While the name ‘Mirage‘ has been used by two distinct characters in DC comics, the most significant and enduring version is Miriam Delgado, a Brazilian metahuman with powerful illusion-casting abilities who became a memorable member of the Teen Titans family during the turbulent 1990s era of comics.
The Two Mirages of DC Comics
Before diving deep into Miriam Delgado’s story, it’s worth noting that the Mirage name first belonged to a minor Batman villain named Mike (also referred to as “Kerry Austin”), who debuted in Detective Comics #511 in February 1982. This original Mirage used a special gem that caused people to see elaborate illusions while he committed crimes. After multiple encounters with the Dark Knight, Mike was eventually killed by Bruno Mannheim, who bashed his head with the Crime Bible and then consumed his body—a gruesome end for a relatively obscure villain.
However, when comic fans speak of Mirage today, they’re almost universally referring to the second and far more prominent character: Miriam Delgado, who first appeared in The New Titans #79 in September 1991, created by legendary writer Marv Wolfman along with artists Tom Grummett, Paris Cullins, Curt Swan, and Al Vey.
Origin Story: A Traumatic Beginning
Miriam Delgado’s origin story is rooted in profound tragedy and survival. Born in Brazil, Miriam endured a deeply traumatic childhood marked by abuse at the hands of her own father. This abuse was so severe that Miriam ultimately killed her father in what is implied to be an act of self-defense—an event that would shape her psychological profile and approach to life for years to come.
What makes Miriam’s origin particularly fascinating is its complexity. Initially, readers were told that Mirage came from a dystopian future timeline set ten years ahead, where a tyrannical dictator known as Lord Chaos ruled the world with an iron fist. In this dark future, metahumans had proliferated, and an underground resistance called the Team Titans formed to overthrow Lord Chaos’s reign.
The Team Titans Era
Miriam’s abilities as a shape-shifter and illusionist made her invaluable to the rebellion. Her powers allowed her to infiltrate enemy positions and gather intelligence, making her perfect for espionage missions. However, her talents also drew the attention of Lord Chaos himself, leading to her capture.
During her imprisonment, Lord Chaos subjected Mirage to extensive brainwashing and both mental and physical abuse. She was forced to serve in his Force Elite as a spy and soldier. It was only during a mission to infiltrate a rebellion camp that her brainwashing began to weaken, allowing her to break free and rejoin the resistance.
It was with the Team Titans that Miriam met the man she believed to be a future version of Nightwing (Richard Grayson). The two fell deeply in love and entered into a romantic relationship that would have lasting consequences. When the Team Titans received orders from their mysterious leader to travel back in time and prevent Lord Chaos’s birth by killing Donna Troy before she could give birth to him, Mirage was among the team members who made the journey.
The Starfire Incident: A Controversial Storyline
One of the most controversial and discussed moments in Mirage’s comic history occurred during the Total Chaos crossover event. To get close to the Titans and their targets, Mirage used her shape-shifting abilities to impersonate Starfire, infiltrating the New Titans. While disguised as Starfire, Mirage slept with the younger, present-day Nightwing—an act committed through deception.
When the truth was revealed, the fallout was significant. This storyline has been retrospectively analyzed by comics scholars and fans alike as depicting sexual assault by deception, though it was not treated with appropriate gravity at the time of publication. Nightwing expressed discomfort and rejection toward Mirage afterward, while teammate Pantha infamously called him a “slut”—a response that has been criticized for victim-blaming.
The incident remains one of the darker and more morally complex storylines in Teen Titans history, reflecting the sometimes problematic approaches to serious subjects in early 1990s comics.
Zero Hour: The Truth Revealed
The Zero Hour: Crisis in Time! event in 1994 brought about earth-shattering revelations for Mirage and her fellow Team Titans. It was revealed that their entire “future timeline” was a fabrication created by the villainous Extant (formerly Monarch, originally Hawk).
The Team Titans were not actually from an alternate future at all. They were meta-humans from the present day whom Extant had kidnapped and implanted with false memories, turning them into sleeper agents for his plan to conquer the timeline. When the time crisis collapsed these false timelines, most of the Team Titans were erased from existence entirely.
Only three members survived: Mirage, Terra II (Tara Markov), and Deathwing. The reason for their survival was revealed by the Time Trapper, who sent a mysterious orb with messages for Mirage and Terra. The Time Trapper had learned of Extant’s manipulations and created his own sleeper agents—Mirage, Terra, and Deathwing—who were actually natives of the current timeline.
Mirage discovered that her true identity was that of a runaway street urchin from Brazil, not a rebel soldier from a dystopian future. Everything she remembered about Lord Chaos, the rebellion, and her childhood had been fabricated memories implanted by the Time Trapper.
Deathwing and Motherhood
The revelation about Mirage’s true origins came at an already devastating time in her life. The man she had loved—the “future Nightwing”—had traveled to the present timeline as well. However, when the dark version of Raven attacked him, she corrupted him by planting a Trigon-seed within him. He transformed into Deathwing, a violent and sadistic figure who was everything the real Dick Grayson feared he could become.
In one of the most traumatic storylines of Mirage’s history, Deathwing attacked and raped her, resulting in pregnancy. This horrific event added another layer of trauma to an already deeply damaged character. Miriam used her illusion powers to hide her pregnancy, even creating the false appearance of a miscarriage to deceive her teammates and, presumably, to avoid Deathwing’s continued interest in the child.
Eventually, while the Titans were away on an off-world mission, Mirage gave birth to a daughter she named Julienne. Choosing to prioritize motherhood, Mirage stepped back from active superhero duty, though she would return to aid her former teammates on several occasions.
Powers and Abilities
Mirage possesses formidable psionic powers that manifest primarily as illusion-casting abilities:
- Shape-shifting through illusion: Mirage can alter her appearance by projecting illusions over herself, allowing her to perfectly impersonate any humanoid. Her disguises are so convincing that Nightwing could not distinguish her from Starfire even after days of interaction.
- Solid illusions: Unusually, her illusions can be photographed and appear on video, suggesting they have some form of physical reality or affect perception at a fundamental level.
- Sensory deception: Her powers fool all human senses—sight, sound, touch, and presumably smell and taste as well.
- Projection at distance: While true invisibility is not among her powers, she can project an image of herself several feet away from her actual position, effectively becoming a decoy.
- Untapped psionic potential: During a confrontation with the telepath Psimon, latent psionic abilities were unlocked within Mirage. She was briefly able to mimic both Psimon’s appearance and his telepathic powers, and she accidentally read Green Lantern Kyle Rayner’s surface thoughts. These abilities remain largely unexplored.
Beyond her metahuman abilities, Mirage is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant with full military training from her time with the Team Titans. She is physically strong, agile, and extraordinarily resilient—a survivor in every sense of the word.
Later Appearances and Legacy
Following the birth of her daughter, Mirage largely retired from active superhero work but remained connected to the Titans family. She returned to aid her former teammates during the Technis Imperative storyline, which brought together past and present Titans alongside the Justice League to save Cyborg. During this conflict, she notably used her powers against Martian Manhunter, tricking him with an illusion of his dead wife—demonstrating that her abilities could affect even the most powerful telepaths.
Mirage also appeared in the Lights Out storyline, helping to defeat Doctor Light. She was among the many Titans who battled Superboy-Prime near Smallville, Kansas, during Infinite Crisis, and she briefly rejoined the Teen Titans during the “one year gap” that followed that crisis.
