ALIAS: M
REAL NAME: Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix
NATIONALITY: Born in Yugoslavia but lived in Algeria. Three passports list her as Algerian, French and Yugoslavian (GenX #46)
TEAM AFFILIATION: Generation X
AGE: 16
POWER: Undetermined. Monet has many powers at her disposal that are not fully known. Some identified powers are flight, near invunerablility, enhanced strength, telepathy, high intellegence.
FIRST APPEARANCE: Uncanny X-Men #316 (St. Croix twins as Monet), GenX #40 (The "Real" Monet)

Monet St. Croix was technically first shown in GenX #40. (See "St. Croix twins" bio for further details) We were told that Monet was the older sister of the 4 siblings. The St. Croix children consisted of Monet (M), Marius (Emplate) and the twins Nicole and Claudette. Her mother, only ever heard of as "Mere" (deceased), and her father, Ambassador Cartier St. Croix were of a high social status where the family lived in luxury in Algeria. Monet was the typical rich, self-centered snob who enjoyed her rich lifestyle and insulted those who she classed as "inferior". After all, she was an intellegent rich girl who had everything. This infuriated her brother, Marius, who was among the same type who had to have his own way no matter the cost. Upon his mutatation and travelling his realms, he tried to coax Monet to join her powers with him in his conquest of the "Earth realm". She laughed and insulted him and his attempts, this did not go over very well with Marius. He was furious and used his power to change her from her once beautiful form, into a mockery of herself. By his powers he encased her in a different body for her "Penance". He changed her smooth skin into a razor sharp red body with talons for hands and spikes for hair, making her untouchable to anyone. He took away her ability to speak, unable to ask for help, but worst of all, he took her as his prisoner and kept her chained in a dungeon where he used his powers to "sup" from her marrow, his power used to drain enemies of their powers which will increase his and leave the victim under his control. (see "Penance" bio for further details)

Now the twins, upon seeing their evil brother take Penance away, they decided to take over the form of Monet since she was their father's favorite child. The twins did not speak a word to their father or anyone around them for the three months since they had merged. This prompted her family to take M to see Professer Xavier to see if he could figure out what was wrong with her and explore the range of her powers. (As shown in her first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #316) Along the way the Phalanx interfered and she was captured and placed among the other GenXer's who were also held prisoner. They did escape through alot of trouble and the Massachusetts Acadamy was re-opened to help train and educate the mutants about their mutant powers, "Monet" joined willingly. The tables turned when "Penance" was dropped off on the lawn after she was apparently rescued by Gateway which was shown in Generation X #1. The twins who were impersonating Monet apparently did not know at the time that Penance was actually the real Monet. There was nothing that the real Monet could do, she was without voice and trapped in a body not her own, the White Queen could not even penetrate her mind to try and help determine who she was.

They lived with that fact until Generation X #31 when M was badly hurt during a battle. This resulted in M spliting back into the real form of the twins. During the time of the comic from GenX #1 up until GenX #40, Synch had synched with the imposter M many times and had been able to glean bits of information from their minds during each synch. In GenX #38 after Synch had been beaten and now in a coma, Claudette entered his mind to ease his unconsious use of his synching powers. That was all he needed as the truth to the twins flowed through his mind. He awoke and told the twins to tell everyone about what had really happened with their family. They did as they were told and told the GenXer's what they could. (GenX #40) Feeling guilty for impersonating their imprisoned sister, they then reformed back into M and then merged with Penance. They split apart again but the change was obvious. The twins merged into the Penance form which released the "Real Monet" to live once again. Monet was grateful and promised to help find a way for the twins to escape from the Penance form.

You would think that Monet would be grateful to be free and be a much kinder person and appreciate those who took care of her in her Penance form. This was not the case. Since GenX #40, Monet's actual snobbish and insulting nature is much higher than the twins played it out to be. Monet is especially furious with Jubilee, thinking that she treated her like a pet while in her Penance form. M refuses to let her grudge go with Jubilee and has even confronted her with a fight in the danger room in GenX #48. She continuously insults those around her on what they do, how they look and anything else she can think of. There is only one person that she does not insult, Everett Thomas (Synch). She has been shown to talk to him now and again but it was in GenX #50 that she attempted to kiss him, much to Everett's surprise. She may have a supposed weaker side, but she refuses to let anyone near her to find out any details of herself. She won't even show all of her powers to the team. Whether her powers are still developing or she is incapable of using all of her powers is undetermined. So far all we know is that she has the power of flight, enhanced strength, near invunerablility and telepathic powers. She isn't afraid to show these powers off but she will not describe the full extent of her powers to anyone. She has powers that she hides from the team, secrets that she hides, what else is she hiding from the team? While she is fighting for the right team, she is not much of a team player. Her "real" form has been released and parts of her past and family have resurfaced but it will be a long time before we find out the whole story behind Monet St. Croix.

NOTE: On a personal note I would like to add that I do not agree with the "Penance was the Real Monet" storyline. Hama created this storyline when he took over after Scott Lobdell's and Chris Bachalo's departure. Scott did intend for Monet to be the twins but has said that Penance was never intended to be the "Real Monet". With the storyline now established, the currents writers have no choice but to continue writing the storyline with Hama's M (Penance) and real M characters.

Still a little confused on how Monet, the twins and Penance all came to be? See the MMM-emories, a picture layout of events for the Monet/Penance senario that led up to GenX #40. The image is taken from "X-Men Universe #1".