Anyone else sick of seeing Moonstar run around like a total badass? Seriously, anyone?....No?
Too bad. I, for one, am reeeeally, really tired of Danielle Moonstar. Sure, you could argue that it's not fair that I complain about being sick of her, having gone out of my way to read series she's involved in, but that's coincidental; I just happened to begin my foray into reading comics with the original run of New Mutants, and it seems like whenever a series involves Illyana Rasputin for any length of time, Moonstar ends up in it as well. At any rate, I do have reasons for announcing my distaste, and not all of them can be blamed on bad writing. Well, at least not on one case of bad writing.

Danielle Moonstar started off as a complete ethnic stereotype. On the first three pages of her comic debut, she ends up not only cursing the 'white man', but is seen cuddling with a goddamn cougar for absolutely no real reason. A COUGAR. As of my knowledge, that still hasn't been explained. You don't show a character snuggling up to a ferocious wild beast without proper goddamn explanations! Also, this may be legitimately due to her apparently all-consuming need to constantly express her sense of cultural identity, but throughout the run of New Mutants, Moonstar wore a dress like...twice. Not really a good point, until you consider that the New Mutants went to freaking galas on a regular basis, and the only time I can recall seeing Dani in a dress is when she got kidnapped by Viper (It was a really nice dress, actually). What did she wear to the fancy dress parties? What appeared to be deerskin pantsuits. Ethnically appropriate pantsuits, at any rate. It's not that she didn't like dresses; the young woman made her love for dresses known on at least two occasions.

During the second run of the New Mutants title (later re-named New X-men), Danielle became a teacher at Xavier's. My immediate response to that concept was wondering exactly what she taught, but that's both beside the point and never revealed. It's in this series that Dani displays a fairly worrying lack of self-control and actually ends up causing Necrosha. When trying to recruit Elixir, Dani and her 'team' (then consisting of Wither, Wallflower and Sofia Mantega, if memory serves) end up facing off against a group of Reavers in New York. Wither gets 'carried away' and ends up (almost?) killing one of the attacking Reavers, and Dani, after having made the minimum required effort, decides that the only way she can stop Kevin from killing his assailant is to show him his greatest fear. It turns out that Kevin's greatest fear was accidentally killing everyone he loved (via touch), and Dani's illusion turns him into a sobbing wreck. Throughout the rest of his storyline, Wither is haunted by this vision. At any rate, he apologizes to Dani (in the middle of breaking down into tears) for losing control of himself, and all she can think to do is tell him to 'put his damn gloves on', actually throwing them at his feet in the process. Wither is now effectively cut off from the one person who is supposed to look after him, to mentor him, because she decided to scare the crap out of him instead of, say, distracting him with an image of his greatest desire (that's how her powers work). Later, after Elixir gets in trouble for snapping Magma out of a coma (which led to her fleeing in confusion), Dani yells at him before even attempting to hear anything he has to say ('Amara was like family to me, and now she's gone! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!').

And then she loses her powers. I have to admit, I was hoping she'd disappear from the series after that, but noooo. She just got guns and did that whole Valkyrie thing again. Good lord, I hated the Valkyrie thing. So now we get to watch her run around like some half-assed rambo-esque action chick? All I can say is wake me when it's over.

I think it just goes to show Dani isn't a good teacher. She's used to leading a team of peers, running a team of teenagers that look up to her she couldn't handle. Thankfully she's back with the New Mutants again.

Let's face it - the way she lashed at Hope in Second Coming isn't a sign of a good teacher again. I suspect I am not the only reader who enjoyed Hope beating her.

Why on Earth should Dani suddenly resort to punching first?

Why would Dani even care about Hope that much to hate her & hit her?

I agree with Xerox.

" @Kairan1979 said:

"

Why would Dani even care about Hope that much to hate her & hit her?

New Mutants were hurt in previous chapters of Second Coming (Shan losing her leg, Magik sent to Limbo - again) and Dani blamed Cable and Hope. "

The whole of Second Coming was a travesty.  However, there's no reason that Dani should blame Cable or Hope when it was Cyclops who sent them on the mission.  It was a badly written Matt Fraction scene.   "

" @xerox-kitty said:

" The whole of Second Coming was a tralalalala I can't hear you (not edited by Matt Fraction).  However, there's no reason that Dani should blame Cable or Hope when it was greatest leader, god king, savior and excellence of awesomeness who sent them on the mission, thus rendering blame to no one. "

I fixed your statement, also I took the liberty to answer your own statement with my edit. I had to retcon out the part about Fraction though. *SC strikes a hipster pose* Not cool to playa hate on Fraction. He's like all funky and shizz. Totally happening. He like wears jeggings and drinks coffee they have trouble spelling in italy. 

Oh, I liked all of your blogs  @Squares, I am a big fan actually, here though, this was the only thread I really strongly disagreed with. X-K mainly covers why. Your argument is well made though, and stated. Hopefully one day Dani might grow on you? I mean she probably won't but hey lol

"

but is seen cuddling with a goddamn cougar for absolutely no real reason. A COUGAR. As of my knowledge, that still hasn't been explained. You don't show a character snuggling up to a ferocious wild beast without proper goddamn explanations! 

, but is seen cuddling with a goddamn cougar for absolutely no real reason. A COUGAR. As of my knowledge, that still hasn't been explained. You don't show a character snuggling up to a ferocious wild beast without proper goddamn explanations!   

I think Dani needs to get laid.

Dani is a victim of writers.  Over the years she's been handled without care, that it shows.

Chris Claremont created her as a nature loving, white man hating, cougar cuddling Cheyenne for all of about 5 minutes.  She hated white man because she blamed them for the death of her family.  She loved wild animals because of her mutation, which gave her a psychic connection to animals.  Pretty much all PiS reasons to justify a stereotype.  But she soon went on to be the focus of the New Mutants.  In the first issue we saw her own fear about going into the Danger Room, and soon after she took on the Brood Queen that was hiding inside Xavier's body.  Unfortunately, around that time she also became the most likely of all Marvel's characters to be knocked unconscious & kidnapped.  The Brood Queen did it, Silver Samurai & the Viper did it and Selene later did it too.  She was pretty easy to take down as long as you sneak up behind her & knock her across the back of the head.  Pretty simple writing.  Pretty clichéd.  That sot of easy take down hasn't happened in years.

I honestly don't agree with the accusation that she rarely wears dresses.  So what?  I rarely wear dresses, it's nothing to do with ethnic heritage (I just don't want to wear them).  If she was drawn wearing a little Pocahontas animal-skin dress, that would be a lot worse.  And we already know what her idea of a 'fancy dress' outfit would be.  Way back in New Mutants #7 she quickly latched on to the carnival spirit of Rio.

In fact, very early on, Dani was turned into something of a barely-legal sex siren.  Any excuse to strip off and show off as much flesh as possible.  She was never afraid to show off her curves.  She was only out-stripped by Storm (who really DID used to bare all).  When in Rio she was happy to wear bikinis.  When hunting through the jungle she pulled her clothes off to go swimming.  

Even when Selene held Dani hostage & offered to teach her sorcery that would keep her youthful for eternity, Selene saw fit to have Dani stripped and redressed in something more skimpy... as you do when trying to corrupt the youth of today.

While Rahne was still dreaming of wearing 1950's Princess style dresses, Dani Moonstar was all set to show the world that a Native American girl could be a modern sex symbol.

Back to her days as a teacher, I thought it was a nice & honest progression of her character.  Although she didn't seem to teach anything, she was usually a good mentor for the kids and helped introduce them to a more stable environment; the Institute.  There they weren't persecuted on a daily basis & would learn to use their powers like all the other X-Men had done.  She wasn't a perfect role model by any means, and she clearly still had an irrational temper on her... but who doesn't?  No-one can remain calm all the time.  

Dani had to use her powers against Wither to stop him from killing a person.  It was just a dumb plot piece to collect Elixir while turning Wither over to the Hellions Squad.  The claim that she caused Necrosha is completely unjustified.  Going that far back in history to one over-reaction doesn't mean she caused the events of Necrosha.  It was hardly a contributing factor to why Wither ran away from the school.  Back then he had already left the New Mutants Squad to join the Hellions.  If anything Wither was a pawn in Emma Frost's game of keeping more students than Dani had in her Squad.  But no-one can blame Dani Moonstar for Selene's actions during Necrosha.  Selene and the events in Kyle & Yost's X-Force (Eli Bard & the transmode virus) & New X-Men were the driving forces behind Necrosha.  Dani had been chased out of the school long before those wheels were put into motion.  If you want to blame Dani, then I'm afraid you should go further back & blame Professor X for ever assembling a group of young mutants to teach.  

Her over-reaction to Elixir wasn't well written, but people do react stupidly when under pressure.  Combine the fact that Elixir had specifically done what he was told not to with the fact that she was afraid for the life of one of her oldest friends, then it doesn't make her a complete monster for shouting at him.  It means she lost her temper, which was out of character for the general way she was being portrayed at the time.  But no-one in the world is 100% calm all of the time.

This is the same character we saw turn up in the Avengers Initiative to help Trauma cope with his fear based powers.   She successfully managed to calm Trauma, and coached him towards a career in therapy.  So for every silly moment, she still had another success.  

At this point in life she's been a mutant, an orphan, saved her parents from the Demon Bear, become a Valkyrie, left Earth to edeem herself after Hela corrupted the Valkyrior in an attempt to kill Odin, fallen from Asgard, secretly become an agent of SHIELD, infiltrated the MLF, lived with X-Force on the road, gained reality altering mystical powers... and eventually lost her powers.  Not to mention the amount of changes that her powers had gone through.  So it's fair to say that has matured a LOT since her first appearance on a mountainside, cuddling wild cats & cursing the name of Xavier.  It's also fair to say that different writers have different ideas for her... and most of them have been ludicrous.

It's only in more recent years that writers have turned against that maturity and retconned her back into an angry young Native American (something that writers also keep doing to Warpath).  When he took on the writer chores for the newest New Mutants series, Zeb Wells stated that he didn't like the 'teacher' aspect of her character.  He felt it was out of character for her, and therefore chose to completely ignore it.  Therefore we ended up with someone who keeps talking with her fists.  Matt Fraction furthered that with the stupid cafeteria rumble between her & Hope.  Why on Earth should Dani suddenly resort to punching first?  Why would Dani even care about Hope that much to hate her & hit her?  It's all just bad writing.

@Squares:
-  It's true she has no animal communication skills, yet she has a certain 'empathy' for/with them.  I think it's as if she can 'feel' their thoughts.  That's why she has a connection to Raine when she's in wolf form...  Raine, another 'not at all' angry character.
 
- Yes, Dani probably does need to get laid... (don't we all?) and yes we most definitely don't want to see it... it would just be wrong... Like seeing Liza Minelli kiss her husband at their wedding.  Sure they were SUPPOSED to kiss, but...ewww...
 
- I think Deadpool is technically an X-Man now... I don't think X-Men actually 'accepted' him per se, but he just keeps coming around.  I have to admit, I loved the scene in the Necrosha arc where he's saving Loa from some Selene-resurrected bad guys.  It's an EXCELLENT scene; a very deadpool scene.  It certainly gives the impression that Cyclops accepts Deadpool if for no other reason than he can't seem to keep him away.
 
- " Luke Cage looked fantastic in a tiara."  ummm...okaaaay... LOL!!!  Perhaps Dani could sort of spearhead the whole "Femme super heroes who wear clothes" thing... So, if the writers would kindly give her some powers (they bring back the dead as easily as turning the page, they can definitely give her powers), and maybe let her have a real personality, it could work out.

1 - If you take any comic character and look at one or a handful of situations in which the writer makes them look as bad as possible, you could make the same statement

2 - At least she seems to take the situation and problems the X-Men are in seriously and does not wander around acting blissfully unaware like 95% of the cast.

3 - The character has also been the unfortunate victim of a decade or so of neglect and terrible attempts at reinvention.

@PhoenixoftheTides: She was more of a user of illusions than a telepath. Couldn't read minds or anything, her illusions kinda seemed to react on their own.

They mention the animal empathy thing on the first page she ever appears in anywhere.

@WarMachineMarkV: Blissfully unaware of what?

- Blissfully unaware of how desperate the situation is on Utopia, for all the attacks and uncertainty, most characters just go about their days

@WarMachineMarkV: They're coping. Doing it pretty well, actually. I doubt that anyone on that goddamn rock didn't know exactly how dangerous their everyday life was, but what do you expect them to do? Not everyone can pull a Cyclops and be nigh-constantly on guard.

@PhoenixoftheTides: You know who else has powers relating to telepathy? Hellion. And Hope, and Pixie.

...'Regular' powerset? What, exactly, is that? And while I'm not saying she's without problems, Dani doesn't really display enough symptoms to be labelled a schizophrenic.

@PhoenixoftheTides: What about Pixie? You neglected to mention her.

Out of curiosity, exactly how familiar are you with the world of Psychology? For your benefit, I have included Wikipedia's introductory description of schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction. The onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood, with a global lifetime prevalence of about 0.3–0.7%. Diagnosis is based on observed behavior and the patient's reported experiences.

Genetics, early environment, neurobiology, and psychological and social processes appear to be important contributory factors; some recreational and prescription drugs appear to cause or worsen symptoms. Current research is focused on the role of neurobiology, although no single isolated organic cause has been found. The many possible combinations of symptoms have triggered debate about whether the diagnosis represents a single disorder or a number of discrete syndromes. Despite the etymology of the term from the Greek roots skhizein (σχίζειν, "to split") and phrēn, phren- (φρήν, φρεν-; "mind"), schizophrenia does not imply a "split mind" and it is not the same as dissociative identity disorder—also known as "multiple personality disorder" or "split personality"—a condition with which it is often confused in public perception.

The disorder is thought mainly to affect cognition, but it also usually contributes to chronic problems with behavior and emotion. People with schizophrenia are likely to have additional (comorbid) conditions, including major depression and anxiety disorders; the lifetime occurrence of substance abuse is almost 50%. Social problems, such as long-term unemployment, poverty and homelessness, are common. The average life expectancy of people with the disorder is 12 to 15 years less than those without, the result of increased physical health problems and a higher suicide rate (about 5%).

She doesn't seem very volatile OR unstable- at least, not mentally. In terms of the New Mutants, the people you should be looking to for mental issues would be Doug, Illyana or Rahne, I believe. Nope, Dani's pretty mentally healthy. If she does have issues, they're relating to controlling her temper and dealing with authority figures, but she's displayed on a few occasions that she's improving on the first, and the second hasn't been an issue for a while.

@PhoenixoftheTides said:

@Squares: The running theme was that anyone with powers related to telepathy or psychic manipulation had the potential to be a telepath and a telekinetic.

Running theme where? If you'll once again refer to the characters I mentioned (Hellion, Hope and Pixie), it's never been stated anywhere that Hellion could possess any telepathic abilities whatsoever, and that includes alternate reality versions of him. Also, it's been said that within the Marvel universe telekinetic mutants are incredibly rare (I think I recall someone mentioning something like one in about a million?), and powerful ones even moreso. Also, if it's true that telepaths tend to be telekinetics, then what about Chamber? He's never displayed any telekinetic potential.

@PhoenixoftheTides: Depression does NOT equal Schizophrenia. You know how many people Dani's age deal with depression these days? It's like one in ten, at least.

No, it CANNOT be inferred. It has NEVER been stated EVER, ANYWHERE, by ANYONE, that Chamber's powers are in ANY way related to TK. How about M- are you going to start saying SHE has TK too?

@PhoenixoftheTides:

Chamber would be in the same position as Karma or Mirage - he has powers related to telepathy, so it can be inferred that with the right kind of training, he could learn to unlock full telepathic abilities and potentially access TK.