enquanto houver sol

Roberto da Costa is an Afro-Brazilian man in his mid-late twenties, of average height, and muscular build. He thinks he is very handsome, mind you, and will boast about it constantly. He dresses either very casually, Brazilian soccer team shirts and shorts, or in extremely fancy fashion — suits of the highest quality, Italian shoes, the works.

When he metabolizes absorbed energy, his skin turns jet black, as does any non-unstable molecule clothing he might be wearing, and his body is surrounded by an aura of small black spots. For some, with great power comes great responsibility. For Roberto, with a multibillion-dollar empire, came great expectations of greatness. As a kid whose father singlehandedly raised himself out of poverty, Roberto grew with up in unbelievable luxury, with a father who pushed him into being the best he could be in every endeavor, attempting to instill in his son his idea of what a leader should be: a person who inspires, teaches their people to overcome differences, a glue that never falters as a burden he must bear alone.

Unfortunately, that was not Beto, at least, not at first. His origins have left him angry, lost, traumatized, and heartbroken — from having his powers awakened by a racist attack during his soccer match, to having his girlfriend die in his arms at the age of 14, which led to immensurable guilt, and finally, discovering his father was not such a good man as Roberto thought he was — instead, the man was moved by greed in his eyes. Through his teen years, frustrations and shortcomings resulted in anger, withdrawal, abrasiveness, arrogance, and finally, a feeling that he was not cut out to be a hero, unworthy of such a title. Not that he did great as a villain either, which is where he attempted to go, but his heart is too morally good for that.

Today, Beto is not only worthy of a leader and hero title, but he has thoroughly earned it, as life has thrown him a ridiculous number of curveballs. Often, he has been the source of his own ever-growing guilt, and it has put him in less than ideal, if not outright criminally dubious endeavors. Roberto's way of seeing life is to take something rotten and transform it into something good, worthwhile, and through this rollercoaster of feeling unworthy, then feeling superior due to his riches, lashing out in emotion, giving up in hopelessness, regretting everything, making up for it — he has become the glue that he was supposed to be, not because he was inherent of him, but because he learned he had to be.

From reactive, Roberto has found himself learning how to be adaptive. On the surface, he's a rather easy-going person, a flirt and a lover, authentic in every way. He's a vibe who enjoys his every moment, extroverted, friendly, a little goofy, theatrical, and dramatic at times, but the man oozes confidence and genuineness. He cares deeply for the people under his care, is loyal to his every breath, and will stand by them through thick and thin. He loves loudly and proudly, regardless of what shape that love is.

As nobody is perfect (although he would disagree and say he is), he is still a playboy at heart, so his confidence also meshes with his self-centredness, self-importance, arrogance, and over-the-top flair. Lastly, as he came to learn over his leadership positions, he's charismatic and strategic, able to turn water into wine and act accordingly. He's a man who will reshape systems, rebuild towers and bridges, and conceive plans that may be slightly ethically pragmatic, but like hell he won't be the glue that keeps it all together.

... And look handsome as hell while he's doing it, according to him. So, Roberto was first introduced in 1982, so it's 40+ years of background lore. I'll separate these into the most relevant bits, focusing on the character development, so that it's not 40+ years of comics insanity!

early life & mutation
Roberto was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Emmanuel da Costa and Nina da Costa. His father was a self-made industrialist with great ambition and greed who had raised himself from poverty, whereas his mother was an archeologist with a passion for adventure, which caused tensions between them as time went on. As a child, Roberto idolized his father, who pushed the kid into being the very best he could be, be it at soccer, be it at leadership, be it at boxing (which Roberto did not particularly love, due to the fact Emmanuel would not pull his punches, to teach him 'how to take a few hits, so he can be prepared to protect those he cares about' as a leader, which eventually turned Roberto around to it). His mother, on the other hand, was not much present, always out of state in her work — Roberto mentions that it seemed like she loved working more than she loved him, in fact.

Growing up in extreme wealth, Roberto went to private schools and was even somewhat of a teen celebrity due to his excellence in soccer. When he was 14 years old, during a match, he was attacked and harassed by racist players, which triggered his anger, making him attack back, and then, his mutation. The physical transformation he underwent scared the living shit out of everyone. He was left alone on the field with only his father and his girlfriend, Juliana, standing by him and coming to his aid.

rip ju
The whole ordeal caught the attention of both Donald Pierce of the Hellfire Club and Professor Charles Xavier. Pierce actually got there first, Roberto and Juliana were kidnapped. Beto tried to use his new powers and fight back, they attempted to kill both, but they killed one — Juliana took a bullet for Beto, died in his arms, hence the survivor's guilt, feeling of unworthiness, and anger.

'murica
Leaving Brazil to go to the USA, he decided to take revenge on Pierce, because, obviously, he was not doing great. Xavier also told the kids that they were not to be the next X-Men and he was super done with the whole thing, he just wanted to train them, which we know ends up not ever being true. He ends up not killing Pierce, though! Good for him. He also meets the man he will forever love till infinity and beyond — Cannonball, and joins the New Mutants.

back home and then back to 'murica
His mother comes to visit, gets lightly jabbed for not having been there when Juliana died and his son got a gun to his face. The New Mutants come to Rio and stay at the da Costa mansion. There's a whole passive-aggressive fight over 'why are you never home with your FAMILY' and 'why do you keep trying to get richer you GREEDY MAN' in front of the New Mutants right on main, as one would, very soul-killing. In the end of this adventure which gets them a Magma, Roberto also learned that his father orchestrated sabotage attempts on his mother's expedition and a coup in Nova Roma, so he could profit off of its natural resources.

His dad goes on full 'if you leave, then I have no son' and Beto, who is pissed at this whole ordeal, goes 👍 and renounces his dad and everything else. More sullen, pissy, aggressive behavior ensues, a lot more stuff that ends up going horribly wrong that he feels more guilty about, more lashing out, in a huge loop. The fact that Magneto takes over the school doesn't help, and he gets frustrated enough to decide he doesn't want to do X-Men stuff, it feels hopeless to him in the face of adversaries, and he goes, once again, back home.

once again in 'murica
Did anyone buy that he was staying home? Hopefully not. Man goes to Limbo for the first time, ends up time-travelling to a whole future in which Sentinels had overrun the planet and wiped out almost all the mutants and superheroes, ends up really mad that the remaining ones aren't fighting it and are fleeing instead, leaves that future super decided to never let that happen ever. Responsibility starts, look at that, which goes kinda to shit when he goes a little too hard on Sam when an accident happens, and he loses it during a soccer match and injuries him. Needless to say, New Mutants are super done with his shit, and he starts sulking really hard about how heroes have their shit together and don't lose it on people, except he does, so he's shit, naturally.

He also gets to read his report card from Xavier, which talks about how his dad is in the Hellfire Club, the same one that orchestrated his murder attempt, and that he thinks Roberto is likely to go down the same path as Emmanuel if he continues as an arrogant little shit. Fourteen-year-old brain understands he's an evil little shit, attempts to join a gang, and fails miserably at being evil because he's actually a good person.

Except he still doesn't feel worthy of his teammates, so he decides to superhero on his own so he can get superhero skillpoints, maybe that will do it. Ends up accidentally fighting superheroes instead like a dumbass, eventually comes back home, gets manipulated by a hot woman, gets mad at Magneto for molding the New Mutants into soldiers for the coming battles against mankind, they leave. Nevermind the fact that Magneto said Beto would end up evil, but alas.

x-force
We end up with Cable and a feeling of respect for the man, a good little warm feeling that the boomer believed in them, unlike Magneto or Xavier, in Beto's eyes, but because it's X-Men and there is no peace, Emmanuel dies, which means our kid has to, you guessed it, come to Brazil to take over business. Gets super manipulated, experimented on, betrayed really hard by his mentor, and rescued by X-Force. Experiments make him figure out some power shit, gets validated by Cable and called 'his legacy', there is some leadership bud there as he coordinates missions and attacks.

sads, yikes, and oops.
Comics bullshit ensues; the important part is that he kind of gets brainwashed/possessed in this arc, which brings out several insecurities and fears of his. Before we get into that, important mention to say he has kissed his best friend's girlfriend, Tabitha, on the mouth and was caught red-handed and still hooked up with her thereafter. Yikes.


Anyway, this is his broke era, his funds were frozen because a sort of clone-ish sibling of him wanted his fortune and take over his life for the whole Magneto Was Right agenda, and thus possesses him. As sort of a template of Beto, his evil twin states that 'he's nothing but a selfish, egocentric, spoiled rich kid' who 'doesn't deserve their loyalty', which his friends pushed back to show he was wanted, and well, Beto did as well, solved it, and went back to being a rich kid.

As a result of this fiasco, his way of dealing is overcompensating and throwing money as a means of buying affection, which gets old quickly, because he's as cocky as and insufferable as hell all over again, which only gets Tabitha more distant. He gets dumped and immediately gets freaking deported due to the whole evil twin situation above, and he gotta leave so he doesn't reveal he's Sunspot, ruin his life, and his friends' lives, so forth. Also, leaving very quietly when no one's looking, definitely not because of the breakup, and trying to do something good for his people, which in his brain, is sacrificing his visa for everyone's sake for their safety.

brazil zil zil, and the return of juliana.
Protag is home, bored out of his mind, living his playboy life by sleeping with random women he picked up at the club, sunbathing, drinking caipisake, and finding everything pretty meaningless considering the life he was leading back in the USA, which he waits to return once his expensive lawyers work their expensive magic.

He ends up in an adventure, accidentally meets the New Mutants, goes weh weh none of you came to see me when nobody really knew he got deported. Interestingly, this is when the Hellfire Club reaches out to him, and he resists the whole she-bang until the proposal became if he joined the Hellfire club, they would bring back Juliana to life. He couldn't refuse, naturally, and joined the evil side so she could breathe again.

Except that the monkey paw curls, they put her in the body of a girl who had recently passed, and she would forget everything about being Juliana in the first place. Bobby does stalk her a bit, but decides ultimately that even with her being alive, being together was no longer possible, and he prioritized her having a life over being in his.

the hellfire club and the shaping up begins.
Thing is? Not great stuff happens here. Beto meets the New Mutants while he is cutting a deal with a mafia goon, and they grill him a bit on how comfortable he was with the mafia guy, and he responds that it had only been business, which gets pushback regarding ethics. This is where it gets interesting:

"My father had no one. Not like us. Once he clawed his way out of the favelas, he never looked back. He wanted nothing to do with the old life, and yet trusted nothing about the new.

My mother loved him with all her heart, yet he could never accept that. In his soul, he feared it was a lie, he feared his whole life was a lie.

I think, I fear, that without you, I would be the same. Knowing you as friends, having you as family, I am worthy of anything. Miracles happen, ideals can become reality, and yet... I am still my father's son.

Roberto wanted to use his power as the Hellfire Club’s Black Rook to better the state of mutantkind in the world, making the most of what he could out of a shit situation. He acquires X-Corp as well, learning how to use his interpersonal skills for leadership, even giving chances to people who would arguably not deserve one, but he still has trouble seeing into nuance. Still, pretty new of him not to titty baby over life and be a stable presence, and it surprises and endears his people.