I’m back! Bet you thought I was
gone for good, bet you thought you’d never see my posts again. Nah, just
kidding, I know I’m not that popular.
At least not yet. Alright, for this fine Monday we’ll be focusing on survival
of the fittest, or more accurately the survival of the most adaptable. Don’t
believe that that’s the more accurate term? “It is not the strongest of a
species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one
that is most adaptable to change.” A quote from the father of the Theory of Evolution,
Charles Darwin. See, Dr. Darwin is on my side. I seriously doubt that Dr.
Darwin ever had any idea that his name and theory would be connected with a
Mutant superhuman. Or maybe… No, no, focus Michael. Darwin of the X-men is the
topic today, a newer character that was bumped up to first class in the First Class movie. I’m getting ahead of
myself. Let’s get to it.
 |
| A side effect of his time in deep space. |
Darwin was born Armando Munoz, a half
black, half Hispanic young man. He is described as being physically deformed
from a young age, but I haven’t seen a photo so I can’t make heads or tails. We’ll
just take their word on it. It’s because of said deformities that his father
left him and his mother at the age of four. His mother became very resentful of
her son, blaming the boy for the fact his father is an asshole. Makes sense. At
around the age of 8 he was tested and shown to have a genius level
intelligence. This pleased his mom, but for terrible reasons. It gave her an
excuse to send him to boarding school and never see him again. Sigh, why is it
that when an asshole leaves his family it always seems to be the victims that
suffer the most? A conversation for another day. At school in Baltimore,
Armando did a great job, but he was picked on pretty relentlessly because of
the aforementioned physical deformities… I assume. Could a nerd be picked on at
a boarding school where, I assume, nerds make up most of the school? Maybe. At the age of fifteen his powers manifested
and he got him some payback. When his usual tormentors came to give him his
daily torture, he fought back. He subconsciously hardened his hands, basically
turning them into cinderblocks, and beat the crap out of the bullies. He then
later saved his mother from a fire, which prompted doctors at his school to
start testing him. They found he had an X-Gene and the miraculous power to
rapidly physically adapt to any environment or stimuli. One of the doctor’s
published a paper about Armando, calling him Darwin the Evolving Boy.
Finally having a legitimate excuse to
dump him, his mother left Armando to fend for himself. I’m thinking of a rude five
letter word that starts with a capital B. So, no parents, publically outed as a
mutant, continually bullied, I think you can all understand that Armando wasn’t
feeling to great at this point in his life. He tried to commit suicide, but his
adaptive powers protected him. Apparently even if the mind wants to go, the
body wants to keep going. Interesting, no? His school insisted that he see a a
shrink. Which was good for Armando, because his school psychologist just so happened
to know Dr. Moira MacTaggert. Friend and former girlfriend of Prof. Charles
Xavier, for those who don’t recognize the name. If you don’t recognize Prof. X…
then why are you here? MacTaggert got Armando and several other mutants
together and helped them join the X-men.
 |
| Short lived career as an X-man. I wouldn't mind seeing him again. |
Their first mission went… poorly. The
team consisted of Armando aka Darwin, Gabriel Summers aka Vulcan, Suzanne Chan
aka Sway, and Petra who like Jean Gray didn’t get a codename. They were sent to
a Krakoa, a living evil Island, to save the main X-team. Krakoa created a
warrior made of molten lava and sent it at them. The four man team did their
best, but, lava monster. You can only do so well. Sway combined her time
manipulating power with Petra’s geo-manipulating powers to protect Darwin and
Vulcan from Krakoa. The X-men beat Krakoa and sent it into space, not knowing
that two of their teammates were alive. Darwin absorbed the abilities of the
deceased Sway and Petra, adapted to life in space by transforming into a sort
of energy being thing, and then merged with Vulcan to keep him alive. Vulcan is
a Summers, so yeah, he has energy absorbing powers. I know it sounds convoluted
and crazy, but I deal with a weird subject matter. Cut me some slack.
Charles, trying to make everyone
feel better, sealed their memories of the entire event, and the lost team. Which
explains why no one really talked about the incident for several years.
Convenient. Vulcan and Darwin survived in deep space for several years, in
suspended animation. Years later Vulcan was awaked after the events of M-day,
when most Mutants lost their powers. It’s explained that when Scarlet Witch
depowered mutants by uttering “No More Mutants,” the powers were transformed
into an energy that Vulcan could absorb, revitalizing him and increasing his
powers substantially. A moderately powerful Mutant was augmented to an Omega
Level Mutant. On par with Phoenix power Jean Grey, Ice-man, and Apocalypse, for
those that don’t know the scale. Awakening in Deep Space, the super Vulcan
swore vengeance against the X-men for abandoning him and his team to die in
space. He used his new super adaptability to fly through space back to Earth. Darwin
was awakened as well, but he was incapable of stopping Vulcan from returning to
Earth to exact vengeance. Apparently, Vulcan’s dominant personality forced
Darwin deep into Vulcan’s subconscious. So… poor planning on Darwin’s part.
 |
| I wonder how bad it has to get before his body turns off his nerves? |
Vulcan lands on Earth and goes on a
rampage. To put this into context, with his natural powers plus the powers he
absorbed plus Darwin and the rest of his team, this is like Apocalypse going on
a rampage. So like if an earthquake, a tornado, and a tidal wave got together
and decided to destroy stuff. The X-men tried to stop him, but…above example.
You can only do so well. It also didn’t help that a number of their members
were now powerless. When it rains, it pours. They were finally able to stop
Vulcan thanks to Rachel Summers, Vulcan’s adoptive Great Niece and the Mutant
Messiah. She used her ability to copy powers to help separate Darwin from
Vulcan, cutting Vulcan’s powers down substantially. Darwin’s adaptive abilities
rebuilt his body and he spent time recovering with Prof. Xavier. Darwin agreed
to help Xavier and the X-men track down the rogue Vulcan who escaped to the Shi’ar
Empire. But that’s another story I’ll cover when I get to Vulcan. Since then, Darwin
has been an ally of the X-men. His adaptive abilities help in a number of
situations. Shocking, right?
Armando Munoz has the power to “reactively
evolve.” Basically, if you attack him or change his environment into a hostile
or deadly one, his body will adapt to that new location or attacking force almost
instantly. For example, if he sticks his head underwater he develops gills, if
he gets shot at his skin and muscles harden to stop bullets, or if he’s set on
fire his skin becomes flame retardant. Because of these powers, Darwin can
survive in any environment. One downside to his powers is that he doesn’t have 100
percent control of how his body adapts. It adapts in the way to best ensure
Darwin’s survival. For example, he recently fought the Hulk. Now, technically
his body could become denser and stronger to meet the Hulk’s strength as well
as develop the power to absorb gamma rays to strengthen himself and weaken the
Hulk. Instead, he developed teleportation powers and his body teleported him away.
And, when you think about it, that really is the best way to survive a Hulk
attack, being somewhere else. Oh, and he can get drunk, because his body adapts
to the increased amount of alcohol by making his liver work more effectively.
So, there are downsides.
 |
| I don't think anyone picks on him anymore. Call it a hunch. |
Darwin has only really appeared
once in any X-men or Marvel material. This is due to the fact he’s a rather
resent character, only being created back in 2006. And he's argueably not as filled with sheer awesome as Deadpool and X-23. Them's the brakes.
He appeared in X-men: First Class where he’s portrayed by Edi Gathegi and is
reimagined as an original X-man. Honestly, he was only in the film for two
reasons. One, he’s the diversity character. Look at the original First Class,
four white guys and a white woman. Not that diverse. Now there are other character’s
they could have used to increase diversity, Storm, Sunfire, Sunspot, Spyke, and
Cloak, to name a few. But, he was there for another reason, he was the
sacrifice guy. He was included in the movie to die and thus motivate the team
to actually be a team. It’s kind of an underhanded tactic, and it wasn’t really
executed well. Darwin was killed because bad guy Sebastian Shaw jammed a ball
of energy down his throat. Darwin’s body adapts a few times, turning him into
stone, and steel before he exploded. Here’s the thing, why didn’t he develop some
sort of super barfing power? Or some sort of energy discharge power? Something
like that. Edi Gathegi has expressed interested in returning to the series,
which kind of makes sense with Apocalypse showing up. It’s kind of what he
does, bringing back dead heroes to turn into his Horsemen. It’s a sick way to
demoralize his opponents, and he does it well and often. Oh, and there is
probably one more reason, because Edi Gathegi sounds pretty bad ass when he
says “I adapt to survive.” Very suave.
Darwin has an interesting ability.
His power of adaptation makes him a rather unique character. How many other
characters use evolution as a weapon? Doomsday and… that’s all I can think of.
Though Darwin does have the one up that he doesn’t have to die first to adapt. Other
than that, though, I don’t know too much the character. At least in terms of
personality. He seems interesting, and I think I’d enjoy him if he appeared in
more things. He’s the Amazing, Adaptive, Dependable Darwin. Next time, just in time for St.
Patrick’s Day, Banshee, the super screamer.
http://marvel.wikia.com/Armando_Mu%C3%B1oz_%28Earth-616%29
http://xmenmovies.wikia.com/wiki/Darwin
http://www.comicvine.com/darwin/4005-40600/
http://marvel.wikia.com/File:Darwin_009.jpg
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