penance form which makes her more ferocious as she can use the claws in her attacks. She hasnt recieved much development in Dawn of X but that will presumably change soon as she will be featured in the Empyre mini

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Personally I'd rather she lose the whole Penance part of her and have Penance be her or its own character, M is already enough without that part of her...

[Paleo_Rage]

Yeah, I wish that Monet would just be Black girl with roots in Algeria and Monaco whose individual mutation is framed as Biological Negentropy. Negetrophy in science in means order and lack of randomness. I see Monet has having superhuman balance and equilibrium between her mind and body which gives her all of her abilities. To me under Hickman's attempt to frame powers in simple ways this makes sense.

Claudette and Nicolette- High end Psionic(Telepath/Emapth) for one and high end spatial manipulator for the other.

Emplate- Powers would all stem from him being the opposite of Monet. He would have biological Entropy. He would be disorder and I would frame it to his mutation causing disorder in his biological systems meaning he needed the bone marrow other mutants to survive. His power absorption, dimensional shifting and mutant aura reading would come from this chaotic systems.

There merging abilities would then be a St. Croix mutant family trait that all mutants in that line share or their Mothers ability that they inherited.

Penance - Yvette, young deaf war survivor who mutation manifested during bombing. She absorbs negative energy and can use it for many things but her initial manifestation was dense sharp skin.

[Silver Fang]

While we wait on more Monet to pop up in Marvel, I figured I'd join in on fanart sharing

Thicc Monet lol
Fanart.jpg

[WallStreeter]

Did some re-reading of comics lately and can I reiterate how awesome Monet St. Croix is. The girl has so much possibility, I hope some writers will take advantage of it in the near future.

I love that despite her condescending, haughty, outwardly cold cynicism, she really does have heroic instincts and empathizes with people. I thought this was wonderfully displayed in X-Factor by Peter David. She is by no means friendly, but formed genuine relationships with Siryn, Madrox, Guido, Darwin, Rictor, and Shatterstar (I loved her friendship with Shatterstar).

Her rapport and the protective instinct she inspired in Sabertooth was also interesting during the course of Bunn's Uncanny run.

And I also love how she looks down on a majority of the marquee X-Names. She hasn't had much interaction with Scott but she's always seemed especially unimpressed. Her brushing off Storm from touching her both during HoX and Bunn's Uncanny are telling. She's always seemed to look down on Emma Frost as new money and gauche. She even made no secret of the fact that she finds Sue Storm and The Fantastic Four, tedious. And she was never once intimidated working with Magneto or when she was in the company of Sebastian Shaw during her stint with the Hellfire Club.

And for all her toughness and outer aloofness, she still feels it whenever someone she cares about dies and to this day battles the trauma of what Emplate did to her.

Also her trivia is awesome. She has spent a notable amount of time with both Prince Harry and Prince William, Brad, Angelina and pretty much a slew of other A-Listers. She can match wits and quips with Spiderman (as displayed in X-Factor)

Monet St. Croix is too awesome to not be getting more spotlight. I really hope more is coming down the pipeline for her.

She was teammates with Storm, Psylocke, Rachel, and Jubilee. She’s obnoxious. But she does not look down in Storm. They worked together pretty well. When Monet says don’t touch me Storm laughed it off because that is Monet being Monet. It would have gone down differently if they didn’t like each other.

[WallStreeter]

Honestly the fact that Marvel has put more effort into making X-23 a thing versus re-establishing Storm as an icon is already sus enough, I can’t imagine the legwork getting put into Monet, even if she’s in the Head of X’s Top 5.

I can. Considering Hollywood being called out for lack of diversity, she’ll make XMen MCU.

[Silver Fang]

I can. Considering Hollywood being called out for lack of diversity, she’ll make XMen MCU.

Doubtful. She was still shown as white on a recent variant cover. If that was sadly her I was looking at.

I didn't think it was her, and maybe it wasn't. Lord knows, I only hope not. BUT they got other ways around it. If they don't whitewash her, they spend all their time showing her in the Penance form so you don't have to notice that she's non-white.

[Dipter]

Doubtful. She was still shown as white on a recent variant cover. If that was sadly her I was looking at.

Which variant cover are you referring to?

[Silver Fang]

Which variant cover are you referring to?

Lord, I'll see if I can find it again and post.

But I hope that wasn't Monet I saw.

[danielsan52]

Personally I'd rather she lose the whole Penance part of her and have Penance be her or its own character, M is already enough without that part of her...

Personally I’d like to see M powered down. She has too much. I’d write it as she has absorbed other mutants powers from her brother when they were merged as M-Plate.

Marius could be somehow fixed and everyone he absorbed or enslaved get healed. Wrap, Bridget Warner, DOA, Murmur, Bulvark, Vincente and Hollow would be free from Emplate.

Hollow can be Yvette. Monet can have her strength and flight. Twins have their merge thing....

[Sutekh]

Personally I’d like to see M powered down. She has too much. I’d write it as she has absorbed other mutants powers from her brother when they were merged as M-Plate.

Marius could be somehow fixed and everyone he absorbed or enslaved get healed. Wrap, Bridget Warner, DOA, Murmur, Bulvark, Vincente and Hollow would be free from Emplate.

Hollow can be Yvette. Monet can have her strength and flight. Twins have their merge thing....

Yeah, that was a theory I had that the entire St. Croix family bloodline had been teeming with mutants for generations, and somewhere in the mix was a mutant who could transfer powers from one to another, and she had been taking powers from family members on their deathbeds (or earlier, if they were out of control nutjobs...) and transferring them down to the next generation. Monet would end up being the recipient of mutant powers from three or four different weaker mutant relatives, so she'd be less of a 'Martian Manhunter' with a bunch of unrelated powers, and there'd be some actual story reason why she has these disparate abilities (and some notable relatives in the past who had them before, and perhaps one angry middle-aged uncle skulking around out there who *used* to have flight or telepathy or whatever, but was abusing his power and had it stripped away by gran, and wants to 'take them back' from Monet, by whatever means necessary...).

Well, that and the St. Croix family are distantly descended from Apocalypse, and he's aware of this, and Monet is not, and he finds it amusing.

[Havok83]

Nah, M is perfect. She doesnt need to lose any powers. She doesnt really have that many. She is primarily used for her flight and strength/invulnerability. She has TP but thats used sparingly as are her supplementary abilities. She doesnt come across OP

[houndsofluv]

we'll probably just see her using the penance form for the next little while anyways

[PowerPlay25]

She was teammates with Storm, Psylocke, Rachel, and Jubilee. She’s obnoxious. But she does not look down in Storm. They worked together pretty well. When Monet says don’t touch me Storm laughed it off because that is Monet being Monet. It would have gone down differently if they didn’t like each other.

I got the impression she is not a Storm fan. From that interaction as well at those they shared during Bunn's "Uncanny X-Men" run. And she's always snide to Rachel and Jubilee.

[Havok83]

She was teammates with Storm, Psylocke, Rachel, and Jubilee. She’s obnoxious. But she does not look down in Storm. They worked together pretty well. When Monet says don’t touch me Storm laughed it off because that is Monet being Monet. It would have gone down differently if they didn’t like each other.

just bc they were on the same team together doesnt mean they like each other. The scene in HoX was a direct reference to Uncanny X-men were Monet was quite hostile towards Storm and she wasnt just being catty for fun as she typically is