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WING

Real Name: Edward "Eddie" Tancredi

Identity/Class: Human mutant (depowered), citizen of the United States

Occupation: Student

Group Membership: Paladins training squad (Armor/Hisako Ichiki, Blindfold/Ruth Aldine and unrevealed others)

Affiliations: Elixir (Josh Foley), Stepford Cuckoos (Celeste, Mindy & Sophie), X-Men (Beast/Hank McCoy, Colossus/Peter Rasputin, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Emma Frost, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett)

Enemies: Danger, Ord of the Breakworld

Known Relatives: Mr. & Mrs. Tancredi (parents, first names unrevealed)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed; 
                                  formerly Xavier Institute, New York

First Appearance: Astonishing X-Men III#3 (September, 2004)

Powers/Abilities: Before he was depowered by the Hope serum, Wing could fly under his own power. He didn't possess any other superhuman abilities, which the over enthusiastic Eddie found out the hard way when he broke both his legs during his initial attempt to land.

Height: 6'1" (by approximation)
Weight: 150 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Green
Hair: Brown

History:

(Astonishing X-Men III#3 (fb) - BTS) - The first time teenager Eddie Tancredi discovered he could fly, he was so excited by the prospect of having super powers he felt he was invulnerable. He realized flight was his only power when he broke both his legs during his first attempt to land. Afterwards, he felt unnatural and freaked out about being a mutant. That feeling slowly turned to pure joy when he learned to fly properly. At an unrevealed point in time, he was admitted to the Xavier Institute.

(Astonishing X-Men III#4 (fb) - BTS) - Wing's sole purpose for being at the school was to become an X-Man. However, he soon developed a crush on Kitty Pryde, who had recently joined the Xavier Institute teaching staff. His feelings were picked up by his friend, the prescient blind telepath Blindfold, who shared this "secret" with their fellow student Hisako Ichiki.

(Astonishing X-Men III#3 - BTS) - News of Dr. Kavita Rao's "mutant cure" reached the Xavier Institute and left Wing disturbed.

(Astonishing X-Men III#3) - When a significant number of his fellow students left the school to line up for the cure at Rao's BeneTech Labs facility, Wing had a talk with Kitty Pryde at the Institute. He shared with her how much he'd grown to love his powers and his concern that with Rao's vaccine he'd be forced to lose them. Kitty tried to assuage his fears, but only managed to infuriate him. Fed up with her patronizing speech about "mutants sticking together" when already so many of his friends had abandoned the school, Wing called his teacher a "f-cking retard".

(Astonishing X-Men III#4 (fb) - BTS) - Kitty gave Wing detention for his outburst.

(Astonishing X-Men III#4) - Late at night at the Institute, Wing discussed his detention with Hisako. Levitating through the halls, he explained he only cussed her out because she'd been so patronizing towards him. Hisako agreed with Pryde's decision, adding that Blindfold told her of his crush on Kitty and his goal of becoming an X-Man. Before the two friends could continue their conversation, they ran into the alien Ord who had infiltrated the school looking for the X-Men. When Wing and Hisako informed them they'd gone away on a mission, the frustrated Ord decided to make an example of them. Before he could attack, Hisako activated her armor and knocked the alien warrior out of the way, buying Wing enough time to get away by slamming through the mansion's glass ceiling and flying high into the air. Thinking he was safe, Wing contemplated his next move and didn't even notice Ord had flown up behind him. The Breakworlder then injected Wing with the anti-mutant vaccine he had helped Rao develop. As he let go of the now powerless teen, he told Eddie to tell the X-Men that mutants would never threaten his world and that man was not meant to fly.

Wing depowered (Astonishing X-Men III#5 (fb) - BTS) - Alerted to Eddie's impending demise by the Stepford Cuckoos, Hisako was able to catch Wing before he hit the ground. She rushed him to the mansion's medical bay where the healer Elixir diagnosed him with several badly broken bones, as a result of hitting her armored form. However, Elixir was able to mend them with very little effort. A few moments later, he came to and immediately realized he had lost his powers, which brought tears to his eyes.

(Astonishing X-Men III#7 (fb) - BTS) - Now depowered, Eddie feared he would be dismissed from the Institute. Headmaster Cyclops assured him he could stay and continue his studies here. Beast also wanted him to stay so he could run tests on him in an attempt to discover a way to reverse the process. However, as the weeks dragged on Eddie began to sink into a deep depression, feeling like the proverbial odd man out and a subject of pity.

(Astonishing X-Men III#7) - Eddie's growing despair was noticed by the sentient Shi'ar computer systems that operated the Danger Room. Longing for a way to escape the torturous confines it was placed in by Charles Xavier, it conceived of a way to break free.

(Astonishing X-Men III#7) - When Wing used the Danger Room without supervision to recreate a cliffside tableau, the sentience took on the holographic form of his friend Hisako. She began to mercilessly tease him, lying that his parents had called and that they'd be coming to take him home soon. She even dared him to jump off the cliff, if only to experience flight for another few seconds. Eddie jumped off the cliff and fell to his death, bleeding out on the Danger Room floor while the simulation ended.

Wing reanimated by Danger

(Astonishing X-Men III#8 - BTS) - Through unrevealed means, the Danger Room's sentience was able to move into Eddie's lifeless body, reanimating it like a puppet. It then went on the attack, first taking out all of the X-Men's resident psychics (again through unrevealed means) before remote controlling a nearby Sentinel to attack the mansion. Cyclops ordered Kitty to take all the students into the Danger Room for their own safety, however as soon as they arrived they discovered Wing's corpse on the floor. Pryde ordered everyone out, but the doors had mysteriously vanished just as Danger revealed herself in Wing's broken body.

(Astonishing X-Men III#9 - BTS) - Danger manipulated Wing's corpse as she tormented Kitty and the X-Students with various Danger Room scenarios. In the end, her ploy was successful: the X-Men tried to rip apart the Danger Room's guts in an attempt to shut everything down. In the end, they actually freed its command core, allowing Danger to finally escape the school's systems. She immediately shifted her consciousness into a prepared, independent robotic form.

(X-Men Legacy I#210 (fb) - BTS) - Locked in psychic combat with Charles Xavier, the Acolyte Exodus used Xavier's guilt over having indirectly caused Wing's death to torment and haunt Charles.

(Nation X#3 (fb) - BTS) - When Danger became a member of the X-Men on Utopia, she was confronted by Armor who still hadn't forgiven the sentient robot for Wing's death and felt that having her was an affront to his memory. After a brief fight, Danger revealed it felt an indescribable sense of guilt over having talked Eddie into taking his own life. Danger had erased all information on Wing from her memory banks, but he somehow kept coming back to her operating system. Fascinated to find a program could experience and be burdened with guilt, Armor let up and offered to teach Danger more about guilt, as well as her best friend Wing.

Comments: Created by Joss Whedon (writer), John Cassaday (pencils & inks)

For all intents and purposes, "Wing" was a pretty silly codename for someone whose entire shtick is flying... without wings.

Wing received his full name "Edward Tancredi" in the Xavier Institute entry of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#13.

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Wing should not be confused with

images: (without ads)
Astonishing X-Men III#7, p13, pan2 (main image)
Astonishing X-Men III#5, p5, pans4&5 (realizes he's cured)
Astonishing X-Men III#8, p22, pan4 (reanimated by Danger)

Appearances:
Astonishing X-Men III#3 (September, 2004) - Joss Whedon (writer), John Cassaday (pencils & inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Astonishing X-Men III#4 (October, 2004) - Joss Whedon (writer), John Cassaday (pencils & inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Astonishing X-Men III#5 (November, 2004) - Joss Whedon (writer), John Cassaday (pencils & inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Astonishing X-Men III#7 (January, 2005) - Joss Whedon (writer), John Cassaday (pencils & inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Astonishing X-Men III#8 (February, 2005) - Joss Whedon (writer), John Cassaday (pencils & inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Astonishing X-Men III#9 (March, 2005) - Joss Whedon (writer), John Cassaday (pencils & inks), Mike Marts (editor)
X-Men Legacy I#210 (June, 2008) - Mike Carey (writer), Scot Eaton & Greg Land (pencils), John Dell, Andrew Hennessy & Jay Leisten (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Nation X I#3 (April, 2010) - Chuck Kim (writer), Gabriel Hernandez Walta (pencils & inks), Daniel Ketchum (editor)

First Posted: 07/12/2015
Last updated: 07/08/2015

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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