Affiliations: Angel (Warren Worthington III), professor Charles Xavier

Enemies: Tobias Messenger;
formerly X-Men (Angel/Warren Worthington III, Beast/Henry "Hank" McCoy, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Havok/Alex Summers, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Marvel Girl/Jean Grey, Polaris/Lorna Dane)

Known Relatives: Unnamed husband, Tommy (son, deceased), Mike (son), unnamed grandson

Aliases: "Luce" (nickname used by Gracie Smith)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
                                   formerly Promise Headquarters (located underneath Messenger Mansion on the outskirts of New York),
                                   formerly suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

First Appearance: X-Men: The Hidden Years I#17 (April 2001)

Powers/Abilities: Lucy Robinson was a mutant capable of mentally manipulating people through vocal stimulation. She could coerce others to do her bidding simply by suggesting a course of action. It's been hinted that Robinson can even suggest people's deaths. Her control wasn't total: once people were aware of her powers, they were able to resist. Thanks to the Promise's teaching circuitry, Robinson is well versed in history, world events, advanced technology and various other fields of knowledge. Missing out on decades of her family's life has turned her somewhat bitter and vengeful.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'6")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 130 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

History:

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#20 (fb) - BTS) - Lucy Robinson was a housewife, raising two young boys in suburban Philadelphia during the late 1950s and early 60s. Stuck in an unhappy marriage with no real education or goals, she was unaware she was a mutant and thoroughly displeased with her future and prospects.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#18 (fb) - BTS) - Lucy Robinson was located by The Promise sometime during the early 1960s (see comments).

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#20 (fb) - BTS) - Lucy learned she was a mutant when Messenger contacted her. Eager to make a difference, Robinson left her young family behind to join Messenger. Oblivious to what 'suspended animation' meant. She figured she'd only be gone for a week.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#18 (fb) - BTS) - Thanks to the teaching circuity in her stasis pod, Robinson gained increased knowledge of the outside world during her hibernation periods. Included in the stream of data was news that Lucy's oldest son Tommy had been killed in Vietnam in 1969.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#22 (fb) - BTS) - Tobias Messenger used his telepathy to help Lucy master her own mental abilities.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#20 (fb) - BTS) - When Lucy emerged from her first ten year sleep cycle, she was so distraught over the loss of her son she decided to leave The Promise and return home only to find her husband had her officially declared dead. With no one left to turn to, she felt she had no other choice but to rejoin The Promise.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#17 - BTS) - Coming out of their most recent hibernation cycle, Lucy and the others sought to expand their membership once more. Learning of the existence of Lorna Dane, they decided she would be an ideal new recruit. Tad Carter was sent out to make contact with her.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#17) - Lucy and the others were on hand to greet Lorna Dane when Carter returned with her to their secret base underneath Messenger mansion.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#18) - While Gracie Smith and Craig Farnsworth used their powers to take on the X-Men who had come looking for Lorna, Lucy and the remaining Promise members convinced Dane to join their cause. When Smith and Farnsworth brought in the defeated X-Men, the Promise debated adding some of them to their group. Havok was chosen, but Lucy suggested bringing the handsome Angel with them as well. Messenger felt Warren Worthington was too indoctrinated by Xavier's teachings to ever really get behind the Promise's goals. But he relented when the others took pity on Lucy and felt she'd earned a little diversion after losing a child. They then joined forces to mindwipe the X-Men, dumping them inside the subterranean caverns deep under their headquarters.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#18 - BTS) - Instantly smitten with Angel and fed up with the Promise's mission, Lucy covertly sabotaged his and her own stasis pod so it would wake them up shortly after the others had activated their deep sleep.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#19) - With Havok, Polaris and Angel already in stasis, The Promise followed their leader Tobias Messenger into entering their next ten year sleep cycle. Robinson couldn't help but balk at Messenger's claims that they were going to sleep through the coming war between human and mutants. In his mind, the Promise would reemerge to help rebuild the world. As planned: Lucy and Angel's hybernation cylinders woke them up after only a brief stay in stasis. Lucy explained to a very confused Angel that he was going to help her get her life back.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#20) - Lucy managed to talk Angel into taking her to the X-Men jet and flying her to Philadelphia so she could reunite with her family. Approaching her family home, she was stunned to find a small boy playing in the yard who looked just like her youngest child Mike. Recognizing Angel, the kid explained Mike was his father who was dumbstruck to see his mother standing there after 30 years. Mike took Angel and Lucy inside where she tried to explain what had happened. Mike quickly grew furious over her fantastical tale, feeling abandoned by a mother who he never got to mourn and now turns out to be 'a mutie' younger than him. Lucy tried to reason with her child, but when he ordered them to leave she couldn't bring herself to use her powers on him. Returning to the X-Jet, a tearful Lucy revealed her mental powers to Angel who realized that's why he had been so eager to help Lucy. In charge of his faculties again, he took her along on his new quest to revive Havok and Polaris.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#21) - Angel brought Lucy back to the Promise's headquarters to free Polaris and Havok. Unsure how to release them without killing everyone in the process, Angel was relieved to receive telepathic guidance from Charles Xavier. The professor read Lucy's mind and found the necessary information to open the pods ahead of time by speeding up the internal chronometer. This almost led to disaster when they first tried to revive Havok who wasn't wearing the costume that kept his  powers in check. By speeding up time inside the pod, his body kept storing massive amounts of energy that resulted in an overload. The explosion freed Havok, but it also critically damaged Polaris' tube. Taking charge of the situation, Xavier had Lucy show Angel the entrance to the subterranean cave system the X-Men were stuck in. He then ordered Havok to come join him in dealing with a current crisis in New York (Magneto and Sub-Mariner joining forces). Alex refused, until Lucy subtly suggested it'd be for the best.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#21 (fb) - BTS) - Without anyone noticing, Lucy used her mutant mind control powers to convince Messenger he was better off dead.

(X-Men: The Hidden Years I#22) - After Polaris had been saved, the X-Men decided to wake up the remaining Promise members. They were all stunned to find Messenger dead inside his tube, though his most recent bio-stats showed he was in fine health. When asked if she noticed anything unusual, Lucy claimed she had seen no such thing. Following Messenger's death, the Promise disbanded. The individual members went their separate ways, now convinced Messenger's approach didn't work. Before leaving, Lucy spent some time with Messenger's remains, berating him for not considering the sacrifices his plans demanded from his recruits. Lucy then set out to start a new life in a new decade, ready to nudge people in the right direction. went to see Messenger's body, berating him for not sufficiently having thought through his plans or the sacrifices he required of his recruits. As she left him, Lucy mentioned she might be able to use her powers to help nudge people in the right direction, saying right now he of all people should know how irresistible she can be when making a suggestion.

Comments: Created by John Byrne and Tom Palmer.

Out of all the characters introduced in X-Men: The Hidden Years, Lucy Robinson was the one most begging for a follow up. How would she have tried to make it a better world for mutants? Potentially, she could have been a tremendous force for good. Imagine a therapist who can convince clients to change their minds about themselves? Or a motivational speaker getting paid to show crowds the error of their ways? Lucy truly has the power to make a difference. But it's been... suggested... that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Following M-Day, her status as a gene active mutant remains unrevealed.

Lucy's oldest son was 10 when she joined The Promise. That organization takes ten year naps and her son Tommy died in Vietnam in 1969, meaning she must have left the family in either the late 1950s or early 60s. The story claims Mrs. Robinson spent three decades with the Promise before escaping with Angel, which should place the events of X-Men: The Hidden Years at sometime during the very early 1990s. Of course, those dates are all topical. It all worked when the stories first appeared in 2001, but that's where we run into the tricky Sliding Timescale. Marvel's long standing conceit is that it's always less than fifteen years since Fantastic Four I#1. Which means that by the early 2020s the events of Hidden Years, which took place between X-Men I#66 and Giant-Size X-Men I#1, occurred no earlier than the 2010s. And it's moving forward each year. Yes, it's a little messy, but that inadvertently also explains why Lucy's surviving son Mike is the oldest looking thirtysomething this side of Benjamin Button.

Lucy seems to be The Promise's second to last recruit, with the punker Gracie Smith appearing to have joined in the early 1980s.

Lucy Robinson's backstory and appearance are rather reminiscent of Clare Raymond, a character from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode 'The Neutral Zone'. Clare was an Indianapolis homemaker and the mother of two boys. After suffering a near fatal aneurysm in 1994, her husband had her cryogenically frozen and shot into space where the Enterprise crew located her centuries later. Clare had trouble coming to terms with life in the 23rd century, but returned to Earth to reconnect with her offspring anyway. Clare was portrayed by actress Gracie Harrison who bore a striking resemblance to Lucy. John Byrne being a big fan of Star Trek, it might well have been a conscious homage.  

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Lucy Robinson should not be confused with:

• Any other "Lucy" or "Robinson" characters  

Mike Robinson

Mike Robinson was born in a suburb of Philadelphia. Well before the age of ten, his mother Lucy mysteriously vanished. So overcome with grief, his father had her declared legally dead and refused to even discuss his wife. Mike soon was an only child when his older brother Tommy was killed in Vietnam. After his father passed, Mike continued to live in the family home, eventually raising his own family. One day, he spotted his young son talking to the mutant Angel and, much to his astonishment, his mother Lucy who had barely aged a day since her disappearance 30 years ago. Now older than his own mother, Mike was so shocked, frustrated and angry at Lucy for abandoning him that he called her and Angel 'muties' and forced them to leave.

- X-Men: The Hidden Years I#20

images: (without ads)
X-Men The Hidden Years I#22, p20, pan1 (main image)
X-Men Hidden Years I#18, p17, pan3 (asks about Angel)
X-Men The Hidden Years I#19, p21, pan2 (wants Angels help)
X-Men The Hidden Years I#20, p16, pan1 (explains why The Promise)
X-Men The Hidden Years I#22, p20, pan4 (will be making suggestions)
X-Men The Hidden Years I#20, p18, pan2 (Mike Robinson)

Appearances:
X-Men: The Hidden Years I#17 (April 2001) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Jason Leibig (editor)
X-Men: The Hidden Years I#18 (May, 2001) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Jason Leibig (editor)
X-Men: The Hidden Years I#19 (June, 2001) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Jason Leibig (editor)
X-Men: The Hidden Years I#20 (July, 2001) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Jason Leibig (editor)
X-Men: The Hidden Years I#21 (August, 2001) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Jason Leibig (editor)
X-Men: The Hidden Years I#22 (September, 2001) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Jason Leibig (editor)

First Posted: 02/15/2022
Last updated: 02/21/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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