Empath (Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha) is a fictional mutant character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as possessing the ability to control emotion in other people.
Publication history
Empath was created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema and first appeared in New Mutants #16-17 (June–July 1984) as a member of Emma Frost's original Hellions.
Fictional character biography
Hellions
Empath is born in Castile, Spain. He is a mutant in the Marvel universe who attends school at the Massachusetts Academy, and is one of the original students of then-villain, the White Queen. Emma Frost's students, known as the Hellions, are rivals of Charles Xavier's students, the New Mutants. Manuel fancies Frost so much that during the night, he attempts to read her mind but she notices instantly, deciding to show him everything about her. Empath describes her as cold as ice. De la Rocha is one of the few Hellions, along with James Proudstar, Amara Aquilla, and Angelica Jones to survive an attack by time-travelling villain Trevor Fitzroy (although Empath's former teammate, Tarot is eventually resurrected).
The White Queen once uses Empath to manipulate Magneto into allowing the New Mutants to join the Hellions. This is made easier as the New Mutants were deeply traumatized by a powerful enemy known as the Beyonder. During the course of this plan, he meets two of Xavier's allies, Tom Corsi and Sharon Friedlander. He takes the opportunity to attack them mentally, changing a subtle attraction to full-blown obsessive sexual desire between the two. They show up several days later, severely traumatized.
During his tenure with the Hellions, de la Rocha meets and falls in love with Amara Aquilla, the New Mutant known as Magma. Aquilla eventually leaves her team and becomes a member of the Hellions, so that she can be close to de la Rocha. He even accompanies her back to her home in Nova Roma. The romance ends, however, when Aquilla realizes that de la Rocha was using his abilities to control her emotions. When the colony of Nova Roma is discovered to be a ruse by the witch Selene, Empath uses his abilities for a time to convince Magma that this is a hoax. This sets a bond of mistrust between the two that never is broken.
X-Corporation
Later, Empath joins X-Corporation and becomes the Communications Director for its Los Angeles chapter along with his former love Magma. However, after M-Day, Cyclops orders the closure of the X-Corporation headquarters to better focus all available resources on protecting their members and allies. Empath is one of the few mutants to retain their powers in the wake of House of M.
M-Day
After M-Day, Emma Frost uses Empath immediately to reel in Magma who, in her devastation over the death of her boyfriend because of the decimation, wrecked a South American village. Empath stays at the Xavier Institute along with some of the other 198, however his shared history with Magma makes her suspicious that he is still toying with her emotions. Later, when Johnny Dee uses his powers to control Magma and Leech and make them kill Mister M, Amara becomes aware that someone was controlling her, and, thinking it is Empath, blames him.
Manifest Destiny
Empath resurfaces in San Francisco leading a new group of regular humans calling themselves the Hellfire Cult who are conducting vicious attacks on mutants, despite him retaining his own mutant powers. However, he himself appears to be under the control of a mysterious woman called the Red Queen, with whom he shares an S&M sexual relationship. In the next issue she asks him about Emma Frost and then telepathically makes herself appear as Emma Frost as she sexually dominates Empath. When the X-Men discover the Hellfire Cult's base, she flees leaving Empath behind.Empath makes a run for it, and his powers seem to be going out of control. While being chased by various X-Men, he takes them down until Pixie appears and beats him savagely. She then stabs him in the head with her soulknife, weakening his powers and blinding him. He is held in prison-like quarters in the X-Men's HQ, frustrated over his condition and angry against the X-Men. Despite this and the deeds he has committed against her friends and herself, Amara takes pity upon him; hers is the only company Empath accepts.
It is later revealed that Empath was meant to be a Trojan Horse, whose rejuvenated powers disabled many of the X-Men, while the Red Queen and her Sisterhood took a locket of Jean Grey's hair. Pixie then attacked him again with her soulknife, shattering his consciousness.