THORNN II

BIOGRAPHY

The eldest of four children, Lucia Callasantos was born into a poor Hispanic family in Manhattan’s South Bronx. Her father was a drug addict, who left the family after the birth of Lucia’s youngest sister, Carolina. Despite the fact that Lucia's father had been abusive, her mother, Marcella, was distraught when the police informed her that her husband had died of an overdose. Marcella blamed her children, in particular Carolina. She claimed the reason her husband had left was because, in her own words, “she had one child too many.” With her father now gone and her mother totally neglectful, Lucia as the eldest of the four Callasantos children had to take on much of the responsibility for her younger siblings. Unfortunately for Lucia, her father’s death was just the first in a long line of tragedies that would befall her family.

As time went on, the burden of raising her younger siblings took their toll on Lucia, and she began to rely on her six-year old sister, Maria. One day, Lucia asked Maria to watch Carolina so that she could see her friend Jose Hidalgo. While Lucia was outside, she heard a scream. Lucia and Jose ran back inside to find Carolina at the end of the stairs, dead. They looked up to the top of the stairs to see Lucia’s younger sister, Maria, smiling back at them. This was just the first of a line of mysterious deaths involving Lucia’s family.

The sisters also had a younger brother named Matteo, who one day fell off the roof after chasing Maria’s pigeons that she held in a coop on top of the tenement building. Apparently, Matteo slipped over the ledge and couldn’t pull himself up fast enough, though this was something Lucia always questioned. Part of her always wondered just how responsible was Maria for the deaths of Matteo and Carolina, and whether Maria had blamed their younger siblings for the death of their father as much as their mother had.

Years passed and Lucia’s mother Marcella became involved with a man named Harry Bellinger. Harry was a cocaine addict and an alcoholic and it didn’t take long before he got Marcella hooked on drugs as well. He was also a child molester who went on to abuse both Lucia and Maria. The fact that Lucia was slowly beginning to grow fur, an obvious sign of her mutant powers manifesting, didn’t bother him at all. One night, when her mother was passed out, Lucia wanted to get away from the hell that was her life and decided to go out. Harry followed the seventeen year old Lucia and dragged her into an alley, attempting to rape her. Suddenly, they heard a growl behind them. Despite the fact that Maria was two years younger than Lucia, her mutation had developed much faster. The fully powered “Feral” tore Harry apart. Lucia and Feral hid Harry’s corpse but Marcella still somehow knew that Feral was responsible. To get her revenge, Marcella killed Feral’s pet pigeons. In a fit of rage, Feral then murdered her own mother. [X-Force (1st series) #41]

With her entire family, excluding Feral now dead, Lucia accompanied Feral on the run. The two girls eventually learned of the Morlocks living in the sewers underneath New York and joined the community of mutant outcasts. There, Lucia’s abilities fully manifested and she chose the name Thornn for herself. The volatile Feral naturally enough clashed with the other Morlocks and was eventually forced to leave their ranks. [New Mutants (1st series) #99-100] Lucia on the other hand found a new family within the Morlocks and she was soon a member of high standing.

Despite initially helping her sister hide her murders, Thornn now believed Feral should pay for her crimes. When Toad’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants came to the Morlocks in the hopes of an alliance, Thornn spoke for the clan and accepted his offer if the Brotherhood helped her to kill  Feral and her teammates among X-Force. Thornn was one of only two Morlocks, herself and Masque, who took part in the attack on X-Force. During the battle, Thornn faced her sister, Feral. They viciously battled each other, with Thornn eventually emerging victorious. With Feral lying unconscious before her, Lucia contemplated whether or not she could actually kill her little sister. Despite how much Thornn hated Feral, she couldn’t bring herself to kill her and wondered just how many “lives” Feral had left. Thornn was subsequently defeated by Cable, whereas Masque was killed. When X-Force returned their defeated enemies to the Morlock tunnels, Feral warned Thornn that it wasn’t over between the two of them. [X-Force (1st series) #6-7, 9-11]

Masque’s death caused a power vacuum within the Morlocks, one that was filled by the deranged Russian mutant Mikhail Rasputin. Mikhail considered himself to be the Morlocks’ messiah. He saw the Morlocks as monsters, who had no place in the world. For that reason, he believed the only way to “save” his people was to destroy them and he flooded the Morlocks tunnels. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #293] Thornn’s feline reflexes allowed her to escape the initial flood and she attempted to flee. As she crawled through a tunnel, she encountered a young Morlock girl named Sarah. Thornn attempted to save Sarah but they became separated when more water flushed into the tunnels.

After the water levels had returned to normal, Thornn wandered the tunnels for months to search for any other surviving Morlocks, but she found none.  However, one day she had a vision of Sarah, who told Thornn that the Morlocks weren’t dead but had been taken to another place. According to Sarah, the other Morlocks were too afraid to come out unless Thornn would perform the Morlock ritual called “The Ceremony of Light.” Having no one else to turn to, Lucia tracked down X-Force’s Cable and Domino while on a date and asked them for help. Together, the three of them performed “The Ceremony of Light,” which involved placing dozens of mirror shards in such a way that the redirected sunlight would illuminate the Morlock alley. Sarah appeared again to thank them, but she said that the other Morlocks were still too afraid to come out. Thornn begged Sarah to stay with her as she was so lonely but Sarah said she couldn’t, though she promised to come back one day. After this, Cable offered Thornn to accompany him and Domino to Xavier’s school but Lucia declined, believing that it was her place to stay in the tunnels and await the return of her people. [Cable (1st series) #15]

For the next few weeks, Thornn remained in the tunnels alone until she was attacked by the NYPD’s Superhuman task force, Code: Blue. Lucia’s childhood friend, Jose Hidalgo, had grown up to become a detective and had decided to re-investigate the deaths in the Callasantos family. As she was being arrested for the murders, Thornn proclaimed her innocence saying “I didn’t kill my family! She did!” Thornn used her one phone call to contact Cable, who met with her under the guise of a lawyer. Agreeing to help her clear her name, Cable convinced Jose that he could deliver him Feral and the truth behind the murders. It was decided that Thornn would be safer on Ryker’s Island while she awaited trial. Unfortunately, the anti-mutant group, “The Friends of Humanity,” had replaced Thornn’s drivers and were planning on killing her. As part of their plan, X-Force extracted Thornn and Jose and took them to building in the South Bronx where Thornn and Feral grew up.

Cable had also duped Feral into coming there that night. During a tussle, Feral managed to take Jose hostage. While Feral was trying to escape, Thornn revealed to X-Force and Jose what had happened to Carolina and Matteo and how she felt that as the eldest sibling it was her responsibility to protect them. She also revealed the abuse she and Feral had suffered from Harry Bellinger. Feral tried to proclaim innocence for the deaths of her siblings, whom technically she didn’t kill, but didn’t raise a finger to avoid their tragic accidents. Further provoked by X-Force, Feral outright admitted the murders of her mother and Harry, and the joy she had felt upon ending their lives. Immediately thereafter, the enraged Feral went berserk but was quickly defeated by X-Force. Jose then arrested her for the murders of her mother and Harry Bellinger, whereas Lucia was apparently not charged for helping cover up Feral’s crimes. [X-Force (1st series) #40-41]

Thornn later returned to the Morlocks tunnels and soon found herself to be not the only inhabitant. Sarah had kept her promise, as she and the other Morlocks returned. However, Mikhail Rasputin had taken them to a pocket dimension where time passed much faster. Growing up in the harsh environment of this pocket dimension and forced into constant battle against each other, the next generation of Morlocks had grown up to be rather aggressive. Sarah was now a fanatical terrorist called Marrow. Lucia must have felt horrible upon the realization that – just like with her sister - she had failed to save yet another innocent girl from becoming a psychopath killer. Still, she decided to stay around and secretly kept an eye on Marrow’s activities, eventually alerting Cable to Marrow and her mentor, Callisto, planning a bombing at a Lila Cheney concert. [Cable (1st series) #42]

More than a year later, Maria and Lucia managed to reconcile somehow. Possibly, the time Feral had served in the Vault plus the startling discovery that she had contracted the Legacy Virus [Quicksilver #9] caused her to change and work together with her sister. While there was still some bickering between the two of them, Thornn and Feral became members of the X-Corporation’s Mumbai branch, an extension of Xavier’s X-Men. While with the group, Thornn helped prevent an assassination attempt on Professor X’s life. [New X-Men (1st series) #133]

Thornn’s superhero career in the X-Corporation didn’t last long. She and Feral were among the thousands of mutants worldwide to be de-powered after M-Day. Thornn was extremely angry at losing her powers and swore revenge on whoever was responsible. [House of M: The Day After]

Lucia and Maria relocated to their native New York afterwards, where they tried to make a living. They were either approached or kidnapped by an agent of Romulus, who had the two girls taken to the Canadian Weapon X complex. Once there, their “feline” appearances were mysteriously restored, though they remained powerless. The amnesia both Callasantos sisters suffered regarding these event may have been a side-effect of the treatment, though it was probably intentional. Romulus’ agents Wild Child had also arranged for Sasquatch, Wolfsbane, Sabretooth and Wolverine to be in the area.

Apparently, all these people with feline or lupine mutations were part of something bigger, namely finding a successor to Romulus. Even though Wolverine wanted to  deal with Sabretooth and Wild Child all by himself, Feral got in the way trying to help, ending up killed. Thornn appeared to be very upset at the death of her sister, who was the last member of her family. [Wolverine (3rd series) #53-55]

The current whereabouts of Lucia Callasantos, including whether her human appearance could be restored, are unknown.

ALTERNATE VERSIONS

In the Age of Apocalypse, Thornn was one of the unfortunate internees in Mr. Sinister’s breeding pens. After the fall of Apocalypse and the destruction of the pens, Thornn and her sister Feral retreated underground with the Morlocks eventually gaining the attention of Magneto and his X-Men. Magneto later attempted to force the Morlocks into returning to the surface with him and the X-Men. This led to a battle and the Morlocks were defeated and presumably taken into custody. Interestingly, Thornn’s appearance was more in line with the 616 version of Feral and vice versa for her sister.

[Note: It's unclear if this switched appearance was deliberate or a continuity error, like in House of M: The Day After. Whereas a case can be made that with the de-powered appearance one can’t really tell which girl was Lucia and which Maria, they were clearly shown in their X-Corporation costumes from before and addressed each other by the wrong name.]