WARNING: The following contains spoilers for New Mutants #14 by Vita Ayala, Rod Reis & VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.
One of the core tenants of the X-Men as a concept is to give young mutants a safe haven to learn and grow into the people they want to be. But for some mutants, they never got that full opportunity due to the circumstances happening around them. Now, one long-lost mutant is living the life she should have had years ago.
It turns out that Petra -- one of the X-Men lost in Deadly Genesis who was finally revived upon Krakoa -- is now training with the other young mutants, giving her the chance to experience being a student with the X-Men.
Petra was the daughter of Danish immigrants to America. When she was thirteen, she survived a rock slide that killed her whole family, leaving her alone and in the foster care system. Although she was eventually adopted, she grew to fear her foster father -- with her mutant powers of geokinesis activating when he tried to sexually assault her. Surviving on the streets alone, Petra hid away from others while growing more refined and powerful with her abilities. After being caught, Moira MacTaggert took her in, training her alongside three other young mutants (Darwin, Sway and Vulcan). Petra grew more confident and powerful but never got the chance to embrace her abilities. While on a mission to save the X-Men after they'd been caught on Krakoa, Sway and Petra were killed rescuing their teammates.
However, Petra has since been revived -- ironically enough, on Krakoa. Thanks to the Five, she's been restored to life. On top of that, New Mutants reveals that Petra has found a home for herself with the New Mutants. With six former New Mutants turning their attention towards giving many young mutants training and structure to stay focused, this ends up including Petra. Petra is made a member of the "Elementals" squad, which consists of herself, Dust, Sprite and Rain Boy. Going up against the Ferals, Peta quickly proves adept at this combat-heavy form of training.
Petra quickly proves herself a worthy competitor and a crafty fighter, holding her own against Scout and Anole at the same time with relative ease as her team earns a victory. She's part of the group who's impressed by the concept of "mutant technologies," which are essentially combo moves between powers. Petra has also been seen hanging out with Sway and Vulcan on the moon during the events of Empyre, but it's nice to see the long-lost mutant begin to acclimate more and more with the rest of the mutants on Krakoa. Given how potentially powerful she is, Petra is the exact kind of person who should be learning how to be more adaptable with her powers.
With the New Mutants becoming the next generation of teachers for young mutants, it's a perfect time for Petra to finally live the full experience of being an X-Man. Hopefully, it means that she'll eventually graduate and bring her impressive powers back to the X-Men. With threats like Terra Verde and Hordeculture out there in the world, having someone with Petra's power-set could be crucial in the future. Seeing Petra in training also likely makes Moira happy, considering she took the young woman in years earlier.
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