A mutant, Sage possesses a number of mental abilities and was presented as the personal assistant to the Hellfire Club's Sebastian Shaw, but an extended retcon revealed that she was one of the first mutants discovered by Charles Xavier. She has been a member of the original X-Men teams, Excalibur, the Exiles, X-Force, and a cross-dimensional X-Men team similar to the Exiles known as the X-Treme X-Men. Sage appears in the television series The Gifted played by Hayley Lovitt.
Publication history
Tessa first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #132 (April 1980), and was created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Initially an agent of the Hellfire Club, decades later, she would join the X-Men and adopt the code-name "Sage" in X-Men #109 (February 2001). An extended retcon carried out by Claremont in X-Treme X-Men between 2002 and 2004 revealed she had always been working for Professor X, serving as a spy for him within the Hellfire Club.
The character is carried over to Uncanny X-Men during the Reload phase (2004), beginning with issue #444, but leaves the team in issue #455. She reappears in New Excalibur (2005-2007) #1-24, the mini-series X-Men: Die by the Sword (2007-2008) #1-5, Exiles (vol. 2) #100, New Exiles (2008-2009) #1-18 and a cameo in Exiles (vol. 3) #6.
She returns to the fray in X-Treme X-Men (vol. 2) (2012-2013) #6-13, and years later in Uncanny X-Men (vol. 5) (2018) #10, then as part of the Krakoan Age titles House of X (mini-series) (2019) #1 and X-Force (vol. 6) #1-50. As part of the 2024 relaunch, she is part of the cast of X-Force (vol. 7) #1-10.
Fictional character biography
Origins
Sage's exact country of origin remains unrevealed, but she claims to have come from a war-torn region. By the time she meets Charles Xavier, she is living by herself in Afghanistan, where she tries to keep out of the conflicts between the rebels and the government, but is willing to defend herself. One day, she hears a telepathic call from a cave which is considered haunted by the locals, guiding her to Charles Xavier, who is trapped underneath a pile of debris. His legs have been crushed during his battle with the alien Lucifer. Xavier senses that Sage is a mutant, and explains the meaning of her abilities. Although Sage says that this was about the same time he located Beast;[2] in other accounts he found Sage first.[2][3][4][5] Sage saves Xavier, also dispatching of a group of robbers, something she regrets years later.
Hellfire Club
Years later, Sage meets up again with Xavier, who at the time is recruiting the original X-Men. Instead of being chosen for the first X-Men class, she is sent to spy on the Hellfire Club as Tessa, and to keep watch on Sebastian Shaw, something which returns to haunt her in the following years.[3][6][5]
Sometime during Tessa's time with the Hellfire Club, Sebastian Shaw and Emma Frost dare Elias Bogan to wager in a game of poker, and Tessa uses her abilities to make Bogan lose, leading him to resent her.[3]
During the X-Men's initial conflicts with the Hellfire Club, Tessa primarily maintains a background role and is seen as only Shaw's assistant. Hints of her more complex role are indicated when she and Xavier are kidnapped by Donald Pierce, a renegade member of the club, with grudges against both organizations. The relationship between the pair is not hinted towards.[7] The two are rescued by the nascent team of New Mutants, and Tessa takes Pierce into custody on behalf of the Hellfire Club.[7]
Tessa next appears alongside the Hellfire Club, when they and the X-Men are hunting Rachel Summers after her attempted murder of Selene, the newly installed Black Queen. When the two teams are ambushed by Nimrod, a mutant-hunting Sentinel from the future, they join together to fight the threat, suffering heavy losses.[8] Tessa offers the X-Men temporary sanctuary with the club, which later results in Magneto and Storm jointly accepting the role of White King in the Inner Circle.[8][9]
After the Hellfire Club
After the X-Men's supposed death during the Fall of the Mutants, Magneto ousts Sebastian Shaw from the Hellfire Club. Shortly thereafter, the Upstarts begin to hunt down mutant leaders, starting with former and current leaders of the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle. Shinobi Shaw seemingly murders his father Sebastian, and Emma Frost is put into a coma. Tessa continues to serve as Shinobi's assistant, and begins to use her telepathic skills more openly. After Tessa prevents Shinobi from solidifying his hold on the Hellfire Club, however, the younger Shaw ceases to work with her.[10]
Sebastian Shaw returns after a period of recuperation with the extradimensional Holocaust at his side. Seeking assistance in controlling this powerful mutant, Shaw calls Tessa back into his service. Her minor telepathic abilities are able to keep him in check.[11] The two lose Holocaust, though, when Onslaught decides he needs that mutant for his own purposes.
Selene and her new amnesiac thrall Madelyne Pryor join with Shaw to regain their roles in the Hellfire Club. Suspicious of Pryor, Tessa attempts to telepathically probe her while she is sleeping, unwittingly reawakening Madelyne's memories of her tragic life and first death with the X-Men. Tessa is quickly overwhelmed and nearly killed, but Pryor merely removes all memory of the conflict due to the complications that would follow her death.[12]
Joining the X-Men
Years later, Bogan kidnaps Sage and mentally dominates her, leaving her with permanent mental scars. Bogan ransoms Tessa to Shaw, which the latter refuses. However, the X-Men become aware of Tessa's predicament, and Storm is able to rescue her.[13] Out of gratitude, she stays with the X-Men,[a] primarily in a support capacity, and resumes use of the name Sage. Fearful of mental domination, Sage relinquished the use of her telepathic power and focused on maintaining her mental shields.[16]
X-Treme X-Men
After the X-Men learn of Destiny's prophetic diaries, Storm forms a splinter group that leaves the X-Mansion to hunt down the missing volumes, with Sage as one of her first recruits.[17] While the X-Treme team primarily makes use of her analytical skills, her mutant power to "jump-start" other mutants' abilities is used in a few critical junctures: saving Beast's life by mutating him into a more animalistic, feline form;[2] allowing Rogue temporary access and control of all powers she had ever absorbed; restoring Gambit's powers after injuries had overloaded them,[18] and unlocking Slipstream's latent teleportation powers.[19] During this period she forms a strong working relationship with Bishop in solving cases, most notably when the two briefly return to the X-Mansion to help investigate the attempted murder of Emma Frost.[20]
After the prophecies of the diaries are determined to be (apparently) invalid, the group still remains separate from the main team of X-Men due to differences in philosophy with Xavier. Storm petitions various world governments for official recognition as a mutant unit for policing mutant activity.[21] Granted this authority, her unit is dubbed the X-Treme Sanctions Executive (X.S.E), and Sage becomes an officer of this unit.[22] Although initially more mobile, the X.S.E. eventually returns to the X-Mansion as its base of operations. Sage's tenure with the team is abruptly ended when she rejoins the Hellfire Club to keep an eye on Sunspot (who has become the new Lord Imperial) to make sure he is not corrupted by power as Sebastian was.[23]
For reasons yet unknown, Sage leaves Sunspot's side and travels to England to join forces with the newly reformed New Excalibur.[24] She helps them on various missions such as battling the Shadow King,[25] and returning to ancient Camelot to prevent it from being prematurely destroyed.[26] In a more subtle use of her observation abilities, Sage is instrumental in her teammate Nocturne's recovery from a debilitating stroke.[27]
To learn more about a mysterious new foe, Albion, Sage creates the new cover identity and persona of Diana Fox. This persona appears to be fully devoted to Albion and his goals.[28] Her Diana Fox persona climbs up the rank of Albion's Shadow Captains as Britannia, develops a rivalry with Lionheart, and is given a suit equipping her with flight and superhuman physical strength. Although she has the opportunity to kill Albion, she is attacked by Lionheart and Diana Fox persona takes complete control and Sage becomes fully committed to Albion's side.[29]
A direct confrontation with her teammates in New Excalibur helps reassert Sage's original personality. Together with New Excalibur, Shadow-X, and now Lionheart, Sage defeats Albion and his Shadow Captains.[30]
X-Men: Die by the Sword and New Exiles
Immediately after the defeat of the Shadow Captains, a party is held in honor of Excalibur. While the team enjoys the party, Sage feels guilt for her actions. The party is suddenly crashed by members of the Exiles; Psylocke and a Thunderbird from an alternate universe. They are then attacked by Rouge-Mort and drawn into a battle for the safety of the multiverse from a psychotic Merlin and Fury. They join forces with the rest of the Exiles, Roma and the Captain Britain Corps. The team defeats Merlin, but not before he manages to kill Roma.
Prior to her death, Roma manages to transfer all of her knowledge about the multiverse into Sage's mind, causing her to become overwhelmed. Fearful of what would happen if someone on Earth ever gained the knowledge in her mind, Sage joins the Exiles.[31] She suffers from hallucinations mixing her own memories with the information passed to her by Roma;[32] furthermore, the Diana Fox persona re-emerges and attempts to take control once again.[33]
While diverting her focus to analyze Cat's uncontrolled ability to "cascade" through different alternate versions of herself, and Cat's empathic connection to the Crystal Palace, the phantoms in Sage's mind break free from their mental prison. Sage decides to confront them and Diana. During her struggle, she bonds with Cat, who had been trying to find a way to heal the dying multiverse.[34]
Sage and Diana fight each other but neither can win, instead deciding to team up against the return of Merlin. During battles, Sage and Diana get a better understanding of each other and their motives.[volume&issueneeded][35]
Merlin almost kills Sage, but Diana sacrifices herself to revive Sage. Sage reabsorbs Diana and destroys Merlin. Sage then merges with the Crystal Palace, an act which stabilizes the multiverse, a fate intended for Cat. Sage then acts as the voice of the Crystal Palace.[36][37]
Return to X-Treme X-Men
Sage somehow reappears, seen helping Dazzler and an alternative reality Wolverine rescue a child version of Nightcrawler.[38] As of the conclusion of the "X-Termination" storyline Sage returned to Earth-616.[39]
In 2018, Sage cameos in the 10-part storyline X-Men Disassembled when Jean Grey contacts several telepaths to defeat an empowered X-Man (Nate Grey).[40] In mid- to late-2019, she guest stars in the dual mini-series House of X and Powers of X, written by Jonathan Hickman.[41] In the new status quo for the X-titles, Dawn of X, the character is part of the cast of the X-Force relaunch (2019),[42] and has cameos in other contemporary titles.[43] In Krakoa, she works with Doug Ramsey to establish the Krakoa transit system to allow mutants to arrive at the island.
After the Krakoan Age, Sage interns herself to a psychiatric clinic in the Swiss Alps, when she is found by Forge and recruited to be part of his new X-Force.[44]
Powers and abilities
Sage is a mutant whose mind works in the same way as a supercomputer. Her mind has unlimited storage capacity, and she is able to immediately recall any information which she has stored with perfect clarity. The speed of her thoughts allows her to analyze her surroundings for information in an instant, and track the probability of an event by piecing together stored and acquired data. She is able to perform multiple functions at once by allocating a portion of her brain to each task: Sage can replay a film which she has seen in her mind, play a game of internet chess, and focus on battling an opponent simultaneously without any one task distracting her from another. Sage's control of her mind gives her total control of her own body. She is able to perfectly recreate physical actions that she has seen once (so long as they are within her physical parameters), and she can control her bodily functions to a degree, like stopping her heart or breathing for as long as is safe.
Sage is also able to 'see' a person's genetic code, reading their DNA sequences for latent and manifested mutations. This allows her to identify mutants, and understand how their powers work more thoroughly than they themselves do. Sage is able to selectively evolve existing genetic traits, as well as catalyze the untapped genetic potential of latent mutants. Once begun, the procedure is irreversible and can often result in unpredictable side effects.
Sage possesses a degree of telepathic ability, allowing her to communicate with others over short distances, project psionic energy blasts, create illusions, and release an astral form within a limited range. By shutting down her telepathy, she is able to create a psychic firewall that blocks all manner of mental intrusion. The firewall can be used to deflect a psychic attack back at its source.
Sage is skilled in the martial arts, and is formidable hand-to-hand combatant thanks to her having complete conscious control over her own body. Her analytical skills and facility with probability also extend to combat situations, allowing her to predict an opponent's attacks and initiate the optimal counter-attack. Sage is also self-taught in a wide range of firearms, which she can use with considerable skill and accuracy. Her computer-like mind makes it easy for her to learn new skills and languages.
During her merge with the Exiles' home, the ancient Panoptichron (also known as the "Crystal Palace") Sage gained access to all of its functions. She could project her image as a hologram, as well as a solid body. She possessed awareness to the Palace's environment, and could teleport objects and living beings from any Earth in the multiverse.[45]
Equipment
Sage uses a pair of cybernetic sunglasses that allow her to access and interface with computers and data networks.
She frequently carries and uses firearms and edged weapons, and is highly skilled in their use. Her firearms are sometimes loaded with stun ammunition.
Sage appears in The Gifted, portrayed by Hayley Lovitt.[52] This version was homeless before joining the Mutant Underground. After losing faith in them, she defects to the Hellfire Club to combat Trask Industries' Hound program, but is killed by Reeva Payge.
Notes
↑It was hinted through Sage's dialogue that she was returning to "an earlier affiliation" (implied to be Xavier)[14] and that, "in order to safeguard a friend, [she had to] bind herself to his mortal enemy".[15]
References
↑X-Force (2024) #8. Writing: Geoffrey Thorne; Art: Marcus To.
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