Tessa Niles: Sage Appreciation 2023

[Uncanny X-Man]

I’d actually like to see Shaw and Tessa interact again since he has a Tessa 2.0 now. I’d also like to see her and Emma work together since if I remember correctly those two did not like each other very much

Percy had Emma boss Tessa around during last year's Hellfire Gala if I recall correctly, which felt very OOC for Claremont's Tessa, like most of Percy's work on the character unfortunately aside from a few good glimpses here and there.

[toddcam]

Do you know which issue? I don't remember Tessa even appearing in X-Force.

[JB]

I maintain Sage and Betsy would make a cool duo. They have history, dissimilar personalities, complementary skillsets, both are TP spies...
The X-treme team was acutally a pretty good team in that regard. Not much overlap of personalities, powers or skills, and most had history with one another.

I've had this panel on my mind since you posted the above and then someone posted it on twitter today which felt like lovely synchronicity.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Well when Tessa attacked Betsy and Warren before Scott and Jesns wedding it never came up during their Xtreme days. And in the caption boxes what came after the attack Betsy likened to being close to being raped, as both were unable to move or say anything but wide awake as Hellfire goons changed their clothes. But I am doubting that will be brought up again but she was undercover at the time so...

At least she isn't dressing like Jubilee anymore.

[Nicoclaws]

Ah ! I COMPLETELY forgot the Exiles run.It tends to disappear from my mind.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Do you know which issue? I don't remember Tessa even appearing in X-Force.

I stand corrected, it actually happened during the first Krakoan Hellfire Gala on X-Force #20 when Beast decides to infect Terra Verde politicians with a fungal spy network.

And Tessa is a regular on X-Force, she might not have appeared on every single issue but she's in most and lately with an enhanced role and presence.

[Phoenix Raptor]

She was referred to as "Tessa Niles" in Jeph Loeb's X-Force in the 90s. It hasn't come up since and Claremont mentioned on forum posts he didn't think "Niles" was her real surname, but it hasn't actually been disproven in the comics and no alternatives have been offered, so I'm considering it her surname until a comic says otherwise.

For years, I always thought I'd read somewhere that her name was Tessa Niles but I couldn't say where I thought I'd read it. And I couldn't find anything online to back up what I thought.

Tessa Niles is, in fact, an English singer. If Loeb did state that as being her name, that's almost certainly where he swiped it from.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Warren called her Tessa back before Scott and Jean's wedding before she attacked them and the whole confrontation with Sebastian Shaw at the Hellfire Club.

[yogaflame]

Tessa was her original name as Shaw's assistant going back to her original appearance in Uncanny 132(1980) *she's actually not mentioned by name that issue, but eventually she's called that. It's the 'Niles' that is less common.

[toddcam]

Sage was not in X-Force in the 1990s as a member.

[toddcam]

I stand corrected, it actually happened during the first Krakoan Hellfire Gala on X-Force #20 when Beast decides to infect Terra Verde politicians with a fungal spy network.

And Tessa is a regular on X-Force, she might not have appeared on every single issue but she's in most and lately with an enhanced role and presence.

I had been responding to another poster who thought Jeph Loeb had established her surname as Niles during his run on X-Force in the 1990s.