Stepford Cuckoos
The Stepford Cuckoos are a set of fictional mutants, psychically linked quintuplets appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The alphabetical order of the Cuckoos' first names corresponds with their ages, with Celeste being the firstborn and Sophie being the youngest. Originally calling themselves the Five-in-One, after the deaths of Esme and Sophie the remaining sisters were known as the Three-in-One. They are commonly associated with the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning and successor mutant schools.
Their name "Stepford Cuckoos" is a reference to the books The Stepford Wives and The Midwich Cuckoos. The Stepford Cuckoos made their live action debut as the Frost Sisters; Esme, Sophie, and Phoebe in the television series The Gifted, portrayed by Skyler Samuels.
Publication history
First appearing in New X-Men #118, they were jointly created by Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Sciver. Their origin, as the artificially created "daughters" of Emma Frost, is revealed in X-Men: Phoenix – Warsong.Esme and Sophie were among the feature characters in the 2011 two-issue limited series Chaos War: X-Men.
In April 2024, it was announced that Sophie would have a starring role in the second volume of NYX, set for a July 2024 release as part of the "X-Men: From the Ashes" relaunch. It is written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing with art by Francesco Mortarino. The new ongoing series centers on Sophie and several other mutant young adults – Kamala Khan, Laura Kinney, Anole, and Prodigy – attempting to adapt to life in New York City in the post-Krakoan Age when mutants are hated and feared even more due to the actions of Orchis.
Fictional character biographies
Origins
As revealed in the first issue of X-Men: Phoenix – Warsong, the sisters are grown from ova cells harvested from telepath Emma Frost while she lay comatose after a Sentinel attack that killed her students, the original Hellions, and are only five of many cloned daughters. They state that over a thousand eggs were stolen from Emma's ovaries during her coma, and the remaining hundreds of clones reside within incubation chambers inside a hidden underground laboratory at The World, a complex housing the Weapon Plus program. They were created by Sublime to be powerful weapons able to kill every mutant by combining their telepathic abilities. The Cuckoos were designated Weapon XIV''.''Xavier Institute
They were first introduced as the protégés and favorites of Emma Frost, and were unaware of their true purpose. A telepathic block was used to mask their placement in the school, causing anyone who questioned their origins to lose their train of thought. They, along with student Quentin Quire, were noted as the strongest telepaths among the new students at the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning. Although Quire and the Stepford Cuckoos were rivals, Quire had a crush on Sophie. Sophie and the other Cuckoos considered him to be disgusting and rejected him completely.Partly as an expression of adolescent rebellion, partly under the influence of a mutant drug called Kick, and partly out of a desire to impress Sophie, Quire incites a student riot at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Sophie dies stopping Quire, overexerting herself after using the same drug to boost her powers. The Stepford Cuckoos hold Frost to be partially responsible for Sophie's death - with Frost having "inspired her to heroism" - and disassociate themselves from her.
Secretly, Esme Cuckoo had been collaborating with X-Man Xorn, who would later turn out to be Magneto in disguise. Taking control of the Cuckoos' group mind, she telepathically forced Angel Salvadore to attack Emma Frost, completely shattering her diamond body into fragments. Jean Grey managed to telekinetically reassemble Frost and return her to life, whereupon Emma revealed Esme's involvement in the attack. Esme then abandoned her sisters to join Magneto's new Brotherhood of Mutants. Later, losing faith in Xorn, the Brotherhood turned on him and Esme, who attacked him, angry that Xorn did not return her affections. Xorn then killed Esme, and she died in Emma's arms, stating with her dying breath that she never wanted to end up like Emma.
Corsairs
Soon afterwards, the institute is rebuilt, with Emma Frost and Cyclops as headmasters and leaders of the X-Men. Frost and Summers divided the older students into several six-person training squads, each taught by a staff member. The remaining three Cuckoos, now calling themselves the "Three-in-One," were assigned to the Corsairs squad, advised by Cyclops. The three girls were the co-leaders of the squad.In X-Men: Phoenix Endsong, the cosmic entity known as the Phoenix Force came back to Earth seeking to inhabit the body of Jean Grey. Quentin Quire, still in love with Sophie, sensed the Phoenix and exhumed Sophie's body. He sought the Phoenix, which resurrected Sophie, but she promptly chooses to die again rather than be with him. The X-Men defeat the Phoenix, though a shard of it locates Celeste.
Weapon Plus and Phoenix—Warsong
In New X-Men #154, the Stepford Cuckoos are identified as Weapon XIV, the living weapon code between Weapon XIII and Weapon XV.Manipulated by both the shard of the Phoenix and Sublime, the Cuckoos reanimate Esme and Sophie as corpses and return to the World. At the World, they are greeted by a computer image of Sublime and learn of their thousands of cloned siblings. Their true purpose was to collect data on the X-Men and transmit it to the other clones through shared nanotechnology in their bodies. It is revealed that the Phoenix fragment has manifested in order to destroy the Cuckoos and all of their clones to prevent them from being activated as a weapon and killing all mutants. The Phoenix manifests most strongly through Celeste, using her as its avatar, but is then diffused according to Sublime's plans among each of the cloned telepaths, boosting their powers. The Cuckoos then learn that they also shared Emma's ability to turn into a diamond form. Now referring to themselves as the Thousand-in-One and under Sublime's control, the cosmically empowered psychics proceed to enact their programmed destiny of mutant destruction. Celeste, at Emma's behest, accepts her role as a Phoenix host and wrestles control of the Phoenix, freeing the clones from Sublime's control for the first time. However, the Phoenix goes on to destroy the thousand clones, despite their newfound freedom and desire to experience life, by shattering their newly manifested diamond forms as well as Esme and Sophie. Disgusted by the destruction, Celeste casts the entity out of her body. However, it refuses to depart causing Celeste to reabsorb it into her own and Mindee and Phoebe's diamond hearts to end the Phoenix's destruction. Unlike Emma's diamond composition, which contains a flaw, the Cuckoo's hearts are flawless diamond. As such, the Phoenix fragment is literally sealed within their hearts. The price the sisters must pay for this is that they can never again feel emotion, leaving them more detached from others than they were before.
Post-Civil War
The Stepford Cuckoos were considered as "potential recruits" for the Initiative program. The girls were next seen helping Elixir master medical and anatomical knowledge given to him by Beast. They are soon after teleported to Limbo with the other students and captured by Belasco, who has helmets placed on them to keep them asleep and prevent them from using their powers. They were freed by a newly revived X-23 and turn the tide of the battle against Belasco. When the Hulk attacks Xavier, the Astonishing X-Men, and the New X-Men, the Stepford Cuckoos contact several other X-teams such as Excalibur, the Uncanny X-team, and X-Factor to get their help. They then help Prodigy access all his forgotten knowledge and abilities to compensate for his power loss as thanks for saving them when anti-mutant terrorists known as the Purifiers attacked the school.Messiah Complex
The Cuckoos use Cerebro to track down Cable, who has the missing mutant baby for whom the X-Men are looking.When the X-Men arrive at the location indicated by the Cuckoos, the baby had already been stolen by the Marauders. The Cuckoos are unable to relocate the baby telepathically, so Emma Frost orders them to focus on finding the Marauders who kidnapped it.