Over the years, Sunspot has been a New Mutant, an X-Man, a member of X-Force, and an Avenger.
But what's the whole story behind this particularly talented mutant? This is the untold truth
of Sunspot.
Roberto da Costa's powers manifest early in the New Mutants original graphic novel,
during a high school soccer championship game in Rio de Janeiro. After tackling a player who
had fouled him, Roberto is pinned to the ground. As the other player beats him, Roberto's body
turns coal black, energy emanates from him, and he hurls his attacker far away. Unsurprisingly,
the crowd is terrified at his appearance, and almost everyone runs away. The only one
who helps Roberto is his girlfriend Juliana.
This incident is monitored by Donald Pierce, a rogue member of the nefarious Hellfire Club
who wants to eradicate all mutants. Pierce has his goons kidnap Juliana in order to lure
Roberto to him. The plan works, but at first it looks like Roberto will be able to overpower
the Hellfire goons all on his own. His powers wane as the solar energy drains from him, however,
and Roberto is only saved by the arrival of the other New Mutants. Unfortunately,
Juliana doesn't survive the ordeal; she dies jumping in front of a bullet meant for Roberto.
At the end of The New Mutants, Roberto returns with Professor X and his other recruits, and
agrees to become a member of the junior X-Men team. He was there when the team got its own
ongoing series, and remained one of the team's mainstays throughout their run.
Sunspot and Sam Guthrie, also known as Cannonball, aren't particularly friendly when they first meet.
In The New Mutants, the villain Donald Pierce fools Cannonball into working for him,
and he helps attack Roberto and his friends.
By the end of the story, however, Sam has seen the light. When Sam shows up at Xavier's
school toward the end of The New Mutants, Roberto is initially the only one unwilling
to accept him, but his new friends convince him to give Sam a second chance.
But Roberto and Sam's friendship is forged early in the New Mutants ongoing series, helped
in no small part by the fact that of all the founding members, they're the only two boys.
Their friendship faces some difficult tests, however, such as when Roberto unintentionally
hurts Sam in 1987's Fallen Angels #1, and later when the two feud over the affections
of fellow X-Force member Meltdown.
Nonetheless, their friendship remains strong, so much so, in fact, that in the New Mutants
revival that launched in late 2019, it's Sunspot who insists that the team's very first adventure
be to blast into space so they can find Cannonball and bring him back to the new mutant homeland
of Krakoa.
In the late '80s, Sunspot briefly left the New Mutants for a very different kind of team.
In 1987's Fallen Angels #1, Roberto accidentally hurts Sam during a friendly soccer game. His
teammates are pretty vocal in letting him know how unhappy they are about this, and
shortly afterward Roberto happens upon a document Professor X wrote about him, expressing concern
he might some day go down darker paths. Ashamed, Roberto leaves behind an apologetic note and
leaves the mansion.
The new team Sunspot eventually joins is about as rag-tag as you get. Along with other mutants
such as Boom-Boom, Madrox the Multiple Man, Warlock, and Siryn, this group would eventually
include Moon Boy, Devil Dinosaur, the cyborg Gomi, and even Gomi's two cyborg lobsters.
In Fallen Angels #8, however, Sunspot and Warlock leave in order to return to the New Mutants.
As part of 2019's Dawn of X event, a new Fallen Angels title was released for the first time
in 30 years, though it's much more serious in tone and has little to do with the original
series beyond the name. Sunspot has nothing to do with this new team, which is initially
comprised only of Psylocke, X-23, and Cable. Definitely no lobsters this time.
Sunspot's powers originally seem limited to physical strength and durability, but that
changes around the time he joins X-Force.
In 1992's X-Force #15, the team rescues Sunspot from the villain Gideon, who had kidnapped
the hero and subjected him to experiments that increase his powers. Sunspot joins the
ranks of X-Force and learns he now has the power to release concussive blasts from his
body. No longer limited to solar power, Sunspot can absorb all kinds of energy, including
heat and even radiation.
"Ahhh!"
In 1993's X-Force #28, in a moment of desperation, Sunspot also learns he can fly.
It isn't clear if the villain Gideon's experiments added powers Sunspot wouldn't otherwise have
access to, or if they allowed him to discover abilities he always had the potential to use.
Regardless, the comics haven't always been consistent in terms of his newer powers.
In some instances, after long absences, Sunspot shows up with his expanded powers having disappeared
or reappeared without much of an explanation.
When Sunspot's powers first manifest in The New Mutants, the only person who helps him
is his girlfriend Juliana, and we all know what happened to her. Years later, however,
the Hellfire Club figures out a way to use Juliana against Roberto, forcing him into their ranks.
In 2000's X-Force #98, the Hellfire Club makes Roberto an offer he can't refuse. Aided by
the demonic villain Blackheart, the Club raises Juliana's soul from the lands of the dead.
In return for joining the Hellfire Club as its Black Rook, Sunspot is promised Juliana
will be resurrected in the body of another woman. Feeling obligated due to Juliana's
own sacrifice to save him, Roberto agrees. He eventually moves up the ranks, becoming
the Lord Imperial of the Hellfire Club after Sebastian Shaw is badly injured in 2005's
Uncanny X-Men #454.
Later, Sunspot leaves the Hellfire Club and returns to help teach a new crop of mutants
in the 2008-'09 series Young X-Men.
"Avengers..."
"...Assemble!"
The Avengers don't tend to include many mutants in their ranks, though they have included
a few over the years.
Most of the mutants who have become Avengers were either Avengers before they ever joined
any X teams, or were characters with long and distinguished careers with the X-Men.
But it wasn't until 2012's Avengers #2 that any of the former New Mutants joined the ranks
of Earth's mightiest heroes, and one of them was Sunspot.
In the 2012 Avengers relaunch, a whole host of new members were invited to the team, including
Sunspot and Cannonball. In Avengers #2, the two best friends are hanging out on a beach
when Sam gets a call from Wolverine and Captain America, the latter of whom invites the pair
into the fold. Assuming that they're being invited back into active X-Men service, Roberto
refuses. Once Sam tells him it's not the X-Men but the Avengers they're being invited to, however,
Roberto instantly agrees.
The pair join the new team in the following issue for a rescue mission to Mars, where
most of the core team of Avengers are being held hostage. And soon enough, Sunspot has
become not just a key member of the Avengers, but one of its leaders.
After conflict breaks out between the Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the secretive group known
as the Illuminati, Sunspot leaves the Avengers. But in 2015, the Marvel Universe finds itself
heading towards destruction, due in part to a growing number of so-called "incursions,"
in which alternate Earths are colliding and being destroyed. Not willing to be a part
of the war between the Avengers and the Illuminati, but also unable to stand on the sidelines,
Roberto uses his family's wealth to buy Advanced Idea Mechanics.
A.I.M. has been a villainous presence in the Marvel Universe for decades, and Roberto has
some serious housekeeping to do when he takes over the organization. Soon, most of the worst
elements in A.I.M. are gone, and the group is renamed Avengers Idea Mechanics.
Sunspot then uses the vast scientific resources of the once evil group to research and stop the
incursions. To this end, he forms his own team of Avengers, including other heroes who
aren't interested in the conflict between the Avengers and the Illuminati.
Unfortunately, despite everyone's best efforts, the end of the war comes with the 2015-16
event Secret Wars, in which the Marvel Universe is reduced to a single world ruled by Doctor Doom.
Eventually, however, the multiverse is restored, and in the post-Secret Wars Marvel
era, Sunspot steps up to lead another team of Avengers.
Not long after the events of Secret Wars, Sunspot leads a new team of heroes, though
he doesn't use the name "Sunspot" during this period. Roberto's A.I.M. is absorbed by S.H.I.E.L.D.,
becoming its intelligence division. At the same time, Roberto forms the U.S.Avengers,
including new versions of Red Hulk and Iron Patriot, his best friend Cannonball, and the
cybernetic hero Enigma.
Roberto acts mostly as the leader of the team, and rarely goes into the field himself.
He also takes on the alias Citizen V, a superhero name reaching back to the Golden Age of comics,
when Marvel was still called Timely. The name originally belonged to a World War II superhero,
but became more well known when the villain Baron Zemo took it to disguise himself as
a hero in the '90s series Thunderbolts.
Despite a huge promotional push, including a first issue with over 50 variant covers,
U.S.Avengers would only last 12 issues, as the team was dissolved after the events of
the 2016-17 story Avengers: No Surrender.
In the 2019 line-wide Marvel Comics event War of the Realms, the Dark Elf Malekith leads
his armies to Earth, to bring the final of the ten realms under his rule. Avengers and
street-level heroes alike rise up to protect the Earth against hordes of dark elves, trolls,
frost giants, and more, and they aren't alone. In the miniseries War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men,
mutant heroes lead civilian survivors to a baseball stadium in Queens.
Unfortunately, Sunspot doesn't survive the final battle.
The villain Sabretooth allies himself with Malekith's armies and captures the mutant
Magik early in the miniseries, saddling her with a mystical gem that stops her from using
her powers. In the third and final issue of the miniseries, as Sabretooth and his forces
overwhelm the stadium's defenders, Sunspot grabs the magic gem and absorbs its energy,
hoping the act will allow Magik to use her powers. Roberto's powers work on the gem,
but the hero's body explodes just moments later.
Soon after, Sabretooth pays for his treachery. Magik decapitates the villain and, perhaps
worried about his healing factor, teleports his head to parts unknown.
A long list of mutants die in Marvel's 2019 line of comics. Wolfsbane is beaten to death,
Banshee is crushed, Havok explodes, Vanisher melts, Chamber is stabbed from behind, and,
of course, Sunspot gives his life to restore Magik's powers. But thanks to the 2019-20 event
Dawn of X, death means a lot less than it used to for Marvel's mutants.
In Dawn of X, the mutants of Earth found a new nation on the sentient mutant island of
Krakoa. One of the advances possible on Krakoa is the resurrection of dead mutants.
Through the efforts of a group known as the Five, any mutant can be brought back from death,
provided they have access to that mutant's DNA.
So in 2019's New Mutants revival, Roberto is there to team up with his old friends,
along with other recently deceased heroes such as Wolfsbane and Chamber.
And sure enough, Sunspot demands that the new team's first mission be to blast off into the void to bring
his best buddy Cannonball back to Earth, and rejoin their new mutant utopia.
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