Current Events
Dani Moonstar is presently appearing in the new Marvel NOW! series The Fearless Defenders written by Cullen Bunn drawn by artist Will Sliney. Dani is apart of the all female superhero team alongside Valkyrie and Misty Knight.
Origin
Danielle Moonstar was born in Colorado to members of the Cheyenne Nation. The first time Dani’s powers manifested, she saw the image of her parents dying. She saw a huge bear standing over the bodies of a horse and an eagle; representing her mother came (from the horse clan) and her father (of the eagle clan). Shortly thereafter, her parents took a trip into the mountains and they disappeared, presumed to be dead.
Prior to her parents’ disappearance Dani was sent to live with some neighbors, but she did not have control over her mutant ability to create illusions based on primal fears or deepest desires resulting in much resentment toward her in the community. To escape the malice of her community she went to live with her Grandfather, Black Eagle, a recluse in the mountains.
Black Eagle was an old friend of Charles Xavier and contacted him to help his granddaughter upon learning of her mutant abilities. He told Dani of Xavier and his wish for her to go and study with him at his school. However, the news angered her. She did not wish to be being sent away with a “white”, and accidentally lashed out with her power creating an image of her grandfather’s death. Before Xavier could arrive, Black Eagle was killed by Donald Pierce’s henchmen from the Hellfire Club.
In her ensuing quest for vengeance, Dani freed X’ian Coy Mahn from Pierce’s imprisonment, and encountered Xavier and the other young mutants whom Pierce would threaten with his genocidal anti-mutant agenda. After Pierce was defeated Dani stayed with Xavier to honor her grandfather’s wishes. At first she took the codename Psyche, but shortly thereafter became better known as Mirage, and she soon came to see the New Mutants as not only close friends but her family.
Creation
Danielle was created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod and appeared first in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 in 1982.
Major Story Arcs
Demon Bear
When the Demon Bear who had claimed her parents came for her, Dani went out to face it. It mauled her severely, nearly killing her. She would have been paralyzed had it not been for the lifesaving powers of the Morlock’s Healer. The New Mutants fought the Bear on a magical plane, defeating it and freeing Dani’s parents from its clutches.
Asgard
In one adventure, the New Mutants and the X-Man Storm were kidnapped by the Enchantress of Asgard at Loki‘s request. When Illyana Rasputin attempted to teleport them all away, the New Mutants found themselves scattered through Asgard. Dani found herself in a grassy plain where she spotted a fully white, winged horse that had been trapped by hunters and began to attempt to free it. While trying to set the winged horse free, an army began to charge at her. Unwilling to leave the horse helpless and not willing to run, Dani chose to fight back, which led her to using her telepathic abilities to draw forth the image that the oncoming warriors feared most, Hela Asgardian Goddess of Death. The enemies froze in fear and left immediately, without a backwards glance. Dani not recognizing who the image was, cared less and returned to the winged-horse and freed it. The horse instantly began to trust and bonded with Dani. The horse was one of the winged-steeds of the Valkyor who had chosen her to be a Valkyrie; one of the choosers of the slain. It is possible that Dani’s moments of seeing her parents and grandfather’s deaths may have indicated a previously existing mystical ability in this area.
The New Mutants joined forces with the X-Men to defeat Loki. The steed, which Dani named Brightwind returned to Earth with her. Upon her connection with Brightwind Dani was very different though, in powers as well as responsibilities. Dani was no longer just a human mutant but a Valkyrie. This title gifted her with the ability to “see” death, or an aura of death around individuals who were to die soon. This gift also allowed Dani the ability to fight Death itself. On a couple of occasions, Dani attempted to fight Death to save the lives of those around her, though she was not always successful and learned that Death was a natural process of life not always to be feared.
Leaving the New Mutants
Later, when Hela attempted to take over Asgard, Dani found herself trapped under the sway of Hela along with the rest of the Valkyor. She attempted to kill Odin, but the New Mutants combined with the Asgardians defeated Hela’s forces, freeing the Valkyor and Dani. Dani then chose to remain behind in Asgard to help repair the damage she had done.
Return To Earth
Eventually, Dani returned to earth and, unbeknownst to any of her friends, she joined SHIELD. As a SHIELD operative, she took on a mission to go undercover in the Mutant Liberation Front (MLF), using the code name Moonstar. Purposefully withholding information of her recent past, she would use her powers against her old team-mates, while serving as an informant for Cable. Dani was forced to take on a harder, darker persona, almost changing herself completely, including her mutant powers. Dani was able to refine her psychic abilities to the point were she focus he mental energies to create “Psychic Arrows.” These “arrows”, once connected with their intended target, would incapacitate them, either knocking them unconscious, or causing temporary paralysis or confusion, they would begin to make incoherent noise, completely taking them out of a fight. Not only did Dani take on a darker appearance in mind and body, but it also changed Brightwind. No longer bright at all, her Pegasus was not white, but completely black and now call Darkwind.
While apart of the MLF Dani struggled with her “undercover status” as it put her at odds with herself. An unfortunate side affect to her “deep cover” was that it brought her into many conflicts with old allies X-Force which was largely comprised of former New Mutants. Additionally she began to get to know the members of the MLF a lot better, resulting in a genuine friendship with the mutant named Forearm. Her job became more of a struggle as she began to feel guilt by her actions, and as Reignfire, the MLF’s leader, began to suspect her loyalties. After the MLF and X-Force battled Operation: Zero Tolerance, Dani left SHIELD (and therefore the MLF too) to rejoin her friends in X-force.
Return To X-Force
During the team’s encounter with operatives of the Damocles Foundation, Dani was accidentally transmorphed into a crystal like state by the reality warping Arcadia DeVille, who had no real control over her abilities. A few minutes later, Moonstar reverted back to flesh and blood, and it seemed that nothing had changed. X-Force and Arcadia parted ways, unaware of the side effects that this incident would cause.
Over the next days and weeks, Moonstar discovered that her body had been altered on a molecular level and that she possessed a new power. She could now channel the quantum energies that make up the universe, which allowed her to affect matter at a subatomic level. Actually learning-by-doing, Dani found a way to perceive these quantum energies as interconnected particles and waves. She found she could affect those connections, changing the physical nature of all things, including an electromagnetic field such as the one generated by Magneto during X-Force’s encounter with him in Genosha. It was not only Moonstar who had been changed, but Arcadia too. Their brief encounter had created some sort of link between the two women and they began to access each other’s memories and nightmares.
Haunted by visions of the Demon Bear, Arcadia accidentally provided this monstrosity with a new physical form and chaos ensued in San Francisco. Moonstar and DeVille were both consumed by the Bear, who wanted to add their powers to his own. However, from within, the two women tried to re-absorb the energies that had been used in his creation. Evidently it worked, as the Bear was destroyed, but Arcadia could not handle the increased power level and retreated deep within her own mind. She transformed herself into the Queen of the Star Swords, an evil character from one of her childhood tales. Perceiving Moonstar as a potential threat, she split her apart with four different Moonstars appearing, each representing different aspect of Dani – New Mutant, Valkyrie, M.L.F., and quantum-powered, while the real Moonstar was left a powerless husk.
Out of thin air, the Queen created a cathedral in a dimensional rift as her headquarters and, venturing inside, X-Force became lost in different alternate timelines. Eventually, they could track down the Moonstar-fragments and Dani was reunited. Using her abilities in combination, Moonstar ended the threat of the Queen / Arcadia, as she channeled the entire might of her quantum-based powers into a psionic arrow, which sealed the rift and returned Arcadia to normal. Their link severed, Dani no longer could access the quantum energies and was back to her psionic arrows and emotional illusion casting.
Later some members of X-Force decided to get the British black op Pete Wisdom to train them and improve their effectiveness. However, Moonstar, like Domino, could not agree with his methods and quit the team. Instead, she joined the X-Men on a part-time basis, whilst she attended college classes in her spare time. Dani rarely went on any missions, but mostly functioned as mansion staff along with Forge.
Teacher
Eventually, Dani returned to her home in Colorado. She became involved with Xavier’s school again when she learned of the plight of a young mutant in nearby Denver. Young Sofia Mantega had been sent to her father, who didn’t want her. After being ignored by her father and ridiculed by her fellow students for months, she snapped and used her mutant powers to control the wind to cause havoc at one of her father’s supermarkets. Her father was willing to leave her in jail but Dani interceded and got him to agree that she could take Sofia to Xavier’s school.
Seeing Dani’s good instincts with Sofia and a fellow student, Laurie Collins, Xavier suggested Dani become a teacher at the institute. Dani was unwilling at first and instead Xavier asked her to contact several mutants located by Cerebra in his name. Dani recruited two more kids and was reunited with fellow former New Mutant, Xi’an Coy Manh, along the way. Dani joined the X-Men as an affiliate member, recruiting and teaching/ training students at the Xavier Institute, even becoming a guardian for Elixir when his parents completely rejected him. She eventually took over the training of the New Mutant Squad. There she re-united with Rahne.
When Xavier left the school, Emma Frost became co-headmistress together with her lover, Scott Summers. Remembering her only to well from her villain days as the Hellfire Club’s White Queen, Dani didn’t get along with Emma and, before long, their feud carried over to the two training squads tutored by them, the New Mutants and the Hellions. Even worse, when Dani wanted to bring Kevin Ford back to the school, she needed Emma’s help to operate Cerebra and pinpoint his location. It was Emma who convinced the boy to return but, only a few days later, the FBI wanted to arrest him for apparently killing his own father. At first, Dani was against turning him over to the authorities but eventually was convinced otherwise. Surprisingly, the court declared the death of Kevin’s father and accident and he was allowed to return to Xavier’s, though the damage was done. He no longer trusted Danielle one bit and asked to be transferred to Emma’s squad. The incident still had a pleasant side-effect for Danielle, as she became romantically involved with Justin Pierce, the FBI agent assigned to the case.
M-Day
Dani was one of the many Mutants whose powers were removed by the Decimation. Emma Frost made Dani leave the school along with all the other mutants who had been de-powered. Dani took the loss of her powers pretty hard, but she participated in an interview with reporter Sally Floyd, who was writing down the stories of the de-powered mutants. Later, Dani was working with the Government as part of The Initiative to train young people with super-powers, though sometimes her wishes run counter to her supervisors. She became the primary instructor for Trauma, who has similar emotion/fear-based powers that she had previously had. At first, Trauma didn’t want to have anything to do with her, but Danielle pretty soon convinced him that he could benefit from her training. However she was been fired by Henry Gyrich for teaching Trauma anti-militaristic beliefs.
Re-Union
In the wake of the Messiah Complex, there X-Men disbanded and Cyclops closed the Xavier Institute. Shortly After he seeks out six former students and recruits them as the last team of X-Men ever. Once gathered together at their headquarters he explains that their enemy is a new incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil. He displays a hologram of the new Botherhood’s members, including five of the original New Mutants; Cannonball, Karma, Magma, Sunspot and Danielle Moonstar. Cyclops explicitly stated that the new team’s orders were to kill their predecessors. However, after the confrontation between old and new New Mutants, it was revealed that Donald Pierce had deceived the new team and sent them to destroy the original New Mutants. After his defeat, Cyclops asked Dani and Sunspot to help train the Young X-Men.
Back With The New Mutants
Some time after the X-Men had set up the Graymalkin Institute in San Francisco, thanks to a warning by Illyana, both Dani and Xian were discovered to have gone to a town in Colorado to seek out a possible mutant problem. When Illyana, Amara, Sam and Bobby investigate, they find out that the mutant is really Legion. Xian is found to be in a comatose state after having gone into Legion’s mind, and Dani is found imprisoned in a local jail.
As one of the beings who previously tried to “fix” David Haller’s mind, Dani becomes the target of Legion. When Sam and Bobby knock Legion away from Dani’s cell, Sam leaves her inside, thinking that she was safer inside than exposed to Legion if she were free. Sam realizes his mistake when Legion uses another of his powers to manipulate the earth in Dani’s cell in a second attempt to kill her. That attempt is stopped when Magma melts the earth golem Legion created. Furious at Sam, Dani punches him, then arms herself with various weapons in order to be useful when they bring the fight back to the insane mutant.
Despite her efforts, Sam still tries to get her to escape by commandeering a vehicle for her. Furious, Dani drives away. Cannonball, Magma and Sunspot then attempt to fight Legion while Illyana tries to salvage the situation from within Legion’s own mind. One by one, Legion takes down the three mutants using the different abilities of his hostile personalities. When Legion finally shifts to a werewolf-like form to regenerate his wounds and finish off a helpless Cannonball, Dani returns in time to ram Legion with her vehicle and prevent Sam from being killed. Despite ramming Legion into a wall and stabbing him with her knife, the omega level mutant still gains the upper hand. Before he can kill Dani, Illyana succeeds in freeing Shan and David Haller’s base personality from within Legion’s mind, and ending the ordeal. Later, as the rest of the X-Men arrive for cleanup and recovery, Dani is seen to angrily spurn Sam’s attempts at an apology.
Valkyrie Again
During Utopia, Cyclops sends Dani to Las Vegas, there she approaches the Norse goddess of death, Hela for a ‘boon’. Hela warns her that the price of the ‘boon’ is a heavy one, but Dani accepts, requesting “a ride home and a big ol’ sword”. It is presumed that Dani has asked for her Valkyrie powers back. During the battle against Norman Osborn‘s Dark Avengers on the new mutant haven, Utopia, the invulnerable God Ares arrives closely followed by Dani returning as a Valkyrie to stop him.
Dani easily overcomes Ares and brings him down to his knees. Ares states that he was not prepared to battle a Valkyrie. Danielle Moonstar alongside her fellow New Mutants (Illyana, Cannonball, Karma, etc.) pose ready to battle. Dani states that she is not just a Valkyrie but “was made to stop gods.” With Ares badly wounded, and with the entire mutant populace ganging up on him, Osborn abandons his efforts, leaving the mutant island.
Siege
The New Mutants are spending a weekend in Las Vegas, as Hela is calling in the favor Dani Moonstar owes her. She empowers Dani as her own Valkyrie and explains that Asgard (currently on Earth) is under Siege and Dani’s job is to escort the souls of the dead gods to her. Dani is reluctant, fearing Hela is planning some awful scheme. When she reaches Asgard, she quickly finds the Asgardian souls, led by the war god Tyr. But when the Valkyries ask her to join them fighting, she tells the souls to wait for her as nothing bad can happen to them anymore. However, when she is gone, horrible soul-eating monsters, the D’siri, attack and devour several of the souls, despite Tyr’s attempt to protect them. When she realizes what is happening, Dani returns and chases away the D’siri, but too late for some of the souls. She tells Tyr that he is wounded but still alive and has him rejoin the living. She then brings the remaining souls to Hela, ashamed that she was wrong and Hela was actually trying to save them.
Second Coming
During Second Coming, Cyclops sanctions Dani and the New Mutants (minus Illyana) in a holding pattern over the Midwest aboard the Blackbird. He then sends them to St. Louis to shut down Cameron Hodge‘s facility where he’s producing Anti-Mutant weaponry. They are ordered not to let Hodge send his team to help the Purifiers. The team engage the soldiers in battle. Dani takes part in the battle, regardless of being powerless, using her fighting abilities to engage the soldiers in battle. The team are forced to retreat after Karma’s leg is mutilated by Hodge, while Warlock kills him and his forces with his powers. Back on the plane Dani tries to help Karma with her wound. After they return, Dani attends Nightcrawler‘s funeral. At the mess hall, Moonstar confronts Cable, telling him that her team took it rough covering for him and wonders if his new ‘hobby’ is worth it. Hope takes it personally, and she punches Dani in the face. Both end up fighting. Cyclops orders them to break it up, however Cable thinks Scott should stop keeping Hope in a bubble, as she makes her own way now. Later, during a meeting, Cyclops assigns Cypher to join X-Force on their mission to the future. Wolverine replies by commenting on Doug’s ‘one weakness’, “bullets”. Moonstar reacts angrily, calling him a “son of a bitch” getting up ready to attack him, but she’s stopped by Psylocke. Dani then joins the fight on the Golden Gate Bridge and witnesses Hope defeating Bastion and her possession of the Phoenix. After the fight is over, Moonstar attends her former mentor, Cable’s, funeral.
Fall Of The New Mutants
After Second Coming, Sam decides to take the team out for some R R. The team drink a lot, and they slowly start going over what happened during Second Coming. Then they start swapping funny stories with Dani recounting what happened during the battle with Hodge. During this time, Dani and Sam become extremely drunk and start flirting which leads to them kissing. They are interrupted by Illyana who senses an upcoming danger through her Soulsword and that Pixie has been kidnapped. This leads the team to fight Project Purgatory and the ‘Inferno babies’, the very same children they helped save years ago during Inferno. The two groups fight, but the other side proves brutal. Dani fights Loca but the other woman easily evades her, smelling her emotions, saying that her lack of powers is causing her to be afraid. Dani tries to hit Loca, but instead the other woman hits her with one of her demonic limbs. She grabs Dani’s right arm, announcing she is going to hurt her now and taste her pain. She orders her too look at her, Dani does and manages not to scream when Loca breaks her arm. Good girl, Loca praises her, then knocks her out. The entire team is defeated and the babies state that they can do anything they want with the team.
The ‘inferno babies’ then begin to torture the team whilst taking control of Cypher. Sam and Dani’s cells are next to each other, so Sam can hear Dani screaming from the excessive torture. Timothy and a few of the soldiers are torturing her for their amusement. Timothy holds Dani by the throat, informing her that her arm is broken and she is in shock. When she tries to tough it out, he asks for the soul leeches. Sam shouts at them to leave her alone and Loca, who feeds off emotions, enjoys his suffering. Dani screams in agony as the torture continues. From the cell next to her, Sam shouts abuse at her torturers, swearing to kill them. Dani shouts at him to get it together. He’s giving them what they want. She also says that he was right about Lila Cheney. He’s an excellent kisser. She screams again and Loca suddenly loses her smile as Sam no longer reacts to Dani’s suffering. The team then begin to be transported underground to become sacrifices to the Elder Gods. Maw and Trista make Cypher carry Dani. Cypher informs her that he is under their control, Dani begins to say it’s similar to when Selene took control, he agrees, saying he has become a cliché.
Moonstar is continued to be tortured, however her cell was attacked by a demon horde. Dani positioned herself to make sure the demons cut her bindings, and drew her knife and began fighting. Elsewhere, Loca vowed that Dani would die next. She kicked in the door to her cell only to find dead demons. “Look at her!” Dani ordered from behind. Loca turned around to see Dani using her bow, pulling the string with one of her feet. “Good girl” she mocked and shot her torturer straight through the chest with her arrow. After this, the group re-unite and help defeat the babies, project purgatory and the Elder Gods, helping to finally restore Illyana’s soul.
Unfinished Business
After the Limbo mission, the team, minus Ilyana, Sam and Karma, but plus Wolverine, Colossus and Kitty, head to defeat a horde of robots with left over Nimrod tech. During the mission, Wolverine notices how Dani acts like the leader, but her decisions are always right. The team easily defeat the robot, until they notice that everyone that was sent on the mission has a connection to Illyana. The team head back to Utopia, where Dani visits Karma and Face. Dani tells Karma that Face is potentially very dangerous. She agrees but says that he needs her, like Sam needs Dani. She visits Sam in the psychiatric ward. Dani expresses her discomfort at visiting Sam at what appears like a jail. Moonstar tells him that he created the second generation and he should lead it, but Sam still feels he needs to heal. However, Dani feels that there is no team anymore and that she fears Cyclops is going to break them up and re-assign them. Sam states that it’s Cyclops call, but that whatever happens from here, he still gets to to do this. A puzzled Dani wonders what until she’s interrupted by Sam kissing her. She then says that he can and they continue to kiss. After this, Dani visits Cyclops. Where he tells her, to her surprise, that he’s not dissolving the team, but rather making her the leader. He then tells her the team will now handle loose ends, to deal with unfinished business. And that their first mission is to find and bring Nate Grey, X-Man, home.
Fear Itself
When the Asgardian evil known as the Serpent sent hammers of power to Midgard to empower the evil, the Juggernaut received one such hammer, and went on a rampage across America on his way to San Francisco to destroy the X-Men on Utopia. While Scott Summers and his X-Men attempted to delay the Juggernaut, Dani was sent to Las Vegas, the location of Hel on Midgard, to ask the Asgardian goddess of death, Hela, for help. Dani, acting as Hel’s Valkyrie, arrived in Hel only to find that it had been overrun by evil beings – a special kind of evil. They were demons that had been previously slain by Odin. A blackbird had been guiding Dani along and had been at her side since she arrived. Unbeknownst to Dani, it was the soul of Hela. After battling the demonic creatures, Dani was swallowed whole. The rest of the New Mutants decided to find Dani. Illyana, who was locked away at the time, taught Doug a spell to get them to Hel. He misspoke the spell, and the team ended up in Hell – two “L”s – which was Mephisto’s realm. After Amara agreed to go on a date with the devil, he teleported the team to Hel – one “L”. Dani cut her way out of the beast that had swallowed her whole after the presence of her friends was made known to her by Hela’s soul – the blackbird. They fought their way to the palace of Hela only to find Hela’s lifeless body impaled on the tallest spire of the palace. The New Mutants barricaded themselves inside the palace, and a morose Dani monologued to Hela’s corpse as the others prepared for battle. The blackbird returned to Hela’s body. With her soul back in her body, Hela was healed and with the help of the New Mutants – especially her Valkyrie, or “Dark Angel”, Dani – the evil was dispelled and the demon creatures were destroyed. Hela sent the team back to San Francisco, where they discovered that the Juggernaut problem had been dealt with by their own Illyana Rasputina.
Marvel Now! Fearless Defenders
Dani was targeted by the henchmen of Caroline Le Fay, who believed her to be an easy target because of her status as a depowered mutant. However, Dani was prepared for her unwanted guests, and unleashed a volley of arrows on the closest attackers, taking them out with ease. She was able to take down many of the henchmen before finally being taken to Le Fay’s base of operations. Le Fay intended to use Dani as a conduit to awaken the Disir – the original Valkyries, the Valkyries of Bor. Dani was freed by Valkyrie (Brunhilde), Misty Knight, and Hippolyta (Hela’s chosen champion). Dani joined the women and resumed her position as Hel’s Valkyrie. After battling the Disir, Valkyrie became aware that she was once one of them – she was the Maiden of Rage, but her memory of this time had been erased. Brunhilde allowed herself to become the Maiden of Rage once again, and attacked, and killed the other Disir. Eventually, Valkyrie, Misty Knight, Hippolyta, Dani, Elsa Bloodstone, Clea, and others banded together to form the latest incarnation of the Lady Liberators: the Fearless Defenders!
X-Men Disassembled
The New Mutants were reformed by Karma as a corporate team to investigate paranormal activities. At the end of the adventure, Moonstar was part of the team and infected by the Warlock virus. Later they were rescued by the X-Men.
Powers
Danielle Moonstar’s principal ability was to pull images of great fear or desire from her victims and manifest them as three dimensional illusions. While she consciously used this ability, it does not allow her to scan a person’s mind. Her only knowledge of what the image she conjures is when it has manifested in front of her. The illusion would appear as a holographic image to all who saw it except for the victim, who would think it was real.
As a by-product of her illusion casting she could focus her psionic powers into energy arrows which stuns an opponent, and had a type of telepathic empathy with animals; sensing their feelings and see through their eyes.
As a Valkyrie:
After being depowered on M-Day, Dani was able to regain the powers she had been granted by Hela, Asgardian goddess of death, as Hel’s Valkyrie. She received a winged horse named Brightwind as her steed, and a blade made of Uru metal (the same metal that Mjolnir, hammer of Thor, was made from).
Statistics
Known Relatives: William Lonestar (father), Peg Lonestar (mother), Black Eagle (grandfather deceased). All deceased.
Citizenship: Citizen of the United States, Cheyenne Native American
Place of Birth: Boulder, Colorado
Occupation: Adventurer, teacher, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, student, former Valkyrie, mutant, advisor, teacher
Education: Xavier Institute
Characteristics
Gender: Female
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 125 lbs
Eyes: Dark Brown
Hair: Black
Alternate Realities
Age Of Apocalypse (Earth #295)
In the Age of Apocalypse reality, Danielle Moonstar was an agent of Apocalypse working at the Ghost Dance, a secret community specially designed to help evacuating mutants from America to Avalon. Cruel and sadistic Danielle is a member of Damask’s Pale Riders. Danielle would sadistically torture by cutting and slicing Dead Man Wade’s face over and over again. Dead Man Wade had a healing ability that would take care of the wounds but it would still be an excruciating experience. Danielle was told numerous times to stop by Damask, and didn’t listen. Eventually, Damask had enough of Moonstar’s disobedience and killed her.
It’s shown how Danielle uses her arrows to kill one of Apocalypse´s infinite guards.
House Of M (Earth #58163)
In the House of M reality Danielle Moonstar is an agent of the SHIELD and agent appointed to the Hellions, who are the training unit in SHIELD. In this reality there are two schooling options for young mutants to decide from: either the New Mutant Leadership Institute (similar to Xavier’s Institute) for the future diplomats and leader’s of the nation, or become a trainee of S.H.I.E.L.D. (joining their Hellions training squad) for a spy and covert ops/military type training. In the House of M, Danielle chose S.H.I.E.L.D. and is the field agent in charge of training the Hellions training squad, although an agent she actively participates in missions. Unlike in the regular 616 reality, Karma and Moonstar are not friends, and often bump heads as Karma is the leader of the New Mutants. She also appears to be without powers in this reality. Whether that’s true or she doesn’t use them is unknown.
X-Men: The End (Earth #904)
In the X-Men: The End it chronicles the end of the X-Men 20 years in the future. In this reality, Danielle is capture and placed in a coma in a newly created Neverland Ranch located on the blue side of the moon. Whilst she is in a coma many of her friends in the X-Men whom she has known for years are killed, and she was unable to help. During an attack on Xavier Institute, Wolfsbane was caught in an explosion while attempting to save the lives of the students. In her last dying thoughts she called out to Dani for help. Through Dani’s telepathic connection to Rahne while in her lupine form, Wolfsbane provided her with enough energy to try to break out of her coma. She began to chant spells and mystical runes manifested above & around her body. The scientists on the moon were unnerved and decided to kill her. After her death Dani awoke as someone who was no longer a mutant or even a human being. Danielle Moonstar transformed into a Valkyrie, finally reaching her potential. She destroys Neverland Ranch as her final help to her allies on Earth, but then leaves Earth never to return. Thereafter, she later helped destroy Hela and took her place as the Norse Goddess of Death and ruler of Hel.
Earth #8720 (New Mutants #48 & 50)
Most of the X-Men, if not all, and the New Mutants were killed by Sentinels in their initial attack. The New Mutants were reduced to a trio consisting of an aged Cannonball, his lover Lila Cheney and a very embittered & war-torn Danielle Moonstar. They devised a plan to gather the remaining mutants together and use Lila’s intergalactic teleportation powers to safely leave Earth and head to another planet. They appear to have been successful, as they are shown teleporting away in one of the final panels.
Earth #1081
Homeworld of Morph, ex-member of the Exiles. The New Mutants of this reality were/are very similar to the mainstream counterpart of Earth #616 with an exception to the members of the team. The team consisted of Cannonball, Sunspot, Moonstar, Wolfsbane and Morph.
Earth #904
What If… The X-Men Stayed In Asgard?
An offer is made to the X-Men and New Mutants giving them the choice of whether to stay or leave Asgard. Though only a few X-Men accept and stay, all but three of the New Mutants remain in Asgard effectively putting an end to the group as a whole. Those that remained in Asgard dramatically change history there and most take on important roles. Danielle Moonstar battles and defeats Hela the Goddess of Death and takes her role becoming the new Goddess of Death, ruling over her domain of Hel.
Earth #?
Marvel Mangaverse
In this reality Danielle Moonstar uses the codename Mirage and is a member of the X-Men. Her powers are quite different in this reality as she is a sorceress and has the ability to summon monsters that battle for her. One other significant difference from her mainstream counterpart is that here is from India and as such is not a Native American.
Other Media
Television
- Danielle Moonstar appears in the X-Men: Evolution episode “Ghost of a Chance,” voiced by Tabitha St. Germain. This version of the character has slightly different powers, being able to telepathically project dreams or nightmares into other people’s minds. It is revealed that when Dani’s powers first awoke, she drove most of the people in her town away, causing it to become abandoned. While on a hike, she became trapped in a rockslide, and eventually fell into a coma. While in this state of suspended animation, Dani inadvertently projects herself into the mind of Kitty Pryde, who eventually realizes that Dani really exists and is in need of rescue. Dani is ultimately freed by Kitty, and the two girls become friends.
Film
- In X2: X-Men United, Moonstar’s name is listed in William Stryker’s files on Lady Deathstrike’s computer.
- Dani Moonstar appears as one of the leads in the New Mutants movie, portrayed by Blu Hunt.
Novels
X-Men: The Last Stand Novel
In the novelization of X-Men: The Last Stand, Moonstar is recruited as a future X-Man, alongside Cannonball, Gambit, Sage amongst others.
Video Games
X-Men: Battle of the Atom
Moonstar 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:
- [Utopia Defender] Moonstar
- [Pale Riders] Danielle Moonstar
- [Necrosha] New Mutants
- [Exorcist] Dani Moonstar
Marvel: War of Heroes
Dani appears in several cards in the mobile card game Marvel: War of Heroes. Her cards are:
- [Hela’s Boon] Dani Moonstar
- [Death’s Shield Maiden] Dani Moonstar
Marvel Heroes
Danielle is non-playable character in the game.
Merchandise
- Dani Moonstar was featured in the Minimates line from Diamond Select as part of a two-pack with Magma.
- Dani Moonstar (as Mirage) was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
- Dani Moonstar was featured in The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection from Eaglemoss Publications.
- Dani Moonstar was slated to appear in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Epic Heroes wave, where it would have been used a running change variant for the Mystique figure. Despite the prototype being shown off at conventions, it, along with a Blade figure announced the same wave, was never released.
- Dani Moonstar finally made a proper appearance in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line in 2019 as a Walgreens exclusive.