ANNE
Real Name: Anne (last name unrevealed)
Identity/Class: Human (see comments)
Occupation: Terrorist
Group Membership: Purifiers (Phillip, Dr. Ramsey,
Rocco, William Stryker, unidentified others)
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Jill & Mark, Magneto (Max Eisenhardt), Martin's gang (Martin, Julio, unrevealed others), Illyana Rasputin, X-Men (Ariel/Kitty Pryde, Colossus/Piotr Rasputin, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Professor X/Charles Xavier, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly mobile
First Appearance: Marvel Graphic Novel#5
(November, 1982)
Powers/Abilities: Anne possessed no known
superhuman abilities, though she registered as a latent mutant. Anne was
exceptionally ruthless with little to no moral qualms, even shooting
children at point blank range.
Height: 5'8" (by approximation)
Weight: 115 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
History:
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5 (fb) - BTS) - The woman known only as Anne had
such an irrational hatred of mutants, she willingly joined William
Stryker's Purifiers. Unaware she was a latent mutant herself, Anne rose
through the ranks of the anti-mutant squad, eventually becoming the
reverend's personal assistent, often leading squads of Purifiers as they
sought out and exterminated mutants.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5) - Anne led a number of Purifiers who were
chasing two young, African-American mutant siblings called Mark and
Jill. They caught up with them at night on their schoolyard. Anne
ignored the childrens' pleas for mercy, first shooting Mark through the
head when he showed signs of manifesting his powers. She then killed
Jill as well, ordering the Purifiers to string up their corpses on the
school's swings, the word "muties" drawn on them with the victims' own
blood.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5 - BTS) - Hours later, the bodies of Mark and
Jill were discovered by Magneto who swore to avenge the mutant children.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5) - Anne proved essential in William Stryker's
plan to use Charles Xavier as his instrument to cause the downfall of
mutantkind. She acted as the reverend's personal assistant when he went
on ABC's Nightline to debate
Xavier on the mutant situation. The far more charismatic and photogenic
Stryker easily won the discussion on personality alone. After the
broadcast, Anne accidentally bumped into Xavier's escorts Storm and
Cyclops. Though she apologized to Scott Summers, Anne quickly turned to
the reverend to inform him all was in readiness to take the mutants as
soon as they left the building. Minutes later, the Purifiers attacked
Xavier's town car, easily disabling the professor, Scott and Ororo.
After they were taken away, Anne ordered her troops to make it look like
an accident, even leaving human remains behind to fool the authorities.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5 - BTS) - With Professor X, Storm and Cyclops
in Stryker's hands, the Purifiers also placed monitoring and mutant
detecting equipment on the perimeter of Xavier's school. While trying to
deal with the alleged death of their leaders, Ariel (Kitty Pryde) and
Illyana Rasputin walked the grounds and accidentally discovered one of
these devices. Kitty used her phasing powers to scramble its functions,
figuring it would draw out whoever placed it there. She and Illyana hid
in the nearby brush to see who was behind this.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5) - Anne, Rocco and an armored Purifier arrived
to check on the malfunctioning scanner near Xavier's. Ariel and Illyana
didn't recognize any of them, prompting Kitty to phase into the ground
to sneak up on them for a closer look. Just then, the Purifiers
reactivated their scanner which immediately located Illyana who was
taken prisoner by Anne who used a bio-scanner on Rasputin. The device
showed she was neither human nor mutant, leading Anne to conclude
Stryker might like to see the girl for himself. As the Purifiers were
leaving with Illyana, Kitty tried to sneak inside the trunk of the car.
However, the car's built-in sensors instantly noticed her presence. Anne
ordered the trunk filled with nerve gas to knock out their unwanted
hitchhiker.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5 - BTS) - Kitty ultimately regained
consciousness. She phased out of the car, finding herself in the Bronx,
moments after Anne had contacted Stryker who ordered the girl's immediate
execution.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5) - After the Purifiers had emptied their clips firing on the trunk
Ariel was supposed to be in, they realized it was empty. A slightly
amused Anne used her bio-scanner to trace Kitty. She ordered her troops
to close off the escape routes and shoot the girl on sight. Eventually,
Anne ran into a street gang led by a punk called Martin who were
protecting Pryde. She pulled a gun on them, only to be hit in her left
shoulder by Martin's switchblade. Despite her injury, Anne still fired a
shot that hit him in the head. Before his gang could respond, the
Purifiers arrived to back up Anne, slaughtering the other hoods.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5 - BTS) - The injured Anne decided to return to
Stryker's Manhattan headquarters while Rocco and the other Purifiers
chased the exhausted and scared Kitty Pryde. They followed her on to a
metro train. The troops would have killed her, if not for the timely
arrival of Magneto and the X-Men who had agreed to a temporary alliance.
They saved Kitty and took one of the Purifiers for questioning,
eventually learning what Stryker was planning during his scheduled,
televized prayer meeting from Madison Square Garden.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5) - Anne arrived with Illyana at Stryker's base
just as his employees were carting off the seemingly deceased bodies of
Storm and Cyclops. She shared an elevator with the men who had been
ordered to take the dead mutants to the incinerator in the basement.
Before the lift could reach its destination, it was yanked up
magnetically by Magneto. Anne successfully forced open the doors and
jumped from the rapidly rising elevator on to the roof of the Garden.
She swore to make whoever was responsible pay for this as she joined the
reverend who was preparing for his big sermon later that evening.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5 - BTS) - Through the use of drugs and sensory
deprivation, Stryker had managed to turn Charles Xavier into his
subservient accomplice, eager to use his considerable telepathic talents
to power the reverend's makeshift Cerebro-machine. Not only would the
contraption detect any (latent) mutants, Xavier's potent mental energies
would be used to home in on a mutant's brainwave patterns kill them
during Stryker's sermon to prove the reverend's point about the dangers
of mutantkind.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5) - Anne waited in the wings while Stryker
started the service and Xavier was forced to operate the mutant killing
contraption. The X-Men and Magneto charged Madison Square Garden to stop
him. Anne tried to warn the reverend when, much to her own shock, she
suddenly began to bleed from her nose and ears, a sign she was in fact a
latent mutant herself. Desperate and frantic, she turned to Stryker for
comfort only to find he cast her out. He even went so far as to throw
Anne off his pulpit. Camera crews captured Anne falling to her death,
hitting the floor and breaking her neck. She bled out on live TV.
(Marvel Graphic Novel#5 - BTS) - Anne's death, plus an impassioned
speech by Kitty Pryde, was enough to convince both the crowd and the
authorities that Stryker needed to be arrested.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont (writer), Brent Eric Anderson (pencils & inks).
Even though Anne didn't have any actual super powers, the
fact she began to bleed when Stryker had Xavier scan for mutants proves
she at least had some latent X-gene potential.
"God Loves Man Kills", in its Dutch translation, was one of the
first comics that had a lasting impact on yours truly's 8-year-old mind.
I remember reading until I could memorize entire sections of it.
Despite the obvious and gruesome violence, it helped me get hooked on the
X-Men. The graphic novel pretty much sums up Claremont's take on the X-Men
and what the book should always be about in one way or another: addressing
how we treat minorities in society. To have the cold blooded Anne turn out
to be a latent mutant, killed by the man she idolized just for being
different is a sad, but ultimately somewhat fair bit of irony.
It's not been revealed how Anne or the Purifiers got the schematics for
either the makeshift Cerebro or the mutant scanners they used to track
Kitty or determine whether or not Illyana Rasputin was a mutant. Perhaps
they had some unrevealed ties to the Hellfire Club who, at the time, still
had a wiretap into the X-Men's data systems courtesy of Warhawk. They
might have supplied the influential Stryker Crusade with some of the
schematics in return for a plug or two. After all, God helps those who
help themselves.
Profile by Norvo.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Anne should not be confused with
While chasing the fugitive X-Man Ariel through New York's alleys, Anne came across a gang led by street thug Martin. His gang had also encountered Kitty Pryde, who they were unwilling to give up. As soon as Anne noticed Shadowcat was trying to phase away, she opened fire only to hit the wall Kitty has just phased through. In retaliation, Martin threw his dagger at Anne, hitting her in the left shoulder. She nevertheless managed to shoot him through the head, which momentarily stunned the other gang members. Before they could retaliate, Rocco and the other Purifiers arrived to take care of Anne, killing the other gang members on the spot.
--Marvel Graphic Novel#5
images: (without ads)
Marvel Graphic Novel#5, p30, pans 1,2,3 (main image)
Marvel Graphic Novel#5, p7 pans8&9 (introduces herself)
Marvel Graphic Novel#5, p60, pans 1,2,3,4,5 (killed by Stryker)
Marvel Graphic Novel#5, p41, pan4 (Martin's gang)
Appearances:
Marvel Graphic Novel#5 (November, 1982) - Chris
Claremont (writer), Brent Eric Anderson (pencils & inks), Louise
Jones (editor)
Last updated: 05/10/15
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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