By Jason Juniewicz
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Angel: Revelations
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Each one of the
X-Men came from their own corner of the world, living lives that were rocked by the manifestation of their powers. But one X-Man may have had his life thrown into chaos even more so than any of Professor Xavier's other students.
Warren Worthington III had it all; he was rich, a star athlete and the most popular kid in school. Writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa plans to take a look back to
Angel's prep-school days, and explore what happens when the star of the school starts finds out he's a mutant. Joined by the amazing artistic talents of Adam Polina, they're serving up ANGEL: REVELATIONS, a five-issue mini-series kicking off in November.
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Angel: Revelations
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"I read the origin, which of course, has Warren Worthington being a student at one of these elite prep schools," says Aguirre-Sacasa. "The origin is broken up into three parts, and at the end of part one it just ends with Warren kind of in bed in his dorm room, holding up a single white feather and him not knowing what is happening. And I thought that was such an evocative image, and it kind of made me think, 'Wow. Imagine retelling Warren's origin almost like an early M. Night Shyamalan movie, where you're 15, 16 or 17 years old, you're a student at a prep school, you're away from your family, and suddenly you discover something strange is happening to your body. You discover that somehow you're growing wings like an angel.'"
But it's not only the change itself that brings Warren a world of grief, says Aguirre-Sacasa, but also how he and those around him deal with the strange changes overtaking his body. "The bread and butter of the story is how do you hide the fact that you're changing from everyone when you spend 24 hours a day with everyone at the school? How do you hide that fact when you're a star athlete? How do you hide that fact when you're expected to live up to certain expectations? How do you hide that fact when your relationship with your girlfriend is suddenly heating up? And Warren just happened to have antagonized the second most popular kid at school, which will cause him problems further down the line."
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Angel: Revelations
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However, before you think that this is the
X-Men version of The O.C., Aguirre-Sacasa cautions that this will not be a teen drama type of story, as he has many dark twists and turns to put everyone's favorite angel through. "In some ways it's the funniest thing I've written, because they're all kids, but in some ways it's the darkest thing I've written. I wouldn't say it's grim and relentless, but it's pretty dark." Playing from this dark tone Aguirre-Sacasa gives a teaser of another character that is going to make things hard for young Warren. "You are also going to meet a character who is sort of a religious fanatic who is hearing voices and believes he is doing God's good work by eradicating anything that might be interpreted as sacrilegious or an abomination in God's eyes. And eventually he and Warren are going to cross paths in a very dangerous and deadly way."
Although Aguirre-Sacasa is giving out plenty of information to wet our appetites for this new mini-series, he is not giving much info on other mutants that might appear, particularly Warren's eventual X-Men teammates. "I would not be surprised if you saw some version of the X-Men, but let's say no comment on that," says a cryptic Aguirre-Sacasa. He does however give enough information on some other mutant's appearances that might keep fans of the mini-series scratching their heads. "[You'll] see a mutant in issue one other than Warren."
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Angel: Revelations
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The plot is solid, the stage is set, but this is a comic book and what would a comic like this be without an amazing artist to bring it to life? Answering the call is Adam Pollina, who is making his return to Marvel after far too long of a hiatus. "I have to credit Warren Simons (the book's editor)," says Aguirre-Sacasa. "He is a big Adam Pollina fan. After the pitch got approved, we went out for lunch and we really hit it off. He had very strong ideas about how the series should look. It's set at a really fancy kind of gothic prep school, lots of stained glass windows lots of big imposing classical and neoclassical buildings. And they're all kids who are 16 and 17 so it needed a really specific look and Adam had a really great take on it. He did one or two sample pages and just blew us away, and we were like 'this guy's perfect.' It's been a great, great collaboration."
Now before you X-Men purists start to moan and groan about Marvel changing origins, Aguirre-Sacasa promises that he is going to stay true to the roots of Angel's origin. "I think it's very, very true to Angel's original origin that Marvel published in their X-Men books back in the '60s. It's just an expansion in a much richer world and much more psychologically driven."
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Angel: Revelations
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This new series promises a fresh look at a character that has been though his fair share of tragedy and heartbreak. Aguirre-Sacasa feels that Angel was the perfect candidate of this type of story. "In terms of the X-Men, he is very different from the others in that he comes from this world of privilege, class and society in a way that not all of he other X-Men did. He was sort of a golden boy before his mutancy came to fruition. I think that's a really interesting story to examine."
So catch up on the history of one of the most unique of the already uncanny X-Men when Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Adam Pollina deliver this re-imagining of the classic story of
Warren Worthington III, the X-Men's Angel in ANGEL: REVELATIONS, hitting comic shops in November.
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