Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 214. Who is Dani Moonstar in Marvel Comics?!
Transcript
- 0:11Hello, Marvel. Fans, comic geeks, and all the
- 0:13nerds in between. My name is Megan with.
- 0:14Vigilante vibes. And today I want to do another
- 0:17character breakdown. And it's a character who's a
- 0:20mutant, obviously, that I cannot believe I haven't talked about
- 0:23yet. I think she is fantastic, and
- 0:26I'm really excited for her solo series coming very soon from
- 0:29Marvel Comics. Today we're going to talk about
- 0:31Danny Moon Star. Danny Moon Star first appeared
- 0:34in Marvel graphic novel #4 and was created by Chris Claremont
- 0:37and Bob McLeod. Danielle Moon Star, AKA Mirage,
- 0:41is a Cheyenne mutant whose powers kicked in when she hit
- 0:44puberty. She suddenly found herself able
- 0:47to project realistic images of people's deepest fears, and she
- 0:51could not control it. The visions would pop up at the
- 0:54worst possible times, which pushed nearly everyone in her
- 0:57community away. The only people who stood by her
- 1:01were her parents, William and Peg Lone Star, and her
- 1:04grandfather Black Eagle, who was both a tribal chief and a
- 1:07shaman. One night, Danny accidentally
- 1:10created a vision of her parents dying.
- 1:12Not long after they disappeared on a mountain trip.
- 1:15She believed they'd been killed and started having nightmares
- 1:18about a demonic bear she thought was responsible.
- 1:21The truth was way worse. Her parents had actually been
- 1:25transformed into that demon bear, which also wanted to turn
- 1:29Danny into something like itself.
- 1:31Black Eagle spells kept it from reaching her.
- 1:34After her parents vanished, Danny stayed with the family
- 1:37friends, the Roberts, since she was close to their son Pat.
- 1:42But during Sunday dinner one night, Pat said something that
- 1:45set her off. Danny lashed out physically and
- 1:50images of his greatest fear and desire appeared in front of him
- 1:52and his family. Horrified, she ran off to the
- 1:55mountains in Sundance, Colorado, where Black Eagle raised her.
- 1:58Over the next few years, trying to help her, Black Eagle
- 2:02contacted Professor Charles Xavier, an old Army friend of
- 2:06Danny's father, asking him to train 15 year old Danny to
- 2:10control her powers. Danny did not want to go.
- 2:13She was angry, grieving and distrustful of white people,
- 2:18which is, yeah, that's fair. In a burst of emotion, she
- 2:22accidentally created a vision of Black Eagle's foretold death.
- 2:26He insisted she leave with Xavier, and she finally agreed.
- 2:30Before Xavier could arrive, Black Eagle was murdered by
- 2:34agents of Donald Pierce of the Hellfire Club's inner circle,
- 2:38who was targeting mutants and planning a power grab against
- 2:42Sebastian Shaw. Danny did not know the full
- 2:46story at the time, but she swore revenge soon after.
- 2:50She was haunted by Pierce's people and saved by the mutant
- 2:53Karma and Professor Xavier. She agreed to train under
- 2:56Xavier, partly to get stronger and partly for revenge.
- 3:00Which, you know, that's pretty fair.
- 3:04I mean, whatever motivates you. After helping Xavier and the
- 3:08other young mutants defeat Pierce, Danny became a founding
- 3:12member of the New Mutants. Even though she was hesitant
- 3:15first, she stayed to honor her grandfather's wishes.
- 3:18She grew up especially close to Ron Sinclair, who is Wolfsbane,
- 3:23partly because they shared a psychic link when Ron was in
- 3:26full wolf form. Danny originally went by the
- 3:30code name Psyche, but later changed it to Mirage, which is
- 3:34such a better name even without flashy combat powers.
- 3:37At first, Danny proved herself in a big way.
- 3:40She was the only one to pass the team's first Danger Room test.
- 3:44Overtime, she learned to control her abilities and project more
- 3:47than just fears. After Karma left, Danny and
- 3:50Cannonball stepped up as the new team leaders.
- 3:54The New Mutants clashed with the Hellions at the Massachusetts
- 3:57Academy run by the White Queen Emma Frost, leading to a fierce
- 4:02rivalry. They were captured at one point
- 4:04but managed to escape. Around this time, the with Black
- 4:07Eagle gone, the demon bear finally attacked Danny directly,
- 4:11nearly killing her. Outside of Xavier's mansion, the
- 4:15New Mutants fought in a surreal battle that took them to the
- 4:18Badlands. Magic, who is Ileana Rasputin
- 4:21used her sole sword to break the spell on Danny's parents,
- 4:24turning them back into humans. Danny survived her injuries and
- 4:27fully recovered. Later, the Enchanters pulled the
- 4:31New Mutants to Asgard. There, Danny bonded with a
- 4:35winged horse that she named Bright Wind and was chosen as a
- 4:39Valkyrie, gaining the ability to sense death.
- 4:41That role became a huge part of her life.
- 4:44Even after returning to Earth, Bright Wind stayed with her.
- 4:48I'm pretty sure it's Bright Wind, not Bright Wind.
- 4:52I don't know. It could go either way, but I
- 4:55think we'll survive this. When Professor X left Earth and
- 4:59Magneto took over the school, Danny's life only got more
- 5:01complicated, as it tends to do when Magneto's involved.
- 5:06She faced death itself in many different forms.
- 5:09She battled Mojo, and she competed against the Hellions.
- 5:12She developed a connection with James Proud Star, though things
- 5:16never fully worked out between them.
- 5:17But I liked them together. But it's fine if you're
- 5:22interested in James Proud Star AKA Warpath that is on my
- 5:26channel B if you want to know all about him or his brother
- 5:29John Proud Star, who's Thunderbird.
- 5:30Whichever makes you happy. In Nova Roma, she was thrown
- 5:35into the High Evolutionary's de powering machine, but it
- 5:38backfired and actually expanded her abilities.
- 5:40She could now make her spirit images physically real, though
- 5:44at a cost. 1 Mirage always had to exist.
- 5:47She manifested a Spirit Lance that she eventually turned into
- 5:51a necklace and kept the full truth of her new power secret
- 5:54from Magneto. After Cypher's death and growing
- 5:58tensions with Magneto, Danny and Cannonball led the team away.
- 6:02Eventually, the new Mutants evolved into X Force.
- 6:05Danny later went undercover for SHIELD inside the Mutant
- 6:08Liberation Front, even fighting her old teammates to maintain
- 6:11her cover while secretly feeding and sell the cable.
- 6:14She ultimately joined X Force for real.
- 6:18Over the years, Danny gained and lost additional powers,
- 6:21including briefly manipulating quantum energy at a subatomic
- 6:25level. She split into alternate
- 6:29versions of herself during a dimensional crisis, later
- 6:32returning to normal. She quit X Force when Pete
- 6:35Wisdom was brought in, which is fair.
- 6:38Spent time with the X-Men, went to college and became a teacher
- 6:41at Xavier School. She recruited new students and
- 6:44even became legal guardian to Josh Foley after his family
- 6:47abandoned him after M Day. Danny lost her powers and was
- 6:52sent home with the other depowered mutants.
- 6:54But even without powers she kept fighting.
- 6:57She trained Trauma for the 50 State Initiative to stood up to
- 7:02Donald Pierce once again and later regained her Valkyrie role
- 7:06through a deal with Hella. Danny battled demons as guardian
- 7:11threats, Orcas countless enemies.
- 7:14She helped mutants suffering from Impox.
- 7:17She fought Later Mastermind and a psychic showdown in Los
- 7:21Angeles, and eventually joined the mutant nation of Krakoa.
- 7:26There she used her abilities to help other mutants work through
- 7:29Trauma, including Ron and Karma. She even participated in the
- 7:33Crucible to help resurrect Karma's brother and later
- 7:37survived the Orcas attack at the Hellfire Gala, ending up in
- 7:40Vanaheim instead of the white hot room.
- 7:43There she fought alongside as Guardian warriors like Thor and
- 7:46Sif before finally returning to Earth.
- 7:49Most recently we saw her in the Age of Revelation event where
- 7:53she was actually Captain America.
- 7:55That was X years into the future and I got to say I dug her in
- 7:59that role. So let's keep that in mind on
- 8:03how hard she knocked out of the park.
- 8:06Shout out to the writers and everyone that made that happen.
- 8:08So through it all, Danny Moon Star has been a warrior, a
- 8:11teacher, a Valkyrie, a leader, and a survivor.
- 8:14Constantly evolving but always grounded in her Cheyenne roots
- 8:19and her fierce loyalty to her people.
- 8:22So that is Danny Moon Star. She is a fantastic character who
- 8:26gets better and better the more she goes on, and I'd really
- 8:31really excited to see what her solo comic series entails.
- 8:37So if you want to check out what will be my review of it, head to
- 8:40nerdinitiative.com. If you want to follow me or
- 8:43subscribe so you don't miss anything else I put out, just
- 8:46click that subscribe button. Or you can check literally
- 8:48anywhere else by searching Vigilante Vibes.
- 8:51So with that being said, y'all have a marvelous day.