Skin was a Hispanic member of Generation X, possessing the mutant ability to manipulate his own skin. He died in Uncanny X-Men, after being crucified on the mansion's front lawn.
Origin
Angelo Espinosa was a gang banger from Los Angeles
who’s life of violence forced him to fake his own death during a gang
fight in which his girlfriend seemingly killed several people.
He still
had a gun he had found on him after waking up from unconsciousness, so
Skin plugged the gun so that it could never be fired, keeping it as a
reminder of the painful night that had changed his life.
He first came
to X-Men’s attention when he, among other young mutants, were kidnapped by technorganic Phalanx. After escaping the Phalanx, Espinosa was offered a place at the new branch school Xavier was creating at Emma Frost’s Massachusetts Academy.
Espinosa reluctantly accepted after being convinced by Beast into
becoming part of Generation X and took on the code name Skin. Unlike the
other members of Generation X, Skin didn't want to become an X-Man, he
only wanted to learn how to control his powers.
Mayor Story Arcs
Generation X
At
first dour and cynical, Angelo soon became one the team’s pillars of
perspective and good humor, even nursing the severally deformed Decibel (at the time known as Chamber) out of his funk occasionally and getting the elitist M
to loosen up a little. Angelo also developed a good friendship with
Paige Guthrie (Husk), and they called each other "city mouse" and
"country mouse".
Husk was one of the first people to notice that Skin
was worried of his extra skin tearing or ripping when he volunteered for
monitor duty instead of searching for Penance.
Angelo was recognized by
someone from Los Angeles at one point, which prompted him to threaten
to kill him if he blew his cover and told everyone he was alive.
Despite
that Angelo tried to act tough, he actually had a soft spot for
ex-Morlocks Artie and Leech, even helping Synch build a tree house for them.
Over
time, Skin improved the use of his powers, learning how to retract it
so that he could look normal.
As a result of this though, Skin would get
migraines from the intense concentration. Skin, Chamber and Penance
weren't allowed on several missions, as they would have made Generation X
stand out, so had to stay at the Academy. Unfortunately, due to his
encounter with the psychic entity Onslaught,
Chamber began to feel weak. To try and help his friend, Skin tried to
drive him to the Xavier Institute, but was stopped by the X-Cutioner,
who thought that Skin was the murderer of... Angelos Espinosa.
Since he
had been using his real name at the academy, that's why the X-Cutioner
thought that Skin was his murderer.
Skin hid Chamber in a pool of mud,
and surprisingly he managed to defeat the X-Cutioner using his powers
creatively.
However, during the fight with X-Cutioner, Chamber and
Skin's car was damaged, and they now had to hitchhike to Xavier's.
Before they got there, Onslaught was defeated by several teams of heroes
and Chamber recovered quickly on his own.
As thanks to Skin for trying
to help him, Chamber accompanied him to Los Angeles, since it was almost
a year since Skin had been announced dead. Skin disguised himself as an
old man and comforted his mother whilst she visited his grave.
A few weeks later, Generation X were captured by Black Tom Cassidy,
who stranded them all out in the middle of the ocean of a raft.
All of
them were suffering badly, but Skin was suffering the worst, as his skin
was spreading out and he was only half-conscious. Luckily, he was saved
from third-degree burns by Chamber, who ripped out part of the raft and
used it as a sun shield for Skin. The team met Glorian,
the Shaper of Dreams, who saved them all and put them in fantasy worlds
according to their dreams. Skin was tied to a pole and was yelled at by
Glorian, who couldn't accept that Skin didn't want anything. Eventually
Skin convinced Glorian that he didn't look hard enough as to what they
wanted, and so Glorian asked Skin what he really wanted. Skin said that
he wanted to go home, meaning the Academy, but Glorian misinterpreted it
as that he wanted to go back to Los Angeles, and transported the team
there.
Upon arrival, Generation X were targeted by Sentinels of Operation: Zero Tolerance.
Generation X hid at a cousin of Skin's house, who was the only member
of his family who knew that he was alive.
Skin was so desperate for help
from the Sentinels that he even contacted his old girlfriend, Tores,
but she thought he had killed the people that he thought she had killed
(see above) and was angry with him.
Tores was threatening to kill Skin
when a group of Sentinels started attacking them. It turned out that
Tores was a mutant too, and so she helped Generation X fight off the
Sentinels temporarily.
With a good amount of luck and some help from
Tores, Generation X managed to survive until SHIELD shut down Operation: Zero Tolerance.
When
Generation X returned to the States, the daughter of the local police
chief, Tracy Authier, raided the mansion with a friend and took
Wolverine's hat that had been given to Jubilee, Husk's personal diary
and the gun that Skin had been thought killed with, plugged up.
Jubilee,
Husk and Skin managed to convince her that she should give the personal
items back, but only if they gave her a personal tour of the mansion.
Sometime
later, Skin decided to return to Los Angeles (accompanied by Husk and
Jubilee) and explain what had happened to Tores. It turned out that
neither of them had been responsible for the murder, but had been framed
by someone named Lupo, who arrived at that point.
He tried to kill
Tores and Skin, but Tores vaporized him with her powers before he could
kill them. Meanwhile, Skin and his friends hid behind a large container.
At that point, Skin's mother arrived on the scene since she had heard
that her son was miraculously back from the dead. Since she had seen
Tores kill someone with her powers, Skin's mother believed that Tores
was a demon of some kind, as she was highly religious. Tores tried to
convince Skin's mother that it was not her fault that she was a mutant
and was normal as her, but Skin's mother wouldn't listen.
She also added
that if Skin had ever shown any signs of the devil, that she would
disown him and never speak his name again. Overhearing all of this, Skin
realized that he could never reveal to his mother that he was alive.
Counter X
When
the school began to run out of money, Emma Frost turned to her sister
for help. Unfortunately, this meant that in order to pay various bills,
the school would have to start accepting human students.
Skin and
Chamber had to hide their powers by Skin claiming he had a rare skin
disease and Chamber being a mute burn victim.
This meant Chamber and
Skin both got a lot of unwanted attention.
It was even worse for Artie,
Leech and Penance, who had to stay in their rooms the whole time and
couldn't leave.
With all the human students around, it reminded Skin of
his life before he was a mutant: he had had good looks and a good
looking girlfriend. Due to his appearance, Skin thought he'd never feel
like that again.
To cheer him up, Artie and Leech arranged it so that
Skin went to a dance with Monet St. Croix, the hottest girl in school.
While Skin tried to thank her, she explained that the reason she went
with him was that no one else had asked her out, since they thought she
was out of their league.
A few weeks later, Skin
encountered some people arguing.
Trying to stop them before something
violent happened, one of the boys accidentally grabbed Skin's wrist,
making his skin stretch.
The boy suspected that Skin was a mutant, and
told his parents. Emma Frost tried to convince the boy's parents that it
was just part of his disease, but wasn't entirely successful.
A short
time later, Emma's sister tried to get revenge on Emma by revealing
which members of the school were mutants, causing a riot.
She also
planted bombs around the school, which killed Generation X member Synch
when he tried to disarm them.
Generation X decided that the time for
learning how to use their powers was over and the time for using them
for something good had begun.
Skin trained and found new, creative ways
he could use his powers. He managed to use these powers to defeat four
thugs who had kidnapped Banshee due to his old career as an Interpol
agent.
Generation X Disbanned
When Generation X disbanded, Skin and Jubilee
left to share an apartment in Los Angeles where Jubilee attempted to
become a serious actress, during which time Angelo showed both the
concern of friendship and romantic interest, as well as trying to
continue a normal life by working in a fast food restaurant as a chef.
Jubilee appreciated the first, but turned down the latter.
Skin also
told Jubilee that she was being exploited by her agent, to which she
angrily snapped that he was just jealous. However, a few days later her
agent made a move on her, which made her go back to Angelo and apologize
to him.
Death
Angelo and Jubilee were among the mutants kidnapped by the “ Church Of Humanity” and crucified on the Xavier’s Institute’s front lawn. While Jubilee could be saved by Angel's
healing blood, Angelo did not have a matching blood type and was unable
to be revived.
His body was sent home to be buried in his family
cemetery (with an incorrectly marked grave that read "Angelo Torres"),
but since they did not allow mutants to be buried there, he was exhumed
and cremated, his ashes given to Jubilee. She still felt guilty that she
hadn't gone on a date with him, and given him happiness in some of his
final days.
Necrosha
He was brought back from the dead by Eli Bard to be sacrificed to make Selene a Goddess. He was seen with fellow Gen-Xer Synch.
They were attacking the younger mutants which included their friend Husk.
In other media
- Skin appeared in the made-for-TV Generation X film. In the film, his powers were closer to true elasticity, similar to Mister Fantastic. However, it caused him pain to use this power.
- In the film X2, his name appears on a list of names Mystique scrolls through on Stryker's computer while looking for Magneto's file.
Powers
As
his codename implied, Skin possessed six feet of extra skin which he
learned to use in a variety of different ways, from wrapping around
objects to compressing into weapons to molding into different face and
body shapes.
He could also cushion blows with this extra skin. Whilst he
could hide this extra skin with either baggy clothes or covering up, he
couldn't hide his skin color, so it was usually just pretended that he
had a rare skin disease.
Skin also could retract his skin for short
periods and make himself look like a normal human, but the intense
concentration would give him a migraine.
Alternate Realities
Official
designations of various Earths are bolded; unofficial designations are
in quotes and bolded. For more information, see: Marvel Multiverse.
Earth-295 Age of Apocalypse
In
the reality called Age of Apocalypse, Skin was a member of Generation
Next. He was still the funny man of the group but was better at
controlling his powers in this reality. Skin and his fellow teammates
rescued Illyana out of a human concentration camp, although most of the
team had to pay with their lives for this mission, this included Chamber
whom was shot by a runaway laser right when they tried to leave the
camp. Skin jumped after Jono, trying to save him, but nothing was heard
from either one of them.
Earth-95120
"Marvel Riot" variant of Generation Next.
Earth-1610
The Ultimate Skin is referenced by Sunspot,
saying that his friend Angelo was beat near death because of the
texture of his skin. Anything that happened after this has not been
explained.
Other media
Generation X TV/Movie
Skin
was played by Augustin Rodriguez.Angelo was a member of the Generation X
who studies in Xavier Institute under the supervision of its headmaster
Banshee and its headmistress Emma Frost. Skin has a younger sister
whose life was threatened by Russel Tresh if he won't be able to obey
his commands. Seemingly, he also displays psychic abilities. Like in the
comic books, he also have the power to stretch his body and wrap
himself around objects.
Skin have to leave his family for
the Institute and for his own safety. When he is about to leave, his
sister pulled his hand which caused it to stretch. After Jubilee's
successful recruitment, Angelo was introduced to her and became good
friends.
ThE two new recruits had a hard time dealing with the attitudes
of their new classmates.
Mondo dared them into a football game in which,
he accidentally stretched Skin's arms.
Emma Frost then
conducted a lesson about telepathy in which him and Jubilee both became
active. He also tried to use the Cerebro by trying several passwords.
As
the team was granted a day to be outside the school and hang-out, he
met a girl whom he fell in love with.
Though, her friends have bullied
him causing so much trouble in that place and a feud between the
Generation X and their peer.
Using Cerebro, Skin have
successfully entered the dreams of that girl.
Suddenly, an astral Russel
Tresh have confronted him and threatened him that he will do something
to his sister if he won't follow him.
Skin then was left in astral form
in the Cerebro. Though it was hard, he was able to project himself to
Jubilee. Jubilee then Emma about his projection and discovered that
Russel Tresh was responsible for it.
Emma opened a mental
portal. The Generation X and Tresh have finally encountered for
attempting to save Skin from that dimension he is stuck in.
As the team
found it hard to defeat him, Skin mentally contacted Emma and told her
to come in.
As Emma said that she will commit mental suicide to defeat
Tresh, Skin surfaced and wrapped Tresh and fell with Tresh causing the
scientist to be dead.
The team also thought that Skin was gone with him.
But his elasticity enabled him to stretch his arm and climb up.
Following his defeat, the team went normal again
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