Warren's metal wings are grafted directly into his nervous system - an extension of his body, not a tool he straps on. In flight, they beat fast enough to lift a man his size clear off the ground and hold him there for as long as he keeps his distance; the moment he closes to melee range or plants his feet to brace for a hit, gravity reasserts itself and he's back on solid ground until he takes to the air again. His feathers detach and re-form as razor projectiles coated in a toxin that saps a target's strength, and the same wings that carry him can just as easily wrap around an ally like a shield, or catch someone out of freefall.

IV: The Avenging Angel Warren was born among the Worthingtons, a long dynasty of industrialists with their roots in Europe and whose name was akin to wealth and success. His father, Warren K. Worthington Jr., raised his son to take over not only the family business, but to pass the legacy of their family forth, always instilling in the young Warren a sense of responsibility that could have crushed any other young child. Warren, however, persevered, and even when suspect data from his doctor pointed that the boy might be one of the rumored mutants, such notions were quickly dismissed by his parents as Warren had been born perfect. He had been born a Worthington. The truth of things was not so simple. Upon his birth, the doctor delivering Warren had noticed the distortion on his shoulderblades, and over the course of the years those distortions continued to change, and became protuberances until they became something more, a secret that Warren kept from his parents throughout his childhood. Unbeknownst to them, their son had developed fully-grown, feathered wings that marked the heir to the Worthington empire as a mutant, one capable of flying before he ever left to attend the Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. Although by then Warren had already learned how to conceal his mutation by using a complex contraption to keep them bound close to his body, a mixture of their presence, the growing rumors of mutants among humans and, above all, his father's attitude towards them caused Warren to see himself as a freak. During his tenure at the Phillips Academy, Warren came to meet a boy by the name of Cameron Hodge who was in a similar situation similar to Warren's in representing a family of repute, one he had to make proud. Unlike Warren, however, Cameron was often bullied by other students, and in assisting the boy, he befriended him. Although the two were inseparable then, Cameron was everything Warren was not, making for an unlikely friendship: the boy was not sociable or strong, and often looked up to the Worthington boy. Their relationship came to a head, however, when during a fire Warren decided to remove his harness to save other students trapped in the upper floors of the dormitories. In doing so, his mutation was revealed to Cameron, who promised not to tell. After that night Warren found a love for his gift, and even though he would still hide it among his peers, at night he took flight to be New Hampshire's vigilante, helping those in need. The press dubbed him Avenging Angel, and soon after he received a visit from Professor Charles Xavier, with an invite for Warren so the man would complete his education in the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. V: Striking Out Warren was wary of joining Professor Xavier at first, aware that he the Phillips Academy had been part of the Worthington family for three generations, and that it would not be a simple matter of switching schools. His considerations of the future, and his role in the family evaporated, however, as Charles explained the purpose of his institution, and he asked Jean Grey, one of his students, to display her mutant powers to the boy. Convinced that he needed to broaden his horizons, and that he owed to himself to learn more about mutants, Warren argued with his parents and, left with no options, revealed his wings. Although the young Worthington's gambit paid off, and he was allowed to go to Westchester, Warren knew his father only allowed so due to the shame his mutation might inflict on the Worthington if discovered. Sent away, the young man parted ways with Cameron and left, the awareness that he left his whole life behind as a pariah nagging him deeply. Arrival at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters revealed the full class of mutants before him. Warren, older than the rest, managed to hide his own insecurities behind swagger and superficiality, taking more time than others to allow himself to be truly seen by his peers. While the others spent time at the manor, Warren often left the school grounds for joyrides and dates, returning only to find this new group awaiting for him. Eventually he became friends with Bobby Drake, Hank McCoy, Lorna Dane and even the Summers brothers, Scott and Alex. Together they built a strong sense of camaraderie training and practicing in the use of their powers, studying and growing up until the day Xavier turned the seven children into his first X-Men, upon the appearance of Magneto at the Cape Citadel military base. The life of an X-Men was a struggle for Warren. More often than not, the flyer felt ashamed of hiding his face, his own issues with hiding his nature conflicting with his desire to help others, and feeling no shame in the life of a superhero. Alas, Xavier reminded him that the X-Men were mutants, not superheroes, and that keeping their identities safe was paramount. The feeling of discomfort with hiding away his wings, his identity, and even his name, grated at Warren until the Krakoa incident, when the young man was trapped in the living island, from where he thought he would never escape. In his desperation, he vowed to make peace with his parents if he ever left Krakoa. Warren eventually did leave, and making good on his promise he left the X-Men with Jean, Bobby, Hank, Lorna and Alex, only to find that his father had passed peacefully in his sleep. During the year he stayed away from Xavier's, Warren dedicated himself to taking over the family business, and reconnected with his good friend, Cameron Hodge. VI: Days of Fire Although Jean did try to contact Warren for the Christmas Eve gathering of the X-Men, Warren never managed to attend, finding that stepping into his father's shoes was more overwhelming a task than he had considered before. The Worthington empire was vast and it stretched for more decades than paperwork could trace, leading to the young mutant and his friend Cameron to dig deep to take control of the family's finances. Admist this chaos that lasted many, many months, Warren found that his family had deep ties with an organization called Hellfire Club, a club meant for those seeking the more refined pleasures in life and the company of their peers. This finding only became truly relevant when he was sought by the X-Men as they sought refuge from the same organization. In his retreat in Colorado, Warren heard of the encounters the team had with the Hellfire Club, and offered his in with the institution to get the X-Men inside during the New Years Eve party. During this event, Warren met a young woman called Alison Blaire, a recent recruit, and for the best part of the party he remained with her while the X-Men searched for their enemies. Unfortunately, the Hellfire Club had a trump card, that being that Mastermind had been altering Jean Grey's mind for a year then, fabricating a second persona that he could manipulate so the power of the Phoenix Force would belong to the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. As 'Lady Grey' and the Inner Circle captured the X-Men, they however, left Wolverine escape, and just as Scott lost a psychic duel with Mastermind for Phoenix' freedom, the Canadian berserker tore through the door and freed the other X-Men. In the skirmish that followed Warren assisted the X-Men in fighting their enemies, but realized all too late that the abuse at the hands of Mastermind had driven Jean, and the Phoenix Force, out of control. As the Dark Phoenix roared into the skies, leaving her teammates defeated behind her, Warren knew he had to stay. Upon Dark Phoenix' return to Earth, Warren was there to set a trap for her, and he assisted taking down Jean momentarily for the Professor and Cyclops to subdue her. Victorious, the team had little time to rest, as the Shi'ar teleported the X-Men into their ship to judge Phoenix for what she had done. Choosing trial by combat, the X-Men still lost the fight against the Black Guard, and Jean was depowered. As she left the X-Men with Scott, Angel realized he had to do something about an increasingly more complex world. VII: The Champions With the retirement of Scott and Jean, Warren realized there was too much that needed to be accomplished and that the X-Men, as a paramilitary operation hidden in Westchester, could never do. Deciding to launch an ambitious initiative, he along with Iceman and Cameron, he left the team to move to San Francisco, where Warren would also enlist Dazzler for his plan of launching human-mutant relations to the next level. Coming out as a mutant, something that led the Worthington Industries stock to plummet drastically, Warren decided to form a new team, one that was focused on helping people more than just fighting for mutants in secrecy: The Champions. Bankrolling himself, Dazzler and Iceman at first, Warren begun trying to change the perspective of humans on mutants by social action, though things started catastrophically at first, when the group was attacked by Mystique and Rogue. Their former attack, in Washington, was an attempt on the life of Senator Robert Kelly and marked the first moment when Warren's plans paid dividends, for in fear of retaliation from humans, mutants fled to San Francisco in droves to seek asylum among a population that had come to favorably see mutants, thanks to the efforts of The Champions. The two were not there without purpose, and in their fight The Champions were warned by Rogue to stay away from Warren, for "a storm of Death for which the mutant soul could never atone follows his clan marked with Life". The team is eventually sucessful in rebuking the two women who, later that year, join the Brotherhood to keep attacking the evils in the prophecies cast by the golden-masked Destiny. When Project: Wideawake was greenlit, San Frascisco was one of the very few areas outside the Sentinel jurisdition, and while he left Dazzler behind to take care of their enterprise with Cameron, Warren and Bobby joined the X-Men to fight the robotic menaces. Th fights that ensued took much of Warren's time and blindsided him to the small attacks being made against all that he had built in San Francisco, with Alison being left alone and vulnerable to them, the dream of the Champions too big for a single person to manage. Still, Angel stood by the X-Men as they fought in Washington against Magneto's Brotherhood, rejoining his old team then, and becoming a part-timer after the fight was all said and done. VIII: The Pale Horse Warren continued to live the double life as the X-Men's Angel and Warren Worthington III, often busy and flying from one corner of the country to the other, running himself haggard in his attempts to pursue his goals of actually seeing Professor X's dream come true. In San Francisco, the mutant population flourished, but everywhere else they dwindled and lived in fear, and nowhere was this more apparent than in the secret community of mutants known as the Morlocks, who in desperation sent Caliban, their tracker, to Westchester to request the X-Men's help to fight off a mysterious group seeking to wipe them. Warren took the mission and, teleported to The Alley he witnessed the ongoing massacre of mutants, bodies and blood everywhere. In that fateful day, while trying to keep a savage mutant named Sabretooth from killing a young Morlock named Leech, Angel was ambushed by two of the feral man's companions, Harpoon and Blockbuster. The three of them proceeded to viciously torture Warren in the sewers, maiming and spearing his wings to concrete. Just as with Colossus and Shadowcat, Warren was rushed out The Alley to get treatment, whilst the X-Men fought the mysterious surge of an organization called The Right. While he was out, Warren was not aware that this last misfortune of his was in fact the last domino to fall that allowed his friend Cameron Hodge to step out the shadows, finally. The man, deemed Warren's closest friend, through bribery and blackmail, managed to convince the hospital staff to remove Angel's slowly-healing wings, claiming infection, right before leaving for his magnum opus. As the crippled Angel was brought out of his coma, he not only had to contend with the end of his days as a hero, but watch the news claiming Alison had been murdered by The Right for being part of the Champions and having come out as a mutant publicly herself. All of it was too much, all at once, and when the broken and beaten Warren decided to fly back to Colorado to take some time off, and recoup, he found his private jet had been tampered with. As the aircraft crashed against the mountainside, however, the mutant was rescued by a light in the sky that brought him into the Celestial Ship for an audience with En Sabah Nur, the First Mutant. The First One claimed that his tribe had been observing Warren from his birth, as one of the last children of the Seed of Life, the Cheyarafim, created by the Akkaba to protect the world. Not only that, but the mutant's servant, Ozymandias, revealed that the Worthingtons had long belong to the Akkaba, as did the Hodges, the two families in eternal competition with one another. The vizier shocked Warren upon recounting how Cameron had poisoned his parents, poisoned Alison's life, removed Angel's wings and ultimately murdered Alison before her big break. Profoundly shaken, Warren asked why they were revealing him such, and at that, Apocalypse offered the young man as simple answer: "Because you survived." He offered Angel a second chance, an opportunity for hatching and reaching apotheosis, to have his wings back, and in despair, Warren accepted it. Archangel, the Horseman of Death, the Pale Rider, was born that night, observed by Akkaba ritual and hailed into their ranks. Through miracles of alien technology, Apocalypse infused Angel with the power of his lieges, the Celestial Gardeners, by planting within the former X-Men the Death Seed. From that moment onwards, Warren was Death, and everything about him would change, starting with the regrowing of his wings, now shapeshifting appendages wrought from otherworldly metal. The real change, however, came with the psychological changes brought by the Seed, which shifted Warren's psyche to see the world through the lenses of a servant of Akkaba, a finely curated balance between the insidious fury of the reaving angel of En Sabah Nur, ready to reap civilizations deemed unworthy of continuation; and the quasi-merciful understanding that life is precious and balance is delicate, and careful observation of the flow of life is required so it may thrive against hardship. Feelings wiped out of the equation, Death was sent with the other three Horsemen to take Manhattan, the capital of the modern world, and test it for the arrival of Apocalypse. Unlike the other Horsemen, which readily took field in Central Park to easily destroy the power suits of The Right that took the fight to them, and eventually draw the Avengers out to test humanity's finest, Death instead took a detour to meet with his old friend, Cameron, in his usual home in the city. While Warren would have asked questions, Death did not, and even as Cameron hurled insults at the revived Warren, the greatest anguish for the human was that his mutant rival acted as if his old friend was so far below him that reaction felt inapropriate. Even as he spoke of Warren's wings, the Horseman did not flinch, but as the conversation veered towards a descriptive account of the last days of Alison Blaire, Death split his rival apart in a fit of rage, beheading the deranged man. With Cameron dead, Death turned to join the other Horsemen in the fight at Central Park, where upon his arrival he was immediately met with Scarlet Witch recognizing him. While appealing to the better angels of his nature, the former Brotherhood member was stabbed by Death's toxic pinions, something that took her out and put her in a coma. With the arrival of Apocalypse himself, the Avengers were disposed of, something that would have left the Akkaba's path open if not for the interference of the X-Men. Fighting his own friends in Jean, Scott, Hank and Bobby was difficult for Death, as Warren suddenly surged within the Horseman's psyche, unwilling to allow himself to truly harm them, but Apocalypse had no such compunctions. The First One provided ample challenge for the Westchester mutants, but in the end a fraction of his power could not overcome their desire to rescue Warren. In a desperate attempt to snap his friend out it, Bobby used all of his power to confront and actually badly hurt Apocalypse himself. The consequences of it, however, proved to be most dire, as Iceman unmade himself in the process, dying before his friends' eyes. The shock of having the friend that had always been by his side sacrifice himself like that snapped Warren out of the control of the Death, and despite their best efforts, the X-Men did not manage to finish Bobby's work that day, as the Akkaba, however, retreated with their wounded leader. After the revelation that Nathan had been taken by the Akkaba, it was Warren who gave the X-Men the location of the Blue Side of the Moon, but he did not join them, requiring time to fully wrangle Death under control. IX: Angels and Demons The beginning of a new year marked the origins of the X-Force, led by Cyclops. A team composed of Beast, Archangel and Wolverine, their mission was to find and destroy the Akkaba, something Scott had a lead on. While their first enterprise was to return to the orphanage where their leader had grown up, only to find the place marked by the stench of death, the four men found a young woman resting in a stasis tube, a younger but quite obviously cloned Jean Grey. Upon release from the tank the girl, calling herself Madelyne Pryor proved herself quite able to adapt to her environment, and while hearing a conversation among the members of the X-Force, the girl seemed drawn to Death within Warren tapping into the manifestation of the Death Seed and allowing the original X-Man to sense that he was being called 'home'. Following that sense towards the Akkaba, the group found their way to the Usermaatra-setepenra space station. Before the group arrived at the space station, Warren could already feel the death within, and after docking his fears were confirmed as the X-Force found corpses afloat everywhere, the temple-station almost devoid of life and in poor state. Desiring to move as fast as possible, the group split and Archangel, Cyclops and Wolverine did find resistance in the form of monstrous insectoid creatures until they made their way to the final chamber of the whole complex, one the creatures seemed to be willing to fight to the death. Walking in, the three men stood before not En Sabah Nur, but a younger version of him. The men took all but a few moments to understand that the boy was meant to be Apocalypse's new vessel, and upon realizing so Wolverine had to subdue Warren to keep Archangel from slicing the boy in half. While the three X-Men debated, Archangel calmed down,but he still could see the boy for what he was, and what he could signify. Much to his chagrin, Archangel voted to end his life, unwilling to budge and aware of what Apocalypse wanted for the world. Wolverine voted against him and, in the end, so did Scott, who took guardianship of the boy as they left the space station Genesis and Neena. X: Among The Worthy Warren returned to the Xavier's School without any hope of staying, aware that in the space station he had failed the Professor when he elected to kill the boy. Without confidence that he might overcome Death, rapidly realizing the reach of the Akkaba as he observed travelers of broken futures in Blink and Hope, he was about to give Charles his farewells when something made Death shriek within his head, the panicked essence of Death trashing within Archangel so violently that it dropped the man to his knees. The next morning the news hit that Genosha had been destroyed, razed to the floor, sixteen million mutant lives artificially wiped off the face of the Earth. In face of that despair, Archangel was reticent to offer his aid to help finding survivors among the rubble, but Warren did it anyways. In the weeks he spent helping among other mutants, Warren could not help but feel some terrible mistake was made in Genosha, something wrong that should have been stopped by Apocalypse. Silently, Death agreed, the trashing of the murderous impulses within Warren slowly subsiding as Archangel. By the time Warren returned to Westchester, he did so to find that the Professor had something to show him. Show all his children. Taking flight, Archangel met the others, students and peers alike, in the Breakstone Forest, before an enormous tree that was never there before. Standing among others, he witnessed as Xavier walked from the chambers underneath its enormous roots to introduce Psylocke and, to Warren's shock, ALison, both of them victims a life by the X-Men, both of them brought to life by the power of Professor X's own ingenuity and genius. As the mutants welcomed them both into the fold, fists in the air, Warren watched aghast, unsure of what to make of it, but realizing that Charles Xavier, instead of breaking, survived the shattering of his dream, and would not allow Genosha to happen ever again. He was among the Worthy.