Danielle Moonstar/Mirage Appreciation 2023

[Master of Sound]

I liked Dani very much in her Valkyrie period and was extremely happy when she was starring in the Valkyries mini with Rana and Jane.

I would love her to get a new winged horse and use her Valkyrie and mutant powers combined.

Perhaps leading an 'airforce team' with Archangel, including Icaras, Aura, Pixie, Galura and her twin brother.

[rf2044]

I'm using Dani as the main character in a Starforged (solo ttrpg) game. So far it's been a lot of fun. When i get farther into the story, I may post the character sheet and some session notes.

I don't think this directly addresses your question, but I had a similar experience. Years ago, I played the Marvel Superheroes RPG with a group of Marvel comic enthusiasts. Within that, I had two experiences with Dani being in a campaign. Both were very different.

In one campaign, we played the New Mutants, when the team was pretty new / inexperienced. Dani's character sheet / abilities were predefined. In the comics, the New Mutants were different than other teams [like the X-Men], because their powers had limitations. So in a comic, instead of broadly using their powers, each character might only have a single time [or two] that they used their powers in an entire issue. For example, to track somebody, Rahne might be called upon to transform into a wolf and use her sense of smell. Or Roberto would use his super strength to accomplish some lone specific task. Or Dani might use her powers to frighten off some guards. So there wasn't a lot of examples for her to use Dani's abstract power set. I was surprised [based on how her abilities were defined] by how powerful she was -- she could use her fear ability to essentially incapacitate opponents who were physically much stronger than herself, for extended rounds if they failed a saving throw. So just for example, Dani could take someone like the Abomination out of a fight for several rounds, which was a tremendous advantage in battle. Made me realize that despite not having physical augmentations or powers that dealt damage, she was a total powerhouse.

In a second campaign, we played a dystopian future that was kind of like a mash-up of the Sentinels meet the Terminator. Skynet took over the world to counter the mutant threat, and launched the Sentinels. It was based heavily on the Days of Futures Past issue. In that campaign, we were randomly generated mutant characters interred at a metahuman prison camp. After a disaster happens at the prison, we escaped and went on the run. After a series of adventures, we were "rescued" by the two leaders of the resistance. Dani Moonstar was an NPC who was married to an alternate universe version of Captain America [it wasn't Steve Rogers]. She was the good cop to his semi-bad cop -- he wasn't "bad," per se -- but he was willing to send us into danger and often had ulterior motives that he didn't share with us when he sent us on missions. Dani -- despite being war-hardened -- was the one who supported us and provided us with information that was useful in the campaign. She even went into battle with us a couple of times, using a suit kind of like Iron Man's [I think it was called the "Warfare" armor, or something like that]. Despite being an NPC, the way the GM played her was memorable, and she was one of the biggest components of that campaign.

[rf2044]

What the heck happened in Marvel Comics Presents? I didn't even know that existed.

As far as her powers not working, Psylocke and Shadow King had a battle on the astral plane that disrupted the powers of several telepaths, including Moonstar. It's mentioned somewhere in X-Force.

When was she deemed the Champion of Life?

Here's the issue:

Marvel Comics Presents vol 1 #121 - Of Faith and Fable
Mini story where Dani struggles between returning to her people and staying in Asgard with the Valkyries


Issue came out in 1993, a few years [real world time] after Dani left the New Mutants to stay in Asgard with the Valkyries. The Marvel Presents format was to have several short stories with random characters that were generally untethered to a main book, in each issue. Dani's story was a glimpse into what she was up to with the Valkyries. This doesn't give anything away, but her training is interrupted when a Cheyenne deity [Hotamintanio] arrives in Asgard to bring her back to Earth.

Worth checking out, but dated. And they drew Dani weird.

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[Arachne]

Broken record here, but I really wish Moonstar could break free from the mentor role. Dani really should be leading a team of X-Men IMO. I was honestly hoping to see her on the X-Men vote this year, so she could be on the premiere X-Men team, but she unfortunately wasn't. Would have been nice to see Dani interacting with Cyclops.

Mirage always had the potential to be a full time X-Man IMO, and I hate that she is constantly stuck with training/caretaking for the next generation. Moonstar's personality can work well in those roles, but she way too much potential to always be this sidelined.

I agree. Other characters manage to mentor and kick butt, I don't see why Dani had to get shoved into a supporting role. It's kinda weird that she not on the list of candidates, but Sam gets on twice. I guess Duggan just doesn't want to write her. In which case, she's better off somewhere else.

What the heck happened in Marvel Comics Presents? I didn't even know that existed.

As far as her powers not working, Psylocke and Shadow King had a battle on the astral plane that disrupted the powers of several telepaths, including Moonstar. It's mentioned somewhere in X-Force.

When was she deemed the Champion of Life?

In the MCP story, a Cheyenne god decides she shouldn't be in Asgard and comes to get her. He and Myst fight, then Dani talks him into letting her stay. Not much of a story, really, but some early Joe Madureira art.

That Shadow King story happened before the story where her powers got reset. In fact, I don't think we were actually told they were reset until that blurb I posted. So I doubt there's a connection.

The Champion of Life stuff happened in the Chris Claremont Anniversary Special a couple of years ago, but it was set before Dani left Xavier's school the first time, as near as anyone can tell. Sometime after she became a Valkyrie, but before Inferno.

I liked Dani very much in her Valkyrie period and was extremely happy when she was starring in the Valkyries mini with Rana and Jane.

I would love her to get a new winged horse and use her Valkyrie and mutant powers combined.

Perhaps leading an 'airforce team' with Archangel, including Icaras, Aura, Pixie, Galura and her twin brother.

I don't know about the horse, but I like it when she combines her mutant and Valkyrie powers. Like when she conjured up the Marauders' deaths for Wolverine, way back when.

[rf2044]

It seems like a story was planned, but Weir and DePhillip's run ended. (That quote is from their last issue.)

It could have been something to do with the quantum powers. It could also have been a good excuse to give her back her powers after M-Day at any point. With her powers being rebooted by Warlock, I doubt it'll be revisited, now. Especially since that quote was the only mention of it, as far as I know.

Two different things here.

First, her powers waning. I believe that happened in a New X-Men issue where the mansion got attacked by Juggernaut. Dani tried to help out a group of students who were trying to fend him off, and in doing so lamented that her powers were growing weaker. It was the first time it got brought up, not sure where they were going with that / what the writers had in mind / what the root cause of her mutant abilities "fading" was [don't think I've ever seen a comparable case in any other mutant] -- but it was never followed up upon. Decimation happened shortly thereafter, so it became an irrelevant consideration [or perhaps, as Arachne points out], new writers just went in a different direction and dropped continuing that teaser.

In regards to her quantum powers during the X-Force era -- I always felt like that was designed to give her a power-up, to where her powers could do more damage in battle. I also think it was because her powers were more abstract [beyond her psychic arrows], and most writers don't seem to know what to do with them, so giving her alternative powers that were a little more combat-oriented [even though I personally felt like her quantum powers were equally abstract and unclear] may have just been the writers trying to ignore her original powers in favor of a "better" set of powers.

Just my opinion.

[Arachne]

I've completely forgotten about that Juggernaut fight. I'll have to reread.

IIRC, the rumours from the time of the quantum powers were that it was because the aforementioned Psylocke/Shadow King battle was going to nerf psy mutants indefinitely. I think the solicitations backed that up. At that time the x-books were notorious for changing the story after the solicitations were out. The thought was that JF Moore didn't want Dani out of the action that long. That could just be a rumour, though.

[norj]

I like to think of her quantum powers as a natural evolution of her solid illusion powers, turning psychic energy into physical matter is a small step from turning psychic energy into other forms of energy or manipulating matter directly.

[rf2044]

I like to think of her quantum powers as a natural evolution of her solid illusion powers, turning psychic energy into physical matter is a small step from turning psychic energy into other forms of energy or manipulating matter directly.

Norj, do you mind elaborating?

It was so long ago, I'm struggling a bit to remember how they worked. I seem to recall that she could sense / disrupt fields of energy -- I think she did that one time to neutralize something that Magneto was doing. Could she also reshape matter at the molecular level or am I misremembering?

Struggling to make the connection.

[Havok83]

Dani's quantum powers were like Scarlet Witch's hex powers. I dont think anyone quite understood them

[Arachne]

Ha ha! So true. Remember Kid Quantum from the Legion of Superheroes? If was years before any writers knew enough about quantum mechanics to figure out what her powers were. (IIRC, it was Abnett and Lanning who first defined her powers.)

I like to think of her quantum powers as a natural evolution of her solid illusion powers, turning psychic energy into physical matter is a small step from turning psychic energy into other forms of energy or manipulating matter directly.

She actually exchanged powers with Arcadia (or whatever her name was) in that story, but I don't think it was never explained how that happened. I suppose it could have been because their powers were similar.

[Paleo_Rage]

I like to think of her quantum powers as a natural evolution of her solid illusion powers, turning psychic energy into physical matter is a small step from turning psychic energy into other forms of energy or manipulating matter directly.

I like to think about it like this too. Dani manipulates ambient psionic energy to animate the illusions, later she makes them solid for a bit with some help but then she learns how to make them into weapons.. i figue Dani should go in this direction as a broad band psionic energy manipulator as her main power but it manifests via various power effects …illusions , animal telepathy , death sense …i feel like this less powerful version of jeans pink form..

[Arachne]

I forgot to give an update on Dani's role in yesterday's Karma in Love Infinity comic. I'd post the most important panel, but you can't spoiler tag images.

spoilers:

Dani doesn't get much panel time here, but she does mention feeling Trân's fear. This is one of the few (only?) times she's shown sensing emotions without conjuring an illusion or hitting someone with an arrow. A minor power upgrade, but I hope it sticks.

end of spoilers

[rf2044]

A quick look at New Mutants / Lethal Legion #1:

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comi...t-look-preview

[Arachne]

As I said on another thread, the art is nice, but I don't have high hopes for the story. And how does Escapade rate an original costume when the real New Mutants are stuck in black and gold??

[Arachne]

BTW, rf2044, I listened to that Cerebro podcast about Dani you linked to a few pages back. Your right, it was really interesting. A great overview of her character, and some great insights from Darcie Little Badger. (I started the Nate Grey one, too, but it might not be so good as the podcasters don't seem to like him as much.)