Science Fiction Novel by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn.

Set in the near future, environmental activists have brought on a new Ice Age by negating the green house effect. The United States has become a place where technology is feared and despised and science is put down in favor of illiteracy and superstition. The only bastions of high technology left are the orbiting space stations Mir and Freedom. But when two astronauts are shot down out over the glacial ice fields of North Dakota, only a persecuted group of underground Science Fiction fans can save them. Angels Down! Fans to the Rescue!

Also a novel by Walter Dean Myers about the experiences of young soldiers in the Vietnam War. I was most disappointed when I found that my young adult literature class was to read this one and not the one by Niven/Pournelle/Flynn (which must be why I don't remember the plot of the Myers one).

Revelations 12 mentions the fall from Heaven of one-third of the rebellious angels. These fallen angels numbered somewhere between 200 (Enoch I) and 133,306,668 (Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum, 15th Century), depending on the source. Of those angels who fell from grace, these are the ones that can be found in the Book of Enoch and other apocrypha, Kabalic, rabbinic, and patristic traditions, and various secular sources. Names will be hard-linked as I complete those nodes, or I think there's a reasonable chance that someone else already has - Pike.

Abbadona, Adramelech, Agares, Amezyarak, Amy, Anmael, Arakiel, Araziel, Ariel, Arioch, Armaros, Armen, Artaqifa, Asbeel, Asmoday, Asmodeus, Astaroth, Astoreth, Atarculph, Auza, Azaradel, Azazel, Balam, Balberith, Baraqel, Barbatos, Barbiel, Batarjal, Beliar, Belphegor, Busasejal, Byleth, Caim, Carnivean, Carreau, Dagon, Danjal, Ezekeel, Flauros, Forcas, Gaap, Gadreel, Gressil, Hakael, Hannael, Harut, Iblis, Ielahiah, Iuvart, Jeqon, Jetrel, Kasdeja, Kawkabel, Laviah, Leviathan, (Lucifer), Mammon, Marchosias, Marut, Mephistopheles, Meresin, Moloch, Mulciber, Murmur, Nelchael, Nilaihah, Oeillet, Olivier, Ouzza, Paimon, Penemue, Procell, Pursan, Raum, Rimmon, Rosier, Rumael, Sammael, Samsaweel, Saraknyal, Sariel, Satan, Sealiah, Semyaza, Senciner, Shamshiel, Simapesiel, Sonneillon, Tabaet, Thammuz, Tumael, Turael, Turel, Urakabarameel, Uziel, Verrier, Verrine, Vual, Yomyael, Zavebe.

This list was drawn mainly from Davidson, Gustav (A Dictionary of Angels; 1971; The Free Press, New York; pp. 352-3), with additions and modifications suggested by various other sources.

Fallen Angels is also a kick-ass asian flick by the wonderful Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai.

Whenever a movie manages to get to me emotionally without having to pass through my analytic brain first, it's a good one. Fallen Angels got to me straight away, and it's difficult to explain how it did so. The three main characters (and basically interconnected short stories) describe perfectly the mythological city-people, lost in time/space, and just living it up. Each of them are battlegrounds on which some city fights its existential war (or something like that). Some get out in time, some don't. The atmosphere is superbly caught by the intense colors of the movie, the blurry and dreamy imagery, and the egocentric qualities of the characters' portraits. They just seem to be shutting themselves off from anything else but their own small world - in order to survive. Superb finale, by the way. One of my favorites. Some images are still trapped inside my head.

There are a great mass of angels that fell, equivalent to one third of all God's angelic nation. Revelations 12 goes into this. What it does not mention however is the vast and varied diffrent types of angels that fell in that war. There are many types of angels that are not spoken of, some are now classified as demons most of the time like Iblis, or Sammael. Arch-angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, and the Nephelim are just a few of the diffrent types of angels that fell.

  • Guide
  • According to Genesis, the fallen angels began their fallen path in the days of Noah, when they materialised as human males on earth. The nephilim were the hybrid offspring of the fallen angels and human females, and they were huge men with extraordinary strength who terrorised the people of the time. They were also called the mighty ones of old, and it is supposed that characters such as Hercules and whatnot were based on them.

    However when the global flood came as described in Genesis chapter 6 they were drowned along with their earthly mothers, and the fallen angels took on their spirit bodies and tried to reclaim their former position in heaven. This God did not allow, and thus they joined the chief rebel angel Satan the devil in opposition to God, and became knows as demons.

    The fallen ones became bitter towards God for drowning their children and loved ones and, although their power is severely restricted on earth now, they still have an element of influence over events. Such influence has reportedly been seen in such things as the Necronomicon, the Egyptian book of the dead, which is said to have caused nothing but death and terror in the lives of all those who had a part in translating it.

    Fallen angels, or demons, are also known as the ancient ones in the popular Lovecraftian mythos and are said to be desperate to gain access to our realm in order to spread chaos and destruction amongst primitive humanity. Rarr!

    A team of teenage mutant superheroes that first appeared in an eight issue limited edition comic book miniseries produced by Marvel Comics. The Fallen Angels first appeared in Fallen Angels #1, April 1987. Created by Jo Duffy and Kerry Gammill, the entire series saw print during the reign of Jim Shooter as Editor in Chief at Marvel. A relatively short-lived experiment by Marvel, the team is noteworthy for its unconventional story line and bizarre characters. It also features the first appearance of Jack Kirby's beloved Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy in the regular Marvel continuity.

    The Fallen Angels miniseries was a very strange move from Marvel. A ragtag band of runaway teenagers with superhuman powers spontaneously forms and jumps about reality while struggling against each other in angsty teenage ways, fighting with those that don't understand them (society), and those that are trying to use them (supervillains). It is a disjointed angst filled tale, loaded with surprise developments and surreal plot twists. It also features one of the more permanent deaths in the Marvel Universe in the accidental crushing of Don the Cyborg Lobster.

    Strange days for the New Mutants

    The New Mutants, a second generation team of teenage mutants created by Professor X, creator of the X-men, are involved in a heated game of soccer. The resident hothead of the team, Roberto Da Costa, known as Sunspot, accidentally injures Sam Guthrie, his teammate called Cannonball. Greeted with anger from his friends, the moody Sunspot stomps off. At the time, perennial X-Men foe Magneto had turned over a new leaf and was tending to the Xavier Institute in Xavier's absence. Sunspot attempts to turn to Magneto for help, but he discovers a note penned by Magneto that contains a critical evaluation of his performance at the school and concern about his former ties to the Hellfire Club. Friendless and angry, he runs away from the Institute to the streets of New York City, turning to petty crime.

    Concerned, some of his fellow classmates try to find Roberto. Multiple Man, Siryn and Warlock find Roberto has fallen in with some strange new mutants working for the villainous Vanisher. Far from grand supervillains, the small group commits petty street crimes to survive. They hide out in an abandoned warehouse they dub the Beat Street Clubhouse. Ariel, a teleporter, retrieves Boom-Boom, a mutant in the care of X-factor. New comers Siryn and Multiple Man meet Chance and Gomi, a nerdy teenager that has cybernetic implants that give him uncontrollable telekinetic powers and a psychic connection with his two cyborg lobsters, Don and Bill.

    Ariel, seemingly on a mission of her own, transports the new group to a strange prehistoric planet. They battle dinosaurs and fight for their lives until they are aided by Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur! Adopting the pair into their group at the insistence of Ariel, they return to New York, bright red T-Rex and fuzzy monkey man in tow.

    The ragtag band begins to get into each other's faces, having no real goal except survival. The conflict within the group is also made worse by the increasing random nature of the group's superpowers, which fail and double in strength at a moment's notice. The Vanisher's laissez faire approach does little to bind the group as a whole. Multiple Man loses a duplicate of himself who rebels, wanting his own life. The gigantic Devil Dinosaur, ill suited to the confines of the Clubhouse, accidental steps on Don, killing him. Ariel eventually exposes her motivation for bringing them all together. Her people have lost the ability to mutate, and she traveled to this world to gather a team that could help solve the problem. Fights, frictions and crushes continue, and one particularly explosive tussle spooks the Vanisher. He has Ariel transport the team away from the fight. Ariel takes the opportunity to take the group to her home world of Coconut Grove.

    On Coconut Grove, the group of mutants find a planet wide party that seems to be the perpetual state of the world. The group also discovers why their powers have been out of control: Chance's mutant power modifies the powers of those around her in random ways. Unipar, leader of the Coconut Grove civilization, discovers his unwitting agents Ariel and Chance have returned and quickly captures the team.

    Unipar now has his test subjects, and he conducts painful experiments to isolate the x-factor that causes mutations. The experiments kill one of Multiple Man's duplicates, but the diversion allows Bill to rescue the team. The Fallen Angels, assisted by Chance's newfound control over her double-or-nothing ability, fight against Unipar. Multiple Man's renegade duplicate sacrifices himself to help the team and Ariel helps them all escape back to New York. Back at the Beat Street Clubhouse, the team parts ways. The Vanisher disappears to parts unknown, Sunspot and Warlock return to the New Mutants, leaving Siryn and Multiple Man behind to help the remaining Fallen Angels move away from a life of petty crime. Devil Dinosaur and Moon Boy eventually settle in the Savage Land, hidden away in Antarctica.

    Marvel's Fallen Angels miniseries, released in 1987, is a good microcosm of Marvel's commercial and artistic fortunes in the 1980s. Marvel had a big hit with The X-Men, which they spun off into The New Mutants, and which they then spun off into the Fallen Angels mini-series.

    "Mutants" were widely popular in the comic book fandom in the 1980s. They were misfits who were trapped in a world they never made, which allowed writers to make serious social statements, and for Marvel to make money. The X-Men had surpassed The Fantastic Four as Marvel's "family" super group, with angst filled, complex plots.

    One thing I have observed is that the social commentary aspect of the X-Men is much more noticeable in retrospect. Commentators later may have annotated the X-Men and friends as stand-ins for youth subcultures or LGBT youth, but if you read most X-Men comic books from the 1980s, it is about a group of people living in a gigantic mansion with a jetplane that flew into space. It was, most of the time, pretty standard comic-book fare.

    Which brings us to the Fallen Angels. One way to look at this story is as Jo Duffy really taking the mutants-as-outcast thing seriously. Roberto de Costa is a runaway, 14 years old, a minority who is not a native English speaker, who falls in with a bad group of people. These are The Fallen Angels, a group of petty thieves who live in a "clubhouse" that is both grimy, and, this being the 1980s, glitzy. One of the more interesting and realistic characters that Roberto meets is Chance, a young Korean runaway who fled a thinly-disguised Unification Church (called "The Glorification Church" in the comic). Although it is not explicitly stated, Chance appears that she might be a lesbian. Along with Boom Boom, another runaway mutant, it seems that Roberto's descent into the gritty streets of New York, away from the alien invasions and futuristic environs of the X-Men compound, might be a way to tell a more personal, and socially relevant story.

    But then we get Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur. We get Gomi, with two cybernetically enhanced lobster friends. We get The Vanisher, a C-List Marvel villain who lives down to his name by not contributing anything to the plot. And the plot, which starts out in the alleys of New York City, recenters to be about a space alien named Ariel who can teleport between dimensions, and takes our angsty teenagers to an interdimensional club that looks like it came from Miami Vice. What could have been a story that told a relatively realistic, street-level story about teenagers growing up outside of the categories of Heroes and Villains turns into a weird tour through Marvel continuity. The story whiplashes through the same type of weird interdimensional shenanigans that happen every few issues in any other Marvel comic book. Marvel can only tell a serious story as long as the forget to interject a clone into a story. (And yes, this story has a clone, of sorts).

    Not that I mind. This is what you sign up for when you read a Marvel comic book. The real story is in the background, in the nest of connections that Marvel established decades ago, and you are only skimming off the surface. Was this story started as a serious story, that later got piled on with other ideas? Or did the Editor-in-Chief come across a file of characters that he needed to assert copyright over, and hand it to Jo Duffy to do as she pleased? No one probably knows, but while the result is somewhat uneven, I don't object.

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