Sofia Elizabeth Mantega, also known as Wind Dancer and formerly known as Renascence, is a fictional character, a mutant appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. One of the student body in the Xavier Institute, she is a member of the New Mutants squad therein. Her first appearance was in New Mutants, vol. 2 #1. At the beginning of New Mutants vol. 2, she is 16 years old.
Fictional character biography
Early life
Sofia was born and lived most of her life in Caracas, Venezuela. While under the care of her uncle, Sofia's mother is killed in a riot. Her only Venezuelan adult relative, an uncle, is unable to support her in addition to his own children, so she is sent to her father Walter Barrett, who had been previously unaware of her existence. The head of a major supermarket chain located in the United States, Barrett is a cold, asocial man with no interest in a daughter. As such, he extracts from her a promise that she would learn English before school started, she would get good grades, and she would not use her mutant power, in exchange for which all her material wants would be provided for without question.
Over the next three weeks, Sofia befriends Barrett's manservant Derek, learns English, and joins a local school, but despite her outgoing nature, she has difficulty fitting in and is unable to reconcile herself to Barrett's lack of affection for her. She ultimately acts out by skipping school and wrecking one of Barrett's stores. Barrett is incensed, less at the destruction of his store than by her exposing him as the father of a mutant, and considers leaving her in prison for 48 hours to punish her. Danielle Moonstar, having seen Sofia's vandalism on the news, steps in and offers her a place at the Xavier Institute.thumb|200px|right|Wind Dancer as a New Mutant using her wind powers.
Xavier Institute
Resident mischief maker Julian Keller (Hellion) finds himself instantly attracted to Mantega and begins dating her. She rejects him after he makes derogatory remarks about her roommate Laurie Collins (Wallflower), but the attraction remains mutual, and despite herself Sofia later ends up flirting with Julian during a combat training exercise. Derek remains in touch, even quitting his job when her father objects to his seeing Sofia.
Sofia and Laurie are assigned to the New Mutants squad, along with Surge, Elixir, Prodigy, and Wither. Sofia is generally well-liked and is voted as "Most Outgoing" in the school's yearbook.
Prodigy rejects the offer to lead the New Mutants, so the position falls to Sofia.
Thereafter, Sofia's temper eases again until the school dance, where she catches Laurie manipulating Prodigy to make Elixir jealous. Alarmed by the rapid disintegration of the squad, she finds herself kissing Julian, and he pushes her to end the in-fighting since she is the one who sees the good in everyone - even him. She tries to do so by forcing everyone to camp out on the X-Mansion's grounds. While bickering and even fist-fighting break out, Sofia is able to eventually reconcile her teammates. Along with most of the de-powered students, she moves out of the mansion, planning to return to Venezuela with Derek. She leaves the school abruptly without giving Julian notice after she catches him callously denouncing Prodigy after the latter lost his powers.
For as-yet-unknown reasons, Sofia moves to New York City, where she lives alone and works as a waitress. She feels directionless in her new "normal" life and has nightmares about losing her powers. Around this time, Sofia begins to receive strange messages from a group calling itself the New Warriors. The group sends a messenger whom Sofia recognizes as Barry, a young man she knew (and flirted with) from the restaurant she works in. Barry explains that he is a depowered mutant, and is actually her old friend from the Xavier Institute, Beak, whom she did not recognize because of his altered appearance post-M-Day. Beak transports Sofia into the secret base of the New Warriors, but she rejects their efforts to talk her into joining the group.
However, a battle between the New Warriors and a new Zodiac breaks out near the restaurant where Sofia works and she witnesses Cancer kill the New Warrior Longstrike. With the Warriors fighting a losing battle and a little boy caught in the crossfire, Sofia charges towards Cancer, providing enough distraction to give her friends the upper hand. While the superpowered individuals battle, Sofia tries to get the young boy to safety but is blasted from behind. Upon her release from the hospital, Sofia reconsiders Night Thrasher's offer to join the New Warriors as he is considering disbanding the group. She takes the codename Renascence and utilizes a suit with electrified tentacles to make up for her lack of powers. When at close range, she can also compress air into a person's ear to disrupt their balance.