Roulette (Marvel Comics)

Roulette
Roulette from New Mutants #16. Art by Sal Buscema.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New Mutants #16 (Jun 1984)
Created by	Chris Claremont Sal Buscema
In-story information
Alter ego	Jennifer Stavros
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Hellions
Abilities	Roulette can create discs of psionic energy which alter the probability field around the victim at whom she throws the disc. Her black energy discs create "bad luck" while her red energy discs bestow "good luck."

Roulette (real name: Jennifer Stavros) is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe.

Publication history

Roulette was created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema in New Mutants vol. 1 #16-17 (June–July 1984) for the antithesis to the New Mutants: the Hellions.

The character subsequently appears in The Uncanny X-Men #193 (May 1985), Firestar #2-4 (April–June 1986), The New Mutants #39 (May 1986), #43 (September 1986), #53-54 (July–August 1987), #56 (October 1987), #62 (April 1988), The New Warriors #9-10 (March–April 1991), and died in The Uncanny X-Men #281 (October 1991). The character made a posthumous appearance in The New Warriors Annual #2 (1992).

Roulette appeared as part of the "Hellions" entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #5.

Fictional character biography

Jennifer Stavros was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When Charles Xavier formed a young team of mutants to be New Mutants to become new generation of X-Men, the villainous Hellfire Club retaliated as they saw it as a threat to their goals. The White Queen (Emma Frost) found and recruited a team of her own named the Hellions. Jennifer was part of the original line-up of the team when she was recruit along with Tarot, Catseye, Empath, Jetstream, and Thunderbird.

One of the team's first missions was to stop the New Mutants from rescuing Kitty Pryde who had been captured while accompanying her friend and soon-to-be hero Doug Ramsey on a trip to see whether he wanted to accept a scholarship with the Massachusetts Academy, the school run by the White Queen in her public identity as Emma Frost. The White Queen becomes detained and, while she is away, the two teams decide to settle the matter by a duel. The New Mutants win and, in the confusion, escape with their friends.

The next time Roulette appears she is with a group from the Hellions—along with James Proudstar—who ambush Muir Island. James wants revenge on the X-Men for the death of his older brother John Proudstar on his first mission, so he attacks Banshee who was one of the last people to see his brother alive. The team battles some of the X-Men and has several opportunities to kill them, but James sees the error of his ways and flees.

Taking a rare opportunity for civility, Emma Frost throws a dance party for her Hellions and the New Mutants. Roulette and her teammates actually enjoyed the night—splitting off into small groups—until old rivalries flared again and the dance was cancelled.

Later, when the New Mutants were in a state of emotional turmoil over being killed and resurrected by the Beyonder, Emma Frost saw it as her opportunity to sweep in and take control. She convinced Magneto—the current leader of the team—to allow the New Mutants to come to the Massachusetts Academy for psychic counseling, where she promptly accepted them into the ranks of her Hellions. The two teams became quite fond of one another but were separated when Magneto realized that his emotions had been manipulated by Empath to convince him to relinquish the students.

When the Hellions learned that the New Mutants seemingly let free a creature called Bird-Brain, they decided to capture it for themselves. The Hellions battle their rivals above the skyscrapers of Manhattan and lose. Bird-Brain escapes into New Mutant custody. Roulette, along with her ally Catseye seemingly plunges to a grisly death after an accident. She uses her power on herself and Catseye. They end up landing safely on a store canopy.

Roulette was part of the force of Hellions that attacked the New Warriors over the fate of Firestar, a former member. At first, her powers were deflected back on her teammates but when the battles degenerated to one on one, she easily took down Speedball. Eventually the Hellions left, having lost due to the competition deal between the White Queen and Tai, the unofficial force behind the Warriors.

Soon after, Emma throws another party, which the Hellions as well as the X-Men Gold team attended. It was there that Trevor Fitzroy of the Upstarts—crashes with the goal of killing Emma in order to gain points within the group. The Hellions were mere formalities. Roulette, along with most of her teammates, was killed by Fitzroy in order to fuel his time traveling teleportation portals.

Roulette made a postmortem appearance in the 1997 Annual of Generation X. However, this was just a trick played by the demon D'Spayre to agitate Emma Frost.

Necrosha

Roulette is shown on the cover of New Mutants (vol. 3) #7 along with the other deceased Hellions.

Powers and abilities

Roulette's mutant power is to generate disks of psychic energy that alter the laws of chance of anything they touch, resulting in either good or bad luck for their subjects by altering the probabilities field around the victim at whom she throws the disc. Her black energy discs create "bad luck" while her red energy discs bestow "good luck."

See also

• List of fictional characters who can alter probability

External links

• MarvelDatabase:Roulette (Jennifer Stavros) - profile and picture gallery
• Uncannyxmen.net character bio on Roulette
• Uncannyxmen.net feature on the Hellions