Nasty Boys
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- This article is about the comic book villains. For other uses, see Nasty Boys (disambiguation).
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The Nasty Boys, sometimes referred to incorrectly as the Nasty Boyz, are the all-male personal strike force of X-Men and X-Factor nemesis Mister Sinister. The Nasty Boys can be distinguished from the Marauders, who were a group of mercenaries brought together by Gambit to specifically kill the Morlocks.
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[edit] History
Self-proclaimed "Nasty Boy" Slab faced X-Factor member Strong Guy before the full team appeared (X-Factor #74). The full team battled X-Factor in the next issue seemingly lead by U.S. Senator Steven Shaffran. Shaffran was, in fact, a disguised Mister Sinister who had taken the Senator's form in order to publicly discredit him as a mutant terrorist. While Sinister's reasons for doing this remain somewhat mysterious (as do most of his actions), it was probably because Shaffran was attempting to use his "ricochet" probability powers on different members of X-Factor, with the ultimate goal of killing them. Sinister's interest in the Summers' bloodline probably caused him to intervene, as he didn't want anything happening to Alex Summers, X-Factor's leader Havok (X-Factor #75).
The Nasty Boys were taken into custody following their first appearance and battle in Washington D.C. Ramrod is subsequently deported from the U.S. due to his immigrant status. Both Hairbag and Slab are rescued from prison by the Mutant Liberation Front. Sinister collects Hairbag from them, but Slab stays with the MLF for several weeks to spend time with his sister, the MLF's Thumbelina. (X-Factor #77–78).
The five members of the Nasty Boys are reunited when Sinister orders them to capture and kill former Maurader Malice. Malice interrupts the Hawaiian vacation of Havok and his girlfriend Polaris in order to kill the latter mutant, who she fears (at Sinister's request) she may be forced to bond to permanently. The Nasty Boys have a hard time controlling the situation, as Malice continues to jump back and forth between Alex and Lorna. She uses their considerable powers against anyone in her way. Both Alex and Lorna are willing to die in order to end Malice once and for all, and their combined willpower forces Malice to be stuck between them, allowing Sinister to trap and eventually kill her. The Boys get away, as their battle doesn't draw the attention of the local authorities until after their getaway (X-Factor #104–105).
The only recent activity from the Nasty Boys was one member, Ruckus, appeared at a speech given by Senator Kelly and attempted to assassinate him. The X-Men stopped him, and he was put into custody (X-Men Forever #1).
It is interesting to note that the Nasty Boys as a combined team have never faced the X-Men in their comic book continuity, but have only faced their sister team, X-Factor on two occasions.
[edit] Members
There are five Nasty Boys:
- Gorgeous George (George Blair), a mutant whose body is composed of an unspecified semi-solid, tar-like substance. In effect, George possesses limited shape-shifting powers enabling him to elongate, inflate, or open holes into his body at will. His semi-solid form gives George a certain degree of resistance to physical harm. Like the other members of The Nasty Boys, not much has been revealed regarding the early life and origin of Gorgeous George. Incidentally, he once got so drunk that he forgot how long his arms were supposed to be.
- Hairbag (Michael Suggs) possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility, and resistance to injury. His body is covered in fur and sports several animalistic features. After the team's first public defeat, Hairbag was rescued by the Mutant Liberation Front, a terrorist group of mutants, but he returned to the Nasty Boys and has been a part of the team ever since. In the cartoon, he has poisonous breath and can eject his hair like a porcupine. The hairs are poisoned, though not fatally so.
- Ramrod (Patrick Mahony) can psionically control wood and plants. He always carries with him a staff of wood in order to make certain that he has something to use his powers on should the need arise. He is also an illegal immigrant in the United States. Unlike the other Nasty Boys, Ramrod did not appear in the TV series (see below).
- Ruckus (Clement Wilson), the field leader, possesses the mutant power to absorb ambient sounds, amplify them in his body and scream them back with great force. The resulting sonic attack (a nearby police siren amplified a thousandfold, for example) can be released in the form of a concentrated blast or with a larger area of effect. Ruckus believes himself to be above the law, and tries to show off this superiority at every chance he gets - he once hit a grocery store, severely wounded the store clerk and blasted his way through police just to get some free beer.
- Slab (Christopher Anderson), is the team's resident powerhouse, able to increase his size and thereby boost his strength and durability. Slab was the first of the Nasty Boys to appear, after calling out Strong Guy in X-Factor #74. His sister is the villainous Thumbelina, once a member of Stryfe's Mutant Liberation Front.
[edit] Appearances in other media
While the Nasty Boys are a barely passing blip in the extensive history of the X-Men comics, the villainous team was featured several times in FOX's 1992 X-Men animated series. Appearing first in the episode "'Til Death Do Us Part, Part II", the cartoon featured four of the Boys: Ruckus, Gorgeous George, Hairbag, and Slab (Ramrod never appeared in the series). The X-Man Morph, who had been resurrected by Sinister, had an "evil" side to his personality. "Evil" Morph was often a part-time member of the Nasty Boys, but Sinister increasingly lost control of him.
The Nasty Boys reappeared in both parts of "Reunion" where, teamed with the Savage Land Mutates, they proved to be quite imposing to the X-Men whom Sinister had rendered powerless. The X-Men eventually regained their powers, freed Morph from Sinister completely, and defeated Sinister and the Boys. After leaving the Savage Land, the Boys reappeared with Sinister in all four parts of "Beyond Good and Evil". Vertigo apparently accompanied them (Sinister had given her a Magneto-inspired energy boost in "Reunion") and was made into a member, despite her female status. (In the comics, Vertigo was originally a member of the Savage Land Mutates, but then ended up joining the Marauders and helped to annihilate most of the Morlocks during the Mutant Massacre.)
