Blindfold

Origin

Ruth Aldine, the blind, telepathic, prescient later known as Blindfold was a student at the Xavier Institute. Hated and feared like many other Mutants, and seen as an abomination by her elder brother, Luca. This hate resulted with him wanting to kill her. Mistakenly however, he failed to kill Blindfold and killed their mother instead. Later on in life towards her teenage years, with her finally learning to control her Mutant gifts while becoming more confident within herself, a fatal trip to her brother’s death-row trial left Ruth Aldine scarred for life.

She was taken to the Xavier Institute as a teenager where she would learn to harness her precognitive and telepathic abilities.

Creation

Blindfold was created by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday and first fully appeared in Astonishing X-Men #7 in January 2005.

Major Story Arcs

Into the Fold

Blindfold is first mentioned during a conversation between Armor and Wing, and they’re not too happy with her. Blindfold had used her telepathic powers on Wing, without permission, and found that he wanted to become a member of the X-Men when he grew up. Blindfold takes it upon herself to share this information with Wing’s friend Armor. During Armor and Wing’s conversation they express how they felt that she was a “big mouth” and that she was “lonely” as to the reason why she would have intruded into Wings mind. Wing is very upset by Blindfold’s actions. He calms down quickly though when Armor admits that she too wished to become a member of the X-Men when she was older.

Blindfold is mentioned again in a conversation just prior to Armor and Wing’s confrontation with the alien invader Ord which, during the battle, Wing would be left powerless. Wing, depressed due to the loss of his powers, would eventually choose to take his own life, committing suicide in the Danger Room. Unbeknownst to him, there would be huge ramifications for his actions, unfortunately though, he wouldn’t be alive to endure them.

Not too long after these events, Blindfold finally makes her first appearance. Being precognitive, she is able to foresee events that were soon to befall the Xavier Institute. She reveals this to the Stepford Cuckoos’s and is immediately brought to Emma Frost were she warns the rest of the X-Men. Apparently Wing’s suicide in the Danger Room allowed the computer to gain sentience, dubbing itself Danger, it then attacks the X-Men and students alike. A huge battle follows, but thanks to Blindfold’s information, the X-Men are able to prevail. Blindfold’s subsequent appearances are usually followed by premonitions of impending doom which turn out to be quite accurate. Her warnings though are not usually precise, as she usually relays her information to others in very cryptic ways.

Astonishing X-Men

Blindfold’s youth and relative newness to her mutant powers lead to her have emotional outbursts when she foresees events that involve death. She is ill prepared for most of her premonitions/visions and has to acclimate to her powers fast. Following the initial attack of Ord and then Danger, Blindfold is accosted by premonitions that another is to be lost. Emma Frost, the headmistress of the Xavier Institute, at that time is suffering from an extreme case of survivors guilt. She had lost many students and lived. From thoughts of her first students the Hellions, to her students on Muir Island and then the recent death of Wing, her mind is full of these thoughts, and as a result, she is not prepared for the telepathic assaults of Cassandra Nova.

Blindfold on the other hand, is fully aware of these happenings and is overwhelmed by her premonitions. She is found by Armor in the girls restroom, hiding in a stall kneeling. Unable to cry as she has no eyes, Ruth makes a sound as if she is crying. Armor attempts to comfort her but cannot. All Blindfold keeps saying is that they are “going to lose another one.” Hisako then has to defend Blindfold from a rampaging Beast, who had been turned feral by Cassandra Nova.

Strangely, Blindfold afterward telepathically awakens Colossus and gives him orders from some unknown party to whom she had been speaking while alone in the infirmary. This would be the first time that she displayed any form of telepathic prowess. In the middle of the X-Men’s battle with the Hellfire Club, Ord and Danger make their presences known. They begin their onslaught on the X-Men yet again. The X-Men and the few students aiding them are being overpowered, but out of nowhere they are all teleported away. Ord, Danger, the X-Men and Armor disappear. In actuality they are teleported away by SWORD and are headed to Breakworld in outer space to handle other matters. The only individual that is not taken at the time is Blindfold. She stands by as other students arrive wondering what had just occurred. Blindfold comments that “Not all of them will come back.”

Decimation

Not having much time to recover, the events of M-Day affect the world and the mutants that live there. During M-Day, the Scarlet Witch, mentally unstable, utters the now famous words, “No More Mutants.” Instantly, 98% of the mutant population is left depowered, no longer mutants. This leaves only 198 mutants still able to use their powers, 27 of which are students at the Xavier Institute. Due to the decreased number of mutant students, there is simply no need for the numerous mutant training squads that there were previously.

Emma decides that only one is needed. For placement on the team, the remaining students are to participate in an all-out fight against each other. Those that are most effective in battle will be part of the new team. All the remaining students participate except for a few. These few include Wallflower, Gentle, the Stepford Cuckoos, Ernst and Blindfold. There are numerous reasons for each of the individuals not to participate. For Blindfold it can be assumed that it was due to her lack of offensive capabilities. Following the battle, the new team is formed and they are trained in active field duty and are considered ‘X-Men in training.’ The others that did not make the team are to stay on school grounds for their own safety, including Blindfold.

Quest For Magik

During one of the rare free times that the remaining students get at the Xavier Institute, a group of students begin telling stories. Many are told but Blindfold’s story takes these young mutants for a tailspin and into a battle that none are prepared for. Blindfold tells them a tale of a girl by the name of Illyana Rasputin, the ex- New Mutants and deceased little sister of the X-Man Colossus. She tells them of her tragic life and how it ended in her young death.

But somewhere during the telling of the the story, it somehow shifts and she begins telling them the story as if it is currently happening. She says that the demon Lord Belasco has retaken Limbo and beaten the current ruler Amanda Sefton and exiled her. She also indicates that Belasco has taken away her Soulsword and that he wants his pupil Illyana back. Some of the students begin to feel nervous by the story and only moments later they are all attacked by demons from Limbo, sent by Belasco to find Illyana. He claims that he can smell Illyana on some of the children. They are all quickly teleported to Limbo, and while there, they encounter many things. Apart from their strange new surroundings, they encounter demons which they battle multiple times and evil incarnate by the name of Belasco. They even encounter the resurrected, but still soulless, Illyana Rasputin, the magical mutant known as Magik.

While in Limbo, Blindfold uses her powers quite effectively by navigating her team and giving many of them advice by telling them when and how to react to their situations for the best results and their own survival. None though are guided more then the young Welsh mutant by the name of Pixie. Blindfold tells Pixie multiple times that she “MUST NOT FAIL!” Yet again Blindfold is right, as Pixie is the answer to their survival and escape from Limbo. Through a string of events, a part of Pixie’s soul is removed from her, leaving a hole that is filled by black magic. The removed portion of Pixie’s soul is transformed into a Soul-Dagger, exactly the same as Illyana’s SoulSword only smaller. As for the black magic in her soul, this enables her to learn and actively use magic. Illyana teaches her a teleportation spell and after their battle with Balesco, which they won, Pixie teleports them all to safety back on the grounds of the Xavier Institute.

Blinded by the Light

The Marauders, led and organized by Mr. Sinister, begin a mission to kill all mutants with precognitive abilities. Cannonball learns of this information and finds out that Blindfold is the second name on the list. Once informed, Blindfold speaks to the New X-Men and tells them her death can be prevented by Elixir. Before anyone asks how, she grabs both of his hands and has one touch his gold skin and the other touch his black skin (gold represented life and black represented death). Immediately after, a large flash of gold and black energy fills the room and then courses through Blindfold’s body. She collapses, apparently being killed by the energies. Baffled by what occurred, Pixie is the first to react, running to get Kitty Pryde for help. Before she gets too far though, the mansion gets attacked by Exodus and his newly formed Acolytes. It becomes clear that they are working with the Marauders and were sent to the mansion to kill Blindfold.

But it appears Exodus is too late. He finds Blindfold on the floor and examines her. Seconds later, he concludes that she is already dead and exclaims that she is no longer a priority. His team immediately disperses, spreading out seeking Destiny’s Diaries.

Exodus couldn’t have been more wrong though. Blindfold foresaw these events and took the necessary actions to ensure that she appeared as dead as possible. Prodigy realizes what is happening and immediately gets Kitty Pryde to help him revive Blindfold. Kitty has to operate on Blindfold to bring her back to life from her death-like sleep. When Blindfold finally awakes, she wastes no time and begins to warn those around her of her premonition and the X-Men’s soon to be handicapped situation. During her conversation with those around her, Blindfold makes several future predictions about people getting hurt, including Nightcrawler, Pixie and Hellion. All these predictions come true during Messiah CompleX, as Nightcrawler is shot by Scalphunter, Hellion is stabbed through the chest by Lady Deathstrike and Pixie is injured when she teleported everyone away from the Purifiers. She also indicates that there is one more person whose identity she missed that would also be injured. This person eventually proves to be Forge when he encounters the rogue X-Men member Bishop.

Young X-Men

In the wake of Messiah CompleX, there are no X-Men. Young mutants who once went to the Xavier Institute, such as Rockslide, Wolf Cub, Blindfold and Dust are alone and directionless, until the day Cyclops recruits them to hunt the new incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants – and kill them. Joined by a pair of new recruits, Greymalkin and Ink, the Young X-Men learn a hard truth about the world post-Messiah CompleX: sometimes old allies make for deadly enemies.

A New Dream Begins

The events that eventually lead to the recruiting of the charter members of the Young X-Men begin in a dream. Blindfold has a dream/premonition in which she along with 5 other mutants – that she knows in the dream as her teammates – are a part of a new team of X-Men. Three of them she is very familiar with as she attended school with them, but when the Academy closed down everyone went their separate ways. The other two were not familiar to her.

In her dream Wolf Cub, Rockslide, Ink and Dust are engaged in a heated battle with long time X-Men foe and Hellfire Club member, Donald Pierce. Blindfold, not at the fight yet, is on her way, escorted by another member of the team ( Greymalkin). She is in a hurry wanting to get there as fast as possible, claiming that she wants to “see.” While the others are fighting the cybernetic Pierce, Wolf Cub and Rockslide begin to bicker with each other, while Dust continues her furious attack. Blindfold arrives, a short distance away in her dream. She realizes that she had seen this before and attempts to yell out to warn her fellow teammates stating, “I’ve seen this before. Pierce is going to kill–NO….” Before she can finish her warning, Pierce slashes and kills one of her teammates. Blindfold screams and is awakened by the horror of what she saw in her dream. Blindfold wakes up at her aunts home in New Jersey. Blindfold sits up and the events of her dream begin to set in: they are a vision of the future. The new team of X-Men had not “yet” formed. They had not “yet” battled Pierce. One of her future teammates had not “yet” died. Strongly reliant on the fact that these events had not “YET” happened she comes to the resolve that she can ensure that these events WON’T HAPPEN. She gets dressed and tells her Aunt that it is time that she has to leave again.

Final Genesis

Already knowing what is going to happen and wanting to stop a senseless death, Blindfold begins her job to gather the mutants together that would one day form a new team of X-Men. She briefly returns to the X-mansion that she once called home, surveying the area. While she is at the ruins of the mansion, unknown to her, someone is watching her from a far. It seems to be Greymalkin, but not revealed. Once done at the mansion she decides that she will speak to one of her former schoolmates.

Blindfold meets up with Rockslide at a coffee shop. Amidst their conversation she informs Rockslide that he is going to join the Young X-Men. She indicates that Cyclops is going to be coming to him soon to speak to him. As they continue their conversation, unbeknown to Rockslide, Cyclops walks in behind him and begins to scold him. Cyclops tells him that as an X-Man in training, as he used to be, that he should have been more prepared. Cyclops explains that he had been there for 15 minutes and that he had hoped that Rockslide would have had a better sense of his surroundings, also stating that he could have been an enemy. Unaffected by Cyclops’ words, Rockslide says “What if? I’m like indestructible, bro.” Cyclops smiles and responds with an optic blast, hitting Rockslide with enough force to throw him completely out of the window. Once recovered, Cyclops tells Rockslide that he wants him on his team. Not answering, Rockslide follows up asking about Blindfold, if she is to be recruited to. Cyclops replies, “Not part of the plan. I’m sorry Ms. Aldine.” Rockslide defends her and retorts by saying that if she doesn’t join, then he doesn’t either.

Next we see all the mutants gathered together and save Greymalkin who has not been seen yet except for the dream, back at the grounds of the destroyed Xavier Institute. In the Danger Cave, Cyclops talks to the gathered mutants, including Blindfold. He explains that together they are the last generation of mutants and as such would be the last team of X-Men.

He then explains to them who their new enemy is, a new incarnation of the Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants. He then turns on a hologram machine and the images of the new Brotherhood, have most of the young mutants there in shock. Most of them are old teachers or advisors at the institute, one is an X-Men: all of them were once known as the New Mutants. Above the Young X-Men are the images of Cannonball, Karma, Sunspot (the Hellfire Club’s Lord Imperial), Magma and Danielle Moonstar, the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. These individuals would be the adversaries of the Young X-Men.

Ruth and Ink are ordered to hunt Dani Moonstar by Cyclops. Ink is uncomfortable about this because due to her having no eyes, he thought she would be a liability. When they enter, Dani is armed and ready with a shotgun and grabs Blindfold, threatening to shoot her if they don’t start talking. However Dani is taken out by an unseen force and Blindfold is betrayed by Ink, who knocks her out. She is then delivered to Donald Pierce, who is angered by the fact that Ruth still lives. Ink, however refuses to kill her. Back in a cage, Dani attacks Blindfold. When it is revealed that Cyclops is Donald Pierce, Blindfold knows that her vision is coming to pass. Unfortunately she is unable to prevent it and in the end, Wolf Cub meets his demise.

Nation X

Blindfold joins the other X-Men in San Francisco, Ruth is with the rest of the team, who are watching on TV the Institute being surrounded.

X-Necrosha

When the resurrected precognitive mutant known as Destiny attempts to contact her daughter Rogue, she somehow instead comes into contact with Blindfold. The two briefly speak, with Destiny warning Blindfold of the impending attack by Selene and her army of undead mutants. Destiny also tells Blindfold a yet-to-be revealed secret, which she quickly regrets. Destiny quickly departs, but before she does, she protects Blindfold from being killed by Warpath being flung into her bedroom wall as he fought with his mind-controlled former lover Risque.

Per Destiny’s warning, Nightcrawler leads a team to Muir Island which the precognitive mutant said was a place of interest. Along with Rogue, Magneto, Psylocke, Colossus, Husk, and Trance, Blindfold helps the team search through the area only to find nothing out of the ordinary.

When the team re-group, Colossus tries to comfort a clearly disturbed Blindfold who is conflicted by the visions she is receiving, as well as Destiny’s message. When he touches her, Blindfold sees blood on his hands and quickly runs away.

She encounters Destiny in an old warehouse and Blindfold questions if she was her mother. Destiny warns her not to touch her but it is to no avail and Blindfold somehow takes Proteus‘ spirit into her body. Blindfold, possessed by Proteus, then attacks Rogue. After attacking Rogue, Proteus goes after the other team members. Having possessed everyone except Rogue and Magneto, Proteus is shot into space by Magneto and Rogue uses Psylocke’s powers to release the others from Proteus’ control. Magneto then defeats Proteus and saves Blindfold. After being released, Destiny tells Blindfold that she might be her great-grandmother. Also she reveals that her mother died protecting her from her brother.

X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back

Blindfold, along with Mercury, Armor and X-23, joins Pixie in an illusion created by an unwilling Pixie. However, unlike the others ( Mercury, Armor and X-23) Ruth is physically still on Utopia as she hadn’t wanted to go to the Dazzler concert with Pixie. She is found by Rockslide and Anole in the lady’s room on Utopia and they take her to Emma Frost. There she reveals that the girls are in trouble and makes the X-Men go and search for them.

Age of X

Age of X is an alternate reality where the X-Men never existed, and anti-mutant thoughts and threats are at their highest. The world’s mutants gather in Fortress X for protection. Blindfold, from Earth-616, appears in this reality in the fortress’ prison. She is highly confused by the fact that everyone is an alternate version of what she is used to and begs for Rogue’s help, who is Legacy in this reality. Blindfold begs her to find Professor X and help her.

Returning to the Jean Grey School

After the events Age of X, Blindfold decided to return to New York and joined Wolverine’s Jean Grey School. She remained there during the fight between the Avengers and the X-Men. After the death of Charles Xavier, she was effected by professor Xavier’s son, Legion, and his powers. Fearing he might be a threat, she helped the X-men find him. Eventually, Blindfold and Legion became friends for some time.

X-men Disassembled and Suicide

Ruth remained with the Jean Grey School when it relocated to New York’s Central Park. It was there that heralds of the former Age of Apocalypse refugee Nate Grey (better known as X-Man) attacked the school in order to subdue the X-Men so that they would not trouble X-Man is his quest to change the world. In the attack, the school was destroyed and soon after, almost all X-Men dissapeared and where pressumed dead after battling the power-mad X-Man (Nate Grey). During this time, mutant hate rised harder then ever before. Many of the students of the school where now homeless and sought refugee from the hate. Ruth met with fellow mutants Loa, Bliss and Velocidad and took shelter in the Morlock tunnels. However, some time later, teammate Loa was killed by humans as part of the explosion of anti-mutant violence in the wake the attack of X-Man (Nate Grey). During that period and after the death of her teammate, Ruth had visions of multiple possible futures, in all of them she met a painful and brutal death. Ruth decided to commit suicide to end her life on her own terms. In her last acts before that, she reached out to Cyclops to warn him about futility of his actions, and directed Logan to save him.

Powers and abilities

Blindfold is a mutant with a variety of mental based powers, including powers such as: telepathy, precognition, postcognition, clairvoyance and a strong telepathic shield that forbids anyone from reading her mind.

Precognitive: She is able to see events destined to occur and experience precognitive visions.

Retrocognitive: Able to see the past.

Clairvoyant: Able to see far off places or events as well as present events and her surroundings.

Telepathic Immunity: Emma Frost said that Blindfold’s mind is in too much flux to for her to read. This does not necessarily mean that Blindfold would be immune to telepathic assaults or other telepathic abilities that only require the telepath to broadcast their power at the target’s mind, only that her mind cannot be read telepathically. This would likely mean that she is also immune to telepathic control or possession .

She also has no eyes and instead has skin over her eye sockets.

During the earlier days of her Mutant powers manifesting themselves, as she learned to harness and control them, Ruth showed slight signs of telekinesis as well as the power to control other minds. After the incident with her brother, those gifts were stolen from her, having had her psyche torn apart, it was also an explanation as to why she converses with others so politely and eloquently, constantly referring to herself in the third person and apologizing for aural grammatical mistakes.

Speech

Unlike the other students at the Xavier Institute, Blindfold is very polite when she speaks, but most of the time, Blindfold is too polite and tends to include various polite phrases that have no specific point in what she is saying. An example of this is “She does, yes, thank you. You need to know why, please.”, answering a question asked by Pixie. In this specific example, Blindfold refers to herself in the third person instead of the first.

When Blindfold is conversing with others, she seems to answer they’re questions before they can even answer them. She is able to do this because her psionic powers obviously allow her to see the questions that will be asked, or she could see into their mind just as they’re about to ask.

Characteristics

Known Relatives: Mother (deceased; name unrevealed) Brother, Lucas Aldine (deceased), Father (name unrevealed) Aunt (name unrevealed).

Citizenship: Citizen of the United States. A minor with no criminal record.

Place of Birth: Blindfold was born in North Carolina

Marital Status: Single

Occupation: Student and Adventurer

Education: High school level classes while enrolled at the Xavier Institute.

Stats

Gender: Female

Height: 5’6″

Weight: 123 lbs. (56 kg.)

Hair: Black

Eyes: Blindfold has no eyes

Unique Characteristics: As part of her mutation, Blindfold does not have eyes, neither does she have sockets.

She does though have indentations were her eye would be, if she had them.

Other Media

Games

X-men: Battle of the Atom

Blindfold is featured in the mobile card game “X-Men: Battle of the Atom” based on the comic book story with the same name. Her cards are:

• Blindfold
• [Muir Island] Blindfold
• [Blindfold] Proteus

Blindfold is a boss in the Nechrosa Event under the influence of Proteus.