Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 154. Who is Darwin from Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 154. Who is Darwin from Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:17
  Hello You Beautiful nerds. It is Megan from Vigilante Vibes
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  and today I am here for another character breakdown.
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  And today it is Darwin. Darwin has been weighing heavily
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  on my mind ever since Mr. Terrific and Superman, who is no
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  question the best character of that movie.
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  But it's been on my mind because the actor has played Darwin and
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  was treated horribly as a character by Fox.
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  So I want to go talk about Darwin's 'cause obviously they
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  got it very wrong. And I want you to know the real
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  Darwin. So Darwin, whose name is Armando
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  Muniz, first appeared in Marvel Comics and X-Men Deadly genesis
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  #2, which was published in February 2006.
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  So he's newer than most of the mutants I'm covering, but I
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  guess it's 19 years ago. It's not that new.
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  Armando was different from the start.
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  By the time he was four, he was already bald, had unusually long
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  arms and eyes. That seemed to change around
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  that time his dad walked out in the family, and the mom blamed
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  Armando's mutation for it. Mom of the year.
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  He grew up feeling unwanted. Even his own mother couldn't
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  stand to look at him. Still, Armando didn't hold it
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  against her. He just kept trying to earn her
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  love. It's so sad.
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  It's so sad, My God. One day he was asked to take an
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  IQ test without realizing it. His desire to impress his mom
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  activated his mutant ability and he scored insanely high.
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  Thanks to that, he got into a prestigious Biltmore Academy for
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  advanced education. But really, his mom just sent
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  him away because she didn't want to be around him.
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  Oh it makes me so mad. I'm a mom myself and that pisses
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  me off. These are fictional characters,
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  by the way. While the teachers appreciated
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  his intelligence, the other students made his life
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  absolutely hell. He was constantly bullied.
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  One day they shoved his head in the toilet, and that's when he
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  discovered he could breathe underwater.
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  As he fought back, his arms hardened like cement and he
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  easily overpowered his bullies. He kept the whole thing to
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  himself. Things at home weren't much
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  better. His mom had taken up heavy
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  smoking, and one night she fell asleep with a lit cigarette.
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  The house caught fire, but Armando carried her out without
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  getting burned. Firefighters and medics were
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  stunned. At the hospital, doctors ran
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  tests and brought in scientists. That's when Armando found out he
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  was a mutant. They started calling him Darwin,
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  the Involving Boy, because no matter what environment they put
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  him in, his body adapted. In a pitch black room.
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  He developed night vision, for example.
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  Eventually a full report was published about him.
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  Still, his trashy little mom refused to accept him and
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  insisting there was no way she could have given birth to
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  something like that. Crushed, Armando tried to take
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  his own life by jumping off a roof, but instead of dying, his
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  body adapted again. He became so soft and light, he
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  practically bounced when he hit the ground.
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  Later, after talking to a school psychiatrist about the incident,
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  he was told someone who works with kids like him had read
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  about his story and wanted to meet.
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  That person turned out to be Myra Mctaggart.
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  What do I say in my videos, folks?
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  It always goes back to Myra Mctaggart.
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  Myra brought Armando in as one of her foster kids.
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  He ended up on her first team alongside Vulcan, Petra, and
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  Sway, and they were sent on a mission to rescue the X-Men from
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  Krakoa. Unfortunately, things went
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  sideways fast. Petra and Sway were killed
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  during a mission, and Darwin, along with Vulcan, was swallowed
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  by the Earth due to the lingering effects of the girl's
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  dying powers. Darwin instinctively absorbed
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  what was left of Petra and Sway, then transformed himself into
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  pure energy and merged with Vulcan.
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  This fusion gave Vulcan access to all three of their powers and
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  allowed him to survive in space, though he ended up in a kind of
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  dormant state. Years later, the reality
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  altering House of M Day House of M event revived Kid Vulcan.
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  Darwin's consciousness also reawakened inside Vulcan, but he
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  was helpless to prevent Vulcan's vengeful attacks on the X-Men.
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  Telepathically liberated by Rachel Summers during the
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  conflict, Darwin regained physical form as his mutation
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  quickly rebuilt his body. After recuperating at the
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  Xavier's Institute, Darwin agreed to help Xavier locate
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  Vulcan, who had left Earthbound for the interstellar Shire
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  Empire of his birth. When the X-Men, including
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  Warpath, Polaris, Havoc, Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler, and
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  Professor X set up to stop Vulcan from destroying the Shire
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  Empire, it turned out that Xavier had secretly brought
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  Darwin along, hoping his past friendship with Vulcan might
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  help things calm down. When Shy our agents kidnapped
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  Xavier, Darwin snuck aboard their ship as it took off.
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  He later managed to rescue Xavier and it looked like he was
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  in the clear until Dechen showed up alive and well.
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  Darwin got caught again by the Imperial Guard and wasn't able
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  to free Xavier in time. Vulcan, now playing ruler,
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  offered Darwin a spot as best man in his wedding to Death
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  Bird, and Darwin reluctantly accepted, though it was pretty
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  obvious he was not a fan of the whole thing.
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  At the wedding, which Darwin attended in shackles, chaos
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  broke out when the X-Men and Starjammers launched an attack.
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  Annoyed that the his big day was being ruined, Vulcan trapped
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  Xavier inside the Mcraean crystal.
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  Worried for his mentor, Darwin dove in after him, rescued him
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  from the crystal, and got him safely back to the X-Men ship.
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  With Xavier on board, Lelandra sent the crew back to Earth.
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  After the first mutant was born post M Day, Darwin started
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  looking for Professor Xavier. Because that's what you do.
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  While on the hunt, Darwin ran into Nogor the Talisman, a
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  scroll disguised as Longshot. When they're in Detroit, Jacinda
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  and She Hulk showed up, chasing Nogor and attacking them at the
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  same time. Darwin's dad, feeling very
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  guilty for abandoning him and his mom years ago, hired X
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  Factor Investigations to find Darwin.
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  When they finally reunited, it turned out Hector just wanted to
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  hand Darwin over to some mysterious group called the
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  Karma Project. Luckily, X Factor saved him and
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  Darwin decided to join the team. He just like he doesn't do
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  anything wrong and he was created by the worst human
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  beings on this planet. It's wild.
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  Once with The X Factor, Darwin helped protect a girl named
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  Lenore from assassination attempts, moved to New York,
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  rescued the Invisible Woman from Doctor Doom, and fought against
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  Blvd. Trask and his mutant hunting
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  MRD. Later, after accidentally
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  letting Pip Patrol get captured by Hella, X Factor went to Vegas
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  and rescued him. There they faced off against
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  Hella's undead army. With Thor's help they held their
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  ground, but the real game changer was when Darwin took on
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  Hella's powers and turned them against her.
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  Unfortunately those death powers took a toll on him so he decided
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  to take a break from the team. While wandering the desert on
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  his break, Darwin had a vision where he thought a dragon like
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  creature called Sirush and met a sheriff named Tier who claimed
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  to be the son of Wolfsbane. This freaked him out enough to
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  start heading back to New York to warn his friends, but along
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  the way Darwin started hearing voices about Tear and decided
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  that he had to kill the kid himself instead of going back to
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  X Factor. He tracked Tear down but was
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  stopped by Tears protector Werewolf by Night.
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  In Pennsylvania, Darwin managed to knockout Werewolf by Night
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  and cornered Tear, but Venora and Richter stepped in to stop
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  him. Even though Richter had just
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  regained his mutant powers and surprised Darwin, Darwin was
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  still determined to hunt Tier. Driven by some unknown force,
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  Darwin followed Tier all the way to New York, where Tier was
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  trying to meet X Factor. When Darwin got there, though,
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  he couldn't bring himself to kill the kid.
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  Since he couldn't stop the threat by killing Tier, Darwin
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  decided to rejoin X Factor and help him fight the Hell Lords
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  instead. After the Hell on Earth War,
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  Darwin got separated from the group and went back to Vegas to
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  find Hella and force her to fix what was wrong with him.
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  While looking for her, he ran into Monet who had just come
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  back from the dead and they ended up having a one night
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  stand. After that, Hella found Darwin
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  and he refused her help. After Charles Xavier set up a
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  mutant nation of Krakoa, Darwin was one of the many mutants who
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  moved there When a mission was sent to the Vault, a place where
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  time gets all weird and people can be stuck for what feels like
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  thousands of years. Darwin joined Sink and
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  Wolverine, which was Laura, not Logan, to catch her Serafina.
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  They picked those three because their powers would help them
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  survive the Vault's crazy time shifts, but as soon as they went
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  in, they lost contact with the rest of the X-Men.
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  On their first day inside, they fought the Children of the
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  Vault. Wolverine and Sync took out most
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  of the enemies, but Darwin got trapped in a water bubble by
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  Sangree. One of the children at Guja got
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  so mad after her team mates died that she blew herself up trying
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  to take out their foes. Luckily, Darwin and his team
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  bounced back. Darwin's adaptive powers helped
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  him recover and slowed down aging.
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  They ended up spending 100 years inside gathering Intel on the
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  children. Darwin found out that City, one
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  of the children, could clone any killed enemies to keep evolving
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  them. City got really interested in
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  Darwin's powers and captured him to try and use his abilities to
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  create a new generation of children.
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  Wolverine got captured too. Sink managed to escape and came
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  back after those 100 years to rescue Wolverine, but when
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  trying to save Darwin, City supposedly killed him using his
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  powers. Later, Sync and Wolverine were
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  both killed by the children, but Sync was able to telepathically
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  reach out to the X-Men and share everything they learned before
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  being resurrected. Wolverine and Darwin were also
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  brought back. Turns out the original Darwin
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  and Laura actually survived in the vault during a rescue
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  mission by Forge. Darwin even communicated with
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  him as a living code. So that is Darwin.
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  As you can see there is much more complexities than what the
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  movie gave him and he lives has lived a pretty tragic life, but
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  he's a very cool character. So as usual I have some comics
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  for you to check out to get to know him even more and do your
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  own research. Also, if I missed any that you
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  think everyone should check out, just let me know in the comments
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  because these are just the ones I read.
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  I'm sure there's plenty. So first up, Deadly Genesis,
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  Uncanny X-Men, Rise and Fall of the Shayar Empire, World War
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  Hulk, X Factor Volume 3 #33 and on X Factor volume 3 #250 to
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  258. So that is my breakdown of
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  Darwin. I hope you enjoyed.
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  Be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss any more of my
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  character breakdowns or anything else I have to offer.
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  With that being said, have a marvelous day.