EMPATH

 

EMPATH

Real Name: Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha

First Appearance: The New Mutants (Vol. 1) #16, June 1984

Powers: Empath was born with the mutant ability to telepathically sense and manipulate the emotional states, desires, and moods of other people around him. This sensitivity allows him to detect the presence of sentient beings in his vicinity, with the sensation being clearer the stronger and more intense their emotional state is at the time. He is able to force intense feelings onto other people such as love, hate, anger, fear, doubt, and so forth, and can attribute these feelings to a specific subject (his victim will love/hate/fear what he tells them to). By instilling men or women with feelings of adoration and devotion to him, he can force people to be willing to do whatever he asks of them. He can also render people virtually emotionless for a time, preventing them from experiencing any strong emotion to leave them calm and docile. Though his power can be used like a blunt instrument, Empath also learned subtlety: By introducing minor emotional sensations into the minds of others, he created a situation where the victim's own brain (working to make sense of itself) would interpret these feelings for them. This type of manipulation, while not immediately as strong, created emotions in people that felt more genuine and lasted longer without Empath's direct influence because the person convinced themselves of these feelings on their own.