Warren's return as Death takes one of the easiest X-Men to recognize and makes the familiar shape frightening.

Warren's return as Death takes one of the easiest X-Men to recognize and makes the familiar shape frightening. The wings are still there, but they are metal now. They cut. They fire blades. The open, feathered silhouette that once made Angel look almost impossibly graceful has become something that can tear through the people trying to reach him. The transformation follows the attack on his wings during the Massacre, their amputation and his apparent death. Apocalypse offers him flight again at a point when that promise carries enormous weight. It isn't an offer made to someone calmly considering a new career. In X-Factor #24, his old teammates discover who is behind Death's mask. They are facing a friend whose absence has already hurt them, and he attacks before that recognition can become a reunion. Apocalypse has found a way to make their love for Warren part of the trap. His break from that control comes when he believes he has killed Iceman. Bobby's deception reaches something the armor and conditioning haven't erased. The man who grew up beside these people is still there, even if getting him back isn't as simple as saying his name. The story doesn't pretend that escaping Apocalypse immediately puts everything right. Warren can't just slip back into the old version of his life because his friends have recognized him. His body has changed, and so has his relationship with what those wings can do. That's what gives Death weight beyond the redesign. The blades are striking, but the real shock is seeing someone who once carried people to safety turned into the thing they're running from.