Melody Jacobs (Earth-616)

Threnody
Name	Melody Jacobs
Current Alias	Threnody
Aliases	Thren, Little Deathsong, Naomi Campbell
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Formerly Assassins Guild, The Forgotten, Mr. Sinister, Nate Grey
Relatives	Judith Jacobs (mother, deceased); Unnamed child (apparently by Nate Grey, deceased);
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	5′7″ (1.7 m)
Weight	131 lbs (59.42 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Black
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Mutant
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Death	St. Raymonds Cemetery
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American
Occupation	Adventurer; former assassin
Education	Self-taught
Base of Operations	Mobile Formerly Loft in SoHo, New York; The Forgotten's tunnels under the New York; Los Angeles
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Fabian Nicieza, Richard Bennett
First	Stryfe's Strike File #1 (November, 1992)
First	Stryfe's Strike File #1 (November, 1992)

 We calling her Threnody, like this banshee-song of hers. Started off almost pretty, if you listened real close. An angel's keening, sad but soulful. 

—One of The Forgotten

History

The woman known as Threnody was mostly a mystery. When the X-Men first encountered her she was wandering the streets of Los Angeles as a homeless person with her powers coming in uncontrollable, destructive bursts whenever she was overwhelmed by death energy. Because of the nature of her sensitivity to death, she became a sort of psychic medium and was being driven insane by the voices of the recently deceased. Beast, Rogue, and Iceman who were at a nearby hospital went in search of a local doctor who was trying to cure the Legacy Virus, an artificially created virus that attacked only mutants and during the process made their powers unstable. As a geneticist, Sinister was worried what a virus like that would do to the mutant gene pool and was trying to study it. They found the lab of the man, but instead found Mr. Sinister inside with Threnody. He convinced the frightened young girl to join his cause and help him find a cure for the virus, recognizing her prodigious talent for finding death. Using her ability to sense those dead or dying, Sinister would use her as a sort of mutant bloodhound to track those specifically plagued with the virus. Rogue was infuriated by the prospect of Sinister using the girl that way, but in the end Beast convinced her that it would be in Threnody's best interest to go with Sinister, as a man with his enormous talent for science could better help her to stabilize her powers.

When next she appeared, Threnody was the prisoner/aide of Sinister. He helped to inhibit her powers and somehow restored her sanity by placing small neuro-chips around her face, and therefore owed him a debt of gratitude. He commissioned Threnody to find out information of the newly arrived refugee from the Age of Apocalypse, Nate Grey. Unbeknownst to Sinister, Threnody had already been collecting data on him and hadn't reported his appearance in the Main Marvel Universe because she thought that a mutant as powerful as he could possibly help to free her.

Foolishly, Threnody tried to escape on her own to seek out Nate, and Sinister sent his Marauders after her in the sewers of Paris. Coincidentally also in Paris, Nate happened to hear the telepathic screams and went to her rescue. Nate mercilessly slaughtered all of the Marauders except Riptide, who he placed a false mental image of Threnody dying in his head to deter Sinister from pursuing her further. Having nowhere to go, Threnody decided to go with Nate to Switzerland. There he met up with his counterpart Cable and also the ancient mutant Exodus. Exodus at one point tried to feed off the life essence of Threnody, whose death-essence feeding would complement his powers. However, Nate intervened and defeated the villain, but then burned himself out because of the over-extension of his powers. While he was unconscious, Nate had a dream of his former mentor Forge who warned him of others trying to use him for their own agendas. When he awoke he found Threnody and they kissed, but he was unsure if she was still a pawn of Sinister or not. He tried to remove one of her neuro-chips, but this caused an explosion which destroyed the lodge they were recuperating at and almost hurt the others there. After this incident, Threnody decided to take Nate to Greece to relax.

Unbeknownst to the couple, Nate's enemy from the Age of Apocalypse, Holocaust was commissioned by the newly created villain Onslaught to hunt him down. The murderer found the couple relaxing on a beach and began to attack, injuring several innocents in the process. Threnody, sensing the pain, went to see what can be done and found a man mostly crushed under a boulder. He was very close to death, but still held on, however his death energy was intoxicating to Threnody and she used her powers to push him over into death. This caught the attention of Holocaust, who captured the girl to use her as a bargaining chip: in exchange for Threnody's life Nate must willingly serve Onslaught. Threnody begged him not to accept, but he did...seemingly. In reality, Nate telepathically tried to prod Threnody into attacking Holocaust, but she didn't respond to his pleas. Catching wind of the scheme, Holocaust stepped up his threat on Threnody's life, forcing Nate to enter Threnody's head and activate her mutant powers--super charged by the death of the man. It seemed to work, blasting Holocaust into the ocean. As the couple went about trying to get the innocents to safety, Holocaust re-emerged from the water, once more grabbing Threnody and this time giving her the option: surrender Nate to him or she would die and he would be broken. Nate saw this and flew to her rescue, throwing his body in front of Holocaust's blast meant for Threnody. The enemies decided to square off and Nate got the upper hand by cracking Holocaust's armor, who promptly left, swearing revenge. Threnody worried about Nate over-extending himself again and suggested that they go back to Muir Island, however Nate was very distrusting of anyone affiliated with Professor X, so Threnody suggested going to the Avengers, which they did.

After some sort of disagreement Nate left Threnody behind and found himself with X-Force. The Marauders showed up to capture Threnody, but she was able to defeat them. Only when Sinister made a personal appearance was she defeated and recaptured by the maniacal scientist. Sinister then went to capture Nate for his purposes, easily defeating him. He revealed to the stunned teen that he had used Threnody to get close to him and then used the neuro-chips he had placed on her as a means to map Nate's brain. Nate proved him wrong and counteracted his affects, but was then ambushed in a trap laid by Onslaught. Below New York City in the sewers, Threnody was held in chains by the Marauders and drained powerless. She killed a rat that scampered by to give her enough power to break her chains. Scalphunter and Arclight came chasing after her but were beaten back by the Abomination who had a brief history with Threnody. He took her back to his lair, where Nate found her and attempted to rescue her. After a brief battle with Abomination, Nate told Threnody that he was tired of running and wanted to find a place to settle down.

The couple toured some of the sights of New York and Nate offered to try and remove Sinister's "psi-bafflers" from Threnody. However, she refused his offer. Later, Madelyne Pryor, a newly inducted member to the Hellfire Club and former aide of Nate, went to confront the couple. When Threnody visited her mother's grave in the St. Raymonds Cemetery she met there Madelyne, who supposedly killed her. However, a Jane Doe that can be assumed to be Threnody got up and walked out of the morgue. Threnody was then seen in a subterranean tunnel on a throne surrounded by dead bodies. She was also pregnant, probably by Nate, although that hadn't been confirmed. She soon afterwards ran into Nate again, appearing to be pursued by zombies, but in reality controlling them. Nate fought off the zombies before asking to get back together, but Threnody turned him down.

When Threnody conceived a child, her powers affected the baby, resutling in it becoming an undead demonic creature. In order to nourish the child, Threnody required to regularly transfer to her baby the necroplasmic energies she was capable of absorbing. To this end, she joined the Assassins Guild. When the Assassins Guild clashed with the mercenary Deadpool, Threnody was sent with Blackout to take him down. However, she stopped Blackout from killing Deadpool, and left the Guild to partner with him and use their adventures as a new source of death energy for her child. When Deadpool took down the Assassins Guild, he left his handler Weasel and his pregnant wife Clarice with Threnody. After Weasel was killed by Assassins Guild mercenaries, Threnody kidnapped Clarice, with the intention to absorb her unborn baby's energy. She hoped that the energy of Clarice's baby would be enough cure her baby's affliction. Deadpool tried to make Melody come to her senses to no avail, so he impaled Threnody's baby to stop her. Threnody initially retaliated against Deadpool until he made Melody realize he wanted to spare her from the guilt of murdering a child. She then left him with the warning to stay away from her.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

Necroplasmic Energy Vampire: Threnody is empowered by necroplasm. She is capable of sensing the certain necroplasmic energies that surround a person when they are near death or dying. Threnody was depicted as being enraptured by the scent of death and the "taste" of the energy.

• Necroplasmic Energy Manipulation: She can absorb those remaining life energies released during death and convert them into bursts of explosive plasma or to temporarily reanimate someone into a zombie under her control. She is apparently capable of creating hordes of zombies at once.
• Immortality: She is able to absorb the necroplasmic energy of her own death, as such she can regenerate her body and return to a life.

Weaknesses

Left alone, her powers are uncontrollable, to the point of possibly driving her insane. She wears neuro-chips Mr. Sinister gave her to stabilize her powers.

Notes

• Threnody technically first appeared in Stryfe's Strike File #1, although her first full appearance was X-Men (Vol. 2) #27.

Trivia

• A threnody is a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person.

See Also

• 32 appearance(s) of Melody Jacobs (Earth-616)
• 4 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Melody Jacobs (Earth-616)
• 8 minor appearance(s) of Melody Jacobs (Earth-616)
• 10 mention(s) of Melody Jacobs (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Melody Jacobs (Earth-616)
• 29 image(s) of Melody Jacobs (Earth-616)
• 6 quotation(s) by or about Melody Jacobs (Earth-616)

Links and References

• uncannyxmen.net Character Profiles: Threnody