Sarah Rainmaker

Sarah Rainmaker
Rainmaker by Alex Garner
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics Image Comics (previously) Wildstorm
First appearance	Stormwatch#8
Created by	Jim Lee Brandon Choi J. Scott Campbell
In-story information
Alter ego	Sarah Rainmaker
Team affiliations	Gen¹³ International Operations
Abilities	Weather manipulation

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.

Character biography

Rainmaker is the daughter of Stephen Callahan of Team 7 and half-sister of Matthew & Nicole Callahan (Threshold and Bliss 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.

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 correctness. 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.

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 Gen¹³ 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.