Armando Muñoz

**Armando Muñoz**, also known as ***Darwin***, is a Class 4 mutant from the United States and one of the X-Men.

## Biography

Armando Muñoz was born different from other children. By age four, he was bald, his arms were longer than normal, and his eyes seemed to change. His father abandoned him and his mother around this time, and his mother blamed Armando for his mutation.

Armando grew up in the face of rejection, with even his own mother despising him, but he didn't hate her for that. He did everything he could to make her love him. A day came when he was asked to take an IQ test. Unknown to anyone at the time, Armando's desire to impress his mother subconsciously activated his mutant power and allowed him to test off the charts. He was quicked enrolled in a renowned boarding school, the Biltmore Academy for Advanced Education, but he was sent away mostly because his mother still hated him.

Although his teachers loved him, he was constantly bullied by other students. One day, the bullies put his head in the toilet, and Armando noticed that he could breathe underwater. He lifted his head out and began fighting back, feeling his arms become tough, almost like cement, when he punched them. The bullies fled, and Armando never brought up what had happened.

His mother, who was a heavy smoker, fell asleep with her cigarette still lit and accidentally set their house on fire. Armando carried her out, unaffected by the flames, much to the astonishment of the firefighters and paramedics. Tests were done at the hospital, and scientists were brought in. Armando was told that he was a mutant and was nicknamed "Darwin, the Evolving Boy" because he seemed to adapt to every condition the scientists could think of. For example, they placed him in a pitch-black room, and he gained night vision. There was even a lengthy report published about him.

Unfortunately, his mother continued to reject him, denying that she could ever give birth to such a thing. Dejected, he attempted to commit suicide by jumping off of the roof. Instead, he bounced off the ground. After talking about what had happened with a school psychiatrist, he was told that 'someone who works with other kids like him' had read about Armando and was interested in meeting him. This person turned out to be Moira MacTaggert.

Moira recruited Armando as one of her foster children until he was recruited by Charles Xavier to rescue the original team of X-Men from Krakoa. While Petra and Sway were killed by Krakoa, Darwin and Vulcan were swallowed in the earth by a combination of Sway and Petra's powers.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

**Reactive Adaptation:** Darwin's powers of self-protection offers continuous circumstantial evolution, allowing him to adapt to any situation. His reactive mutation adjusts his capabilities to his environment. Examples of such manifestations include receiving functioning gills after being submerged in water, gaining night vision after being in the dark for a couple seconds, being able to survive without oxygen in space, his skin becoming fireproof when it is exposed to flames, his body becoming pure energy to empower an energy absorbing teammate, his intelligence increasing itself, and gaining an understanding of the Shi'ar language by looking at it in written form. However, his powers do not always take the effect he desires. For examples, during his fight with the Hulk, his body teleported him away from the battle rather than supplying him with a power that would allow him to defeat the Hulk.