- "My stage name is Angel... and it kinda fits."
- ―Angel Salvadore
Angel Salvadore was a mutant with the ability to fly with insect-like wings, which appear tattooed on her body, and eject flaming acid.
Biography
Joining Sebastian Shaw
In 1962, Angel was working as a stripper when she was approached by Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr, who persuaded her to join the X-Men. Angel later met her other teammates and they got acquainted by giving themselves codenames and showing off their powers. Angel was present when the Hellfire Club attacked the Division X facility.
Their leader, Sebastian Shaw, attempted to persuade the young mutants into joining him against a populace that feared them. Angel was quickly, but not immediately, convinced by his words, the only one to join. Although her former teammates Havok and Darwin tried to stop her, the latter was killed by Shaw.
Cuban Missile Crisis
Later, Angel joined the battle against her former teammates during the Cuban Missile Crisis, fighting Banshee and Havok until the latter severed one of her wings.
Joining the Brotherhood of Mutants
After Erik Lensherr kills Shaw, he recruits the remaining Hellfire Club members and Mystique into his new Brotherhood of Mutants. They leave to free Emma Frost, who had been captured by the CIA.
On November 5, 1962, just mere days after joining Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, Angel was slain by Project WideAwake operatives in a firefight and her body was heavily mutilated.
Legacy
As Mystique looks through the Mutant Autopsy Reports files in Trask's office, she is distraught when she sees a few photos of the dead bodies of Angel, Azazel, and Emma Frost along with other unidentified deceased mutants.
One of her wings is later shown in a glass chamber along with Magneto's helmet, the coin that killed Shaw, and Havok's containment unit.
Personality
Angel Salvadore was originally a naive and determined stripper. However, she strongly disliked her job, once claiming she had spent her entire life growing used to dealing with males acting in stupid ways. She was proud of her superpowers but was frequently forced to hide them, particularly by making her wings look like tattoos. As a result of what her past had turned her into, she understandably showed a limited extent of respect and curiosity towards Professor X and Magneto . Despite her calm and collected nature, she was not a completely composed woman, prone to let her feelings get the better of her like any other.
Like so many other mutants, Angel had a cynical regard for humans, evidently sharing Shaw's views on the superiority of mutants and their supposed right to rule, but not being in a good place to act on her ideals. This is shown when she was given the opportunity to join Shaw, she quickly did so and quickly became a loyal follower of his, in stark contrast to every other young mutant she had gathered with. While not as sadistic as her new teammates, Angel seemed indifferent and even fond of the idea of initiating the Cuban Missile Crisis, sharing a toast with her new master as they prepared to make their move. While Angel enjoyed the thrill of battle, she seemed to prefer to grant her victims quick and easy deaths, displaying a reluctance to cause significant injury to members of the race she was trying to save. However, her developed survival instinct and desperation to prove herself to the members of the Hellfire Club caused her to fight against them anyway. Angel's fighting moves also seemed to be more direct, straightforward, and unrefined than those of her teammates, presumably owing to her being the youngest member and having never been in the midst of a battle before. Ironically, it was her restraint and lack of experience that led to her incapacitation.
Despite following Shaw, Angel had no qualms about switching sides when it suited her; this is shown when she joins Erik after he supplanted Shaw's position.
Curiously, Angel was initially frightened by the fatalities initiated by Shaw and hesitated to join him and act on her views of mutant superiority. However, when Shaw told her she should stop contributing to a society that had shown her kind fear and prejudice, she still looked unsure of herself, but when he added that "You can join us, and live as kings... or queens", she changed her mind and claimed remaining out of Hellfire Club was out of the question. Through her giving in to Shaw's subtle promise that she would be treated equally to the men Azazel and Riptide, her doubts about ever being treated like an equal owing to her age and gender can be inferred, but it was never made clear what these complicated feelings really meant.
Powers
- Explosive Acid Projectiles: Angel can launch gobs of corrosive or explosive saliva from her mouth. The corrosive properties have been demonstrated to be sufficient enough to eat through stone and as a concussive blast the spitting attack produces a small concussive blast and gout of flame .She can launch them in rapid succession.
- Wing Manifestation: Angel possesses the ability to manifest insect-like wings that grant her the ability of flight. Angel conceals her wings by having them appear as tattoos on her back and shoulders, but they lose their tattoo form when she manifests her wings.
- Flight: Angel possesses a winged flight capability that allows her to travel at high speed through the air. She is capable of aerial deceleration to the point where she can hover in place. She usually hides her wings by having them fuse with her skin, in which they take the form of tattoos.
Relationships
- Magneto - Mentor and Teammate turned Enemy turned Former Boss
- Mystique - Teammate and Friend turned Enemy turned Former Teammate
- Sebastian Shaw † - Enemy turned Former Boss
- The Man in Black † - Former Ally
- Azazel † - Enemy turned Former Teammate
- Emma Frost † - Enemy turned Former Teammate
- Riptide - Enemy turned Former Teammate
Trivia
- Angel was the first mutant found by Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier.
- Her codename in the comics is Tempest.
- A promotional photo of Angel's autopsy states that she was killed on August 5, 1962; however, this is incorrect since the Cuban Missile Crisis took place in late October of 1962, an event Angel was present for. An official screenshot of her autopsy from Days of Future Past, however, lists that she died on November 5, 1962, just a week after the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- Angel's wings in the film more closely resemble the design of the wings for the X-Men member Pixie (Megan Gwynn) rather than the wings she had in the comics (before the events of M-Day).
- The movie version of Angel shares traits with another mutant from the comics, Stacy X.
- In an older draft of the Days of Future Past script, there was a scene with Havok and Angel running through the woods in an experimental attack by a Trask Sentinel. This included the first glimpse of the Sentinels for the movie. The scene had been cut before the movie was ever shot, mainly for budget reasons.
Behind the Scenes
- Chrissy Weathersby Ball was a stunt double for Zoë Kravitz in the role of Angel Salvadore.
References
External links
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