By any metric, X-Statix was one of the strangest X-Men titles ever released. The Peter Milligan and Mike Allred series began as X-Force and focused on a group of dysfunctional mutant superheroes starring in a reality television show. The cast changed frequently, with many members of the team being suddenly killed off. The original roster of the team was decimated in their first issue in 2001, with only a handful of survivors: the enigmatic Doop, the conflicted Anarchist and U-Go Girl.
U-Go Girl quickly became a fan-favorite character and remained at the forefront of the series alongside new cast members like Mister Sensitive. However, her eventual death changed the trajectory (and title) of the series and revealed many dark aspects about her past that she hid away. With X-Statix set to return next year as The X-Cellent, CBR is looking back at the history of U-Go Girl.
WHO IS U-GO-GIRL?
Edie Sawyer was born in a small town in middle America. Although she initially seemed like a regular teenager, her X-gene eventually manifested. This had two effects: it turned her skin a distinct blue hue, and it gave her the ability to teleport. Her teleportation doesn't seem to have limits in terms of weight or distance, and it allows her to eventually teleport entire teams around the world with ease. However, the act physically exhausts her, and too many teleports can put her to sleep.
RELATED: X-Men: The Evolution of Beast's Costume and Design
Edie eventually ended up a pregnant teenager, giving birth to a girl named Katie. Ashamed and wanting her daughter to have a more normal life, she passed herself off as Katie's older sister and allowed her own parents to raise Katie as their own. Soon after, Edie fled the small town. She teleported to Los Angeles to make a new life for herself and was eventually recruited by Coach to join his new superhero team: X-Force.
U-GO GIRL IN X-FORCE
Taking their name from the (then believed dead) former X-Men affiliate team, X-Force was a television-targeted superhero team. They became major reality TV stars, who filmed their adventures around the world. Edie formed a romantic relationship with Zeitgeist, the leader of the team. This was short-lived, however, as Zeitgeist and most of the rest of the team were killed off by the end of their first appearance. U-Go Girl barely survived the mission, along with her newest teammate Anarchist and their cameraman Doop.
The two were soon butting heads over who would take over as leader. In the end, Coach recruited Mister Sensitive, Guy Smith, as the team leader in an attempt to stave off any bad blood between the pair. However, Coach would often push Edie to try and ruin Mister Sensitive. He even convinced her to load the gun he always played solo Russian Roulette with, but the guilt got to her, and she tried to save him. Although Coach incapacitated her, Mister Sensitive realized the change and used the gun to save Edie.
Love & Death
In the aftermath of that incident, Edie started a romantic relationship with Mister Sensitive. She even took Guy to her home town and introduced him to her family. Things took a turn however during a mission to space. While fighting the Bush Rangers, a group of demented shapeshifters, the team was separated. Edie was able to survive many of the threats thrown her way, but she and the rest of the team were caught off-guard when one of the Bush Rangers was revealed to be mimicking The Spike. Throwing out a flurry of spikes, U-Go Girl was fatally wounded and died in Guy's arms. Her last request was to be buried among the stars, so the team let her body loose into the cosmos.
Her loss hung over Mister Sensitive and Anarchist, although she inspired the team's name change to X-Statix. Future team-member Venus Dee Milo eventually found Edie's diary and discovered some less than charitable parts of Edie's life that she'd hidden best she could. Among them were a drinking problem and a joy at not having to raise her own daughter. The most damning though was the revelation that Edie had sold weapons to dictators for quick cash, using her powers to procure them and transport them. This ended up being a major PR nightmare for the team and changed how Guy saw his lost love.
In the newly released Giant-Sized X-Statix, Katie is revealed to have become a college student and inherited her mother's powers. It remains to be seen if this new U-Go Girl will follow in her mother's footsteps as a celebrity superhero.