This section includes a break-down of Paige's character and behavior, according to several time periods, as well as other miscellaneous details on the girl and her appearances. I have quite a bit planned for here, but if you have any suggestions, just e-mail me.
Character Analysis
Generation X: The Beginning (# 1 - 34)
Generation X: The Middle (# 35 - 62)
Generation X: The End/Counter X (# 63 - 75)
Miscellaneous Comic
Information
Must Have
Issues
Comic Avatars
& Corner Boxes
From the very instant of becoming a member of Generation X, Paige Guthrie, aged 17 made her intentions clear. She loves being a mutant and she wants to be educated by Xavier. Having already had second-hand experience of what it is like to be a student at one of Xavier's schools, thanks to her brother, she declares that she will not make the same mistakes as her did. She is determined to surpass his achievements and become the perfect X-Man, something which she feels Sam failed to be be. She is aided somewhat in this goal by being more skilled and dedicated than Sam was when he joined the New Mutants. It becomes obvious that Paige not only intends to be better than her brother, but also to be the best member of Generation X. At first, an excess of confidence leads her to believe that she is already quite near to her goal, and this is manifested in many ways. The most obvious sign of her over-confidence is the frequency with which Paige rushes into battle without thinking. This thoughtlessness puts both herself and her team in danger and leads to her being injured on more than one occasion. As her own goal is to become the perfect X-Man, Paige is shocked when other members of the team inform her that they have no wish to join Xavier's team.
Paige has little time for sleeping, seeing it has a waste of time, and prefers to be engaged in some sort of activity, physical or mental. Every morning, she wakes up at around 5am and exercises to Cindy Crawford's workout video. This is followed up by a five mile jog, during which she also uses hand-held weights, all in the name of keeping in top fighting form. On a less physical level, she believes in being prepared for everything. Before coming to the school, she studied the danger room schematics thoroughly and is distraught upon learning that the Massachusetts Academy does not have one. However, she wastes no time in learning all about the school's biosphere. She also appears to have detailed knowledge on the working of Cerebro and reads books covering topics such as chemistry, quantum physics, advanced calculus and English literature. She quickly gains a reputation as a bookworm, often choosing studying over socializing. This single-mindedness, along with her need to know what will be happening next, leads to some of the others labeling her 'obsessive'.
When she arrives at the school, she firmly believes that she will be the leader of the team and, as such, should set an example. She admits to being eager to please and green but does not see this as any kind of obstacle on her way to leadership and plans to achieve her goal, no matter the cost to her sanity and social life. Despite her desire to be the leader, Paige finds it difficult to act as part of a team and is often guilty of putting herself before everyone else. On the occasions where she does work as part of a team, it is difficult to tell if this is because it is the right thing to do, or whether she is trying to prove that she can work as part of a team despite what people might think. Paige does, however, display several characteristics of leadership, including organization, resourcefulness and the ability to give orders and have them followed.
In the early stages of her career, Paige is described as a 'self-induced perpetual metamorph' who has no control over her husks, which seem to be completely random, although they are always composed of 'bio-organic' substances. These changes put a huge amount of strain on her system, and can be dangerous if used incorrectly, or if she changes forms too often. Banshee, in his original assessment of his new students, believes that Emma Frost will be able to help Paige to develop her powers. Paige herself, appreciates the 'originality' of her power and is keen to stretch it as far as she can, even if it means putting herself at risk. She also studies chemistry in the hope that it will help her to understand the method by which her powers work and when she gains more control over her husks, can't seem to stop herself from showing it off. Each time she husks, she goes through a medical examination in another attempt to learn more about her powers. While it is important for her to have other people know that she is a mutant and what her mutant powers are, she worries about using them unnecessarily. According to other members of the team, she practices her power constantly, but never bothers to pick up her discarded skin. At this stage of her career, Paige's metamorphoses are accompanied by a shripp sound, and do not destroy her clothing - when she returns to her normal form, the clothes she was wearing before the husk are revealed once more. Sometimes her hair comes off along with her skin, sometimes it does not. Sometimes she peels the skin off herself, sometimes it seems to come off without any help from her. Her husks sometimes give her the power of flight and sometimes don't. Also, injuries sustained in her husked form often do not remain once she has discarded the new layer and returned to her normal skin, but occasionally do. As she learns more about her powers, Paige begins to be able to control them, but this requires a large amount of concentration, and she finds it difficult to pick the form she wants. Although she revels in her own powers and shows no fear in the face of the powers of other mutants, Paige is scared of guns.
Mutant-powers aside, Paige, hailing from Kentucky, brings a certain 'down-home charm' to the group. She tends to have an upbeat outlook on life, which leads to Jono nicknaming her Sunshine. However, her early life was not as easy as the others first think and she resents when people try to protect her, thinking that she can't face up to the harsh realities of life Despite her serious attitude to study and honing her powers, she remains a teenager, and is not as grown up as she would like to think. She takes a certain delight in lording her knowledge over her team mates, and often indulges in sarcastic banter, both with friends and in the heat of battle. She is not afraid of spying on people and tends to read people on the surface, rather than looking deeper. Her organizational skills do not carry through to her bedroom which is surprisingly messy, much to everyone's surprise. Her desire to succeed leads her to overcompensate for almost everything and even though she puts on a strong front, Paige is often frightened by the things she experiences, but refuses to let anyone else see this. One of the exceptions is her reaction to the legacy virus - the first negative aspect of being a mutant she has come across. Paige acts like a typical teenager and when confronted with something she can't really understand, resorts to alcohol (although she turns out to be a light-weight). It also reveals that underneath her serious exterior, she is interested in boys, like most girls her age. In fact, she spends a lot of time thinking about her confused feelings on the subject. Despite all of this, Paige has only two kisses during this period, one of which was disastrous and one which she calls 'disgusting'. She occasionally indulges in fantasies of being looked after, but her friends, Angelo in particular, know that that's the last thing she actually wants. Finally, Paige keeps a diary which she uses to record her secrets and her 'poetry' and which she goes to ridiculous efforts to hide from the others, feeling that they would think it was childish and laugh at her.
Despite her anti-social habits, Paige becomes especially close to two of her teammates - Angelo and Jono. She shares a sarcastic friendship with Angelo, who scathingly nicknames her Country Mouse, while she pityingly calls him City Mouse. There is some suggestion of a flirtation between the pair, but mostly, Paige's romantic feelings are reserved for Jono. However, a misunderstanding early on in their relationship hinders her efforts to get to know him better. Even more important than her team friendships, however, is her family. Paige admits that part of her is always homesick and believes that family is the most important thing anyone can have. When Franklin Richards looses his parents, it is Paige who comforts him as she is one of the only ones to realize how important his family were to him.
Appearances matter little to Paige, as demonstrated in her interest in Jono and friendship with Angelo and she is always disgusted when someone is judged on their 'different' appearance. Her disregard for looks is also evident in her own fashion, or lack thereof, which in her early days with Generation X is firmly half-nerd, half-hick. She wears wide-rimmed glasses, dungarees and striped shirts. Her hair is not styled and is usually pulled back out of her face for the sake of convenience. Despite her disregard for appearances, Paige works hard to discard her Kentucky accent, feeling that it leads to people labeling her as backwards and uneducated.
Paige begins to learn that life isn't as perfect or as fair as she once believed it was. She realizes that she may never become the perfect X-Man or have all the answers, and that being a mutant is not all she believes it would be. In the next stage of her career, she begins to become comfortable with this.
Paige is still impetuous, and still rushes into fights regardless of the danger, though she has developed the ability to be calm in a crisis. However, she has started to loosen up a bit and now refers to Banshee as Sean, rather than the more formal 'Mr. Cassidy.' Banshee himself is surprised by this and feels she is becoming relatively disrespectful. Paige also begins to talk more like a teenager and less like a middle-aged Professor. We learn more about her fun side, as she becomes more willing to let this side of herself show. Paige, it seems, likes girly movies, tacky nail polish and the Spice Girls, and has always wanted to go on the perfect date. Her childishness remains somewhat, as evidenced by her named for her diary - 'Ms Rags'. She is also more free with her emotions and becomes far more social than she had been previously. Her sense of humor and sarcasm continue to grow, as does her compassion. If anyone needs her help she will give it immediately, without a second thought.
While she loosens up a bit emotionally and socially, Paige also develops her style somewhat. Her chosen clothes are more up-to-date and much more revealing. She finally gets a stylish haircut and also begins to wear make-up. Her new-found boy-awareness leads her to face up to her feelings for Jono and when some other girls flirt with him, Paige becomes visibly jealous and slaps one of the girls, something which she would never have dreamed of doing when she first joined Generation X. When Jono reveals his feelings for her, she is overjoyed and optimistic about the future. When their relationship turns sour once more, Paige seems to change a bit, becoming far more interested in boys than ever before. When the school opens its doors to non-mutant students, she is excited about the meeting the new male students. She still resents it when people try to protect her and is more than willing to make her own mistakes, which is part of the reason why she agrees to date Tristan Brawn. At first, the others see all of these changes as positive as she is becoming less of a 'suck-up', but after a while, when her behaviors becomes less and less like what they're used to, they worry that she acting out of character, being more concerned with boys and her appearance than work.
Boys do seem to play an increasing role in her life, and Paige matures in her attitudes towards them. She is pleased when Tristan is able to tell her how he feels, realizing how important that is. However, she does use the relationship as a way to have fun, rather than taking it very seriously, as she still has feelings for Jono. Although she is maturing in certain ways, her attitude towards Jono is childish in the extreme and she can hardly bear to be civil with him.
Although she neglects certain areas of study, Paige continues to work on developing her powers and gains more and more control of them. She feels that she is about to make a big breakthrough and is proved correct when she is pushed by Tom Corsi, and husks five times in succession without damaging her health. when she husks into glass for the first time, she is pleased, realizing that there is more to mutant powers than using them for fighting. Presumably, she is still striving to be an X-Man and her confidence in battle situations rockets, though she is now able to laugh at her own setbacks and mistakes. At last, she seems to be comfortable with teamwork and no longer tries to put herself at the front of every situation. However, she continues to develop leadership skills including tactics and assigning the right people the right tasks. Being at the Massachusetts Academy is clearly still something she wants, and she worries about being expelled. Although she doesn't seem to study as much as she did in her early days with the team, Paige displays some new skills including computer hacking.
Family is still the most important thing in her life and when her mother becomes ill, she returns to the farm immediately. Even though she is changing and maturing, Paige worries deeply about what her mother thinks about the person she is becoming. Although her accent returns briefly after this visit, Paige once again works to discard it, though it continues to surface in moments of stress. When talking about her family, Paige says she will help her brothers and sisters when they develop mutant powers. In this it can be seen that being a mutant is still vitally important to her - she believes it is not a question of whether or not her siblings will develop powers, but rather a question of when they will develop powers.
Generation X: The End/Counter X
Towards the end of her time with Generation X, and partly due to the death of Everett, Paige's personality begins to calm down and she once again focuses on her goals, concentrating on studying rather than boys. However, she learned some valuable lessons during her boy-crazy phase and can now balance work and play effectively. She has also learned how to stick up for what she believes in, and continues to do so.
She continues to exercise and is entirely confident in both herself and her team. Showing a continued interest in computers, he develops a program which tracks and files all incidents of terror and hate around the world. Using these files, she suggests missions for the team. Although she is very proud of her new system, Emma believes that she needs to get out more. Part of the reason why Paige has turned her attention to world events is that she no longer believes it's good enough for Generation X to hide away and receive their training. She thinks, partly because of the loss of Everett, it is time to get more involved and the rest of Generation X agree with her.
Moving away from physics and chemistry somewhat, she is now highly skilled in hacking, computer coding, wireless systems integration technology and owns every bit of technology available to her. However, she balances this with more down-to-earth interests such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Emmylou Harris. Her sense of humor is still evident and has expanded to include impressions.
However, Paige begins to move away from mutant issues the wants the team to prevent the destruction of a forest in the Northwest. She is annoyed when she turns out to be the only one who thinks this is important, and shows that she can still be childish if she wants to be when she finds out that Jono has been asked to join the main X-Men team rather than her. She declares that she no longer wants to be an X-Man, even though it has been her life dream. Despite this, she still wants to help people and stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves. This is the main reason why she decides to leave Generation X, but the team have become part of her family and she is deeply upset when they disband.
Although she is disappointed that she never worked things out with Jono, she resigns herself to their lack of a relationship after one last outburst of affection for him.
If you want to read the most important moments of Paige's career, look no further! This list should provide you with all the highs (and lows) that you'll need to understand young Miss Guthrie.
X-Force # 32
(First move) With A Roll of the Dice (Child's Play 1 of 4)
Paige's first named appearance
New Warriors # 46
Child's Play 4 of 4
Paige defeats the Gamesmaster, freeing the captured members of X-Force
and the New Mutants
Generation X # 1
Third Genesis
Paige becomes a member of Generation X
Generation X # 5
Big Time in the Big Apple
Paige learns of the Legacy Virus, gets drunk and kisses Jono for the first
time
Generation X # 23
A Calm Before the Storm
Jono travels to Kentucky to spend Thanksgiving with the Guthrie family but
leaves early after telling Paige that he can never be 'normal' like her father
I've used the term 'avatar' to describe the little pictures often given on the opening page of a comic to remind the reader who's who, while 'corner boxes' describes the image used on the top left-hand corner of most Marvel comics (until recently). I hope to collect all of Paige's avatars and corner box appearances here.
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