As if the recent shake-up in the Unbeholden wasn't enough, it seems that the Angry Beet has returned! Earlier this evening, a Longbow stealth flyer caught the image of a new flunky watching Arbiter Richard's back in Mercy City. After considerable color and lighting enhancement, the picture at right was produced. As anyone who has followed the career of Broccoli Mangod and Hunger Strike knows, this looks an awful lot like a slightly more mutated version of the team's errant member, the Angry Beet (shown below in a file photo taken shortly before his disappearance).Although estranged from his former teammates, who knew him as "the Spunky Beet," the Angry Beet was believed to have remained a force for good in Paragon City, and even stood by his former mentor when an army of ice creatures threatened to turn the whole team into frozen food. "He was always a tool, though," says former teammate Carrot Boy.
Broccoli Mangod expressed regret at the loss of his first sidekick. "He was driven by feelings of inadequacy. I remember when he first joined, how excited he was to be throwing his little red mutagen blast, until he discovered that half the heroes in Atlas Park could do the same thing. He didn't actually start looking like a beet until he left the team. That was when he started to mutate. He never admitted it, but I think he did something to try and boost his power. It saddens me to learn that he's fallen so far. Beets are a great source of potassium and fiber."Broccoli Mangod's lietenant, Madame Organa, added, "I don't know how he ended up in the Rogue Isles, but nobody's really surprised, because he was such a tool."
Citrus Shocker, speaking on behalf of Hunger Strike's splinter group, the Scrap Pile, was not surprised by the news, either. "Wasn't the Angry Beet already a villain? I don't know. I guess we shouldn't have ganged up on him that one time in King's Row and had him shipped off to the Zig. But he sure looked evil to me."
