Merge:Cecilia Reyes

Cecilia Reyes is a Marvel Comics character who was briefly a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Carlos Pacheco, she first appeared in X-Men #65 (June 1997).

A Puerto Rican-American medical doctor, she had the mutant ability to project a force field around her body. Unlike most X-Men, she wanted to live an ordinary life and was forced into the team by circumstances.

Character biography
Cecilia Reyes decided to become a doctor when her father was gunned down in front of her as a child, and she was unable to do anything to help him. The X-Men tried recruiting her when it was discovered that she was a mutant, but Reyes had no interest in being a superhero. However, when Operation: Zero Tolerance, a government-backed anti-mutant task force, targeted her, she was forced to join forces with the X-Man Iceman and other mutants to escape New York City and track down Bastion, Operation Zero Tolerance's leader.

Afterwards, Reyes reluctantly joined the X-Men but did not find costumed adventuring suitable for her, and left to set up her own medical practice.

Later, she was caught up in the X-Men's battle with the Neo, a villainous group of mutants who claimed to have evolved beyond the level of other mutants. Reyes was trapped in the Neo's fortress below New York City and used a street drug called Rave to make her mutant powers more destructive, ensuring her survival. The X-Men rescued her, and the telepathic Professor X helped her kick her addiction to Rave.

Later, she was briefly seen as a prisoner at a mutant concentration camp run by the Weapon X program, where she attempted to use her medical expertise to help out the other prisoners. She was apparently killed when a brainwashed Agent Zero destroyed the camp, and her death was later confirmed in the letter column of New Excalibur #1. However it seems this was a mistake, as Mike Marts clarified in an interview on uncannyxmen.net, stating that if Cecilia would be dead they would show it on panel, and therefore Cecilia is not considered deceased.

In X-Men: The 198 Files, it has been revealed that Cecilia's older brother, Colonel Miguel Reyes, has now been assigned to head O*N*E security on the Xavier School grounds, with the purpose of finding out the fate of his sister.

Powers and abilities
Cecilia can generate a force field around her body which provides resistance to energy and physical attacks, and can shape or expand it to protect those nearby; however, impacts on the force field cause Cecilia pain. While under the effects of the mutant-enhancing drug Rave, Cecilia is also able to use her force field offensively, forming it into a blade that can be used to attack enemies.

Cecilia is also a capable medical doctor and surgeon, making her the only member of the X-Men who is a true doctor of medicine.

Alternative versions

 * In Days of Future Now, Cecilia survived the death camp Neverland and tried to help Wolverine to change the past to prevent "Days of Future Now" from ever happening. However, while watching over him, she was shot in the back by a traitor.


 * In "X-men: The End," she has married Beast and they have three children (two boys and one girl), Ciaran, Francesca & Miguel McCoy.

Both scenarios are used by fans to explain that it is highly possible that Cecilia is still alive in the regular storyline.

In other media
In the 2006 movie X-Men: The Last Stand, Kavita Rao was played by Iranian-American actress Shohreh Aghdashloo. This is despite claims made by Aghdashloo in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that she would be playing Dr. Cecilia Reyes. Raph Winter, producer of all three movies, susequently stated that Aghdashloo would be playing Rao.