GAIA
Real Name: Gaia
Identity/Class: Extradimensional mutant
Occupation: Unrevealed;
former student, guardian of the Universal Amalgamator
Group Membership: None;
formerly
Generation X (Banshee/Sean Cassidy, Emma Frost, Husk/Paige Guthrie,
Jubilee/Jubilation Lee, M/Monet St. Croix, Penance/Claudette and Nicole
St. Croix, Skin/Angelo Espinosa, Synch/Everett Thomas)
Affiliations: Chief Guy Authier, Dirt Nap, Elwood the Pooka, Forge, Adrienne Frost, Maggot (Japheth), Miss Pickwick, X-Man (Nate Grey)
Enemies: Chimera, D.O.A., Emplate (Marius St. Croix), Gene Nation (Dark Beast/Henry McCoy of Earth-295, Fever Pitch, Hemingway, Integer, Iron Maiden, Membrain, Opsidian, Vessel, Wynter), M-Plate (Claudette/Marius/Nicole St. Croix), Paradox
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly the Massachusetts Academy;
formerly the Citadel of the Universal Amalgamator;
formerly an unrevealed home dimension
First Appearance: (Seen, name unrevealed) Generation X I#37 (April, 1998);
(name revealed) Generation X I#38 (May, 1998)
Powers/Abilities: Gaia possesses a complex array of superhuman abilities, including an incredibly long-life (seemingly alive for several thousand years), psionic abilities (including telepathy and telekinesis), super-strength, and reality manipulation.
When altering reality, Gaia can reshape and reform material, though it requires focus for her to do so. Gaia can generate vehicles and homes, can manipulate matter (such as rock), and can change the color of things.
Gaia is also a low-level empath, able to absorb the feelings of others, which can sometimes overwhelm her.
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 116 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Pink; previously blonde
History:
(Generation X I#38 (fb) - BTS) - Under unrevealed circumstances, the
extradimensional mutant Gaia was taken against her will to another
dimension, where she was placed in the Citadel of the Universal
Amalgamator (a giant engine in another dimension that would allow
anyone, with access to Gaia's power, to "conjoin all sentient entities
in existence into a single omni-personality"). Many tried to force Gaia
to use her powers to activate the Ultimate Amalgamator, even wiping out
her entire galaxy, but she refused.
(Generation X I#44 (fb) - BTS) - Gaia remained strapped to the altar for seventeen millennia. She dreamed of being free one day and allowed to do whatever she wished.
(Generation X I#38 (fb) - BTS) - In time, M-Plate (a combination of Marius, Claudette and Nicole St. Croix) apprehended Gaia, seeking to force her to trigger the Universal Amalgamator, but Gaia refused to cooperate, saying she could withstand any torture.
(Generation X I#37) - M-Plate, Chimera, and DOA apprehended Synch and took him to the Citadel of the Universal Amalgamator, where he saw Gaia lying unconscious on the altar. M-Plate recommended that he use his powers to synch with Gaia so he could manipulate the Amalgamator.
(Generation X I#38) - Gaia yelled out that she still refused to cooperate, as M-Plate seemingly incinerated Chimera for disagreeing with her. M-Plate threatened Synch's family unless he took on Gaia's power. Soon, Generation X (Banshee, Chamber, Husk, Jubilee, Penance/Monet St. Croix), Dirt Nap, and Elwood the Pooka arrived to help, and Gaia told Synch he must not copy her powers. Dirt Nap consumed M-Plate, ending the threat, but Gaia confronted Synch, believing he had been planning to give in. When Synch began trying to release Gaia from her chains, she told him they were her responsibility.
(Generation X I#39) - Freed from Dirt Nap, M-Plate was split into Emplate and Claudette and Nicole St. Croix. When Chamber attacked with a psychic blast, Gaia worried that the energy would trigger the Citadel. As the Citadel began cracking apart from the damage, Gaia yelled at the others to abandon the whole reality, but Synch refused to leave her behind in her chains. Gaia told Synch he was making a mistake, and Banshee tried knocking Synch out so he could save him (as he saw no way to free Gaia), but Synch accessed Banshee's powers and tried again to save her, though the chains seemed unbreakable until Penance slashed through them. As the others departed on the warp train, Gaia led Synch and Penance to a Warp Chamber (pulling a massive stone slab out of the way first), and they landed on Earth. Thrilled to be free, Gaia ran away, leaving Synch and Penance behind.
(Generation X I#42 (fb) - BTS/Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Gaia used her powers to conjure a floating castle and a Ferrari, and dyed her hair pink. When her telepathy was abruptly lost (during Pyslocke's battle with the Shadow King on the Astral Plane, which eliminated all telepathic powers for a time), she blacked out while driving and crashed.
(Generation X I#42) - Gaia woke up with policeman Chief Guy Authier interviewing her, just as Generation X pulled over, having seen the wreck while driving by. As they saw a floating castle, Gaia tried to mentally erase the cop's memories, she found her powers not working. The cop discovered that Gaia had no record in any databases, so he sent her off with Generation X.
(Generation X I#43) - Her telepathic powers still blocked, Gaia watched the students and teachers of Generation X train in the Bio-Sphere, their training ground at the Massachusetts Academy. Bianca LaNeige and her Dwarves attacked, though they were soon defeated.
(Generation X I#44) - Jubilee gave Gaia "Sugar Bombs" cereal while informing her that Synch had a crush on Gaia.
After watching Jubilee, Synch, and Skin rush into town, Gaia vented to Emma Frost about how unfair it was that she no longer had her power now that she was free.
Emma and Gaia eventually felt their telepathic powers returning just as Leech and Artie informed them that the entire Bio-Sphere was missing, and they realized it had been pulled through the timestream.
(Generation X I#45) - Gaia thanked Synch again for having saved her previously, and his attraction to her deepened. Gaia began to feel more like part of the team as they got the announcement that the students were all getting new uniforms.
(Generation X I#46) - Gaia and the students wore matching black and white school uniforms, and Banshee and Emma said things would be more formal from now on. They switched to their red team uniforms, with Gaia having one now as well, and the team trained and exercised together. When Miss Pickwick arrived to evaluate the school, she ended up having a heart attack, and the team had to use their powers to help get her to the hospital in time to save her, with Gaia and Synch both using her telekinesis to carry the car over a ravine. Pickwick later returned to thank the team, giving the school its certification, and Gaia hugged her.
(X-Man#50 (fb) - BTS) - Emma Frost worked one-on-one with Gaia, teaching her better control over her powers, including telepathy, telekinesis, reality-altering, and low level empathy.
(Generation X I#47) - While the team trained in uniform, Gaia played around with a basketball, and Gaia telekinetically expanded the hoop so she could toss the ball in. Frost continued to evaluate Gaia's skills, history, and place on the team. Forge arrived to help the team set up a new Danger Room training facility, and Gaia's powers accidentally awakened the cyber-morph Paradox. Generation X briefly battled Paradox, after which Gaia told them she was ready to train with them.
(Generation X I#48) - Gaia and the others trained in their new Danger Room as Banshee lectured them about taking the training seriously. Husk confided in Gaia about her relationship with Chamber, but Gaia said she was clueless when it came to men.
(Generation X I#49 (fb) - BTS) - Gaia used her powers to give Husk a new haircut.
(Generation X I#49) - Gaia and the other students met Maggott when he visited the school.
(Generation X I#50) - Adrienne Frost joined Emma (her sister) and Banshee in leading the Massachusetts Academy, and they opened the doors to wealthy students, meaning Gaia and the other members of Generation X would need to hide their mutant powers.
Later, Gaia rode the subway with Husk and Jubilee into Boston when they were attacked by Hemingway and Vessel of Gene Nation who knocked the subway car off the tracks. Gaia struggled to focus her reality-manipulation powers to grab Vessel with a stone hand, but he broke free and knocked her unconscious. The two villains kidnapped Jubilee and Husk, leaving Gaia behind as they thought her dead.
(Generation X I#50 (fb) ) - Gaia woke up and went looking for the other members of Generation X, but found evidence that they had been kidnapped also. She found Banshee's jeep and went rushing back to the school.
(Generation X I#50) - Gaia nearly crashed into Emma Frost before telling her what had happened. Before they could rush off to find the others, X-Man approached them from the sky.
(X-Man#50) - Frost repelled X-Man as Gaia was overwhelmed by the fight. Gaia reminded them about their missing teammates, so X-Man joined them in the sewers to track Gene Nation. They bypassed the mutant Membrain, and then Gaia used her powers to force open a massive door. Behind the door, the members of Generation X were in restraints, having been tortured, and Gaia screamed in pain from her empathic connection to them. As Gene Nation attacked, Gaia collapsed from the overload of emotional pain from her teammates.
When Generation X was freed, Gaia joined them in attacking Gene Nation. During the fight, Gaia manipulated electric wires to attack Fever Pitch, and Synch protected her from a fiery blast from the villain, using powers synched from Husk to protect himself. Gaia helped Chamber defeat Wynter, who nearly shot her, before rushing off with X-Man to stop Emma from killing the Dark Beast, despite her fury that Dark Beast had brought Brood eggs to Earth. When Dark Beast activated a self-destruct sequence, Gaia, Emma, and X-Man narrowly helped the other students escape, with Gaia propelling a pile of rocks underneath her to speed her escape. They regrouped back at the Massachusetts Academy, where they looked for Banshee.
(Generation X I#51) - Gaia and the other Generation X students questioned Adrienne Frost and Leech about Banshee before Artie showed them, through a psychic link, that Banshee had gone after human student Tristam Brawn. Gaia surprised the others by announcing she was leaving the school to go find herself, and Emma coldly left her behind, walking away with the other students to go find Banshee.
Comments: Created by Larry Hama, Andy Smith, and Sean Parsons.
In X-Man#50 Gaia told X-Man
that she had been in Limbo for 600 years and that she knew Earth from
the time before, which doesn't jibe with her origin story at all.
--Markus Raymond
Gaia has a handbook profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#4 (December, 2010).
This profile was completed 10/28/2020, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Chadman.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Gaia has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update#4, p15, pan1 (main)
Generation X I#42, p17, pan4 (pink hair, face)
Generation X I#39, p7, pan4 (blonde, strapped to machine)
X-Man#50, p12, pan3 (in Gen X costume)
Appearances:
Generation X I#37 (April, 1998) - Larry Hama (writer), Andy Smith (penciler), Sean Parsons (inker), Mark Powers (editor)
Generation X I#38 (May, 1998) - Larry Hama (writer), Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Generation X I#39 (June, 1998) - Larry Hama (writer), Terry Dodson, Dan
Lawlis (pencilers), Rachel Dodson, Jon Holdredge (inker), Ruben Diaz
(editor)
Generation X I#42-44 (September-November, 1998) - Larry Hama (writer),
Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Ruben Diaz (editor)
Generation X I#45 (December, 1998) - Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson
(penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Frank Pittarese (editor)
Generation X I#46-47 (December, 1998 - January, 1999) - Larry Hama
(writer), Aaron Lopresti (penciler), Walden Wong (inker), Frank
Pittareese (editor)
Generation X I#48-50 (February-April, 1999) - Jay Faerber (writer),
Terry Dodson (penciler), Rachel Dodson (inker), Frank Pittarese (editor)
X-Man#50 (April, 1999) - Terry Kavanagh (writer), Luke Ross (penciler), Bud LaRosa (inker), Frank Pittarese (editor)
Generation X I#51 (May, 1999) - Jay Faerber (writer), Gregg Schlgiel
(penciler), Bob Wiacek, Mei, Allen Milgrom, Nelson DeCastro (inkers),
Frank Pittarese (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update#4 (December, 2010) - various writers, Jeff Youngquist (editor)
First Posted: 09/02/2021 (see comments)
Last updated: 06/25/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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