Marvel Comics History: How Did Angel Become Archangel?

Five mutated, super-powered teenagers are rounded up by a telepathic man. Despite their inexperience and young adult angst, they become world-renowned heroes. Together, they form the X-Men — and the rest is Marvel comics history. Each of the original members of the X-Men goes on their own transformative journeys throughout the decades. But Angel’s shift into Archangel is perhaps the most tragic.

How did Angel become Apocalypse’s deadly henchman, Archangel? Let’s observe as this mutant’s fascinating personal history takes flight below.

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Warren Worthington III, AKA Angel

Whether you’ve read it in a book or seen it on the big screen, every X-Men fan is familiar with the scene where a young Warren Worthington III desperately tries to hide his mutation. It’s a powerful moment for the mutant metaphor and one that any marginalized person can connect with. Paired with his dashing good looks, Angel’s mutation is visually striking — especially later in his troubled Marvel history.

While his mutation is relatable, Warren’s wealthy family background sets him apart from his peers. His family is so wealthy, in fact, that he has ties to the Hellfire Club. When Warren’s mutation first appeared, he tried to hide his impressive feathered wings with a harness under a big coat. But one fateful night, a fire erupted in his boarding school’s dormitory and he took flight to rescue his fellow students. With that, Warren embarked on a vigilante career, calling himself the Avenging Angel. It wasn’t long before he caught Professor X’s eye.

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Warren’s Death as Angel

Alongside Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, and Iceman, Warren became a founding member of the X-Men. His avian physiology allowed him to continue excelling at flight and aerial combat. Hollow bones and a huge wingspan meant Angel was a crucial part of the team’s success against villains like Magneto. However, their team’s harmony couldn’t last forever.

Up against the mutant island Krakoa, the original team was defeated. Once two more X-Men teams were brought in, Krakoa was finally subdued but all the original X-Men (except for Cyclops) left the team. Over the years, Warren and Bobby, AKA Iceman, had formed a deep friendship. These buddies went on to join two other super hero teams: the Champions and the Defenders. The Champions included Black Widow, Hercules, and Ghost Rider while the Defenders brought them back together with Beast, as well as Moondragon and Valkyrie.

Angel’s X-Factor Death

Of course, tragedy is never far behind for an X-Man. When the original five reunited as X-Factor, they became a government-operated team that tried to improve mutants’ public image. Behind the scenes, Cameron Hodge was the team’s government liaison. Back in school, Cameron and Warren were roommates. In Warren’s eyes, they were friends but Cameron secretly hated the mutant. After Angel was kidnapped by the Morlocks, his wings were severely damaged. Broken in spirit and body, Hodge saw an opportunity. He manipulated a depressed Warren into spiraling further, even staging an airplane accident in X-Factor Vol. 1 #15 to look like Warren committed suicide.

But death was only the beginning for Angel.

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Angel Is Reborn as Archangel

One of the X-Men’s most formidable arch-villains, Apocalypse, found Angel and turned him into an instrument of death (literally). By the hand of Apocalypse, Angel become Archangel, the Horseman of Death. Now he had blue skin, a striking new suit, and lethal wings made of metallic blades. The tips of his wings could even produce a debilitating toxin. Archangel’s bright magenta and deep blue persona is considered an iconic part of Warren’s mutant history.

As Death, Warren did Apocalypse’s bidding. He was a terrifying sight to behold, plaguing the X-Men until Iceman faked his own death to override Archangel’s programming. Faced with his best friend’s demise, Warren finally returned. Still, even when freed from the shackles of Apocalypse, Angel would forever by scarred by his experience as Death.

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Post-Apocalypse Archangel

For years, Warren battled his inner demons. He struggled to reconcile his super hero persona as Angel with the vengeful lust for destruction he felt as Archangel. When he learned that Hodge was behind his death and the murder of his girlfriend Candy Southern, Warren even tracked the man down. Using his sharp wings, he decapitated Cameron Hodge.

This battle raged within Warren for years. He floated from team to team, trying to overcome his past and starting a romance with Psylocke. Apocalypse’s genetic meddling also helped trigger a secondary mutation in Warren. His blood contained healing powers. With time, his metallic blades molted and returned as his feathered wings and Black Tom Cassidy’s life-force draining helped revert his skin from blue to flesh (even if that was accidental). Warren even overcame his hatred for Wolverine and helped him through the feral mutant’s own stint as Apocalypse’s Death.

Time-Displaced Angel

Due to a young Hank McCoy’s foray into magic, one version of the teenage X-Men team ended up displaced in time. When they landed in the 616, this Angel gained some exciting upgrades. On an adventure with the Guardians of the Galaxy, a Celestial item called the Black Vortex enhanced young Angel’s mutation and granted him fiery cosmic wings. This young Warren also entered into a romance with X-23, though their love was doomed by collapsing multiverses and time travel. You know, classic X-Men stuff.

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Most recently, Angel and Monet St. Croix were the co-presidents of X-Corp during the Krakoan Age. He could even summon his Archangel form at will, much like Monet does with Penance! Then, after the fall of Krakoa, he was captured by Orchis and transformed by the Goblin Queen into an all-new sinister Archangel form. Warren just can’t escape Death it seems.

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