Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)

Celeste
Name	Celeste Cuckoo
Current Alias	Celeste
Aliases	Phoenix
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	X-Men (New Charles Xavier School member), Stepford Cuckoos, New Charles Xavier School student body; formerly X-Men, Jean Grey School student body, Corsairs Squad, Xavier Institute student body, Weapon Plus
Relatives	Emma Frost (mother), Phoebe Cuckoo (sister), Mindee Cuckoo (sister), Esme Cuckoo (sister, deceased), Sophie Cuckoo (sister, deceased), Frost family (relatives),
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	5′6″ (1.68 m)
Weight	105 lbs (47.63 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Blond
Unusual Features	Identical quintuplet
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Genetically engineered mutant
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	The World, somewhere in rural England
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American United Kingdom
Occupation	Student
Education	Various courses at Xavier's Institute
Base of Operations	New Charles Xavier School for Mutants, near Roanoke, Alberta, Canada; formerly Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Westchester County, New York: Avengers Compound, Los Angeles, California;Utopia, San Francisco Bay, California; Graymalkin Industries, Marin Highlands, San Francisco, California; Xavier Institute, Westchester County, New York; The World, England;
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Grant Morrison, Ethan van Sciver
First	New X-Men #118 (October, 2001)
First	New X-Men #118 (October, 2001)

 I...I am Phoenix. I...hnh hnh hnnnn...No. I'm just Celeste. 

—Celeste

History

Origin

While Emma Frost was laying in a comatose state, the Dr. John Sublime harvested eggs from her to begin experimentation. The Weapon Plus program began the cloning to develop a powerful weapon capable of killing every mutant on Earth by combining their telepathic abilities. The project was designated Weapon XIV, and gils were incubated and artificially aged inside the subterranean level of The World. Thousands of girls were cloned from the ovum, but while the other remained dormant, five girls were sent to infiltrate the Xavier Institute as students sisters to hone their talents for Sublime's purposed.

Xavier Institute

After the Xavier Institute went public, Celeste and her sisters were enrolled as orphan quintuplet sisters. To protect their secret origins, the girls unconsciously place mental blocks in the minds of the faculty preventing them from investigating their background.

File:Stepford Cuckoos 002.jpg

Celeste and her sisters strutting in the halls of the Institute

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.

When Kid Omega led a rebellion of students at the X-Mansion, Sophie and encouraged Celeste 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.

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. This mourning and anger was multiplied when Esme attempted to murder Emma, fled the X-Mansion, and joined Xorn's Brotherhood. With the departure of Esme, the Four-In-One now became the Three-In-One.

File:Stepford Cuckoos (Earth-616) 010.jpg

The Three-In-One as students in the Corsairs Squad

Corsairs Squads

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. The Celeste and her sisters were assigned to the Corsairs Squad under the tutelage of Cyclops with girls serving equally as co-leaders of the squad.

M-Day

On M-Day the vast majority of the world's mutant population was depowered. The Celeste 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 forty-two of the former students on board.

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.

File:X-Men Phoenix Warsong Vol 1 5 page - Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616).jpg

Celeste as the Phoenix

Warsong

When an unstable fraction of the Phoenix Force sparked inside the girls, their Weapon Plus nanotech dormant 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.

The Phoenix and Sublime both wrestled for control of the Cuckoos when the X-Men arrived. While Mindee appeared consigned to her fate as part of Sublime's weapon, Phoebe fought to embrace the Phoenix. 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.

Celeste continued to resist the Phoenix and Sublime's machine long enough for the X-Men to forcibly discount them. However, in a rage, Phoebe triggered a power surge causing an explosion. However, Celeste was able take full control of the Phoenix, destroyed her sisters, and trapped the Phoenix fragments inside the Three-In-One's flawless diamond hearts rendering them emotionless.

File:Cukoos nation x 4.png

Celeste and her sisters teaching

After returning to the Institute, the girls adopted a rebellious/mischievous streak. They helped Elixir telepathically gain a PhD level knowledge of science and biology from Beast's brain. Along with the other students, they were pulled into Limbo, where they were rescued by Prodigy. 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. Celeste and her sister were briefly considered as potential candidate recruits for the Initiative.

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.

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 was bringing down the Skrulls' psychic blockade.

File:Stepford Cuckoos (Earth-616) 012.jpg

The Phoenix fragments abandoning the Three-In-One

Once they relocated to Utopia, the Stepford Cuckoos frequently manned Cerebra. When Lobe Scalphunter with 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 escape, and mysteriously returned to space, leaving the girls unconscious. With the loss of the Phoenix, the girls fell into a depressive funk.

File:Stepford Cuckoos (Earth-616) 017.jpg

The Three-In-One moving to the New Xavier School

Schism

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

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. 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.

The girls were very displease with the new school. Celeste attempted to telepathically reached out to Emma Forst and when she couldn't contact her, she became extremely angry. 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.

File:Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616) 03.jpg

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

Celeste's powers are identical to that of her sisters.

Template:New Power Grid

Abilities

Those of her her sisters.

Notes

• Celeste was initially the most timid and affectionate of the Cuckoos.
• According to her sisters, Celeste has begun to think she's "better" than them.
• Since the Phoenix Warsong miniseries, Celeste has taken more of a leadership role including casting the deciding vote to remain on Utopia, and later speaking for the Three-In-One as a whole.

Trivia

• Celeste felt some very overt physical attraction to Agent Jake Oh.
• Celeste has shown some romantic interest in Hellion.
• Celeste was the only Cuckoo powerful enough to take control of the Phoenix.
• Celeste has urged her sisters to watch something a bit more self-improving than Glee.

See Also

• 240 appearance(s) of Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)
• 11 minor appearance(s) of Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) of Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)
• 137 image(s) of Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)
• 5 quotation(s) by or about Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)
• 2 victim(s) killed by Celeste Cuckoo (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Phoenix: Endsong
• Stepford Cuckoos
• Weapon Plus
• Emma Frost