Sunspot

Origin

Roberto da Costa came from a rich family in Brazil. He was a very skilled soccer player with a promising future, until the day his mutant powers manifested. During a soccer game, he was taunted by a player on the opposing team and ended up beating the player down. He was shunned by everyone around him except his girlfriend Julianna. He also attracted the attention of Donald Pierce, a member of the inner circle of the Hellfire Club. Pierce tried to kidnap DaCosta, but failed in his attempt and took Julianna instead. Charles Xavier intervened, he sent his team, the New Mutants, to help DaCosta stop Pierce. During the fight, Julianna took a bullet to save Bobby's life. Pierce was defeated. Xavier then invited DaCosta to join the team and attend his school to learn more about his powers. He took the name Sunspot and experienced several adventures with them.

Creation

His first appearance was in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 and was created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod.

Character Evolution

Originally a member of the New Mutants, Roberto has gradually accepted a more adult role with the various X-related teams.

Major Story Arcs

New Mutants

A short time after Bobby joined the New Mutants, he met his mother Nina, who had been estranged from him for years due to her job as an archeologist. She invited Bobby and the New Mutants to join her on an excavation in Brazil, no one knowing that Bobby's father, Emmanuel da Costa, had dealings with the Hellfire Club and had particular interests in that area. Axe, the Hellfire Club's assassin, was sent to kill her, but was stopped by the New Mutants and led to Magma's recruitment. Emmanuel went on to become the White Rook within the Inner Circle, at his son's dismay.

When he accidentally injured teammate, Sam Guthrie, Cannonball, during a soccer game, Sunspot left the New Mutants. Another teammate, Warlock, followed him to Los Angeles and the two met up with the group, the Fallen Angels (which included the mutants Multiple Man and Siryn). The two worked with the group until it was discovered that they had been brought together by Ariel, part of an alien race that studies human mutations. The team was captured and studied until Sunspot rescued them. Afterwards, Sunspot and Warlock returned to the New Mutants.

X-Force

Sunspot was contacted by mutant businessman, Gideon, after his father died. Gideon persuaded Sunspot into joining him, claiming to help him manage the family fortune. Gideon was actually a member of a group of mutants known as the Externals, who believed themselves to be immortal. Gideon believed that Sunspot was also an External, but after several harsh tests and experiments, Gideon was proven wrong. The tests overloaded him, giving a side effect that gave Bobby the ability to produce concussive blasts of heat and light. He was saved by his former teammates of the New Mutants that had reformed as X-Force. Sunspot joined the team. When Gideon experimented on Sunspot, he was able to copy his powers and give them to a test subject. The result was Reignfire.

Reignfire became the leader of the Mutant Liberation Front, a mutant terrorist group. Reignfire gave hints that he was really Sunspot during the M.L.F's confrontation with X-Force. At that time, the real Sunspot had went into a transport portal while battling the M.L.F.'s Locus. In their next encounter, X-Force's leader, Cable, telepathically restored Sunspot's memories. It turned out that Reignfire actually switched places with Sunspot through a telepathic link. Sunspot finally regained control.

Sunspot was later blackmailed by Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club into joining. She told him that Gideon's Damocles Foundation was attempting more experiments similar to the one that created Reignfire. Selene and X-force went to stop him, but found out that Selene wanted the process for herself, and subdued the team. Selene then offered to resurrect Julianna if Bobby joined the Hellfire Club. Bobby agreed, but Selene only partially kept her word. She resurrected Julianna's spirit, and put it in the body of a comatose patient. Sunspot served as the Black Rook, keeping it a secret from his friends. Sunspot also became the head of the Los Angeles branch of X-Corporation, a search and rescue organization for mutants.

Sebastian Shaw approached Sunspot as Lord Imperial of the Hellfire Club, offering him the Black Knight position in his Lords Cardinal. He convinced Sunspot to accept by telling him that he was trying to change the club for the better. Donald Pierce soon challenged Shaw again, leaving Pierce decapitated and Shaw hospitalized. Sunspot then claimed the Lord Imperial position, hoping to use the club for a force for good.

At the beginning of the Young X-Men series, Sunspot was revealed to be the new leader of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants by Cyclops. He is joined on the team by his former New Mutants comrades Cannonball, Danielle Moonstar, and Magma. In a battle with the X-Men, Sunspot is injured when Wolf Cub slashed his chest and face. It is revealed that Donald Pierce is pretending to be Cyclops using an image inducer, in order to have Sunspot, the new Lord Imperial, killed.

Rejoining the New Mutants

Karma and Moonstar have gone missing after searching for a possible new mutant. Cannonball forms a team to find them, composed of former New Mutants. They find that Legion is behind it, and the team fights him. After losing to Legion (several times), it is Moonstar that saves the day. The team stays together after this. Recently, his old friend Doug has been brought back to life.

Second Coming

Roberto and his newly assembled team are commanded by Cyclops to infiltrate Cameron Hodge's facility and take down the Right. Cypher, Warlock, Magma, Karma, Sunspot, and Dani Moonstar enter the building and attack hundred's of Right soldiers (the creepy ones with the smiley faces). The battle seems to be going in their favor until Cameron Hodge joins the battle. Karma attempts to posses Cameron and in doing so allows him to track her. In the fight Karma loses her leg to one of Cameron's talons. Cypher realizes that the New Mutants are going to fail if something drastic isn't done. He asks Warlock to take Cameron's life force using his techno organic virus. Warlock saves the day by defeating Cameron.

Later during the Nimrod invasion of Utopia, Sunspot is seen fighting Nimrods in the tunnels below San Fransisco. He is part of a small team consisting of Husk, Boom Boom and Avalanche that have been assigned to stop the Nimrods from entering through the tunnels.

Roberto and the Aguilar Family

Roberto met the Aguilar family. As he befriends

Christina Aguilar

, they went to a walk but a branch fell down on them. Sunspot saved her, but her engagement ring was lost. Roberto told her that her fiancé would marry her even if the ring was lost, as long as they love each other. Christina introduced Roberto to her family which accepted him even if he was a mutant. However,

Euphy

did not like him unlike the other members of the family. Though they have arguments, Sunspot stays calm. One night during a dinner, an anti-mutant group attacked. Sunspot discovered that its boss was wearing Christina's engagement ring. He took down that team and was able to retrieve the ring. The family thanked him for the act of heroism that he had done. Christina offered him to stay with the family, but Sunspot refused, because he did not want the family to get into his issues, and didn't want to cause further damage to the family's relationship. Mr. Aguilar understood the situation and told Christina about it.

The Avengers

Along with Cannonball, Roberto is asked by Captain America to join the Avengers on stand-by. After Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Thor are captured on Mars, the stand-by team is activated by Captain America and dispatched to rescue their team-mates and defeat Ex Nihilo.

Powers and Abilities

Evolution:

Due to the experiments Gideon preformed on Roberto when he was kidnapped, his mutant gene has evolved over time. The evolution of his mutant gene has increased the powers he had before the experiments, given him new powers and abilities, and has made Roberto more powerful over time.

Energy Absorption:

Sunspot can absorb solar energy and utilize it in some ways. Sunspot is constantly absorbing solar energy and storing it within his cells and when he activates his power to its truest potential he assumes a dark form devoid of light that is at its most prime state to absorb solar energy. In this form Roberto turns black and his eyes have a completely white corona. While Sunspot is in this form around his body black globes can be seen floating around him as well as a field that is either bright yellow or white. When Sunspot first gained his powers he was only able to absorb energy directly from the sun and his power would diminish greatly at night. Since then however, Sunspot has learned how to absorb energy from the light that the moon projects. It has been stated however that Sunspot does have the ability to draw energy from the stars themselves but the energy that they project that finally arrives to earth is so small that it marginally boosts his powers. Sunspot can now absorb different types of energy and store it in his cells, in order to feed his powers and abilities, thus he never runs out of energy.

When Sunspot is in his solar form his clothes usually turn black with his body but this seems to depend on the writer writing him at the time. Sunspot has been seen to change his entire body including his clothes into his solar form and at other times he has been seen retaining his clothing while in his powered state. However Sunspot is depicted more often than not with his entire body in a blackened state as well as his clothing.

Heat and Light Absorption:

After the experiments that Gideon performed on Sunspot he gained the ability to absorb Heat and Light into his cells to augment his strength and his other abilities in the same way that he is able to do with energy from the sun and the moon. It is unknown if Roberto would have been able to achieve this fineness over his abilities if Gideon had not experimented on him.

Strength:

When Sunspots cells are powered by solar energy he has the super human ability to augment his physical strength. The original limits of his strength was that of 25 tons. Since then however his strength has increased to 50 tons. Before his super human strength could only be accessed when he was in his solar powered form but Roberto has been seen using his strength when out of his darkened form. The limits of his strength at this point are unknown.

Concussive Blasts/Energy Blasts:

During Sunspots time with X-Force he was kidnapped by a super villain named Gideon who performed various experiments on him. Gideon exposed Sunspots body to massive amounts of solar energy in order to test the limits of his solar absorption. After these experiments Sunspots body was overloaded with solar energy and he later gained the ability to fire blasts of heat and concussive force. Sunspot also has been seen with the ability to project light without having to fire these blasts in order to light up certain areas of darkness.

Super Speed:

Sunspot can move at great speeds, although his top speed is unknown. He can easily surpass supersonic speed. He is immune to the effects of high speed travel including friction and inertia.

Flight:

After Gideons experiments Sunspot began to test out his new found powers and discovered that he was able to project his blasts downwards in order to achieve flight. When he had not filly realized this ability Sunspot would leave a small trail behind him as he flew that would represent the solar energy that he was emitting. Now however, Sunspot is able to release his energy in order to achieve flight without having to leave any kind of trail. His normal "cruising speed" has been stated to be that of 150 mph. His top speed is unknown.

Durability:

Sunspot is one of the interesting powerhouses of the marvel universe due to the fact that he is one of the only that does not have a heightened sense of invulnerability. During many of the comics that Sunspot was seen in his team mates would remind him that he was super strong but not super durable. Although Sunspot has not been seen able to deflect bullets his limited durability does provide his body the needed protection to be able to lift the massive weight that his super strength allows him to. Recently, Sunspot has been seen to withstand the impact of a eighteen-wheeler moving at 100 mph and remain nearly unharmed. As his mutant gene evolves and gets more powerful, his durability increases.

Invulnerability:

Previously not having a heightened sense of invulnerability, with the evolution to his mutant gene, Sunspot has become incredibly resistant. Sunspot can can withstand tremendous amounts of impact forces, deflect high-caliber bullets, sustain himself when exposure to temperature and pressure extremes (unaffected by the weather), and powerful energy blasts without injury.

Immunity to Heat and Fire:

Sunspot is immune to all forms of Heat and Fire as they simply add to his abilities and his mutant metabolism is able to simply convert these two forms and augment his abilities. This includes heat powers that are directed at him as well as heat that is present because of weather conditions. Sunspot has also been seen with the ability to absorb the energy that fire gives off and has remained unharmed while walking through it.

Self-Sufficiency:

Being able to generate solar energy, Sunspot can go without sleep/rest, food, for as long as necessary, because the solar energy supplements his body. He can also survive unaided in space.

Regeneration:

Sunspot is able to recover from minor to serious Injuries instantly. He can rapidly recover from any disease, poison, virus/bacteria, or any biological threat. Due to the evolution of his mutant genre, Sunspot can regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue, organs, muscles , and limbs. The limit to his regeneration is unknown.

Olympic Condition:

Physically without the use of his power Roberto is at Olympic levels.

Combat (Unarmed/Armed):

Being part of the X-Men, Roberto has been trained by the likes of Wolverine and other mutants in combat. After joining the Avengers, Roberto received training . He further honed his skills by fighting against strong opponents and fighting/training with the likes of Captain America, Black Panther, and Dare Devil. As a SHIELD Agent as part of the Avengers he received special training, thus allowing him to handle many different types of weapons.

Status

Known Relatives: Emmanuel (father, deceased), Nina da Costa (mother).

Citizenship: Brazil

Place of Birth: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Marital Status: Single

Occupation: Adventurer, CEO of Da Costa International; former Lord Imperial of the Hellfire Club; former student, recreational soccer player

Education: Xavier's institute for High Learning graduate

Characteristics

Gender: Male

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 170 lbs (77 kg)

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black

Alternate Versions

Ultimate Universe

Sunspot is a Brazilian from Harlem. He blames the X-Men from living separately from second class mutants like himself. He also had hatred for Magneto and his Brotherhood because of the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge. He later joined Emma Frost's Academy of Tomorrow, but, was confused because of his grades. Emma then told him that his grades do not state how gifted he is. When Polaris was apprehended for her case, Northstar, Cannonball, and Sunspot worked together to free her. However, it only caused trouble. Since the team only relies on Sunpot's knowledge about New York, they got lost. While lost, Sunspot was out of the fight from the X-Men. Sunspot, along with most of the Academy of Tomorrow, was killed by the Madri during the Ultimatum Wave.

Age of Apocalypse

Sunspot is a member of the X-Ternals , who steal money from Apocalypse and give it to the poor. Magneto ordered the team to go to Shi'ar territory and steal the M'Kraan Crystal .

Mutant X

Sunspot is a member of the Marauders.

Earth X

Sunspot was a member of the X-Force who was about to be under the control of the Skull. When the Skull was killed, he was freed.

Earth-70105

He is a mutant who fought against Galactus to defend the planet.

Earth-8545

Sunspot was a member of the New Warriors.

Earth-1081

Sunspot was a member of the New Mutants.

Other Media

X-Men Evolution

Sunspot is a member of the New Mutants who undergoes trainings with the X-Men. He is 17 years old, he is also known to be an over achiever and show-off, and was a Brazilian who was admitted to the Institute by Professor X's request. He often get into fights with Berzerker. During the X-Men's last mission against Apocalypse, Sunspot, along with other mutants, were sent to Mexico to battle Magneto, who was Apocalypse's Horseman at that time.