Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Negasonic Teenage Warhead (real name Ellie Phimister) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, and named after the song "Negasonic Teenage Warhead" by Monster Magnet.^[1]

The character is a mutant who displays telepathic and precognitive powers and a student of Emma Frost. Actress Brianna Hildebrand portrays Negasonic Teenage Warhead in the 2016 feature film Deadpool, although the character is related in name only, having a different power set, appearance, personality, and backstory.

Publication history

Negasonic Teenage Warhead first appeared in New X-Men #115 (2001), written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Frank Quitely.

Fictional character biography

Ellie Phimister was a Genoshan teenager and a student of Emma Frost's telepathy class. During a tutoring session, Ellie reported having a recurring nightmare fifty times the previous night wherein all people in Genosha were exterminated. She then pointed out that she had experienced the same vision during the class. Almost simultaneously, Cassandra Nova's Wild Sentinels appear on Genosha and wipe out half the world's mutant population: sixteen million people.^[2]

Carrying what appeared to be Ellie's corpse, Emma Frost, who had survived the Genoshan genocide thanks to the manifestation of her secondary mutation, turning her into diamond, was found by the X-Men's Beast and Jean Grey. Emma proclaimed the teenager, who had named herself Negasonic Teenage Warhead, to be a credit to her family and the mutant race and then suffered a mental breakdown when she found out Ellie was dead.^[3]

Illusion

Much later, Negasonic Teenage Warhead was apparently seen to be alive as a member of the latest incarnation of the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, alongside Cassandra Nova, Sebastian Shaw, Perfection, and Emma Frost.^[4] The new Inner Circle attacked the X-Men at the Xavier Institute. While Shaw, Frost and Nova dealt with Beast, Wolverine and Colossus, Ellie claimed she had a dream of Shadowcat phasing down into the Earth's core and was unable to stop; the suggestion caused Shadowcat to lose control of her phasing powers.^[5]

Later, a comatose Cyclops wakes up and begins shooting the members of the club, including Ellie, with a pistol. It is revealed, however, that Ellie and all the other members of the Hellfire Club were projections of Emma Frost's mind; these projections disappeared after they were revealed to be illusions.^[6]

After hearing Negasonic Teenage Warhead's codename, Kitty Pryde remarks, "Wow, we really have run out of names."^[7]

Necrosha

During the Necrosha event, Negasonic Teenage Warhead is revealed to be amongst the deceased mutant population of Genosha that is resurrected by the Transmode Virus by Selene and Eli Bard. However unlike the other resurrected mutants, Ellie isn't under Selene's control as seen when she refused to tell the Black Queen her real name.^[8] Ellie apparently perished once again when the Black Queen absorbed the souls of the entire deceased mutant populace of Genosha.^[9]

Marvel NOW! (2016)

Somehow surviving the events of Necrosha, Ellie uses her telepathic abilities to establish a new, mundane life for herself in an Albuquerque suburb in 2016 version of Marvel NOW! Deadpool and the Mercs for Money capture her at the behest of an organization called Umbral Dynamics, unaware that the group intends to siphon her power into the Presence.^[10][11] After her rescue and the defeat of Presence, Negasonic Teenage Warhead joined up with Domino's incarnation of the Mercs for Money alongside Hit-Monkey.^[12]

Powers and abilities

In New X-Men #115, Ellie was in Emma Frost's Telepathy Class, presumably making her a telepath.

In X-Force #24, Ellie is the only person aware that Proteus has possessed Destiny and she shows her precognitive abilities announcing to Selene the imminent return of her victorious inner circle.^[13]

During the Deadpool & the Mercs for Money Vol. 2 series, Ellie showcased a host of new abilities she previously lacked before. Creating a house and home for herself out of thin air with her thoughts, physically overpowering a host of skilled and well known mercenaries in Hand to Hand by herself. As well as showcasing superhuman physical prowess beyond the norm when battling Scorpia and Titania.^[14]

In other media

Film

Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead in Deadpool.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead appears in the film Deadpool, portrayed by Brianna Hildebrand.^[15] Although it was an obscure comic character, the writers selected her because they liked her name. They also thought that a goth girl with Cannonball's powers would be a better choice for the film than using Cannonball himself.^[16] Cannonball has similar explosive powers (though via a different mutation). Her power is the ability of telekinetic detonation within a certain radius of herself, visualized in the movie as an expanding energy bubble evoking plasma and atomic blasts. She is portrayed as a young X-Men trainee who is paired with Colossus where they try to get Deadpool to join the X-Men. Negasonic Teenage Warhead is described by Deadpool as a stereotypical teenager who's "all about long sullen silences, followed by mean comments and then more silences", and lives up to that description by constantly ignoring his mockery with her cell phone. Deadpool is also astounded by her name which he claims is "the coolest name ever". She and Colossus later aid Deadpool in his fight against Ajax by helping Colossus defeat Angel Dust after the two villains had abducted Vanessa Carlysle. In an extended scene on the film's Blu-ray release, Negasonic Teenage Warhead says she can tell the future. She then predicts Deadpool will say something stupid. He tries to prove her wrong, only to begin stammering.

References

External links

• Negasonic Teenage Warhead at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe