Magma (Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Chris Claremont, and artists Sal Buscema, Glynis Wein, and Bob McLeod, the character first appeared in The New Mutants #8 (October 1983). Amara Aquilla belongs to the subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Amara is also known as Allison Crestmere, an identity she assumed after her memory was altered. She possesses the power to manipulate magma and earth, and can turn into a magmatic form.
Amara is from Nova Roma, a secluded area in Brazil that has similar customs to Ancient Rome. She is most known for serving as a member of the New Mutants. The character has appeared in other media, notably in X-Men: Legends.
Publication history Amara Aquilla debuted in The New Mutants #8 (October 1983), and appeared in that title regularly, until The New Mutants #57 (November 1987) when she departs the titular super-group to join their rivals, the Hellions. Along with the other New Mutants, she appeared as an occasional supporting character in Uncanny X-Men, with issue #189 (1985) as a salient issue featuring her conflict with Selene at the Hellfire Club. After her being dropped from the regular cast, The New Mutants featured two Magma solo stories, occupying the entirety of The New Mutants #62 (April 1988) and The New Mutants #81 (Nov. 1989). The latter was a fill-in issue written while she was still a regular cast member."Report Card" letters page, The New Mutants #30 (Aug. 1985). This story is mentioned again in the letters page of The New Mutants #35.
Magma appeared infrequently during the 1990s, but did take part in the "Child's Play" crossover through X-Force #32-33 and The New Warriors #45-46 (1994). In X-Force #87-90 (1997), Magma appeared as an antagonist to her former teammates, but her villainous personality was short-lived as she returned to her affiliation with the X-Men in semi-regular publication in New Mutants Vol. 2 #3-4, #7-8, #11 and #13 (2003-2004) and as a team member in X-Treme X-Men #34-46 (2004). Magma then featured prominently as a member of the 198 remaining mutants on earth in the limited series X-Men: The 198 #1-5 (2006) and then in Young X-Men #1-6 (2008) until returning to regular monthly publication in New Mutants Vol. 3 #1 (2009) wherein she remained as a regular character through issue #50 (2012).
Fictional character biography
Early life Magma (Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla) hails from the fictional country of Nova Roma ("New Rome"), a colony of the Roman Republic reportedly founded shortly after the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. The colony is hidden in the Amazon rainforest of modern Brazil, and was ruled until recently by the immortal witch Selene. Amara is the daughter of Lucius Antonius Aquilla, who is presumably a member of the historical gens Antonia which claimed descent from Anton, son of Hercules.
Caught up in a deadly power struggle between Selene and her father, she disguises herself as an indigenous Brazilian and is captured by the New Mutants, who soon discovers her true ethnicity.The New Mutants #8 (October 1983) Her powers manifest after she is abducted by Selene, who throws her into a lava pool.The New Mutants #10 (December 1983) Amara is defeated by Selene, but later rescued by the New Mutants and joins the group as Magma.The New Mutants #11 (January 1984)The New Mutants #12 (February 1984)
New Mutants After the New Mutants visit Nova Roma, Magma officially enters Professor X's school and joins the New Mutants.The New Mutants #13 (March 1984) She invades the Hellfire Club's New York headquarters to battle Selene.Uncanny X-Men #189 (January 1985) She is fooled into joining a gladiatorial competition run by the Shadow King, where she partners with Sunspot. Eventually, the efforts of her other friends free her and Sunspot from the games.The New Mutants #29-31 (July - September 1985)
Magma and the New Mutants clash with Emma Frost and her team, the Hellions, on multiple occasions. Despite the cruelties displayed by the Hellion Empath, Magma develops an attraction towards him, which distresses her and leads her to leave the New Mutants and join the Hellions.The New Mutants #56-57 (October - November 1987)
Hellions Magma trains with the Hellions for some time and returns to South America with Empath.The New Mutants #62 (April 1988) It is later revealed that Nova Roma is not Roman, but was created by Selene using mind control on British citizens to recreate Rome, and that Magma's real name is Allison Crestmere. Magma is later crucified by the Church of Humanity, but is healed by Archangel and Elixir.Uncanny X-Men #423 (July 2003)The New Mutants (vol. 2) #3 (September 2003)The New Mutants (vol. 2) #7 (January 2004) When Cannonball questions her, Magma reveals that Elixir's healing had removed the Allison Crestmere persona, which she now knows to be false.X-Treme X-Men #46 (June 2004)
Post M-Day Due to the events of the Decimation, Magma loses her lover when his similar powers are stripped while inside a volcano. His death temporarily drives her insane causing her to attack a nearby town. She is later apprehended by Empath and brought to the Xavier Institute. She is manipulated by the mutant Johnny Dee, who is infatuated with her. Because of previous experience with being emotionally controlled, she incorrectly blames Empath, who denies her accusations.X-Men: The 198 #1-5 (March - July, 2006)
Along with former New Mutants, Danielle Moonstar, Cannonball, and Sunspot, Magma appears as a member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, led by Cyclops. After Magma is captured, it is learned that Donald Pierce had been posing as Cyclops using an image inducer. Magma helps to capture Pierce and then relocates to San Francisco.Young X-Men #1-6 (June-November 2008)
The New Mutants reform when Dani and Karma are captured when out on a call to a small town. Amara is visiting Empath in his cell when she is called away. Magik and Magma are tricked into freeing Legion from a box while rescuing their teammates, but the pair stop Legion's rogue personalities.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #1-4 (July-October 2009)
Fall of the New Mutants After the events of the "Second Coming" storyline, the New Mutants take a vacation, which is interrupted when Magik discovers that Pixie has been kidnapped by a mysterious military faction known as Project Purgatory.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #15 (September 2010) The New Mutants search Limbo, and are attacked by the mutant babies gathered during "Inferno", now adults working with Project Purgatory.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #18 (December 2010) Magma is captured and held captive along with Sunspot.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #19 (January 2011) The pair are freed and defeat the threat.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #21 (March 2011)
Magma remains with the New Mutants after some members leave, alongside Dani Moonstar, Cypher, Warlock, and Sunspot. Their first mission is to track down X-Man, who had been kidnapped by Sugar Man.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #25-27 (July - September 2011)
Fear Itself After Dani is summoned to Hel by Hela during an attack by the Draumar, Amara and the rest of the New Mutants go looking for her. They seek help from Magik, who points them to a spell that can get the team to Hel. Cypher performs the spell, but accidentally transports the team to Mephisto's hell.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #29 (October 2011) While there, Mephisto takes a special interest in Magma. Impressed by Magma's power, Mephisto offers to help the team in exchange for a single date with her, which she later obliges to.New Mutants (vol. 3) #30 (October 2011)The New Mutants (vol. 3) #37 (April 2012)The New Mutants (vol. 3) #50 (December 2012)
Amara assists an all-female version of the Defenders.Fearless Defenders #11 (January 2014)
X-Men: Gold In the wake of the conflict between mutants and Inhumans, anti-mutant activist Lydia Nance hired Mesmero to assemble a new Brotherhood of Mutants, whose acts of terrorism she used to propel her platform. Magma is revealed to be one of the members when they attack the United Nations and are confronted by Kitty Pryde's squad of X-Men.X-Men Gold (vol. 2) #1 (June 2017) Magma and the Brotherhood eventually escape and kidnap the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio.X-Men: Gold (vol. 2) #2 (June 2017) The X-Men later discover that Mesmero had used his powers to brainwash the members of his Brotherhood and force them to join the team. Once his control was broken, Mesmero's Brotherhood is dissolved.X-Men: Gold (vol. 2) #3 (July 2017)
House of X Magma later became a resident of the mutant nation of Krakoa during House of X.House of X #6 (December 2019) While there she joined the New Mutants on a mission to bring mutants from her home town of Nova Roma to Krakoa and to save Natashia Repina, a young mutant from Carnelia who lost control of her powers.The New Mutants (vol. 4) #8 - #11 (April - September 2020) She also attempts to cause a volcanic eruption to help free the mutants who were wrongfully imprisoned in the Pit of Exile.Sabretooth (vol. 4) #5 (September 2022)
Powers and abilities
Magma is a mutant with geothermal powers. These grant her control over tectonic plates, even to the extent of causing seismic upheaval. Amara's powers allow her to be so in-tune with the Earth that she is able to sense seismic activity and prevent earthquakes before they happen.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #36 (March 2012) She can also call forth molten rock from the Earth's core, producing projectiles composed of lava, or miniature volcanoes.The New Mutants #14 (April 1984)
When using her powers, Magma typically assumes an energized form that emits intense light and heat. While in this form, Amara can increase the temperature around her to the point where anything around her will melt (e.g. metal weapons will melt before hitting her).The New Mutants (vol. 3) #31 (November 2011) On another occasion, she has demonstrated this ability without assuming her energized form by heating up the room at a Hellfire Club party causing everyone in the room to sweat to the point of dehydration and blacking out.The New Mutants #53 (July 1987) She can also create orbs of a fire-like substance and use them as projectiles or a source of light. Although Magma has triggered small earth tremors without taking on her energized form, she has never been seen to use her power to control lava while in her ordinary human appearance. On M-Day, she traveled within the heated gases of an active volcano, and demonstrates an immunity to volcanic gases, heat, and flame.X-Men: The 198 #1 (March 2006)
In addition, Amara possesses certain regenerative powers when in contact with the ground. Even when she was once affected by Selene's life-draining touch, she recovered quickly enough to aid the New Mutants in battle. If she is not in contact with the ground or the physical shock to her system from a single injury is too great, the regenerative power is no longer in effect and she may die.The New Mutants (vol. 3) #1 (July 2009) Doctor Nemesis discovered that Magma is also able to recover from laceration wounds in her human form by changing to her energized form, with the intense heat cauterizing and sealing any wounds. Since the late 2000s, Amara has also displayed the power of flight. However, this power has been inconsistently portrayed as in some of her appearances in X-Men: Gold show Magma flying but also being carried around by Rogue and Captain Britain.X-Men Gold (vol. 2) #25 (June 2018)
Due to her Nova Roman heritage, Magma is well versed in Roman culture, including the Latin language, and is a skilled swordswoman.
Reception In 2014, Entertainment Weekly ranked Magma 79th in their "Let's rank every X-Man ever" list.