Astra (real name Beth Al-Reraph) is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. She first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #366 and was created by Alan Davis. She is a mutant teleporter who was revealed to be Magneto's first true recruit from his original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. With her aid, he would acquire technology from alien civilizations, which would automatically give him advantage over the contemporary human military forces. However, she did not share Magneto’s goals - merely wanting riches, not power. The two parted ways as enemies.

She resurfaced years later, reviving Magneto (who had been mindwiped by Professor X) and creating a clone of him. Astra ordered the clone to kill Magneto, but Magneto was able to take the clone down. After the battle, the clone woke up amnesiac, thinking he was the real Magneto. The clone was given the name "Joseph" by a nun, and became affiliated with the X-Men.

Astra later returned and attempted to use Joseph against Magneto and the X-Men. She had Joseph attack Magneto while he was controlling the Earth's magnetosphere, which severely disrupted Earth's magnetic field. Joseph died reparing the damage, causing Astra to flee. Before her final exit, Astra alludes to knowing of Nightcrawler since he was a child.

Astra was mentioned by Apocalypse in 1999's The Twelve storyline as having been dealt with, but her current status is unknown. She last appeared in a flashback to her early Brotherhood days in the 2000-2001 mini-series X-Men Forever, where it was revealed that she saw Nightcrawler while looking for potential recruits for the Brotherhood with Magneto.

Unrelated characters also named Astra

• A member of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard.
• A character in Kurt Busiek's Astro City series, published by DC/Wildstorm.
• A victimized girl/demon from Vertigo/DC Comics Hellblazer series.

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants members | Marvel Comics mutants | X-Men villains