DARWIN: Page 3 of 3

BIOGRAPHY - Page 3

Darwin ended up walking through the desert on his journey and he ate some cactuses to survive the harsh conditions. He soon started to feel “unusual” and decided to lie down, but was soon disturbed by a woman dressed in wild western burlesque clothes, fleeing from a dragon-like creature. With little options left to him, Darwin fought and killed the creature before helping the injured woman. He soon came across an old town that looked as if it were from a western movie, which in fact it was according to some strange locals.

As Darwin was trying to figure out if he was hallucinating due to the cactus he ate, he was confronted by a gruff looking man calling himself Tier. After a brief fight, Tier explained that everyone was waiting for the Apocalypse, and that Tier himself would be the one to cause it. Tier handed over three supernatural revolvers and claimed that Darwin now had the power to stop the apocalypse. Darwin was taken out into the street and forced into a movie-like duel between himself and Tier, all the while the strange man emphasizing that he needed to die to avert the apocalypse. Just before the two men drew guns, Tier added that Rahne Sinclaire, aka Wolfsbane, was his mother, leaving Darwin too shocked to draw his gun. He was shot by Tier, and left in a pool of blood. However, when he came around, he found himself in the place where he had originally stopped to rest, only now it was raining and there was a revolver lying next to him. [X-Factor (1st series) #214]

Darwin’s soon gained some clarity over the vision when he discovered Wolfsbane had recently given birth to a son, named Tier. Realizing that his newfound deathly abilities were guiding him to stop a real apocalypse, Darwin set off to kill Tier in the hopes of averting disaster. In the meantime, Wolfsbane had rejected her son due to the traumatic nature of his birth, and now the young boy was under the care of Jack Russell, aka Werewolf-by-night. Darwin became single-minded in his quest to kill the child and he hunted Tier across the country in a relentless pursuit. Tracking his target to a forest in Pennsylvania, Darwin knew that killing a child was morally wrong, but his visions of the future was so strong and terrifying that he knew Tier had to die.

When confronted by Werewolf-by-night, Darwin developed the ability to revert the Lycan into his human form with a touch. With Tier’s guardian disposed of, he cornered the young boy on a clifftop and prepared to shoot. Unbeknownst to Darwin, others were also looking for Tier, including X-Factor. Before he could shoot Tier, Darwin was confronted by Rictor from X-Factor, who subsequently knocked him off the cliff with his seismic powers. Darwin survived the fall but, in the process, he had lost track of Tier again as the boy had now reunited with his mother. [X-Factor (1st series) #242]

Darwin didn’t let the setback stop his mission and he continued to hunt Tier and Wolfsbane, eventually finding them in New York City. He had the boy at gunpoint but hesitated in pulling the trigger, giving Wolfsbane enough time to hit him with a car and escape with her son. Darwin could sense the start of the apocalypse was imminent and he became desperate, tracking his targets to X-Factor’s headquarters and attacking them in front of his former team. Despite knowing what would happen if the boy lived, Darwin could not bring himself to shoot Tier, even when he had the perfect opportunity to do it.

Time was up, and the event that Darwin had tried to desperately to stop was now upon them. After millennia of in-fighting, the rulers of the various Hell dimensions such as Mephisto, Hela and Pluto had all made a wager. The one who killed the seven billionth soul on Earth would be the supreme ruler over all dimensions, and Tier just so happened to be that soul. As Darwin kneeled on the floor, commiserating in his own failure, X-Factor’s base exploded and the rest of the team were teleported away. It was only he and Monet left to pick up the pieces, but she furiously attacked him, demanding answers. Darwin started to fight back to begin with, until his deathly abilities kicked in and he looked into her soul. He could see Monet was going to die in the very near future and he could not do anything to stop it. Darwin stopped fighting and let Monet beat him to a literal pulp, until the rest of X-Factor returned from their first confrontation with the lords of Hell. Darwin managed to speak to Layla Miller, who had knowledge of the future and confirmed Monet’s imminent demise.

With the option to stop the apocalypse long-gone, Darwin joined forces with X-Factor in a bid to try and save Tier instead. Despite Tier having the ability to kill the Hell lords, the team found themselves on the losing side and the world around them became overrun with demons. Eventually, Darwin’s instinct about Monet came to pass and she was injured in a fight with Pluto, and accidentally killed by Strong Guy. This was the crucial moment in the battle as Strong Guy, desperate to save Monet, killed Tier himself and became ruler over the Hell dimensions. After using his newfound power to resurrect Monet, he scattered Darwin and the rest of X-Factor across the world and ended the contest. [X-Factor (1st series) #250-256]

When Darwin reappeared, he found himself in Tunisia and had a difficult time getting out of the country. He eventually travelled back to America where he discovered X-Factor had disbanded, so he set off to Las Vegas, to try to convince Hela to remove the death powers from him. After following some leads to a warehouse, he ended up breaking up a car theft ring, where he used his deathly powers to convince the criminals to turn themselves in. Whilst his search for Hela turned up nothing, he did encounter someone unexpected when Monet showed up, surprising Darwin as he thought she was dead. He immediately attacked her, thinking she was a zombie or a shapeshifter, but a few well-placed fists from Monet convinced him otherwise.

Afterwards, the two caught up on recent events and Darwin professed his love to Monet, but she simply brushed him off. However, she was struggling with her own emotions over being killed and resurrected, and in a bid to try and feel something she kissed Darwin and took him back to her hotel. Darwin knew she didn’t really love him but he didn’t care, as he had always loved her regardless. Afterwards, Hela appeared before him, having heard he was searching for her. Darwin realized he didn’t want to get rid of his supernatural powers and sent the goddess of death away, whilst he continued to enjoy his brief time with Monet. [X-Factor (1st series) #261]

Darwin stayed out of the way of the mutant teams for a long time, but eventually came back into the fold when Xavier set up a haven for all mutants. For Darwin, this would be a bittersweet move, as the island of Krakoa, once Darwin’s prison, would now be home to every mutant on the planet. Krakoa was now a paradise for mutants, but their new life wasn’t without threats and Darwin was soon enlisted to deal with one of them. The mysterious Children of the Vault, a group of superhumans who professed to be the next step along the evolutionary path, were preparing to take on the mutant race. Darwin, along with Synch and Wolverine, was tasked with entering the Children’s vault and conducting reconnaissance on the group. The vault was time locked, with the flow of time running much faster inside the vault than it did to the outside world. Darwin was chosen as his powers would allow him to adapt to the changing time flow, as well as the various threats the Children posed.

After entering the vault, Darwin and the others soon realized the enormity of their mission as an entire city lay hidden within, although the population was a fraction of what it could be. The city itself was alive and the Children were on hand to defend it where necessary. Darwin’s evolution abilities allowed him to become the team’s primary researcher, capable of collecting and analyzing numerous datasets. The team encountered a small group of Children and killed them in their first confrontation. This was enough for the Children to see how much of a threat mutantkind was and they set about evolving themselves in the hope of becoming better than mutants. The trio were believed dead by the Children, allowing them to study the group and their base without being hunted. Darwin even evolved the ability to mask his team’s presence and fool the city’s systems, as they snuck around.

Despite their precautions, the were eventually discovered, so they attempted to fool the Children into thinking they were killed once again. Wolverine sliced off Darwin’s arm whilst leaving it behind at the scene of an enormous explosion. The trick didn’t work though and, to make matters worse, the Children discovered Darwin’s arm and realized the usefulness of his abilities. Darwin and the others studied the Children for a hundred years, but were unable to find a way to penetrate the vault's shield that was trapping them inside. Eventually they made their way to the heart of the vault, but they were ambushed by the Children, who kidnapped Darwin and Wolverine. Whilst Synch eventually rescued Wolverine, Darwin was subjected to atomization, which allowed the Children to understand his extraordinary evolution abilities. Each time he was atomized, Darwin regrew his body back, allowing the Children to continue their experiments. This carried on for 10,278 cycles until Darwin's abilities couldn't bring him back any more. Darwin was dead, but the Children had achieved their goal of forcing their race to evolve enough so they were stronger than the mutants.

The eventuality of Darwin's death had all been planned for, though, as Xavier had another miracle up his sleeve on Krakoa. Combining the powers of five mutants, any mutant could now be resurrected with their memories from the last time Cerebro backed up their consciousness. Darwin was brought back in a new body, with all his memories up to the point of entering the vault. He discovered their mission had been a success, even though all three of them had died. Synch had made it out of the vault long enough for Xavier to back up his mind and all the knowledge the team had obtained, before the Children caught up with him and killed him. [X-Men (5th series) #5, 18-19]

Darwin has been through a lot in his time with the X-Men and X-Factor, but if there's one to be sure of, it's that he's a born survivor.