Petra (comics)

Petra
Petra Cover of X-Men: Deadly Genesis #4, by Mark Silvestri
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1 (2006)
Created by	Ed Brubaker (Writer) Pete Woods (Artist)
In-story information
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	X-Men
Abilities	Earth manipulation

Petra is a fictional character appearing in the comic books published by Marvel Comics. Petra first appears in the limited series X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1 (2006), and was created by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Pete Woods. She is one of the "Missing X-Men". The word "petra" means "rocky" in Latin, and "stone" in Greek.

Petra was the first of her family to be born in the United States. Her mother, father and brother emigrated from Denmark while her mother was pregnant with Petra. They lived the typical American life in the suburbs of New York City for most of Petra's childhood. Shortly after her thirteenth birthday, Petra's family was killed by a rockslide while on a camping trip. Unknowingly, Petra used her mutant powers of earth manipulation to avoid getting hurt.

After spending weeks in Child Protective Services, Petra was sent to live in New Jersey in a foster home. She was placed in a home that had five other children that were forced to share the same bedroom. Her foster mother was old and uncaring, and her foster father was too caring, trying to hold and touch Petra all the time. One day on an outing to Central Park, Petra's foster father tried to touch her but sank knee-deep into the ground. It was then that Petra realized that she was a mutant, and she ran away. She found a cave and hid there for days crying, knowing that with her abilities she could have either killed or saved her family.

She camped in Central Park for a couple years, using her power to manipulate rock caves into shelters to avoid being arrested and sent to juvenile detention centers. When she was sixteen, she discovered another useful aspect of her ability: she could turn coal into diamonds by concentrating hard enough. For a year, she used this aspect of her power to make diamonds of varying size to sell to pawn shops so she could buy food and survive.