Origin
Gabriel Cohuelo is one of the first mutants to activate after Decimation. Starting off as uncontrollable, after Hope made contact his powers fully manifested. Gabriel’s powers activated when he was taking a test. He lost complete control and his thoughts raced. He eventually disappeared, it was thought that he began to speed up til the point that he could not be seen. It wasn’t until Hope arrived and was able to make contact that he was brought back to the normal world. He had aged a couple years and now sported a beard, long hair and long finger nails. Hope and a team of X-men finnaly managed to bring Gabriel back into the world. He accepted Hope’s offer to join the X-men and her team of new mutants.
Creation
Gabriel was created by Matt Fraction and Kieron Gillen as part of Five Lights and first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #527 (2010).
Character Evolution
He is currently still pretty new, but he seemed to be a very educated young man that wanted to eventually come to America for a better life. Since making contact with Hope, he has become snarky and the clown of the group. He claims to do this to break the tension that exists when dealing with the life and death nature of being a super hero. He is devoted to Hope and the work they are doing.
Major Story Arcs
The Future is a Four Letter Word
When the the team had gone to met Kenji, the last light, Kenji had gone nuts and began to kill people near him. Hope had the Team go straight for him to make contact. Gabriel had her back completely and even disobeyed Cyclops and Wolverine for her. When Hope was able to finally make contact, they all went back to Utopia. Nemesis began analyzing the lights and brought Gabriel outside. It is here that Doctor Nemesis revealed that Gabriel’s powers were not super speed but time manipulation. After this he made a comment calling Gabriel Speedy Gonzalez, Gabriel lashed out and attacked the Doctor for the comment. It is also in this first couple hours that Hope kisses Gabriel.
Once Gabriel and the others are expected to begin classes, Hope decides that she cannot stand to be in class with Emma Frost and leaves, Gabriel follows her out. Gabriel also brags about being able to tell off the White Queen.
The Ward and Better
Gabriel is in the kitchen singing a song to himself about his current situation. Unbeknown that Hope is behind him. It is not until he mentions their kiss that she makes herself known. When she mentions that she never saw the movie that he is referencing, he asks if she would like to go see the movie with him. That is when the new mutant activates and Hope sends Gabriel to collect the Lights. The team goes to Germany to collect the new mutant. When they arrive they find that the entire hospital is unconscious.
Gabriel is sent in to check but passes out before he gets inside. Teon would fetch him and he woke up as soon as he left the immediate area around the hospital. The team then enters the building with the help of Kenji. The new mutant to everyone’s surprise is a child still in the womb. The baby becomes scarred and attacks the team, Gabe says again that the child is “pulling a Kenji,” meaning he is going berserk and lashing out with his new powers. All but Gabriel try to calm the child using a connection that Kenji established. In the end it is Teon that calms the child enough for it to be born.
Gabriel waits with Hope in the cerebro chamber waiting for the next mutant signature. They are told that they can leave, but they just move to the back and talk. Gabriel seems to really like Hope. When Zeeshan does activate, he is tormented and kills himself before he is reached, the team feels that he dies.
Schism
For more information: Schism
The lights finally have some down time. Transonic wants to go to the new Mutant History Museum but Velocidad and Hope decide to stay back in Utopia. While Transonic and Oya are out, the museum is attacked by the New Hellfire club and Oya ends up killing 12 of the members. When Hope and Velocidad finally arrive, Hope and Transonic begin fighting. This is ended when Oya asks if she has to kill anyone else, otherwise she wants to go to bed.
When the team arrives back to Utopia the find out that the a new Sentienl is on its way to attack Utopia and kill everyone. Gabriel sits and talks to Oya, she says she might be able to take all the heat from the ocean and channel that heat at the Sentinel. Velocidad is surprised and asks if she could really do that, she says yeas but might die in the process. Velocidad quickly says that that isn’t an option and makes a joke. The team then begins discussing if they should fight the Sentinel or run. Transonic want to take Oya and run, Velocidad just watches as Transonic and Hope begin to fight over the matter. When he tries to intervene and stop the fight, Primal attacks him. Oya stops the fight. The Young X-Men arrive and they all discuss what they should do. They decide to fight with Cyclops against the Sentinel.
As the Young X-Men and the Five Lights prepare for the battle with the Sentinel, Wolverine tells them again to leave the island. This time under the threat of explosives. Velocidad and the others leave briefly and Wolverine and Cyclops start fighting. They return and together they are all able to defeat the Sentinel. Velocidad injures his leg during the battle. While in the infirmary, PIxie stops by and chats with him. They begin flirting and eventually begin making out, even though he was kind of dating Hope. with impeccable timing, Hope arrives during the make out session and displays the Phoenix Force and walks off. Pixie asks Velocidad if the two of them were together. When Velocidad says that they kinda were Pixie slaps Velocidad and calls him a tosser. When Velocidad leaves the Infirmary, he is greeted by Zero who makes him a wheel chair. Zero says that he is envious that Velocidad is know the most hated member of the team, but asks why he did it. Velocidad says that he knows that his powers are slowly killing him even though no one is talking about it. He goes even to say that his hair is starting to fall out. When he was injured, he realized that he could have died, and when Pixie stopped by, he saw a chance, and took it. When the two of them arrived to Hope and the others, she said that Pixie was going to be on the team now. The team needed to move quicker, to be better, for the new lights. As awkward as that seemed, they were willing to try. As Velocidad was going back to his room, he discovered the Primal had defecated on his bed, to which Hope praised him for.
Regenesis
For more information: Regenesis
Velocidad stays on the island with the others, except Oya. Cyclops and Hope have the team face of against some of the X-Men’s heavy hitters. Velocidad strikes both Psylocke and Boom Boom. He makes jokes at Boom Boom’s expense because she is not really a major X-Men. He gets distracted when he is called a cheater and Namor throws Primal at him. The training session ends when Magneto almost kills Zero. While Zero talks about the fact that he has drastically changed since his powers activated, Velocidad tries to bring the conversation back to himself by asking what people thought about his beard. When Hope scolds him, he says that his powers are slowly killing him and that no one wants to talk about it. Hope realizes that Primal is gone, and is telepathically contacted by the Three-In-One to come and get him. When Hope gets there she finds a new Light on Cerebro and has the team assemble. Velocidad is incredibly disgusted when Zero comes back with No-Girl.
The team arrives in Pakistan, the team is slightly freaked out. They collect themselves and separate to find the Light sooner. Velocidad and Pixie are grouped together. They talk and Pixie tells him that he shouldn’t have cheated on Hope. Velocidad tells her that he is a teenager and this is what he is supposed to be doing, especially considering that he isn’t going to be a teenager for that much longer. Pixie understands but are then attacked. Velocidad tells her to run and attacks them. Zero and No-Girl then tells the team that they have found the Light. Everyone gets there except Hope. The Light turns out to have an American accent and apologizes. He then reveals a bomb around his chest and detonates it. The man who appears to have been a suicide bomber emerges after the detonation completely unscathed – robust, even. The team, protected by Kenji, is also unhurt, except for Martha, whose containment unit has been destroyed. Kenji connects to her, forming a body for her. Meanwhile, a new group of assailants arrive, and Gabriel rushes to take out their “B-team” and save Pixie. The rest of Hope’s team battles the new group of hostiles in order to save the man, who suffers from amnesia. He remembers absolutely nothing about himself, and has only been helping Hope’s attackers because of the lies the hostiles were feeding him. When Gabriel arrives with Pixie, the team teleports back to Utopia, with the strange amnesiac. As soon as they arrive, Scott Summers opens fire on the man, calling in Psylocke and Danger to take him down without exerting force. It is revealed that the man is … Sebastian Shaw! In order to punish him for his many crimes, Emma Frost decided to scrub his memory completely clean and drop him off on the other side of the world. However, since resurfacing, Hope believes he is a changed man, and trusts him. Hope refuses to allow the man to be imprisoned, and Gabriel and the others begin to question their reasons for remaining on the team. Shortly thereafter, the team gets into a mix-up with some of the more unsavory denizens of Utopia, and a fight ensues – a fight which an angry Hope is quick to put an end to by taking control of Kenji’s mind and forcing him to end it. An already bitter Kenji views this as Hope’s final act against him, and vows to end her life very soon. Kenji later reveals that he’s been slipping his little parasites into everyone’s heads. He influences them to join his insurrection, and together, most of the Utopians attempt to crucify the Mutant Messiah. Laurie, initially, helps Kenji of her own free will, but soon realizes that Kenji is going too far, and attempts to stop him. This new Sebastian Shaw, out of kindness and respect for Hope, joins the fray and helps Teon (who warned him in the first place), Gabriel, and the other lights to save Hope. Kenji’s hold over the others is broken, and he is subsequently killed by his own actions.
Avengers vs X-Men
During the opening battle on the shore of Utopia, Hope was whisked away by Emma Frost, and placed inside the facility. Emma told Hope’s team to watch her and not to let her leave, under any circumstances. Hope easily takes down the team, including Gabriel and flees. When the team awakes, they’re taken prisoner by the Avengers, and find that Utopia has been abandoned by the X-Men, who are now on the run. The team is held at Avengers Academy. Through their efforts, they escape their confinement and Pixie teleports the group back to Utopia. Hope has left them a note that urges them to “Ask Unit.” Unit was one of the sentient extraterrestrial beings that escaped from a S.W.O.R.D. prison. He had allowed himself to be taken in by the Extinction Team and was held prisoner in the X-Brig. He had taken control of Danger, his warden, and had been using her all along. He revealed to Gabriel and the rest of the Lights, that he was a being devoted to peace, and in order to achieve his goals, he needed all the knowledge he could absorb. He told them that he had been speaking with Hope and preparing her for this moment when she would have to embrace the Phoenix Force like other “Messiahs” have before her. Unit tells the team that he has seen situations exactly like this in other realms, where an oppressed race (like the mutants) had a Messiah that called out to the Phoenix Force. When the Force arrived, the Messiah merged with it to correct the situation, but the Messiah could only do so if it had the aid of its Acolytes – five members to whom the host was connected. Gabriel realized that he and the other Lights were the five Acolytes and needed to be with Hope. He questioned Unit, asking why he didn’t tell this to Hope. Unit responded, saying that he already knew what the outcome would be if the five were with the Messiah. In his quest for knowledge and perfection, he wanted to see what would happen in a scenario where the Messiah is without her acolytes. Enraged, the team decides to find Hope immediately, but they are stopped by the Unit-controlled Danger. Their memories of the exchange are removed, and they are left on the shore of Utopia. The note from Hope is destroyed. Gabriel is inactive for the rest of the conflict, but is seen later among the transfers from Utopia to Wolverine’s school – the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning – after the final battle of the conflict.
X-Men Disassembled
Velocidad was seen after the events of X-Men Disassembled in which Nate Grey (X-Man) almost changed the world, causing an explosion of anti-mutant hatred. He took refugee in the Morlock tunnels among other former students of the Jean Grey School, such as Blindfold, Loa and Bliss. Velocidad was present at the moment that Loa was killed by, seemingly, humans. Scarred, he and Blindfold returned to the Morlock tunnels. Some weeks later, he was found by (newly ressurected) Wolverine. Velocidad was somehow greatley aged, he was now an old man. When Logan asked him how this happened, he told Logan that he made time go extra fast inside his own bubbel, causing him to age rapidly. Why he did this is, as of yet, unknown.
Powers and Abilities
Originally it was thought that he had super speed, however, after being checked out by Doctor Nemesis it was revealed that wasn’t his power at all. His powers are actually a form of localized time manipulation, Gabriel is speeding up but not moving any faster. He has also shown a higher intellect than what would be assumed of someone his age. This however may no longer be the case after his mutation as he did not know the difference between Morals and Ethics.
He is being trained by Hope, one of the skills is using automatic weapons
Alternate Realities
Age of X
For further information: Age of X
Gabriel appears briefly with Angel Salvadore & Dazzler who were being hunted through the sewers. They were secretly transported to Fortress X by Dr Strange. He repeatedly emphasized his excitement at using the codename ‘Velocidad’.