Meggan Puceanu

FIRST APPEARANCE: Mighty World of Marvel #7 (December 1983)

Meggan is Romanichal (a British Romani), and was born in their camp near Fenborough Station. As a young child, Meggan was thought to be a wolf girl. However, thanks to her mutant shape changing power, she had simply grown fur because she was cold. As rumors escalated amongst the other Romani about the monstrous child in her father William's caravan, Meggan subconsciously began to manifest the attributes they speculated she had, such as fangs and bat wings. Because of this, her parents kept her isolated, and she was allowed to venture out only at night, with only television during the day as a link to the outside world. Because of this sheltered life and lack of education, Meggan was functionally illiterate.

However, the reality warping mutant Mad Jim Jaspers altered Britain. All superpowered beings were locked into camps; the Romani's caravans were raided, and both Meggan and William were taken into custody. Placed in a concentration camp, Meggan was separated from her family. She hoped the famous hero Captain Britain would save her. Jaspers was defeated and reality corrected itself for the most part, but though her memories of her imprisonment were hazy, Meggan was still aware that things had changed.

Meggan stayed in an derelict warehouse where she was befriended by Josie and Micky Scott, two teenagers from a nearby council estate. The full moon would affect Meggan at this time, making the kids think she was some type of werebeast. Running into Captain Britain in this form, she battled him, but during the fight Mickey was accidentally killed by falling debris. Meggan fled the scene in anguish. About a week later, after Micky's funeral, Captain Britain visited the Scott family to apologize for his part in Micky's death. While he was there, Meggan, who had been watching the family from a distance, also struck up the courage to do the same. Taking pity on her, Brian offered Meggan to be his house-guest at Braddock Manor.

When they arrived, Psylocke's friend Alison Double sensed that Meggan was "beautiful and radiant". However, Meggan said she had always been in her monstrous form, and did not realize at the time she could alter it. However, when dealing with the Warpies, Meggan transformed herself while battling the Cherubim Whirlwind, turning into a tall, blonde woman who matched Brian's idea of beauty. Brian fell for her, and the two adventured around the world while the Manor was filled with Warpies under the care of Betsy.

Meggan began to improve her control of her powers by mimicking animals she saw. In Russia the witch Baba Yaga attacked them, but Meggan used the power of nature and magic to defeat her. Returning to the U.K. after a time-traveling trip to Incan Peru, Brian and Meggan bought a lighthouse, Braddock Lighthouse with Incan gold to settle down in.

When the X-Men were believed to have perished in Dallas, Meggan contacted Shadowcat, and Nightcrawler, and they, along with Brian were drawn into battle against the Technet and the Warwolves (Mojoverse) to save Shadowcat and Nightcrawler's fellow X-Man Rachel Summers. Defeating those threats, the five of them soon formed the team Excalibur, and based themselves in the Lighthouse.

Constantly subconsciously modifying her form and behavior to match the empathic needs of those around her, Meggan still wondered which form was the 'real' Meggan. During the demonic invasion of New York City known as Inferno, Meggan was overcome by the demonic influences around her and altered herself into a demon-like form, calling herself the Goblin Princess. She attacked Brian, angry that he was seeing Courtney Ross on the side, but was disrupted by Shadowcat and the Soulsword.

During this time, Meggan also grew very close to her teammate Nightcrawler, to the point where Brian became jealous and attacked him. The fight between the two caused Meggan to run away with Rachel following her. The two women soon visited old friends, Josie and her family who helped Meggan come to realize that she wanted to locate her missing parents. So Meggan and Rachel went searching for her group Romani in France.

Later Meggan and Brian destroyed the Lighthouse to ensure their freedom from Merlyn (and secretly due to a subliminal suggestion by Roma.)

The team made Braddock Manor their new headquarters, and threw a housewarming party there. Among the guests was Brian's ex and mistress Courtney Ross, who had actually been murdered and replaced by her other-dimensional counterpart, the fugitive fascist dictator Sat-Yr-9. Sat-Yr-9 had her criminal forces attack the party-goers, and her pawn, Brian's reality-warping brother Jamie Braddock torture the guests, including Meggan, twisting their bodies into grotesque forms. Brian was drugged and controlled by Sat-Yr-9, who used him as her sex slave, but he broke free when she tried to make him kill Meggan. Shaking off the effects of drugs she'd been given, Meggan broke free of Jamie's reality warping, saying that as a shape-changer, the threads of order could not bind her. She beat Jamie senseless, saying it was the only language he would understand, and Betsy neutralized him with her 'psychic knife.' Breaking free from Jamie's control, Meggan discovered her 'true' form - an elfin, blonde, form, taller than the usual form Meggan took. However, Meggan had grown used to her normal form, and kept it as a rule. Sat-Yr-9 and Jamie escaped, however.

After this encounter, Brian became obsessed with stopping Sat-Yr-9, to the point where he ignored everyone else. Nightcrawler drew Brian's attention to his neglected relationship, and Brian took Meggan on a romantic holiday. Brian proposed to Meggan and she accepted. However, Brian soon lost control of his powers. Meggan admitted that she could see the power in Brian and that was part of why she felt for him. Meggan then asked him if he would have ever loved her if she had not assumed her blonde, beautiful form. The two eventually agreed it was more than just looks that they were interested in.

Meggan began to consider romance with Colossus while Brian was dealing with the temporary loss of his powers, but the feelings were mostly Peter's own which Meggan was mirroring. Upon Brian's return, the two married. They traveled to Otherworld to rule it in Roma's stead. While acting as rulers, they empowered Lionheart as the new Captain Britain.

The Scarlet Witch's altering of Earth-616 reality into the House of M caused a backlash of effects that threatened to destroy other universes. Meggan and Brian helped Roma against the suddenly returning Mad Jim Jaspers while Jamie Braddock destroyed a device of Saturnyne's that would have destroyed all of Earth-616 and the House of M.

Brian and Meggan were given 48 hours by Roma and Saturnyne to try and find the gap in reality before the energies flowed through. Upon arriving, they were briefly altered into being the royalty of Britain along with Psylocke and Rachel Summers, and helped Nocturne escape some of the House's forces. Meggan seemingly sacrificed herself in order to deflect a large amount of the chaotic energy so that the others could seal the gap.

When Brian was later trapped in an illusion created by the demonic entity Plokta, he was confronted with several figures from his past, including Meggan. Believing her to be an illusion, he escaped the illusion with the help of Alistaire Stuart, leaving her trapped in an unknown demonic realm.

She later returned home and was reunited with her husband.