Insect Comic Superhero: Angel Salvadore

The latest X-Men movie has an insect-y bonus: a female mutant with insect powers!

Angel Salvadore has a rich and complex history in the X-men comic universe. She is a African-Latina American, growing up in poverty and abuse. (Honestly, the only constant in Angel’s story seems to be that she can’t catch a break.) When she begins to develop her mutation, she is kicked out by her abusive father. She awakens in the woods in a cocoon, and is attacked by a group that wants to steal her newly-emerged wings.

And discovers one of her new powers, illustrated at right.

Yep. She flies, and she has acid spit. She is also able to create a deafening ultrasonic sound with her wings.

The X-Men bring Angel to the Xavier Institute, a high school for mutants, where she meets a boy (who is also a bird. Sort of), falls in love, and has unprotected teenage mutant sex.

With the predictable results. Again, sort of.

FIVE DAYS LATER, Angel’s pregnancy comes to term, since she’s a fly (sort of), and that morphology accelerated the rate of her pregnancy. She lays a bunch of eggs in Wolverine’s old shack in the woods outside of the Institute. These develop into larvae over time and hatch.

The ins and outs of the X-men universe is, frankly, too confusing to document here, but to sum up, she and mutant-bird dude eventually end up a happy mutant nuclear family unit, with babies that also vomit on their food to digest it. The Marvel Universe Wiki has a short summary of her life and adventures.

So there you go, a new Insect Superhero to add to my list.

In the X-Men film, Angel’s wings convert to this wonderful tattoo when not in use. I would run out and get one immediately if I didn’t think that a million other fan girls are going to do the same thing.