NuPerspective Black History Month: Day 15- STIGMATA

And we're back to our re-release of characters posted from last year's Nu-Perspective column. This is done in celebration of Black History Month with a revamped Nubian character a day.
With this repost, you get the same full bio, art and our storyline concept, but also some behind the scenes thoughts on how and why Fabian and I went about doing what we did(go to the bottom).
 

Today's character comes from last year August’s theme of "Caribbean Characters", and we choose STIGMATA! 

Original Stigmata appearance

Stigmata hails from the Dominican Republic and is from the Marvel Universe.Check out our revamp

Revamp design by Shawn Alleyne

Real Name: Ana Maria Magdalena Shwartz

Current Alias: Stigmata

Identity: Secret

Occupation: Government agent

Place of Birth: Dominican Republic

Base of Operations: Vatican City

Affiliations: Vatican; Longinus

First Appearance: Venom: Sign of the Boss #1 (1997)

Original Creators: Ivan Velez Jr & Tomas Derenick

Story: Exhibiting stigmata at a young age, her grandmother sold Ana to the Catholic orphanage. The Vatican soon recognized her uncanny power potential and recruited her into the Holy guard, where she was trained to master her “holy” abilities as a dedicated aide and bodyguard to the diplomats of the Holy City. Given the name of Stigmata, she eventually left to join the altruistic Jesuit Sect “Holy Fire”, where she was assigned to serve as the bodyguard for San Gregarian President Franco Santera. This assignment leads to her crossing paths with both Venom and the Ghost Rider, and being betrayed by President Santera. Ana prevailed, but dark secrets about the Holy Fire sect came to light from that event. This, coupled with Ana’s exposure to American vigilantes, lead her to seek the blessing of the Church to form “Longinus”, an elite special task force comprised of faithful mutants and humans. Their goal is to defend Christianity against larger threats and to have a more proactive role in global affairs. However, it remains to be seen if Stigmata’s blind loyalty to the papacy has made her a pawn for their clandestine geo-political intentions. Stigmata’s zeal also puts her at odds with anyone displaying “demonic influence” such as the aforementioned Ghost Rider, Blade, Daimon Hellstorm, etc. She has even targeted anyone seen a threat to the Christian faith, even other supernaturally endowed “heroes” such as the Dr Stephen Strange, Brother Voodoo, and more.

Powers/Abilities: Through the invocation of Catholic saints, Ana can manifest various mutant abilities such as superhuman strength, speed and psychokinesis. Her most common invocation is of Saint Gabriel, which gives her an angelic astral form of blue flames that grants her flight, intangibility and plasma energy projection. It is unknown the number of “divine” powers she possesses through the numerous saints, or whether or not she truly needs to verbally call upon the saints to manifest a desired power. It could simply be part of her psychological conditioning under the Church. What is certain is that she cannot manifest multiple powers at once, and that transitioning between them frequently is very taxing on her body. As part of the Vatican’s secret service, Ana has extensive training in armed and unarmed combat, however preferring to use her mutant powers instead of traditional firearms.

Paraphernalia/Weapons: Although Ana has no impairment in mobility, she carries an innocuous walking cane with her that she can utilize in combat. While in her angelic “Gabriel” mode, it takes the form of a flaming sword capable of slicing through reinforced steel effortlessly. Other times she can will it to take the form of a Cross fighting staff.

 

Q&A with Fabian and Shawn

Original artwork for the entry..I re-drew it cause I wasn't feeling this one. Even though they look the same there's a big difference to me. 

What made you choose this character? – Fabian: Stigmata was a one-off character, but one of the few super-powered Nubians where religion was part of their character make-up. Being from the Dominican Republic and representing the Caribbean was a big plus for both Shawn and me.

Shawn: I wanted an excuse to draw a sexy nun. lol

In regards to the story aspect of the update, what was your main inspiration for the direction? – Fabian: Maintaining her religious background and devotion was important, there was a lot we could do with that. Showing how it can be manipulated and prejudice her against other superheroes of a more mystical and supernatural persuasion I think was an interesting and unique take, given her good intentions.

Did the character pose a challenge to update and if so what was the hardest part of the redesign?- S: The challenge came in my own stubbornness. I really wanted a sexy, functional superhero nun. That proved harder to execute than I thought. lol 

In hindsight is there anything you would do differently now? F: No. I’m pretty satisfied with how Stigmata turned out.

S: As usual I wish I had drawn her better. I was also thinking I should have shown her Angel manifestation. 

Did this character resonate with you in anyway? – F: No, as there little to nothing to go on from the source material, even though her powers were unique.

S: Just the pride of having a character from the Caribbean bonds me to this character. Aside from that I wish I could see more of her in action. 

NP

What IS Nu-Perspective you ask? Well, it's a bi-weekly column I started with my writing collaborator Fabian Wood with the purpose of revamping and updating different underdeveloped, underutilized and all-but-forgotten Nubian (black) comic book and pop culture characters.

Fine Print: Nu-Perspective is a column focused on revamps and updates of various underdeveloped, underutilized and all-but-forgotten Nubian (black) characters specifically. We aim to showcase these chosen characters in fresh, contemporary and exciting ways both visually and story-wise to show just how awesome they can truly be. All characters are copyrights and trademarks of the respective publishers and creators. This column is used solely for artistic enjoyment.