Robin Vega (Earth-616)

Robin Vega was hounded from town to town, forced to change her name, and hide her mutant nature. Eventually, she made her way to Empire State University, where she became a metallurgy grad student under Dr. Sydney Lanning. Robin and her academic rival, Paul Stacy, met Peter Parker in Lanning's office. Vega and Parker hit it off, and while wandering the campus, they came across a rally organized by the anti-mutant Friends of Humanity. Distraught, Robin left Parker and fled. Later, Stacy, who had joined the FoH, attempted to intimidate Vega, who he had discovered was a mutant, into leaving the university. Stacy was driven off by Peter Parker, and Robin was briefly comforted by Mary Jane Watson, but ran off to a rooftop instead. When Parker joined her there, she revealed her mutant nature to him, and activated her powers for the first time. In her metallic form, she left to kill Stacy and the rest of the Friends.^[1]

Vega found Paul Stacy at his apartment and confronted him, but stopped short of attacking him. Their conversation was interrupted when the Friends of Humanity stormed the apartment and shot it up, accidentally setting the building on fire in the process. While Stacy helped the other tenants escape, Robin shaped her hand into a brand and burned "MUTIE" on the foreheads of the Friends of Humanity goons. Paul rushed back into the building to save a child, and both were carried out by Robin. Satisfied that there was more to Stacy than she - or he - had believed, Robin left.^[2]