#goldballs

Another member of the team uploaded a video of them fighting villains while Goldballs shouted his codename like a Pokémon. The next morning he awoke to fame and fortune, with The Tonight Show (lol) as an indicator that it was for real. He made the cover of Rolling Stone and the people loved him.

Various producers, like that cartoonish one in the top panel, inundated his parents with attention. They didn't really have a frame of reference for what was happening and the Medinas were all swept up by Goldballs fever.

The heroism continued, but nobody was prepared for just how much the public hates mutants. Importantly, the attention was validating for Fabio the self described 'chunky Latino kid.' Self actualising. The opportunity to be who he is publicly with pride. The squad took down Klaw (who hasn't been big for a while AFAIK) thinking handling an Avengers villain would be a good thing.

Normally it would be tbh, but the once adoring crowd turned on Goldballs and the Hero Squad. Shouting slurs and pelting him with anything at hand, this violent mob and some fucking pigs shattered Fabio's fifteen minutes.

Cops got in on it too, aiming guns at teenagers and attempting arrest for the crime of being mutants. Goldballs nearly died, and his dream of stardom certainly did. Brutal violence from civilians and the state killed it dead.

They started this whole thing because they didn't want to be X-Men. Months of living in Weapon X and hiding from SHIELD sucked, so once Cyclops abandoned the revolution the kids said 'fuck that.' This is really depressing shit, cruel in how high it takes us before dropping the hammer. These kids wanted something better for themselves but in the end the only place they could go was the Xavier Jean Grey School. The narrative takes pains to portray what Cyclops is doing as wrong and by extension the institutional X-Men path is right, but all these kids would be in prison for nothing without Cyke's rescue team.