Sofia YongJitter

For one minute, the mutant Jitter can be the best at any skill or talent. When it gets her into trouble at school and she starts hearing a voice calling her to Louisiana, she seeks help from the X-Men.

Trouble in School

In Singapore, teenager Sofia Yong has a stutter and is good at her coursework, but finishing her quizzes earlier than the other students attracts bullies, who beat her up every day. Eventually, she uses her mutant power to defend herself. Though she struggles to control her ability, where she can access talents and skills but only for one minute, and leaves one of the bullies disabled—a consequence that she feels bad about.

When hearing a voice calling her to Louisiana in the United States, Sofia joins a group of mutants who experience a similar call and who are also being hunted by a mysterious monster. The voice tells her and the others that the X-Men could save them. So they find Anna Marie LeBeau, AKA Rogue and her X-Men, a splinter group from the rest of the X-Men, arguing and without their leader Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, who was imprisoned after the fall of Krakoa. Sofia speaks for the group, asking for their help but James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, can smell death on them and goes on the offensive. Remy LeBeau, AKA Gambit, sets off the Left Eye of Agamotto, a powerful artifact. Its energy strikes one of the teens, who responds by hitting Logan with a powerful blow and sets off a fight between the teens and the adult mutants. But Jubilation Lee, AKA Jubilee’s sudden arrival and intervention ultimately calms down the two groups. Afterward, the X-Men decide to take the teens into their protection. Sofia and the others share their mutant names, Sofia’s being “Jitter”, and follow the X-Men to Gambit’s friend’s family home in Haven, LA, dubbed Haven House, where the St. Juniors reside and where they begin training with the X-Men.

Super-powers with a Stopwatch

Sofia can channel any skill, talent, or knowledge for only one minute—skills such as hand-to-hand combat and advanced parkour and knowledge, such as that of a combat medic or kickboxer. She calls this one minute her “focus time” and times herself using her watch. 

She is also fluent in Malay and English. 

Fierce Foes

Sarah Gaunt, AKA the Hag, targets the teens due to misplaced blame while working for Graymalkin Prison’s warden, Corina Ellis. She is eventually defeated but not before the teens face off with her followers in a battle.

Sofia also faces off with bullies at her school in Singapore and Louisiana. The first time, she engages the bullies with her powers and hurts them, so the second time, she does nothing. She also battles stealthy Sentinels and angry ghosts.

Outlier Allies

Harvey X is one of Sofia’s first allies though she may not be aware of it. Before he dies, Harvey X psychically guides Sofia and her fellow “outlier” mutants to Rogue’s team of X-Men, who become staunch allies while they’re being hunted by the monstrous woman known as the Hag. 

Sofia’s closest allies are The Outliers, a group of teenage mutants finding their place in the world and includes Valentin Correa, AKA Ransom, from Buenos Aires; Hotoru, AKA Deathdream, from Kyoto; and Becca Constance Simon-Pinette, AKA Calico, from Virginia.

Rogue’s X-Men are Sofia’s teachers and protectors as are their allies, the St. Juniors, who offer them room and board at Haven House.

Every Minute Counts

While taking refuge at Haven House, Sofia and the others showed off their powers with the X-Men watching and learning their strengths and weaknesses. Gambit received a warning from Corina Ellis, the warden from Graymalkin Prison, that the Hag sought to kill the young mutants in their protection, and sure enough they were confronted by a small army of the Hag’s followers. The X-Men jumped to defend the teens, but Sofia and the others joined without hesitation to protect themselves. Jitter was more worried about protecting the St. Juniors and worked with the Outliers and X-Men to defeat their attackers. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Rogue was battling the Hag and defeated her. Gambit used the Eye of Agamotto against their foes, which dispersed them. 

With their foes behind them, staying at Haven House meant that Sofia and the Outliers must attend school. On Sofia’s first day, she and the others rode a school bus with the St. Juniors’ daughter Chelsea, where some other students made fun of Sofia’s stutter. Later that day, the bullies slapped her upside the head and continued to make fun of her. Little did she know that later her friend Hotoru defended her by using his powers against the bullies, though Val had to come to his aid as he couldn’t fight them all off.

But Sofia’s day got worse when she discovered that her friend and fellow Outlier Calico was abducted by Ellis’ goons and imprisoned at Graymalkin. Not only that, but Jubilee as well. Sofia and the Outliers resolved to help the X-Men get them back. While at Graymalkin, they run into another group of X-Men trying to save their own member from the prison. They eventually work together and liberate their allies.

Sofia later found Calico dancing in the barn near Haven House. She used her focus time to channel a male ballet dancer and they shared a dance for a minute. They later went to a mall upon Jubilee’s suggestion with their fellow Outliers, Val and Hotoru. But they were ambushed by stealthy Sentinel drones in the form of dogs. During the fight, Hotoru was gravely injured. Sofia used her focus time to call upon the skills and knowledge of a combat medic and revived him. They joined the others to fight off the deadly dogs and were also joined by the X-Men who came to their aid. Together, they defeated their attackers and looked as if heroes to onlookers. 

During a training session with Jubilee, Wolverine, Rogue, and Gambit, Sofia was knocked off her feet and slammed into the ground, taking her breath away. As she cried from the scare, Jubilee and Kurt Wagner, AKA Nightcrawler, comforted her and ended the training session.  

One night, Hotoru woke Sofia and the others from their slumber, imploring them to follow him. They hopped on a boat and made their way across a swamp to find the Dark Artery, of which Hotoru called a beacon calling to them. But Sofia thought it felt terminal. Calico helped Sofia out of the boat but slipped and blushed. Val noticed and called Jitter out on it, noticing that Calico blushed as well. Hotoru informed the group to show no fear on their journey ahead. They entered the Dark Artery, a mysterious graveyard near Haven House that’s tied to a mutant from the distant past. Surrounded by coffins, Sofia noticed an unknown language inscribed on the wall nearby, so she called upon a linguistics scholar to read it and it said, “Bring us your own to rest forever.” As they traversed deeper into the tomb, it became a cave and just as Hotoru reminded them again to show no fear, they encountered Ted Sallis, AKA Man-Thing, who protected the Penumbra, a city of the dead, which had a mutant guardian of its own, Lady Henrietta. After revealing their truths to Man-Thing, they were allowed to pass and they met Lady Henrietta. She revealed that she and those that dwelled in this place had lured them there to take her place under the city’s eternal overlord Shuvahrak, and that Hotoru was her obvious replacement on account of his ability to switch between life and death and control the unliving. 

Despite Hotoru accepting his new role and thinking no one cared for him, Sofia and the others fought for him, and Calico told Hotoru that she loved him. When they were all caught by the dead, Sofia reminded them that whoever knows fear burns at the touch of Man-Thing, who appeared to help them just as the X-Men arrived to back them up as well.