Aurora (comics)

Superherobox|

caption=Aurora. Art by John Byrne.
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Aurora
real_name=Jeanne-Marie Beaubier
species=Human Mutant
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut=" [Uncanny] X-Men" #120 (Apr 1979)
creators=Chris Claremont
John Byrne
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=X-Men The Children Alpha Flight Weapon X Brotherhood of Mutants
Beta Flight
Gamma Flight
aliases=
powers=Superhuman speed and durability,
Flight,
Light generation|

Aurora (Jeanne-Marie Beaubier) is a fictional character, a Canadian superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe. She first appeared in " [Uncanny X-Men| [Uncanny] X-Men] " #120 as a member of Alpha Flight. She is the twin sister of Northstar and the former lover of Sasquatch.

Fictional character biography

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She and her twin brother Jean-Paul were separated in infancy after their parents died. Jean-Paul was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Louis Martin, who were cousins of his mother. The Martins could not afford to adopt Jeanne-Marie as well and arranged for Jeanne-Marie to be raised at Madame DuPont's School for Girls in LaVelle, Quebec, a reactionary religious school. Soon afterward the Martins moved to Northern Quebec. The Martins were killed in an accident several years later and Jean-Paul was placed in a foster home, unaware that he had a sister.

Extremely nervous and introverted, Jeanne-Marie Beaubier was miserable at Madame DuPont's School and at the age of thirteen, she attempted suicide by throwing herself from the roof of one of the school's buildings. Instead of falling to her death, Beaubier discovered that she could fly at great speed. Unaware that she was a mutant, the deeply religious Beaubier believed that her flight was the result of a divine miracle. The next morning she explained to the school's headmistress what she believed had happened. Believing the young girl to be guilty of blasphemy, the headmistress had Beaubier severely disciplined. This incident (and possibly other abuse) triggered a dissociative identity disorder in Jeanne-Marie; a second personality, extroverted and far more uninhibited, emerged. Under the influence of this second personality, Beaubier secretly left the school that same night. On returning three days later, she had no memory of where she had been or what she had done and she was again physically punished. The resulting trauma was so great that Beaubier repressed her second personality.

Alpha Flight

Five years later, Beaubier's application to become a teacher of history and geography at the school was accepted. By this time Beaubier had adjusted to life at the school and her everyday personality was that of a prim, proper, repressed woman. But the same night that her application was accepted, her second personality re-emerged and she left to enjoy herself in Montreal. Confronted by muggers, she knocked one unconscious by moving at superhuman speed. This was the first time that she had used her superhuman powers in five years. The second mugger was halted by Wolverine, who had witnessed the attempted assault. Recognizing that Beaubier had superhuman powers, Wolverine invited her to go to Ottawa to meet James MacDonald Hudson, who was organizing a team of superhumanly powerful agents for the Canadian government's Department H. Hudson accepted her as a recruit and reunited her with her brother. After a period of training, both Beaubier siblings joined the team that Hudson created, Alpha Flight, under the code names Aurora and Northstar. ["X-Men" #120 (Apr. 1979) Marvel Comics]

On Alpha Flight's first mission, Aurora aided in combating the X-Men to capture Wolverine. ["Uncanny X-Men" #120-121] With Northstar, she battled Deadly Ernest. ["Alpha Flight" #7-8] She later recounted how she developed her superhuman powers and developed her Aurora personality, and how Wolverine recruited her into Alpha Flight, ["Alpha Flight" #9] as well as how she met Northstar. ["Alpha Flight" #10] Her powers were later altered by Walter Langowski. ["Alpha Flight" #17] Aurora was captured by Gilded Lily, but was rescued by Sasquatch, who began to suspect that she was manifesting a third personality. ["Alpha Flight" #20-21] With Northstar, she battled Pink Pearl. ["Alpha Flight" #22]

She was later temporarily cured of her multiple personalities. Alongside the X-Men and Alpha Flight, she battled Loki. ["X-Men and Alpha Flight" #1-2] She was again attacked by Gilded Lily. ["Alpha Flight Annual" #1] Aurora was captured by Box, who had gone insane, but was later rescued by Alpha Flight. ["Alpha Flight" #46] Loki deceived Aurora into believing that her mother had been an Asgardian Light Elf. She journeyed to Alfheim, and seemingly expended all of her superhuman power in curing Northstar of a fatal illness. ["Alpha Flight" #50] She then joined a convent and dropped out of sight for a while. ["Alpha Flight" #64]

Jean-Marie eventually left the convent and was transported to Asgard, and helped rescue Northstar in Alfheim. She discovered that she had regained her superhuman powers and rejoined Alpha Flight. ["Alpha Flight" #81-82, 85] Aurora soon discovered that she could now generate a light that bestowed inner peace in others. ["Alpha Flight" #88-89] With Alpha Flight and the Fantastic Four, she contended against Headlok. ["Alpha Flight" #93-96] Headlok mentally manipulated her, causing her to revert to her original split personality, and she then killed Headlok. ["Alpha Flight" #102-104] She soon thereafter had a rematch with Pink Pearl. ["Alpha Flight" #105] Eventually, the original incarnation of Alpha Flight disbanded. ["Alpha Flight" #130]

Aurora has suffered from dissociative identity disorder for some time: Jeanne-Marie represented her more prim and proper persona while Aurora represented Jeanne-Marie's more outgoing, repressed personality traits. The personalities were later merged into one relatively healthy personality although her sanity has deteriorated in recent years and they split again.

Recently, Beaubier underwent still further personality changes. For a time, her "Aurora" and "Jeanne-Marie" personae have each manifested traits of the other while nevertheless remaining distinctly separate personalities. Most of the time now, she manifests a third personality which is basically Aurora's but with more of a sense of responsibility than before.

At one point, Aurora and Northstar were retconned to be half-human, half-elf; however, this development was itself retconned away, and the twins are known to be human mutants, as they were originally intended.

Weapon X

Aurora became a mind controlled agent of Weapon X and was in an abusive relationship with the Weapon X director, Malcolm Colcord who beat her. Aurora managed to retaliate against her mind-control by creating a third personality that wasn't affected. She beat the director up and managed to escape.

The Children of the Vault and the X-Men

It is shown that Aurora's mental state has become more unstable than before as apparently one of her personas had nearly influenced her into killing herself. ["X-Men" (vol. 2) #189 (Sept 2006) Marvel Comics] However, she was stopped by the arrival of Northstar, who was under the control of The Children, a mysterious group of heretofore unknown superhumans. One of the Children, Serafina, placed the twins under their control, largely repairing Aurora's fragile psyche and altering their powers, enabling them to generate not only light when in contact with each other, but apparently heat as well.

After the twins took out Iceman and Northstar took off to kill Sabretooth, Aurora stayed behind to take care of those left, taking out X-23 and Mercury of the New X-Men, until she was tricked by Mystique, who had shape-shifted into Aurora herself and played off what was left of Aurora's broken psyche, distracting her until Iceman reassembled himself and knocked her out.

The X-Men took Northstar and Aurora to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in an attempt to fix the mental damage inflicted on the twins. Using their V.R. equipment the X-Men allowed the twins to relive their lives at an accelerated pace. The process was interrupted near the end of the session by Exodus, creating a telepathic connection between the twins. Using each other's emotional support they apparently managed to face their inner personal turmoils. This allowed both brother and sister to gain a higher level of control of their powers, which they used to save Rogue from the Acolyte known as Frenzy. ["X-Men Annual" #1] They were presently in the company of the X-Men.

ecret Invasion

Aurora and her brother Northstar move to and fight alongside the X-Men in San Francisco against the Skrulls when they invade the earth. ["Secret Invasion: X-Men" #2]

Powers and abilities

Aurora has the powers of flight and superhuman speed and reflexes (theoretically able to approach light-speed). The greater her increase in speed, the more durable her body becomes. In an early issue of Alpha Flight Northstar reveals to readers that Aurora can fly for longer periods of time than he can, but that he can fly faster than Aurora. Her strength and reaction time are above-average for a woman of her age and exercise level. Aurora could use her super speed to perform stunts such as creating a cyclone by running in circles, running up walls and across water, and she could breathe while traveling at subsonic speeds.

Originally, while in contact with her brother, the pair could emit bursts of brilliant white light which bestowed a feeling of inner peace upon other people. But after a serious falling-out with her brother, she had her powers altered by Walter Langkowski (Sasquatch), her lover at the time, to enable her to produce light independently; touching her brother - as she later discovered - actually "cancels" the ability and creates a physical, incapacitating shock. (The treatment incidentally also "cloaked" her from mutant-detection devices, such as the Sentinels.)

It appears that this may have become undone in recent years, returning this ability to its original state. Due to the machinations of Serafina, it appears that Aurora and Northstar can now generate explosive thermal energy on contact with each other as well.

Aurora is moderately skilled in hand-to-hand combat using a style utilizing her superhuman speed, and received coaching from Puck and Wolverine.

Aurora's powers alter in various ways when her different personalities are dominant.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Northstar and Aurora were part of Mr. Sinister's Elite Mutant Force (E.M.F.) and, as such, were assigned to patrolling the breeding pens. The siblings were rather snotty about their superior status as mutants and seemed to take great pleasure in punishing those prisoners who acted up or tried to escape. When the E.M.F.’s leader, Cyclops, switched sides, secretly helping some inmates to escape, he was caught in the act by the speeding twins. However, both of them were defeated by Cyclops and the prisoner he was helping to escape, which happened to be Polaris. When the series was revisited for the 10 year anniversary, it was revealed that following the fall of Apocalypse's regime, the Beaubiers became fugitives until they were killed ["X-Men: Age of Apocalypse" #2 (May 2005) Marvel Comics] by Weapon X and Kirika. [X-23 in the Marvels main universe]

Marvel Zombies

In the "Marvel Zombies" comics set in the universe of Earth-2149, the zombified Alpha Flight attack the X-Men and are eventually killed by Magneto. Aurora is seen in a panel of "Marvel Zombies Dead Days" attacking the X-Man Storm alongside her brother Northstar. The two are killed by Magneto only moments later.

Weapon X: Days of Future Now

In the "Weapon X: Days of Future Now" storyline, Aurora is one of the mutants that Wolverine recruits in order to resurrect the X-Men after all except himself and Angel were killed by Weapon X under Malcolm Colcord. When Wolverine comes for her she is living as Jeanne-Marie in a nunnery in Lourdes, France. She agrees and mentions the death of her brother as a reason for joining him. However, Wolverine isn't really interested in recruiting her as Aurora or her normal personality of Jeanne-Marie. He comes to recruit her third personality and slaps her until it surfaces. When it does she takes off her nun's hood and her robes then resemble her Aurora outfit. She joins Wolverine's new, more violent X-Men along with Juggernaut, Deadpool, Mystique, Sunfire, Archangel, and Agent Zero.

Unfortunately, she is killed along with Mystique, Sunfire, and Deadpool, when it is revealed that Agent Zero has been made into a sleeper agent for Weapon X through the use of Mesmero's mutant hypnotic abilities. He ambushes his teammates in their base, killing or severely wounding them with gunfire and his concussive energy blasts. Eventually he takes his own life when he manages to break free of Weapon X's control, moments before killing Wolverine.

Earth X

In Earth X, Aurora is still a member of Alpha Flight. However, she was killed alongside her team by the Tong of Creel. ["Universe X" #2]

House of M

In the alternate reality created by the Scarlet Witch known as House of M, Aurora is an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, responsible for training a squad of young mutants and super-humans in the agency's junior training squad program however she is only seen briefly along with Anole and her brother.issue

Ultimate Aurora

An Ultimate version of Aurora makes her debut in Ultimate X-Men #94. She is part of the Ultimate Version of Alpha Flight. Like her mainstream counterpart, she is the sister of Northstar. The two seem to share a distant relationship, due to the fact that Aurora still works for Department H, somewhere that Jean-Paul ran from claiming they were crazy. She is the one who physically takes her brother captive. Her power seemed to be speed based, but, according to her and due to being enhanced by the Mutant Growth Hormone known as Banshee, she is faster than light. Something which she proved by being able to remove Colossus grip on their jet wthout him being aware of it. Later, when the X-Men attack their base to rescue Northstar, she is quickly taken down by Dazzler, who has also enhanced her abilities with Banshee.

In other media

In the "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" episode "Mission: Save the Guardstar," the mutant Lightwave is based on Aurora.

Aurora appeared in the "X-Men" animated series episodes "Slave Island" and "Repo Man". In the cartoon Aurora possessed the ability to fly and generate a blinding light when she slapped hands with her brother Northstar.

Bibliography

*"Alpha Flight Annual" #1
*"Alpha Flight" vol. 1 #1-4, 7-12, 14-15, 17, 20-46, 48-50, 52, 64, 81-82, 84-86, 87-95, 98, 102, 104-116, 127-130
*"Alpha Flight" vol. 2 #12, 15, 17-20
*"Avengers" vol. 1 272
*"Classic X-Men" #27
*"Contest of Champions" vol. 1 #1-3
*"Generation X" #58
*"Incredible Hulk Annual" #8
*"Incredible Hulk" vol. 2 #277, 279, 313
*"Infinity War" #1-3
*"Machine Man" vol. 1 #18
*"Marvel Fanfare" #28
*"Marvel Team-Up Annual" #7
*"Marvel Two-in-One" #84
*"Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z 2006" #1
*"Quasar" #38
*"Secret War" vol. 2 #4, 9
*"Uncanny X-Men" #120-121, 379
*"Weapon X" vol. 2 #1-4, 6-11, 13, 22
*"Weapon X: The Draft: Wild Child"
*"Wolverine" vol. 2 #142-143
*"X-Factor" vol. 1 #116, 143
*"X-Man" #27-28
*"X-Men/Alpha Flight" vol. 1 #1-2
*"X-Men/Alpha Flight" vol. 2 #1-2
*"X-Men: The 198-Files"

References

External links

* [http://alphanex.alphaflight.net/index.php/Aurora AlphaFlight.Net Alphanex Entry ons - Aurora]
* [http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/spotlight/showquestion.asp?faq=10&fldAuto=120 Uncannyxmen.net Spotlight On...Aurora]
* [http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2855/aurora.html The Women of Marvel Comics Aurora Page]
* [http://www.marvel.com/universe/Aurora Aurora on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki]