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| Wind Dancer | |
|---|---|
 Sofia Mantega as Renascence, as depicted inThe New Warriors (vol. 4) #9 (April 2008). Art by Paco Medina. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | New Mutants (vol. 2) #1 (July 2003) |
| Created by | Nunzio DeFilippis Christina Weir Keron Grant |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Sofia Elizabeth Mantega-Barrett |
| Species | Human mutant |
| Team affiliations | New Mutants training squad New Warriors S.H.I.E.L.D Avengers |
| Notable aliases | Wind Dancer Renascence |
| Abilities | Minimal athlete and martial artist Air, wind and climate manipulation Flight Long-distance eavesdropping Suit with six mechanical tentacles and electrically charged talons |
Sofia Elizabeth Mantega, also known asWind Dancer and formerly known asRenascence, is a fictional character, amutant appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. One of the student body in theXavier Institute, she is a member of theNew Mutants squad therein. Her first appearance was inNew Mutants, vol. 2 #1. At the beginning ofNew Mutants vol. 2, she is 16 years old.
Sofia was born and lived most of her life inCaracas,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 majorsupermarket chain located in theUnited States, Barrett is a cold, asocial man with no interest in a daughter. As such, he extracts from her a promise that she would learnEnglish 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.[1][2]
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 theXavier Institute.[3]
Resident mischief makerJulian Keller (Hellion) finds himself instantly attracted to Mantega and begins dating her.[4] She rejects him after he makes derogatory remarks about her roommateLaurie Collins (Wallflower),[5][6] but the attraction remains mutual, and despite herself Sofia later ends up flirting with Julian during a combat training exercise.[7] Derek remains in touch, even quitting his job when her father objects to his seeing Sofia.[8]
Sofia and Laurie are assigned to theNew Mutants squad, along withSurge,Elixir,Prodigy, andWither.[9] Sofia is generally well-liked and is voted as "Most Outgoing" in the school's yearbook.[10]
Prodigy rejects the offer to lead the New Mutants, so the position falls to Sofia.[2] 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 theHellions, 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.[11]
Thereafter, Sofia's temper eases again until the school dance, where she catches Laurie manipulating Prodigy to make Elixir jealous.[12] 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 theX-Mansion's grounds. While bickering and even fist-fighting break out, Sofia is able to eventually reconcile her teammates.[10]
InDecimation, Wind Dancer loses her powers along with 98% of the mutant population when theScarlet Witch produces a reality-bending spell in an attempt to solve the human/mutant problem.[13][4][1][14] 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.[15]
For as-yet-unknown reasons, Sofia moves toNew 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 theNew 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,[16] but she rejects their efforts to talk her into joining the group.[17]
However, a battle between the New Warriors and a newZodiac breaks out near the restaurant where Sofia works and she witnesses Cancer kill the New WarriorLongstrike.[18] 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.[19] Upon her release from the hospital, Sofia reconsiders Night Thrasher's offer to join the New Warriors as he is considering disbanding the group.[volume & issue needed] She takes the codenameRenascence and utilizes a suit with electrified tentacles to make up for her lack of powers.[20][4]
During theKrakoan Age, Wind Dancer becomes an online streamer broadcasting to theMojoverse. After making a poll with her followers, she learns that they want her to die and hiresAdam X to kill her.The Five quickly resurrect Wind Dancer, restoring her powers in the process.[21][22][23][24][25][4][14][1] Following the end of the Krakoan Age,Dazzler returns to her musical career and Wind Dancer becomes her publicist.[26][1]
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.[1]
She also uses her powers to create a "cutting" effect by refining the force of the wind.[27] When at close range, she can also compress air into a person's ear to disrupt their balance.[6]
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.
An alternate universe version of Wind Dancer from Earth-58163 appears inHouse of M. This version is aS.H.I.E.L.D. trainee underDanielle Moonstar's supervision.[28]
Sofia's mutant ability is wind manipulation, which can be used to create strong gusts. While that may not sound like much, it's enough to enable Sofia to fly or throw people around the room. Like many of her fellow mutants, Sofia Mantega has been through a lot. She lost her mother at a young age, only to wind up in the hands of an uncaring father. The only silver lining here is that it eventually led Sofia to find Xavier's institute. Since then, Sofia lost her powers during M-Day, only to receive them again during the Krakoa era. Despite having her powers, Sofia has decided not to return to the X-Men and instead is supporting Dazzler's world tour.
The daughter of an American businessman who wasn't around and a Venezuelan mother who knew Sofia was a mutant with powers. Her mother accepted her absolutely and even encouraged Sofia to use her powers in their home in the capital of Venezuela, Caracas. Unfortunately, she lost her mother in riots caused by political unrest and lived with her father, who let his butler Derek Newton raise her. Eventually, ending up at Xavier's school, she found her family. Sofia went on to become a leader of the New Mutants.
Sofia Mentaga aka Wind-Dancer was among the New Mutants who joined the Xavier Institute shortly before the events of M-Day. She was a student of Dani Moonstone, [sic] a romantic interest for Hellion (despite him being the leader of the New Mutant rivals, Emma Frost's Hellions), and a leader alongside Prodigy. Capable of directing bursts of wind, the flight-capable Wind-Dancer ended up being one of the mutants who lost their powers in the fallout from House of M. After briefly working with the New Warriors and taking up the mantle of Renascence, Wind-Dancer was most recently rediscovered having relocated to Mojoworld. Ending up on Adam-X's streaming series, Wind-Dancer allowed herself to be killed for the live audience -- convincing a reluctant Adam-X to go through with it himself.
Sofia Mantega, otherwise known as Wind Dancer, is a Krakoa mutant who was depowered, went to Mojoworld to become a live streamer, getting herself killed in the process. This was intentional as she was revived with her powers of aerokinesis, returned by The Five.
Appearing as guest stars before a live-streaming audience, X-Factor learns to their horror that the murdered mutant is the former X-Man Wind Dancer, who once worked alongside X-Factor member Prodigy in the New Mutants.
[Adam X] offered her several ways out of the death by suggesting he claims a short-feed to give her time to escape. He could even provide a patsy that he could kill and claim it is her. However, Wind Dancer said the viewers voted for her death, and she wanted to give people what they want and go home...The second that Sofia came back to life, she flew rapidly around Krakoa. The first instinct of mutants who can fly is always to fly in the first real display of her power since she lost them in M-Day.
[Wind Dancer] until recently had been held in the Mojoverse until she convinced Adam-X to kill her as part of his live-stream. Wind-Dancer was revived on Krakoa, and she also seems to be on her way to becoming Krakoa's chief media producer, as she's shown working heavily with M and Angel to devise a press push celebrating the establishment of X-Corp.
Joining her on this adventure are some of her fellow mutants – head of security Domino, personal guard Strong Guy, one-man roadie Multiple Man, drummer Shark-Girl, and expert publicist Wind Dancer.
