Aurora

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Powers & Abilities

Aurora’s original power is that she can fly at supersonic speeds (reportedly up to Mach 10 in Earth’s atmosphere) through a simple effort of will. It is theorised that in a vacuum she could approach C . She reportedly has more endurance in flight that her brother does, presumably because she started training earlier.

Her body can withstand the enormous stress of hypersonic flight. Yet she doesn’t appear to otherwise be particularly durable – a strong guy can knock her out with a good punch.

Aurora can carry people in flight even at speeds where that isn’t realistically possible. Thus, some sort of “friction aura” is presumably involved in her durability. However, if she carries someone at supersonic speeds that person will have to be superhumanly durable or wear a sort of vacuum suit.

As part of these adaptations she has a great tolerance for both cold and heat.

Superspeed stunts

Aurora can fly close to the ground like her brother does. This is very similar to running at super-speed like the Flash does. But she prefers to be in the air.

She can also punch at super-speed. Meaning either a fly-by superhumanly powerful punch, or a barrage of normal blows hitting within a single second.

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In combat she moves too fast to be hit by most attacks, especially ranged attacks.

Aurora’s reflexes allow her to react to obstacles in her path and navigate with the same precision as if she were running at an ordinary speed. This works even when she’s going at supersonic speeds. However, her reflexes at rest are those of an ordinary athlete, and she doesn’t seem to perceive attacks and opponents as going in slow motion.

Air control

Aurora flies so fast that she can displace large masses of air in her wake. She can angle her flight to have them follow a specific trajectory.

This is normally done in conjunction with Northstar. Examples include forming a destructive tornado around Tundra (by circling around him in opposite directions) or parting a river by grazing it at high speed and letting air pressure do the rest.

At this stage Aurora doesn’t do air control stunts when working alone.

Other abilities of note

Whenever she and her brother join hands, a tremendous flash of white light occurs. This can blind and dazzle even very large and robust creatures.

Aurora is in good shape and works out regularly, with an emphasis on agility and endurance. She has displayed a solid deductive intelligence and a good ability to improvise, charm and deceive – at least when she is emotionally stable.

However by this point her pain tolerance isn’t the best. Her fight with Wild Child just prior to the death of James Hudson is the first time she receives a serious wound, and the pain leaves her dazed and incoherent. Likewise some cracked ribs left her stunned and struggling to breathe whereas most super-heroes would just soldier on.

Aurora’s black-and-white costume can endure her flight (presumably, it’s made of unstable molecules). For some reason the white parts are slightly luminescent in the dark.

New star power

Later on, her powers were modified. She also started wearing her yellow costume, which didn’t seem to have luminescent parts. These modifications generally made her less powerful.

She is listed in secondary sources  as flying at speeds up to Mach 1. Yet in the material the reduction of her speed doesn’t seem to be of an order of magnitude. Mach 2 seems closer to her performance in comics.

On the other hand she could emit a flash on her own without her brother, albeit it was less powerful than their joint light flash was. She often used that power to make herself glow whilst flying.

She also no longer was homo superior, having apparently been turned from a mutant to a mutate . This also meant that she no longer registered on mutant detectors.

The Strange Case of Ms. Aurora and Miss Beaubier

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier suffers from a decidedly fictional version of Dissociative Identity Disorder . It is occasionally and incorrectly referred to as schizophrenia in the comics.

This stems from repeated psychological trauma. It resulted in the creation of two different persons — the hedonistic Aurora and the repressed Jeanne-Marie — in one body.

Aurora and Jeanne-Marie are aware of each other’s existence. In fact, they hate each other. However, they cannot remember what happened while the other personality was in control. Things just fade to black during the personality switch. Then they abruptly resume by the next switch.

The Jeanne-Marie personality can function in a closed and regimented environment (such as the Dupont School), but is psychologically and physically fragile. She’s generally useless in a crisis. If the Jeanne-Marie personality emerges in the field during a tense and/or weird situation, she’ll likely freak out and curl into a ball.

Both Aurora and Jeanne-Marie are subject to specific hallucinations. If the other personality starts gaining ground and a switch might occur, they may perceive their reflection in a mirror as the other one. This is often accompanied by a perception that the other personality is talking to them. This normally induces severe stress.

History

Jeanne-Marie Beaubier and her twin brother Jean-Paul were presumably born circa 1944. Their parents were killed in mysterious circumstances a few months later. Jean-Paul was adopted by his mother’s cousins, the Martins, and became Jean-Paul Martin.

Since the Martins couldn’t afford to raise two children, Jeanne-Marie was handed over to a Catholic school for girls in Québec. Jeanne-Marie was never told that she had a brother. A few years later the Martins died, leaving Jean-Paul to move to another foster home.

(The dates in this article are from our suggested Alpha Flight timeline — see the main Alpha Flight article — which doesn’t employ a sliding scale for clarity’s sake. Officially, Jeanne-Marie was perpetually born about 30-ish years ago and her biography is thus in a perpetual state of retconning . This is especially problematic given her twin brother’s well-defined ties with historical events and cultural shifts in Québec).

And if I die today I’ll be the happy phantom

The staunchly reactionary Dupont boarding school was an awful experience for little Jeanne-Marie. She was introverted and terribly shy.

Unable to deal with the discipline, mistreatments and pressure, she attempted to commit suicide at age 13 by jumping off a high roof. But instead, she soared in the night sky and flew over Laval.

Unable to contain her excitement over this exhilarating experience, Beaubier told one of the sisters. She further worsened the situation by naïvely assuming that it was a miracle – an actual act of God. Furious over the blasphemy and what they assumed to be delusions, the staff severely disciplined her over several weeks so she would repent.

The additional mistreatments and resulting despair allowed for the full emergence of a split personality. It had been born during the night when Jeanne-Marie flew. This personality — which could use the power of flight that Jeanne-Marie was repressing — would occasionally take over and hit the town, to have fun in clubs and the like.

This got Jeanne-Marie, who couldn’t remember what was happening, into unending trouble. The second personality eventually called herself Aurora.

Conditioned by her peculiar milieu, she came to assume that she was possessed by demons and to meekly receive her punishments. Jeanne-Marie believed that it would beat the evil out of her and make her a good person.

And the atrocities of school I can forgive

After she graduated, she became an history (and possibly geography and French) teacher at the École Dupont. By that point, she had become unable to function as Jeanne-Marie outside of the thick stone walls of the school.

From the apparent age of her pupils she was presumably teaching école secondaire premier cycle classes – and presumably deuxième cycle as well.

However, Aurora was still regularly manifesting. Circa 1976, during one clubbing night in Montréal, two thugs assaulted her. She floored the first one with a super-speed blow, but didn’t know what to do next due to her lack of combat experience. Wolverine (James Howlett), who was passing by, sent the second thug packing.

Intrigued by how she had knocked out her first would-be aggressor, Wolverine offered her a drink to learn more.

The hairy and diminutive mutant was at that point still working for Department H and James Hudson. They had been toiling for years to assemble a team of superhuman operatives for Ottawa. Being a super-heroine sounded like fun, and Aurora agreed to join Department H.

Into H

While Aurora was training with Department H to become a super-heroine, Jeanne-Marie apparently didn’t manifest.

(Early appearances depict Aurora as having a secret identity as Jeanne-Marie Beaubier. This is best handled as one of the discrepancies between pre-Alpha Flight appearances and the 1983 Alpha Flight launch. These appeared as the characters were partially reworked to support their own series.)

Some months later Heather Hudson, the wife of Department H’s director, noticed the striking resemblance between Aurora and glamorous skiing champion Jean-Paul Martin. Government investigation unearthed the fact that they were twins, and Aurora met her long-lost brother for the first time.

Mr. Martin renamed himself Jean-Paul Beaubier. He eventually agreed to join Department H as Northstar, mostly so he could be with his twin sister.

During her time with Alpha Aurora dated Walter Langkowski aka Sasquatch, which her brother strongly disapproved of. But it evolved into something more akin to being sex buddies than a full-on romantic relationship.

Will we pay for whom we’ve been

Alpha Flight was apparently active from late 1978 to 1980. It was then abruptly closed by the government – even though Department H was finally beginning to live up to expectations.

As Aurora was no longer supported as a super-heroine, Jeanne-Marie apparently resumed control. She returned to the École Dupont and her teaching. One assumes the Department H arranged for this with the school. Jeanne-Marie had no memories of her time spent as Aurora with Department H and Alpha Flight.

In 1983, Aurora started manifesting again. Her brother unwittingly “awakened” her when confronting Jeanne-Marie about her issues. Shortly afterwards, they were called to action by Heather Hudson.

Aurora eagerly joined the mission to stop the gigantic Tundra, dragging Jean-Paul after her. The twins were thus a part of the unofficial reactivation of Alpha Flight.

Flickers in, flickers out

Jeanne-Marie returned after the mission. But during a stroll in Montréal with her brother, Aurora suddenly resurfaced when a thief tried to steal her purse. She easily caught up with him and punched him out.

This incident led to a clash with Deadly Ernest (Ernest St Yves), who murdered the most important person in Jean-Paul’s life. As St Yves mistook her for his accomplice, Aurora played along and hid her powers until Jean-Paul could join her. Deadly Ernest was killed by Nemesis (Ms. St Yves) and Aurora had his actual accomplice arrested.

However, an unfortunate remark by Jean-Paul about her love life made Aurora furious. She refused to associate with him any longer.

Power switch

After Guardian’s death, Aurora experienced a particularly vivid hallucination where Jeanne-Marie burst out of a mirror. Attempting to lock Jeanne-Marie away she cut her hair shorter so Jeanne-Marie could no longer hide them in a bun. Aurora also adopted a new, flashier costume.

Wanting to also distance herself from her brother, she convinced Langkowski to conduct a molecular realignment experiment on her so her powers. This way they would no longer be identical to Northstar’s.

The experiment was a success. Though it left her slower than before, she was now a mutate  rather than a mutant. She could also emit light on her own without touching her brother’s hand. The latter was useful to ward her fear of darkness, and thus deny Jeanne-Marie an awakening trigger.

I’m still the angel to a girl who hates to sin

However, when Sasquatch and Aurora stumbled upon the hidden alchemy lab of Gilded Lily, Aurora couldn’t use her powers. Being plunged in darkness made Jeanne-Marie emerge, but Aurora blocked her. She remained in an halfway personality without access to Aurora’s powers or training.

Sasquatch accidentally killed the alchemist. He then took Aurora/Jeanne-Marie, still in a halfway state, home.

Aurora soon returned to her Aurora state. To her shock Snowbird then killed Sasquatch, who was now fully possessed by the Great Beast Tanaraq. Most of Alpha Flight, including Aurora, launched an invasion of the Kingdom of the Beasts where they recovered Langkowski’s soul. Shaman projected Langkowski’s soul into the vacant Box robot, successfully restoring his consciousness.

However, Aurora started drifting away from Walter. A relationship without sex was far less interesting for her.

Trying to fix this, Walter Langkowski and Roger Bochs worked to procure a vacant but powerful human body in another dimension. This way Langkowski would once again have an organic body. It didn’t quite work out as planned.

Description

Aurora’s ears are a bit pointed. But apparently it’s not as pronounced as to constantly attract attention or look inhuman.

Jeanne-Marie strives to be as mousy and plain as she can. She wears very dated clothing, a bun, a frown, no makeup and old-fashioned corrective glasses that she doesn’t actually need. In contrast, when out of costume, the very attractive Aurora goes for effect with tight and revealing clothing, a light blouse left largely open, unfurled hair and little or no underwear.

If Aurora reverts to being Jeanne-Marie while in costume, Jeanne-Marie will do what she can to cover herself and hide her body as she finds herself in a skintight costume.

Un crisse d’accent

In some flashbacks Aurora has an obvious French-Canadian accent when speaking English. Department H apparently helped her greatly improve her high-school-level English.

As Aurora she’s now fully fluent and without a strong accent. But Jeanne-Marie’s English is still awkward and strongly accented as she never got the additional lessons Aurora did. Changes in her accent are a good barometer of whether Jeanne-Marie or Aurora is ascendant.

Personality

As Aurora

Aurora is chiefly in for fun, thrills and pleasure. Yet she is both an hedonist and a serious super-heroine who wants to serve, save lives, arrest criminals and the like. She also likes the part where she’s admired for her exploits.

She found a good balance as an Alpha Flight member, making her Aurora for extended periods without reverting to being Jeanne-Marie. But that degraded after Alpha lost its governmental backing and became a tangled mess.

She likes action and movement, and that’s what heroing provides her with.

Aurora talks in an articulate and literary way – her education is the same as Jeanne-Marie’s. However she uses her dated way to talk in more theatrical manner than Jeanne-Marie does.

Aurora has a strong sex drive – her own, plus everything that is repressed by Jeanne-Marie. She wants to feel attractive and desired, and will flirt provocatively – if only for attention. When in a relationship, she is always up for a quickie. Her twin’s puritanical attempts to control her sexuality greatly annoy her. This led to some major conflicts.

She is also a fan of good beaches and swimming. Aurora strongly associates with the sun, light and the open air whereas Jeanne-Marie has the opposite associations.

Liberty is another imperative for Aurora. She refuses to be bound by anything but her appetites and her moral code as an heroine. In many ways the power of flight is perfect for her, providing her with exceptional freedom, speed and strong sensations.

As Jeanne-Marie

Jeanne-Marie is extremely repressed. She really likes her job and boarding school – since she’s painfully aware that she cannot function anywhere else. She comes across as pleasant and very polite, behaving in a formal and dated manner. But she blows apart when she’s subjected to significant stress.

Jeanne-Marie is afraid of Aurora. Though she no longer really consider her other self to be demonic, she sees her at best as a rampaging harlot and horrible fallen woman who shoves her into trouble and makes her a bad person.

Whereas Aurora is nyctophobic and claustrophobic, Jeanne-Marie feels relieved when confined and in darkness. While the sisters would lock her up in closet as punishment, that actually provided her with what little peace and isolation that she could hope in school.

Jeanne-Marie refuses to be called Aurora. She instinctively shies away from being touched by a man other than her brother. She also refuses to see men in some state of undress (such as wearing swimming trunks).

Quotes

As Aurora

“I have no wings, but I must *fly*. Am I to be free and enjoy my power to the fullest, or must I be poor, plain Jeanne-Marie ?”

“I have captured a felon, and I wish to see him incarcerated.”

“It has always been my habit to leave holy causes to those better suited to deal with them. However, the police may think otherwise. I suggest you depart before I summon them.”

(While carrying Langkowski) “Latch on securely now, mon chéri. I am about to, as they say, pour it on.” (ZOOOM !)

(Feigning coyness) “Oh, messieurs ! You think Aurora is… ‘that kind of girl’ ?” (grabs a random guy and kisses him) “D’accord ! You are right.”

As Jeanne-Marie

(About Aurora, in French) “I hate her ! She is a devil, a foul imp who uses me. She is *perverse* !”

(In French) “This is quite lovely, Jean-Paul. I am surprised you would even be aware of such a place.”

(In English, as she averts her eyes from Walter Langkowski who is wearing swimming trunks) “Zat is not for me to say, m’sieur. I am not in ze ’abit of associating wiz naikaid men !”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Helper(s): Chris Cottingham, Roy Cowan, Capita_Senyera.

Source of Character: This entry entry only covers the “Classic” era of Alpha Flight – that is, Byrne’s run. It includes material from latter flashbacks, though there’s nothing major.

Writeup completed on the 21^st of September, 2013.