Oya (Marvel)
Oya is a female comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Idie Okonkwo was a 14-year old human Mutant Igbo girl living in the Oyo State of Nigeria when she became one of the first new mutants to manifest after the events of M-Day. The spell cast by the Scarlet Witch causing the Decimation was resisted by the Phoenix Force initiating the birth of a mutant 'messiah' named Hope Summers. Through Hope's birth and her teenaged manifestation of powers in less than a year, Idie and other young people began showing up as new 'Lights' on the X-Men's mutant detection system namely Cerebra. Idie grew up in a poor Nigerian village, tutored by Christian missionaries to have a strong devotion to Catholicism. She thought it was the Devil's work when she started setting fires in her village, and others agreed. Idie was labelled a witch child and, when her parents resisted, they were apparently killed by the mob. Most of the village was evacuated and the local militia prepared to kill Idie in the church where she sought refuge. Feeling cursed and suicidal, Idie was greeted by the arrival of Hope and the X-Men's Ororo of Kenya and Wakanda. They warded off the militia and allowed Hope to touch Idie, stabilizing her new powers as she did with all the Lights. Hope and Ororo tried to convince Idie she was not the Devil, and offered her a new life away from the horrors of her past. Idie came to see Hope as her own personal savior, and so she went with them. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #528)
Once the Lights arrived on Utopia, Idie quietly submitted to Doctor Nemesis' tests and to Hope's training. (Generation Hope v1 #5) Idie also quietly accompanied Hope and the other Light on their first mission to Berlin to find a new mutant. (Generation Hope v1 #7)
Jean Grey School
Whilst at the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning, she helped a new student name Broo who was being picked on by some of the other trainees. During this time, the pair became close friends with Broo developing a crush on Idie. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #2)
However, Idie had been targeted by Kade Kilgore and his prepubescent Hellfire Club. In part of his grand scheme to dismantle the Jean Grey School and punish Wolverine for defying him, Kilgore and his associate Maximilian von Frankenstein created a robot pastor to influence Idie. Seeking a church to worship at in Salem Center near the school, Idie was drawn in by the pastor's rhetoric reinforcing her beliefs that she was a monster going to Hell for being a mutant. What Hope and others saw as improvement in Idie's behavior had merely been increasing acceptance over what she saw as her inevitable fate as a sinner. The night of the school dance, Idie let herself go, having fun dancing and kissing Quentin. At the same time, though, a suspicious Broo encountered Pastor Hail in Salem Center, before being shot in the head by Kade Kilgore himself. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #18)
Regardless of her sheltered upbringing, Idie was an observant girl and hardly naive. Idie discovered the body of Pastor Hail with an axe through its head, revealing the robot for what it was. When Glob Herman defected to the Hellfire Academy, Idie realized the Hellfire Club was behind her woes and trying to manipulate her. She also reasoned that someone from the Club was likely responsible for shooting Broo. Still believing herself to be a monster whose only value was killing other monsters, Idie decided to infiltrate the Hellfire Academy and find the shooter. Contrary to her plans, however, Broo ended up at the Academy, as did Quentin Quire who thought Idie was on a suicide mission and wanted to stop her. (Wolverine and the X-Men v1 #30)
Oya began acting out in school after that, skipping classes and showing an utter disregard for her studies. She had come to recognize that the X-Men would never kick a problem mutant out into the world merely for not following the curriculum, and so classes were far more optional than they were led to believe. Storm tried to counsel Idie that this behavior was not like her, but Idie challenged whether Storm was even in a position to know what she was like. Yes, Oya was typically quiet and well-behaved, but she was also a multiple murderer who spent a year believing she was a monster from Hell and the X-Men barely took notice. Idie was tired of allowing other people's expectations to shape who and what she was. (Wolverine and the X-Men v2 #7)
Overview
Personality and attributes
She appeared to have lost faith in God to some degree, stating that she no longer 'talked' to him but rather 'yelled' at him. (All-New X-Men v2 #6)
Powers and abilities
Idie had the mutant power of temperature manipulation. This power allows her to move heat from one area to another, producing various effects, as well as rendering her body completely immune to temperature extremes. To date, Idie's use of her powers has only been limited by the amount of heat available to her within her immediate environment. She is consistently able to move enough heat to create fire in one area and ice in another. While she often creates fire as she creates ice, and vice versa, this is not a necessity.
Notes
- Oya was created by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen where she made her first appearance in Uncanny X-Men v1 #528 (September, 2010).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Video games
- In X-Men: Battle of the Atom, Oya appeared as a playable card in the setting of the video card game.
Appearances
- Uncanny X-Men v1: (2010)
- Generation Hope v1:
- Wolverine and the X-Men v1:
- All-New X-Men:
External Links
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