Cerebra's Files

Empath


Real Name: Manuel Alfonso de la Rocha
Affiliation: X-Corporation (Los Angeles office)
Previous Affiliations: Hellions
Alternate-X Versions: Empath (Age of Apocalypse)
Codename Etymology: Pronounced ĕm'pă-th [From Latin, in-: "in" + from Greek, pathos: "suffering"]; One who has the ability to understand another's motives or feelings.
Powers & History: Empath can control the emotions of people around him. Often he would use his powers maliciously, and at times even on his own teammates, like Firestar, for example, whom he made have a crush on him. Manny would even attempt to control the New Mutants by himself, and usually wound up being transported to Limbo by Magik for a few minutes, which scared him tremendously. After the massacre of his team at Fitzroy's hands, Empath left the Hellions to rejoin Magma, who had joined up when she fell in love with him. He journeyed to Nova Roma and somehow discovered that the "lost Roman city" was a fake created by Selene and found out the real names and backgrounds of the people living there. When Selene's spell began to weaken, Manuel, feeling bad for the people whose lives were about to be thrown into chaos, used his powers to maintain the charade. However, when Firestar, Cannonball and Warpath came to Nova Roma and discovered what Manuel was doing, they made him stop and promise to help the people of Nova Roma reacclimate to the twentieth century. At times, however, Empath was still unsure of how to use his powers morally, although he was learning. How Empath escaped Fitzroy's Sentinels is unknown; most likely he bolted at the first sign of them because his power wouldn't work on the giant robots. Following the Younghunt it appears that Magma broke up with Manuel because he manipulated the Nova Romanis too much.

Recent Activities: Empath has been hired by the X-Corporation (Los Angeles) as its "spin doctor." He currently works for his old rival Sunspot, CEO of that office. For a short time, Empath was controlled by Elias Bogan and his pet telepath, and made to kiss Amara, but nothing seems to have permanently affected him.
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