The X-Men‘s Krakoa Era has been very good for many mutants. Since 2019, the X-Men have had multiple series dealing with a variety of teams. Each of these groups had different members, and readers got to see plenty of X-Men they haven’t for a long time. The Krakoa Era reminded Marvel fans of the length and breadth of the mutant side of the universe. While all the usual suspects got their spotlights, many lower-tier X-Men also finally got their chance at the big time.
However, one mutant didn’t really get a chance to shine as much as others. Archangel has often felt like the odd man out in the X-Men. He’s never been a popular character, and he wasn’t all that useful before Apocalypse gave him his techno-organic wings. While Archangel did have several appearances during the Krakoa Era, he constantly missed the party.
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Archangel’s Last Few Years Paint A Bleak Picture For The Character
Archangel was one of the first five X-Men. He helped battle for the establishment of Xavier’s dream, but his money was more useful than his wings. He had a pretty okay superheroic career, though, and joined X-Factor with his fellow founding X-Men. X-Factor was where Angel met Apocalypse, a chance meeting that changed Warren Worthington’s life forever. After being crucified by the Marauders and having his wings removed in the Morlock Massacre, Angel tried to take his own life but Apocalypse saved him and made him into Death, the metal-winged Horseman of the Apocalypse that eventually became Archangel.
Archangel’s new wings made him a much deadlier hero and also left him with a head filled with Apocalypse’s secret programming. His struggle with what Apocalypse did to him has been a key part of his story over the years, but that came to a head in the 2010s. Wolverine and Cyclops reformed X-Force, the mutant black ops team, and Archangel joined. One of the team’s missions involved going after Apocalypse, which awakened Archangel’s old programming. This would lead to him trying to become the new Apocalypse, harvesting Celestial Life and Death Seeds. X-Force stood in his way and the final battle saw his memory blasted away by Psylocke. He didn’t remember anything about his life and could transform from Warren to Archangel. Eventually, Psylocke made him into her psychic drone. This wasn’t the last change to Archangel before the Krakoa Era started, and eventually, Archangel just returned to the status quo. He remained a background character in the X-Men books but stopped being a factor in their stories.
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Archangel’s Underwhelming Role In Krakoa
The Krakoa Era was a new frontier for the X-Men, where Archangel was one of the first mutants the fledgling nation resurrected. Archangel joined the strike team that was sent to the Orchis Forge to destroy the Mother Mold. Everyone on the mission died, and all of them had to be resurrected. While Archangel was a formidable hero and should have torn through legions of enemy troops, he also died off-panel, killed alongside his ex-girlfriend Husk before he could do anything cool. This basically felt like an omen of what was to come for Archangel in the Krakoa Era. However, things were actually about to get worse.
Archangel didn’t get any role in the early days of Krakoa. He didn’t join the mutants’ ruling Quiet Council and didn’t get to join X-Force. He just sort of disappeared after his resurrection, until Reign Of X started and he was tapped to join the cast of X-Corp. The book was written by Tini Howard, who had helped Jonathan Hickman on the first crossover of the Krakoa Era, X Of Swords, and seemingly had a rich future on the X-books ahead of her. X-Corp was meant to focus on the corporate side of Krakoa, and it starred Archangel and Penance as they brought together the perfect group of mutants to run the company and create new technology for X-Corp. It was supposed to be an ongoing series but the pandemic changed Marvel’s plans for the X-Men books and it became a miniseries.
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For whatever reason, X-Corp was a massive failure. Its first issue did respectable numbers, but each subsequent issue bled readers like a pierced femoral artery. Fans weren’t interested in a book starring a D-list original X-Man whose main personality trait for the last decade has been living weapon. X-Corp became the largest failure of the Krakoa Era. It killed Howard’s push into the big time at Marvel, and basically put the kibosh on pushing Archangel any further. The Krakoa Era moved on, and Apocalypse was replaced as a villain in Krakoa by Mister Sinister, so the main character with a strong relationship to Angel also vanished into the background.
While other founding X-Men got big stories, Archangel got nothing. It really isn’t hard to see why, though. Archangel was never a fan-favorite character, he was part of the Krakoa Era’s biggest failure, and his signature villain was MIA. There’s really nowhere for Archangel in the current Krakoa Era. He’s not as important to the team’s emotional core as a Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, or Beast. His bladed wings are cool, but the X-Men have an entire Wolverine family to carve up their enemies. Really, there was never any reason for Marvel to make Archangel a factor in the Krakoa Era after X-Corp bombed.
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Fall Of X Could Be Archangel’s Next Chance In The Krakoa Era
Fall Of X is forcing the X-Men back to basics. Krakoa is no more and mutant power has been broken the world over. Mutants like Emma Frost, with outside resources are now supremely important, as they can bankroll the X-Men’s war against Orchis and this opens a door for Archangel. Warren Worthington III is another mutant who has wealth outside Krakoa. He can take a leadership role alongside Emma. His wings and the various augmentations that Apocalypse gave him would make him perfect for a group of X-Men out for blood and violence, so he could also make a great soldier in the X-Men’s war against Orchis.
Archangel had a big few years in the early 2010s, but all of that faded away as writers stopped finding interesting things for him to do. By the time the Krakoa Era rolled around, even Archangel’s most ardent fans were bored with him and the writers didn’t have many reasons to write for him. X-Corp‘s failure reinforced this problem. The Krakoa Era is on the skids, and it might finally be time for Archangel to make his big return in a way that seemed impossible when the new age for mutantkind started.
 Krakoa’s biggest failure, X-Corps, was also Archangel’s best chance to return to X-Men comics. However, Fall Of X might kick off his renaissance.  Read More Â