| Darwin | |
|---|---|
 Darwin as depicted inUncanny X-Men #478 (November 2006). Art byBilly Tan. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2 (February 2006) |
| Created by | Ed Brubaker (writer) Pete Woods (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Armando Muñoz |
| Species | Human mutant |
| Team affiliations | X-Men X-Factor Investigations |
| Abilities | Reactive evolution |
Darwin (Armando Muñoz) is amutantsuperhero appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics.
Edi Gathegi portrays Darwin in the filmX-Men: First Class.
Darwin first appeared inX-Men: Deadly Genesis #2 (February 2006), and was created by writerEd Brubaker and artistPete Woods.
After birth, Darwin's powers of self-protection and continuous circumstantialevolution made his mother hate him. The Afro-Hispanic[1] boy was found by scientists who experimented on him, bringing him to the attention of the public. He was found byMoira MacTaggert and recruited as one of her "fosters". He was in the first team, along withKid Vulcan,Petra, andSway to attempt to rescue theX-Men fromKrakoa.
While Petra and Sway were killed by Krakoa, Darwin and Vulcan were swallowed in the earth by a combination of Sway and Petra's powers. Darwin absorbed the remains of the two girls and then converted himself into energy to fuse with Vulcan. This gave Vulcan the powers of Darwin, Petra, and Sway.Rachel Summers managed to expel Darwin's presence from Vulcan, who then took off for space. While dealing with the shocking revelations of the truth about Krakoa and Vulcan, Beast found out that Darwin was in fact still alive. He was brought back to the Institute, where Beast determined Darwin was now a being of pure energy. While not conscious, he was shown to still have brain activity and was still alive, located at theX-Mansion. Once separated from Vulcan, Darwin's abilities caused him to develop a physical form once more.
When theUncanny X-Men team (includingWarpath,Havok,Polaris,Marvel Girl,Nightcrawler, andProfessor Xavier) left to go hunt down Vulcan and stop him from destroying theShi'ar, it was revealed that the Professor brought Darwin with them with hope that his friendship with Vulcan would help. When Shi'ar agents abducted Professor X, Darwin followed, and secretly jumped onto their spacecraft as it fled.
After successfully rescuing Xavier from his captors, Darwin was well on his way to freedom whenD'Ken was revealed to be alive and well. Recaptured by the Imperium guards, Darwin failed in his attempt of rescuing his mentor and reluctantly accepted Vulcan's offer of becoming best man at his andDeathbird's wedding.
Though obviously against the union, Darwin attends the wedding—albeit in shackles—and is caught in the crossfire when the X-Men andStarjammers attack. Vulcan then traps Xavier in theM'Kraan Crystal before Darwin frees him.
During theWorld War Hulk storyline, Darwin is among the X-Men who battle theHulk. He attempts to absorb Hulk'sgamma radiation, but is unable to do so and instead teleports several states away.[2]
Darwin reappeared inMessiah Complex and fought alongside the X-Men against theMarauders,Purifiers,Predator X andCable.
Sometime afterMessiah Complex, Darwin searches for Professor Xavier because he wants to help him. He encountersLongshot, who tries to lead him to the Professor by using his powers. Longshot, however is unsure if his powers have been working correctly and tests them out on a group of people which turn on Darwin and attack. After a brief fight, Darwin manages to get away and the crowd turns on Longshot. Afterward, Longshot meets back up with Darwin and they are attacked byJazinda andShe-Hulk who are trailing after Longshot, who is really aSkrull named Nogor. Darwin also develops a crush onMonet.
Meanwhile, Darwin's father hiresX-Factor Investigations to help him find Darwin, supposedly because he feels bad for walking out on him and his mother when he was younger.
After Darwin is reunited with his father, he is betrayed by him and sold out to operatives of an organization known as the Karma Project, who are experimenting on living human beings, only for their attempts to duplicate Darwin's hyper-evolution to fail when the duplicate Darwin's DNA proves incapable of handling his powers.[3]
He is eventually recruited into the team bySiryn after she tells him that with X-Factor, he won't have to deal with the massive threats the X-Men routinely deal with. After Monet is possessed by the villainous Cortex and attacks Lenore, a young woman in the team's care, Darwin bravely fights her off. In the midst of the massive battle, Darwin is accidentally crushed by aSentinel that had been blasted out of the sky by Siryn. Emerging unharmed from the debris, Darwin cynically mocks her earlier speech about not having to worry about this sort of thing with X-Factor.[4]
Several months later, the team relocates to New York City to take advantage of high paying superhuman cases. Darwin is present when the team is hired byValeria Richards andFranklin Richards, and claims to be intimidated by Valeria's intellect. Darwin seems to still harbor feelings for Monet, becoming angry whenMultiple Man tells the team that they may not be able to help her find her kidnapped father.[5]
During a battle withHela, Darwin adapts to her touch by becoming a death god himself, but has trouble coping with his abilities. He decides to leave the team to adjust and find himself.[6]
On his return to X-Factor in the story arc "Breaking Points", Darwin is plagued with voices in his head after touching Hela and assuming her form. These voices reveal the possible apocalypse caused byWolfsbane's son Tier. Darwin takes it upon himself to kill Tier, but is met with resistance from Tier's guardian,Werewolf by Night.[7]
Darwin is seen living a new life in Krakoa afterProfessor X,Moira McTaggert, andMagneto establish Krakoa as a mutant nation. He,Wolverine, andSynch infiltrate aChildren of the Vault base inside aMaster Mold, but are trapped there for centuries while only months pass in the real world.[8]Forge rescues Wolverine and Synch while Darwin transforms into living code and continues to explore the base.[9]
Darwin has the power of "reactiveevolution"; i.e., his body automatically adapts to any situation or environment he is placed in, allowing him to survive possibly anything; the exact nature and limits of his powers have not been revealed.
Examples of his powers include gainingnight vision after a few seconds in the dark; functionalgills after being submerged in water;fireproof skin after being exposed to flame; increasing his own intelligence; converting his body into pure energy; no longer requiringoxygen after being sucked into space; morphing into asponge when shot at with a weapon designed to destroy the subject's nervous system; and acquiring comprehension of theShi'ar language merely by looking at written samples. His power may concern itself with more efficient methods of survival than Darwin himself might choose; for example, instead of continually increasing Darwin's powers when taking punishment from the Hulk, his body simply teleported him away from the fight.
His power can also work when dealing with non-life-threatening situations, such as rendering it impossible for Darwin to get drunk by allowing his body to processalcohol faster than humans would normally.
In 2014,Entertainment Weekly ranked Darwin 71st in their "Let's rank every X-Man ever" list, stating that he and his powers had "untapped potential".[10]
| Founders | |
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| Government Team | |
| X-Factor Investigations | |
| Serval | |
| Supporting | |
| Enemies | |
| Publications | |
