| Brava | |
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Brava. Cover of Strikeforce: Morituri #26. Art by Mark Bagley. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Strikeforce Morituri #13 (December 1987) |
| Created by | Peter B. Gillis Brent Anderson |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Domenica Contreras |
| Team affiliations | Strikeforce: Morituri |
| Abilities | Superhuman strength |
Brava (Domenica Contreras) is a fictional character of Marvel Comics, a superhero and member of Strikeforce: Morituri. She was created by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson.
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Brava was created by writer Peter B. Gillis and artist Brent Anderson. She was introduced in Strikeforce: Morituri #13. She was part of the regular cast of the book between issues #13-28. She was the last member of Strikeforce: Morituri to die in the series, murdered by the assassin Tiger in Strikeforce: Morituri #28.
Domenica Contreras was born and raised in a small town of Spain before moving to Barcelona.[1] Later, she became an astronomer and moved to Peru. In 2069, she was working in the observatory of Peru, when the alien race known as the Horde first attacked Earth, declaring war on it and conquering the skies of the Earth and its surrounding layers of atmosphere, thus making her profession obsolete. A joking Contreras later quipped that "the astronomers' market became scarce following that".[2]
Four years later, looking for a purpose now that she had no future as an astronomer, Contreras decided to enlist for the novel Morituri program, which would grant her superhuman powers, putting her at the service of the Paedia world government in the ongoing war against the Horde. Contreras was not daunted by the so-called "Morituri effect", a mortal flaw which ensures that a Morituri dies within a year of taking the process, as a result of their organism finally rejecting the process with fatal results. She later humorously commented that "as an astronomer, I've learned not to worry about lifespans as short as 70 years... or just one, as the process limits us to".[3]
Contreras indeed underwent the process, as part of the third generation of Morituri volunteers. As a result, she grew eight inches and developed superhuman strength, taking on the codename "Brava". Together with the other Morituri freshmen, they were assigned the capture of the veteran Morituri as their first mission, after the latter were wrongly perceived to have gone renegade. Eventually, the misunderstanding was solved.[4]
Later, Brava grew restless and weary of her employers, the Paedia World Government, on a number of occasions, feeling that she and her teammates were not used sufficiently on the field and were only seen as expendable pawns by their superiors. Nevertheless, Brava never abandoned the team and was later appointed squad leader.[5]
Brava was the last surviving member of her generation of Morituri when she led an attack against the Horde's base in Cape Town. The raiding came as a natural development, after it became known that the Horde was evacuating its bases on Earth, having suffered great casualties in their conflicts with a new, mysterious alien race, the VXX199, who professed to be allies of Earth in its war against the Horde. Brava and her teammates cleared Cape Town of its few remaining Hordians and celebrated the official end of the war. However, Brava was weary of Earth's new allies and their true intentions.[6]
Following the end of the war, Brava decided to return to her father, in Barcelona, to live her last weeks in peace, knowing that she did not have much time left, growing close to the Morituri effect time limit. Unbeknownst to her, however, she had been cured from the mortality effect of the Morituri process, after contracting a benevolent alien virus from her teammate, Revenge, which he had passed on to all his teammates.[7] While in her home in Barcelona, Brava discovered her father murdered and was attacked by the Tiger, one of the secret Morituri assassins, sent after her by the corrupt Defense Minister of the Paedia, Andre Lemont, as part of his conspiracy to overthrow the current government. After a short fight, the Tiger succeeded in his mission, killing her. Dr. Kimmo Tuolema, inventor of the Morituri process, had flown that same day in Barcelona to inform Brava of her possible cure from the Morituri effect, only to learn of her widely-reported murder while in the Barcelona Airport.[8]
As a result of her exposure to the Morituri process, Brava grew eight inches in height and had superhuman strength and endurance.