Velocidad (comics)

Velocidad (Gabriel Cohuelo) is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #527, in the second chapter of the "Five Lights" storyline, and was created by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen.^[1] He is one of the "Five Lights"—a group of mutants who manifested their abilities after the events of "Second Coming".

Publication history

Velocidad first appeared in Uncanny X-Men as a teenager whose mutation is out of control. Following his introduction, he, along with Hope Summers, Transonic, Oya, Zero, and Primal, began to feature in the series Generation Hope.^[2] He continues to make appearances in Uncanny X-Men as well.

He has shown a romantic interest in Hope, flirting with her upon meeting and kissing her upon arrival at Utopia.^[3] By the events of Schism, the pair had gone on at least one date before breaking up.

Fictional character biography

The Second Light

Gabriel is a 16-year-old mutant from Mexico City. When his powers manifest, he loses control; his thoughts race and his body begins to move so quickly that he can no longer be seen with the naked eye. Fearing for his safety, Cecilia Reyes and Psylocke restrain him with Cecilia's force field until Hope Summers arrives to stabilize his powers.^[4]

After this incident, Gabriel decides to follow Hope on her mission to retrieve the remaining Lights. Eventually, after recruiting Oya and Primal, the group travels to Japan, and Gabriel participates in his first mission - subduing the mutant Kenji Uedo. Kenji lost control of his bio-mechanical powers, and has started destroying Tokyo. In the course of the fight, Gabriel is excited that he is now teammates with X-Men like Wolverine and Cyclops, but worries about the danger he's put himself into.^[2] Gabriel is eventually key to taking Zero down, as he rushes Hope close enough to Zero to mimic his powers, while also helping ensure the other Lights are not injured.

After successfully subduing Zero, he follows Hope to Utopia, eventually relocating with the rest of the Lights.^[3] Like the rest of the student-aged population, Gabriel takes classes taught by more experienced X-Men.^[5] However, like all the other Lights, he is more concerned with training Hope provides than the classes taught by the X-Men, so much so that he followed Hope after she stormed out of an ethics class being taught by Emma Frost.

When a Sixth Light was located in Germany, Gabriel, Hope, and the other Lights went to pick it up. When they arrived, Gabriel went to do a quick recon of the hospital the Light was located in, but he was quickly knocked unconscious. Deducing that the Light was a telepath, Kenji offered to share his limited protection against telepathy with the group, including Gabriel. Inside the hospital, the Lights discovered that the Sixth Light was actually an infant who was scared to be born. They were able to convince it to embrace life, and Hope suppressed it's X-Gene with a touch until it was older.

Later, Hope decided that the Lights needed their own codenames. Gabriel quickly shouts out "Velocidad" (the Spanish word for speed) and claims the name as his own. He also had a hand in coming up with several of the other's codenames, driving most of the conversation about them, a tactic Gillen says he liked to use as Gabriel was a natural at driving conversations.^[6]

Schism

After Quentin Quire's attack on the United Nations, forcing many of the world's leaders to reveal their darkest secrets, mutants become more hated than ever. Disregarding this, Gabriel and Hope go on a date, despite Teon's protectiveness of Hope. The date appears to be cut short, however, by the new Hellfire Club's attack on the opening of a Mutant History Museum; Gabriel and Hope arrive to find that Oya has "murdered" most of the Hellfire's grunts. Zero asks Oya if she is okay, but she horrifies Gabriel, Hope, and the other Lights by asking if there is anyone else whom she needs to kill.^[7]

It is revealed that Velocidad knows information which was kept from him: he is aging fast and will die, prompting him to live life to its fullest and seize every moment. Hope walks in on him kissing Pixie, causing her to get upset despite her lack of physical affection for Gabriel. Pixie is just as upset but she understands how he feels about wanting to live as normal as they can. Hope later talks to Pixie about using her teleportation powers for the good of the team. Hope later gets her revenge on Velocidad by having Primal defecate in his bed.^[8]

Powers and abilities

In spite of his codename, Velocidad does not possess the power of super-speed. Rather, he is a "localized time manipulator."^[3] Thus, while he tends to utilize his powers to approximate super-speed, he does not actually move at an accelerated rate. As a result, he cannot accomplish feats - such as running on water - which require actual velocity.^[3] Nevertheless, Doctor Nemesis notes that these limitations do not reduce his effectiveness in close combat engagements.^[3]

Because Velocidad's powers work by accelerating him through time, the use of his powers causes rapid aging.^[9] A four-hour mission can last several days from his perspective,^[9] and he is capable of burning through several days of his life in a matter of minutes.^[10]

Other versions

Age of X

Gabriel appears briefly with Angel Salvadore and Dazzler in the Age of X storyline. The trio are hunted through the sewers before being transported to Fortress X by Doctor Strange. Like his main-universe counterpart, this version of Gabriel has a marked enthusiasm for the codename "Velocidad".^[11]

References

External links

• UncannyXmen.net Character Bio on Velocidad