X-Factor #34 (1988): Angel becomes Death, kills Hodge


There’s been a long-simmering subplot where Angel, who is still blue and angry as a result of Apocalypse’s mutation, has been trying to track down his old girlfriend Candy Southern, who was kidnapped by the militant pro-mutant group, The Right. The Right is now in league with the demon N’astirh, and they’re killing parents and stealing babies to feed the demon.

In this issue, he finally tracks down Cameron Hodge’s group and attacks.

During the fight, his mutated razor wings seem to take on a life of their own and he becomes exceptionally violent.

When he sees that Hodge’s people have killed Candy, he kills Hodge.

And during all this, the events of Inferno are percolating.  This isn’t cast as an Inferno tie-in issue, but it does connect with that story fairly tightly—some of the events here are shown again in X-Terminators issue #2.

Warren also refers to himself as “Dark Angel” and “Death” in this issue–for the first time.  So Apocalypse’s mutations clearly had a lasting impact on him—he appears to be fighting between two personalities within himself. But in the end, he embraces his new role.

Most of the rest of the team doesn’t appear in this issue except for a few panels to “check in” and let readers know what they’re doing.  The only important part of this involves Angel.

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