RUBBER MAID

Publication Date: 
5th Feb 2024
Written By: 
Image Work: 
Real name

Andrea Margulies

Aliases

None

Height

Unknown

Weight

Unknown

Hair

Blonde

Eyes

Blue

First appearance

X-Treme X-Men (1st series) #20

Known relatives

None

Profession

student

Group affiliation

Alpha Squadron,
Xavier Institute student body

Powers

• Ultra-elasticity enables her to stretch,
flatten, and distend her body to varying degrees
 
 
  
 
 
 


BIOGRAPHY

Andrea Marguiles aka Rubber Maid was one of dozens of teenage mutants that enrolled in the Xavier Institute once its true purpose of training mutant children was publicly revealed. Initially, Andrea was under the tutelage of Emma Frost. She was first seen as one of a number of students who met Sage and Bishop while they were seeking an alleged murderer they believed to be hiding in the institute. Emma had the children use their powers to prank the detectives for her amusement when they arrived. Rubber Maid took part by wrapping her body around Bishop, entrapping him. Eventually, Emma instructed the children to relent but they did not comply. Nevertheless, Bishop was able to untangle himself from Rubber Maid, and both he and Sage quickly took control of the situation. Shortly after, they found their suspect: it was Andrea's new friend, Jeffrey Garrett. When confronted, Jeffrey panicked and teleported both Sage and Bishop to Times Square.

Sage and Bishop's appearance in Times Square caused quite the commotion. Storm, who led a satellite team at the time (of which Sage and Bishop were both members), admonished Emma for this, along with her potentially hiding a murderer. Andrea and Jeffrey silently eavesdropped but, with Storm's accusation, Andrea felt the need to speak out, protesting Jeffrey's innocence. Emma was not pleased with being watched and made Andrea and the other children return to their rooms.

Later that night, Emma observed the dreams of the students, noticing that Andrea was quite smitten with Jeffrey, seeing him as a kind of fairy-tale prince. In reality, Jeffrey and now Emma had both been targeted by a sadistic telepath named Elias Bogan. It was Bogan who had caused Jeffrey to commit those murders and was currently influencing Emma Frost as well. His thrall on Emma resulted in her getting in a fight with Storm on the grounds of the institute that night. Meanwhile, Sage and Bishop returned to the institute as well, having realized the nature of the threat, and attempted to neutralize Jeffrey before Bogan took him over again. Sage, not one for diplomacy, opted to shoot first, hitting Jeffrey with an energy blast that knocked him clean across the student dorms. This did not go well with Andrea and the other children, who attempted to protect Jeffrey, from their perspective, against outsiders like Sage and Bishop. All of a sudden Jeffrey's eyes started to bleed, a sign that he was possessed by Bogan. He teleported Andrea, Sage and Bishop along with a handful of other students over to the Danger Room.

Emma had downloaded Jeffrey's memories of the night of the murders to scrutinize in the Danger Room before she started fighting Storm. However, Bogan had somehow deactivated the safety protocols and was now running the scenario, putting Andrea and all the others in grave danger. The scene was a lavish cocktail party in a millionaire's palatal, winter home, with the “guests” dressed to the hilt in their best finery. Jeffrey was waltzing with Andrea, who was in a pink cocktail dress. However the poor girl had lost her constitution and her limbs were strewn across the floor.  The scene was interrupted by Storm and Emma, who had snuck into the Danger Room. Things then began to escalate as Emma, who was equally possessed, began to beat Storm, along with the other holograms. An entrapped Bishop gave Jeffrey a pep-talk to try to get him to rescue his classmates but it was seeing the hurt Andrea that really gave Jeffrey the final push he needed. He teleported her and the other students to safety. Luckily, Storm, Sage and Bishop were able to deal with the threat of Bogan. In the aftermath, Andrea was hospitalized but fortunately she and the other students lost all memory of the incident, so they were not irreparably traumatized. Ultimately, the institute decided to continue to house Jeffrey. Andrea's reaction to the decision was never shown but it seems likely she was happy with the result. [X-Treme X-Men (1st series) #20-23]

After Xorn killed Jean Grey, Charles Xavier left the Xavier Institute. Cyclops and Emma Frost took over the school and restructured the students into combat squads, each with an individual X-Man instructor. Andrea was placed on Northstar's squad, Alpha Squadron. Andrea was very fond of Northstar and, when he was also murdered by a Hand-controlled Wolverine, she took it very hard. Their new instructor, Karma, sensed how dejected the team were about Northstar's death and told them she was really there for them but Andrea had doubts. At the time, Karma was managing the junior school and another training squad, the Paragons, so Andrea didn't believe that Karma would even have time for them. Karma did her best to offer assurances that Andrea and her squad were her priority. As a show of faith, she brought Andrea and the rest of the squad to see Northstar's memorial statue before it was unveiled to the school. As the X-Men had been unable to locate Northstar's sister, Karma told Andrea and the others that they were now his family on this day. [New X-Men: Academy X #13]

[Note: Further information was revealed about Andrea in her yearbook entry in New X-Men: Academy X Yearbook #1. She was voted the biggest gossip by her peers and she listed her Dislikes as the Hellions squad winning the Academy's trophy, indicating some sort of competitive/dislike of all or at least some of the Hellions. She listed her Likes as being her Squad, Northstar and Karma (so presumably by the end of term she had warmed to her new instructor). She had another one her Likes as her crush Jeffrey. Jeffrey's trajectory was somewhat unusual following his debut in X-Treme X-Men. He was revealed as having been killed in Xorn's attack on the institute and came back essentially as a disembodied ghost. He also appeared to have been de-aged. [New X-Men: Academy X #8-9] Andrea's specific feelings about the turn of events was not revealed but it can be assumed she still had retained some sort of fondness for him based on the yearbook entry.]

Rubber Maid was one of the many mutants depowered when the Scarlet Witch said those infamous words “No More Mutants.” Now “human,” Andrea, along with many other depowered Xavier's students, were placed on a bus that was intended to smuggle them out to safety. It was not meant be, however. The bus was targeted by William Stryker's forces and blown up. Andrea's corpse was discovered by her classmate, Surge. [New X-Men (2nd series) #23-24] Sometime later, the X-Men managed to conquer death, or rather discovered an ability to resurrect their own fallen. A quintet of mutants could combine their abilities to restore mutants to life, using a Cerebro back-up on their minds. Rubber Maid was given a second chance at life on the mutant isle of Krakoa, along with the rest of her fallen peers. [X-Factor (4th series) #5]

Still, despite this fresh start, Andrea retained her bad luck. She decided she wanted to go to something as innocuous as a Salsa festival in Austin, Texas. When she was unable to convince any of her friends to go with her, she went by herself. While there, she was unlawfully detained on the orders of the governor of Texas and held at a federal prison. Not wanting to risk an international incident, Charles Xavier dispatched his stepbrother Juggernaut and his team the Unstoppables to liberate her, as they were unaffiliated with Krakoa. Unfortunately for Andrea, she had also been targeted by the villain called the Warden, who had hired Deadpool to kidnap her for genetic experimentation. Deadpool got to Andrea first and was running off with her before they were luckily intercepted by Juggernaut and his Unstoppables. Juggernaut thoroughly throttled Deadpool for taking Andrea and, once he was dealt with, brought her to a Krakoa gate so she could return home. Andrea thanked Juggernaut for his help and assured him he really was a good guy. It remains to be seen if Andrea will be able to exorcise her life from the dangers that seem to follow her. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #13-15]