The mutant known as Wind Dancer who can manipulate the wind and co-leads the New Mutants Training Squad to become the next generation of X-Men. As a natural leader, she sees the best in people and never gives up on her teammates.
The Winds of Change
The teenage mutant Sofia Mantega grows up in Caracas, Venezuela. Comfortable with her mutant wind manipulation powers, Mantega uses them openly with the blessing of her mother, who raises her alone in Caracas. While spending time at her uncle Paolo’s house, she uses her powers to play with her cousin’s kite, and hears voices carried on the wind saying her mother Miranda was killed during revolutionary riots. During her mother’s funeral, she overhears the guests talking and deciding her fate. Sofia is soon sent to America to be with the father she had never met, wealthy supermarket tycoon Walter Barrett. He keeps Sofia at a distance, leaving her care to his butler/driver Derek Newton, but he establishes ground rules: one, that she will learn English before school starts; two, that she will get good grades; and three, that she will not use her mutant power. He informs her that if she needs anything at all to ask Derek and she will want for nothing, as long as she agrees to not disturb or embarrass him.
She studies English for three weeks and picks it up quickly, just in time for the first day of school. Though she is mocked at school for her accent and ignored at home, Sofia’s cheerful disposition finally gives way when her father callously dismisses her sixteenth birthday. To gain his attention, Sofia uses her powers to wreck one of Barrett’s stores, and ensures that she wouldn't hurt anyone. Though she is arrested on site. Her father picks her up at the police precinct, and furious, he plans to send Sofia back to Venezuela. But before he can, mutant Danielle Moonstar, Dani Moonstar, recruits her for Charles Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning, a school and haven for mutants where she can learn to use her powers. Sofia agrees to go but before leaving, she shares a heartfelt goodbye with Derek.
Wind Manipulation
With her mutant powers, Sofia can manipulate air and wind currents, using them to fly, bring faraway sounds to her or create a zone of silence. She can generate intense winds able to knock over opponents, cut like a blade, or fire compressed air into a target’s ear, disrupting their equilibrium. She also uses her powers to levitate objects, others and herself.
Without her mutant powers, Sofica becomes Renascence and dons six detachable, hydraulic tentacles that mount on her back. These tentacles can extend from her back, allow her to lift approximately 8 tons, extend her height 24 feet, and travel at 50 mph. Each tentacle houses small-arms weapons. Her belt projects a force field capable of withstanding punctures, concussion and extreme temperatures. Her suit can generate an “intangibility burst” derived from the Ghost’s technology, briefly rendering the wearer intangible. She also carries two armor-piercing pistols of undefined origins.
As a native Venezuelan, Sofia speaks fluent Spanish and later, when she moves to the U.S., she studies English and becomes fluent. She also has some knowledge of Portuguese. Renascence is a proficient hand-to-hand combatant, markswoman and waitress.
Allies Close to the Wind
When it comes time for the next generation of X-Men to be trained, Sofia joins the New X-Men team with Moonstar as their faculty advisor. She volunteers to lead the squad, which includes healer Josh Foley, AKA Elixir, the high-flying Jay Guthrie, AKA Icarus, skill-mimic David Alleyne, AKA Prodigy, the electricity-absorbing Noriko Ashida, AKA Surge, pheromone-generating Laurie Collins, AKA Wallflower, and the organic-decaying Kevin Ford, AKA Wither. The team becomes inseparable, and while they may bicker, they’re like family to each other.
Sofia ends up getting romantically entangled with the school’s opposing squad’s field leader and telekinetic Julian Keller, AKA Hellion, on team Hellions. When Sofia loses her powers, she distances herself from Julian as she grieves. She later joins the New Warriors, a high-tech vigilante group of ex-mutants led by Donyell Taylor, AKA Night Thrasher, and takes a new alias, Renascence.
Windbags
While on the New Mutants squad out of the X-Mansion, the team often butts heads with another on-campus squad, the Hellions.
Sofia’s hero nature calls her to action when the Zodiac cartel fights the New Warriors, and she joins the team against the threat.
As The Wind Blows
Sofia adapted to Institute life rapidly, befriending a group of fellow students Hellion, her roommate Wallflower, and Prodigy, who became the New Mutants training squad under Dani’s mentorship. She soon found herself reluctantly attracted to rival squad member Hellion. As Wind Dancer, Sofia accepted the squad leader position, but became isolated and irritable when she proved unsuited for the role. She convinced Prodigy to co-lead with her, which proved beneficial, as their combined strengths managed the members’ personalities better.
Sofia and Julian then became romantically involved despite their team’s rivalry. When the New Mutants team became divided by secrets, she, in true leadership form, helped reconcile the team around a campfire.
When an insane Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, stripped most mutants of their abilities during “M-Day,” Sofia was among the depowered. Her and Julian, who had retained his abilities, fought about their new normal. Feeling depressed about such a monumental loss, and with the school’s leadership deciding that all human students and staff should be expelled, she left the X-Mansion.
She moved to Manhattan and lived alone, working as a waitress at Al’s Diner, struggling with feelings of aimlessness and pain over losing her surrogate family. She often dreamt of flying and being a hero. When Barnell “Barry” Bohusk, AKA Beak, and former X-Man Jubilation Lee, AKA Jubilee, invited her to join the crime-fighters who opposed the federal Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA), the New Warriors, she refused. She then witnessed a battle between the New Warriors and the “World Trust” Zodiac group. After seeing the New Warrior’s Longstrike killed by Cancer, and despite being powerless, Sofia entered the battle and provided a distraction to give the New Warriors a chance. In the middle of it, she was injured trying to save a young boy and her actions were deemed heroic by the media.
Realizing her need for a family, Sofia joined the New Warriors upon her recovery. She armed herself with devices that would give her abilities, such as Dr. Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus’ detachable hydraulic tentacles, Joey Cartelli, AKA Blue Shield’s force field belt and unidentified guns. She also adopted the alias Renascence, to mark the rebirth of her life. She served with the Warriors against Alpha Clan, the robotic Sam Saxon, AKA Machinesmith, the alien Skrulls, and the Dread Dealers, providing a level head and a peacekeeping presence amongst the team’s oft-bickering members, who mostly resented Taylor's secrets and machinations.
After returning from a time-travel mission to Reality-81156, the team, having lost three members in battle and no longer capable of trusting Taylor, disbanded. Presumably, Sofia continued to work as a waitress in Manhattan, and protected innocents as Renascence.
