Origin

Born in Venezuela, Sofia Mantega lived happily with her mother, Miranda Mantega, until the tragic day in which she was shot down during a riot in Caracas. Since her uncle wasn't willing to take care of Sofia, she was sent to the United States to find her father, a wealthy and powerful supermarket chain owner who was less than happy to take her in. He was a cold and distant man who was ashamed of his daughter's mutant nature.

Never receiving any sign of affection from her father, Sofia was mainly attended to by Derek, her father's butler. Derek provided the attention and love that her father denied her, so Sofia grew really close to him in short time.

Beginning a new life in a new country and in a new school was hard for the young mutant. Feeling neglected by her father and abused by her classmates she began rebelling. She went to one of the stores which her father owned and caused tremendous chaos, using her powers of wind control to destroy the entire building. Police were called to the scene and Sofia was arrested. Her father refused to bail her out, but luckily Danielle Moonstar caught the story on the news and decided to recruit her to the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

When Sofia was a target of the mutant hating group the Reavers, Walter and Derek were kidnapped as bait to lure in the young mutant. As Sofia fought the group, she unleashed an uncontrollable, violent side to her personality and had to stopped by one of her fellow students from killing one of the Reavers' henchmen.

This temperament would later be an issue she had to deal with as a member of the New Mutants.

Wind Dancer

New Mutants/New X-Men

After Magneto attacked and destroyed the Xavier Institute, changes in the organization of the school were introduced. Teams were formed and students were trained in combat to be able to protect themselves from future threats. Sofia became leader of one of the teams, the New Mutants who were under the supervision of Dani Moonstar.

The New Mutants had a bit of a rivalry with the Hellions, the team lead by Julian Keller (Hellion), and they spent a lot of time feuding against each other; competing all the time, both teams wanting to be the top team at Xavier’s in the field exercise program. Due to internal turmoil amongst the New Mutants, the Hellions were able to take the price for best team at the end of the school year.

Sofia played a key role in the integration of Laurie Collins (Wallflower), a timid girl that would not get close to anyone in fear of accidentally using her mutant powers (pheromone manipulation) on people. Sofia, being able to control the wind, could shield herself from the influence of pheromones (carried by the wind) therefore Laurie could feel safe around her and open up.

Sofia had strong determination and character; yet she lacked the analytic mind and strategy required for leading a team, so she choose David Alleyne (Prodigy) to be co-leader of the New Mutants. They complemented each other pretty well, Sofia having the drive to do the things necessary and David providing the strategy to accomplish the tasks.

During her time at the school she saw her father once more during Parents Week. When she discovered his visit had ulterior motives, Sofia nearly attacked her father before being telepathically calmed by Emma Frost.

Sofia and Julian

A boy named Julian

Julian Keller was one of the first students Sofia met at Xavier’s. Both of them being hard headed and outgoing, the two developed a love-hate relationship. In a way Julian became Sofia’s rival, especially in the New X-Men stage, but there was always a strong physical attraction that they couldn’t deny.

Julian tried many times to recruit Sofia into joining his team, the Hellions, and even briefly persuaded her to side with them in rescuing Kevin Ford (aka Wither) from the FBI.

When Sofia decided to side back with her team the New Mutants, Julian felt betrayed and no longer aggressively pursued Sofia as he had in the past. However, when Julian's former adviser Northstar was killed in front of the student body's eyes by a brainwashed Wolverine, Hellion revealed a softer, more gentler side and the two's unspoken romance resumed. The pair later attended the school dance separately, but ended up in each other's arms at its end.

Decimation

Unfortunately, Sofia is one of the mutants who were depowered during M-Day.

When Julian Keller made disparaging remarks about fellow depowered mutant Prodigy, Sofia felt deeply hurt and betrayed. Julian tried to apologize, but when all the depowered mutants were forced to leave the Xavier Institute, the anguish forced her to leave the school without a proper goodbye.

Sofia as a waitress

New Warriors

Instead of returning to her native country, Sofia went on to live in New York and got a job as a waitress. She has been having intense dreams about her old life and Julian has been shown to call out to her in his sleep as well.

While working the day shift, Sofia was approached by Beak and Jubilee (both depowered) to join them in the New Warriors, a vigilante group of depowered mutants opposing the Superhuman Registration Act. Sofia has initially refused the offer. During a battle with the new Zodiac, Sofia helped provide a distraction to give the New Warriors an upper hand in their losing battle. Sofia was injured saving a little boy in the crossfire. She was left with some paramedics and had another dream where she meets her mother and has angel wing but starts to fall. When she awakens, she had undergone intensive surgery and lost most of her hair as a result.

She later decides to join the team with the new codename Renascence.

Powers

As Wind Dancer

Before M-day Sofia had the ability to manipulate air molecules. She could use this power to fly, levitate others, create powerful wind blasts or protective shields, or increase vibrations in the air, allowing her to inhance sounds. She was depowered after M-Day.

As Renascence

She uses a power-suit with metal arms based on Dr. Octopus’ and a pair of guns with unknown properties.

Status

Characteristics

School Yearbook Information:

Alternate Realities

Earth-58163

House of M

During “House of M” we are shown an alternate reality in which Sofia is part of S.H.I.E.L.D. along with Julian with whom she’s got a romantic relationship going on. In this alternate world, mutants are the dominant species and Wind Dancer finds herself fighting her “New Mutants” team members David and Noriko to prevent them from aiding a human terrorist group. Later they find out about project genesis (the aim of the terrorist’s actions) a terrible program in which humans are used for experimentation. The two sides decide to join forces to destroy the project and fight Sunfire, emperor of Japan. The story is left unfinished due to the restoration of "conventional" reality.

Creators

Wind Dancer was created by Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir and Keron Grant