MORTIS
Real Name: Lois London
Identity/Class: Human mutant
Occupation: unknown; former student
Group Membership: None;
formerly Selene's Inner Circle (Blink/Clarice Ferguson, Eliphas/Eli Bard, Suvik Senyaka, Wither/Kevin Ford)
Affiliations: Arcade, Ken Barnett, Klaw;
formerly Angel (Warren Worthington), Selene and her Undead Army (Caliban, Destiny/Irene Adler, Leon Matheson, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Thunderbird/John Proudstar, among others)
Enemies: Nick Brown, Cyclops (Scott Summers), Dazzler (Alison Blaire), Diamond Lil (Lillian Crawley), Dust (Sooraya Qadir), Flame, Emma Frost, Mercury (Cessily Kincaid), Rogue, the Mutant Hunters (Marc, Rick), Slimey, X-Force (Archangel/Warren Worthington III, Domino/Neena Thurman, Elixir/Josh Foley, Warpath/James Proudstar, Vanisher/"Telford Porter", Wolfsbane/Rhane Sinclair, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett, X-23/Laura Kinney)
Known Relatives: Nick Brown (father), Barbara London (Katherine Blaire-Brown, mother), Alison Blaire (Dazzler, half-sister), Longshot (brother-in-law)
Aliases: Rose Blossom, Lois Brown
Base of Operations: Utopia;
formerly Hammer Bay, Necrosha (the renamed island nation of Genosha);
formerly Selene's villa in New Orleans;
formerly Palazzo Apartments, Los Angeles, California;
formerly State University
Education: College (finished)
First Appearance: (Photo) Dazzler I#20 (October, 1982);
(full appearance) Dazzler I#21 (November, 1982)
Powers/Abilities: Via a disruptive energy field emenated from her body Lois can generate heat and light from her hands. Her touch has been shown to melt flesh and induce some type of molecular transformation. Her touch was deadly and could instantly induce a heart attack.
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
History:
(Dazzler I#21 (fb)) - Lois is the daughter of Nick and Katherine Brown. Her father
was an abusive alcoholic and her mother took cocaine to cope with her life.
Eventually Katherine left and took the young Lois with her. Katherine changed
her last name to London and started her life anew as a singer instructor.
(Dazzler I#22) - Lois showed up at the apartment of her older half-sister, Alison Blaire, the mutant singer known as the Dazzler.
(Dazzler I#23 (fb) - BTS) - Lois and Alison stayed up most of the night talking and getting to know each other.
(Dazzler I#23) - Lois and Alison awakened to smoke caused as
their apartment burned at the hands of the arsonist Flame. Lois watched as
Alison used her powers to attract the police. Afterwards, Lois asked her if she
was a mutant, and she told Alison that she thought she was wonderful.
(Dazzler I#24) - Lois had a fainting spell and wondered if she might be a mutant like her sister. As Alison helped her up, Rogue kicked in Lois' dorm room door, as she was seeking Dazzler to help her locate the Angel. Rogue swatted Lois unconscious, and Alison then led Rogue away from her sister across the campus. Lois followed her sister to the campus library, arriving just in time to see Dazzler and her bodyguards, Power Man and Iron Fist, defeat Rogue.
(Dazzler I#26) - Walking through the Theatre District, Lois was
assaulted by ol' Slimey, a homeless man. Panicking, Lois fought back, and her
hand glowed with heat and light. She pushed her hand into Slimey's face and he
screamed, staggered back, and then fell over and died. Lois told Alison what had
happened, and Alison called her boyfriend, lawyer Ken Barnett, for advice.
Fearing that Lois would not receive a fair trial because she was a mutant,
Alison instead decided to take Lois and flee town until things blew over. They
traveled to Pittsburgh where they rented a room at the Antlers Hotel under the
names Sandy and Rose Blossom. While Alison was out shopping for supplies, Lois
found a stray cat. While playing, the cat scratched her, and Lois' power kicked
in killing the cat.
They left the apartment and headed West on a bus. By morning,
Marc and Richard, a pair of Mutant-Hunters had tracked them to the Antlers
Hotel.
(Dazzler I#27) - Lois and Alison arrived in Los Angeles and checked into a nearby motel. Lois demonstrated conscious control of her power, melting an ashtray in her hands. They then received a package by their door showing pictures of Lois fighting back against Slimey, and instructing them to call a phone number for further information. Ali called the phone number, and the man on the other end instructed her to follow directions to a man's house and kill him in his sleep. Alison left a message for the Angel requesting help and then followed their blackmailer's instructions. Upon arriving at the mansion, Alison called out for the Angel, alerting their blackmailer that they were trying to defy his orders. Ali managed to stop their blackmailer, who turned out to be an employee of the sleeping and drugged man: Nick Brown.
(Dazzler I#28) - The blackmailer revealed that he had been sent
to track Lois down by Nick, and that Nick had been blackmailing him for past
crimes. After seeing Lois' powers, the blackmailer had thought to trick Alison
and/or Lois into killing Brown, freeing him from Brown's blackmail threat. Lois
and Alison were joined by Nick Brown and Ken Barnett at the Los Angeles Police
Department, where Barnett told Lois that Slimey's cause of death had been
revealed as cardiac arrest.
As they returned to Brown's estate, they were attacked by
Rogue, who had tracked Dazzler to LA and sought revenge for her defeat. Dazzler
managed to again defeat Rogue.
(Dazzler I#29) - Lois and Alison laid out by Nick Brown's pool, where Lois discussed her fears of being a mutant and her reluctance to accept Nick Brown's hospitality due to his past misdeeds.
(Dazzler I#30) - Though Alison was appalled when Nick offered her money and drug, Lois decided to stay with him, as she wanted to use his wealth and connections to hide and protect herself. Lois and Alison parted on good terms.
(X Necrosha: The Gathering#1/4/Dazzler II#1 (fb) - BTS) - Nick eventually found out about the powers of his daughters and wasn't pleased that Lois' power made her a deadly monstrosity. Dazzler never returned to help her sister to learn to deal with her powers and Lois started to feel abandoned by her.
(X Necrosha: The Gathering#1/4) - Lois was having lunch with her father at the Ivy restaurant in Beverly Hills. Still tortured by her past murder she hallucinated that the waiter was her vagrant victim from the past. When she came to her senses again Lois had to listen to her father offering her money or anything else she needed. He was still thankful that he stayed with her after what he had done to her mother and her. Feeling uncomfortable to listen to him any longer Lois told him that she was not very hungry and left.
Back at her apartment Lois saw her sister Dazzler on TV when Cyclops talked to the press about the X-Men moving there. Just looking at Dazzler made Lois angry again because for her father Dazzler was always "like an angel" and for Lois Dazzler was just the sister, who had broken her promises and abandoned her.
(X Necrosha: The Gathering#1/4 - BTS) - Selene, posing as Nick Brown's secretary Claudia, called Lois when her father hung around heavily drunk at the office. Lois traveled to the offices of Sorenson and Brown in Century City, L.A. as fast as possible.
(X Necrosha: The Gathering#1/4) - When Lois arrived at her father's office he verbally attacked her, calling her a monster, who he always had to cover for because of a murder. After slapping Lois he blamed her for ruining their family. Lois had enough and touched his chest with her death touch. He died moments later. Feeling guilty Lois tried to kill herself, but her own power didn't work on herself. Claudia entered the office and Lois told her what had happened. Claudia transformed into her true form and convinced Lois that she only did what she was born for. Lois stopped being scared and accepted her role in life as a killer because it felt good.
(X Necrosha: The Gathering#1/4 - BTS) - Lois and Selene went for a meal and Lois killed all the patrons in their vicinity.
(X Necrosha: The Gathering#1/4) - Selene called her Mortis and asked Lois what she existed for. Mortis replied that she existed to kill.
(X Necrosha#1/3 (fb) ) - In her New Orleans residence Selene ordered Mortis and Senyaka to bring Destiny to her.
(X-Force III#19/X Necrosha#1/3 (fb) ) - Mortis and Senyaka brought Destiny before Selene, who wanted to know the future from Destiny.
(X Necrosha#1/3 (fb) ) - Mortis watched as Selene learned from Destiny that Selene what achieve her goal to ascend to godhood.
(X Necrosha#1) - Mortis along with the rest of Selene's Inner Circle followed her to Central Europe and Rome and listened to Selene's life story. (fast travel due to Blink)
Arriving at the Hellfire Club in New York City Mortis killed some of their soldiers to appease Selene.
Led by Caliban Selene and her Inner Circle's voyage ended in Hammer Bay, Genosha where Selene promised this was the place where she would become a god.
(X-Force III#21) - Mortis was with Selene and the Inner Circle and witnessed Eliphas resurrect the people of Genosha with the techno-organic virus.
(X-Force III#22) - Mortis and Wither explained to Selene that most mutants had lost their powers during M-Day when Selene realized that many of the resurrected had no mutant powers anymore, but Caliban still felt at least a million mutants (of the 16 million people), which Selene considered enough to build an empire. Mortis later accompanied Selene through the ruins of Necrosha while resurrected mutants and human slaves started to build. She was present when Blink told Selene that Eliphas had lost Selene's blade, which she needed for the ritual to ascend to godhood, during a fight with the Demon Bear and that it was now in the X-Men's possession. Blink teleported Mortis and the rest of the Inner Circle to Utopia to retrieve the blade.
(X-Force III#23) - In search for the blade the Inner Circle attacked several X-Men, X-Force and their associates living on Utopia. Mortis slew Diamond Lil with a mere touch, but was surprised moments later when the same didn't kill Wolverine. During the battle Dazzler also encountered her mad sister Mortis, who told her how much she hated her. When Warpath retrieved the blade from his quarter the Inner Circle surrounded him and took him along with the blade to Genosha.
(X-Force III#24) - Mortis returned to Selene with Warpath and watched Eliphas deliver the blade to Selene only to be slain by her with the blade because he had been a disappointment (he tried to lie to her about losing the blade and was the one that screwed her over in Rome in the past.....he had it coming). She watched the resurrected Thunderbird knock out his brother Warpath and later kneeled before Selene when she learned from Caliban about the arrival of X-Force and from Negasonic Teenage Warhead about Destiny's escape. Selene sent Mortis and the rest of the Inner Circle out to perform the ceremy of ascension for Selene because the time had come for Selene to reap the souls of all the resurrected mutants.
(X-Men Legacy I#231) - Mortis brought young mutant Leon Matheson before Selene after he had unsuccessfully tried to hang himself (the techno-organic virus made Selene's Undead Army virtually immortal) after releasing Destiny from her prison cell (she talked to Matheson about his life before his previous death and it got him thinking and made him miserable because his girlfriend had not been brought back along with him). Mortis wanted to know if they should go after the escaped Destiny, but Selene had no interest in her anymore because she had learned everything from Destiny she needed to know and told Mortis to let her get away.
(X-Force III#24) - Mortis wrote one of the sigils with her blood on the ground of a Genoshan building. With the final sigil written by Thunderbird with Warpath's blood Selene absorbed the souls of the resurrected mutants.
(X-Force III#25) - Selene attained godhood instilling fear in Mortis, who was sure they would die, but Wither assured her they would be rewarded by Selene. X-Force attacked them and Wolfsbane ripped open Mortis' throat during the fight. Blink teleported with the injured Mortis away when X-Force switched their attention to Selene, who was defeated by them in the end.
(Dazzler II#1 (fb) - BTS) - Mortis bought a new costume and hired Arcade to kill Dazzler. As insurance she also hired Klaw to kill Dazzler in case Arcade failed.
(Dazzler II#1) - Arcade and Mortis watched Dazzler easily go through Murderworld's robots, which angered and annoyed Mortis at the same time. She ordered Arcade to play a song Dazzler had written about her mother during the fight, which gave away that her half-sister Mortis was behind this. After Dazzler had destroyed all robots Mortis melted through the viewing box's wall to reveal that she had hired Arcade. Dazzler already knew and watched the sisters get into a verbal fight. Mortis blamed Dazzler for leaving her alone with her abusive father, who started to hate Mortis when he found out about the sisters' mutant power and specifically Mortis' and this was the reason why she joined up with Selene because she offered her a life (until Selene died and Mortis was alone again) Mortis' ally Klaw then attacked Dazzler, which didn't please Arcade, who cleared out Murderworld and called Mortis a cheater for hiring him and Klaw at the same time to kill Dazzler. Distracted by Arcade clearing out the area Klaw was defeated by Dazzler. With her still alive Mortis decided to kill her half-sister herself and couldn't kill her with her touch because according to Dazzler she would always counter her sister's powers and unlike Mortis would not hold back. Surrounding Mortis with sound constructs Dazzler listened to her ranting about killing all mutants because she considered them, including herself, abominations. Dazzler then knocked her out with a knockout punch.
Shortly after an ambulance arrived and Dazzler told them to keep Mortis sedated.
(Dazzler II#1/2 (fb) - BTS) - Dazzler had Mortis transferred to Utopia.
(Dazzler II#1/2) - Beside Lois' hospital bed on Utopia Cyclops and Dazzler discussed what to do next with Lois. Cyclops didn't like it that Dazzler had brought his mutant-murdering sister to Utopia instead of handing her over to the authorities, but Dazzler kept defending her because she was family. Psylocke aided Dazzler's sister with her psychic powrs, but because Lois' psyche was shattered Psylocke put her into a psychically induced coma and promised to work with her on the astral plane to heal the damage done to Lois' psyche by Selene and Lois' parents. Dazzler stayed with Lois and called their mother to tell her about everything that had happened with Lois in recent weeks. Dazzler's mother blamed herself, but Dazzler revealed that she had also made mistakes because she had not stayed with Lois to help her deal with her deadly powers. After the phone call Dazzler promised to the comatose Lois that she wouldn't lose her again.
(Heroic Age: X-Men#1) - Steve Rogers, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., did research on several mutants including Mortis. Due to her murderous actions he would've preferred the X-Men to hand her over to the proper authorities after Dazzler had detained her.
Comments: Created by Danny Fingeroth, Frank Springer, and Vince Coletta.
Dazzler I#25 was an inventory story, and Lois wasn't in it. I didn't see her, anyway.
Thanks to Prime Eternal in pointing out the last appearance of Lois London, which I had missed.
Though it is likely because they were both of Selene's Inner Circle I'm not 100% sure it was Mortis and Senyaka that were seen in X-Force III#19 bringing Destiny to Selene.
Lois London got a full entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1980s Handbook.
Profile by Snood. X-Force/Necrosha/Dazzler II update by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
images:
Dazzler II#1, p19, pan1 (main image)
Dazzler I#26, p7, pan3 (using powers)
Dazzler I#22, last page, last panel (head shot)
Dazzler I#26, p10, pan5 (blue-eyed mutant thing)
X Necrosha: The Gathering#1/4, p6, pan1 (killing father)
X Necrosha#1, p3, right bottom corner (with Inner Circle)
Dazzler II#1, p29, pan6 (in coma)
Appearances:
Dazzler I#20-24 (October, 1982 - February, 1983) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Denny O'Neil (editor)
Dazzler I#26 (May, 1983) - Danny Fingeroth (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Dazzler I#27-28 (July-September, 1983) - Frank Springer (writer/pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Dazzler I#29 (November, 1983) - Frank Springer & Jim Shooter (writers), Frank Springer (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Dazzler I#30 (January, 1984) - Ken McDonald (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Force III#19 (November, 2009) - Craig Kyle & Chris Yost (writers), Mike Choi & Sonia Oback (art), John Barber & Jeanine Schaefer (editors)
X Necrosha#1 (December, 2009) - Craig Kyle & Chris Yost (writers, Story 1), Mike Carey (writer, Story 3), Clayton Crain (artist, Story 1), Laurence Campbell (artist, Story 3), Jeanine Schaefer & Nick Lowe (editors)
X Necrosha: The Gathering#1 (February, 2010) - Craig Kyle & Chris Yost (writers), Kalman Andrasofszky (pencils), Cam Smith (inks), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
X-Force III#21 (January, 2010) - Craig Kyle & Chris Yost (writers), Clayton Crain (artist), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
X-Men Legacy I#231 (February, 2010) - Mike Carey (writer), Clay Mann (pencils), Danny Miki, Allen Martinez & Walden Wong (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
X-Force III#22-25 (February-May, 2010) - Craig Kyle & Chris Yost (writers), Clayton Crain (artist), Jeanine Schaefer (editor)
Dazzler II#1 (July, 2010) - Jim McCann (writer), Kalman Andrasofszky & Ramon Perez (pencils, Story 1), Francesca Ciregia (artist, Story 2), Rick Ketcham & Ramon Perez (inks, Story 1), Michael Horwitz (editor)
Heroic Age: X-Men#1 (February, 2011) - Michael Hoskin (head writers), OHOTMU team (writers), Jeff Youngquist (editor)
First Posted: 05/30/2004
Last updated: 11/24/2015
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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