Warren Worthington III

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. When there was a fire in his dormitory, he borrowed some props from the school's drama department, dressed up as a "heavenly" angel and rescued his friends. He soon learned that he in fact is 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 Jean Grey, but eventually he realized that Jean was in love with Scott Summers and gave up the pursuit.

While pursuing Sauron in the Savage Land, Angel was attacked by Pteranodons and fell to his death. He was brought back to life by an uncostumed Magneto, who was known as Creator in the Savage Land. Presumed dead, Magneto had been gathering a mutant army.

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. Following the apparent death of Jean Grey and Cyclops' subsequent exile from the team, Warren rejoined the X-Men to help pick up the slack. During this time, Angel grew increasingly disturbed by the behavior and actions of Wolverine, and after some time quit the team in protest.

He was once kidnapped by the Morlock leader Callisto and stripped of most of his clothing. Callisto attempted to humiliate him. He could not remember anything else at the time as he was unconscious. Just then, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Sprite arrived to stop Callisto, but they were also captured by the Morlocks and tied to stakes. Storm struck a deal with Callisto: a battle to the death without powers. They would duel with knives, with the winner keeping 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 repercussions while trying to deal with the fact that Jean was still alive in conjunction with his own involvement with Madelyne Pryor (who was later revealed to be a clone of Jean).

Archangel

Much later, having joined his teammates as a member of X-Factor, Warren's wings were severely damaged during the Mutant Massacre by Harpoon. Cameron Hodge—whom Warren had known for years and considered a friend, yet was secretly anti-mutant—had his wings amputated. Despondent over the loss of his wings, Warren escaped the hospital and commandeered his private jet, which exploded in the air as the rest of X-Factor watched helplessly from below. It was revealed that Hodge had sabotaged Warren's ultralight airplane to create the illusion that the depressed Warren had tried to commit suicide.

Before the explosion, 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. Hungry for revenge, he tracked down Hodge. Hodge had kidnapped Warren's lover, Candy Southern, and killed her. Warren beheaded Hodge with his wings, seemingly killing him (it was later revealed that Hodge's head still lived in the X-Tinction Agenda crossover). Warren did not rejoin X-Factor immediately afterwards, spending some time as a loner called "Dark Angel" due to his state of mind following Southern's death. 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 New York City Police officer who helped to rescue Warren and the rest of X-Factor from the Ravens, a cult of near-immortal psychic vampires.

After rejoining the X-Men, Archangel became romantically involved with Psylocke. Warren soon traded in his "Death" garb for his old blue and white costume, signifying he was attempting to put his dark days behind him. After Psylocke was eviscerated by X-Men prisoner Sabretooth during an escape attempt, Warren and the X-Men tracked down and captured him, but not before he was able to badly damage Warren's metal wings. Over time, the damage to his wings spread. Eventually the metal wings shattered completely, revealing that his feathered wings had been growing back within them and broke them apart from the inside. This followed a visit from Ozymandias, who told him that he was indeed one of Apocalypse's chosen ones. Reclaiming his original codename Angel, Warren still retained his blue skin color. Having both experienced drastic changes in their lives, Psylocke and Warren found themselves growing apart, while Psylocke began showing attraction for new X-Men recruit Thunderbird. Realizing they were no longer on the same path, Warren ended their relationship, wishing her happiness in the future.

Warren remained a member of one of the core X-Men teams, where he served as co-leader with Nightcrawler. In a fight with Black Tom Cassidy, Angel experienced a "secondary mutation". His blood gained advanced healing properties, giving him the ability to heal quickly from wounds and allowing him to heal others when his blood is mixed with theirs. This new power "healed" Warren's skin from Apocalypse's alterations, turning his blue pallor back to its original shade. Warren discovered his ability to heal others when he saved the life of teammate Husk (Paige Guthrie) after she was severely injured in battle. He has since become involved in a controversial romance with Paige, who is several years his junior. It was also revealed during The Draco storyline that his blood dealt much pain to Nightcrawler. Also in the same storyline it is hinted by Azazel, Nightcrawler and Abyss's father, that Archangel may actually be related to an ancient civilization of Angel like mutants who had banished Azazel and his people from Earth into another Dimension. Apparently this is the same dimension through which Kurt a.k.a Nightcrawler passes through while teleporting.

Warren and Paige took an extended leave of absence, and Archangel launched a charity called "Mutantes Sans Frontières" in Zanzibar, (a 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. In "Excalibur," Warren met up again with Callisto. As Paige reminded Warren of his history with Callisto, Viper attacked. Warren and Callisto then managed to defeat Viper together. In Generation M, it appeared that Angel's wings had shrunken and shriveled into a useless state following the events of House of M. However, it was revealed that Warren had managed to fake losing his mutant abilities in order to lure out The Ghoul, a deranged serial killer who uses his retained mutant powers to murder ex-mutants.

Archangel joined with fellow former Champions member Hercules, along with Namora, and Amadeus Cho to attempt to calm down The Hulk in the Incredible Hulk #107. In their attempts to help save New York City from the destruction, they form a new team of superheroes, called the Renegades.

Powers:
Angel has fully feathered wings that span 16' and have a very flexible skeletal structure. He can fly by flapping his wings, and can reach speeds of up to 150 mph. Though he generally flies below the height of clouds at 6,500 feet, Angel can reach a height of 10,000 feet with little effort. His wings are strong enough to carry aloft at least 200 pounds in addition to his own body weight. Angel's entire anatomy is adapted for flight, having hollow bones; a body virtually devoid of fat, granting him enhanced proportionate muscle strength; eyes that can withstand high-speed winds; enhanced eyesight enabling him to see at distances far greater than the average human; and a special respiratory membrane that extracts oxygen from the air at extreme velocities and altitudes.

Angel is a skilled combatant, especially in aerial hand-to-hand combat. He is also a talented businessman whose wealth ranks him in the lower part of the Fortune 500 list.