Dryad (Callie Betto) is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...

appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of ''Action Comics'' ...

s published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

. Created by

Nunzio DeFilippis Nunzio DeFilippis is an American writer of comic books and television. He writes with his wife, Christina Weir, whom he met while they were both students at Vassar College. The two have written for two seasons on HBO's '' Arli$$'', and have sold ...

and Christina Weir, she first appeared in '' New X-Men: Academy X'' #1.

Fictional character biography

Dryad is a member of the former Corsairs training squad. The leaders of the team are: Specter,

Quill A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually ...

and the Stepford Cuckoos. She appears in ''New X-Men: Academy X'' #2 as a background character, in the party, on the cover with

Anole Dactyloidae are a family of lizards commonly known as anoles () and native to warmer parts of the Americas, ranging from southeastern United States to Paraguay. Instead of treating it as a family, some authorities prefer to treat it as a subfami ...

, and with the students that aren't fighting with the

Blob Blob may refer to: Science Computing * Binary blob, in open source software, a non-free object file loaded into the kernel * Binary large object (BLOB), in computer database systems * A storage mechanism in the cloud computing platform M ...

Depowered and Death

After

Scarlet Witch Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. Her first appearance was in ''The X-Men'' #4 (March 1964) ...

's actions of M-Day, Dryad is de-energized and boards a bus with other depowered students leaving the

Xavier Institute The X-Mansion or Xavier Institute is the common name for a mansion and research institute appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The mansion is depicted as the Estate (land), private estate of Professor X, Charles Francis ...

. She is killed when William Stryker fires a missile at the bus, killing the depowered students aboard.''New X-Men'', vol. 2 #23

Powers and abilities

Dryad had the mutant ability to communicate with plants, much like a telepath can with people, which allowed her to manipulate plant life. It was not a particularly strong connection in that she had to actively maintain a link (a plant cannot simply call out telepathically to her mind) for communication to occur. It is for this reason that she rarely used the power and tended to forget about it at times. In the explanation that she gave at one point, she explained that when a plant communicates, it is not like humans or animals because plants do not have emotions. They cannot express fear, excitement, happiness, etc. Instead, Callie explained plants as “speaking” in senses. For example, if a plant needed water, Callie would receive wetness. She wouldn't feel wet, but because she knows what wetness is from prior experience, she would be able to understand. The same holds true for when she spoke to them. She could only focus on one “thought” at a time; usually the ones she understood. When she didn't understand (for example if the plant is being killed off by a certain chemical that she wouldn't respond to) she could sometimes offer vague explanations about the general state of the plant, or she had simply no idea what was going on. Callie could accelerate, decelerate, or reverse plant growth in a twenty-foot radius. The type of growth that occurred depended on each plant. Smaller, less complex plants would grow very quickly (for example vines, weeds, flowers, etc.) while larger plants, such as trees, she could only control a section. For example, she could cause a branch of a tree to bend at an angle from the tree. It is not possible to grow a full tree in a single sitting; it requires a considerable amount of time and concentration to achieve it. After

Decimation Decimation, Decimate, or variants may refer to: * Decimation (punishment), punitive discipline * Decimation (signal processing), reduction of digital signal's sampling rate * Decimation (comics), 2006 Marvel crossover spinoff ''House of M'' * ''D ...

, Dryad lost her powers.

Alternate versions

Too Much Information

In the storyline "Too Much Information", Dryad appears as one of the future X-Men that is blown up during the mission to find the Hellions.

References

{{reflist Comics characters introduced in 2004 Marvel Comics female characters Marvel Comics mutants Marvel Comics plant characters Fictional characters with plant abilities Characters created by Nunzio DeFilippis Characters created by Christina Weir