Carol Danvers might be better known as Captain Marvel today, but her life has taken some bizarre turns over the years. However, of all the strange arcs of her life, her role in the X-Men's iconic Age of Apocalypse crossover still stands as one of her oddest turns.
When the mutant Legion started hopping through time, he concluded that Magneto was the source of all the problems facing Charles Xavier, his father. So he goes back in time when Magneto is a young man to kill him. To his surprise, Charles ends up taking the killing blow. Without Charles Xavier, Apocalypse rises to power and conquers North America, which results in a branching timeline where everyone's trajectory is skewed by the horrific rise of one of Marvel's most sociopathic villains.
This fallen world was filled with drastically different iterations of iconic characters. For example, Magneto and Sabertooth were heroes instead of villains, Beast was a dark, twisted mad scientist and Wolverine went by Weapon X and had one hand missing. And in this world, Carol Danvers became a killer cyborg with four arms.
CAROL DANVERS IN THE AGE OF APOCALYPSE
In the original Age of Apocalypse, Carol Danvers only appeared in two comics: Weapon X #3-4, by Larry Hama and Adam Kubert. Carol is part of the Human Resistance League, where she's responsible for smuggling the teleporter Gateway to safety. Carol remains a valuable resource for the Human High Council, since she and Gateway can transfer material under Apocalypse's nose. The Human High Council was the remainder of humanity who had fled America to Europe, being led primarily by Moira and Bolivar Trask (the creators of the Sentinels), Brian Braddock (a double agent for Apocalypse), and Mariko Yashida alongside other familiar names like Ben Grimm, Thunderbolt Ross and Gwen Stacy.
While Logan and Carol's well-established friendship remains intact in this world, Carol's mission brought them together again, Weapon X needed Gateway to transport nuclear weapons and other artillery for them, which required Carol's help. But unbeknownst to him, Weapon X had been followed by Donald Pierce and his Reavers -- a legion of cybernetic soldiers under the control of Pierce. While the Reavers are usually cybernetic mercenaries, the Reavers are agents of Apocalypse in this world, where they've been sent to destroy and dismantle the Human High Council.
The Reavers try to slay Gateway, but Weapon X and Carol manage to stop them. While Pierce manages to get Gateway on his plane, Carol pushes Pierce out and appears to blow herself and Pierce up mid-air using the numerous grenades on her body.
CAROL DANVERS AND THE REAVERS
Of course, neither Pierce or Danvers died in the explosion. Pierce barely survived, while Danvers to survive her numerous shrapnel injuries. Furious at how Danvers kept him from his objectives, turned Danvers into his personal weapon: another Reaver.
While Weapon X manages to convince Gateway to help him and the Human Council, Pierce and his Reavers attacked the Human High Council to put an end to them once and for all. Given key information from Braddock, the Reavers infiltrated a secret Human High Council meeting. Under Pierce's mind control, Carol tried to slay Gateway and the rest of the council with her new cybernetic arms and wings, but Weapon X managed to hold her back.
While the two fought, Weapon X tried to remind Carol of her past self in order to break through Pierce's mental reprogramming. Ultimately, this plan worked, and Carol broke free for brief moments to counter the Reavers. But before Carol could slay Pierce, he enacted a kill code in Carol, which ended her life in an instant. This moment pushed Weapon X into a berserker rage, made worse by how Pierce taunted him over the death of his friend. But ultimately, Weapon X had the last laugh when he impaled Pierce on the edge of the claws emerging from his stump.
Even though Carol Danvers wasn't the most prominent player in the Age of Apocalypse timeline, this world still shows how deep Captain Marvel's ties run with Wolverine.