Oya

Origin

Oya (born Idie Okonkwo) is a young Nigerian girl that developed mutant powers after Hope Summers returned from the future, and became the third mutant to manifest since the mutant Decimation. Upon being discovered by Storm, Idie had no relatives or friends to speak of. Instead, the young mutant’s home was surrounded by raging villagers and soldiers who accused Idie of mass murder and witchcraft.

Creation

Idie was created by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen to be a part of the Five Lights.

Character Evolution

Starting off as a very religious young girl in Nigeria, Idie started to hate herself for being a mutant. She thinks her powers are witchcraft, and now that they’ve manifested, she won’t be able to get into heaven. She constantly talks about how she is a monster.

Major Story Arcs

Five Lights

For more information: Five Lights

Shortly after Hope had returned, five new mutant signatures activated; Idie being the third. On the day of her retrieval, Idie was under attack by Nigerian soldiers who accused her of mass murder and of being a witch. While this was going, on Storm and Hope came in to save her. Storm told the men that she knew what they were doing and threatened to injure them if they did any more harm. As the two of them came to assure Idie that all was well, Idie blasted flames towards them. Storm managed to deflect them, while Hope tried to tell Idie to be strong and calm down as Idie could not control her powers. Storm alerted her that the men outside were running weary and were getting ready to attack again. Idie then told them that it would have been good if they killed her, as she then classified herself as a monster. Hope convinced her that she wasn’t as such and neither were her and Storm. She then reached out to Idie and made contact, awakening Idie’s powers fully and getting them under control. The two of them then came outside with Storm for one last time, asking the men to leave her alone. As the men took no notice and continued to fire, Idie said “No” and used her fire powers to the fullest extent to stop the bullets and destroy the men’s car’s and tools causing them to run away in terror. After the battle was over Idie was in shock at what she had just accomplished, but Storm and Hope reassured her and told her that she was one of them and more things like this were sure to come.

The Future is a Four letter word

The team of new mutants went to make contact with Kenji the last light. Kenji had been left alone too long and was completely out of control. When he began attacking the X-Men, it was Idie that stood her ground and felt that it took a monster to fight a monster.

After Hope passed out by using too much of Kenji’s powers, the Five Lights stayed to protect her with Idie saying that they all needed her help. Later the Five lights with Wolverine and Scott battled against Kenji again. Idie helped keep the area secure by freezing the lake as well as attacking Kenji’s leg with a small flame.

When the battle was over the all went to Utopia.

Hope begins to train Idie and the others. Idie is doing well at using automatic weapons, considering her age and background. While not training, Idie and the others are in class. Hope decides that the class and Professor X are below her and they all leave the class.

Quarantine

After their return to Utopia, the mutant flu breaks out and both Idie and Laurie have it. Idie tells Laurie to stop complaining, that when her sister was ill she didn’t complain nearly as much. Laurie asked if she got better and Idie answers and then tells her that she died but that wasn’t the point.

The Ward

Idie was watching Laurie in the wind tunnel with Doctor Nemesis before the new light activates. Idie questions why the Doctor is experimenting on them instead of helping them get better instead. When the sixth Light activates, the entire team leaves for Germany. Idie is told to stay outside the hospital for her own safety. During the teams ordeal inside the hospital Idie, asks Kitty Pryde how her life has been after she got her mutant power’s seeing as how they both got them at the same age. Kitty says its been OK so far but then begins to talk about how much she loves Peter. Idie asks her how it feels to be married but Kitty says nothing. Idie gets angry at her for not answering her question and storms off. As the battle in the hospital gets fiercer the effects of the sixth light’s powers begin to increase dramatically affecting both Kitty and Idie as well. While under it’s influence they both head to the hospital in a dazed trance, and Hope orders Laurie to go and rescue Idie since she was the main danger to the team. After being cautioned by Gabriel about the affects of the sixth lights’ powers Laurie flies off into the skies with Idie high enough for the effects to wear off. Its this event that gives way to a remarkable transformation for Laurie. Idie looks at her in awe and then thanks her as they both head back down to the hospital with Kenji safe-guarding Idie as he did with the others. Seconds after they enter the room Idie helps Kenji block the hypnotized people by using her ice powers to freeze them and the door in-front of them. Hope asks Idie if she can in any way calm the sixth light down. She tries, using her faith as a way to reach the child saying that if the child is born it can be christened and will not go to hell when it dies, but is not successful and then apologizes to Hope. She then alerts Hope that she has subtracted all the heat in the area and asks what she she should do with it. Hope tells her to wait while they deal with the sixth light as Teon manages to successfully help calm the sixth light down and safely bring it into the world. After the mission was over Idie and the Five Lights head home.

Schism

For more information: Schism

Idie and the other Five Lights are waiting for Wolverine to lead a training session. When he finally arrived he told the team that the session was canceled. He looked at Idie and asked her about her age and told her she should be playing with dolls not training. Idie responded that her doll was destroyed when her powers activated and the men of her town tried to kill her. Later Wolverine would bring her a doll and the two eat ice cream together. When they were done, Wolverine and her began to walk and talk but were stopped when they saw Cyclops and others watching a video of Sentinels being reactivated. Wolverine wanted Idie to leave but Cyclops told her to stay. Wolverine was severally angry that Cyclops would not shelter her from the violence.

When the Museum of mutant history was opening, Laurie and Idie went together. Laurie and Idie found Kenji and Laurie and Kenji had a long discussion about using violence in retaliation against Sentinels. Idie walked off and spoke to David, aka Prodigy. Prodigy told her about Strykers attack on the Xavier School where 42 students were killed. Afterwards Idie went to the alternate timeline room where she found a video of Rachel Summers talking about being a Hound. Laurie finds Idie and who tells Laurie that Rachel looks like Hope. Laurie says they just both have red hair, and that she doesn’t look like Hope to which Idie says that she does look like Hope a little. The new Hellfire club soon attacked the museum, easily taking out the X-Men’s A-Team.

As Idie was contacted telepathically, she was linked to both Wolverine and Cyclops. Wolverine was on his way and wanted Idie out of there as soon as possible but Cyclops told her that she should do what she thought was right. Remembering what she said in Tokyo about monsters fighting monsters, she attacked the hellfire club members, killing 12 people. She managed to get the civilians out safely. When the rest of the team reached the museum they were having a heated argument about Laurie leaving Idie behind. To their surprise, Idie asked if they needed her to kill anyone else, and if not she wanted to go sleep.

When they get back to Utopia, she is talking to Cyclops. Cyclops tries to tell her that she did the right thing and that those deaths were on him, not her. All she could say was that she didn’t regret killing them, just wanted the screams to stop. When it is realized that a new sentinel is going to be attacking the island, Cyclops has a tuff call to make because all the major X-Men are off scattered around the world, only the students remain. The Lights discuss whether or not the should fight this new sentinel but Transonic just wants to get off the island and take Oya with her. Hope is opposed to this plan and tells her to stay. Hope then asks Oya what she wants to do and Oya says that she wants to stay and fight. The situation infuriates Transonic to the point that she lashes out and attacks Hope. When Velocidad tries to seperate them, Primal attacks him. Oya has to shout to get their attention and stop the fighting. Then the Young X-Men arrive and the two teams discuss what they should do and they agree that they need to fight to save the “stupid rock” that they live on.

As the Young X-Men and the Five Lights come together to fight the sentinel with Cyclops, Wolverine arrives telling them that he has planted explosives around the island and when the Sentinel gets close enough, he will detonate the island. The kids all run off except Oya, she waits and looks at the two men. Cyclops and Wolverine begin fighting as the sentinel attacks. Then the students come back and start fighting the sentinel anyway. Oya and the others are able to defeat the sentinel but the damage has been done to the relationship of Cyclops and Wolverine. Wolverine says that Oya should not have been put in a place that would turn her into a killer, that these are children and Cyclops had forgotten that. Wolverine had decided to open a school back in Westchester for the students that were willing to go. Hope originally was opposed to splitting the Five Lights, she wanted all the new mutants to stay together. Transonic threatened Hope, trying to get Hope to let Oya lead a life of a child, Hope eventually gave in and brought Oya to Wolverine. When Wolverine decided to officially leave, Hope went to say good bye to Oya, the two hugged and Oya left for Westchester.

Regenesis

Idie is now in the Jean Grey School for higher learning and a student of the new headmaster Wolverine.

Powers and abilities

As Doctor Nemesis revealed, Oya is a mutant with the power to manipulate temperature. She seems to transfer the temperature rather than creating the shifts from nowhere at all.

Thermokinesis

Idie has the ability to alter temperatures around her via temperature transference. This ability results in:

Pyrokinesis

This ability enables Oya the capabilities of generating flames from thin air, not requiring the consumption of oxygen or combustible objects to maintain the flames. Idie can also use her heat manipulating abilities to extract heat from her surroundings and emit it as bio-heat from her body. She can also extract heat from other living things.

Cryokinesis

Contrastly, Oya is also able to reduce the kinetic energy of atoms and thus reduce temperature, often used to control, generate, or absorb ice.

Idie is being trained by Hope Summers, including the use of automatic weapons.

Status

Family

While little is known of her family, when Storm and Hope came to her Storm mentioned to the men around her how she heard that they were the ones that murdered her family.She also had a sister years ago who died after becoming very ill.

Age

Many comic book fans have expressed confusion about Idie’s age, mostly because when Storm and Hope first meet Idie, she’s small and looks like a young child, and Storm even says Idie is 12-years-old. The next few issues, Idie has grown significantly and appears to be around Hope’s age, at most 17. According to “Generation Hope” writer Kieron Gillen, Idie’s age was erroneously printed as 12 instead of the intended 14.

All-New X-Men

Oya currently fights alongside All-New Wolverine, Cyclops, & others as a member of the All-New X-Men, a new team made up of several displaced mutants from the past that must learn to work together. After some internal struggle and questioning her faith and her relationship with God, Idie realizes her place amongst her fiends as none other than an X-Man.

Other Media

Games

X-men: Battle of The Atom

Oya is featured in the mobile card game “X-Men: Battle of the Atom” based on the comic book story with the same name. Her cards are:

• Oya
• [New Hellions] Oya
• [Future] Oya
• [JGS Alpha] Oya