Petra (comics)

Petra is a fictional character, a mutant appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. She first appears in the limited series X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1 (2006). Petra was created by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Pete Woods and is one of the "Missing X-Men". The word "petra" means "rocky" in Latin, and "stone" in Greek.

Fictional character biography

Petra was the first of her family to be born in the United States. Her mother, father and brother emigrated from Denmark while her mother was pregnant with Petra. They lived the typical American life in the suburbs of New York City for most of Petra's childhood.

Shortly after her thirteenth birthday, Petra's family was killed by a rockslide while on a camping trip. Unknowingly, Petra used her mutant powers of earth manipulation to avoid getting hurt.

After spending weeks in Child Protective Services, Petra was sent to live in New Jersey in a foster home. She was placed in a home that had five other children that were forced to share the same bedroom. Her foster mother was old and uncaring, and her foster father was too caring, trying to hold and touch Petra all the time. One day on an outing to Central Park, Petra's foster father tried to touch her but sank knee-deep into the ground. It was then that Petra realized that she was a mutant, and she ran away. She found a cave and hid there for days crying, knowing that with her abilities she could have either killed or saved her family.

She camped in Central Park for a couple years, using her power to manipulate rock caves into shelters to avoid being arrested and sent to juvenile detention centers. When she was 16, she discovered another useful aspect of her ability. By concentrating hard enough, she could turn coal into diamonds. For a year she used this aspect of her power to make diamonds of varying size to sell to pawn shops so she could buy food and survive.

One day though, a pawn shop employee said he was going to call the owner of the store, but he really called the police. Running to her rock shelter, the police found Petra before she could hide, and took her into custody after a brief battle. When she awoke, a female guard informed her that she was being released into the custody of a woman who was there to help Petra, who was later revealed to be Dr. Moira MacTaggert. This at first frightened Petra because she had never known anyone to try and help her because of her abilities, only hurt her.^[1]

After some time with Dr. MacTaggert, her friend Professor Charles Xavier took Petra and the other children within the doctor's custody, Sway, Darwin and Vulcan, and sent them to rescue the original team of X-Men trapped on the mutant island Krakoa. After she instinctively used her mental powers to bury Vulcan and Darwin, she became incinerated by the volcano creature that was created by Krakoa.^[2]

Powers and abilities

Petra was a "terrakinetic" or "geo-morph",^[3] having the ability to psychokinetically manipulate, control, levitate and reshape the classic element of earth—sand, stone, rock, lava, and/or dirt—and could even transform the consistency of earth and rock, such as turning a lump of coal into a diamond.^[4] She also could use this power to cause minor earthquakes and create shapes out of solid rock.

In other media

Television

Christy Nord appears in Wolverine and the X-Men voiced by Kari Wahlgren with a striking resemblance to Petra in both appearance and powers. Like Petra, she has the mutant ability to manipulate earth and stone. In the episode "Past Discretions", Nord is shown as the daughter of Chris Nord (Maverick). In the episode "Stolen Lives", Christy was abducted by Maverick but this is foiled by Wolverine and Mystique. After her father's memories were restored by Emma Frost, Christy reunited with her father.

References

1. ↑ X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1
2. ↑ X-Men: Deadly Genesis #6
3. ↑ X-Men: Deadly Genesis #4
4. ↑ X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1

External links

• UncannyXmen.net Character Profile on Petra