Nanny (comics) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

The woman now known as the Nanny was once a scientist employed by the Right in the field of cyborg technology. When she learned of the Right's anti-mutant agenda, she tried to stop them. The Right sealed her in one of her cyborg designs, an egg-shaped armored suit; she escaped their custody, but the ordeal unbalanced her to borderline insanity. At some later date, she rescued a young mutant named Peter, crafted a battle suit for him and christened him the Orphan-Maker. She also obtained (possibly self-manufactured) high-tech weaponry and a flying craft.

Nanny and her Orphan-Maker became a pair of would-be saviors of mutant children, with Nanny as the brains and guiding force and Orphan-Maker as the brawn. In her mentally addled perception, Nanny believes that parents of mutant children are evil, especially those who abandon their children, or at the very least incompetent and ill-equipped to properly raise and protect young mutants from danger and exploitation. She and Orphan-Maker travelled the world, searching for young mutants to take care of, murdering their parents to sever any family connections and using her minor telepathic powers to control her new charges. Nanny dubbed these children her "Lost Boys and Girls", after the Lost Boys from the story of Peter Pan; in her psychosis, Nanny had developed a near-obsession with children's tales and nursery rhymes, often quoting passages from them appropriate (in her mind) to the situation at hand.

Nanny’s first major mission was at the State Home for Foundlings in Omaha, Nebraska, in reality a facility where Mister Sinister kept many mutant children for observation and experimentation, including the young Scott Summers, who became the X-Man Cyclops; at the time of Nanny's raid on the Home, Nathan Christopher Summers, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor, was among the children held there. Nanny sought to "liberate" several of the mutant children into her own custody, with the aid of the Orphan-Maker and some of her "Lost" children, but were opposed by Cyclops and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), then members of X-Factor, who were there to retrieve Cyclops' son. In the course of their battle, Marvel Girl discovered that two of Nanny's "Lost" children were in fact Gailyn and Joey Bailey, the children of Sara Grey, Marvel Girl’s sister, who had been missing for some time. Thwarted by Cyclops and Marvel Girl, as well as demons in the service of N'astirh (there to acquire Nathan Christopher Summers and other mutant children for sacrifice), Nanny fled with her Orphan-Maker and "Lost" children in tow; Marvel Girl was forced to let her niece and nephew go with Nanny, who posed little danger to the children in her care, to pursue the demons who had taken Nathan Christopher. This initial appearance of Nanny left the impression to the heroes that she and the Orphan-Maker were robots.