Meet Temper, the Temperature-Controlling Mutant Heating Up the Marvel Universe

Mutants have been hated, feared, and called monsters since they entered the Marvel Universe. Despite working with the X-Men for years, the temperature-controlling Idie Okonkwo—now known by the codename Temper—agreed with the mutant-haters due to her profound discomfort with her own mutant powers.

Previously under the codename Oya, Idie proved herself to be one of the brightest lights in a generation of X-Men, even when she was at the center of crises that highlighted the flaws in the X-Men’s mission and Professor X’s dreams for mutantkind.

While the X-Men and the mutant nation Krakoa wronged Idie, she still chose to join Cyclops and his new team to make sure the X-Men don’t fail anyone else. Now, let’s takea closer look at Temper and how she became one of the X-Men’s most promising young recruits, just as she steps into her latest adventure with the team in X-MEN (2024) by Jed MacKay, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Livesay, Marte Gracia, and VC’s Clayton Cowles.

HOW IDIE JOINED THE X-MEN 

Shortly after the Scarlet Witch depowered most of the world’s mutants in the wake of HOUSE OF M, Idie's mutant powers emerged in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #528 by Matt Fraction and Whilce Portacio. A teenager at the time, Idie lost control of her powers, accidentally burning down her village in Nigeria and killing her family and friends.

Believing herself a monster and mutants innately evil, the religious young teen sought refuge in a nearby chapel, where she inadvertently froze the authorities trying to apprehend her. Storm and Hope Summers arrived just as another angry mob descended upon Idie. As Hope's mutant abilities allow her to regulate the powers of other mutants, she used them to stabilize Idie’s powers. The traumatized teenager then left with the two X-Men.

As exemplified by the blue iris in her right eye and the orange iris in her left eye, Idie controls fire and ice through temperature manipulation. By transferring or removing heat from objects and nearby areas, Idie can produce flames or ice from the air around her.

GENERATION HOPE 

Joining Hope and other new mutants, Idie served as a member of a young X-Men team called the Lights, starting in GENERATION HOPE (2010) #1 by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Espin. Alongside the super-fast Velocidad, the beastly Primal, and the high-flying Transonic, Idie and Hope operated out of Utopia, a small island off the coast of San Francisco led by Cyclops and the X-Men.

Even after gaining control over her powers, Idie still felt profoundly uncomfortable with her abilities and mutant status. She expressed that discomfort by taking the codename Oya from a figure in Yoruba mythology.

On their first mission, Oya and the Lights rescued another new mutant, Kenji Udeo. When he lost control of his ability to manipulate his techno-organic body mass and began rampaging across Tokyo, Idie helped her teammates take him down and recruit him.

The team also tried to rescue a very young mutant whose telepathic powers activated while he was still in his mother’s womb but failed to save another young mutant with liquid skin before his death.

X-MEN: SCHISM 

By chance, Idie found herself in the middle of one of the most bitterly divided moments in X-Men history. As Cyclops and Wolverine disagreed over how to treat the young mutants of Utopia, the Hellfire Club launched a massive campaign against mutants in the wake of a telepathic attack by Kid Omega (Quentin Quire).

While Idie and her teammates were at a mutant history museum, several Hellfire Club soldiers attacked the venue in X-MEN: SCHISM (2011) #3 by Jason Aaron and Daniel Acuna. With the other X-Men incapacitated, Idie telepathically reached out to her fellow mutants. Wolverine told her to wait for his help, but Cyclops ordered her to fight the soldiers who were planting a bomb. Already feeling condemned by her powers, Idie killed a dozen Hellfire soldiers—but she also saved hundreds of lives in the process.

After that incident, Cyclops and Wolverine came to open blows over their dueling philosophies on how best to train Idie and the other young X-Men. Ultimately, Wolverine decided to reopen Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters as the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, while Cyclops chose to stay on Utopia with the more militaristic X-Men. Since Idie saw herself as a murderous monster, the X-Men leadership felt she needed to join Wolverine. Idie subsequently became one of the Jean Grey School’s first students.

ALL-NEW X-MEN 

While she seemed to be flourishing at the Jean Grey School, Idie ignored her studies and drifted away from the X-Men. She killed a future version of Quentin who negatively influenced his past self. This triggered her and the modern-day Quentin to break up, isolating her further.

Idie grew tired of the expectations placed upon her and left the school. She joined the time-displaced X-Men, who were time-traveling versions of the original teenage X-Men stranded in the present, starting in ALL-NEW X-MEN (2015) #1 by Dennis Hallum and Mark Bagley.

Idie’s views on mutants began to soften, precipitating a crisis of faith that began in ALL-NEW X-MEN (2015) #5. When the X-Men fought Blob in Paris, Idie went to the Notre Dame cathedral and wondered why mankind persecuted mutantkind.

Idie later confessed to the teenage Iceman that while she still practiced Catholicism, her changed views on mutantkind complicated her faith. When the time-displaced X-Men team eventually split up, Idie returned to the X-Mansion, where she resumed her studies and friendship with Quentin.

KRAKOA AND BEYOND

The mutant nation of Krakoa promised paradise for many mutants, but not for Idie. While protecting Krakoa, Idie and her partner Nekra killed several pirates, violating Krakoa’s first law: kill no man. Despite her noble intentions, Professor X and Magneto sentenced Idie to the Pit of Exile, destined to be held in stasis indefinitely. But when Idie and her fellow inmates were imprisoned, they found that the Pit had been transformed into a nightmarish dreamscape by Sabretooth, its first inmate, in SABRETOOTH (2022) #1 by Victor LaValle and Leonard Kirk.

After all the inmates escaped the Pit, Sabretooth took off, forcing the other escapees to band together and form the Exiles to stop him. However, Idie and the Exiles briefly allied themselves with Sabretooth to fight Orchis in order to rescue several young mutants being held captive by the anti-mutant organization. The Exiles later went on to help Wolverine defeat Sabretooth and his army of Multiversal variants.

After the fall of Krakoa, Idie joined Cyclops and his new X-Men team to hold the team to a higher standard in X-MEN (2024) #1 by Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman. In a nod to her powers and the experiences that forged her, Idie took the codename Temper, a reference to how steel is tempered and strengthened by exposure to extreme heat and cold. More powerful and confident than ever, Temper wants to ensure that the mutants who forgot and condemned her don’t make the same mistakes again.

Join Temper on her latest adventure in X-MEN #3, available now!

Want to catch up on Temper's past? Join Marvel Unlimited for instant access to 30,000+ comics on the Marvel Unlimited app or on the web, with digital issues spanning Marvel Comics classics to ongoing series!

Grab these comics and more at your local comic book shop! Or redeem then read your digital copy on the Marvel Unlimited app by using the code found in your print comic. Find and support your local comic book shop at ComicShopLocator.com.

To read your Marvel comics digitally, download the Marvel Unlimited app for iOS and Android devices. Gain an expansive catalog of 30,000+ comics spanning Marvel Comics history, plus access your entire digital library including comics redeemed from print.