Sarah Rainmaker
Encyclopedia
Sarah Rainmaker is a fictional superhero
from the comic book
series Gen¹³
created by Jim Lee
and Brandon Choi
and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell
.
of DV8
).
Apache born, Sarah Rainmaker's Gen-Active powers first manifested while living on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona
. She soon came to the attention of the Ivana Baiul
and her Keepers, who were ordered to capture the seedling and bring her back for testing. Sarah managed to elude her captors and flee into the desert. She remained in hiding for three days before Ripclaw of Cyberforce
, a fellow Apache
, discovered her.
Dispatched by Sarah's family to ensure her safety, Ripclaw was followed by Keepers. Stormwatch was also notified that a young girl in the desert had manifested and saw to it that she would be safely returned to her family. With the help of Battalion, Ripclaw was able to defeat the Keepers. Their victory did not workout. Waiting for Sarah were the I.O. officials who had sought her in the first place. Brought to Project: Genesis, Rainmaker met her future teammates, Fairchild, Burnout, Grunge, and Freefall. With the help of then I.O. Director John Lynch
, Rainmaker and the others manage to escape.
Early in the series, Sarah reveals a joy of flying, a power she shares only with fellow teammate Burnout. The team spends some time in a beach-house on the West Coast, living with a semi-sentient housemaid defensive robot. There have been moments of friction as the rest of the team is still adjusting to Sarah's sexual orientation. For some time, Caitlin Fairchild had no idea Sarah was attracted to women, especially her, leading to at least one incident where Caitlin innocently changed clothing in front of her. Sarah's accidental 'flirtation' with Freefall was met with surprised rejection. Most affected is friend and teammate, Burnout, who has a strong romantic interest in Sarah.
Sarah has ended up battling many supervillains, many who wanted revenge on John Lynch. In another incident, she, Fairchild and Freefall were kidnapped by a man trapped in a young boy's body, who wished to gain a girlfriend from members of the team. The females were rescued by the males just in time.
Sarah tries to keep the peace in the group. Grunge, discouraged by another foolhardy decision, is convinced by Sarah to take a mind-clearing trip to the desert (where he finds and fights a trickster spirit and ultimately has to be rescued by the team).
Sarah's environmentalist concerns get her in trouble during the brief time the group attended college. Her new friends and Grunge's fun-loving new group end up in conflict, resulting in the release of a cybernetic gorilla on the school campus.
Sarah and her friends would be sent to fight a replicating menace in an evacuated American city. This would prove to be a very traumatic experience for the entire team, as the results of the fight were not what they expected.
The beach house
and robotic maid are eventually destroyed by I.O. forces. Later, the team comes into conflict with DV8
, super-powered teens who were also part of the project that granted Gen13 their powers. Sarah again tries to make peace instead of battle. Eventually members of the teams come to respect each other.
After the events in Number of the Beast, the World's End begins. Traveling with the group throughout this devastated world, Sarah seems more agitated than the others. She expresses to them all that she would probably end up leaving the group. While seeking refuge in a mall, she makes another advance on Caitlin. This advance, however, is sharply denied, adding to Sarah's discontent and her accusing Caitlin of being romantically involved with Bobby. In a cutaway scene it is revealed that an American Indian woman with some form of magic powers is observing and has an interest in Sarah. This woman may or may not be another Rainmaker clone.
After leaving the mall, the group decides to hitchhike across the USA to the town of Tranquility (Welcome to Tranquility). After hitching a ride from noneother than Dr. Sin (Number of the Beast) himself, they all end up at a post-apocalyptic skate park run by renegade youths. While there, Sarah sees Caitlin embrace and kiss Robert. This angers her so much that she storms out of the park.
. This habit is seen as both an annoyance and source of amusement by the rest of Gen¹³.
Despite original claims to be bisexual in her earliest incarnations, specially in an issue written by Scott Lobdell
. Although in recent series, she is confirmed to be a lesbian
.
While an important aspect of her character, Sarah's sexual orientation is just one part of her complex personality. She is very uninhibited - to the point of swimming nude
in front of her male teammates without batting an eye. In another incident, making peace with DV8 members is more important than fixing her ruined and exposing blouse. Rainmaker also takes great pride in her Apache heritage and is quite knowledgeable about her tribe's ancient customs and legends.
Sarah also has a natural aptitude for combat tactics.
movie during an athletics event.
In the Gen¹³ Zine published by Wildstorm
, it is revealed that Rainmaker has the same measurements as supermodel
Stephanie Seymour
.
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
from the comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
series Gen¹³
Gen¹³
Gen¹³ is a fictional superhero team and comic book series originally written by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell. It was originally published by Image Comics under the banner Wildstorm, which went on to become an imprint for DC Comics, who continued publishing the Gen¹³...
created by Jim Lee
Jim Lee
Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, writer, editor and publisher. He first broke into the industry in 1987 as an artist for Marvel Comics, illustrating titles such as Alpha Flight and Punisher War Journal, before gaining a great deal of popularity on The Uncanny X-Men...
and Brandon Choi
Brandon Choi
Brandon Choi is an American comic book writer best known as one of the co-creators of the series Gen¹³ which enjoyed high popularity in the middle and late 1990s. He also wrote several other titles for Wildstorm Comics.-Biography:...
and illustrated by J. Scott Campbell
J. Scott Campbell
Jeffrey Scott Campbell is an American comic book artist. He has had several pen names, including "Jeff Scott", but is best known as J. Scott Campbell...
.
Character biography
Rainmaker is the daughter of Stephen Callahan of Team 7 and half-sister of Matthew & Nicole Callahan (Threshold and BlissBliss (Wildstorm)
Bliss, also known as Nicole Callahan, is a supervillainess in the Wildstorm Universe of American comic books. She was created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi and drawn by J. Scott Campbell in her first regular appearance...
of DV8
DV8
DV8 is a comic book published by Wildstorm. The series revolves around the lives of a group of Gen-Active people , initially living in New York under the supervision of Ivana Baiul, who sends them on life-threatening black ops assignments.-Publication history:The series lasted 32 issues, and was a...
).
Apache born, Sarah Rainmaker's Gen-Active powers first manifested while living on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. She soon came to the attention of the Ivana Baiul
Ivana Baiul
Ivana Baiul is a comic book character from DC Comics/Wildstorm. She has starred in Gen¹³ and DV8.-History:Ivana Baiul was the head of Sci-Tech, the scientific division of I.O. There she worked on creating a group of genetically enhanced soldiers for the government, a task previously done 12 times...
and her Keepers, who were ordered to capture the seedling and bring her back for testing. Sarah managed to elude her captors and flee into the desert. She remained in hiding for three days before Ripclaw of Cyberforce
Cyberforce
Cyberforce is an Image Comics super-hero team created by artist Marc Silvestri and writer Eric Silvestri in 1992. Silvestri would begin performing both the plotting and pencilling chores, but the series was subsequently drawn by other artists, including David Finch...
, a fellow Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
, discovered her.
Dispatched by Sarah's family to ensure her safety, Ripclaw was followed by Keepers. Stormwatch was also notified that a young girl in the desert had manifested and saw to it that she would be safely returned to her family. With the help of Battalion, Ripclaw was able to defeat the Keepers. Their victory did not workout. Waiting for Sarah were the I.O. officials who had sought her in the first place. Brought to Project: Genesis, Rainmaker met her future teammates, Fairchild, Burnout, Grunge, and Freefall. With the help of then I.O. Director John Lynch
John Lynch (comics)
John Lynch is a fictional comic book character, published by Wildstorm. He is the head of Internal Operations. He has starred in Gen¹³, Team 7, Sleeper, and Wildcats.John Lynch is an homage to Nick Fury, the one-eyed head of Marvel Comics' S.H.I.E.L.D....
, Rainmaker and the others manage to escape.
Early in the series, Sarah reveals a joy of flying, a power she shares only with fellow teammate Burnout. The team spends some time in a beach-house on the West Coast, living with a semi-sentient housemaid defensive robot. There have been moments of friction as the rest of the team is still adjusting to Sarah's sexual orientation. For some time, Caitlin Fairchild had no idea Sarah was attracted to women, especially her, leading to at least one incident where Caitlin innocently changed clothing in front of her. Sarah's accidental 'flirtation' with Freefall was met with surprised rejection. Most affected is friend and teammate, Burnout, who has a strong romantic interest in Sarah.
Sarah has ended up battling many supervillains, many who wanted revenge on John Lynch. In another incident, she, Fairchild and Freefall were kidnapped by a man trapped in a young boy's body, who wished to gain a girlfriend from members of the team. The females were rescued by the males just in time.
Sarah tries to keep the peace in the group. Grunge, discouraged by another foolhardy decision, is convinced by Sarah to take a mind-clearing trip to the desert (where he finds and fights a trickster spirit and ultimately has to be rescued by the team).
Sarah's environmentalist concerns get her in trouble during the brief time the group attended college. Her new friends and Grunge's fun-loving new group end up in conflict, resulting in the release of a cybernetic gorilla on the school campus.
Sarah and her friends would be sent to fight a replicating menace in an evacuated American city. This would prove to be a very traumatic experience for the entire team, as the results of the fight were not what they expected.
The beach house
Beach house
A beach house is a house on or near a beach, generally used as a vacation or second home for people who commute to the house on weekends or during vacation periods....
and robotic maid are eventually destroyed by I.O. forces. Later, the team comes into conflict with DV8
DV8
DV8 is a comic book published by Wildstorm. The series revolves around the lives of a group of Gen-Active people , initially living in New York under the supervision of Ivana Baiul, who sends them on life-threatening black ops assignments.-Publication history:The series lasted 32 issues, and was a...
, super-powered teens who were also part of the project that granted Gen13 their powers. Sarah again tries to make peace instead of battle. Eventually members of the teams come to respect each other.
Worldstorm and World's End
After Captain Atom Armageddon, Sarah was rebooted along with the rest of the team. This time she is fully established as a lesbian, who finds it difficult to fit in with society. One day she comes home to find that her parents, actually operatives ordered to raise her, in the process of ingesting poison. Immediately troops storm the house and she is taken away. While in a detention center she meets up with the other Gen13 gang and they all escape. While relaxing at a farm, she makes advances towards Caitlin, who is bewildered by the event. When the group is on the road again she reveals to them all that she is a homosexual.After the events in Number of the Beast, the World's End begins. Traveling with the group throughout this devastated world, Sarah seems more agitated than the others. She expresses to them all that she would probably end up leaving the group. While seeking refuge in a mall, she makes another advance on Caitlin. This advance, however, is sharply denied, adding to Sarah's discontent and her accusing Caitlin of being romantically involved with Bobby. In a cutaway scene it is revealed that an American Indian woman with some form of magic powers is observing and has an interest in Sarah. This woman may or may not be another Rainmaker clone.
After leaving the mall, the group decides to hitchhike across the USA to the town of Tranquility (Welcome to Tranquility). After hitching a ride from noneother than Dr. Sin (Number of the Beast) himself, they all end up at a post-apocalyptic skate park run by renegade youths. While there, Sarah sees Caitlin embrace and kiss Robert. This angers her so much that she storms out of the park.
Controversy
Sarah is an avowed activist and spends much of her free time going to protests of one sort or another. She also has a tendency to lecture her teammates when they (often) fail to live up to her standards of political correctnessPolitical correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
. This habit is seen as both an annoyance and source of amusement by the rest of Gen¹³.
Despite original claims to be bisexual in her earliest incarnations, specially in an issue written by Scott Lobdell
Scott Lobdell
Scott Lobdell is an American comic book writer.-Early Career:Scott didn't begin to read comics until he was 17 years old, while lying in bed after lung surgery....
. Although in recent series, she is confirmed to be a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
.
While an important aspect of her character, Sarah's sexual orientation is just one part of her complex personality. She is very uninhibited - to the point of swimming nude
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
in front of her male teammates without batting an eye. In another incident, making peace with DV8 members is more important than fixing her ruined and exposing blouse. Rainmaker also takes great pride in her Apache heritage and is quite knowledgeable about her tribe's ancient customs and legends.
Powers
Rainmaker has the ability to control the weather, summoning lightning, wind, and rain with her thoughts. She has also demonstrated the ability to control the movement of water. Rainmaker can fly by riding wind currents, and is able to generate and direct bolts of lightning from her hands. These bolts are enhanced somewhat by the hi-tech gauntlets she wears.Sarah also has a natural aptitude for combat tactics.
In other media
Sarah has a cameo in the animated Gen¹³Gen¹³ (film)
Gen¹³ is a 1999 animated feature film based on the WildStorm comic book Gen¹³. The film was directed by Kevin Altieri and was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures, and produced by WildStorm Productions...
movie during an athletics event.
In the Gen¹³ Zine published by Wildstorm
Wildstorm
WildStorm Productions, or simply WildStorm, published American comic books. Originally an independent company established by Jim Lee and further expanded upon in subsequent years by other creators, WildStorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1999...
, it is revealed that Rainmaker has the same measurements as supermodel
Supermodel
The term supermodel refers to a highly-paid fashion model who usually has a worldwide reputation and often a background in haute couture and commercial modeling. The term became prominent in the popular culture of the 1980s. Supermodels usually work for top fashion designers and labels...
Stephanie Seymour
Stephanie Seymour
Stephanie Michelle Seymour is an American model and actress. Seymour has modeled for many notable fashion magazines and designers, and has been photographed by several well-known photographers including Herb Ritts, Richard Avedon, Gilles Bensimon, and Mario Testino.-Career:Born in San Diego,...
.