Issue 23 – Stepford Cuckoos

In conjunction with The Gifted Season 2 premiere, Anthony & Doc examine the Stepford Cuckoos! What problems could telepathic identical triplets possibly have? Plus, we’re pretty sure this is the first ever time WWE, Santeria, and Sweet Valley High are mentioned in the same hour! Listen now!

SHOW NOTES:

• Introduction
• The Walking Dead listener poll & Anthony’s Extra Life fundraiser
• Background (04:47)
  • Stepford Cuckoos were created by Grant Morrison in New X-Men #118 (Nov. 2001)
  • Introduced as identical quintuplets and proteges of Emma Frost – Sophie, Phoebe, Mindee (Irma), Celeste, and Esme
  • Called the Stepford Cuckoos by classmates, they preferred to be called the Five-in-One
  • Esme had a crush on Kato Anishiwa, a student at the Xavier Institute – he turned out to be Stuff, an advance scout for the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, who attacked the school
  • All five girls combined their psychic powers to help defeat Kid Omega, who was leading a rebellion of students at the school – Sophie was under the influence of a drug called Kick which amped her powers, and died as a result – it was later revealed that she did it because Esme, also on Kick, wanted her to
  • The four remaining Cuckoos blamed Emma Frost, and told Jean that Emma was having a psychic affair with Scott – Esme tried to murder Emma, and then fled the school
  • Esme returned alongside Xorn (Magneto in disguise), but she turned on Xorn, and he killed her
  • On M-Day the Cuckoos retained their powers, and were forced into a fight by Emma to join the new X-Men
  • “Warsong” – we discover the Cuckoos origin – they were genetic clones born of Emma Frosts’s stolen eggs by Dr. John Sublime as part of Weapon Plus – they were designated Weapon XIV and there were thousands of the girls incubated and artificially aged – 5 were placed in the Xavier school to infiltrate – during the event, the Phoenix Force activated the Weapon Plus nanotech inside their bodies, which temporarily resurrected Sohpie and Esme – it activated the Thousand-in-One hivemind – Celeste took control of the Phoenix Force and trapped it inside their diamond hearts
  • “Utopia” – The girls lost their Phoenix abilities, and became depressed
    • Afterwards, Mindee and Celeste stayed on Utopia, while Phoebe went back to the school – Celeste had a crush on Quentin Quire
  • “Mutant Revolution” – The girls became more independent – Irma dyed her hair black, and Phoebe dyed hers red
  • Girls rejoin the school, and Celeste is the first to discover Emma after she was killed
• Issues (15:00)
  • Each sister has difficulty finding their own voice and individual personality among the gestalt
  • Difficulty coping with deaths of Sophie & Esme, and how they died (20:57)
  • Personality quirks (28:52)
    • Sophie – dominant
    • Phoebe – aggressive
    • Irma – laid-back
    • Celeste – timid but haughty
    • Esme – conniving
• Treatment
  • In-universe (35:41)
  • Out-of-universe (39:28)
• Skit
• Ending

References:

• Amoeba Boys – Powerpuff Girls villains – Anthony, 06:37
• Scott Summers episode – 08:10
• WWE Survivor Series – Anthony, 09:34
• WWE King of the Ring – Anthony, 09:35
• “Santeria” by Sublime (NSFW lyrics) – Anthony, 10:26
• “Let it Go” from Frozen – Anthony/Dr. Issues, 10:38
• Old Spice diamonds commercial – Anthony/Dr. Issues, 11:44
• Sweet Valley High – Dr. Issues, 12:52
• Baby-Sitters Club – Anthony, 13:18
• Transformers gestalt – Anthony, 15:26
• Devastator – Anthony, 15:27
• Survivor’s guilt – Anthony, 21:28
• Four humours – Dr. Issues, 29:10
• Starscream (TV Tropes entry) – Anthony, 31:15

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