Chapter 30
Stacy X was born Miranda Leevald. When she discovered that her mutant power was to create pleasure inducing pheromones, she took a job at a mutant ran brothel. The Church of Humanity destroy her brothel, causing Stacy to hook up with the X-Men. While fighting alongside the team, Stacy would take some time to service clients in the Greater New York area. Wolverine tried to talk her into stopping the prostitute routine, but she ended up trying to seduce Nightcrawler and Archangel instead. Husk and Stacy X fight over Archangel, but Warren chooses to stay with Husk. So, Stacy X quits the team and leaves Warren a video of her jumping rope naked.
The panels below were from that naked jump rope video. Stacy X was one of the mutants depowered on M-Day, thus life changed for her. When she was a mutant, she used her powers to make prostitution easy. She never actually had sex with anyone, but used her powers to make them think it happened. Now, Stacy X was giving up all holes to anybody with the money to spend on a depowered mutant. Stacy X gets a powered suit and joins the New Warriors. As Ripcord, things don’t go so hot. After a few issues, she’s killed. But, she reappears in 2011 in a mini-series designed to function as Magneto slut-shaming her.
Stacy X is seen having three-way sex with Chamber’s girlfriend and a new mutant named Ultimate Nullifier. Magneto shows up and questions her decisions to humiliate the few mutants left alive. They fight for a bit, until Ultimate Nullifier fights Magneto to protect Stacy’s honor. After that, she has yet to appear at Marvel. Maybe, she’ll show up during Hickman’s “Secret Wars”. Oh wait, she’s a mutant and a recent creation. That means FOX gets first dibs and Marvel seems to be sick of giving FOX free money. How will the modern world be aware of what Stacy X could’ve done for the franchise?
When Matthew Vaughn was meant to direct “X3”, he wanted to include Stacy X. Unfortunately, Brett Ratner took over and dumped the character. A mutant prostitute who hasn’t had a favorable comic history isn’t suitable for entertainment that targets kids. What is to be done with characters like this and why do they keep creating clickbait articles for armchair Feminists? It’s not like Marvel gave her a solo book or actively promoted her. More often than not, she’s seen as an abandoned Joe Casey character that Chuck Austen ruined. The New Warriors and Vengeance mini-series was an effort to rehabilitate the character. But, how do you fix a character if you won’t use her at the base level?
There was a time when Marvel was willing to create characters that acted as an extension of the real world. Don’t sex workers deserve their comic equivalent? Some have argued that Joe Casey created Stacy X as push back against Grant Morrison’s idea of mutant culture in “New X-Men”. Basically, if mutants are going to take over as the norm from Homo Sapiens, then we’re going to see mutants take over some of the unique roles in American life. Morrison has showed them as rock stars, poets, artists and other high profile artisans. Why wouldn’t a woman with low educational opportunities use her powers to scam the sex worker trade?
If anything, Stacy X was an essential part of Joe Casey’s run on the book as he forced the team to examine why she existed in the first place. Warren Worthington was a rich man that just happened to be the Angel. The X-Men only find out about the X-Ranch after he reads a report saying that his company is investing in the brothel. Nobody takes responsibility for creating the brothel, but it’s established as being a mutant-ran enterprise where the working girls freely use their powers. Wolverine is a killer and the team needs him around to do what they can’t pull off. Then, there’s poor Nightcrawler. Kurt Wagner is a visible freak with deep religious concerns that can’t reconcile his feelings about what Stacy X does in her spare time. Naturally, he’s the one that pushes to get her kicked off the team.
Finally, we get the final part of Casey’s team with Chamber. Stacy X plays on his younger male sexual concerns and tries to win him over with a bit of confidence. The two hit it off and then she sleeps with his girlfriend. That kind of take-charge attitude in terms of mutant sexuality was new to the book and not everyone knew how to handle it. Unfortunately, Chuck Austen took over and this went nowhere. Still, that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate the initial work that went into Stacy X. She could’ve been the pioneer in writing characters that don’t necessarily believe in Xavier’s dream. She’ll fight if she has no other choice, but she’d rather be making money.
Is she the kind of character that Claremont would’ve created? I don’t think so, but Frank Miller might’ve suggested it to him. If anything, Claremont created a vision of X-Women as creatures of Id and Order. The only ones that were allowed to function in between would be teenage kids. Stacy X would’ve had a troublesome origin forced down her throat back in the 80s and 90s. But, this isn’t a character that could’ve existed until Joe Quesada rebuilt Marvel. Times like these make me wish that Marvel supported MAX more and gave characters a chance to be created in a semi-shared Universe. If anything, could this short-term character be considered too good to be an X-Woman?
I wouldn’t go that far, but it’s something to think about when look at the later female creations. If a female character is hard to sell to little girls and boys, then do we not keep the character around? Dr. Nemesis has been thriving in the X-Books and he used to be a Nazi. So, Marvel is saying that Capitalist Mutant Prostitutes aren’t as marketable as former Nazis. That’s something to think about, as this Project moves along.