ANAIS
Real Name: Anais
Identity/Class: Human mutant
Occupation: None
Group Membership: Clan Akkaba (see comments)
Affiliations: Apocalypse (En Sabah-Nur), Cyclops (Scott Summers), Ozymandias
Enemies: Cable (Nathan Summers), Caliban/Pestilence, Gauntlet, Phoenix (Jean Grey-Summers)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile troughout Northern Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya, Egypt)
First Appearance: X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#1 (October, 2000)
Powers/Abilities: Anais' mutant ability allows her to transform in a cat-like form. Able to fully control her transformation process she can shift into distinctly different forms. In her normal form, she has the general appearance of a young Middle-Eastern woman without any signs of physical mutations. When she shifts into her cat-like form, she spawns a long tail, while her skin turns light green and grows soft fur. Her behavior also becomes more feral. While in mid-transformation Anais also has the ability to form her fingers into sharp, knife-like weapons approximately 23 inches in length. These talons are sharp enough to behead a normal human. Another physical change when Anais reverts to cat-like form are the tribal-like marks that appear on her face and shoulders. Apart from her mutant ability, Anais is a skilled hunter, with a cruel nature.
Eyes: Blue (while in human and feral cat-like form), Yellow (in mid-transformation), pupils change to cat-like pupils.
Hair: Brown, sometimes red.
History:
(X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#2 (fb) - BTS) - The cat-like mutant Anais served an order devoted to preparing for the coming of Apocalypse. Anais was so devoted that Apocalypse's right-hand man Ozymandias chose her to search for their lost master, who at the time had been merged with the X-Man Cyclops and wandered Africa an amnesiac.
(X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#1 - BTS) - Anais learned she wasn't the only one looking for Apocalypse/Cyclops when she encountered the former Dark Riders leader Gauntlet. She managed to learn her master was somewhere in Morocco.
(X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#1) - While in a busy market in Morocco, Anais tracked down the amnesiac Apocalypse/Cyclops. Aware of the danger that faced her future master, she approached him to tell him he was in danger and promised him answers if he were to come with her. When talking about his friends, Anais told him they would probably be dead already, which led to him rescuing his friends from the mercenary Gauntlet, assigned to kill him. Apocalypse/Cyclops then decided to join Anais.
(X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#2 (fb) - BTS) - Anais decided to bring Apocalypse/Cyclops to the Egyptian town of Akkaba, against the orders of her master Ozymandias. She secretly believed her body was destined to be the true vessel for Apocalypse and she wanted to persuade Cyclops to allow her to carry her master's essence. En route to Akkaba, Anais surreptitiously arranged a ride on a truck near the Libyan border. While Apocalypse/Cyclops slept in the back of the truck, the two fought an internal war over whose soul owned the body.
(X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#2) - At the Libyan border, Anais and Apocalyse/Cyclops were discovered by an army unit who searched the truck. Anais protected her future master by using her striking beauty to seduce the soldiers who fell for her enticing offer. When some of them followed her to a secluded area, Anais transformed into her semi cat-like form and used her razor sharp claws to behead all of them. As she made her way back to the truck to deal with the soldiers guarding Apocalypse/Cyclops she witnessed him using his optic blast for the first time to take out his guards. Although he did not trust Anais, he still decided to follow her, needing guidance in combating the growing power of Apocalypse inside his soul.
(X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#3) - Anais and Cyclops were using a hotel in the Egyptian town Farafirah for shelter. Anais figured they were only a day's travel away from Akkaba and was hoping to leave that night. However, both of them were unaware that they were still being followed. One of the people hot on their trail was the mutant tracker Caliban, still trapped in his guise as Apocalypse's Horseman Pestilence. Figuring he had nowhere left to turn, Caliban decided to track down his former master. However, his Pestilence powers spread death and disease all across Farafirah, leading to an all out quarantine of the city. With no way out of town, a ticked off Anais attacked the head of the local train station to acquire tickets out of there. When she returned to the hotel, Apocalypse/Cyclops had gone missing after Caliban had made contact with him. Caliban wasn't the only visitor: Anais looked on as the X-Men Phoenix and Cable, Cyclops' wife and son entered the scene. After visiting the hotel, Cyclops's wife and son traced him and Caliban down to a series of caves where he and Caliban had been hiding out. Anais followed them there, unaware she herself was being shadowed by Gauntlet. Enraged at seeing Caliban at the side of Apocalypse/Cyclops, Anais attacked the Horseman, claiming she was the one true servant of Apocalypse. Phoenix and Cable stopped her, but everyone was caught off guard by Gauntlet's arrival, as he tried to shoot down Apocalypse/Cyclops. During the ensuing chaos, Cyclops managed to escape by himself, but not before releasing Caliban from his servitude as a Horseman, removing the powers of Pestilence in the process. In the wake of Cyclops' departure, Anais and the others scrambled to find him again.
(X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#4) - Anais was the first to locate Cyclops, who had already managed to reach the ruins of Akkaba by himself. She suggested Scott should simply embrace the will of Apocalypse and not hold back or repress his powers ever again. As she revealed her plans to become host to Apocalypse, Cyclops was tempted for a moment but refused in the end. Enraged, Anais jumped him and planned to rip Apocalypse out of him. Before Anais could seriously injure him, she was incapacitated by Cable and was forced to watch helplessly as Phoenix used her psi- powers to extract Apocalypse's presence from Cyclops. Cable then used his psimitar to destroy En Sabah Nur. Seemingly undisturbed by witnessing her master's apparant destruction, Anais simply informed Cable that everything Apocalypse touches, is changed forever before leaving the scene.
Comments: Created by Joseph Harris, Tom Raney and Scott Hanna.
Although the name of the order Anais belonged to is never given on page, it's more than likely Clan Akkaba. Ozymandias' presence as the one sending out Anais further corroborates this theory.
Anais wore a different version of her costume on the cover of X-Men: The Search For Cyclops#2. She wore yellow/gold corset boots and bracelets, while everything else including her veil were bright purple. It would have made a good X-Men costume.
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
Anais has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#1, p15, pan1 (with cyclops)
X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#4, p7, pan6 (human form)
X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#2, p16, pan3 (long claws)
X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#4, p8, pan1/2/3 (three stages of transformation)
Other Appearances:
X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#1 (October, 2000) - Joseph Harris (writer), Tom Raney (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#2 (January, 2001) - Joseph Harris (writer), Tom Raney (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#3 (February, 2001) - Joseph Harris (writer), Tom Raney (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
X-Men: The Search for Cyclops#4 (March, 2001) - Joseph Harris (writer), Tom Raney (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
First Posted: 06/28/2014
Last updated: 07/06/2014
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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