Warren Worthington: (Arch)Angel Appreciation 2020

[Havok83]

Im surprised Archangel has not made appearance. These writers have showed alot of restraint bc honestly the metal wings would be far more useful to cut down plants and mass destroy a legion of zombies

[Arachne]

There's still two books to go, but maybe there's a reason they don't want him to change.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

I don't think that Warren could be considered a himbo at all, he's not as bright as some of the X-characters but he's far from stupid...

[SamuraiK]

Well we gotta take it from who's saying it. Black Tom is a recently reformed villain who may still be seeing the classic X-men as just dumb pretty boys and he was pissed so he threw the first demeaning term that crossed his mind. It fits.

[K7P5V]

I don't think that Warren could be considered a himbo at all, he's not as bright as some of the X-characters but he's far from stupid...

Agreed. Also, throughout his history, he's been rather opinionated on a number of issues concerning the X-Men...

[Sutekh]

I don't think that Warren could be considered a himbo at all, he's not as bright as some of the X-characters but he's far from stupid...

'Himbo' itself is a weird term, since the word 'bimbo' in the 1920's referred to (young Italian) *men* who dressed up in fancy suits, stood around looking to be admired and were otherwise good for nothing. And then it turned into a misogynist slur. This is why we can't have nice things, I guess.

But yeah, Warren does deserve better. I don't feel like he's gotten a serious showing *as Angel* since Thunderbolts, when he held off pretty much their entire team just using his experience and aerial agility.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Sadly outside of Scott and Jean the rest of the O5 really haven't done much lately or been written terribly well for the last while...and Warren has suffered from that...

[Arachne]

Iceman seems to be getting attention in Marauders, but Warren really needed some attention. Hopefully, he'll be over the pheromones by next issue. Black Tom seemed to use the Hordeculture spores, or whatever they were, to build his construct. That should help.

[Thievery]

Well we gotta take it from who's saying it. Black Tom is a recently reformed villain who may still be seeing the classic X-men as just dumb pretty boys and he was pissed so he threw the first demeaning term that crossed his mind. It fits.

Normally, I would agree with you. And it doesn't bother me when characters insult each other.
I think that to often many readers take an insult hurled at one character from another character to be an actual statement and condemnation from the writer about a character. Sometimes that can be true, but more often than not it really is just snaky or insulting behavior between the characters involved.

But, in this case I can see why people are being a little critical. I saw in another thread, the Emprye X-Men issue2 preview thread I believe, that one of Williams' friends really liked the himbo description and a lot of the X-Twitter followers enjoyed the description. I cant say that I have seen the tweets myself, because I dont have a twitter account and dont usually even follow a twitter post unless it is really interesting or just plain ignorant.
But a lot of people have pointed the himbo description that was used on twitter, and I wouldn't believe that even one of them is lying about it. This community is good at being super honost about what is being said on twitter.

So I do think that it is fair to say that calling Angel a himbo was a put down by Williams.

Agreed. Also, throughout his history, he's been rather opinionated on a number of issues concerning the X-Men...

Yeah, I agree with this 100%.

Also, every definition of the word himbo that I have read describes the himbo as being a super nice guy with good intentions and almost a heart of gold.
I think that we have seen plenty of evidence over the years that Warren isn't really all that nice of a guy.

So I really think that the description of Angel as a himbo is some really poor characterization of Angel and a just plain example of bad writing.
I could be in the minority on this, but in this case I really don't think so.

[Thundershot]

I’ve never seen the word before this. I do remember back in the 90’s when people called Betsy a “Nimbo” (Ninja Bimbo).

[Thievery]

I’ve never seen the word before this. I do remember back in the 90’s when people called Betsy a “Nimbo” (Ninja Bimbo).

I hadnt seen the word before this either. I had to look the word himbo up on multiple on line dictionaries just to find out what the word meant, before I could comment on this topic.

Now I'm going to have to look up the meaning of the word "Nimbo" just to see what that means. I think that I have a pretty good guess as to what I will find, though.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

I think that some writers just have characters that they hate or dislike for one reason or another, the last thing that Warren needs is to be written by someone that dislikes/hates him...

[Arachne]

Ouch!

AIPT: Both versions of the character win! Now, our first X-Fan question, from Grey_life12 (@304grey_fan), is likely a controversial one–if you could swap one member of the O5 out for another X-Character, who would you swap for and why?

Jordan: Well, I would probably ditch Angel. Sorry, WWIII fans, to me he is the dud of the group. He’s kind of a generic good-looking rich guy who can fly.

This does not fill me with hope.

[Thievery]

Ouch!



This does not fill me with hope.

I cant really say that I'm all that surprised.

The editor describes Angel as a generic looking rich guy who can fly.
I'd say that is a pretty fair description of the feather winged version of Angel.
It's why most of Archangel's biggest fans prefer the metal winged version of the character. He's just more cool, and more useful in stories.

All you have to do is read the first issue of the Empyre X-Men mini-series to see what the X-office thinks of Angel.
I think that calling Angel redundant was an intentional description of the character. He was being described as being redundant as both a rich mutant, and a mutant who only flies. Redundant.

Really, I don't understand why people think that Angel has shined during the Empyre X-Men mini.
He shows up for a business meeting to start the comic. He finds out that he is being watched by Magik for being redundant, and then immediately ditches the meeting. If he really had been shown as being a good leader, he would have finished the meeting and then talked to Charles. Instead he just bails on the meeting without finishing it.

Later, Warren orders Madrox to fix the gate as quickly as he can. We see later on that hurrying up to clean the gate was the wrong thing to do. More bad leadership on Warren's part.

I dont mind when my favorite character looks bad, but I was hoping that this would be addressed in the comic, and Warren would find some way to redeem himself. I'm not sure if that will happen now.

And yeah, this doesnt seem to improve Angel's chances of appearing in future comics. When the head editor doesnt like a character that isnt exactly a good sign.

I think it speaks more than a little that JDW chose to answer that question first. Seems like he really wanted that to be known.

It looks like it is going to be a bad time to be an Archangel fan for the next several years. I've been havig a shitty enough time lately as it is.
Archangel isnt likely to appear in many comics in the near future.
Looks as though LoganAlpha30x33 was correct to say that Archangel likely wouldnt be appearing in any comics soon. We all told him that he was being overly dramatic and pessamistic. Looks like he was right, and we were wrong.
Take a bow LoganAlpha30x33.

[Arachne]

Hmm, maybe. I haven't lost all hope, though. We did see Warren as Archangel in the free comic book day issue. It may be that JDW just doesn't like pre-Archangel Warren.

Even if JDW doesn't like him, all it takes is a good pitch by a writer who likes Warren to get him back in the field.