Spyke (Evan Daniels) is a character who was briefly a member of the X-Men in the animated series X-Men: Evolution. Created by writer Bob Skir and artist Steven E. Gordon, he first appeared in "Speed And Spyke", episode #5 (December 9, 2000), where he was voiced by Neil Denis.

Spyke is an African American high-school freshman with the mutant ability to project spikes out of his body.

The character was originally created as a way to diversify the show's X-Men roster. It was important to the show's creators, the WB network (who ran the show) and Marvel Comics to have an African American in the show. According to the show's producer Boyd Kirkland, turning Bishop (the first Black male X-Man) into a teenager would not have worked.^[1] Initially, Spyke was intended to be the team's muscle and looked closer to how he looked in season four, but Marvel decided they didn't like the "monster" angle and he was given a much more normal look^{[citation needed]}. He was originally intended to be called Armadillo and have cornrows^{[citation needed]}. He has similar powers to Marrow, a pre-existing character, though Kirkland says this was not intentional.^[2]

Character biography[link]

Evan Daniels was born in New York, New York to an unnamed father and Vivian Daniels. His mutant powers are first noticed at his high school basketball game by his Aunt Ororo (aka Storm a longtime member of the X-Men), and his teammate Pietro. The next night Storm, along with Cyclops and Jean Grey, approached Evan's parents about his mutant powers and attending Xavier's School. Evan angrily declines on his own behalf and leaves.

He goes to his school to catch the thief who keeps breaking into his locker. It is revealed that Pietro is not only the thief, but a mutant with super speed powers. Pietro, who renames himself Quicksilver, breaks into all the lockers in the school and lets Evan take the heat as he escapes prosecution. Only when Charles Xavier uses his pull to help Evan get out of prison does he join the X-Men and the school under the code name Spyke. Spyke settles the score with Quicksilver when he, Cyclops, and Jean defeat the speedy mutant. Spyke is cleared of all charges when he catches Quicksilver's arrogant confession on tape.

During his tenure with the X-Men, Spyke didn't want any special treatment from anyone at the school because he was Storm's nephew. Though he liked being an X-Man and thought of them as his family, Spyke at times acted selfishly and inconsiderate of others. Spyke would goof around in class and on at least one occasion ditched school mid-class to go skateboarding with his human friends. He also was late for several training exercises in the Danger Room resulting in him getting reprimanded by Storm and causing several X-Kids to fail in their training exercise because Spyke was not there to back them up. If not for him saving Storm's life from the Hungan, Spyke would have been sent home to his parents due to his lack of concern for school and DR training.

After he and the other X-Men were discovered to be mutants, Spyke grew angry at how they were being treated. After drinking Pow-R8, an energy drink that was toxic to mutants even by touching it, Spyke found out he could not retract or fully control his spikes. After seeing how cruelly he was treated because of his condition, Spyke joined the Morlocks (a group of mutants who could not "pass" for human and so were driven underground) because he wanted to fight for mutants who looked different from normal humans. Storm did not take this well and tried to convince Spyke to come back, but he refused.

When Evan returned later in the series, he had mutated even further, and now most of his upper body was covered by armadillo-type bone-plates except for his face and below the waist, and with the new ability to heat up the bone spikes he creates. During this time, Spyke began using his powers to fight against humans who were attempting to commit hate crimes against the Morlocks and mutants in general. These actions eventually led to him being the target of a group of anti-mutant biggots, led by Duncan Matthews. Attacked with electrical mining guns, Spyke was cornered, but the Morlocks and X-Men stepped in and defeated Duncan and his accomplices, who were arrested by the police shortly after the battle was over. When Storm tried to persuade him once again to return to the institute, Spyke said the Morlocks needed him more and chose to remain with them.

He later helped out in destroying the Pyramids surfaced by Apocalypse. Spyke is last seen in a group photo with the X-Men, the New Mutants and their unaffiliated allies. In this photo, he is wearing the bottom half of his X-Men costume, which may mean he has finally returned to the X-Men.

Powers and abilities[link]

Spyke can extend or retract bone spikes that grow inside his body. He may shoot them out or bring them out to grab and hold. He also needs to drink milk to replace the calcium that he loses when using his powers.^[3] Spyke, an expert skateboarder, integrated his skateboarding prowess into battles. He also probably has an accelerated healing rate to seal the wounds (caused by projecting his spikes) with no visible scarring.

In the later episodes as his mutation evolved, Spyke gained the ability to heat up the ends of the spikes, increasing their damage potential, and his strength is almost twice that of an average human. He now also has protective plates form around his body´, but is unable to retract his plates. He also gained the ability to extend small spikes on his feet to scale and stick to walls.

In other media[link]

• After the show ended, Spyke appeared in the X-Men: Evolution comic based on the series.

• Spyke has appeared in X-Men comic book titles as a young teenager named David Munroe, Jr. who has yet to manifest any mutant powers. Born in New Jersey to an unknown father and Storm's aunt Vivian who named him David after Ororo’s father. She later became a drug addict and eventually died of HIV, leaving young David in the care of his loving grandparents. David has only recently met Storm in this universe and has a deep relationship with Kitty Pryde (unlike the animated series).^{[citation needed]}

• It is speculated that the character Spike from X-Statix was inspired by Spyke from X-Men: Evolution, however, there has been no confirmation of this by writers of either media.

• A version of Spike appeared in the X-Babies Stars Reborn as an evil, indestructible X-Baby.

See also[link]

• List of X-Men: Evolution characters
• List of Marvel Comics characters

References[link]

External links[link]

• Spyke's Profile at Marvel Animation Age

Michele Pirro
Nationality	Italian
Born	(1986-07-05) 5 July 1986 (age 25) San Giovanni Rotondo (Italy)
Current team	Gresini Racing
Bike number	51
Motorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2012– Manufacturers FTR-Honda Championships 0 Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 4 0 0 0 0 4 Moto2 World Championship Active years 2010–2011 Manufacturers Moriwaki-Honda Championships 0 2011 Championship position 9th (84 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 18 1 2 1 0 86 125cc World Championship Active years 2003–2006 Manufacturers Honda, Aprilia, Malaguti Championships 0 2006 Championship position NC (0 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 29 0 0 0 0 3

Michele Pirro (born 5 July 1986) is a Grand Prix motorcycle racer from Italy. He has also competed in the Supersport World Championship. He has one Grand Prix victory, in the 2011 Moto2 season finale at Valencia, riding for the Gresini Honda team, just two weeks after Gresini's MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli was killed in a crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Career statistics[link]

By season[link]

• * Season in progress.

By class[link]

Races by year[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

• * Season in progress.

References[link]

External links[link]

http://www.mpirro.it/ http://www.michelepirro.it/

• Profile on motogp.com

v t e San Carlo Honda Gresini Team MotoGP: Álvaro Bautista (19) • Michele Pirro (51) Moto2: Gino Rea (8) • Ratthapark Wilairot (14) Moto3: Niccolò Antonelli (27) Grand Prix motorcycles : Honda RC213V (MotoGP Bautista) • FTR-Honda (MotoGP Pirro) • Moriwaki MD600 (Moto2) • TBA (Moto3)

Johnny Green (10 October 1908 – 15 May 1989) was an American songwriter, composer, musical arranger, and conductor. He was given the nickname "Beulah" by colleague Conrad Salinger. His most famous song was one of his earliest, "Body and Soul". Green was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.^[1]

Early years[link]

John Waldo Green was born in New York City, the son of musical parents. He attended Horace Mann School and the New York Military Academy, and was accepted by Harvard at the age of 15, entering the University in 1924. His musical tutors were Herman Wasserman, Ignace Hilsberg and Walter Spalding. Between semesters, Bandleader Guy Lombardo heard his Harvard Gold Coast Orchestra and hired him to create dance arrangements for his nationally famous orchestra. His first song hit, Coquette (1928), was written for Lombardo (with Carmen Lombardo, Guy's brother, and lyricist Gus Kahn). Green was educated in music, history, economics, and government. His instruments were the piano and the trombone, although he abandoned the latter after college.

His father compelled him to take a job as a stockbroker. Disliking the job, and encouraged by his wife, the former Carol Faulk (to whom he dedicated "I'm Yours"), he left Wall Street to pursue a musical career.

Career[link]

Green wrote a number of songs which have become jazz standards, including "Out of Nowhere" and "Body and Soul". He wrote the scores for various films and TV programs.

His earliest songs appeared with the billing "John W. Green," a styling he reverted to in the 1960s. After that anyone addressing "Johnny" was put right with the statement, "You can call me John - or you can call me Maestro!"

At the beginning of his musical career he arranged for dance orchestras, most notably Jean Goldkette on NBC. He was accompanist/arranger to musicians such as James Melton, Libby Holman and Ethel Merman. It was while writing material for Gertrude Lawrence that he composed "Body and Soul", the first recording of which was made by Jack Hylton & His Orchestra eleven days before the song was copyrighted.

Between 1930 and 1933 he was the arranger and conductor for Paramount Pictures and worked with singers Ethel Merman, Gertrude Lawrence and James Melton.

Green composed many of his hit standards during the 1930s, including "Out of Nowhere", co-authored with Edward Heyman (1931), "Rain Rain Go Away" (1932), "I Cover the Waterfront", "You're Mine You", and "I Wanna Be Loved" (all 1933), and "Easy Come Easy Go" and the wonderful, but obscure "Repeal The Blues" (both 1934). He also composed the theme for Max Fleischer's Betty Boop cartoons in 1932, with Edward Heyman as lyricist.

After 1933 he had his own orchestra which he used to play around the country. He also, until 1940, conducted orchestras for the Jack Benny and Philip Morris records and radio shows.

Carnegie Hall and Astoria Studios[link]

Nathaniel Shilkret and Paul Whiteman commissioned Green to write larger works for orchestra, such as Nightclub, premiered by Whiteman at Carnegie Hall in 1933 with Green on solo piano. During the early '30s he also wrote music for numerous films at Paramount's Astoria Studios; conducted in East Coast theatres; and toured vaudeville as musical director for Buddy Rogers. During his two and a half years at Paramount Astoria, he was able to learn more about film scoring from veterans Adolph Deutsch and Frank Tours.

London, radio, and recordings[link]

Green spent much of 1933 in London, where he contributed songs to both Mr. Whittington, a musical comedy for Jack Buchanan at the London Hippodrome, and to Big Business, the first musical comedy ever written especially for BBC Radio.

On Green's return to the U.S.A. early in 1934, William Paley, president of the Columbia Broadcasting System and an investor in New York's St. Regis Hotel, encouraged him to form what became known as Johnny Green, His Piano and Orchestra. (Green added, "My arm didn't need much twisting.") The orchestra, based for a time at the St. Regis, featured Green's piano and arrangements, whose harmony and mood were among the most sophisticated of the day. It made dance records for the Columbia and Brunswick companies, although in the Depression even the most popular records sold only in small numbers.

In 1935 Green starred on CBS' Socony Sketchbook, sponsored by Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. He lured the young California singer Virginia Verrill to headline with him on the Friday evening broadcasts. His regular cast included his band singers Marjory Logan and Jimmy Farrell, essayist Christopher Morley, and stage-screen favorites the Four Eton Boys. A bigger venture yet in commercial radio was The Fred Astaire Hour (aka The Packard Hour), sponsored by Packard Motors over NBC in 1936 and co-featuring tenor Allan Jones and the comedy of Charles Butterworth. Green's band also backed Astaire on a series of classic recording dates, in both New York and Hollywood, in 1935-'37. He also served as musical director for The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny during its 1935-36 season on NBC.

Piano, film, and MGM[link]

He continued conducting on radio and in theatres into the 1940s, also leading a dance band for the short-lived Royale Records label in 1939-40, until he decided to move permanently to Hollywood and work in the film business. Green particularly made an impression at MGM, where in the 1940s, along with orchestrator Conrad Salinger, he was one of the musicians most responsible for changing the overall sound of the MGM Symphony Orchestra, partially through the re-seating of some of the players. This is why the overall orchestral sound of MGM's musicals from the mid 1940s onward is different from the orchestral sound of those made from 1929 until about 1944.

Green was the Music Director at MGM from 1949 to 1959. He produced numerous film scores, such as the one for Raintree County. On loan out to Universal, he composed the songs for the Deanna Durbin musical, "Something in the Wind", one of her last films before retiring.

Nominated for an Oscar thirteen times, he won the award for Easter Parade, An American in Paris, West Side Story, and Oliver!, as well as a producer for the short "The Merry Wives of Windsor Overture", which won in the Short Subjects (One-Reel) category in 1954. The short subject featured Green conducting the MGM Orchestra on screen in the music from the opera of the same name by Otto Nicolai.

After leaving MGM, he guest conducted with various orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Denver Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra.

He was also hired to create the televised Guinness advertisement known as the "World" ad campaign. He recruited a team which included set designer Grant Major and Oscar nominated director of photography Wally Pfisher to complete the job.

Notable works[link]

Musical director[link]

Johnny Green's credits as musical executive, arranger, conductor and composer are considerable but include such films as Raintree County, Bathing Beauty, Easy to Wed, Something in the Wind, Easter Parade (for which he won his first Academy Award), Summer Stock, An American in Paris (which won him his second Academy Award), Royal Wedding, High Society and West Side Story (another Academy Award winner for him). Although Green was musical director on these films, however, the orchestrations were usually done by someone else - in the case of the MGM musicals, it was usually Conrad Salinger, and in the case of West Side Story, it was Sid Ramin and Irwin Kostal.

Conductor[link]

As mentioned earlier, Green conducted the orchestra for such famous MGM musicals as An American in Paris, as well as for United Artists' 1961 film version of West Side Story.

In 1965, Green conducted the music for that year's new adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's only musical for television, Cinderella, starring Lesley Ann Warren, Walter Pidgeon, Ginger Rogers, and Stuart Damon.

Johnny Green also adapted, orchestrated and conducted the music for the film Oliver! (1968), based on the hit musical play, and won an Academy Award for his efforts. He also wrote much of the incidental music heard in the film, basing it on Lionel Bart's songs for the original show. His daughter, Kathe, dubbed Mark Lester's singing voice in the film.

Accreditations[link]

Green was a respected board member of ASCAP, and guest conductor with symphonies around the world, including the Hollywood Bowl, Denver Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and more. He was a chairman of the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, leading the orchestra through 17 of the Academy Award telecasts, and a producer of television specials.

Personal life[link]

He married three times, had a daughter with actress Betty Furness and two daughters with MGM "Glamazon" Bunny Waters.

It was during his first marriage to Carol Faulk that most of his hit standards were composed. Before the marriage ended in the mid '30s, Carol remarked, "We didn't have children, we had songs."

See also[link]

• Musical film
• Broadway theatre

References[link]

External links[link]

• The Johnny Green Papers and Johnny Green Additional Papers are part of the Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
• Profile at TheOscarSite
• Profile at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
• Johnny Green at the Internet Movie Database