Irma Cuckoo (Earth-616)

Origin[]

While Emma Frost lay in a comatose state, Dr. John Sublime harvested eggs from her to begin experimentation. The Weapon Plus program then used the eggs to create thousands of identical mutant girls in the hope of developing a powerful weapon capable of killing every mutant on Earth by combining their telepathic abilities. The project was designated Weapon XIV, and girls were incubated and artificially aged inside the subterranean level of The World.^[5] While most girls remained dormant, five were sent to infiltrate the Xavier Institute as student sisters to hone their talents for Sublime's purpose.^[6][7]

Xavier Institute[]

After the Xavier Institute went public,^[8] Mindee and her sisters were enrolled as orphan quintuplet sisters.^[7] To protect their secret origins, the girls unconsciously placed mental blocks in the minds of the faculty, preventing them from investigating their background.^[9]

The girls quickly gained the moniker "The Stepford Cuckoos", though their chosen codename was the Five-In-One. Emma Frost took a special interest in the girls, and the Cuckoos became her protégés.^[10][11]

When Kid Omega led a rebellion of students at the X-Mansion, Sophie encouraged Mindee and the other Cuckoos to take action, and they covertly snuck into Cerebra. Using Kick to amp up her powers, Sophie and her sisters were able to stop Quire. Unfortunately, Sophie died in the process.^[12]

With the death of Sophie, the Five-In-One became the Four-In-One. The girls were furious with Emma Frost, whom they blamed for Sophie's death.^[13] This mourning and anger was multiplied when Esme attempted to murder Emma, fled the X-Mansion,^[14] and joined Xorn's Brotherhood. With the departure and later death of Esme, the Four-In-One became the Three-In-One.^[15]

The girls were among the students temporarily relocated to an X-Corp building in Salem Center while the Institute was being rebuilt.^[16] It was here that Mindee's first boyfriend, Germaine, died during an anti-mutant riot.^[17][18]

When the Institute was rebuilt under the leadership of co-headmasters Cyclops and Emma Frost, the students were organized into several training squads with an assigned mentor staff member.^[19][20] Mindee and her sisters were assigned to the Corsairs Squad under the tutelage of Cyclops with the girls serving equally as co-leaders of the squad.^[21]

M-Day[]

On M-Day the vast majority of the world's mutant population was depowered. Mindee and her sisters retained their powers, but they were three of only twenty-seven students to retain their powers. Fearing for the students' safety, Emma Frost ordered that the depowered students and staff leave the Institute. For their safety, the depowered students were brought through the Morlock Tunnels to an awaiting bus. Unfortunately, the bus of depowered students was bombed by anti-mutant zealot Rev. William Stryker, killing all forty-two of the former students on board.^[22]

The remaining students were placed by Emma Frost into an all-out brawl, and the ones deemed the best by Emma would become a group of New X-Men in-training. This entire exercise was met with disgust by the Three-In-One, who promptly informed Cyclops of Emma's actions.^[23]

Warsong[]

When an unstable fraction of the Phoenix Force sparked inside the girls, the dormant Weapon Plus nanotech inside their bones was activated. This nanotech briefly reanimated Sophie and Esme, who directed their sisters back to The World to activate Sublime's plan for the destruction of the mutant race.^[24]

The Phoenix and Sublime both wrestled for control of the Cuckoos when the X-Men arrived. Mindee appeared apathetic and consigned to her fate as part of Sublime's weapon. Soon Phoebe was captured and integrated into Sublime's machine, but the Phoenix was able to possess Celeste. When Celeste was finally merged into the machine, the Phoenix was divided between all the Cuckoos and trapped in their newly emerged second mutation, organic diamond hearts. This event finally activated the Thousand-In-One.^[24]

Celeste continued to resist the Phoenix and Sublime's machine long enough for the X-Men to forcibly disconnect them. In a rage, Phoebe triggered a power surge that caused an explosion, but Celeste was able take full control of the Phoenix. Celeste destroyed her new sisters, and trapped the Phoenix fragments inside the Three-In-One's flawless diamond hearts rendering them emotionless.^[25]

Endangered Species[]

After returning to the Institute, the girls adopted a rebellious/mischievous streak. They helped Elixir telepathically gain a Ph.D. level knowledge of science and biology from Beast's brain.^[26] Along with the other students, they were pulled into Limbo, where they were rescued by Prodigy.^[27] To repay his kindness, the Cuckoos restored all of the knowledge he had previously gain with the use of his powers despite his powers being deactivated.^[28] Mindee and her sister were briefly considered as potential candidates for recruitment to the Initiative.^[29]

After the birth of the Mutant Messiah, the Stepford sisters were stationed in Cerebra to search for the baby and act as central communication for the various X-squads.^[30][31][32]

Utopia[]

The Stepford Cuckoos rejoined the X-Men and the last of mutantkind in San Francisco. During the Skrull Invasion, they assisted in the evacuation of a San Francisco Hospital, and later offered remote support to Emma while bringing down the Skrulls' psychic blockade.^[33]

During Osborn's assault on the X-Men, Cyclops assigned Mindee to be captured.^[1] Acting as a Trojan horse, through her link with her sisters Mindee was able to lead the X-Men to Alcatraz Island, where Osborn had secretly been imprisoning mutants.^[34]

Once they relocated to Utopia, the Stepford Cuckoos frequently manned Cerebra.^[35][36] When Lobe, with Scalphunter, brought a group of Predator Xs to attack Utopia the X-Men were forced to battle the mutant-eating creatures. The Cuckoos served as telepathic communication for the team, but during the battle the Phoenix fragments that were contained inside their diamond hearts escaped, mysteriously returned to space, and left the girls unconscious.^[37] With the loss of the Phoenix, the girls fell into a depressive funk. Mindee began sneaking into San Francisco and purchasing horror film DVDs to help entertain her and her sisters.^[38]

After Cyclops and Wolverine decided to part ways, Mindee wanted to remain on Utopia while Phoebe wanted to return to Westchester. With the deciding vote left to Celeste, she opted to stay on Utopia, partly because of Quentin Quire's presence at the school.^[39][40]

Changes[]

When the Phoenix Force returned to Earth searching for a new host leading to the war between the Avengers and the X-Men, the Stepford Cuckoos were among the younger X-Men detained in the Avengers Compound with the Avengers Academy.^[41] Afterword they were reluctantly recruited to the new Jean Grey School where the manned Cerebra and witnessed the death of Professor X and the reemergence of mutantkind.^[42][43][44]

The girls were very displeased with the new school.^[45] When Cyclops and his X-Men came to the school looking for recruits to their mutant rebellion, the Stepford sisters and Angel volunteered to go.^[46]

Since then Mindee and her sisters aided Cyclops' X-Men when they were again brought to Limbo, by temporarily removing the fear of the new recruits in battle with the forces of Dormammu.^[47] They also rescued David Bond from being killed by a police officer.^[48]

Always the most individual of the Three-in-One, Mindee surprised her sisters by deciding to change her appearance by dyeing her hair black and cutting it short to find a "new me". While Celeste disapproved of it, Emma Frost defended her actions and Triage complimented her, making her smile.^[49]

She later participated in the training in Tabula Rasa, keeping Triage calm so he didn't panic while in the new situation.^{[citation needed]}

X-Men Disassembled[]

Irma was one of the many mutants that opposed the crazed X-Man from remaking the world in his image. When X-Man realized that his vision of the world would never come about with the X-Men around, X-Man made his enemies vanish in an instant, including Irma.^[50]

Irma and the others were transported to another plane of existence by X-Man created in an attempt at a utopia where they and all other mutants would be at peace, altering their memories so they wouldn't resist.^[51] Irma Cuckoo was made a producer and a professional assistant for Studio X. She and her sister, Celeste, made sure that the studio was running smoothly and she also handled the needs of stars like Nightcrawler and Meggan Puceanu. She attended an after party for one of Kurt's movies where she and Celeste helped out a little girl named Tiffany who wanted to attend the party also.^[52]

While not observed, Irma was presumably returned to the real world when X-Man decided to release the mutants he forced to live in his plane of existence.^[53]

House of X[]

Irma and her sisters joined the mutant-only nation of Krakoa. One of their duties was escorting a group of human ambassadors in the Jerusalem Habitat through a Krakoan Gateway so they could meet with Magneto and Emma Frost to discuss potential recognition of Krakoa as an official nation.^[54]

Mindee is a mutant with psychically based powers similar to her biological mother, Emma Frost. Her powers are identical to that of her sisters.^[11][55]

• Telepathic Hive Mind: Mindee has a linked hive mind with her sisters, which allows her to share thoughts and maintain a continuous telepathic connection.
  • Telepathy: Mindee can read minds and project her thoughts to others. Though she individually possess her own telepathy, her telepathic abilities are greater when the girls join together.^[56] When linked with her sisters, Mindee can block even very talented telepaths from reading her mind.^[57]
    • Mind Alteration: Mindee can also search memories to obtain specific information, as well as to erase^[58] or restore and alter the memory of others, reprogram other people's minds, temporarily paralyze others and transfer knowledge.^[28][26]
    • Illusions: She can project realistic illusions in other people's minds and make them experience things that not actually happen.^[59]
  • Gestalt Psychic Link: Mindee and her sisters share ability to merge their psionic engrams together and merge their individual telepathic powers.^[11][55]
• Flawless Organic Diamond Form: Like her biological mother, Mindee has the ability to transform her body into a flexible organic diamond form. In this form, her skin is as hard as real diamond.^[60][28]

Those of her sisters. Mindee can also play the piano.^[20]

• Mindee's first boyfriend, Germaine, died during an anti-mutant riot while the students were temporarily housed in an X-Corp building in Salem Center.^[17]
• Mindee later had a brief yet combative flirtation with Jay Guthrie, who repeatedly interrupted her while she was practicing the piano.^[61]
• Mindee has also shown an interest in Christopher Muse.^[62]
• Mindee was the second Cuckoo to change her appearance radically, behind her late sister Esme.

• This character is first identified as Mindee in New X-Men #156. However, later Matt Fraction retconned Mindee's name to actually be Irma to comply with creator Grant Morrison's original desire for first letters the quintuplet's first names to spell "SPICE", hence Sophie, Phoebe, Irma (or Mindee), Celeste, and Esme. Her real name, seems to have been revealed (apparently as originally intended by Morrison) in Uncanny X-Men #514.
• Mindee enjoys playing piano.^[20]