For other uses of Angel, see Angel (disambiguation)
- "I'm sorry I know this is a bad time. I was told that this was a safe place for mutants."
- ―Angel
Angel (born Warren Worthington III), also known as Archangel, was a mutant who had the ability to fly with large, white-later-metallic wings.
Biography
Original Timeline
X-Men: The Last Stand: Prologue
Angel as a child.
Warren Worthington III was seen trying to cut his wings off in order to hide his mutation. His father found out he was a mutant by entering the bathroom. As a young man in his early twenties, his rich industrialist father was motivated by his son's mutation to create a "cure" for mutants. The plan was that Warren was going to be the first test subject of this "cure".
X-Men: The Last Stand
When it was time to get the "cure" Warren suddenly had second thoughts, broke out of his restraints, and bailed out of a nearby window, despite his father's protests. He would later briefly seek sanctuary at the X-Mansion.
Angel saves his father, during the battle at Alcatraz
When Alcatraz Island was attacked by the Brotherhood of Mutants, Warren's father was captured by Psylocke, Arclight and Quill. They threw him off the roof, but Warren arrived in time to save him. He was later seen flying over the Golden Gate Bridge as it was getting fixed; he then flew over a park and waved to a little boy who was watching him fly.
Prior to X-Men: Days of Future Past
According to 25 Moments, in 2011, mutants banded together to protest the āmutant cureā arms race led by Trask Industries, Yashida Corporation, and other multinational pharmaceutical companies. The Occupy Wall Street Movement marched from the X-Mansion to Zuccotti Park. Sentinels attacked the peaceful mutant demonstration. Angel was one of the mutants involved in the march and was killed during the chaos.
Revised Timeline
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Due to Wolverine traveling back in time to January 1973, and preventing Bolivar Trask from being assassinated by Mystique, and changing the significant events after that point, therefore the mutant "cure" was never made. This also led to him being British rather than American, implying his family had British heritage but moved to the USA in the original timeline. The revised timeline also caused Angel to be born decades earlier.
Angel fighting in the mutant fight club.
Prior to X-Men: Apocalypse
It is believed that in the revised timeline, he was disowned by his father: Warren Worthington II due to his mutation or he abandoned them because of his mutant abilities. It is unknown why or how he got involved in the mutant fight club.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Angel as a cage fighter in the revised timeline
In 1983, Angel is part of a fight club in Berlin in which mutants are pitted against each other. He manages to take down his tenth opponent Blob. He is later put up against a fearful Nightcrawler who keeps evading Angel instead of fighting, which forces Angel to tell him to fight or they will both be killed. Nightcrawler builds up the courage to fight Angel and takes him down, but in the process causing him to hit the electric fence surrounding them and frying and damaging one of Angel's wings. Angel and Nightcrawler escape, with the latter being rescued by Mystique.
Angel is ordered by Apocalypse to fight off the X-Men.
Angel hides away and turns to boozing until he is approached by Apocalypse to become one of his four horsemen. His broken wings are fixed when Apocalypse grafts metal to them. He accompanies the Horsemen to Xavier's Mansion to kidnap Charles. In Cairo, when the X-Men come to stop Apocalypse and the Horsemen, Angel and Nightcrawler have a rematch, as Angel is tasked with guarding Apocalypse's body and Nightcrawler is trying to rescue Professor X. During the fight, Nightcrawler manages to trap Angel but the mutant eventually escapes from his confines.
Angel attacks the X-Men on their jet
When the X-Men retrieve Charles and are escaping on their jet, Angel carries Psylocke to help confront them. Psylocke cuts through the roof and they both enter; however, Nightcrawler teleports them away as Jean Grey sabotages the jet's controls. Psylocke manages to escape but Angel is trapped in the jet when it crashes. A furious Apocalypse later comes across Angel, his eyes closed and blood on his face, calling him useless.
Deadpool 2
He was mentioned by Deadpool when he asked if Angel was in the X-Mansion, even though he never became a member of the X-Men in the revised timeline, due to his death in 1983 at the hands of Apocalypse.
Personality
In the original timeline, Angel appears to be American, who was, at first, shameful of his mutation as a child, but by the time he is an adult, he is more accepting of his powers and feels pressured by his father's expectation to remove his mutation. However, Angel shows pride and slight spitefulness towards his father, claiming it's not what he wants. However, he appears to be a loving son, as he rescues his father during the assault on Alcatraz.
In the revised timeline, Angel appears to be British. He appears to have no connection to his family anymore and is proud of his mutation. His personality is somewhat reminiscent of Wolverine. However, he is more juvenile. During his cage fights, Angel would revel in his glory and show off his wings to the crowd as he poses. This appears to be a faƧade for the audience, as he informs Nightcrawler to fight back or they both will be executed. The trauma of becoming crippled leads Angel to end up harboring a strong hatred of others, especially humans (who forced him to fight other mutants for their entertainment), Nightcrawler (for severely injuring his wing and thus damaging his pride) and to a lesser extent some mutants.
In a similar manner to Wolverine rejecting Professor X and Magneto, Angel immediately tells Apocalypse, Psylocke, and Storm to "piss off" and only accepts Apocalypse's allegiance when the god-like mutant enhances Angel's power. Angel is notably the only horseman to refuse Apocalypse and only accepts his offer after being empowered, implying Archangel saw this allegiance as a debt to be paid. Despite his angry nature and insistent to be left alone, he never leaves Apocalypse's side until ordered to protect him. He also calls out to Psylocke so the two of them can attack the X-Men together, showing Archangel can work with others. It is implied that Psylocke and Angel were already on friendly terms before his injury.
Powers and Abilities
Original Timeline
Powers
- Feather Wings: Angel possesses the superhuman ability to fly by means of his natural wings, which span 16 feet from wingtip to wingtip. Fully feathered like a bird's, the wings 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. Angel flies by flapping his wings, as a bird does.
- Flight: Angel's normal cruising speed averages around 70 miles per hour (112 kph), though he is capable of diving swoops that reach up to 180 miles per hour (290 kph). He can fly at 150 miles per hour (240 kph) without the help of a tail wind for up to half an hour at a time before tiring to an appreciable degree. Though he generally flies beneath the height of the clouds ([6,500 feet)(1981 meters)he can reach a height of 10,000 feet (3000 meters) with little effort. With severe strain he can attain the highest recorded altitude of a bird in flight (African geese at 29,000 feet (8840 meters) above sea level), but he could only remain that high for several minutes.
- Aerial Adaptation: Angel's entire anatomy is naturally adapted to flying. His bones are hollow like a birdās, making him weigh far less than usual for a man of his build. His body is virtually devoid of fat and possesses greater proportionate muscle mass than an ordinary human does. His eyes are specially adapted to withstand high-speed winds which would hurt the average human eye. He possesses a special membrane in his respiratory system enabling him to extract oxygen from the air at high velocities or altitudes.
- Enhanced Strength: Due to his body's natural mutation, Angel possesses greater physical strength than an ordinary human.
Revised Timeline
Powers
- Techno-Organic Wings: Angel possessed two large, white-feathered wings that enabled him to fly. Each wing had a razor-sharp talon that could inflict major damage on an opponent. However, after a cage match with Nightcrawler, Angel's left wing was injured from being teleported against an electric cage. When Apocalypse made him into a Horsemen, Angel was given a set of metallic wings.
- Flight : The Angel's normal cruising speed averages around 70 miles per hour (112 kph), though he is capable of diving swoops that reach up to 180 miles per hour (290 kph). He can fly at 150 miles per hour (240 kph) without the help of a tail wind for up to half an hour at a time before tiring to an appreciable degree. Though he generally flies beneath the height of the clouds (6,500 feet/1981 meters), he can reach a height of 10,000 feet (3000 meters) with little effort.
- Flight : The Angel's normal cruising speed averages around 70 miles per hour (112 kph), though he is capable of diving swoops that reach up to 180 miles per hour (290 kph). He can fly at 150 miles per hour (240 kph) without the help of a tail wind for up to half an hour at a time before tiring to an appreciable degree. Though he generally flies beneath the height of the clouds (6,500 feet/1981 meters), he can reach a height of 10,000 feet (3000 meters) with little effort.
- Metallic Feather Projectiles: After being given metallic wings by Apocalypse, Angel had the ability to fire metallic feathers from his wings.
Abilities
- Expert Combatant: In the revised timeline, Angel was capable of beating 10 mutants including Blob (who is former military and a boxer) and is almost equal to the more superior skilled Nightcrawler.
- Bilingualism: Angel appears to known English and German when profanely telling Apocalypse, Psylocke, and Storm to "piss off" in both languages.
Relationships
Family
- Warren Worthington II - Father
Friends
- Humans - Allies
- Jean Grey ā - Former Enemy
- Kavita Rao ā - Former Ally
- X-Men - Former Friends and Teammates
- Beast ā - Former Teammate and Friend
- Colossus ā - Former Teammate and Friend
- Iceman ā - Former Classmate, Former Teammate and Friend
- Rogue - Former Classmate, Former Teammate and Friend
- Shadowcat - Former Classmate, Former Teammate and Friend
- Storm ā - Former Leader, Teammate and Friend
- Wolverine - Former Teammate and Friend
Enemies
Friends
- Apocalypse ā - Former Leader
- Horsemen of Apocalypse
- Psylocke - Former Friend and Teammate
- Horsemen of Apocalypse
Enemies
- Humans - Enemies
- Blob - Enemy and Rival
- X-Men - Enemies
- Beast - Enemy
- Cyclops - Enemy
- Havok ā - Enemy
- Jean Grey - Enemy
- Magneto - Former Teammate turned Enemy
- Moira MacTaggert - Enemy
- Mystique - Enemy
- Nightcrawler - Archenemy and Rival
- Professor X ā - Enemy
- Quicksilver - Enemy
- Storm - Former Teammate turned Enemy
Trivia
- In a deleted scene, Angel comes back to Alcatraz after saving his father and joins the other X-Men in the fight by taking and dropping members of the Brotherhood from the sky. However, he is knocked out after Magneto throws a car at him.
- Although Angel appears in the promotional posters wearing the X-Men uniform, he never wears one during the movie.
- Jed Bernard and Nick Stahl were considered for the role of Warren Worthington III/Angel. Mike Vogel was originally cast, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with Poseidon, and finally Ben Foster took the role.
- Ben Foster is actually scared of heights.
- Ben Hardy was originally considered for the role of Cyclops along with several other actors, but he was cast as Angel instead in X-Men: Apocalypse.
- Angel's wings were initially too heavy for Ben Foster, and were remade from foam.
- Angel was originally supposed to appear in X2: X-Men United as a prisoner of William Stryker. In the early script of the movie, he was transformed into Archangel during an experiment of the Weapon X program.
- Angel has been portrayed by two different actors with the first name Ben.
- He is featured heavily in all the promotional material for X-Men: The Last Stand, as part of the whole "the original X-Men team in the comics finally together in film".
- Archangel and Nightcrawler's rivalry is based off the fact that they are rival mutant sub-species. In the comics, Archangel is believed to be a descendant of the Cheyarafim (Angelic Mutants) whilst Nightcrawler and his father Azazel are descendants of the Neyephem (Demonic Mutants).
- In the revised timeline, Angel shares similarities with Wolverine: both are from wealthy affluent families, both seem to be separated from their family, both have enhanced animal-like powers, both heavily involved in cage fighting, both have a healing factor, both have their appendages damaged in a fight then coated in metal, both defeat the morbidly obese and superior strength Blob and both profanely refuse allegiance before it is offered to them (Wolverine refusing Professor X and Magneto, Angel refusing Apocalypse).
- Archangel's death in X-Men: Apocalypse is a reference to his false death in the comics where Angel was believed to have killed himself due to depression after losing both of his wings. The event was planned by Apocalypse and Mr. Sinister to turn him into Archangel.
- Archangel is the first and the only of New Horsemen of Apocalypse to die. He's also one of the few people to be dead in both timelines.
- In Deadpool 2, while at the X-Mansion Deadpool asks where the main X-Men are including the "guy with pigeon wings" referencing Angel. However, this creates a plot hole as in the revised timeline, Angel was long dead at this point and was never an X-Man.
Behind the Scenes
- Christopher Gordon was a stunt double for Ben Foster in the role of Angel.
References
External links
- Angel on the Marvel Wiki
- Angel on Wikipedia
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