Death Seed

Death Seed
Name	Death Seed
Aliases	Apocalypse Seed
Owners
Current Owner(s)	Celestial Gardeners
Previous Owner(s)	Weapon Omega, Jean Grey, Psylocke, Apocalypse, Clan Akkaba, Archangel, Apocalypse Twins, Shadowtiger
Physical Characteristics
Type	Technology
Origin
Origin	Celestial
Lead Designer	Celestials
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Rick Remender, Billy Tan
First	Uncanny X-Force #10 (May, 2011)
First	Uncanny X-Force #10 (May, 2011)

The Apocalypse Seed rivals the Phoenix Force in its transformative potential. No one, not even Apocalypse himself, ever pushed it to the limits of what it could do. It can inhabit anyone. It can be...molded. And it was created by the Celestials.

—Prophet[source]

Death Seeds are items given to Celestial-appointed evolutionary caretakers (e.g. Apocalypse and his heirs). When implanted in a person, they give the recipient a "Death" persona, as well as candidacy for being the next caretaker. They are the antithesis of the Life Seeds.

History

Origin

Before the Multiverse existed, the Celestials created the Exterminators to balance their creations of life with death. However, these monsters turned on the Celestials, which forced the Celestials to seal them up. Following this failure, the Celestials developed the Death Seeds to serve the same purpose as the Exterminators but far more manageable.

Archangel, Apocalypse's heir, acquiring a Death Seed

Celestial Gardeners give Death Seeds to select individuals charged with aiding the natural evolution of superior species on worlds. The individuals ascend in power and strength, but their minds become so twisted to the point that they will see death as something beautiful that makes space for something new to come and will not have any problem in killing millions if not billions of living beings to achieve their goal. Those infected by the Death Seed had the singular duty of ensuring the rising of a superior species such as mutants that could only be achieved by the elimination of an inferior race such as humans, and failure to do so meant that the Celestials would eventually arrive and eradicate the entire planetary population of the failed experiment.

Apocalypse, one of those who agreed to be the instrument of the Celestials on Earth to ensure the natural evolution of superior species, used the Death Seed to transform individuals into his various Horsemen of Death. One of these was Archangel.

Dark Angel Saga

Psylocke being implanted with a Death Seed by Archangel

After Apocalypse's demise, Archangel began his ascent into the next Apocalypse to replace him. Upon arriving at Akkaba Metropolis, home of Clan Akkaba, Ozymandias congratulated Archangel and was please that out of all the "Deaths" they had planted with the Death Seed, Archangel was the one who rose. Dark Beast informed the X-Force that they could stop Archangel with the Death Seed's opposite, a Life Seed, but this was a ploy to obtain the Life Seed for Archangel.

With the death of Sanjar Javeed, Archangel needed a new Death, so he needed a Death Seed to choose his successor. He went before the Dreaming Celestial in order to acquire a Death Seed. When asked by Dark Beast would who would he choose as his successor, Archangel commented that the choice was only natural in that he would select Psylocke. The process would transform her into the latest incarnation of Death until the Age of Apocalypse Jean Grey used her powers to remove that persona and return Psylocke back to normal. Psylocke stopped Archangel's plan to burn the world and restart evolution by stabbing him with the Life Seed, which destroyed the Archangel persona but also Warren's original self and he emerged as an amnesiac.

Apocalypse Twins

The Four Horsemen of Death

Following Archangel's defeat, Genocide called upon a Celestial Gardener to give him a new Death Seed so he could ascend as the next Apocalypse. However, Archangel's true heirs, the Apocalypse Twins, suddenly returned and slayed the Gardener, as part of Eimin and Uriel's campaign against humanity and their cruel surrogate father, Kang the Conqueror. Using Life and Death Seeds from the Gardener, they revived and then transformed the Sentry, Banshee, Grim Reaper, and Daken into their Horsemen of Death.

Although the Horsemen were still corrupted when the Twins and Kang were defeated, they all returned back to normal at some point. Their Death Seeds remained inside them, dormant. Daken later used Amp to briefly awaken his seed until Iceman rendered it dormant again.

Age of Apocalypse & X-Termination

Weapon Omega

Apocalypse had used the power of the Death Seed to enslave the world of Earth-295. After his death, a younger clone briefly gained his power but was killed by Weapon X. However, Logan merely ascended as the heir of Apocalypse in his place, becoming Weapon Omega. Corrupted by the power, Weapon Omega continued Apocalypse's work to promote his twisted idea of evolution under the reasoning that he was sparing the planet from Celestial judgment. He planned to rebuild the world with his wife Jean Grey and almost implanted her with a Death Seed, but she was rescued by the X-Men and Earth-616's X-Force.

Jean Grey

Doctor Doom created the Master Apparatus that could capture the Apocalypse Power and transfer it to someone else, though the power needed to be released from its host first. Reed Richards' research was used to develop a pill that could separate Weapon Omega from the Death Seed's power. After ingesting it, the Death Seed was released from Weapon Omega and was about to cause a massive explosion that would wipe out the city of New Apocalypse; however, the Seed decided to go inside Jean Grey instead. Thanks to Jean's experience with the Phoenix Force, Jean was able to reject the Seed and released it without an explosion. The Seed was then captured by Doom's Master Apparatus and sealed inside a container.

When the Exterminators attacked, Jean reluctantly unleashed the Death Seed to fight these monsters, as it was super effective against them.

Properties

The Celestials imbued Weapon X with massive cosmic powers. On par with the Phoenix Force of which Ms. Grey was once acquainted. The key is that Apocalypse's Death Seed was given to this planet for the purpose of advancing evolution. Not to its specific host. When its host is destroyed the power simply finds a new home.

—Doctor Doom[source]

Death Seeds are said to bestow powers possibly up to the level of a typical Phoenix host. They may have similar properties to the Phoenix Force, as a Death Seed was attracted to Jean Grey because she previously had the Phoenix and she was described as "perfect" for the Seed. The Seed's cosmic energies are infused at a molecular level and cannot easily be separated from its host, but it can be rendered dormant. On Earth-295, a pill was developed to separate the Death Seed from its host, but this method is extremely dangerous as the process causes an explosion. Life Seeds, as their antithesis, can cancel out the Death Seeds.

The Sentry under the influence of a Death Seed

Death Seeds are used by Celestial Gardeners to "grow" Celestial servants to shepherd a planet's evolution. It radicalizes their personality; experienced Phoenix hosts can resist this, but not completely. In general, while there seems to be only one active evolutionary caretaker per planet at a time, Death Seeds can still be planted in others. However, Death Seeds will only "ascend" the recipient as the next Apocalypse if the current one dies, which suggests the spares are of lesser quality. Additionally, if the host dies and there is no spare, the power will automatically transfer to someone else. This does not seem to occur if the Death Seed is neutralized by a Life Seed, as Genocide had to be given a new Death Seed after Archangel's defeat.

The Death Seeds' power is an "anti-power" that cannot be absorbed by the Exterminators, and according to Jean Grey, the Death Seed is alive.

Notes

• The Life Seed can break the influence of the Death Seed, but in the only example seen, it destroyed the original persona along with the Death persona and grew a completely new persona.
• Given that the newly ascended Archangel was called the Master of the Seven Seeds, there is the possibility there are more.
  • Rick Remender revealed later in an interview that he believes there are also seeds for the Pestilence, Famine and War personas.

See Also

• 14 appearance(s) of Death Seed
• 7 minor appearance(s) of Death Seed
• 7 mention(s) of Death Seed
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Death Seed
• 7 image(s) of Death Seed