Dedicated to the definitive superhero non-team.


Sunday, May 19, 2013

Ruffled Feathers

Angel's decision to accompany Beast and Iceman in Defenders #125 turned the non-team into a partial revival of the original X-Men. And that's exactly what Angel wanted.

Before joining the New Defenders, Angel tried renewing his involvement with the mutant team. Yet beginning with X-Men #137, the high-flying Angel was uncharacteristically careless and klutzy when working alongside the "new" X-Men who largely replaced the original team in #94.

Though initially depicted as out of practice, that wasn't the full story. Rather, any beginner's mistakes on Angel's part resulted from him feeling ill-at-ease among the reconfigured team. A disapproving attitude toward Wolverine, and shock that the X-Men would tolerate anyone with such homicidal tendencies within their ranks, led Angel to again fly the coup in #148. Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters no longer felt like home.

The above image comes from from Uncanny X-Men #148 (August 1981).

2 comments:

Unknown said...

First off, love this site!

As for Angel, interesting that he was OK working with Moondragon, wasn't it established she had killed more than once herself?

james said...

Thank you for the comment, Lyle.

Moondragon marched to a rather complicated set of ethics. On one hand, she blamed the Defenders for the death of Omega the Unknown in Defenders #77:

http://defendersfan.blogspot.com/2009/02/back-from-past.html

Yet her decision to take control of a planet, keeping Thor as her mind-controlled companion, caused her to fall into disfavor with Odin:

http://defendersfan.blogspot.com/2009/09/moonstruck.html

Among the New Defenders, Moondragon was a prisoner of Valkyrie. By and large the other heroes were not happy working with Moondragon, although she mentally influenced both Iceman and Angel to think fondly of her for a time:

http://defendersfan.blogspot.com/2009/12/love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name.html