Cerebra's Files

The name Death is given to the strongest of Apocalypse's Horsemen, conditioned to follow his directives only as an unstoppable weapon of destruction. The title has been held by three men, all of whom eventually broke their master's programming (for a time), and by another man in a possible future:

Death I was the high-flying Angel, whom Apocalypse captured when Angel tried to commit suicide following the amputation of his original wings. Apocalypse came to Warren and offered him the chance to fly again in return for his services. Warren agreed and was given techono-organic, razor-sharp wings with paralyzing feathers. He debuted with the rest of the Horsemen in an attack on New York City, which was thwarted by the rest of his old teammates in X-Factor. However, when X-Factor was captured and brought aboard Apocalypse's Ship, Death was tricked into destroying a replica of Iceman. The trauma of thinking that he killed one of his best friends helped Warren break his programming. Although it took some time for him to completely free himself of Apocalypse's control, Warren eventually got rid of the Death persona.

Death II ironically has his origins in the same battle in which Death I broke his conditioning. As X-Factor was fighting Apocalypse, Caliban, one of the few Morlocks to survive the Mutant Massacre was also offered the chance to become more powerful and exact revenge on his people's murderers. Caliban accepted and was spirited away with the Horsemen during their escape. He later appeared as Death II to capture Cyclops and Jean Grey, although at the time he and his teammates were unknowingly workng for Stryfe. Later on, Caliban was able to leave Apocalypse's service and ended up joining X-Force. However, unlike Angel, Caliban was re-taken by Apocalypse and was transformed into Pestilence II.

Death III carried a sword which he appeared to be able to use to channel immensely powerful energy. He also appeared to have some sort of cloaking ability, which also shielded him from telepathy. He debuted by attacking the old OZT/Hulkbuster base, slaughtering its defenders, and destroying the body of Bastion, who was being held there. He was also after the Mannites, although the intervention of the X-Men prevented him from capturing or killing them at that point. However, Death was also able to tap into telepathic conversations and snuck aboard the Blackbird to follow some of the X-Men to where the rest of their number were with the Mannites. A battle ensued and Death killed Wolverine. However, the X-Men later discovered that the dead Wolverine was a Skrull, and attacked the Skrull base when the aliens attempted to kidnap Polaris. During the battle, Death III appeared and set a bomob, but before he could leave the X-Men found him and attacked. During the fighting Death's mask ripped and the X-Men were horrified to discover that it was none other than the original Wolverine! After Death spirited Mikhail Rasputin away to his master, and set a bomb in the Mansion, a group of X-Men took off after him to stop him. Pursuing him through the tunnels, they confronted and attacked him while Psylocke used Cerebro to peel away his brainwashing. Eventually they succeeded, and Death III was no more.

Death also appeared in a possible future (Ages of Apocalypse). He is a mutated Eric the Red II with bat wings, fangs and claws.

Death I

Death II

Death III

Death IV

Death (AsOA)