Thursday, July 8, 2021

STEPFORD CUCKOOS

 


STEPFORD CUCKOOS

Real Name: Celeste, Mindee (Irma), Phoebe, Sophie, Esme
First Appearance: New X-Men (Vol. 1) #118, November 2001

Powers: The Stepford Cuckoos are a set of five mutant telepaths, bred as a hive mind by the Weapon Plus Program using Emma Frost's genetic material. The Cuckoos seem to share a constant psychic link with one enough, and often speak in unison or complete each other's sentences. They think in a form of machine code, transmitting vast quantities of data between one another telepathically. Each possesses some level of telepathic ability on their own, but they work best as a gestalt, functioning as a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts. They have demonstrated a wide range of the standard telepathic abilities, including reading minds, communicating with other people mentally, detecting other people's presences through their psychic signatures, altering or erasing memories, projecting psionic bolts to injure or incapacitate the minds of others, etc.

Apparently, it is possible for one member of the Cuckoos to exert dominance over their hive, as Esme did, and command the advanced levels of telepathy the group is capable of reaching on her own, drawing power from the other Cuckoos without their consent and possibly without their knowledge as well. It was unclear whether or not the deaths of Esme and Sophie cost the Stepfords their powers, or merely divided up their telepathic power among the remaining Cuckoos. They also have the capacity to use Emma's diamond skin transformation, but chose not to use it beyond their "diamond hearts", which each contained a fraction of the Phoenix Force.

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