M - X-Men

This was the 13th entry into my 28 Days of Black Superheroines series that I've been working on via Instragam in order to celebrate Black History Month.

The aristocratic Monet St. Croix is perfection personafied. Debuting in 1994, some of this learned mutant's abilities include telepathy, flight, super strength, and increased intelligence. She's been a member of Generation X, X-Factor, and the X-Men. She's also one of the first Muslim superheroines. Fun fact: Monet once had intense rivalries with Jubilee and Emma Frost.

Monet is one of my all-time favourite comic book characters. She has a unique voice as a hero and pushes against barriers regarding how women (especially women of colour) are portrayed in mainstream comics. At first glance, she's a vaguely Regina Georgian type of character, but has many layers beneath that mean girl facade. As such, I'm really glad that they finally added her to the X-Men proper. She'd been on the fringes for over a decade, so it's nice to see her in the big leagues.

Her ethnicity has long been a bit of a question mark among some fans due to her citizenship, religion, and inconsistent artwork (namely, drastically lightening her skin, then darkening it again). Her creators have stated that she is Black, which is further emphasized by how artists originally rendered both her and her father (though later artists would whitewash him - clearly they didn't do their homework). The best answer I can give is that Monet is biracial, with her father likely being of West African descent while her mother would likely be of Arab or Berber descent.