Life as a Superhero
Andrea Rojas is the daughter of Bernardo Rojas, a former leader of Central America. He now lives as a researcher in ‘Prehispanic Cultures’ at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana de Mexico. Andrea’s powers come from an ancient Mayan symbol of the shadows. The symbol allows the user to teleport when near a shadow; according to local legend, ancient Mayan priests used the symbol as a medium of transportation. Andrea wears the symbol on her forehead as it is her source of power. As a young superhero, she works with two other Mexican heroes; Iman and El Muerto. Acrata is later taken over by Eclipso who is gathering all shadow casting heroes and villains to his cause.
Personality
As Actara, Andrea Rojas despises Organized Crime for mysterious reasons. She is rebellious and at times paints graffiti making fun of local authorities and challenging them. She is also interested in literacy and the history of her people – she is known to spout literary quotes of famous people – and even her cat is named after Emilio Zapata Salazar, who was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution. Furthermore, she is able to recognize certain mystical items and echoes the fact that she is also interested in archeology.
Vengeance Chronicles
Andrea was contacted by two former prisoners at Lex Luthor‘s Level 33.1; Molly Briggs and Nick Yang (energy manipulation) to expose Lex for his crimes and experiments on metahumans. However, Molly and Nick really wanted to use Molly’s expertise in mind control to send Lex a subliminal message telling him to kill himself. Andrea came and negotiated with Nick and convinced him to stop it; however, Molly disagreed and was willing to go through with it so Nick used his powers to destroy Molly’s computer. After that, Molly was sent to Belle Reve.
In Other Media
TV
Smallville: Angel of Vengeance
On Smallville season 5, the character Angel of Vengeance was introduced as a substitute for Batman since the movie rights forbade them from bringing a young Bruce Wayne to appear on the show. The Angel of Vengeance’s real name was Andrea Rojas, who was stabbed in the heart by the same street gang who killed her mother. She underwent a human heart transplant but the donor turned out to be a ‘meteor freak’ (a normal human granted metahuman powers through Kryptonite) and Andrea gained super powers such as super strength and agility.
Ta-Ta-daaaaa Batwoman!
Andrea then began her career as a superhero wearing a leather jacket and a mask with eye pieces shaped similar to Batman’s mask and containing lenses similar to the white lenses Batman has on his mask.
In the story, Clark is feeling angry since Jonathan Kent‘s death, for which he was indirectly responsible. One night, a group of muggers steal Johnathan’s watch from Martha Kent. Clark goes out to find it and during his investigation at the Daily Planet, he accidentally bumps into the bumbling, clumsy and bespectacled reporter Andrea Rojas. Clark and Chloe set up a stake out to capture the Angel of Vengeance since she was present at the crime scene and was the one who stopped the muggers. Clark discovers the Angel of Vengeance’s secret identity and they both team up to find Johnathan Kent’s watch. Clark eventually confronts the muggers’ leader, Snake, and attempts to kill him when he realized that Snake had sold the watch. Andrea comes from behind and begins to encourage Clark to kill Snake, but ultimately Clark chooses not to. Andrea decids to do the job herself and uses her Kryptonite locket to weaken Clark. Then she questions Snake who reveals that he was the one who murdered Andrea’s mother after taking orders from Lionel Luthor. Andrea went after Lionel while the gang members come in and knocked the Kryptonite locket off of Clark who then goes to rescue Lionel. Andrea breaks into the LuthorCorp office and throws the elderly Luthor out of the window. Once she realizes what she has done, she super-jumps (a side-effect of super-strength) away. Clark comes just in time and rescues Lionel. The next day, Clark and Chloe find out that Andrea has disappeared. Finally, Lana finds Johnathan’s watch in a pawn shop and returns it to Clark. That day, Clark and Martha grieve together over Johnathan Kent’s death.
Supergirl
In season 5 of Supergirl, Andrea Rojas is introduced as the new owner of Catco. Her Acrata persona is hinted at in early episodes. Andrea Rojas is portrayed by Julie Gonzalo. She’d be given the back story of being a college friend of Lena back in the day, she would betray her after being tricked by Leviathan to take the power of Acrata for herself, and work for them as an assassin to protect her suicidal father. Andrea would eventually fall in love with a man named Russel who would find out she was an assassin, and turned into one himself. She would watch him be murdered in front of her, and felt obligated to finally stand against the Leviathan.
Post-Crisis, she no longer was Acrata having yet been activated by Leviathan, but would be close the season end, where she’d be assigned killing Supergirl, only to talked down by Lena. In season six, she’d continue to be the CEO of Catco, where her friendship with Lena returned as to what it once was, she’d use her powers sparingly but would be in on the end fight against Lex.