Copycat (Marvel Comics)

Copycat (Vanessa Geraldine Carlysle) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a former member of X-Force.

Actress Morena Baccarin portrays a non-mutant Vanessa Carlysle in the 2016 film Deadpool and the 2018 film Deadpool 2.

Publication history
Copycat first appeared in X-Force #19 (February 1993), where the character was retconned to the first appearance of Domino in The New Mutants #98 (February 1991), and was created by Fabian Nicieza and Greg Capullo.

Fictional character biography
The daughter of Dorothy and the late Burt Carlysle, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, as a young mutant shape-shifter kicked out of her home, Vanessa Carlysle fell into a life of prostitution in Boston where she met and fell in love with a mercenary named Wade Wilson. Carlysle was soon saved from Wilson's vengeful employers by Zoe Culloden, a time-traveling agent of Landau, Luckman & Lake who had journeyed into the past to prevent Wilson's eventual self-destruction. That night, Wilson broke up with Carlysle after learning he had terminal illness, leaving her heartbroken. Carlysle became a mercenary herself, eventually employed by arms-dealer Tolliver.

Under his orders, Copycat infiltrated X-Force in the shape of Domino while the real Domino was a prisoner. Her mission was to blow up X-Force's headquarters in order to kill Cable, but she became attached to the team members, fell in love with Cable and didn't go through with her mission. Tolliver sent Deadpool to force her to set the bomb. Deadpool would be put in her place, if she refused. Deadpool revealed Copycat's cover to X-Force, and left them for dead by blowing up the complex (without knowing that X-Force had already escaped).

Vanessa briefly hid herself under the false identity (as a twin) of one of her friends; Tina Valentino. Deadpool and his associate, Sluggo, believing they killed her, killed Tina instead. She then moved in with Garrison Kane in San Francisco, until Cable found them. She was subsequently captured by the emotion-manipulating Psycho-Man, who sought Kane's advanced technology, but was rescued from the Microverse by Kane, Cable, Domino and the Microverse's resident heroes, the Microns. Later, she broke up with Kane and came back to live with Deadpool. Deadpool's feelings towards Siryn grew, so she left him after having taken his appearance to attack her, in hopes of souring their potential relationship.

Some time later, Copycat was captured by Weapon X. The treatments of Weapon X destroyed her memory and she forgot her mission. Recruited by Sabretooth, Deadpool received an order to kill her. He tried to warn her, so Weapon X sent Kane to kill the both of them. The fight took them to a local zoo where Deadpool left her in a shapechanged-gorilla form among other gorillas to fight against Kane. When he returned, the other gorillas were dead and Copycat was dying from wounds inflicted by Sabretooth. She died shortly after in Deadpool's arms.

However, Deadpool had poured an amount of his blood into Copycat's wounds, which, unknown to him, healed her. Vanessa then took up the identity of an owner of a chimichanga stand, and later cheated Deadpool out of one of his past marriages.

Powers and abilities
Copycat is such a powerful and precise metamorph that she can duplicate another being down to the cellular level. Because of this, she is able to replicate superhuman powers, abilities, and even mental imprints so closely that telepaths have trouble identifying her. Copycat simply requires knowledge to duplicate someone's appearance, but needs physical contact to duplicate anything else. She is also capable of turning into animals, finding these forms easier to maintain than human shape. Weapon X modified her powers by accelerating the rate at which she could duplicate others. However, as a side effect of this enhancement, Copycat began to lose her memory and was unable to hold any solid form for long periods of time.

Age of Apocalypse


In the Age of Apocalypse reality, Copycat was a member of the Brotherhood of Chaos, an elite religious group affiliated to the Church of the Madri. She served alongside other members such as Madison Jeffries and Spyne. She was often referred to as Sister Vanessa or Sister Carlysle. Using her shape-shifting powers, Copycat was able to hide incognito amongst the humans who had hoped to flee North America and was able to discover the site of the Sentinel Evacuation while in their midst. Vanessa led the Brotherhood to an emigration site in Maine and there they clashed with the Amazing X-Men. In an attempt to elude the X-Man Quicksilver, Copycat posed as Scarlet Witch, but was forced to revert to her normal self by Dazzler. Both Copycat and Box were able to escape the X-Men and conceal themselves, posing as humans, and escaped to Europe. They were discovered at a checkpoint and provided a distraction for a group of Altered Humans to pass through, but were subsequently hunted down by Weapon X and Jean Grey, with the latter slaying Vanessa in the process.

Age of X
In the Age of X reality, Copycat infiltrated Cannonball's X-Force when she worked for the Human Coalition. She was unmasked and killed by Husk.

Television

 * Copycat makes minor non-speaking appearances in the X-Men animated series.
 * Copycat makes a minor non-speaking appearance in the Wolverine and the X-Men animated series.

Film

 * Vanessa Carlysle appears in the live-action film Deadpool, portrayed by Morena Baccarin. Though she sports a telltale streak of white hair and references are made to the "roles" she has played, Vanessa has not demonstrated any mutant powers as of yet that relate to her comic-book counterpart. This is due to writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick deciding the reveal would be too confusing, although they have expressed interest in exploring the idea in a future story. She is in a relationship with and got engaged to Wade Wilson. Following his transformation into Deadpool and disfigurement however, he left her without a word. Vanessa is later abducted by Ajax and Angel Dust to lure out Deadpool. After he rescued her, Vanessa was initially angry with Deadpool for abandoning her, though she reconciled with him upon learning of his plight.
 * Vanessa appears in the live-action sequel film Deadpool 2, with Morena Baccarin reprising her role. Vanessa and Wade celebrate their anniversary and discuss starting a family. However, a drug lord he failed to kill earlier kills her. Following this, Vanessa later appears as a vision in the afterlife to tell a devastated Wade that he must protect Russell Collins from Cable. After Deadpool sacrifices himself to save Russell, he and Vanessa are temporarily reunited, but she tells him it is not his time yet and sends him back. In a mid-credits scene, Deadpool uses Cable's time-travel device to avert Vanessa's death.