Origin

Trista was a normal teenager living in Chicago. One night, Trista was having troubles to get into a concert as the security guard banned her from getting in, despite having a ticket. During the struggle, her mutant powers manifested and she fought against the security guard. When she was about to be shot by him, Kitty Pryde who was witnessing everything, decided to intervene and help Trista to get to safety. Trista soon fell into panic because of her new condition as a mutant. Kitty offered comfort and encouraged her to embrace her mutant pride.

Inspired by Kitty's words, Trista soon followed advice and send a gift to the older mutant to thank her for the rescue and kindness. Soon the young woman started to contact Kitty wanting to become her protegee, something that Kitty wasn't interested to do as she wanted to distance herself from mutant affairs. To deal with Trista, Kitty arranged that the young mutant met other new mutants, Thao and Alex, so they could befriend and leave her alone.

Part of Kitty's plan worked, as the three mutants befriended, but they still kept looking for Kitty for guidance, coming at her appartment.

Emma Frost took interest in the three kids and planned to personally guide them, an idea that Kitty was against as she didn't want them to follow the X-men lifestyle. Reluctanly, Kitty agreed to help train Trista, Thao and Alex so they could at least learn to defend themselves. Soon they were joined by Iceman, who also helped in training the young mutants.

As she saw an audition for a theater play at her school, she was hesitant to take part of it afraid of accidentally shift into her bronze form in front of her classmates, despite the audition being a chance to get closer to her crush, Reggie. She was encouraged by Emma and Iceman to take part as a way to test her control over her transformation. During the audition, a portal connected to the fractals that Forge's X-force were dealing with opened and a monster came out from it.

Using everything she has learned from her mutant teachers, Trista was able to defeat the monster and throw it back to the portal before it closed, saving Reggie and her teacher, who promised to keep the secret that she was a mutant. In the end Trista decided to withdraw from the audition, feeling that theather wasn't for her yet, but found new confidence following her first solo battle.

Thanks to the training of Kitty, Emma and Iceman, Trista and her friends improved in the control of their powers. They also got an internship thanks to Priti, Kitty's roommate, and the three young mutants met Sheldon Xenos, the founder of Verate. Trista and Thao showed concern and mistrust towards the CEO, as he requested the DNA of Verate's users, but Alejandro was charmed by Xenos which caused a rift between the young mutants.

Soon Trista and Thao's concern proved true as Xenos turned out to be Mr. Sinister, who kidnapped Alex to experiment on him and tried to cover up his kidnapping with a malfunctioning clone. Trista was the first to realize the ruse and she and Thao were forced to stay behind while their teachers fought Sinister and rescued Alex. But they ended joining the battle after being tricked by an Iceman clone.

The mutants were able to rescue Alex and together they defeated Mr. Sinister.

Creation

Bronze first appeared in Exceptional X-Men (2024) #1 by Eve L. Ewing and Carmen Nunez Carnero

Power and Abilities

Trista has the mutant power of turning her skin into a metallic material that seemed similar to the Bronze. Once in this form, her strenght and endurance increases and she can extend metallic tendrils from her arms which she can use as whips.

Alternate realities

In a future timeline where Revelation (the mutant known as Cipher who became the heir of Apocalypse) took over the world, an adult version of Trista was part of the resistance against him as one of the last X-men.

There she crossed paths with Cable and Bishop, who were time travelling while hunting the Children of the Vault known as Vacuna, who was destorying the timeline. Once Bronze realized who they are, she quickly gave them information about many events that would lead to Revelation's success, hoping that they could avert those and prevent the rise of power of the former New Mutant.