Firebird (comics)
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Firebird (Bonita Juarez), is a fictional character, a pyrokinetic member of the Avengers. Firebird first appeared in Incredible Hulk #265 (November, 1981). She was co-created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema.
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[edit] Fictional character history
[edit] Origin
Bonita Juarez was a devout Roman Catholic, who, while walking in the deserts of Albuquerque, New Mexico, came into contact with a radioactive meteorite fragment. The radiation altered her DNA, and gave her the power to generate flames and heat, and even fly. Believing her gifts came from the legendary firebird, she assumed the mythical bird's name, and donned a costume.
As Firebird, she received a distress call from the Avengers, and joined with other South Western heroes (forming a team called The Rangers), and fought the Corruptor. Her team disbanded after that short adventure, and therefore, Firebird was alone when she fought against the man called Master Pandemonium.
[edit] The Avengers
Exhausted from her battle, she fell to the ground near the new Avengers Compound on the West Coast, where she was found by the Thing. She assisted the Avengers during those following adventures, and desperately wanted for her to be invited, something that chairman Hawkeye remained oblivious to, since he was trying to recruit the Thing.
When Mockingbird eventually found out Firebird's wish, she tried to coax her husband into inviting her, but he was consistently holding out for the Thing (who did eventually decide to become a member, but backed out before becoming an official member). Frustrated, Firebird left, to go on her own spiritual journey. Hawkeye would later change his mind and the Avengers sought out Firebird, but could not find her.
[edit] La Espirita
Eventually, she reappeared as La Espirita and arrived in the nick of time to stop Hank Pym's suicide attempt. With the help of Espirita, Hank re-invented himself as the adventurer Doctor Pym, and he was able to move on from his past troubles. The two also shared a brief romance, but Bonita left the team again after she helped them out on a few short adventures, to stand by Hank. One of those adventures involved the death of both the East and West Coast Avengers. It was then that she found out that she was seemingly immortal, when all of the Avengers died thanks to a poison by the Elder of the Universe Collector, except her, something that the Collector found fascinating.
[edit] Firebird again
Later on Bonita was captured by a group of aliens, who revealed that the meteorite that gave her amazing powers was allegedly waste material from a discarded alien experiment. Nonetheless Firebird (she had returned to that name after learning this information) herself believes that her powers are a gift from God. She was called in on various Avengers meetings since then, signifying that she had somewhere accepted their membership offer. Nonetheless, Firebird largely acts as a reserve member, preferring to spend her time as a social worker.
It was her newly discovered immunity to radiation made her indispensable when a mysterious energy field engulfed a small Russian country, and turned everyone into zombies. Firebird was one of the few individuals who could travel into the energy field without harm. Fellow Avenger Thor also surmised that Firebird may be immortal.
[edit] Beyond!
Firebird reappears in the limited series Beyond! along with other Marvel characters. She is depicted as having changed to a somewhat more revealing costume that bares part of her midriff.
[edit] Civil War
After a vicious battle between Captain America's Secret Avengers and Iron Man's Pro-Registration forces during the Civil War, in which Bill Foster was killed by a clone of The Mighty Thor, Firebird, along with twenty other superheroes, joined the Secret Avengers in opposing the Superhuman Registration Act. Captain America's dialogue in Civil War #4 implies that the new members, including Firebird, are registered heroes who have nonetheless turned against Iron Man's forces because of the Bill Foster debacle.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Firebird has the powers of pyrokinesis, which enables her to mentally excite the atoms in an object until it spontaneously combusts. By using her powers to ignite the air around her, she can surround herself with an aura of flames that often takes the shape of a bird (like Phoenix aka Jean Grey), and if she focuses her flames downwards in a tight stream, she can propel herself through the air like a rocket. She can channel her powers through her hands to fire searing thermal blasts. She has also displayed a limited power of precognition, allowing her to have glimpses of the future. Firebird also seems to be immune to most forms of radiation and poison (and even demonic possession), and has displayed the ability to survive in the vacuum of space. Firebird may be immortal.
[edit] MC2
A-Next #7 shows Firebird to have died in the final mission of The Original Avengers.
[edit] Links
Categories: 1981 introductions | Fictional Catholics | Fictional heroines | Marvel Comics immortals | Fictional characters with precognition | Marvel Comics characters who can fly | Fictional Mexican-Americans | Marvel Comics mutates | Marvel Comics superheroes | Fictional people from New Mexico | Hispanic superheroes | Fictional characters with the power to manipulate fire
