Wind Dancer

Sofia Elizabeth Mantega, also known as Wind Dancer and formerly known as Renascence, is a fictional character, a mutant appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. One of the student body in the Xavier Institute, she is a member of the New Mutants squad therein. Her first appearance was in New Mutants, vol. 2 #1. At the beginning of New Mutants vol. 2, she is 16 years old.

Fictional character biography

Early life

Sofia was born and lived most of her life in Caracas, Venezuela. While under the care of her uncle, Sofia's mother is killed in a riot. Her only Venezuelan adult relative, an uncle, is unable to support her in addition to his own children, so she is sent to her father Walter Barrett, who had been previously unaware of her existence. The head of a major supermarket chain located in the United States, Barrett is a cold, asocial man with no interest in a daughter. As such, he extracts from her a promise that she would learn English before school started, she would get good grades, and she would not use her mutant power, in exchange for which all her material wants would be provided for without question.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Over the next three weeks, Sofia befriends Barrett's manservant Derek, learns English, and joins a local school, but despite her outgoing nature, she has difficulty fitting in and is unable to reconcile herself to Barrett's lack of affection for her. She ultimately acts out by skipping school and wrecking one of Barrett's stores. Barrett is incensed, less at the destruction of his store than by her exposing him as the father of a mutant, and considers leaving her in prison for 48 hours to punish her. Danielle Moonstar, having seen Sofia's vandalism on the news, steps in and offers her a place at the Xavier Institute.<ref>New Mutants (vol. 2) #1 (July 2003)</ref>

File:Wind dancer.jpg

Wind Dancer as a New Mutant using her wind powers.

Xavier Institute

Resident mischief maker Julian Keller (Hellion) finds himself instantly attracted to Mantega and begins courting her. She rejects him after he makes derogatory remarks about her roommate Laurie Collins (Wallflower),<ref>New Mutants (vol. 2) #2 (August 2003)</ref><ref name=":1">New Mutants (vol. 2) #3 (September 2003)</ref> but the attraction remains mutual, and despite herself Sofia later ends up flirting with Julian during a combat training exercise.<ref>New X-Men (vol. 2) #5 (November 2004)</ref> Derek remains in touch, even quitting his job when her father objects to his seeing Sofia.<ref>New Mutants (vol. 2) #6 (December 2003)</ref>

Sofia and Laurie are assigned to the New Mutants squad, along with Surge, Elixir, Prodigy, and Wither.<ref>New X-Men (vol. 2) #2 (August 2004)</ref> Sofia is generally well-liked and is voted as "Most Outgoing" in the school's yearbook.<ref name=":2" />

Prodigy rejects the offer to lead the New Mutants, so the position falls to Sofia. She becomes isolated and irritable when the group loses their first training exercise, which she blames on her failure to lead. Her command decisions weaken further when Wither is arrested for the accidental death of his father, and she briefly sides with the Hellions, Julian's squad, to break him free. After the New Mutants fight the Hellions over the incident, Prodigy talks her into letting Wither go, and she tries to convince him to lead the New Mutants. He insists that Sofia's emotionalism has its advantage in a leadership role, but agrees to be co-leader, to better mesh their strengths.<ref>New X-Men: Academy X #6 (December 2004)</ref>

Thereafter, Sofia's temper eases again until the school dance, where she catches Laurie manipulating Prodigy to make Elixir jealous.<ref>New X-Men (vol. 2) #14 (July 2005)</ref> Alarmed by the rapid disintegration of the squad, she finds herself kissing Julian, and he pushes her to end the in-fighting since she is the one who sees the good in everyone - even him. She tries to do so by forcing everyone to camp out on the X-Mansion's grounds. While bickering and even fist-fighting break out, Sofia is able to eventually reconcile her teammates.<ref name=":2">New X-Men: Yearbook Special one-shot (December 2005)</ref>

New Warriors

In Decimation, Wind Dancer loses her powers along with 98% of the mutant population when the Scarlet Witch produces a reality-bending spell in an attempt to solve the human/mutant problem.<ref>House of M #8 (December 2005)</ref> Along with most of the de-powered students, she moves out of the mansion, planning to return to Venezuela with Derek. She leaves the school abruptly without giving Julian notice after she catches him callously denouncing Prodigy after the latter lost his powers.<ref>New X-Men (vol. 2) #23 (April 2006)</ref>

For as-yet-unknown reasons, Sofia moves to New York City, where she lives alone and works as a waitress. She feels directionless in her new "normal" life and has nightmares about losing her powers. Around this time, Sofia begins to receive strange messages from a group calling itself the New Warriors. The group sends a messenger whom Sofia recognizes as Barry, a young man she knew (and flirted with) from the restaurant she works in. Barry explains that he is a depowered mutant, and is actually her old friend from the Xavier Institute, Beak, whom she did not recognize because of his altered appearance post-M-Day. Beak transports Sofia into the secret base of the New Warriors,<ref>The New Warriors (vol. 4) #1 (August 2007)</ref> but she rejects their efforts to talk her into joining the group.<ref>The New Warriors (vol. 4) #2 (September 2007)</ref>

However, a battle between the New Warriors and a new Zodiac breaks out near the restaurant where Sofia works and she witnesses Cancer kill the New Warrior Longstrike.<ref>The New Warriors (vol. 4) #4 (November 2007)</ref> With the Warriors fighting a losing battle and a little boy caught in the crossfire, Sofia charges towards Cancer, providing enough distraction to give her friends the upper hand. While the superpowered individuals battle, Sofia tries to get the young boy to safety but is blasted from behind.<ref>The New Warriors (vol. 4) #6 (January 2008)</ref> Upon her release from the hospital, Sofia reconsiders Night Thrasher's offer to join the New Warriors as he is considering disbanding the group.Template:Volume needed She takes the codename Renascence and utilizes a suit with electrified tentacles to make up for her lack of powers.<ref>The New Warriors (vol. 4) #9 (April 2008)</ref>

Krakoa

During the Krakoan Age, Wind Dancer becomes an online streamer broadcasting to the Mojoverse. After making a poll with her followers, she learns that they want her to die and hires Adam X to kill her. The Five quickly resurrect Wind Dancer, restoring her powers in the process.<ref>X-Factor (vol. 4) #3 (November 2020)</ref><ref name="autogenerated1">X-Factor (vol. 4) #5 (February 2021)</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following the end of the Krakoan Age, Dazzler returns to her musical career and Wind Dancer becomes her publicist.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Powers and abilities

As the mutant Wind Dancer, Sofia has the ability to control the movement of air, which included the ability to generate wind with intense force, lift and carry objects, fly and, more subtly, amplify small vibrations in the air - allowing her to hear faraway conversations.<ref name=":0" />

She also uses her powers to create a "cutting" effect by refining the force of the wind.<ref>New Mutants (vol. 2) #5 (November 2003)</ref> When at close range, she can also compress air into a person's ear to disrupt their balance.<ref name=":1" />

As Renascence, she wore a suit equipped with six metallic tentacles that could discharge surges of electricity. She was also equipped with a personal force field that emits a golden aura.

Sofia has some athletic and martial arts skills due to her training as a New Mutant at Xavier's and the combat sessions with the New Warriors.

Other versions

An alternate universe version of Wind Dancer from Earth-58163 appears in House of M. This version is a S.H.I.E.L.D. trainee under Danielle Moonstar's supervision.<ref>New X-Men (vol. 2) #16–19 (September - December 2005)</ref>

External links

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