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Quote1 Relax, man. Relax. I'm not a mutant. I was bitten by a radioactive elephant, which turned my skin gray and gave me the power to stretch. Quote2
Skin[src]

History

Angelo Espinosa was born in the barrio in South Central Los Angeles. He became a gang member. His powers triggered during a drive-by shooting. Angelo told no one and quickly decided to leave the gang by faking his own death. None of his friends or family were aware of this and many truly believed him to be dead.

Angelo was one of the young mutants targeted by the Phalanx. He joined Generation X when it opened and soon showed himself to be fun-loving, despite his resentment for his powers. Initially, he was quite secretive and wasn't keen on having authority figures tell him what to do. As he became more comfortable with his powers and teammates, his attitude changed.

During his time with Generation X, Angelo was targeted by the X-Cutioner. The X-Cutioner assumed he had murdered the 'real' Angelo Espinosa and was using his name. After escaping, Angelo went home with Chamber accompanying him. They visited Angelo's 'grave' and encountered Tores, his ex-girlfriend. They also observed Angelo's mother, though she did not see them. Angelo was heartbroken as his mother spat at Tores for being a mutant; it was clear that she had no respect for mutants.

As a member of Generation X, Angelo performed fairly well, and increased his skill with his powers to the point where he could even rearrange his face. He used his skin both offensively and defensively, although he was sometimes reckless. Throughout his tenure, he seemed to have feelings for Jubilee, but he never capitalized on any opportunities with her. When the school closed, Skin went with Jubilee to L.A., where they shared an apartment while she tried to become an actress. Angelo soon realized that the agents and directors were exploiting Jubilee, and he cautioned her against accepting more roles. Eventually he was proven correct, and they apparently split up, as Jubilee ended up in the X-Corps.

What happened to Skin afterwards is a mystery, but someone must have deduced his connection to the Xavier Institute, and he was found crucified on the Mansion's grounds, along with other mutants. Unfortunately, though Archangel's new healing factor managed to save some of the mutants' lives, Skin did not respond to the treatment and was pronounced dead. Even worse, when the cemetery where his family buried him found out that Angelo was a mutant, they attempted to have him exhumed and cremated on the grounds that mutancy conflicted with the cemetery organization's religious beliefs. Jubilee and Husk happened to be there, and tried to stop the move, in the process revealing one of the cemetery workers as a mutant and costing him his job. Husk and Jubilee were able to acquire his ashes.

Skin was resurrected by means of the Transmode Virus to serve as part of Selene's army of deceased mutants. Under the control of Selene and Eli Bard, he takes part in the assault on the mutant nation of Utopia.[2] Skin's fate is uncertain as it is unknown if he was among the mutants teleported to Genosha by Blink to serve as a sacrifice to the newly-deitious Selene or if he was among the mutants that managed to escape Utopia.

Attributes

Power Grid[3]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Enhanced:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

Extra Skin Elasticity: possesses between four and six feet of extra skin on his body. He was capable of stretching, deforming, wrapping, expanding, and compressing this extra amount of epidermis. When Skin is performing any of these stunts, it is only the epidermis that was manipulated; Skin's skeletal structure was the same as any normal, average boy of his age and height. When relaxed, Skin’s extra skin sags and gives him the appearance of a melted candle. At one point, along with compressing his skin tighter against his body, Skin was learning to manipulate the pigment melanin in his epidermis in order to appear normal. However, performing these two stunts together caused him to have migraines and he soon gave up on the idea of being normal.

  • High Resistance: Skin’s extra skin also grants him some degree of resistance to physical injury. The skin is also highly resistant to punctures and tearing, but the tensile strength of this resistance has not been recorded.

Stretching: Skin could stretch his limbs to some extent. Even though his bones couldn't stretch, they could move under his skin. This allowed his arms and legs to stretch to several times their normal length.

Shapeshifting: Skin could use his extra skin to change the shape of his face and body. Although he could change the shape of his body, he couldn't change his height, skin and eye color, or bone structure, so all he could do is change his looks, not his identity.

Template:New Power Grid

Weaknesses

Skin has to stay focused in order to keep his skin in place. If he loses focus, his skin becomes loose and shifts position. Because of this, skin often complains that he has trouble finding his face because it shifts along with the rest of his skin.

Trivia

  • To keep people from knowing he was a mutant, he sometimes claimed his grey, loose skin was caused by a skin/pigment disease. Most often he said he had elephantiasis.

See Also

Links and References

References

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