Negasonic Teenage Warhead

Ellie Phimister (Known as: Negasonic Teenage Warhead) 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 is a student of Emma Frost.

The character appears in the 2016 film Deadpool and its 2018 sequel Deadpool 2, albeit with a different look and superpowers to high-impact kinetic charges, much like New Mutants/X-Men member Cannonball. This was done through a deal between 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios, which allowed Marvel Studios to use Ego the Living Planet in the 2017 film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in exchange for changing the character's powers.^[2] In Deadpool and Deadpool 2, Negasonic Teenage Warhead is a member of the X-Men, portrayed by actress Brianna Hildebrand; she is the first LGBT character to star in a superhero film that openly features a same-sex couple.^[3] Due to the positive reception, the character's appearance and powers were eventually altered in the comics to match her appearance in the Deadpool films, followed by this new version appearing in a number of Marvel-themed mobile games, such as Marvel Future Fight and Marvel Strike Force.

Publication history[]

This section requires expansion. (February 2016)

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, with pale skin and dark hair, who dressed as a goth and was 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.^[4]

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.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[8]

After hearing Negasonic Teenage Warhead's codename, Shadowcat remarks, "Wow, we really have run out of names."^[9]

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.^[10] Ellie apparently perished once again when the Black Queen absorbed the souls of the entire deceased mutant populace of Genosha.^[11]

Marvel NOW![]

Ellie remained alive after the events of the 2009–2010 "Necrosha", storyline, and at some point dropped her Gothic wardrobe and appearance. She uses her telepathic and precognitive abilities to establish a new, mundane life for herself in an Albuquerque suburb. 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.^[12][13] After her rescue and the defeat of Presence, Negasonic Teenage Warhead adopts a new punk-inspired look and joins up with Domino's incarnation of the Mercs for Money alongside Hit-Monkey.^[14]

While Wade was sulking that Domino had stolen his team from him, she chose to cheer him up while out on a op. for S.H.I.E.L.D, using her powers to make Deadpool themed costumes for everybody. It is later revealed after the Mercs probe their employers while getting their pay, that Hit-Monkey was assigned to them as a liaison to monitor their progress. In truth however he was sent to keep an eye on Ellie because S.H.I.E.L.D was wary of her growing abilities.^[15]

During a fight in an alternate future brought about by Negasonic's intervention in the Inhumans vs. X-Men storyline, the conflict between the two superpowered races never died down. Instead, they were further inflamed by the Inhuman fanatic Lash who instigated a witch hunt against the Mutants, who he deems have blasphemed against the T-Mist cloud and, in response to mutant deaths caused by them, Magneto launched a counter assault which ended up decimating the world. She chose to hide out deep in the Amazon with an enclave of mutants who were tired from all the fighting with the Inhumans, but Lash and his tribe soon caught up with them when Deadpool's Mercs inadvertently led them there. As Deadpool lay dying due to the former absorbing her energies, the future Negasonic travels back to the past in order to fix her mistake of tampering with the T-Cloud thus averting another dystopian parallel.^[16]

Negasonic is the only one of the Mercs to remain in Deadpool's employ after his defection to Hydra during Secret Empire and subsequent memory wipe at the conclusion of The Despicable Deadpool, helping him run a new business called "Deadpool, Gun/Swords for Hire."^[17]

Powers and abilities[]

In New X-Men #115, Ellie possessed a limited cache of psychic powers; mainly precognition, a possible subsidiary of minor telepathy.

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.^[18]

During the Deadpool & the Mercs for Money Vol. 2 series, Ellie showcased a host of new abilities she previously lacked, creating a house and home for herself out of thin air with her thoughts. She is able to overpower a host of skilled, military or uniquely trained mercenaries in hand-to-hand combat, as well as showcasing superhuman physical prowess beyond the norm, battling the likes of Scorpia and Titania.^[19]

Over the series, Ellie shows even greater amounts of power and capabilities within her. She has the ability to harness, generate, and absorb radioactive energy into herself, allowing herself to achieve feats such as fabricating objects out of thin air like clothes or shelter and levitating people or objects with her mind.^[20]

It is later revealed that Ellie's newfound power stems from an ability to manipulate reality at a quantum level. In an alternate dystopian future, Negasonic used her powers to alter the Terrigen cloud to make it harmless to mutants. Further exhibitions of her power include rearranging matter and energy into different shapes and forms at will, such as morphing Jack Chain's Darkforce binds into butterflies, changing Inferno's fire into flaming monkeys, mentally disassembling Domino and Gorilla-Man's guns, and creating energized duplicates of herself at will.^[21]

In other media[]

Film[]

• Negasonic Teenage Warhead appears in Deadpool, portrayed by Brianna Hildebrand.^[22] The writers selected her because they liked her name, as noted by Deadpool himself when he first hears it, deeming it "the coolest name ever". They also thought that a goth girl with Cannonball's powers would be a better choice for the film than using Cannonball himself.^[23] In the film, Negasonic Teenage Warhead is described by Deadpool as a stereotypical teenage girl who's "all about long sullen silences, followed by mean comments and then more silences". She and Colossus later aid Deadpool in his fight against Ajax and Angel Dust.
• Hildebrand reprised her role in Deadpool 2 and its PG-13 cut Once Upon a Deadpool, which establishes that Yukio is her girlfriend, who joins her and Colossus in again aiding Deadpool when it comes to dealing with Rusty Collins and Juggernaut.^[24]

Video games[]

• Negasonic Teenage Warhead is introduced as a playable character in the mobile game Marvel: Future Fight. The character currently can only be purchased through Danger Room limited offers.^[25]
• Negasonic was introduced in the June 5th, 2020 update of the mobile game Marvel Strike Force. The abilities that the character is listed to have are similar to those shown in the Deadpool movies.^[26]
• Negasonic was added in September 2020 to the mobile game Marvel Puzzle Quest.^[27]

References[]

External links[]

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

Negasonic Teenage Warhead