Angel in flightWarren Kenneth Worthington III is the mutant son of the wealthy Warren K Worthington Jr and his wife Kathryn, neither of whom were aware that their son had developed a pair of large feathered wings extending from his back, enabling him to fly. Warren attended many boarding schools, such as Fairburn Boys School. Warren first began his superhero career after a fire broke out in his dorm at Phillips Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. Warren disguised himself with a wig and a nightshirt and lowered two students to safety with a rope. Warren also saved a fellow student Cameron Hodge from a bully and made a lifelong friend.
Warren briefly became a costumed super hero known as the Avenging Angel. He caught the attention of Professor X, who recruited him as the third of five founding members of the X-Men, along with Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, and Marvel Girl. At Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters the X-Men were tutored by Professor X and trained in the use of their powers in the Danger Room. During his time in class, Warren was a carefree student, often flying-off during Prof. Xavier's lessons and in public. Warren would conceal his mutation with a harness that Xavier created. Though Warren was initially attracted to Marvel Girl, he spent much of his time dating Candy Southern.
During one of the X-Men's battles with Magneto Warren escaped. On his way to get help from the Avengers he was was attacked by Red Raven. After alerting the Avengers, the X-Men returned home. There, they were ordered to disband by Fred Duncan of the FBI. Returning to live with his parents, Warren continued to sneak out at night and secretly satisfy his need to fight crime and see Candy. While Warren was out on a date with Candy, his father was killed by men working for the villain Dazzler. Overcome with grief, Warren blamed his own absence for his father's murder[1]. Candy was kidnapped by Dazzler's organization as well and when Warren went to rescue her, the Dazzler removed Angel's mask and revealed his identity to both the Dazzler and Candy. Dazzler admitted to actually being Warren's own uncle, Burtram Worthington, having only used Worthington Industries for his campaign of diamond smuggling. Burtram was seemingly killed in the following battle from a great fall. Warren and the X-Men reunited the X-Men soon after.
Sauron, a flying pterodactyl-man, used his hypnotic gaze on Warren, making him attack his fellow X-Men. When Warren's mind cleared, the X-Men had left him behind after following Sauron to the Savage Land. Warren followed and was nearly killed by the flying reptiles there. He was saved by Magneto, who was calling himself the Creator. Warren did not recognize his old enemy without his helmet on and briefly believed the Creator and his mutate creations were allies. Ka-Zar and the other X-Men defeated Magneto and his Mutates.
When Professor Xavier sent the X-Men back to the Savage Land to make sure that Magneto actually perished in their last encounter with him, Warren befriend the Savage Land native Avia, a bird-woman. Angel and Avia were captured by sailors who sold them to a man named Krueger. The X-Men and Candy Southern came to their rescue, clashing with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in the process.
Candy revealed that Burtram had survived the fall and intended to steal the Worthington family fortune. The X-Men, with Candy, were able to stop the Dazzler's plot, but not before Warren's mother was poisoned by Burtram and his partner, Warren's childhood doctor. His mother died in Warren's arms.
Warren was among the original X-Men that were rescued by Prof. Xavier's new team of X-Men from the island-being Krakoa. Not longer after, Warren and the other original members left the team, leaving Cyclops and Prof. Xavier with a brand new team of X-Men.
Warren decided to start a college career in Los Angeles and stopped hiding his identity. He inherited his parents' vast wealth as well as membership in the Hellfire Club from his father. Around this time, Warren also set-up a scholarship fund for his original school, Phillips Academy, for mutant students.
While meeting with Iceman on the campus of UCLA, Warren and Bobby Drake were attacked by harpies trying to locate Venus. The two young heroes were joined by Ghost Rider, Black Widow, and Hercules[6]. After a battle with the Huntsman, Hercules and Venus were kidnapped and taken to Mount Olympus. They defeated Pluto and decided to stick together as a team, as the Champions of Los Angeles. Warren bankrolled the group, and they bought a surplus of Avengers' Quinjets, the "Champjet", for team usage. The team was volatile and disbanded after a brief stint.
Warren and Candy moved away to Colorado for some time. Bobby took his girlfriend, Terri, to Warren's cabin style mansion and was attacked by Master Mold. After Bobby was captured, Warren flew after him. After battling Doc Samson over Gamma Base, Master Mold awoke the Hulk. The Angel and the Hulk were also captured and taken to the Sentinel Space Station where the Hulk broke free and tore Master Mold into pieces.
While at a bar in New York, Warren ran into Thing and Human Torch. Warren and Thing were drugged and kidnapped by Toad who had become a hired assassin and was hoping to test his death castle on Warren. After surviving the castle's traps, Warren felt pity on Toad, who did not have the money to pay his contractor. Warren offered to pay Toad to work for him and opened a theme park over the castle called Toadland.
Hearing of the problems the X-Men were having with the Hellfire Club, Warren arranged for the X-Men to be invited to a Hellfire Club party. During the party, the Phoenix (who was posing as Jean Grey) fell under Mastermind and the Hellfire Club's control and transformed into the Black Queen. Warren joined the X-Men while they battled the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle and Phoenix underwent another transformation into the Dark Phoenix and soared through the universe, where she devoured an entire star and the five billion inhabitants of one of its planets. When Phoenix returned to Earth she threatened to kill everyone, but Professor Xavier was able to keep her under control and helped her will herself back to normal. Warren and the X-Men were then teleported away by the Shi'ar. The Shi'ar Empire had witnessed Dark Phoenix consuming the star and the X-Men were forced to battle with the Imperial Guard over Phoenix's fate. The battle triggered her transformation into Dark Phoenix once more and Phoenix understood that she would never be able to fully control the dark hunger inside and sacrificed herself on the moon.
Back on Earth, Warren attended Jean's funeral. Cyclops left for a time so Angel rejoined the team to ensure they were not shorthanded. The X-Men stopped the attempted assassination of Senator Robert Kelly by Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Miss Locke kidnapped Candy the X-Men traveled to Latveria where they defeated a Doombot to rescue her boss, Arcade. Warren eventually left the X-Men again due to the constant conflict between him and Wolverine.
Warren was reunited with Iceman and Beast after he and a group of heroes were manipulated to join the Avengers. Warren felt compelled to display his skill by battling Tigra. It was revealed that Moondragon was manipulating all of them to strengthen the Avengers. After Moondragon reconsidered, Warren departed. Later, while Warren and Candy were in his cabin style mansion the couple was attacked by Ghost Rider and aided by the Avengers, until Warren calmed his former teammate. After Tanya Anderssen, Dr. Karl Lykos' girlfriend, asked him to check if Sauron was alive or not, Warren later found himself in the Savage Land once again aiding Spider-Man in battling the Savage Land Mutates, where Brainchild experimented on him. After Warren and Spider-Man were transformed, Dr. Lykos absorbed their mutant energy and was permanently transformed into Sauron. After Spider-Man left, Warren called the X-Men and they were captured while Warren escaped. Seeking to rescue his friends, Warren and Ka-Zar entered Sauron's citadel and Warren distracted Sauron while Ka-Zar rescued the X-Men.
Warren was kidnapped by the underground mutant community called the Morlocks. Their leader Callisto wanted to marry him. He was released after the X-Man Storm defeated Callisto in a duel for leadership of the Morlocks.
Warren found himself pursuing Alison Blaire, aka the Dazzler, who he had been infatuated with since he first met her when they were manipulated by Moondragon into joining the Avengers. Warren wanted to ask her out and butt-in on a date of hers. Alison thought he was a jerk at first until Warren revealed himself as Angel and took her for a flight, which led to a romantic evening. However, after stopping Dr. Octopus from escaping custody, Alison decided she didn't want to get involved with Warren. Warren later attempted to reunite Alison with her mother, but her friend Vanessa Tooks beat him to the act. When the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants (Mystique, Rogue, and Destiny) sought revenge on the X-Men, they attacked Angel so Rogue could absorb his knowledge of the X-Men’s whereabouts from his mind. Alison defeated the trio of villains. Warren began to lay-low, returning to Los Angeles. After getting a call that Alison had been blackmailed to kill a man in Los Angeles, Warren flew to her aid in time to save them from a bullet that the angry blackmailer had fired at them.
After recovering from the bullet wound in his arm, Warren joined his former teammates Beast and Iceman to reorganize the Defenders into a more formal combat organization. After the founding Defenders (Dr Strange, Prince Namor, The Hulk, and The Silver Surfer) were convinced to leave the team, Warren funded the team and provided his Colorado penthouse as a headquarters. They obtained governmental clearance, thanks to the help of Nick Fury. Later, Candy was asked to lead the squad.
Moondragon, who was possessed by Dragon of the Moon, seemingly killed most of the members of the Defenders in a climactic battle and the team disbanded.
When he learned that Jean Grey was still alive, Warren joined his former teammates and founding members of the X-Men in the formation of X-Factor. X-Factor intended to seek out and aid other mutants under the pretense of hunting down those perceived menaces to society. The public assumed they were humans hunting mutants, when in fact they were training young mutants in the use of their powers at the X-Factor Complex. The media referred to their non human guises as X-Terminators. Once again, Warren funded the group and appointed Candy as the Vice President of Worthington Industries. Warren asked his best friend and former college roommate Cameron Hodge to act as the team's PR adviser, unaware that Cameron actually despised mutants and was the leader of the anti-mutant group The Right. Hodge waited for the time to strike. The team went-on to battle Apocalypse and his Alliance of Evil.
Reporter Trish Tilby used a tip from Mystique to to reveal that Warren, a mutant, was financially backing X-Factor. Candy walked-in on Warren comforting Jean, and walked out on him angry. As the Marauders began to massacre the Morlocks, Warren had no time to follow her and set things straight.
When Warren attempted to rescue X-Factor's young charge Artie his wings were pinned to the wall by the Marauder Harpoon, after being beaten by Blockbuster and Vertigo.[15] He was rescued by Thor. Hodge planted false evidence that Warren's wings were infected to the point that amputation was necessary. Although Warren objected, Hodge had a court order issued to go through with the amputation.
Distraught by these experiences, Warren attempted to fly one more time in his private jet. Hodge sabotaged his jet and it exploded. It had appeared that Warren had committed suicide and was believed dead, although he had actually been teleported away by Apocalypse.
Warren was brainwashed and began to serve Apocalypse. Apocalypse warped his body and mind into his own "Angel of Death" upon his Celestial Ship and placed him into his team of Horsemen as Death. Warren's skin turned blue. He grew a bio-metallic set of wings from his back that could retract and also fire dart blades with a neurotoxin. Warren's new wings could fly higher, faster, and were razor sharp.
Apocalypse had the Horsemen battle each other to find the leader and Death beat them all. As Death, Warren fought the rest of X-Factor and captured them. After X-Factor's defeat, the Horsemen were sent into Manhattan to incite chaos. Warren was shocked back to his senses after Iceman faked his own death at Warren's hands by having him destroy an ice sculpture of Bobby. After their defeat of Apocalypse, his sentient Ship crash landed on their Complex and X-Factor began living in it. X-Factor was approached by the media and finally revealed the truth of X-Factor's mutant origins.
Unable to face anyone, Warren left the team. Cameron Hodge and The Right kidnapped Candy Southern eventually killed Candy and Worthington decapitated Hodge in retaliation. Death later returned to X-Factor as the somber and brooding "Archangel", as Beast called him. He was left struggling with the urge to kill due to the influence of his wings.
Continually fighting an inward battle against his killer instincts, Warren eventually learned to contol his wings through concentration. Warren was attacked by Caliban, a former teammate who had taken his place as the Horseman Death, trying to prove himself in the eyes of Apocalypse. Later, Warren encountered a resurrected Cameron in Genosha. Warren met a widowed mother and beat cop named Charlotte Jones. Together they began an awkward relationship.
source: http://www.angelfire.com/comics/benriely/
http://marvel.wikia.com/Warren_Worthington_III_%28Earth-616%29
http://www.comicvine.com/angel/4005-2112/