Enrique
La BANDERA
Real Name: Teresa Lopez (see comments)
Identity/Class: Human mutant
Occupation: Freedom Fighter
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Enrique, Sister Salvation, Wolverine (James "Logan" Howlett)
Enemies: Felix Caridad, Geist, Kingpin (Wilson Fisk), Spore, Tiger Shark, Zeitgeist
Known Relatives: Unidentified father (deceased)
Aliases: "The Flag" (translation of la Bandera)
Base of Operations: Puerto Verde, Tierra Verde;
formerly Dade County, Florida;
formerly Cuba (place of birth)
First Appearance: Wolverine II#19 (Mid-December, 1989)
Powers/Abilities: La Bandera possessed the mutant ability to inspire others to her cause, then to draw on the faith that others had in her to send strong power blasts through a staff that she carried. As faith in her diminished, she had less power to fire her blasts, and as she focused on her blasts, her power to inspire faith in others diminished, the two powers seemingly working against each other even as they complemented each other. The extent of la Bandera's powers is unknown.
History:
(Wolverine II#19 (fb)) - The girl
that would become la Bandera was born in Cuba, where her father acted
as an aide to Fidel Castro. Her father eventually decided to
defect and took her with him to the United States. Losing purpose
in the States, her father turned to drugs and died as a junkie.
(Wolverine II#19 (fb)) - At some point, she discovered that she had the mutant power to inspire others to her cause, and to use the faith they had in her to fire powerful blasts from a staff. She became la Bandera and planned to fight against the local drug trade, which she considered as the source of her family's troubles.
(Wolverine II#19 (fb)) - The teenage la Bandera acted as a local hero in Florida, using her power to inspire others to her cause, and developed a name for herself. She eventually decided to take the fight to the drugs' source, the country of Tierra Verde.
(Wolverine II#19) - Hired by the Kingpin to kill la Bandera, Tiger Shark pursued her to Tierra Verde and battled her on the docks. She took some hits before inspiring some locals to join her cause and blasting Tiger Shark into the ocean. She assumed the villain dead and turned to celebrate before Wolverine approached and warned her the battle wasn't over. Tiger Shark burst through the dock and the locals fled, diminishing la Bandera's powers. Tiger Shark prepared to kill her before Wolverine attacked and shredded Tiger Shark's suit, spilling water out and causing Tiger Shark to flee into the ocean. Again ready for victory, la Bandera moved to kiss Wolverine, but he resisted and tried to teach her how dangerous her mutant power was. She refused to listen and went away to start a revolution, ignoring Wolverine's advice that her powers would hurt more people than they would help. La Bandera received information that Felix Caridad, president of Tierra Verde and leader of the drug trade, had political prisoners at a nearby hospital. La Bandera inspired many local men and groups to join her cause and they stormed the hospital.
(Wolverine II#20) - La Bandera fought her way through the hospital with the locals and found the ward that was to contain the political prisoners empty. Geist approached her and revealed that it was a trap while Tiger Shark killed or knocked unconscious the locals that still remained with la Bandera. Having no source to strengthen herself, Tiger Shark prepared to kill her, but la Bandera agilely tossed him aside and made a run for it into a misty room, where she found Wolverine. When Tiger Shark attacked again, Wolverine sliced through the villain's costume and into his chest, then tossed the villain off the balcony. Wolverine was deafened, but he led la Bandera with him to free Roughouse, a captive of Caridad's. They did so, and la Bandera turned a gun on Caridad and Sister Salvation (Caridad's wife), taking them hostage to secure their escape. As they passed the hostage political prisoners, including Enrique, la Bandera inspired them to act to free themselves. La Bandera, Wolverine, Roughouse, Caridad, Sister Salvation, and some of the political prisoners boarded a helicopter to escape, and la Bandera used her powers to inspire confidence in the pilot. When Tiger Shark leapt at the helicopter, Wolverine knocked the villain into the water where Tiger Shark was attacked by a group of sharks.
(Wolverine II#21 (fb)) - La Bandera and the political prisoners separated from the others and made their way through the jungles.
(Wolverine II#21) - La Bandera noted that Caridad's helicopters were pursuing Wolverine's group and not her. She resolved to inspire more to her cause and continue her war before coming across native tribes in the jungle.
(Wolverine II#22 (fb) - BTS) - She inspired them despite dissident views and tribal factions to join her cause and renew the war against Caridad.
(Wolverine II#22) - La Bandera attacked a prison camp with an army of former political prisoners and tribal warriors. She came to Wolverine's aid against the mutated Caridad, who had been turned into the Deviant mutate Spore by his own drugs, and managed to hurt Spore at first with her energy blasts. Her advantage against Spore quickly waned when her followers fled in fear from the creature. Wolverine attacked Spore with a flame thrower to save la Bandera and told her to get one of her own to fight the monster, but Spore consumed Wolverine in front of her.
(Wolverine II#23) - La Bandera fearlessly faced off with Spore, but with her followers fleeing in fear, she lacked the power to hurt the monster. When Wolverine cut his way free from Spore many tribal warriors and revolutionaries felt inspired and la Bandera led them into battle against Spore, blasting the creature with powerful blasts. Despite the best efforts of Wolverine, la Bandera, her followers and even Caridad's army, Spore's body not only healed faster than they could damage it, but also grew with each human it absorbed into its form. Wolverine ordered to retreat so they could regroup and la Bandera followed him. While Spore grew into a giant monster, Wolverine, la Bandera and Sister Salvation formed a plan to defeat the monster. In a final attack Wolverine and la Bandera brought Spore to its knees to give Sister Salvation the opportunity to use her healing powers against the monster, which destroyed it.
After Spore's defeat la Bandera and her revolutionary army marched to the capital the next morning and conquered it without much resistance while Wolverine defeated Caridad's old aide Geist.
La Bandera was celebrated by the people of Tierra Verde. While she attended the first cabinet meeting Wolverine stormed into the room, enraged that Geist was allowed to escape the country. To la Bandera's shock Enrique explained that Geist was part of an extradition matter that benefeitted their country. La Bandera followed Wolverine to the outside trying to explain that she didn't know that things would go this way. Wolverine understood and left after telling la Bandera that her power was what could make the difference in this country. She had tears in her eyes when Wolverine left and was suddenly aware of what she had accomplished in Tierra Verde with her powers and how much it meant to the people.
(Captain America I#442 (fb) - BTS) - La Bandera, along with several other South American heroes, was stabbed to death by Zeitgeist. A picture was taken of her and left on her corpse.
Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin, John Byrne, and Klaus Janson.
Bandera is Spanish for flag.
According to the Wolverine Files la Bandera is believed to be Teresa Lopez, though S.H.I.E.L.D. had no confirmation for this.
Wolverine II#22-23 added by Markus Raymond.
I stumbled across a good Handbook-style image for Bandera in Dragon Magazine's Marvel Philes. No art credit I can see - Jeff Grubb was (iirc) usually the artist who handled such things in Dragon Magazine, and it does resemble his style to my untrained eye.
--Loki
Profile by Chadman.
Clarifications:
La Bandera has no known connections:
(Wolverine II#20) - Enrique was part of a group of political prisoners held by Geist and Felix Caridad in Tierra Verde. When la Bandera and Wolverine sought to escape with Roughouse, and holding Caridad and Sister Salvation as hostages, the political prisoners were held as hostages as well. La Bandera used her powers to inspire the political prisoners to fight against their attackers before she escaped in a helicopter.
(Wolverine II#22) - Enrique joined la Bandera and her followers in an attack on a prison camp.
(Wolverine II#23) - After taking control of the country with the help of la Bandera, Enrique became part of the country's cabinet. Wolverine stormed into their first meeting, enraged that they let Geist escape the country. Enrique explained that Geist's release was part of an extradition matter that benefitted Tierra Verde.
--Wolverine II#20 (Wolverine II#20, 22-23
images:
Dragon Magazine#176, p79 (main)
Wolverine II#19, p24, pan1 (head shot)
Wolverine II#19, p6, pan3 (attacking)
Wolverine II#20, p18, pan3 (Enrique)
Appearances:
Wolverine II#19 (December, 1989) - Archie Goodwin (writer), John Byrne (penciler), Klaus Janson (inker), Bob Harras (editor)
Wolverine II#20-23 (January-April, 1990) - Archie Goodwin (writer), John Byrne (penciler), Klaus Janson (inker), Bob Harras (editor)
Captain America I#442 (August, 1995) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Dave Hoover & Sandu Florea (pencilers), Danny Bulanadi (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
First Posted: 01/18/2006
Lasted Edited: 12/03/2019
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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