Firebird (Marvel Comics)

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caption= Firebird as an Avenger. Art by George Pérez.
character_name=Firebird
real_name=Bonita Juarez
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="The Incredible Hulk" vol. 2 #265 (November 1981)
creators=Bill Mantlo
Sal Buscema
alliances=Rangers Avengers West Coast
Avengers
aliases=La Espirita
powers=Fire manipulation
Flight
Precognition
Immunity to poison, radiation and demonic magic

Firebird (Bonita Juarez), is a fictional pyrokinetic character that has appeared in various comic book series published by Marvel Comics. A former member of the Avengers, she exists in Marvel's main shared universe, known as the Marvel Universe. Firebird first appeared in "Incredible Hulk" vol. 2 #265 (November, 1981). She was co-created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema.

Fictional character biography

Origin

Bonita Juarez was born in Taos, New Mexico. She 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 mistakenly battled the Hulk. She joined with other Southwestern heroes (forming a team called the Rangers), and fought the Corruptor, rescuing Rick Jones, who had actually sent the signal. ["Incredible Hulk" #265] Her team disbanded after that short adventure.

The Avengers

Firebird was alone when she fought against the man called Master Pandemonium. 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 enlisted the aid of the Avengers in battling against Master Pandemonium. ["West Coast Avengers" #4-5] She assisted the Avengers during the following adventures, and desperately wanted to be invited to join, something to which chairman Hawkeye remained oblivious, since he was trying to recruit the Thing.

Firebird accompanied the Avengers to the dimension of the Cat People. ["West Coast Avengers" #6] She battled her former teammate in the Rangers, the possessed Shooting Star, alongside the Avengers. ["West Coast Avengers" #8] She also battled Master Pandemonium again. ["West Coast Avengers" #9]

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 making it official). Frustrated, Firebird left on a spiritual journey. Hawkeye would later change his mind and the Avengers sought out Firebird, but could not find her.

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. ["West Coast Avengers" #17-21]

With Henry Pym and Moon Knight, she rescued the Avengers who were trapped in the past. ["West Coast Avengers" #23] She aided the Avengers in battle with Dominus, and battled Sunstroke. ["West Coast Avengers" #24]

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.

She later attended an all-membership meeting of the Avengers. ["Avengers" #305]

Firebird again

Later on Bonita was captured by a group of aliens from the planet Rus, who revealed that the meteorite that gave her amazing powers was allegedly waste material from a discarded alien experiment of a pupil named Yoof. ["Avengers Spotlight" #24] 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.

She assisted Hellcat, Moondragon, and Black Widow in subduing the Awesome Android. ["Avengers Spotlight" #27]

She encountered a small platoon of Atlanteans in Mexico. ["Avengers West Coast Annual" #4]

Her immunity to radiation later made her indispensable when a mysterious energy field engulfed a small Russian country and turned everyone into zombies during the first blows of the Kang War. 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. When Captain America is briefly transformed into an energy zombie, Thor, briefly believing him dead, begins to fear that he has become too close to his mortal comrades and contemplates leaving the Avengers after the war was over, but Firebird helped him to see that the bonds between him and the Avengers were so valuable precisely because they wouldn't last forever, and he shouldn't neglect them just because he would outlive them.

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. She is also shown to have a romantic attraction to Henry Pym which manifests when she kisses him after he has an argument with the Wasp.

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 implies that the new members, including Firebird, [Civil War #4] are registered heroes who have nonetheless turned against Iron Man's forces because of the Bill Foster debacle. Weeks after the conclusion to the Civil War; Firebird is seen as one of the members of the revived Rangers, as part of the 50 States Initiative Program. [Civil War #7]

Bonita has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book #1. [ [http://www.marvel.com/news/comicstories.947 Avengers: The Initiative #1 Character Map] ]

In "Avengers: The Initiative" #2 she is seen attacking HYDRA along with the Rangers.

Powers and abilities

Bonita Juarez gained superhuman powers due to bombardment by radiation from a meteorite containing energy waste from an alien's scientific equipment. As Firebird, she has the power 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 a.k.a. 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 seemingly project searing thermal blasts from her body (actually from her mind), capable of melting steel. She can fly by riding wind currents stirred up by the nimbus of fire with which she surrounds herself while flying. Although she can propel herself at superhuman speeds, she cannot breathe at those speeds without skin protection and an oxygen supply. Fatigue impairs her performance after approximately one hour of peak expenditure of power.

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) as well as the physical effects of her mental powers, and has displayed the ability to survive in the vacuum of space. Firebird may be immortal.

Other versions

MC2

In the MC2 universe, Firebird was killed in the final mission of the original Avengers. [A-Next #7]

References

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/2855/firebird.html The Women of Marvel Comics Firebird Page]
*http://marvel.com/universe/Firebird