Empath (Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha) is a fictional mutant character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as possessing the ability to control emotion in other people. Publication history Empath was created by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema and first appeared in New Mutants #16-17 (June–July 1984) as a member of Emma Frost's original Hellions. Fictional character biography Hellions Empath is born in Castile, Spain. He is a mutant in the Marvel universe who attends school at the Massachusetts Academy, and is one of the original students of then-villain, the White Queen. Emma Frost's students, known as the Hellions, are rivals of Charles Xavier's students, the New Mutants. Manuel fancies Frost so much that during the night, he attempts to read her mind but she notices instantly, deciding to show him everything about her. Empath describes her as cold as ice. De la Rocha is one of the few Hellions, along with James Proudstar, Amara Aquilla, and Angelica Jones to survive an attack by time-travelling villain Trevor Fitzroy (although Empath's former teammate, Tarot is eventually resurrected). The White Queen once uses Empath to manipulate Magneto into allowing the New Mutants to join the Hellions. This is made easier as the New Mutants were deeply traumatized by a powerful enemy known as the Beyonder. During the course of this plan, he meets two of Xavier's allies, Tom Corsi and Sharon Friedlander. He takes the opportunity to attack them mentally, changing a subtle attraction to full-blown obsessive sexual desire between the two. They show up several days later, severely traumatized. During his tenure with the Hellions, de la Rocha meets and falls in love with Amara Aquilla, the New Mutant known as Magma. Aquilla eventually leaves her team and becomes a member of the Hellions, so that she can be close to de la Rocha. He even accompanies her back to her home in Nova Roma. The romance ends, however, when Aquilla realizes that de la Rocha was using his abilities to control her emotions. When the colony of Nova Roma is discovered to be a ruse by the witch Selene, Empath uses his abilities for a time to convince Magma that this is a hoax. This sets a bond of mistrust between the two that never is broken. X-Corporation Later, Empath joins X-Corporation and becomes the Communications Director for its Los Angeles