Darwin (comics)

Darwin (Armando Muñoz) is a mutant character in the Marvel Comics Universe. He first appeared in X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2, and was created by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Pete Woods. Darwin was one of the "Missing X-Men".

Fictional character biography

Early Life and Krakoa

After birth, Darwin's powers of self-protection and continuous circumstantial evolution made his mother hate him. The half-Black, half-Latino Darwin was found by some scientists who experimented on Darwin, bringing him to the attention of the public. He was found by Moira MacTaggert and recruited as one of her "fosters." He was in the first team, along with Kid Vulcan, Petra, and Sway to attempt to rescue the X-Men from Krakoa.

While Petra and Sway were killed by Krakoa, Darwin and Vulcan were swallowed in the earth by a combination of Sway and Petra's dying powers. Darwin absorbed the remains of the two girls and then converted himself into energy to fuse together 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 still in fact alive. He was brought back to the Institute, where Beast determined Darwin is now a being of pure energy. While not conscious, he was shown to still have brain activity and was still alive, located at the X-Mansion. Once separated from Vulcan, Darwin's abilities caused him to develop a physical form once more.

The Rise and Fall of The Shi'ar Empire

When the Uncanny X-Men team (including Warpath, Havok, Polaris, Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler, and Professor Xavier) left to go hunt down Vulcan and stop him from destroying the Shi'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 when D'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 the Vulcan's offer of becoming Best Man at his and Deathbird's wedding.

Though obviously against the union, Darwin attended the wedding - albeit in shackles - and was caught in the crossfire when the X-Men and Starjammers attacked. Fearing his great day to be completely ruined by the interference, Vulcan trapped Xavier within the M'Kraan Crystal. Naturally fearing for his mentor's safety, Darwin followed Xavier into the depths of the crystal, and rescued him. He was taken to the X-Men's space ship with Professor X and Lilandra Neramani sent the ship on its way back to Earth.

World War Hulk

Darwin was one of the X-Men who heeded the call for help when Hulk came to the X-Mansion. While fighting the Hulk he evolved the ability to absorb gamma radiation. Darwin attempted to absorb gamma radiation from the Hulk only to find that the Hulk's gamma radiation supply was far more than he could drain. His body then determined the best way to confront the Hulk was to not confront the Hulk at all, and Darwin gained teleportation powers which promptly teleported him out of the Hulk's path of destruction.

Messiah Complex

Darwin reappeared in Messiah Complex and fought alongside the X-Men against the Marauders, Purifiers, Predator X and Cable.

Secret Invasion

Sometime after Messiah Complex, Darwin goes in search of Professor Xavier because he wants to help him. He encounters Longshot 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 turn on Longshot. Afterward, Longshot meets back up with Darwin and they are attacked by Jazinda and She-Hulk who are trailing after Longshot, who is really a Skrull. He also has a crush on Monet.

Meanwhile, Darwin's father hires X-Factor Investigations to help him find Darwin because he feels bad for walking out on him and his mother when he was younger.

The Karma Project

After Darwin is reunited with his father, he is betrayed by him and sold out to by operatives of an organization known as the Karma Project, who is experimenting on living human beings.

Portrayed ethnicity

Marvel Comics introduced Darwin in X-Men: Deadly Genesis as being half-Hispanic and half-black, making him one of a handful of biracial superheroes in the Marvel Universe. In Darwin's first appearances he was portrayed as having dark skin. Beginning with the Deadly Genesis #4 , Darwin is portrayed as not only pale, but paler than the average caucasian human, and somewhat alien-looking.

A possible reason for Darwin's skin changing color is given in X-Factor #33 by Monet. She thinks it might have something to do with the fact he is constantly in a state of evolution and his surroundings usually reflect the climate of the Europeans and to better adapt to the environment, has pale white skin.

After facing an intense wave of solar energy, Darwin once again has light brown skin. X-Factor #34

Powers and abilities

Darwin has the power of "reactive evolution". The exact nature and limits of his powers have not been revealed, but what this means is that his body automatically adapts to any situation or environment he is placed in, allowing him to survive possibly anything. Examples of his powers include: gaining night-vision after a few seconds in the dark; functional gills after being submerged in water; fire-proof skin after being exposed to flame; increasing his own intelligence; converting his body into pure energy; no longer requiring oxygen after being sucked into space; and acquiring comprehension of the Shi'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. Or when he got involved in a fight with Longshot, he developed Superspeed to get away.

References

External links

• Darwin on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki