The Stepford Cuckoos are a set of fictional mutants, psychically linked quintuplets (Celeste Cuckoo, Esme Cuckoo, Irma "Mindee" Cuckoo, Phoebe Cuckoo, and Sophie Cuckoo) appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The alphabetical order of the Cuckoos' first names corresponds with their ages, with Celeste being the firstborn and Sophie being the youngest. Originally calling themselves the Five-in-One, after the deaths of Esme and Sophie the remaining sisters were known as the Three-in-One. They are commonly associated with the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning and successor mutant schools.
Their name "Stepford Cuckoos" is a reference to the books The Stepford Wives and The Midwich Cuckoos. The Stepford Cuckoos made their live action debut as the Frost Sisters; Esme, Sophie, and Phoebe in the television series The Gifted (2017 - 2019), portrayed by Skyler Samuels.
Publication history
First appearing in New X-Men #118 (November 2001), they were jointly created by Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Sciver. Their origin, as the artificially created "daughters" of Emma Frost, is revealed in X-Men: Phoenix – Warsong.
Esme and Sophie were among the feature characters in the 2011 two-issue limited series Chaos War: X-Men.
Fictional character biographies
Origins
As revealed in the first issue of X-Men: Phoenix – Warsong, the sisters are grown from ova cells harvested from telepath Emma Frost while she lay comatose after a Sentinel attack that killed her students, the original Hellions, and are only five of many cloned daughters. They state that over a thousand eggs were stolen from Emma's ovaries during her coma, and the remaining hundreds (if not thousands) of clones reside within incubation chambers inside a hidden underground laboratory at The World, a complex housing the Weapon Plus (living beings designed to serve as weapons) program. They were created by Dr. John Sublime to be powerful weapons able to kill every mutant by combining their telepathic abilities. The Cuckoos were designated Weapon XIV.
Xavier Institute
They were first introduced as the protégés and favorites of Emma Frost, and were unaware of their true purpose. A telepathic block was used to mask their placement in the school, causing anyone who questioned their origins to lose their train of thought. They, along with student Quentin Quire, were noted as the strongest telepaths among the new students at the Xavier Institute of Higher Learning. Although Quire and the Stepford Cuckoos were rivals, Quire had a crush on Sophie. Sophie and the other Cuckoos considered him to be disgusting and rejected him completely.
Partly as an expression of adolescent rebellion, partly under the influence of a mutant drug called Kick, and partly out of a desire to impress Sophie, Quire incited a student riot at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Sophie died stopping Quire, overexerting herself after using the same drug to boost her powers. The Stepford Cuckoos held Frost to be partially responsible for Sophie's death - with Frost having "inspired her to heroism" - and disassociated themselves from her at that time. With the death of Sophie, the Five-in-One became the Four-in-One. Wary of having a part of themselves missing, they tested to see if their powers still functioned well by contacting Jean Grey telepathically and informing her that Emma Frost was attempting to conduct an affair with her husband, Scott Summers.
Secretly, Esme Cuckoo had been collaborating with X-Man Xorn, then disguised as Magneto. Taking control of the Cuckoos' group mind, she telepathically forced Angel Salvadore to attack Emma Frost, completely shattering her diamond body into fragments. Jean Grey managed to telekinetically reassemble Frost and return her to life, whereupon Emma revealed Esme's involvement in the attack. Esme then abandoned her sisters to join Magneto's new Brotherhood of Mutants. Later, losing faith in Xorn, the Brotherhood turned on him and Esme, who attacked him, angry that Xorn did not return her affections. Xorn then killed Esme, and she died in Emma's arms, stating with her dying breath that she never wanted to end up like Emma.
Corsairs
Soon afterwards, the institute is rebuilt, with Emma Frost and Cyclops as headmasters and leaders of the X-Men. Frost and Summers divided the older students into several six-person training squads, each taught by a staff member. The remaining three Cuckoos, now calling themselves the "Three-in-One," were assigned to the Corsairs squad, advised by Cyclops. The three girls were the co-leaders of the squad.