Publisher Marvel Comics Species Mutant Fictional universe Marvel Universe | Played by Morena Baccarin Movie Deadpool | |
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Created by Fabian Nicieza (writer)
Rob Liefeld (artist) Alter ego Vanessa Geraldine Carlysle Team affiliations Weapon X
Six Pack
X-Force
New Mutants Notable aliases Titania, Garrison Kane, Domino, Nurse Veronica, Patricia Muggins, Christina Valentino, Cheryl Marks, Debbie, Marguerite, Amy and numerous others Abilities Shapeshifting
Power mimicry First appearance As Domino:, The New Mutants #98 (February 1991), As Copycat:, X-Force #19 (February 1993) Creators Rob Liefeld, Fabian Nicieza Similar Deadpool, Angel Dust, Negasonic Teenage, Ajax, Weasel | ||
Copycat (Vanessa Geraldine Carlysle) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is a former member of X-Force.
Contents
- Publication history
- Fictional character biography
- Powers and abilities
- Age of Apocalypse
- Age of X
- Television
- Film
- References
Actress Morena Baccarin portrays Vanessa Carlysle in the 2016 feature film Deadpool.
Publication history
Copycat first appeared in X-Force #19 where the character was retconned to the first appearance of Domino in The New Mutants #98 and was created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld.
Fictional character biography
As a young mutant shape-shifter, Vanessa Carlysle fell into a life of prostitution in Boston where she met and fell in love with a mercenary named Wade Wilson. Carlysle was soon saved from Wilson's vengeful employers by Zoe Culloden, a time-traveling agent of Landau, Luckman & Lake who had journeyed into the past to prevent Wilson's eventual self-destruction. That night, Wilson broke up with Carlysle after learning he had cancer, leaving her heartbroken. Carlysle became a mercenary herself, eventually employed by arms dealer Tolliver.
Under his orders, Copycat infiltrated X-Force in the shape of Domino, while she was a prisoner. Her mission was to blow up X-Force's headquarters in order to kill Cable, but she became attached to the team members and failed her mission. Tolliver sent Deadpool to force her to set the bomb. Deadpool would put in her place, if she refused. Deadpool revealed Copycat's cover to X-Force, and left them for dead by blowing up the complex (without knowing that X-Force had already escaped).
Vanessa briefly hid herself under the false identity (as a twin) of one of her friends; Tina Valentino. Deadpool and his associate, Sluggo, believing they killed her, killed Tina instead. She then moved in with Garrison Kane in San Francisco, until Cable found them. She was subsequently captured by the emotion-manipulating Psycho-Man, who sought Kane's advanced technology, but was rescued from the Microverse by Kane, Cable, Domino and the Microverse's resident heroes, the Microns. Later, she broke up with Kane and came back to live with Deadpool. Deadpool's feelings towards Siryn grew, so she left him after having taken his appearance to attack her, in hopes of souring their potential relationship.
Some time later, Copycat was captured by Weapon X. The treatments of Weapon X destroyed her memory and she forgot her mission. Recruited by Sabretooth, Deadpool received an order to kill her. He tried to warn her, so Weapon X sent Kane to kill the both of them. The fight took them to a local zoo where Deadpool left her in a shapechanged gorilla form among other gorillas to fight against Kane. When he returned the other gorillas were dead and Copycat was dying from wounds inflicted by Sabretooth. She died shortly after in Deadpool's arms.
However, Deadpool had poured an amount of his blood in Copycat's wounds, which unknown to him healed her. Vanessa then took up the identity of an owner of a chimichanga stand, and later cheated Deadpool out of one of his past marriages.
Powers and abilities
Copycat is such a powerful and precise metamorph that she can duplicate another being down to the cellular level. Because of this she is able to replicate superhuman powers, abilities, and even mental imprints so closely that telepaths have trouble identifying her. Copycat simply requires knowledge to duplicate someone's appearance, but needs physical contact to duplicate anything else. She is also capable of turning into animals, finding these forms easier to maintain than human shape. Weapon X modified her powers by accelerating the rate at which she could duplicate others. However, as a side effect of this enhancement, Copycat began to lose her memory and was unable to hold any solid form for long periods of time.
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse reality, Copycat was a member of the Brotherhood of Chaos, an elite religious group affiliated to the Church of the Madri. She served alongside other members such as Madison Jeffries and Spyne. She was often referred to as Sister Vanessa or Sister Carlysle. Using her shape-shifting powers, Copycat was able to hide incognito amongst the humans who had hoped to flee North America and was able to discover the site of the Sentinel Evacuation while in their midst. Vanessa led the Brotherhood to emigration site in Maine and there they clashed with the Amazing X-Men. In an attempt to elude the X-Man Quicksilver, Copycat posed as Scarlet Witch, but was forced to revert to her normal self by Dazzler. Both Copycat and Box were able to escape the X-Men and conceal themselves, posing as humans, and escaped to Europe. They were discovered at a checkpoint and provided a distraction for a group of Altered Humans to pass through, but were subsequently hunted down by Weapon X and Jean Grey, with the latter slaying Vanessa in the process.
Age of X
In the Age of X reality, Copycat infiltrated Cannonball's X-Force when she worked for the Human Coalition. She was unmasked and killed by Husk.