Archangel (comics)

Angel (comics) redirects here. This article is about the Marvel Comics character formerly known as the Angel. For the Golden Age character from Marvel's predecessor Timely Comics, see Angel (Golden Age). For the other X-Men character called Angel, see Angel Salvadore. For other uses, see Angel (disambiguation)

Archangel (Warren Worthington III), originally and still occasionally known as Angel, is a Marvel Comics superhero, best known as a member of the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in X-Men #1 (September 1963).

A mutant, Archangel can fly from two feathery wings extending from his back. He is the heir and CEO of the multi-billion dollar Worthington Industries. His background has made him seem somewhat cynical and snotty to his teammates. However, a series of personal tragedies have deepened his character.

One of the original X-Men, Archangel has had a frequent presence in X-Men-related comic books throughout the years. He appeared occasionally in X-Men animated series and video games. Ben Foster plays him in the 2006 film The Last Stand.

Character biography

Warren Worthington III was born in Centerport, New York to Kathryn Worthington and Warren Worthington, Jr. He was attending a private school in his adolescence when white, feathered wings began to grow from his shoulder blades. At first Warren felt he was a freak, but he soon learned that he could use his wings to fly and to help people. He saved several people from a fire in his dormitory where he came to enjoy his power. He soon learned that he in fact was a mutant. He donned a mask and costume and called himself the Avenging Angel and was a solo adventurer originally.

He then began attending the Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters, where Professor Charles Xavier trained young mutants to control their powers and use them for good. Taking the code name Angel, Worthington became one of the original members of the superhero team the X-Men. For a time he was romantically interested in team mate Jean Grey and tried to date her, but he eventually realized that Jean really wasn't interested in him, as the X-Man she was truly in love with was Scott Summers.

When the original X-Men were captured by the mutant island Krakoa, Professor X created a new team of X-Men to rescue them. When this new team of X-Men decided to stay, Angel and the rest of the original team, with the exception of Cyclops, left the team. He and Iceman went to Los Angeles, where they founded the Champions with Hercules, the Black Widow and the original Ghost Rider.

He was once kidnapped by the Morlock leader Callisto and stripped of most of his clothing. Callisto attempted to humiliate him and rape him. He couldn't remember anything else at the time as he was knocked out. Just then, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Sprite arrived to stop Callisto. But the X-Men were captured by the Morlocks and tied to stakes. Callisto struck a deal with Storm; a battle to the death without powers. They would duel with knives with the winner getting Angel and having the leadership of the Morlocks. Storm won, but spared Callisto's life. Shortly thereafter, Angel joined the Defenders.

The Defenders did not last much longer with Angel, Iceman and Beast being the sole survivors. They had decided to abandon the hero's life, but with the resurrection of Jean Grey, the five original X-Men chose to form X-Factor. During this period, Warren found himself giving Jean more emotional support than Cyclops was, who was going through intense emotional repurcussions while trying to deal with the fact that Jean was still alive in conjunction with his own involvement with her clone, Madelyne Pryor.

Archangel

Much later, having joined his teammates as a member of X-Factor, Warren's wings were severely damaged during the Mutant Massacre and his friend Cameron Hodge – who was secretly anti-mutant – had his wings amputated. Hodge sabotaged Warren's ultralight airplane to create the illusion that the depressed Warren had tried to commit suicide by blowing up his plane.

After the crash Warren was spirited away by the ancient mutant Apocalypse. Apocalypse altered Warren's appearance, giving him blue skin, organic metal wings and the ability to fire his metal feathers as projectiles. He also gave him the title of Death, the leader of his Horsemen. When it appeared as though Death had killed his former teammate Iceman, he overcame Apocalypse's brainwashing, but did not rejoin X-Factor spending some time as a loner called "Dark Angel" (this was mainly due to his state of mind following Cameron Hodge's murder of Candy Southern). After the events of Inferno, he finally rejoined X-Factor, taking the name Archangel at Beast's urging. It was around this point that he became romantically involved with Charlotte Jones, a NYPD officer who helped to rescue Warren and the rest of X-Factor from the Ravens, a cult of near-immortal psychic vampires. When Cameron Hodge returned during The X-Tinction Agenda, Archangel had his revenge by ultimately beheading Hodge.

Angel Again

After rejoining the X-Men, Archangel was romantically involved with Psylocke for a time, during which his feathered wings grew back within his metal wings and broke them apart. This followed a visit from Ozymandias who told him that he was indeed one of Apocalypse' chosen ones. Reclaiming his original codename Angel, Warren still retained his blue color. Psylocke left Warren for new X-Men member Thunderbird III and joined the X-Treme X-Men.

Warren remained a member of one of the core X-Men teams, and was coleader with Nightcrawler. In a fight with Black Tom Cassidy, Angel experienced a "secondary mutation." His blood gained advanced healing properties, allowing him to save the life of teammate Husk (Paige Guthrie) and his blue pallor changed back to a healthy pink. He has since become involved in a controversial romance with Paige. Angel's blood allowed him to heal fast as well, and it was revealed during The Draco storyline that his blood dealt much pain to Nightcrawler, perhaps a result of the nature of their mutations ("angel" and "demon").

Warren and Paige took an extended leave of absence, and Archangel recently launched a charity called "Mutantes Sans Frontières" in Zanzibar, (an obvious reference to Doctors Without Borders), where he then proceeded to help stop a coup with the aid of Professor X's newest charges from nearby Genosha. Recently in "Excalibur," Warren met up again with Callisto. As Paige reminded Warren of the time he had with Callisto, Callisto and Warren had no time for sweet memories for Viper attacked. Warren and Callisto then managed to defeat Viper together.

Decimation

In Generation M, it appeared that Angel's wings had shrunken and shrivelled into a useless state. However, in Generation M issue 5, it was revealed that Warren had managed to fake losing his powers to lure out The Ghoul, a deranged serial killer who used his retained mutant powers to murder ex-mutants.

Alternate versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Warren was never remade as Death by Apocalypse, nor did he ever join the X-Men. Instead, as most of New York was destroyed, Angel worked with Apocalypse's mutant elite, Magneto and his X-Men, and even the Human High Council to maintain and operate a nightclub aptly named Heaven, where humans and mutants could intermingle. When two of his employees, Scarlett MacKenzie and Karma, were apprehended and the later killed, Angel finally chose a side. Strapping himself down with a number of bombs, he attacked Apocalypse's citadel in a suicide run. His sacrifice shut down the protective shields surrounding the citadel, providing the X-Men with a much needed entrance.

Ultimate X-Men

In the Ultimate-verse, Warren first appeared as a member of the second class of X-Men, a group of "underclassmen" that also consisted of Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Rogue, and Dazzler at varying times. Unlike mainstream continuity, this Warren was shunned by his parents shortly after his powers manifested, and was raised by servants in a separate location. Shortly after joining the X-Men, Angel won the affections of teammate Dazzler only to have her put into a coma weeks later by the villainous Deathstrike. Recently, Professor Xavier has asked Warren to enroll in Emma Frost's Academy of Tomorrow as a spy, so that he could keep better track of her activities.

Exiles

Archangel appeared in the comic book Exiles as a member of Weapon X, a more ruthless version of the self-titled reality hopping team. This Archangel, hailing from Earth-714, appeared very much like his Earth-616 counterpart, even wearing the exact same costume as the 616-version wore at the time. Of course, this Archangel, since he was selected for Weapon X rather than the Exiles themselves, clearly was more savage, employing the excessive use of automatic weapons. Archangel was at some point replaced by a sociopathic version of Ms. Marvel after he was supposedly sent home for completing his number of missions. He was actually placed in the Panoptichron gallery of fallen Exiles. Why he was placed there is unknown, but he was one of only five recruits to return home alive and intact, alongside Hulk (Jennifer Walters), Beak, Iron Man, and Daredevil.

Mutant X

In the alternate reality represented in the comic book Mutant X, Warren Worthington was captured by Apocalypse much like he was in our own timeline. However, instead of the changes we saw in our own universe; blue skin and metallic wings, this fallen angel was given chalk white skin, leathery bat-wings, razor sharp claws and fangs, and the ability to breathe fire. Able to shuck Apocalypse's brainwashing, The Fallen, as he now called himself, joined Havok's offshoot X-Men team named The Six. This Six was a twisted re-imagining of our own X-Factor team, in a reality where Alex Summers lived the life of his older brother Scott. In addition, Madelyne Pryor replaced Jean Grey as "Marvel Woman", Ice-Man was Robert Drake with his powers enhanced beyond his control, The Brute was Hank McCoy after his formula gave him green scales and an amphibious nature instead of blue fur, and Bloodstorm rounded out the roster as our own Storm who was never saved from the vampiric bite of Dracula.

When Madelyne Pryor became possessed of the Goblin Force and took over New York, The Fallen defected from The Six alongside her, becoming her second-in-command, and later vanishing after her defeat. He next appeared re-allied with Apocalypse against the threat of the Onslaught-like Xavier/Shadow King entity, and remained an ally of the reformed Six as one of the very few surviving heroes after the combined attack of the Goblin Force controlled Beyonder and the revived Dracula.

Earth X

In this alternate universe, Warren lost all of his fortune and had become an authentic "Angel", who would help anybody who needs him. He joined the Police of New York and his old friend Iceman to protect the Torch of the city against the forces of Mephisto. Later, he traveled with Mister Fantastic and others to the Negative Zone in the search for the Paradise.

1602

In the 1602 timeline, Warren was Werner, a young witchbreed (as mutants were known in this reality) who hid his mutation using garments sewn by his mother. Unfortunately, he was captured and tortured by the Grand Inquisitor until being rescued by Carlos Javier and his students. After being rescued, Werner befriended John Grey who, unbeknownst to Werner, was Jean Grey disguised as a man. This friendship caused jealousy on the part of Scotius Summerisle, who knew of Jean's deception and feared Werner also knew and was trying to court her. After Jean's death it was revealed Werner had not known that John was really Jean. When Scotius confessed his jealousy and apologized, Werner revealed that he had been in love with John Grey.

X-Men Fairy Tales

In the first issue of X-Men Fairy Tales, based on the Japanese story of Momotaro, Archangel appears as the pheasant. He refuses to fly because he is scared of falling and failing, until Cyclops/Hitomi and Beast/Aoi convince him. He was named Tenshi, meaning 'Angel' in Japanese.

Powers

Archangel's primary power is that of flight. His wings have superhuman strength and can create enough lift to enable him to carry at least 500 pounds plus his own weight. They have a very flexible skeletal structure, enabling him to press them to the back of his torso and legs with only the slightest bulge visible under his clothing. His bones are hollow, he processes food more efficiently than normal humans and does not store any excess fat, he possesses a greater proportionate muscle mass than normal and his superhumanly sharp eyes can withstand high-speed winds which would damage the average human eye. His lungs can extract oxygen from the air at high velocities or altitudes.

While he generally flies below the height of clouds, Archangel can reach almost twice this height with little effort. At his absolute maximum, he can reach the highest recorded altitude of a bird in flight - about the height above sea level of Mount Everest - but he can only remain that high for several minutes. He can fly nonstop under his own power for around half a day. Archangel is able to fly at speeds surpassing 150 miles per hour under maximum effort.

As the result of a secondary mutation, Archangel also developed a "healing factor" and can heal others by mixing his blood with theirs, provided they have a matching bloodtype to Warren's. This mutation varies in potency - at times, he cannot aid the terminally wounded, at others, he can actually raise the newly dead.

While Archangel possessed the metal wings given to him by Apocalypse, he had the ability to fire metal feathers at his opponents. The feathers were laced with a neural inhibitor chemical that induced temporary paralysis. These organic metal wings also enabled Archangel to fly at much greater speeds than his feathered wings. With his organic metal wings, Archangel was known to fly at the speed of sound, roughly 770 miles per hour.

Appearances in other media

Archangel's origin was retold in the animated X-Men series, where Apocalypse creates the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Played by Stephen Ouimette, Angel goes to a scientist who claims he can "cure" mutancy, but is actually Mystique, a servant of Apocalypse, who turns him into Death. Angel also makes a cameo appearance in the Beyond Good and Evil four-part episode, and as one of the original X-Men in two flashbacks, bringing up continuity errors elsewhere when Cyclops, Beast and Jean Grey do not know him. In this version, he loses the "death" status to become once again Archangel thanks to Rogue, who saps the evil that lay within him.
He was also shown in several episodes of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. He appeared in "The Origin of Iceman" and "A Firestar is Born". He was voiced by Bill Callaway in " A Firestar is Born".

He also appeared in a number of episodes of X-Men Evolution. His voice was provided by Mark Hildreth.

Angel is portrayed by Ben Foster in The Last Stand. In the film, Warren Worthington III (referred as Angel in the credits but never called by this name in the dialogue) is a young man in his early twenties (seen as a child in a flashback, in which he attempts to cut off his wings), and the son of a rich industrialist who is motivated by his son's mutation to create a "cure" for mutants. Warren flees before he can be stripped of his powers and goes to find the X-Men for help. He later makes an appearance in the final confrontation against Magneto's Brotherhood of evil mutants, rescuing his father as he is thrown off of a roof. Despite featuring prominently in much of the film's advertising, Angel's role is quite a minor one, and he only appears in a bare handful of scenes throughout the entire film. Apparently, men who auditioned for the part of Angel performed several scenes not in the final version of the movie. Whether these were filmed or not remains speculation until they do or do not appear as special features on the DVD to be released.

In the video game Rise of Apocalypse, Angel shows up as the scout for the different areas that are visited until he is captured by Apocalypse and turned into Archangel. After fighting him as Archangel, the player follows Apocalypse to Egypt for the game's climax.

External links

Angel (Warren Worthington) - Marvel Database Project
Angel at X-Boys8 Central
UncannyXmen.net's Spotlight on Archangel
Archangel on the Marvel Universe character bio wiki

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