JEANNE-MARIE
Full name: Jeanne-Marie Beaubier
Group Affiliation: Alpha Flight, former associate of The Brotherhood
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #120
Creator: John Byrne

      Jeanne-Marie Beaubier was orphaned as an infant and separated from her twin brother, Jean-Paul. While Jean-Paul was adopted by a family named the Martins, Jeanne-Marie ended up in a Catholic girls school that adhered to the strict discipline of the Victorian era. Such an environment was ill-suited for a child with such a delicate spirit as Jeanne-Marie's.
      Finally, after enduring years of psychological and physical abuse, the young girl could stand it no longer. At the age of roughly 14 she went up on the roof of the school and flung herself to her death, even though being Catholic she considered the act to be a mortal sin.
      However, Jeanne-Marie did not fall. Tapping into her mutant abilities for the first time ever, she instead flew. The deeply religious Beaubier considered this to be a miracle. When she came down, she went to Soeur Anne, the head nun at the school, and told her everything. The nun considered the child to be blaspheming, and administered the worst beating Jeanne-Marie had suffered yet.
      Later on, while crying in the bathroom, Jeanne-Marie looked in the mirror and saw... another face. Her own, yet not her own. That night Beaubier flew away from the school and entered the night life in the nearby city. This was the first manifestation of Beaubier's problem with Multiple Personality Disorder, and the first appearance of the personality that would become known as Aurora. Upon her return a few days later, Beaubier once again was severely punished.
      However, Beaubier stayed on at the school, eventually rising to the rank of teacher. Her second personality had stayed buried for years. But on the eve of her greatest triumph (her gaining her teacher's position,) Aurora once again made herself known, and Beaubier took off to check out the night life in Montreal.
      While there, Beaubier's purse was grabbed by a mugger. She proceeded to knock the man out with super-speed punches. A second mugger was "persuaded" to leave by the man known only as Logan. Realizing the girl was more than she seemed, Logan persuaded her (quite easily, as Aurora had quite a taste for adventure) to travel to Ottawa to meet James MacDonald Hudson. Beaubier then became part of Department H.
      The Aurora personality remained dominant for most of Beaubier's original stint in Alpha. However, Jeanne-Marie's personality did surface from time to time, usually in periods of great stress. One such case was Alpha Flight's original encounter with the Master of the World.
      Aurora, as the dominant personality, proceeded to have a significant effect on Jeanne-Marie's life. After she had a spat with Northstar, Aurora convinced her then-lover Dr.Walter Langkowski to alter her powers. Langkowski did so, using a genetic modifier device of his own design. Langkowski hoped the procedure would enable Aurora to go undetected by mutant detector devices. The procedure sent Aurora's powers on a cycle of evolution that continues to this day. Whether or not Beaubier still registers as human on mutant detector devices is unknown.
      Beaubier's MPD also evolved. After Jeanne-Marie's personality "escaped" during an encounter with Gilded Lily, Aurora tried harder than ever to suppress her "other-half." This led to a "merging" of traits from the two personalities. When Aurora left Alpha Flight due to the seeming loss of her powers and entered a convent, Beaubier's mind appeared whole.
      Aurora eventually rejoined Alpha Flight to rescue her brother from Asgard. Her powers had changed until they significantly resembled her original ones... albeit with some improvements. She had just decided to join Gamma Flight as a psychiatric counsellor when she became the plaything of the mad telepath called Headlok.
      The end result of the encounter with Headlok was that Beaubier was back to her original split-personality. For a time, all seemed rather well. The two personalities no longer fought for control, and Jeanne-Marie became an active participant in Alpha Flight. There have been times, however, that Beaubier has demonstrated more serious symptons of mental illness. Sometime after the suspension of Alpha Flight by the gov't Aurora entered into a relationship with her team-mate Kyle Gibney. [What Jeanne-Marie thought of this is unknown. As of Alpha Flight v1 #130 there were signs that Jeanne-Marie might be becoming involved with Walter Langkowski. - C] Upon the failure of that relationship, Aurora displayed some downright psychotic behavior.
      Not long after those events Department H shut down for the third time in its history. What Jeanne-Marie was doing in the time between the shutdown and Department H's fourth start-up is unknown. However upon the revival of H Jeanne-Marie was kidnapped by Epsilon Flight troopers. She was rescued from this situation by Havok, X-Man and the Brotherhood of Mutants. During her stay with the Brotherhood Aurora allowed an evil version of Hank McCoy called the Dark Beast to run experiments on her MPD. Jeanne-Marie stayed dormant for most of this time; the only time she put in an appearance Jeanne-Marie was quite upset.
      After leaving the Brotherhood upon its dissolution by Havok, Aurora was once again captured by Department H. At this time she was infected by the Weapon X bacteria by Dr. Huxley. Not long afterword she was rescued from Department H by Shaman, Sasquatch and Guardian.
      The Weapon X bacteria are essentially a gestalt being, and they had an unusual effect on Beaubier's mind. Sasquatch claimed the bacteria were "eating" through Beaubier's multiple personalities one-by-one. The bacteria were stopped when Weapon X reclaimed them; the full effects of Beaubier's infection remain to be seen though.
      At the end of the Weapon X conflict Jeanne-Marie Beaubier once again rejoined Alpha Flight, or at least Aurora did. What Jeanne-Marie's personality thinks of all this is unknown.
      Jeanne-Marie Beaubier is a mutant capable of moving at extreme super-human speeds, whether by flight or by running. She can also swim at high speed by "flying" through the water.
      Beaubier also has the ability to emanate light from her body at will. She has used this light for a variety of purposes, whether to blind opponents, hypnotize them, or even in some strange way heal people. It has been shown that there are differences in the light powers of the Jeanne-Marie personality and the Aurora personality. Beaubier is also capable of radiating light in conjunction with her brother by clasping hands with him. This light appears to be brighter than that generated by Jeanne-Marie alone.
      In X-Factor #116 Aurora was shown to possess a concussive energy blast. Whether or not Jeanne-Marie is able to use such a blast is unknown at this time. [Compiler's note: Furman had Jeanne-Marie/ Aurora pulling new abilities out of a hat time after time, so the concussion bit isn't TOO much of a stretch. Not NECESSARY, imho, but not too much of a stretch.]
      At one point touching her brother would cause Jeanne-Marie's powers (and Northstar's as well) to temporarily shut down. This is no longer the case.