RISING SONS
Membership: Dragonwing, Spoilsport, The Sign, Nightwind, Jet-Black, Tough Love
Purpose: Mercenary team
Affiliations: Noy (employer)
Enemies: Paladin, Generation X, Adrienne Frost
Base of Operations: Madripoor
First Appearance: Generation X#53 (July, 1999)
History: The Rising Sons' history is unknown. They claim to have never been beaten as a team. They were first seen under the employ of Noy, a shady Madripoor businessman, who was using them as bodyguards. Paladin came after Noy to retrieve a samurai sword Adrienne Frost wanted, and ran afoul of them.
(Generation X#53 (fb))- The Rising Sons pursued Paladin along the shipyards, and The Sign hit the stretch of dock he was on with a lightning bolt. Paladin believed he could take out the entire group, but he didn't want Noy to get away from him in the process. The Sons discussed their having killed Paladin, without realizing he was hiding in the water beneath the dock.
(Generation X#53)- Husk, Skin and Synch broke into Noy's penthouse while Chamber stood watch on the roof. Nightwind ambushed Chamber, and kicked him off the roof; he was saved by Skin. When Husk attacked Nightwind, she leapt off the roof, and vanished. Meanwhile, Jubilee and Paladin tailed Noy from a restaurant to a train for the other side of the island. They pursued Noy to the back of the train, where they found him, along with the assembled Rising Sons.
(Generation X#54)- Jubilee, standing on Paladin's shoulders, was scooped up by Tough Love, standing on the top of the train. Paladin knocked him out with his paralysis gun. Jet-Black chased the remaining heroes, who had "borrowed" motorcycles to catch up with the train. He blew up the one with Skin and Synch on it with a missile, and then went to armored humanoid mode to continue the fight. Synch mimicked Chamber's power, and the two hit Jet-Black from either side with energy blasts, knocking him out. While going through a tunnel, Jubilee and Paladin were ambushed by Spoilsport, who knocked Paladin silly. She and Jubilee fought, until new arrival Skin wrapped her up in his extended toes, and Jubilee punched her in the face. The reunited Generation X started searching the train for the remaining Sons. Nightwind ambushed Synch and Skin, but her mutagenic aura gave her away to Synch; he mimicked her Darkforce sword, and they fought, though she was far superior. Skin wrapped his fingers around her face, and cut off her air supply. Husk, Chamber and Jubilee found The Sign guarding Noy; Husk fought The Sign, while Jubilee retrieved the sword from Noy. Chamber went to help Paladin, who has taken the worst of Dragonwing, and was being dangled off the top of the car. Jubilee tricked him into dropping Paladin, who she retrieved, while Chamber fought Dragonwing. As Dragonwing boasted, he was hit in the back by the bottom of a low tunnel.
COMMENTS: Created by Jay Faerber and Terry Dodson.
Dragonwing claimed the Rising Sons had never before been defeated. It's certainly possible: They had the same numbers as Generation X and Paladin, but in all their battles, the Sons always ended up fighting alone against several Gen Xers working together. And the individual Sons STILL put up pretty good fights. Makes this Master of the Obscure wonder what they're like as a full team...
When Jay Faerber described the Sons in WIZARD magazine, it was as 'a mutant street gang.' I find that far, far more interesting than the team of young mercenaries they were portrayed as. Likewise, about the Sons, from Faerber's original proposal for his GENERATION X run: "This Boston street gang is made up of a team of brand-new teenage superhuman outcasts, who've decided that if society is going to fear and hate them, it's damn-well going to be for a reason. They're the antithesis of the Gen-X kids -- whereas the Gen-X kids hope to change and improve the way mutants are viewed by society, the Rising Sons have decided to accept their fate as freaks ... and live up to it. These rather directionless kids will later be given a purpose, as well, when Hunter Braun recruits them to be his enforcers."
At the end of#53, Jubilee and Paladin, in civilian clothes, found a car full of Rising Sons. The next issue began with them in costume, with Jubilee on Paladin's shoulders, looking up on top of the train, where Tough Love waited. Other things also indicate that some time has passed between issues, but we don't actually find out how Paladin and Jubilee's meeting with Noy and the Sons went.
So, after Paladin and Jubilee knocked Tough Love out... what did they do with him? They were on top of a speeding train.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Rising Sons have no known connection to:
Dragonwing has no known connection to:
Jet Black has no known connection to:
Nightwind has no known connection to:
Sign has no known connection to:
Spoilsport has no known connection to:
Dragonwing, the Sons' leader, is a 'quasi-shapeshifter': "He
can substitute his own body parts for dragon body parts. Stuff
like wings, claws, teeth, a big tail, etc. I've even heard he can
breathe fire." (In fact, Dragonwing USED his firebreath on
Paladin before he gave this briefing, so that's a rather dumb
comment.) He is Spoilsport's older brother, and needs to work on
his snappy comebacks ("I will tear off the rest of your
face, you FOOL!" neither rolls off the tongue nor impressed
anyone.)
--Generation X#53 (Generation X#53-54
Jet-Black is a transforming cyborg whose
lower torso reconfigures into a motorcycle at lightning speed. He
also has a third, armored form. In motorcycle form he's fast
enough to evade Chamber's psionic energy blasts, and has missile
launchers mounted on his sides.
--Generation X#53 (Generation X#53-54
(New Avengers#16-19 - BTS) - She lost her powers on M-Day and the energies removed from her were combined with a number of other mutant energies to empower the powerful being Michael.
Spoilsport is the younger sister of Dragonwing, and can alter her
personal gravity to travel up walls or across ceilings with her
'special inline skates;' Paladin wasn't sure if the power was in
her, the skates, or a combination of both. She may also be
stronger than normal, as she floored him, and left him reeling
for a while afterwards... but that might just have been her
momentum. "She may look cute, but don't let that fool you.
She's full-on trouble."
The Sign is "some sort of
magician", who walks around bare-chested to provide access
to the many spells coded in the form of tattoos on his upper
torso. His capabilities are mostly unknown; he's called down
lightning and shot electricity from his fingertips, and formed
big green boxing gloves around his hands to beat on Husk when she
was especially durable, but that's all.
--Generation X#53 (Generation X#53-54
Tough Love is the team's Generic Big
Guy, with a bit of a twist: "This guy can bench press a
small country. But he'd rather read. Guy's an intellectual."
He claims to be completely bulletproof, but an electrical jolt
from Paladin's paralysis gun knocked him out.
--Generation X#53 (Generation X#53-54
(New Avengers#16-19 - BTS) - She lost her powers on M-Day and the energies removed from her were combined with a number of other mutant energies to empower the powerful being Michael.
Nightwind is a ninja, and another manipulator of the Darkforce
Dimension. She can form a Darkforce sword which is potentially
lethal, and can also be used for (presumably non-lethal)
attacking a human's nervous system. Her vanishing off the side of
a building also implies Darkforce teleportation (though Night
Thrasher could do the same thing when Jay Faerber was writing
him, and he has no superpowers). She is proud and confident in
her abilities, but will admit when an opponent impresses her.
Noy was the Sons' employer, a Madripoor businessman with an
overly-predictable routine (for instance, he eats dinner three
times a week in a highbrow Hightown restaurant, surrounded by
bodyguards). He didn't know what significance the samurai sword
had for Adrienne Frost; he just knew it gave him power over her.
--Generation X#53 (Generation X#53-54
The samurai
sword Adrienne Frost sent Paladin
after was a corroded piece of junk -- but it was the weapon used
to kill her husband Steven, an assassination that she
commissioned herself. She wanted the sword so she could
psychometrically experience the moment of his death from his
point of view, and enjoy it.
--Generation X#53 (Generation X#53-54
Appearances:
Generation X#53 (July, 1999) - Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson (pencils), Rachel Dodson (inks), Jason Liebig (editor)
Generation X#54 (August, 1999) - Jay Faerber (writer), Terry Dodson & Derec Aucoin (pencils), Rachel Dodson & Scott Elmer (inks), Jason Liebig (editor)
New Avengers#16 (April, 2006) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Steve McNiven (pencils), Dexter Vines (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
New Avengers#17-18 (May-June, 2006) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike Deodato Jr. (pencils), Joe Pimentel (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
New Avengers#19 (July, 2006) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike Deodato Jr. (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 11/28/2002
Last updated: 11/29/2002
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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