Fallen Angels #2

[randyripoff]

So, when we last left off, Bobby and chance where in deep kimshi. Bobby's powers had completely flaked out, and he and the young Korean girl Chance were at the mercy of a couple of street thugs. Chance tries to protect herself, and then Bobby tries to protect her. Both fail, and then this happens:



They leave Bobby behind, but thankfully Warlock shows up to save the day. When Bobby goes to the door where Chance and Ariel were, he finds nothing there.

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Moira has arrived with Siryn and Madrox. After a quick briefing, Siryn and Madrox head to New York to hunt Bobby and Warlock down...er, find Bobby and Warlock.

We go back to Bobby and Warlock. In order to mix with the crowd, Warlock has changed his form in order to blend in, but he's having a hard time maintaining concentration as both he and Bobby haven't eaten in a while. Thankfully for Warlock, he's Warlock:



Bobby, unfortunately, is not able to transform garbage into suitable food. Therefore, he has a bit of a quandary, as he has no money.

(Quick rant time: this is likely one of the reasons this mini gets looked down upon, as in setting up the situation you have to believe a number fo things that don't really make sense.

For instance, Bobby is stinking filthy rich. If he had the money to afford a bus ticket to New York, shouldn't he have enough money to buy some food, buy a restaurant, buy a hotel? l

Madrox and Siryn are sent unaccompanied to a strange city to look for someone that apparently they've not met--it's really unclear as to whether they have any experience with one another other than the files at the mansion.

Also, where the hell are the other New Mutants? I can't imagine that they wouldn't insist on searching for Bobby and Warlock or sneaking out and looking for him. Yes, they were told to stay in house, but that never stopped them before.

Okay, rant mode over. Back to the story).

So Bobby's hungry and lamenting that he has no money, when Warlock tells him that since he's a super-villain now, he should just steal some food. Bobby agrees, and decides to break into the first doorway he sees. Unfortunately, it's a church.

Bobby runs away in shame, but as he ripped the front door off of the church, he's created a little problem for the kindly clergyman within. He's retrieving the door when he's accosted by some more street thugs. Oh, won't someone help the poor man?:



Who are Don and Bill? We'll be getting back to them...oh, we'll definitely be getting back to them. Anyway, Don and Bill make quick work of the dastardly street thugs, but they can't stick around to receive thanks--they're searching for Sunspot.

shifting gears, Siryn and Madrox have gone to the bus station to begin their search when this happens:



This will become important later.

So Madrox intentionally duplicates himself a number of times and they begin searching for Bobby. They do have a device to help them locate him, but with so many mutants in New York, it's hard to zero in on Bobby.

So anyway, Jamie is searching and lo and behold, one of his dupes runs across Bobby and Warlock sitting on a stoop. All the other dupes come running, but so does the unidentified youth, who identifies himself as Gomi, and we finally get to see Don and Bill:



Yep, mutant lobsters. Super-strong mutant lobsters. Who apparently have a mental "rapport" with Gomi (much like the Falcon's with Redwing). Unfortunately, I couldn't scan one of the funnier moments in this issue where the lobsters nearly blundered into a seafood restaurant.

By the way, I have to agree with Bobby here. The Hellions treated Empath better. At least their attitude was, "he may be a jerk, but he's our jerk."

Then we meet another member of our rapidly expanding cast:



Personally, I like the Vanisher. He's not out to rule the world or destroy it or take great vengeance upon someone. He just wants to steal your money. If he kept a lower profile, he'd be damned successful at it too.

So Siryn and Madrox the original arrive on the scene, and Siryn instantly attacks the Vanisher, who--well, he vanishes. He is a bit of a coward, after all. Chance and Ariel show up, and everyone follows the two of them through the doorway. Siryn is just a tad slow:

Comments

[werehawk]

Technically, only Don is a mutant (due to his blue color). The lobsters got their strength and communication skills because they are cyborgs/brain surgery.

But they were SO cool nonetheless. Don may be dead now. I asked Chris Eliopolous (sp?) if he could include Bill (and Ant-man's ant Emma) in his Pet Avengers and he (politely) said there were too many cool pets to include them all. But I still think Bill would be a great non-vertebrate addition.

[werehawk]

Maybe in a new A + X Pet Avengers? (They already have Lockheed).

[randyripoff]

Hmm...would they come together to battle Galactus' pet?

[icon_uk]

Technically, only Don is a mutant (due to his blue color)

Other way around I believe, lobsters come in blue, but not red. They can become red after cooking.

[werehawk]

This is from Wikipedia's American Lobster entry (cause everything on Wikipedia is true, right? Actually this is - and I didn't change it to say this :)
"Coloration
The normal coloration of Homarus americanus is "dark bluish green to greenish brown", redder on the body and claws, and greener on the legs.[3] This coloration is produced by mixing yellow, blue, and red pigments.[13] Despite the rarity of strangely colored lobsters, many more of them are reported being caught. It is unclear as to whether this is an artifact of social media (i.e. it is easier to report catching a strangely colored lobster), or if it is due to a drop in predator populations.[14]
Color variants Blue Yellow
An estimated one in 2 million lobsters are blue.[15] A genetic mutation causes a blue lobster to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein.[16] "

[icon_uk]

Note that whilst the blue may be a mutation, it's an actual, mundane mutation that happens in the real world. Red still isn't even a possible colour in the real world, so it would be a sci-fi mutation.

Now, I want some sushi (I'd say I wanted some lobster, but it's a bugger to eat properly, and my budget wouldn't stretch to it)

[pyrrhocorax]

This is a hella late comment, but I am seriously concerned about the fate of Don! Why would he be dead? He's so charming!

[halloweenjack]

For instance, Bobby is stinking filthy rich. If he had the money to afford a bus ticket to New York, shouldn't he have enough money to buy some food, buy a restaurant, buy a hotel?

Not necessarily. Not only are some rich kids on a limited allowance, they also may not have a lot of experience handling money themselves. (This was also published twenty-five years ago, when not only was it less common for teenagers and young adults to have credit cards but also not everyone had a debit/ATM card.)

[morwen]

This.

In X-Men #36 (which is my favourite out of the Roy Thomas run), Xavier has been kidnapped and the X-Men have run out of fuel for the Blackbird, and don't have any cash to buy plane tickets. So have to get try to get jobs, but are then defeated by the menace of the closed shop. Warren was with them! These days he'd just swipe his credit card.

[cricharddavies]

Regarding the money issue -- this may be a generational thing. Twenty-five years ago, when this thing came out, electronic banking (for the individual, at least) was very rare, I think, even in big cities like New York. In order for Bobby to get access to his money, he'd have to visit a branch of his bank in person, with his passbook -- which he might not have on him under the circumstances -- or at least provide evidence that he is who he says that he is ... and if he's hiding from the people at Xavier's, he wouldn't want to go anywhere that they might expect him to go.

Plus, taking the money that comes from his father when he's got huge issues with his dad might not be something he'd do voluntarily.

I can't address your other two complaints, because they're much more reasonable. :) I wonder what the rest of the New Mutants were up to while this was going on. Anyone happen to know?

[randyripoff]

I would argue that by 1987--when this series came out--ATM's were widely available, albeit not as prevalent as they are today. I remember having a bank account and ATM card a couple years prior.

Perhaps access to readily available cash wasn't quite as easy as it is now, but if Bobby had enough to buy a bus ticket, he should have had enough for expenses as well. At least that's how it seems to me. Maybe he had the bus fare required in his room at the mansion, but otherwise he would have gotten his hands on funding some other way.

I give though; here's plenty of reasons why Bobby might not have had cash readily available--everyone's made a good argument.