Monet St. Croix / Penance Appreciation 2020

[Bunch of Coconuts]

It could if it made sense but Hickman hasnt give her any development. Penance was her prison for so long so I wonder how she feels being able to transform into that form, using that name as well as seeing her sisters do it as well.

It could be an empowerment thing; taking control of the trauma associated with the “Penance shell”. Or even The opposite direction, a result of PTSD.

But yeah...it begs explanation.

[kevlon]

So the M and her brother and sisters can merge into different forms? Is that correct? So when the twins merge they become penance? Do they have any powers when they are separate?

Also what happens if one twin merges with Monet ? Or all 3 merge together? Do they become something else entirely?

[Veitha]

It could be an empowerment thing; taking control of the trauma associated with the “Penance shell”. Or even The opposite direction, a result of PTSD.

But yeah...it begs explanation.

Yeah I want an explanation. She went from having suicidal thoughts about the thing to embracing it which is nice for her... But I'd like to see how it happened.

[Havok83]

So the M and her brother and sisters can merge into different forms? Is that correct? So when the twins merge they become penance? Do they have any powers when they are separate?

Also what happens if one twin merges with Monet ? Or all 3 merge together? Do they become something else entirely?

The twins dont need to merge to get a Penance form. They are able to transform on their own. The twins as individuals havent had much development. All we know about their powers is that they have TP, can open up gateways and have a gestalt form with their siblings. Most recently they too can take on a Penance form

[Paleo_Rage]

So the M and her brother and sisters can merge into different forms? Is that correct? So when the twins merge they become penance? Do they have any powers when they are separate?

Also what happens if one twin merges with Monet ? Or all 3 merge together? Do they become something else entirely?

The m Twins powers are undefined at present.. All we know is that they are psionic based and have included making a portal. But the one power they all have is a merging form. All the siblings can do that. There is also some ability immunity thrown in as Emplate can not read the twin's aura when she was M.

Also the mergers have implied different thing..The first merger Template had there powers plus more and as it lasted longer was moving toward being a new entity. The more recent stuff with M and Emplate gave me Venom vibes more than anything else/slash his possessing ability like when he made Synch an emplate.

[franckd]

Convoluted.

Monet and/as the twins were a great simple concept. I think Lobdell really knew what he wanted to do with those characters. Then Larry Hama took over Gen X, and retconned Penance as the "real" Monet. Penance wasn't supposed to be related to the St Croix. She had memory of war, maybe from an other country (I don't remember that well)

When a character is not completely defined by its creator, every writer want to put a spin, a twist, on them. Convoluted, retconed, ... Like the Xorn mess.

All I know is M was my favorite in Gen X (Lobdell) and I loved her during Peter David's X-Factor

[Will Evans]

I’m surprised Hickman hasn’t placed Monet, Husk, Warren and Kurt on a permanent team yet, after using them in the mission on the introductory story. (Not counting Husk in Fallen Angels)

[yogaflame]

Hickman has spread himself too thin with this X-Men gig. I wish it had just been him. Even if that only meant 2-3 titles, it would have been better that way. Having to share his ideas with the lesser writers is diluting the genius of his story(I'm looking particularly at you, Excalibur). It has sucked he listed Monet as one of his favorites going into this whole thing, and she's barely done anything other than turn into Penance and get killed in two seconds anyways(shouldn't she have been, like, ultra-invulnerable in that form??).

[houndsofluv]

To be fair, Hickman's storyline is really just getting off the ground. The magic aspect is the most interesting part of Excalibur and he's gonna be co-writing when it comes to a head in X of Swords. Monet's got a seemingly important in Empyre where the Penance stuff is probably gonna be explained seeing as she's with a mutant in a similar position ( Warren ), I think Hickman even alluded to this in an interview but I could be wrong.

I think it's still too early to say he's spread himself thin because the pieces are all on the table its just taken a while to get to them thanks to extraneous circumstances..but if they end up fumbled I'll agree w/ you lol

[Havok83]

Hickman has spread himself too thin with this X-Men gig. I wish it had just been him. Even if that only meant 2-3 titles, it would have been better that way. Having to share his ideas with the lesser writers is diluting the genius of his story(I'm looking particularly at you, Excalibur). It has sucked he listed Monet as one of his favorites going into this whole thing, and she's barely done anything other than turn into Penance and get killed in two seconds anyways(shouldn't she have been, like, ultra-invulnerable in that form??).

The X-books have been good. Excalibur and FA are the only ones that have been subpar.

[Sutekh]

I am curious, has there ever been any sort of attempt to explain why Monet has so many different powers? I know that mutants aren't limited to just one power or theme, and that secondary mutation is a thing, to boot, but while strength + toughness tend to go together, flight, telepathy and others that sort of come and go, like telekinesis and heightened intelligence and limited super-speed, not so much.

It could be interesting to see some sort of rationale behind it, like that her actual mutant power is more like that of Gideon, to have sort of an adaptive X-gene, able to adopt whatever 'perfect' mutation she unconsciously desires

*Or* perhaps her whole family, not just her, her sisters, or her brother, have had mutants in previous generations, and as the generations pass, their powers somehow 'pool' in the current generation, so that Monet's not just got her one power (whichever one that is), but the individuals powers of two or three or more ancestors that have been 'passed down' to remain in the family, because one of them, ages past, had the mutant power to take / transfer / pass on powers, and passed on their own power (and others they'd gathered over the years) on their deathbed to one of their kids. It would also perhaps tie into how Marius' powers work (to take, and never 're-gift'), and his obsession with Monet (since she 'got the gifts' and he didn't...).

[Veitha]

I like the idea that she's simply... Perfect. Like she's the perfect human/mutant or how the perfect human/mutant would be in the future, with psionics and better physicality.

I'm more curious about the merging thing that they can do and the twins actual powers. But the family of elite mutants that passed their powers to the next is indeed interesting.

As for the twins, they had TP like Monet and space powers like Emplate, so they could have them have a mix or have one similar to M and one similar to Marius.

[Will Evans]

I like the idea that she's simply... Perfect. Like she's the perfect human/mutant or how the perfect human/mutant would be in the future, with psionics and better physicality.

That was always the intention of her creators back in the 90s as well. Along with her beauty.

With the twist being about the merged twins.

[CRaymond]

The idea of perfect is mutable.

I don’t think M needs psychic powers so much as psychic invulnerability. M’s character is brilliant. It’s everything around her that needs rehabilitation.

[yogaflame]

She does need rehabilitation. The original Generation X twist still hasn't been fully reconciled. Her powers are all over the place, and in so many contradictory levels, within the canon. She has loads of potential, but none of it realized.