Sunspot (comics)
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Sunspot (Roberto "Bobby" da Costa) is a Marvel Comics superhero, a member of the X-Men-related groups The New Mutants and X-Force. Created by writer Chris Claremont and penciler Bob McLeod, he first appeared in Marvel Graphic Novel #4: The New Mutants (1982)
A Brazilian mutant, Sunspot possesses the ability to absorb and channel solar power. He is idealistic and impulsive, but is considered a close friend of many of his teammates. He was an important member of the X-Men’s 1980s-era junior team and its reincarnation X-Force.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Early years
Sunspot is Roberto da Costa, a Brazilian male, born and raised in Rio de Janeiro. He is the son of wealthy businessman Emmanuel da Costa and archaeologist Nina da Costa (maiden name unrevealed). Emmanuel was a very driven man, who "grew up [...] a barefoot houseboy", and "by age 20 [...] was a millionaire. By 30, an economic and political force to be reckoned with." (New Mutants #7) Despite becoming one of the most influential people in the Brazilian economic and political scene, Emmanuel always had time for Roberto; they were more like best friends than father and son. However, Emmanuel always relentlessly drove Roberto to be well-educated, decisive, strong and ruthless; Emmanuel had every intention of making Roberto into a worthy heir for his business empire.
Roberto went to school (as opposed to being homeschooled) in Rio's Vilár school. During his early teenage years, he became the star soccer player in his school's team, the Thunderbolts. Olympic recruiters took notice of him at that age, and began grooming him for eventual inclusion in Brazil's national soccer team for the Olympic Games.
Shortly before his fourteenth birthday (as best can be determined; there are conflicting references) Roberto was in a soccer game between the Thunderbolts and their arch-rivals, the Dynamos. Racist members of the Dynamos assaulted Roberto during the game without the referee's notice, and Roberto took matters into his own hands, initiating a fight on the field. It was at this time that he would for the first time manifest his mutant powers. Transforming suddenly into a creature of solid black solar energy, he was as surprised and terrified as everyone else. The soccer game was broken up when the audience fled the stadium in panic, except for Juliana Sandoval, Roberto's girlfriend, who refused to abandon him.
Within a matter of days, a mutant-hating faction led by Donald Pierce and employing Hellfire Club mercenaries kidnapped Juliana. The mercenaries used Juliana to lure Roberto into a trap, where they planned to kill him simply for being a mutant. Roberto attempted to use his newfound powers to battle these mercenaries, but was ultimately defeated when his energy reserves ran out. The mercenaries were about to kill Roberto when the scene was crashed by Karma and Psyche, two girls who would become Roberto's fellow founding members in the New Mutants. Karma and Psyche rescued Roberto, but in the course of the battle, Juliana threw herself in front of a bullet to save Roberto. Juliana perished, and Roberto would always in a way blame his mutancy for her death.
Art By Bob McLeod
[edit] New Mutant days
After the rescue, Roberto joined Karma and Psyche in going after Donald Pierce. The three were joined by Wolfsbane and in the course of the battle with Pierce, Pierce's misguided mutant hireling Cannonball (who would eventually become Roberto's best friend)also joined the group. Professor X then offered to train the five teenagers in controlling their nascent mutant powers. All five accepted, and became founding members of the New Mutants, a group of junior X-Men whom their teacher only intended to be students, not superheroes.
[edit] X-Force
When the time travelling antihero Cable took over the New Mutants and turned it into a paramilitary group, Sunspot was one of the mainstays of the team. During this time Sunspot discovered that he could fly, got lost in the space-time continuum when he interfered with the teleportation powers of Locus, was tutored by Gideon of the Externals because they thought he was the next to join the group and discovered the hideous villain Reignfire, who had a disturbing connection to him.
[edit] Reignfire Controversy
A villain named Reignfire showed up on the scene shortly after Roberto disappeared from sight and took over the Mutant Liberation Front by force. His appearance and powers were startling similar to Roberto's and, in the middle of a battle, he removed his mask to reveal that he was (Nicieza's original intention). Cable tried his best to heal Roberto of this wicked persona which was dominating his body, eventually succumbing to force. Cable telepathically entered his mind and shut down the persona, a bit of Cable's knowledge also tranferring. After Roberto was liberated from Reignfire he would occasionally speak Askani--Cable's native language. All seemed well until X-Force found out about someone resembling Sunspot who had attacked and kidnapped Skids. Upon investigation it was discovered that Reignfire was alive and in the flesh--not simply an aspect of Roberto's mind. Supposedly Reignfire was a cellular construct that had patterned itself after Roberto when it had received a cell sample from him (later writer John Francis Moore's retcon). Therefore, this being looked identical to Roberto, had similar powers, but was evil. He also had the ability to forge a telepathic link with his progenitor, explaining away the time when Roberto would switch into his evil persona. This explanation left many fans unhappy given the previous history of both characters. Shortly after this story was fabricated Reignfire met his untimely demise.
[edit] Hellfire Club & X-Corporation
Later during his X-Force career, Roberto was approached by members of the Hellfire Club. They told him that since his father Emmanuel had a seat in the Club so did he, as the seats were inherited genetically. Selene promised Roberto that she could resurrect Juliana if he joined, which he agreed to. Selene kept her part of the bargain, but only to a certain extent. She did bring back the spirit of Juliana, but insidioiusly inserted it into the body of a comatose girl. Possibly because he felt obliged to fulfill his promise, Roberto decided to stay, becoming Selene's Black Rook.
With no explanation given, Roberto next surfaced as the head of the Los Angeles branch of X-Corporation, along with former New Mutant Magma and former Hellion Empath. Roberto's ties to the Hellfire Club were not severed, as he was approached by Sebastian Shaw, who had taken over the position of Hellfire Club's Lord Imperial and wanted Roberto as his Black King. Shaw claimed that he was trying to turn the Club into a force of good, so Roberto accepted, though he kept his involvement with Shaw a secret.
However, Shaw was injured by Donald Pierce and rendered incapable of overseeing the Hellfire Club, for which Sunspot took over his role of Lord Imperial, in which he currently remains. At his side is Sage who leaves the X-Men make sure Roberto would not be corrupted by his power.
With the coming of M-Day, Cyclops called for the shutting down of all branches of the X-Corporation to better pool the resources of the X-Men. Sunspot currently remains as one of the 198 still empowered mutants and the Lord Imperial.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Sunspot is a mutant whose cells have the ability to absorb solar energy and convert it to various purposes. At will, he is able to take on a superhuman "powered up" form that is entirely nonreflective black, save for his eyes which turn a solid bright white. Though the color black optimizes solar absorption, he absorbs solar power at all times, not only when he is in his "powered up" form -- indeed, if he has not absorbed sufficient amounts of solar energy in normal form, he will be too weak to "power up". When in his solar form, Sunspot also has a corona effect, an aura that has been depicted in multiple ways, though two predominant conventions exist for its portrayal: one is that the air in close proximity to him manifests black globes of various sizes, reminiscent of Kirby Dots, and the other is a unified field glowing a bright yellow or white.
The "solar form" sometimes blackens Sunspot's clothes as well, and sometimes the clothes appear normally colored on top of his blackened skin. Often, Marvel superheroes explain such effects away as sometimes wearing clothing made from unstable molecules that adapts to super-powers. However, there are many incidents in which Roberto would not have been able to prepare with unstable molecular clothing; these can be regarded as artist errors or that Roberto has the skill necessary to blacken his clothes as well if he so chooses.
Originally, Sunspot's superhuman power was limited solely to superhuman strength, and then only in his solar form. Unlike many superhumanly strong heroes, Sunspot was unique in that he had no superhuman resistance to injury, and was not bulletproof by any means. The phrase, "Careful Bobby, you're strong, not invulnerable!" in its many variations became as much a Claremont catchphrase as Wolverine's "I'm the best there is at what I do!" The degree of Roberto's strength level has not been firmly defined - sources such as the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe cited his solar strength as ranging from anywhere between a 2-3 tons, to a 20-30 ton level. It is likely that his strength level was at the lower range initially, increasing as his experience and training grew. In addition, Sunspot's powers have radically changed and grown since the character was introduced, and whilst his power augmentations have concentrated on areas other than his strength, it is feasible that his strength has increased still further.
Significantly, Sunspot maintained his original powerset for roughly the first ten years of his existence, remaining a super-strong but vulnerable individual throughout the entire New Mutants series. During the mid-1990s in X-Force his powers began to change, under writer Fabian Nicieza. Nicieza had the supervillain Gideon capture Roberto and subject him to experimentation where the limits of Roberto's power absorption were tested by feeding him immense amounts of solar power. Roberto was rescued by X-Force, but the overload had permanently altered his powers in such a way that he was now able to release concussive blasts of solar energy, with a considerable heat projection component.
The fact that the solar blasts were concussive in origin led directly into X-Force #28, where Sunspot thinks of using them as a means of propulsion, and thus fly by blasting in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go - initially leaving a slight trail behind him, but in later years, Roberto would learn to use the propulsion more subtly - to appear to hover in place with no blast wake at all other than his usual "powered up" corona effect.
After Nicieza, Sunspot passed to writer Jeph Loeb, who further explored Sunspot's powers, establishing him as a proficient flier. Loeb also changed the character so that Roberto was no longer able to "power down" to his normal human form and was "powered up" at all times, seemingly having no more duration limits or exhaustion from staying "powered up". Loeb's tenure could be considered as a final stage where Roberto's powers appear to have finally matured and he has very few limits with them anymore.
John Francis Moore paid special attention to heat projection, estabilishing Sunspot as being able to glow brightly and hotly enough to melt a thick snow and ice covering away from a large area. Roberto was estabilished as able to superheat his body, to melt bullets and other threats that would touch his skin. He also became able to project solely fire, able to lose the concussive blast aspect entirely. Moore's interpretation perhaps brought Sunspot very close to the Human Torch, a creative choice whose desirability can be argued.
Since Moore's run, there have been no significant changes to Sunspot's powers. These days, he is able to switch between his normal and solar forms at will and in solar form has access to at least the following power stunts: superhuman strength; projection of concussive blasts light and heat; flight; possibly absorption of certain types of energy blasts with lessened or negated harm. As in 1982, he remains vulnerable to physical harm, although he can now superheat his body to damage anything that comes into contact with him.
Significant non-superhuman abilities include business administration as he owns and runs a multi-billion dollar international conglomerate, Olympic class athlete and having been trained in combat by the X-Men, languages (see below) and an assortment of other more minor talents from piloting to leadership to incredible amounts of Magnum, P.I. trivia.
[edit] Ultimate Sunspot
Sunspot, a.k.a. Roberto da Costa, is an angry vigilante mutant of Brazilian descent. He originally came from Harlem in this continuity. He sees the Ultimate X-Men as decadent Uncle Tom-like figures and has accused them of living in an ivory tower, considering themselves separate from "second-class muties" like himself. He also harbors a deep hatred for Magneto and his followers because of the anti-mutant hysteria that followed the destruction of the Washington Bridge at the hands of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.
[edit] Miscellania
[edit] Status as prominent Brazilian superhero
Sunspot is arguably the most famous and prominent Brazilian superhero in American comic books. His only significant challenger is Fire of DC Comics. Fire, interestingly enough, shares Sunspot's surname, as her full name is Beatriz Bonilla da Costa. Also, she shares with Sunspot a somewhat fiery nature in both superpowers and personality. These two are the only prominent Brazilian superheroes in American comics.
DC's Jaguar is one of the few other Brazilian superheroes, but he is extremely obscure to the general public.
Technically, Sunspot's teammate Magma could be considered Brazilian under some definitions of the term. Magma was born in an isolated 'land where time stood still' that the New Mutants discovered in the Amazon. However, since Magma's native society bore no relationship to or interaction with Brazilian people or culture, she is often not considered Brazilian, even though she was born (quite likely but not conclusively estabilished) on Brazilian soil.
[edit] Appearances in Other Media
Sunspot appears in several episodes of X-men Evolution as a minor character from seasons 2-4.
[edit] Popular mistakes
[edit] Linguistics
Chris Claremont portrayed Sunspot's ethnicity accurately. Subsequent writers have often forgotten the distinction between Brazil and the rest of Latin America, and sometimes describe him as an Spanish speaker, instead of Portuguese. Common mistakes were:
- As opposed to Buenos dias! (Spanish), Roberto should say Bom dia! (Portuguese)
- Yes is sim, not si
- A gentleman is senhor, not señor.
- You thank someone by saying obrigado, not gracias
Sunspot has spoken Spanish on numerous occasions in the comics. This can be ascribed to writer error; however, as a well-educated jet-setter who has travelled extensively in Latin America, it is quite plausible that Sunspot would be able to speak both Portuguese and Spanish. This becomes even more likely when his other linguistic skills are pointed out: Sunspot speaks fluent Classical Latin (as seen in the Nova Roma story arc in New Mutants #8-12), he speaks fluent English, and he also speaks fluent Chinese (as seen in X-Force Annual #3, although it is unspecified whether this is the Mandarin or Cantonese variety). Finally, through a mindlink Cable once established with Sunspot to erase his possession by Sebastian Shaw, Sunspot became capable of speaking Askani (a language from Cable's future). As such, Sunspot confirmedly speaks with proficiency, if not fluency, in at least six languages: Brazilian Portuguese, English, Chinese, Classical Latin, Askani, and (if the presumed errors are accepted as canon) Spanish.
[edit] Nomenclature
One of the most common mistakes writers make with Sunspot is the spelling of his last name. It has been spelled in at least four variations: daCosta, DaCosta, da Costa and Da Costa. Many writers have used several of these four and have failed to be consistent even among their own writing. The most common Brazilian spelling separates the article and noun into separate words and leaves the article uncapitalized as seen in the name of the Brazilian president Lula da Silva. Methods of compounding the article and noun into the same word daCosta and DaCosta are not used in Portuguese. A further complication is that in the realm of comics, all letters are capitalized.
[edit] Place of birth
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, a guide to Marvel characters published in the mid-eighties, written mostly by Marvel Editor Peter Sanderson, lists Sunspot's place of birth as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is consistent with the fact that the da Costa family estate is located in Rio. However, in the late nineties, John Francis Moore during his tenure as writer of X-Force mentioned once that Sunspot was born in São Paulo. Sanderson's case is backed by the implications of in-story facts like the family estate's location. A case could be argued for São Paulo to be a birthplace; such an argument, however, would have to assert only a temporary residence in São Paulo, as it is known fact that Emmanuel's roots are in Rio and it is known that Roberto went to school in Rio.
[edit] External links
Categories: Hellfire Club members | Fictional millionaires | Marvel Comics superheroes | Hispanic superheroes | Brazilian comics characters | Marvel Comics mutants | The 198 Files | Marvel Comics characters who can fly | Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength | Fictional characters with the power to manipulate fire
