Origin
Viva La Bandera!!La Bandera is a mutant and freedom fighter that opposed a drug lord in Tierra Verde named Felix Caridad. Bandera has the ability to draw on the faith and spirit of her people to provide her strength and the capability to fire energy blasts from her staff. The drug traffic supported her country's government and it destroyed her family. La Bandera used her mutant abilities to inspire war against the drug lords. The special adviser to Caridad named Geist hired Tiger Shark to eliminate Bandera after she attacked some drug peddlers in Florida. Wolverine witnessed the battle and finally intervened when Tiger Shark was gaining the upper hand. Wolverine slashed Tiger Shark's suit which drained the water that was circulating in his suit and Bandera thanked Logan with a kiss on the cheek. Logan warns the young mutant that her powers are very dangerous and her plan to inspire a revolution could end up hurting a lot of people.
La Bandera would turn a deaf ear to Logan and fight back against the corrupted Caridad. La Bandera would lead a number of rebels to infiltrate the Tierra Verde Medical Center where political prisoners were being tortured and experimented on. However the prisoners were moved prior to the attack and Geist sets a trap for Bandera. Tiger Shark kills her rebel companions but Bandera is saved by Wolverine. The two heroes manage to escape on a helicopter with Roughouse and Caridad's special wife named Sister Salvation. The helicopter would crash in the jungle and Caridad was in close pursuit. Bandera would leave the party to increase her rebel army while Wolverine, Roughouse and Sister Salvation hid in the jungle. However, Sister Salvation gave up Roughouse and Wolverine to Caridad so she could see her son in a nearby military camp. La Bandera would come to their rescue when she used her mutant powers to organize the local indian tribes and some of the political prisoners to loot their arms depot. During the battle, Caridad injected himself with some tainted cocaine and became a living disease called Spore that was first created as an ultimate weapon by the Deviants.
La Bandera leads the revolution!!La Bandera and Wolverine would fight Spore until it was destroyed by Sister Salvation's healing touch. La Bandera would lead the revolution after Caridad's death and capture Geist after the rebellion stormed the presidential capital. Wolverine would disrupt their first cabinet meeting after he found out that Geist was set free from the prison hospital ward and he left the country. One member tells Logan that it was an extradition matter, settled to Tierra Verde's benefits. La Bandera told Logan that she didn't know things would turn out this way. Logan reminds her that inspiring people to fight is an easy part but inspiring them to peace is a whole different matter. Logan tells Bandera that she has the power to make a difference before he leaves Tierra Verde.
Creation
La Bandera was created by Archie Goodwin and John Byrne in 1989 and first appeared in Wolverine # 19.
La Bandera would eventually meet her demise at the hands of man named Zeitgeist. This was a super powered serial killer that was murdering numerous superhumans from South America.
Powers & Abilities
La Bandera had the mutant ability to inspire others to her cause and then draw on the faith that others had in her to send strong energy blasts through the staff she carried with her. Both functions of her power seemed to compliment and contradict each other being as how as faith in her diminished, she had less power to project through her staff and as she focused on her blast, her power to inspire faith in others diminished. This was the only known limitation to her power in that she could not continuously use her persuasion abilities and her energy blasts simultaneously.
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