BIOGRAPHY - Page 1
Growing up in a trailer park in Texas didn’t give Miranda Leevald the best start in life. Nonetheless, she was a popular girl at high school and looked to have a bright future ahead of her. That was until her mutant powers manifested and she developed scaly skin across her body and the ability to secrete pheromones that could alter another person’s bodily functions.
In an instant, Miranda became an outcast at school. Receiving no sympathy from her abusive parents either, Miranda felt she had no option but to run away from home for her own safety. Unfortunately, with nowhere else to go, she was forced to live on the streets. Like many before her who had no other way to earn money, Miranda became a prostitute as a means to survive. She earned the attention of Madame Drache, a somewhat classy woman who ran a brothel called the X-Ranch, only the services they provided were not merely sex-work, as expected. For Instance, rather than have sex with the clientele, she would use her pheromone abilities to induce various sensations within them, making them feel whatever she, or they, wanted. Adopting the name “Stacy X,” Miranda worked at the X-Ranch for a while and finally found a place in the world where she could fit in and feel safe. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #400]
[Note: Miranda tells her origin to someone in Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #400 but, as the story progresses, it becomes more outlandish as she claimed she was one of the original X-Men. In the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #9, Miranda’s entry adopts aspects of her story but omits the obvious lies. As yet, no further information has been given to Miranda’s origin to either confirm or deny the above events.]
Stacy X remained at the X-Ranch for a while, but her life was soon to be altered forever when the X-Men entered her life. Discovering that the X-Ranch was a project run behind his back by his company’s board of directors, Archangel took a small team of X-Men to visit the ranch to discover what exactly went down there. Not knowing he was a member of the X-Men, Stacy X met with Iceman and used her powers on him, giving him a taste of what he could expect from their encounter. Having seen enough, Archangel burst into the room, causing Stacy X to attack him, though she was easily overpowered by the veteran X-Man. At that moment, the anti-mutant hate group Church of Humanity descended on the X-Ranch, looking to wipe out everyone there. Seeing Madame Drache and her friends slaughtered, Stacy X joined forces with the X-Men to take down the human extremists. She handled herself well in the fight, but they were outnumbered and outgunned, so she was forced to flee with the X-Men. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #399]
With nowhere else to go Stacy X stayed with Archangel’s team of X-Men whilst they investigated the Church of Humanity’s activities. She immediately clashed with other members of the X-Men, such as Chamber and Archangel, due to her outspoken and abrasive attitude. When the team attacked a Church of Humanity base, Stacy X defied orders to merely observe and instead jumped into the battle against the armed zealots. Her disobedience got the better of her afterwards, when she ignored warnings from the rest of the team and picked up one of the soldier’s teleportation vests. She was immediately transported to another of the Church of Humanity’s bases, where she was quickly captured and sent to “confessional” for interrogation. Miranda was tortured by one of the leaders of the Church and forced to tell them about her time with the X-Men. She naturally lied to the man, embellishing her exploits with the team, making herself out to be a trusted member, rather than a rookie. The priest saw through her lies and tortured her some more, before ultimately throwing her in a cell to await execution. Fortunately for her, the X-Men arrived in time and broke her out, disrupting the Church’s plans in the process. Despite her bad attitude, Stacy X proved to have a heroic streak and Archangel allowed her to join his team, having seen her potential. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #400]
When the former X-Man Banshee set up the X-Corps, a paramilitary team of mutants, Miranda and the X-Men became involved due to the violent tactics the group were using. Stacy X’s headstrong personality was still grating on many of the team and it was often up to Archangel to try and make her see reason. Unbeknownst to the X-Men, Banshee had been brainwashing the more villainous members of the X-Corps into serving him, but now he was losing control over them. Things came to a head when they fully broke free and turned on the X-Men, with Stacy X being attacked by Avalanche and Blob when she was having some one-on-one time with Radius. After regaining consciousness, Stacy X could only think of revenge on the man that hurt her and, with the rest of the X-Men battling X-Corp, she sought out Blob. She found him attacking Husk and Jubilee, but this time she was prepared and she used her pheromone powers to put him in a blissful state, saving the two young girls. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #401-406]
Miranda’s tolerance with some of the X-Men’s habits was starting to wear thin on her, such as the constant use of telepathy. She didn’t like other people suddenly broadcasting their voice into her mind, so when Chamber reached out to her for help she wasn’t too pleased with the intrusion. She angrily relayed the message for help to Archangel, and then yelled at Chamber for his audacity at disturbing her and not one of his friends. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #407]
Despite having a new home and direction with the X-Men, Miranda was unwilling to let her former life go so easily and she still accepted sex-work jobs if it paid well. When Archangel found out she was still working as a prostitute, he tried to convince her she didn’t need to do it, but Miranda wasn’t in the mood for listening to a sermon from him. Afterwards, she met with Wolverine, who to her surprise didn’t patronize her. Instead, he pointed out that she didn’t have to let her past define her future. With food for thought, Miranda went to meet her client, only to discover it was a dying man who wanted relief rather than pleasure. He was a mutant whose ability meant he aged rapidly, and he had developed numerous cancers and diseases, all of which were causing him immense pain. He asked Miranda to use her powers to finish him off, but she was unable to do it. Instead, she put him into a coma and then induced a feeling of immense pleasure within his mind. His body would naturally die long before the effects of her powers would wear off, meaning she was able to help him pass peacefully without actually killing him. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #408]
Miranda’s powers also proved useful when the team needed to keep the Vanisher occupied whilst they dismantled his drug dealing business. Due to his teleportation ability, he proved to be tricky to catch, but Stacy X was able to use her pheromones to subdue him easily and keep him in a blissful trance for weeks. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #409]
The reality of what it meant to be a member of the X-Men was beginning to sink in for Miranda, and she slowly adjusted to the high-stakes missions. However, her presence on the team annoyed some of the others, such as Monet St. Croix, who bluntly reminded her that she would never be a real X-Man due to her previous line of work. Despite that, Stacy X’s powers proved critical in saving the entire team’s lives on the next mission, when they faced off against Black Tom Cassidy. The villainous man was going through a secondary mutation and had essentially turned into an enormous plant that could drain the life force of others. With the rest of the team close to death, Stacy used her powers to trick Tom into letting them go. As the team was recovering from the attack, Archangel had a talk with Miranda and assured her that she was worthy of being on the team. Miranda misjudged his friendship and went to kiss him, much to his surprise. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #410-412]
Archangel had been severely injured in the battle against Black Tom, and Miranda watched over him intently, barely leaving his side. Whilst they were all in the medical bay at the Institute, Husk came to check on them but Miranda lashed out at her when she spoke to Archangel. The two began to argue, with some harsh words being said that resulted in Husk running from the room in tears. Miranda was pleased with herself for exposing Husk’s crush on Archangel, but it backfired on her when the man became angry at Miranda’s cruelty. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #413]
After this, things became awkward between Miranda and Archangel, and it didn’t help when she tried to save face by downplaying the almost-kiss, only to be hurt even more when Archangel agreed to forget it. The stress of the situation caused her scaly skin to grow out of control, resulting in a trip to the medical bay. Later on, Nightcrawler took her back to the ruins of the X-Ranch so she could retrieve some personal effects that weren’t destroyed in the attack. Afterwards, whilst the rest of the team went on a mission, Miranda and Nightcrawler hung out together and she could tell that he was interested in her by the pheromones he was emitting. Misreading the signals, she stripped naked in front of him, prompting the embarrassed man to leave.
Stacy X was unable to deal with more rejection and so she decided to leave the team immediately. However, she gave Archangel a taste of what he was missing by leaving him a tape of her using a skipping rope naked. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #414-417, 422]