Angel Salvadore
Angel Salvadore is a female comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
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Biography
Angel Salvadore was a 14 year-old female human Mutant living in a trailer park with her mother, her sister and the man she presumed was her father. Her dad was physically, verbally and sexually abusive to Angel. When Angel’s mutant powers began to manifest, the abuse escalated. Her mother tried in vain to stop him, even revealing that he was not actually Angel’s father. Rather than face further abuse, Angel ran away. Feverish and confused, Angel slept in the woods nearby. That night, her mutation manifested in full. She awoke in the remains of a cocoon and found that she now had insect-like wings. She had little time to process these changes. When she awoke, she found herself surrounded by the U-Men, sinister agents of John Sublime sent to harvest mutant organs. The U-Men sought to ascend their humanity by having mutant organs grafted onto their bodies and Angel's wings were exactly what they were seeking. Angel discovered that she could vomit acid and that her wings created hypersonic noise. She used her new powers to escape but her inexperience and panic worked against her and she was soon captured. The U-Men were just about to amputate Angel’s new wings when Wolverine discovered them. Logan made short work of Angel’s captors, to the young girl’s horror. She wanted nothing to do with Wolverine but given her circumstances, she had little choice but to join him. He promised to get her safely to Xavier's school. (New X-Men v1 #119)
The Xavier Institute was not all that Angel had hoped it would be and she adopted an attitude of aloof disdain for the school and her fellow classmates. The truth was that she believed herself to be all the things her stepfather had said she was – 'a dirty mutie freak'. She flatly admitted that she would gladly give up her wings in order to be normal again. Angel seemed to be sabotaging her chances to fit in at the Institute. She went so far as to be disrespectful to her teachers and drink beer in the middle of flight class. It was there that she began to bond with Beak, who was even more of a freak than she was. When Beak crashed and burned in his first attempt at flying, Angel tried to bolster his spirits with a drunken kiss. Beak was elated at his first kiss, completely unaware that some of the other students had offered Angel money on a bet to kiss him. (New X-Men v1 #131) Angel and Beak were both assigned to the 'Special Class' taught by the mysterious Xorn. During a class camping trip, Angel and Beak sneaked into the woods with some beer. Barnell was surprised that Angel actually wanted to have sex with him and was put off by how aggressive she was being. He was relieved when they were interrupted. But it was not their classmates who had discovered them but a team of U-Men on the hunt for fresh mutant specimens. Beak and Angel warned their classmates and working together under Beak’s leadership, they managed to defeat the U-Men. During this altercation, Angel witnessed Mr. Xorn unleashing his power on the U-Men and slaughtering them. He told her this would be their secret. (New X-Men v1 #136)
Despite this interruption, Angel was persistent and she and Barnell became lovers. On the night of the school’s prize-giving banquet at which Angel and Barnell were to be given special commendation for their heroism in helping defeat Cassandra Nova, Angel told Barnell that she was pregnant. Angel had confided in Emma Frost during a shopping excursion to New York but was now afraid that she and Barnell would be expelled if anyone found out. Five days later, Angel’s pregnancy came to full term thanks to her insect-like mutant physiology and she laid a large clutch of eggs in a shack in the woods outside the Institute. These larval sacks contained embryos, each possessing both insect and avian characteristics. Angel’s secret was uncovered following the murder of Emma Frost. The investigation by Bishop and Sage led them to the cabin in the woods where Sage discovered the unhatched larvae and was attacked by an unseen assailant. At the same time, Barnell confessed to the murder claiming to have killed Emma in order to protect their secret. The clues did not entirely add up and Bishop, Sage, Xorn and Professor X went to the cabin to try and discover the true murderer. They found a jubilant Angel there, surrounded by her six newly hatched offspring. Bishop and Sage learned that while it had been Angel who shot Emma, her mind had been controlled by one of Emma’s Cuckoos, Esme. (New X-Men v1 #141)
Overview
Personality and attributes
She was defined by a defensive and abrasive exterior that served as a necessary survival mechanism for a teenager living on the fringes of society. Having been driven from her home due to the manifestation of her insectoid mutations, she exhibited a fierce, street-smart hostility toward anyone she perceived as a threat, including those who intended to help her. This prickliness was not merely a character flaw but a reflection of her profound vulnerability and fear; she used a sharp tongue and a cynical attitude to keep the world at arm's length, viewing the offer of sanctuary at Professor Xavier’s institute with intense suspicion rather than relief. She possessed a raw, unfiltered honesty, frequently lashing out at Wolverine and the other X-Men with a biting wit that masked her confusion over her changing body. Despite this outward aggression, her personality hinted at a deep-seated resilience, as she had already survived the trauma of her step-father’s rejection and the isolation of her transformation, demonstrating a stubborn refusal to be intimidated by the strange, high-stakes world of the X-Men. (New X-Men v1 #118)
Beneath her defensive hostility, Angel Salvadore possessed a surprising capacity for impulsive curiosity, a trait that often pulled her toward the very world she claimed to despise. This manifested as a restless, exploratory energy; despite her vocal protests against the X-Men’s intervention, she could not help but test the limits of her new biology, such as her ability to consume vast amounts of food to fuel her high metabolism. She exhibited a youthful, unrefined impulsiveness that drove her to act on her immediate instincts—whether that meant lashing out at Wolverine to prove she wasn't helpless or tentatively exploring the grounds of the Xavier Institute when she thought no one was watching. This trait suggested a personality that, while scarred by rejection, remained fundamentally hungry for experience and a place where she could exist without hiding. Her curiosity was a double-edged sword, making her both a difficult student to manage and a person whose innate spark of wonder had not yet been fully extinguished by the harsh realities of her life as a mutant. (New X-Men v1 #118)
Powers and abilities
Angel was mutant granted with a suite of abilities that mirror the traits of a common housefly. Her metamorphosis had culminated in a range of physiological transformations that bestowed her with unique powers. During the onset of Angel's mutation, she spun a cocoon around herself akin to the transformative process experienced by houseflies during metamorphosis. Inside of it, her body's physical makeup was changed, resulting in the emergence of a singular pair of wings accompanied by the capacity to secrete and expel digestive acid. (New X-Men v1 #118)
Notes
- Angel Salvadore was created by Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Sciver where she made her first appearance in New X-Men v1 #118 (November, 2001).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Films
- In X-Men: First Class, Angel Salvadore appeared in the live-action film where she was portrayed by actress Zoë Kravitz. This version was shown to be secretly a Mutant who livd as a stripper at a club in 1962. She was one of a number of Mutants recruited by Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr in forming a team to stop Sebastian Shaw along with his Hellfire Club. During training, their base was struck by Shaw who offered a number of the Mutants the chance to join him with Angel switching sides as he embarked on his scheme to escalate the Cuban Missile Crisis by provoking hostilities between the United States and Soviet Union. This saw her turn against her former teammates in the newly formed X-Men where she fought Banshee but was taken down by Havok. After Shaw's death, she joined Magneto as he recruited a number of Mutants as part of his own plan in ensuring Mutant dominance where he severed his ties with Xavier with Angel joining his team.
- In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Angel Salvadore was only referenced as Tempest in the live-action film where she was initially mentioned in viral marketing as being among the Mutant's killed by Project Wideawake's operatives. Mystique infiltrated the office of Bolivar Trask where she found autopsy reports of the captured Mutants with these including those on Angel Salvadore. Magneto revealed that Angel was among those experimented on by Trask between 1962 and 1973 with one of her wings appearing in a glass case in storage.
Appearances
- New X-Men v1:
- New Warriors:
External Links
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