WRAITH II

BIOGRAPHY

Hector Rendoza was a Hispanic-American born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Hector never wanted to harm anyone but that didn’t seem to matter to his fellow Bostonians after his mutant gene activated at the age of sixteen. His power caused his skin to turn translucent, visibly exposing all of his internal organs, to the horror of any who laid eyes on him. Hector attempted to visit a doctor in the Boston Common but his appearance freaked out a large group of humans to the point that they quickly morphed into a violent mob.

Their anti-mutant sentiment quickly led them to surrounding the terrified and harmless boy and most likely would have killed him if not for the timely intervention of Jean Grey of the X-Men. In a situation remarkably similar to her mentor Charles Xavier’s saving of Nightcrawler, another obviously mutated teammate, Jean froze the mob in their tracks using her powerful telepathy. She then told Hector that his help was needed and she pitched him on helping save the world that wanted him dead due to their ignorance. He quickly agreed to the much prettier mutant’s request, especially given his lack of other options in his life.

Back at the safety of the X-Men’s mansion, the other ad-hoc mutants Jean had recruited as temporary X-Men were not getting along. The openly homosexual Northstar was quick to start super-speed punching the invulnerable Paulie Provenzano for making homophobic comments. Hector apologized to Jean, explaining that he tried to break them up and thus established him as the most eager to please and help others among the group. His age, however, also made him quite naive and nervous.

Jean explained the situation for which she had gathered this eclectic group together. Magneto had kidnapped their founder Charles Xavier and was planning on publicly executing him as a statement that the dream of peaceful coexistence between man and mutant was dead. While Cyclops and Wolverine were on Magneto’s island nation of Genosha, attempting to rescue their mentor, the rest of the X-Men were not available and Jean was bringing this team as the cavalry. Given the lack of time, they needed to leave on the Blackbird for the island right away, despite a lack of training and (in Hector’s case) a lack of knowledge of his powers. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #392]

During the flight, Jean used her telepathy to give the inexperienced members a cram course on the use of their powers to help prepare them for battle against one of the most powerful mutants on Earth. Hector, now code-named Wraith, wasn’t the only young mutant present, as Sunpyre, the sister of X-Men ally Sunfire, showed a surprising amount of confidence in her own atomic fire abilities, despite this being her first mission. Given how nervous and insecure Hector was in his own place on this team, he was instantly attracted to this fiery girl. Directly after this, Jean probed another member, Dazzler, and showed the team the horrific events that led her to leave her husband to seek help. Wraith was taken aback by this vision and wanted it to end but the team promised to help Dazzler once they completed this mission.

As the Blackbird approached Genosha, the plane was suddenly ripped apart and the whole team started free falling to their doom. The force behind the destruction was Magneto and he followed up by safely using magnetic currents to lower the mutants at his feet in view of a coliseum packed with his subjects. Wraith once again demonstrated that he was perhaps in over his head when he remarked how scary the master of magnetism looked. He then stood by helplessly as Dazzler was seemingly cremated by her own redirected light powers that she had thrown at Magneto. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #393]

Magneto next threw the invulnerable Paulie into the upper atmosphere, forcing Northstar to leave and rescue this man he hated. Magneto subdued several other teammates with metal bindings including Sunpyre after her impressive attempt at incinerating Magneto. Hector was dismayed at her condition as she was the first girl to look at him and not turn away horrified. Jean told him that she trusted Hector could hold off Magneto for just a few moments longer, which both Hector and Magneto found difficult to believe. Magneto picked up Hector by his neck and asked the boy if he had any mutant power aside from his grotesque appearance. Obliging the dictator, Wraith managed to reverse his translucence onto Magneto, both surprising and disorienting him temporarily. While Jean knew that Hector possessed the power to transfer his visibility, even having the future potential to turn completely invisible, she did not know that the transfer effect caused this disorientation that Hector described as an ice-cream headache.

It might have been the end of Wraith, if Jean’s plan hadn’t immediately after reached its climax. Magneto was optic blasted away from Hector by Cyclops and attacked by Wolverine. In the middle of the fight, Magneto’s powers suddenly stopped working and it was revealed that Xavier had been freed and secretly switched with a not dead Dazzler projecting a holographic illusion that Charles was still captured. Jean made everyone believe Dazzler had died and her working in conjunction with Charles was blocking Magneto’s magnetism. Wolverine broke protocol and stabbed Magneto, seemingly fatally, and a disapproving Charles nevertheless reaffirmed to the onlooking mutants that violence against humanity would never be the answer. With the mission wrapped up, all of the new recruits decided to leave the mansion rather than train with the X-Men. Hector especially felt that he was not cut out for this life, though was still interested in learning more control over his powers. [X-Men (2nd series) #113]

Despite never appearing again, Hector was confirmed by the S.H.I.E.L.D. database to have lost his powers along with a majority of the mutant population following M-Day. [New Avengers (1st series) #18] Perhaps he will one day show up on Krakoa and reclaim his lost powers during the Crucible, finally mastering that full invisibility, or maybe he is content living back in Boston with people not being horrified at his appearance.