History
Thomas Halloway and his twin brother Robert grew up on Welfare Pen, where their father was the warden after their mother died from childbirth. There Thomas and Robert were instructed by a number of experts, as well as a number of the inmates, which gave them a unique insight into the underworld while the two gave the prison's occupants the illusion that they were only teaching Thomas. Thomas earned the moniker "Angel" when he saved one of the inmates from the electric chair. He was later very interested in pulp stories by Robert and influenced in believing a better future for people. One of his tutors, Sean Cassidy, was killed by Eric Magnus during a police raid, when Robert ruined Cassidy's warning system. Thomas' father subsequently committed suicide for allowing himself to be "played by a system he couldn't control."
Thomas was adopted by a well-off family, but his brother refused and wanted to continue the life of a vigilante influenced by the pulps. By his adult age, Thomas worked with Robert as both an investigator and vigilante, becoming the Angel while playing the same trick that was used on the inmates. Making people to believed that Thomas was the only person who acted as the Angel. [citation needed]
X-Men Noir[]
Thomas was later involved in investigating the murder of Jean Grey, which leads him to encounter the renegade X Men, lead by Scott "Cyclops" Summers. Caught by Summers, Henry "Beast" McCoy, and Robert "Iceman" Drake, he explained to them that he sought to help them discover the real murderer of Jean Grey after learning their existence from their mentor Professor Xavier, whom he interviews at Rikers Island when posing as a journalist. The three grudgingly take him in as they exposed the corruption and cover-ups posed by Eric Magnus and his Brotherhood (as well as averting a fight between Cyclops and Captain Logan over Jean Grey's death in a local bar) and eventually assisting in the supposed assassination of Eric and Peter Magnus atop the Empire State Building, only for Eric to survive. During the investigation, Thomas became infatuated with Magnus's daughter and socialite, Wanda Magnus.[citation needed]
Thomas ultimately finds out that Jean Grey was alive and faked her death to avoid both Eric Magnus and Professor Xavier and murdered her friend Anna-Marie Rankin in her place instead. Grey stole Rankin's identity in order to collect the millions of fortune Anne-Marie was to inherit. After deducing Jean's true identity, Thomas saw Robert killed Jean and himself in the process by tackling her from the roof of Welfare Pen they were on. After looking over the bodies of Robert and Jean, Thomas decided to go to Madripoor with Summers and Captain Logan in tow.
Mark of Cain[]
Following the massacre at Welfare Pen, Thomas became a wanted man for his involvement and was part of a ragtag group consisting of Scott Summers, Captain Logan, and Logan's First Mate Eugene Judd. They were hired by Cain Marko (a former prison mentor of Thomas and his brother) into finding the Gem of Cyttorak, a priceless artifact that they were given the map to by Marko. Upon retrieving the gem from the local natives in the ruins located in Madripoor, they swap the gem for a supposed cash bounty, only for Cain to betray them and sell them out to the local authorities instead.
After escaping the authorities, the group finds out that Cain Marko was killed soon after an attempted escape, and the Gem lost to the assailant. Thomas traced the Gem to Genosha Bay Prison, and by having the others reveal his location to the authorities in order to make his way to Genosha Bay. He escaped from his cell and managed to interrogate Warden Emma Frost, who reveals that the prison is used as a morgue for those killed by the soldiers by the local Army Base, Cain Marko being among them. After nearly escaping from the prison in an effort to rejoin the X Men, he is attacked by Ororo, Kurt "The Demon" Wagner, and Comrade Rasputin and place in a padded room in which Professor Xavier is discovered to be working.
Xavier reveals that Emma Frost was allowing him to use the facilities and all he must do in exchange is force Thomas into revealing how he escaped. Tommy refused, and Xavier subjects him to Project Wideawake, a week of no sleep, constant lighting in the room. Thomas nearly succumbs, only for Wanda Magnus (who works with Xavier) to secretly rescue him from the facility, all the while appalled by his oddly cruel behavior towards her, possibly due to the lack of sleep, even demanding to be called Robert at one point.
The two are grudgingly rescued by Captain Logan aboard his ship and dropped off. He reveals a plan to steal the Gem of Cyttorak from the X Men after Scott's group acquires it. He and Scott's group attacked the Blackbird, the ship said to house the Gem, only for Xavier's other X Men waiting to intercept them. He breaks off and confronts Kurt "The Demon" Wagner, defeating him, then witnessing Cyclops betrayal of the group to Professor Xavier.
Soon after being taken to Xavier for capture by Cyclops and the X Men, Robert reveals that Xavier and the X Men worked with the secret government agency O*N*E* and their sole purpose in obtaining the Gem of Cyttorak was to bargain it with Madripoor Prince Baran in order to relocate Genosha Bay Prison, an actual secret training facility for America's next generation of secret operatives, to Madripoor during the midst of the public controversy surrounding Genosha Bay. Thomas furthermore revealed that he had an associate "switch" the Gem of Cyttorak with a sensitive fake. He then leaves the group and proceeds to the home of Wanda Magnus where he, upon hearing that the other Gem he switched the fake with was fake as well, almost strangles her, until Kitty Pryde comes to her rescue. She proves no match for him, breaking her nose during the fight, then knocking her out. Xavier soon appears and unwittingly confessing to the murder of Cain Marko, to which Xavier claimed that Thomas was an example of his hypothesis that Thomas had achieved a new state he called "Heropathy," meaning always remaining a compulsive hero, no matter what happens, and that Thomas disappointed him, corrupting faster than he ever imagined. However, Thomas surprises everyone present that he had been actually faking his darker urges the whole time just as FBI agents stormed into the room, ready to arrest Xavier, Wanda, and Pryde. Thomas then leaves again to save Captain Logan and his First Mate from Genosha Prison.[citation needed]