WARNING! Spoilers for X-Factor #3 by Leah Williams, David Baldeon, Israel Silva, and VC’s Joe Caramagna, out now!
Following their new protocol of investigating mutant deaths and disappearances in order to prioritize Krakoan resurrections, X-Factor‘s discovery of a mutant murder sends them to the Mojoverse. After signing up the usual contracts, their sponsor Mojo informs them that the murder happened live on X-Men villain Spiral’s Showcase. Appearing as guest stars before a live-streaming audience, X-Factor learns to their horror that the murdered mutant is the former X-Man Wind Dancer, who once worked alongside X-Factor member Prodigy in the New Mutants.
Wind Dancer, aka Sofia Mantega – created by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, and Keron Grant – appeared in New Mutants #1 (2003) as a Venezuelan mutant with the ability to control and manipulate the movement of air, able to generate wind with great force and even a cutting effect. Asked to join the X-Men by Dani Moonstar, she was assigned to the New Mutants squad, which included Prodigy who would eventually work alongside Wind Dancer as team co-leader. Sofia was among the majority of the mutant population de-powered after M-Day and she would eventually work with the New Warriors after suffering severe injuries following their battle with the criminal team Zodiac. Taking the name Renascence, she wore a suit that gave her cybernetic advantages in battle while remaining without powers despite her impressive athletic and martial arts experience.
In the latest X-Factor, the team’s guest spot on Spiral’s show has the multi-armed host direct her line of questions toward Prodigy, especially regarding his relationship with Sofia. Despite the fact that both mutants were presumably re-powered thanks to the Krakoan protocols, Prodigy had not kept in better touch with his former New Mutant teammate. X-Factor displayed true shock and horror as they not only learned the mutant was Wind Dancer but watched her get shot and die again, the entire event broadcasted for her Mojoverse audience. When X-Factor demands answers, Spiral uses her teleportation powers to send the X-Men to meet with their long-lost ally Shatterstar just in time for the main event, Sofia’s autopsy!
Revealing that he was the one who sent the original package to Krakoa, Shatterstar reveals that Wind Dancer chose to die in order to feel the Mojoverses’ love for mutants, the specific details known only to her, and that Shatterstar was able to convince Mojo to perform an autopsy instead of using Sofia’s remains for the next generation of Mojo clones. Giving them a coded message to get Sofia’s body and leave before the big event, X-Factor is confronted with Sofia’s well-preserved body, a sight that upsets Prodigy. He offers to carry Sofia’s body himself but his X-Factor teammates won’t allow him to carry that burden alone, as Northstar steals her body and X-Factor makes a timely exit while promising to return soon for Shatterstar. As Wind Dancer’s missing body is sure to infuriate Mojo by costing him money and ratings, the issue’s last panel suggests the Mojoverse isn’t done with the X-Men.
