Apocalypse

Origin

En Sabah Nur
En Sabah Nur

The story of Apocalypse began in 3000 BC Egypt during the First Dynasty. Born gray-skinned (although Apocalypse’s skin color is sometimes depicted as flesh colored or dark skinned) and blue-lipped with natural facial markings, in the settlement of Akkaba, he was abandoned as an infant, but found by a band of desert nomads, the Sandstormers, whose leader, Baal, saw the child’s potential power, and raised him as his own, naming him En Sabah Nur. He was taught in the philosophy that the tribe lives and dies by: survival of the fittest. Nur and Baal were the only Sandstormers to survive on the day that General Ozymandias with his army, destroys the Sandstormers’ tribe, as they found refuge in a sacred cave before it collapsed. Baal eventually died from lack of nourishment after weeks of deprivation, but before he did, he admitted to Nur that he had believed him to be a savior foretold in ancient prophecies who was destined to overthrow the pharaoh Rama-Tut. The young Nur vowed to take revenge on the pharaoh and claim his destiny. He hid himself as a slave in Tut’s city, where he has visions of Egyptian gods who revealed his great destiny. The pharaoh Rama-Tut, in actuality an earlier incarnation of Kang the Conqueror who had come back in time to locate the young Apocalypse and take him under his wing, tried to convince Nur to join him, but the young mutant savagely attacked the pharaoh only to be taken down by the conqueror’s futuristic weapon. Nur survived, and tried to rescue Nephri, Ozymandias’ sister, who had become attracted to the mysterious slave, but Nur was ultimately rejected by Nephri for his inhuman appearance, and she turned to her brother for protection in her panic. Heartbroken by this final rejection, En Sabah Nur’s prodigious mutant abilities fully emerged in his enraged state, and he renames himself Apocalypse. Rama-Tut flees the former slave’s rampage, while Nur uses his advanced technology to enslave and transform his former tormentor, Ozymandias, into a blind seer made of living stone, who would forever chronicle Apocalypse’s future destinies. Fifty years later, Nur revisits Nephri, now an elderly Egyptian Queen on her deathbed, and mocks the loss of her beauty and vitality, in contrast to his own unchanged appearance, despite the passage of time.

Creation

Apocalypse was created by writer Louise Simonson and by artist Walter Simonson and first appeared shadowed in a cameo in X-Factor Vol.1 issue 5 (1986) before appearing fully in issue 6 of the series. Apocalypse famously almost never saw the light of day, if not for a last moment replacement for the villain of the arc that was originally going to be the Daredevil villain the Owl. Newcomer to the book Louise Simonson opting to introduce a new character instead of using the established Owl character. Editor Bob Harras on his view of the character’s conception “As soon as I saw the sketch by Walter (Simonson) and heard Louise’s take on him. I knew we had the character I wanted – Jackson (Guice) re-drew the page, patching in the shadowy Apocalypse where the Owl had been. But the genesis was clearly Walt and Weezie’s.”

Character Evolution

Apocalypse has been an arch-enemy of the X-Men since his first appearance, and continues to do so. However, the true ‘616 Main Marvel universe’ version of Apocalypse was last seen in the post M-Day story arc in X-Men 182 -186 in which Apocalypse was left in space. He has not been seen since.

After that story-arc, a clone of Apocalypse named Genesis was created by Clan Akaba in the pages of Uncanny X-Force. Luckily, he was saved and taken in by the X-Men. The good-hearted Genesis has been part of the X-Men team from that moment on.

More recently, a future alternate version of Apocalypse was brought to the 616 Main Marvel Universe in the pages of Extraordinary X-Men.

Major Story Arcs

Exodus

Exodus
Exodus

As the millennia pass, Apocalypse travels around the world to determine if his time of testing had come. He appears throughout history, encouraging civilizations to worship him as a god from several ancient mythologies and testing their strength by manipulating them into fighting wars of conquest, and claiming to have brought “growth, judgment, and destruction.” Apocalypse begins to beget progeny, who faithfully followed him as the Clan Akkaba. At some point, Apocalypse discovers advanced alien technology, which he uses to transform and enhance himself. Apocalypse now enters states of suspended animation, while he waits for mutants to become more common, leaving Clan Akkaba and Ozymandias to act in his stead while he sleeps. Apocalypse has some history of having fought the race of godlike immortals known as Eternals, primarily the members Ikaris and Sersi, having been referred to as their “Ancient Nemesis”. In the 12th century, Apocalypse would re-encounter the Eternal Sersi, when he came across the crusader Bennet du Paris and awakens his latent mutant powers, transforming him into Exodus.

Mr. Sinister

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In Victorian London, 1859, Apocalypse encounters Nathaniel Essex, a British scientist, and through him, learns the scientific term for beings like himself – mutant. Coercing Essex and members of the Hellfire Club into working for him, Apocalypse plots the first steps in his quest for global conflict on an unprecedented scale. He uses his advanced technology to transform Nathaniel into Mister Sinister, and commands him to create a plague to ravage and transmute the population of the world. At the same time, the mutant heroes Cyclops and Phoenix had been sent back through time to stop Apocalypse. Close to slaying the British Royal Family, Apocalypse is suddenly greatly weakened, and Cyclops and Phoenix manage to defeat him. It is revealed that Sinister had betrayed Apocalypse, seeing his vision of the future as madness, and had instead created a plague that attacked only Apocalypse, forcing the ancient mutant into his hibernation sanctuary. In 1897, Apocalypse is awaken by his followers, in order to deal with Dracula, who is turning members of Clan Akkaba into vampires to battle Apocalypse, as revenge for his earlier defeat centuries ago as Vlad Tepes. Apocalypse, with some assistance from Abraham Van Helsing, kills Dracula. The continuation of the Akkaba line is secured by Ozymandias through a disabled but powerful teleporter named Frederick Slade mating with a woman.

Modern Era

ApocalypseApocalypse
Apocalypse

Apocalypse spends many years hidden, but awakes from his slumber by the arrival of the mysterious time-traveling mutant Cable (ironically, Cable had come to the present to prevent the ancient mutant’s awakening). Awakened almost a century earlier than he had planned, Apocalypse decides to examine the world and determine its conditions for testing. He grants superhuman powers to the terrorist known as Moses Magnum, who does his bidding by testing the strong and winnowing the weak, battling the X-Men and the Avengers. Apocalypse first crosses paths with the original X-Men team (then organized as the mutant hunting group, X-Factor) when he briefly employs the Alliance of Evil, and orders them to capture the mutant Michael Nowlan. Apocalypse plans to use Nowlan’s power-boosting mutation to provide mutantkind with unlimited power. This plan was foiled by the interference of the X-Factor team.

The Four Horsemen

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Apocalypse later recruits mutants to serve as his Four Horsemen. Among them is Angel, whom Apocalypse saves from an exploding plane, granting him artificial wings (after he had lost his own natural wings) in exchange for his servitude. The X-Factor member is reborn as Death. Apocalypse summons the X-Factor team to his cloaked ship, which floats invisibly above the city. Apocalypse was interested in this group of mutants and had studied them, monitored their activities and researched their origins and motives after learning of Professor Xavier and the X-Men. Apocalypse explains his scheme to unleash his Horsemen and destroy New York, and offers X-Factor a place at his side. In the end, the Horsemen are defeated by X-Factor, thanks to the help of both the reformed Angel as well as Power Pack. Apocalypse leaves his Celestial Ship for them and in return, takes the willing Morlock Caliban. Afterwards, Apocalypse secretly takes some control over the ship, and it starts to fight X-Factor, but they regain control. Apocalypse escapes with Caliban to one of his bases at Mount Everest.

Evolutionary War

During the Evolutionary War, Apocalypse confronts the High Evolutionary who had embarked on a quest to rid the world of a lesser species that he felt were preventing evolution from moving forward. Believing that the Evolutionary was disrupting the natural order of things, Apocalypse commenced battle with Wyndham. In the end, because of the High Evolutionary’s actions, it helped the species evolve and grow stronger which ironically helped Apocalypse’s plan of weeding out the weak and forcing the strong to rise. Following the genetic manipulation of Caliban, Apocalypse is confronted by the Norse god Loki, who wants him to join his ” Acts of Vengeance”, but Apocalypse refuses and the two briefly fight.

Cable and Stryfe

Apocalypse learns of Sinister’s intention to create an adversary powerful enough to destroy him; Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor. Apocalypse, viewing him as a threat and realizing that Nathan’s energy is the very energy that awoke him all those months earlier, sends his newly formed group, the Riders of the Storm, to abduct the Summers child. Apocalypse at this time had conquered the city of Attilan, home of the Inhumans, and enslaved part of its population. X-Factor, alongside the Inhuman Royal Family, attacks Apocalypse’s lunar stronghold. Although Apocalypse is severely defeated, the young Nathan is infected with a techno-organic virus, and is sent to the future with a woman named Askani to be cured. In the future, Apocalypse has conquered the world and ruled until the 39th century. By this time, Apocalypse’s body had grown feeble; he becomes aware of the young Nathan’s presence in this time. The Askani had created a clone of young Nathan and Apocalypse’s forces kidnap the clone by mistake. Apocalypse plans to transfer his consciousness and power into the clone’s stronger body, thinking that the child really is a young Nathan that was strong enough to survive the techno-organic virus, but perishes in combat with the (real) teenage Nathan. Nathan grows up to become the warrior Cable while his clone grows up to become the mutant terrorist known as Stryfe. and travels back to the past to prevent Apocalypse’s future domination of the planet.

X-Cutioner’s Song

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In the present, Apocalypse is prematurely awoken from his regeneration chamber by his Riders (now calling themselves, The Dark Riders). They inform their master that his Horsemen have kidnapped Cyclops and Jean Grey, supposedly under his instructions. It was actually Mister Sinister, who was posing as Apocalypse. When attempting to rejuvenate himself again, Apocalypse is nearly killed by Stryfe who had arrived in the past to take revenge on Apocalypse. At the end of this conflict, Apocalypse is presumed deceased due to his two recent attempts at regeneration having been interrupted. He teleports away and has a confrontation with a group of X-Men. He defeats them all in under 60 seconds. He ports away again and later shows up at the X-Mansion to offer his services to stop Stryfe. As a show of good faith he cures Xavier of the techno-organic virus that Stryfe had infected him with. He travels with the X-Men to the moon. After a group struggle he sets off on his own and confronts his Dark Riders (who had joined Stryfe after Apocalypse’s defeat). They managed to escape but Apocalypse was severely wounded. Archangel finds him and Apocalypse ask for him to finish the job. But he leaves Apocalypse to die alone.

Genesis

The Dark Rider’s new leader, Genesis – the son of Cable, who had traveled to the present to ensure Apocalypse’s rise and exact revenge on his father – plans to resurrect Apocalypse by sacrificing the lives of the people in villages neighboring Akkaba. During this time, Wolverine is held captive by Genesis, who attempts to restore Wolverine’s lost adamantium skeleton and turn him into a Horseman as a gift for Apocalypse. However, Wolverine breaks free and mutates into a feral state, and then kills Genesis along with nearly all of the Dark Riders. (Ironically enough, Apocalypse himself would repeat Genesis’s scheme of reinforcing Wolverine’s skeleton with adamantium again and brainwashing him into servitude, succeeding where Genesis had failed.) During the fight, Cannonball opens the sarcophagus containing Apocalypse’s body, but finds it empty, and wonders if Genesis was either lying about Apocalypse, or was delusional, or maybe Apocalypse had gotten up and left by himself. It should be noted that Apocalypse was seen alive before this.

Onslaught

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After a long healing slumber, Apocalypse, fully restored, awakens with Ozymandias at his side and quickly learns of the present danger: Onslaught. He observes the conflict between the psionic entity and Earth’s heroes with Uatu the Watcher, who suggests to Apocalypse a course of action; an alliance with the one who hated him the most, Cable. Apocalypse surmises that Onslaught would be most vulnerable through the astral plane, and that he needs Cable for actual physical transportation to this realm. Once on the astral plane, Apocalypse would remove the captive Franklin Richards, greatly weakening Onslaught. The plan succeeds, but is interrupted by the Invisible Woman, who had invisibly accompanied the pair, having suspected Apocalypse’s motive in wanting to actually kill her son. However, the reprieve in battle gave Onslaught the time to escape, prolonging the conflict. Following the events of the Onslaught saga, the gamma-spawned powerhouse, the Hulk and his human alter ego, Banner, are split into two separate entities; Hulk now draws upon energy derived from Franklin Richards’ pocket universe; Apocalypse recruits the Hulk to become his Horseman, War, with intentions of using the Hulk’s nexus-energy to overcome the Celestials. To test this newest recruit, Apocalypse set War against the New World Order, a shadow cabinet organization that intends to conquer the world. The New World Order in turn set the Juggernaut and the Absorbing Man against War, but both are easily defeated. However, Hulk comes to his senses after injuring his friend, Rick Jones. Despite this apparent setback, the incident was still a victory for Apocalypse as it was a successful testing of newly understood Celestial technology. Apocalypse activates the self-destruct mechanism on the sword of War, which the New World Order had obtained, destroying their headquarters.

The Hellfire Club later awakens Apocalypse’s long-hidden Harbinger from its deep sleep; originally a normal man, whom Apocalypse in the 19th century once left to incubate for 100 years. Apocalypse releases his Horseman (Caliban) and his scribe Ozymandias from his possession, to fend for themselves, if they were to survive the coming events. Cable with the Avengers battles the Harbinger, but are unable to stop it. Apocalypse then appears, activating a bomb inside the Harbinger which would destroy all of New York, but Cable manages to prevent this disaster.

When Magneto, is disrupting Earth’s magnetic field, Apocalypse sends a Skrull impersonating the mutant Astra (having dealt with the original Astra) to stop the Master of Magnetism.

Intending to start an all-out war between the humans and the subterranean-dwelling Deviants as part of his plan to test the strong, Apocalypse sets off nuclear warheads at Lemuria, causing the Deviants to further mutate (which also restores Ikaris’s father Virako to life). Apocalypse launches an attack at San Francisco, using a mentally controlled Deviant, Karkas, now a gigantic monster, that the Eternals are forced to battle. Apocalypse is confronted by his centuries-old foe, Ikaris, who now is a Prime Eternal. Although, Apocalypse defeats Ikaris, the Eternal still succeeds in destroying his ship and thwarting his plan.

The Twelve

Apocalypse's TwelveApocalypse's Twelve
Apocalypse’s Twelve

Supposedly lost diaries of the mutant seer Destiny surfaced, telling of twelve beings that could defeat Apocalypse once and for all. Various mutants, all listed in the prophecy, are abducted by Apocalypse’s Horsemen including a faction of the Skrulls. The Twelve legend was in fact a ruse, orchestrated by Apocalypse himself; once the Twelve are assembled, Apocalypse intended to use them to transform himself into a godlike entity beyond the Celestials. It is revealed at the end of this story arc, that Apocalypse’s physical form has been burned out due to the vast amount of energies he has under his control, forcing him to wear a bio-armor (like his future counterpart), and now plans to use Nate Grey as a host body for him to move his energy and consciousness into. The X-Men confront Apocalypse as he is close to merging with Nate, but are unable to stop him. Cyclops however, pushes Nate Grey out of the way, merging with Apocalypse instead. While the merge is successful, Apocalypse’s aim for unlimited power is not, and he attempts to complete the transformation by warping reality into various scenarios (see Age of Apocalypse). Apocalypse hoped to lull the Twelve into empowering him with their energy, but eventually, the mutants realize their true predicament and Apocalypse teleports away. An amnesiac and powerless Cyclops regains control of the merged form, but Apocalypse begins to re-emerge, however. Jean and Cable are alerted to his location in Egypt, where Jean in the end manages to free Cyclops by telepathically tearing out Apocalypse’s essence from her husband’s body, rendering Apocalypse in an incorporeal astral form, which Cable apparently destroys using his Psimitar.

Post-M-Day

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Due to the events of M-Day, in which most of the mutants lost their powers, Apocalypse was revealed to be alive and well. The techno-organic virus, with which he long ago infected Cable, was revealed to be the means by which Apocalypse’s spirit reconstituted itself. With only a drop of his blood into a vat of organs and blood, the virus would rewrite the genetic code of the material within to form a body for Apocalypse. Apocalypse finds himself in a world with its mutant population reduced to a tenth of what it had been, out of the millions who populated earth prior to his demise at Cable’s hands. Reappearing inside a Sphinx-shaped ship, Apocalypse confronts the X-Men with his newly assembled cadre of Horsemen on the front lawn of the X-Mansion. The Horseman Famine uses his powers to cause an intense feeling of hunger and weakness in the mutants and humans on the institute grounds. Apocalypse offers the mutants an elixir; his own blood, provided they join his side. Bent on becoming the new messiah for mutant-kind, Apocalypse approaches the world leaders at the United Nations in New York and issues an ultimatum: humanity would destroy ninety percent of its own population, putting man and mutant on level ground in anticipation of the final conflict when the worthy alone would survive – or Apocalypse would unleash his meta-plague on the world and obliterate all humanity. In the end, Apocalypse’s horsemen are lost, Ozymandias betrays him, and he is forced to retreat by combined assault of the X-Men and the Avengers. Ultimately, it is discovered that the Celestials lent their technology to Apocalypse, requiring as payment greater sufferings later. He attempts to embrace death as an escape from his lifelong pact, only to find himself instantly resurrected. Important note: This is an important chapter, since it has been the last time the 616 version of Apocalypse was seen.

Uncanny X-Force

Apocalypse was cloned, but was saved by the X-Men and became the good-hearted Evan (or Genesis)Apocalypse was cloned, but was saved by the X-Men and became the good-hearted Evan (or Genesis)
Apocalypse was cloned, but was saved by the X-Men and became the good-hearted Evan (or Genesis)

Apocalypse has recently been resurrected by the Clan Akkaba. Reborn and now In the body of a small child they have began reconditioning him to his earlier teachings that only the strong shall survive. He was later killed by an Fantomex, a member of the Uncanny X-Force. A new form of Apocalypse is now in the World, guarded by Fantomex’s “loyal laboratory guard dog”, Ultimaton. Fantomex released the Apocalypse clone early in order to battle Archangel who had inherited Apocalypse’s powers earlier. The child is now in, what appears to be, his teenage years, and goes by the name Evan, codenamed Genesis. at the end of The Dark Angel Saga, he is shown being taken to Wolverine’s school to be enrolled as a student. Beast is apprehensive at best about this.

Avengers and X-Men: Axis

Note: This is actually Evan whom turned into Apocalypse

Evan turned into ApocalypseEvan turned into Apocalypse
Evan turned into Apocalypse

During the events of Axis, in which the X-Men and the Avengers fought the Red Skull. In order to stop him, the Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom casted a spell to bring Xavier back inside Red Skull’s body. The Inversion spell however failed, causing all heroes to turn evil, and villains to become good. Because of this, the kind-hearted Evan (Genesis) was turned into Apocalypse, his dark side. He ruled the evil X-Men, who like him have also turned to their dark sides. Apocalypse/Evan and his X-Men took control over New York City. They went looking for the Red Skull’s body, which was locked up in the Avengers tower. After a brief battle, in which they captured Captain America, Apocalypse/Evan announced to New York that he and his X-Men where in charge and if they do not want to be killed they better leave New York.

While this happened, Apocalypse/Evan, secretly made a Celestial machine that would wipe out all humans world wide. Mystique shows up to try and talk some sense into the X-Men, so Apocalypse sends Rogue and Night Crawler to deal with Mystique. Mystique tells her two children that this is wrong and they need to stop this before it’s too late and they ruin Xavier’s dream forever. It is then that the heroes whom remained ‘normal’ attacked Apocalypse/Evan and the inverted X-Men. During the battle, Apocalypse killed Deadpool as Deadpool and Spiderman where trying to stop him and his Gene Bomb. Deadpool tried to reason with Evan (Apocalypse), telling him that he is still good and he doesn’t have to go down the road as his original, former self. Apocalypse then ripped Deadpool’s head off. Apocalypse later snatched Spiderman up and was about to kill him until Thor did a sneak attack that caught Apocalypse by surprise. Thor had to use his Jarnbijor, hitting Apocalypse/Evan in the back, cracking his celestial armor. Before Apocalypse could recover, Thor kept hitting him with the axe and would have killed him if it wasn’t for Absorbing Man. Even after the beating with the axe Apocalypse was able to save Rogue from Kluh. Mystique used her shape shifting powers to turn into Xavier to try to get Apocalypse/Evan to stop, and to hope that there was some part of Evan still in him, but it failed and as Apocalypse was going to kill her, Absorbing Man saved her, touching the same axe Thor was using to try and kill Apocalypse. Eventually the Inversion-spel was reversed and al heroes returned to themselves, including Evan, whom no longer was Apocalypse.

Extraordinay X-Men

More recently, The X-Men fought a future alternate-reality Apocalypse. He was eventually brought to the (main Marvel Universe) 616-Universe. This was done because this future version of Apocalypse had turned the X-Man Colossus into one of his Horsemen. While the altered Colossus had escaped, the future Apocalypse was held prisinor in the new X-Men base known as X-Haven.

Degeneration

Apocalypse restored to his natural formApocalypse restored to his natural form
Apocalypse restored to his natural form

Having somehow survived his death, Apocalypse attempts to find a way to transfer his powers and mind into another physically fit form. One of his sedated test subjects, D, awakens out of nowhere and the ensuing altercation transports him to a fantastical realm he cannot identity. To his horror, Apocalypse discovers that he is slowly becoming human, and the more he uses his powers, the less of a mutant he becomes. He eventually devolves into a hominid-like human and is captured by masked figures who are in fact the same test subjects he was experimenting on, and by a stroke of luck, uses the last vestige of his mutant power to transfer his consciousness to D. Fully restored, he slaughters them and plans to nurture the land in his image.

Uncanny X-Men

Apocalypse is next seen as a captive of a mysterious figure revealed to be X-Man. He also abducts Kitty Pryde and an anti-mutant senator to be his three voices of reason, as he decides he wants to change the world.

Age of X-Man

House of X

Powers

Apocalypse is one of the most powerful mutants who have ever lived in the Marvel Universe as well as one of the most powerful beings who have ever walked the face of the Earth. Apocalypse was originally an External mutant, whose wide variety of superpowers, which already quite powerful were enhanced, modified, and amplified to be far beyond their original limits after exposure and merging with Celestial technology from the Celestial Ship which also allowed Apocalypse to gain new powers as well. Because of this, Apocalypse possesses several superhuman powers unlike most mutants. When at full power, Apocalypse is in fact more powerful than even powerful mutants such as Exodus or Stryfe and has also been able to defeat Ikaris when he was a Prime Eternal in battle and Apocalypse has even held his own against powerful foes such as Loki and even the High Evolutionary in battle. It has even been said that Apocalypse’s powers appear to be limitless as even Apocalypse himself has claimed that he is still not fully aware of the full powers he has been given from the Celestial starship and that it has even been stated that Apocalypse’s powers will continue to grow and evolve to higher and greater levels over time. His celestial armor is almost impossible to penetrate, on one occasion when he fought a young Thor; Thor was not able to hurt Apocalypse even with his Asguardian ax… Loki (Kang pretending to be Loki) was able to trick Thor into placing a certain spell that allows someone to break through celestial armor, the spell was placed on Thor’s ax, which even then it did not kill Apocalypse once Apocalypse let his guard down for Thor to hit him with it..

Super-Strength: Apocalypse possesses vast superhuman strength the full limits of which are unknown and have never been measured. However, Apocalypse is strong enough to physical lift well over 100 tons of weight easily without a doubt as well as fight and hold his own against Namor after Namor was exposed and empowered by salt water and in a fight with Thor. A headbutt was said to send shock waves for over a hundred of miles. Apocalypse also possesses a much higher degree of resistance to pain and physical injury than that of normal humans allowing him to withstand powerful explosives, energy attacks, and falls from orbital heights, physical blows from superhumans like Colossus or Namor with far less physical injury than that of what would instantly kill normal humans as well as the extreme cold and pressure of outer space and has even withstood a scream from Black Bolt’s voice which at the very least was more powerful than that of the detonation of a nuclear warhead explosion along side with Cyclops’s optic beams. Apocalypse has been shown to hold She-Hulk with one hand, another example of his strength…

Apocalypse can increase his physical superhuman strength to even higher levels by increasing the physical size and mass of his body when taking on more mass from a different dimensional source, when psionically drawing upon outside energy sources or by absorbing energy into his body giving him virtually almost unlimited superhuman strength that is potentially incalculable since Apocalypse can draw upon almost unlimited energy from an extra-dimensional source and Apocalypse has yet to depict his maximum physical strength, but it could be well over 1,000 tons of weight which still might not be Apocalypse’s physical weight lifting limit. Apocalypse’s body produces practically no fatigue toxins during physical activity granting him almost limitless superhuman endurance and stamina in all his physical activities. speed, agility, and reflexes are all superhuman to being able to hit beings as fast as Quicksilver or as agile as Beast.

Shape Shifting: Apocalypse has complete control and mastery over the entire molecular structure of his body and might possibly even have control over the entire atomic structure of his whole body. Because of this, Apocalypse is capable of altering his body at will in almost anyway that suits him allowing him to adapt to almost any adversity, environment, or disease making him not need nor requires any kind of sustenance such food, water or air and can allow him to stay in outer space and can gain almost any physical superhuman powers such as turning his arms and other limbs into a variety of various types of weapons and devices such as blades, swords, axes, lances, hammers, shields, maces, saws, tentacles, machine drills as well as plasma cannons and guns with bullets, and with other parts of his body, this also includes forming working mechanical wings or rocket propelled booster jets in order for him to fly. Apocalypse can also form gills in order to breath while being underwater, and even form multiple limbs such as one point having 6 arms. Apocalypse can also reshape his body at will as he can alter his physical appearance into a variety of human disguises, and also allow his body to become extremely malleable stretching, contorting, or elongating his limbs and body at will in a similar manner to Mister Fantastic. This also includes his Lung Capacity allowing him to even have a super breath. Apocalypse can also alter his size and mass at will as he can quickly increase or decrease the physical size of his body and in the X-men 90’s TV show Apocalypse become as large or larger than the Statue of Liberty (305 feet or 92.964 meters). Apocalypse also has a powerful Healing Factor which also allows him to adapt his body to apparently any disease or hostile environment rendering him immune to the effects of all known Earthly diseases and infections including from the effects of radiation or diseases like AIDS as well as any other type of poisonous or toxic substances and has even reformed himself at will. Apocalypse’s molecular rearrangement powers also allowed him to constantly renew his own cells thus making him immortal in the in the sense that he is completely immune to the effects of aging and would never die by old age while remaining in his physical prime.

Energy Blasts: Apocalypse has access to a seemingly almost unlimited amount of extra-dimensional energy allowing him to be capable of generating massive amounts of raw concentrated ambient plasma like energy and channelling that energy through either his eyes or hands or expelling the energy from his body for a number of different effects, including, but not limited to projecting energy attacks from either his eyes or hands which he can mentally control, create, generate, and project powerful and nearly impenetrable protective force fields to defend himself and others or engulf and trap individuals inside while at the same time protect the individual inside capable of containing superhumans as powerful as Exodus, dimensionally phase shifting a part of his body through a solid object or person. Apocalypse can absorb massive amounts of energy with almost no limit in order to augment the levels of both his physical superhuman strength, durability as well as his other superhuman powers to even higher superhuman levels giving him almost unlimited potential. Apocalypse once absorbed all the practically near infinite supply of energy from Cyclops’s optic beams which is well over 2 gigwatts (2 billion watts) of energy, making Cyclops unable to use his powers for months. Apocalypse can also infuse his body with his own energy making him appear to move even faster to counteract speedsters, and can even blow himself up with a explosion powerful enough to knock out Colossus and then reform himself with his Shape Shifter powers. The amount of concentrated energy Apocalypse can project and how powerful it is, is unknown, but he has broken through Invisible Woman’s force fields with a single attack and it has once taken the combined full powered attacks of Cyclops’s optic beams, Jean Grey’s telekinesis, Gambit’s kinetically charge playing cards, and Storm’s thunderbolts, to barley overpower his energy attack and it is possible that the amount of energy Apocalypse can release as a concussive force is almost unlimited due to Apocalypse’s connection to a different dimensional source.Apocalypse does possesses the ability to manipulate energy to some unknown degree. Both his own and others, once channeling energy attacks shot at him back to where they came from by making his own body act like a conductor which he did with plasma energy and thunder bolts against Storm and Havok at the same time.

Telepathy and Telekinesis: Apocalypse also possess powerful Telepathy and Telekinesis allowing him to read minds, Absorb Information, Astral Project, mask his presence from being detected by other telepaths, developing a mental link with any person, mind blast others, Psionic Shield to protect himself, and transferring both his mind and powers into other host bodies at will should his own physical body be somehow destroyed and can telekinetic lift well over 100 tons and once has even shown being able to rip person’s skeleton out of their body. An example of Apocalypse telepathic skills is when he did battle with Jean Grey inside of a baby Cable’s mind and was able to win, this happened in X-Factor 68… Apocalypse has also shown telepathic skills in “Blood of Apocalypse” when he felt the depowered mutants around the world and felt their pain…. In the Onslaught saga he was able to read the thoughts of his seer and knew years worth of information..

Flight and super-speed: Apocalypse can fly at over Mach 8 (6,089.66 miles per hour) possibly faster as he has flown in outer space on his own, teleport himself and other across the entire planet, once even teleporting an entire fortress along with him while leaving those within it behind, can interface, communicate, control, and even merge with the various technologies he has at his disposal. and his blood has many unique properties including healing and even empowering properties and has even allowed Apocalypse to form a new bodies, as the techno-organic cells within Apocalypse’s own blood will rewrite almost anything that comes in contact with it, including any of the surrounding matter near that of his body. With only one single drop of Apocalypse’s blood into a vat of organs, blood, bones, etc. the virus will also rewrite the genetic code of the material within to form a new body for Apocalypse. Ozymandias has even stated that as long as one drop of Apocalypse’s blood remains. Apocalypse will never truly be dead and can always be resurrected. Apocalypse has also shown reaction speed as well. One example was when he fought the High Evolutionary and was dodging his lasers by opening holes in his body and he was also able to speed blitz a team of X-Men within 60 seconds, and one of the X-Men happened to be Quick Silver…. Also Apocalypse was at his weakest and was dying when he took down the team of X-Men and he was not trying to kill them either.. All this happened in Xecutioner Song..

Genius Intellect: Apocalypse possesses an above genius level intellect with intellectual capabilities far beyond the scope of almost any other human being, as he is a genius at a level of which humanity cannot comprehend. Apocalypse possesses a vast amount of knowledge and expertise in many various branches and areas of science and technology including from the areas of biology (mostly that of Humans, and Mutants. However, Apocalypse does possesses knowledge in the biology of multiple kinds of different species including sub-human species such as the Atlanteans, the Deviants and possibly the Eternals and even alien species such as the Skrulls), primarily genetics, physics, biochemistry, genetic engineering, mutations as Apocalypse is a Master of Mutagenics evident in his creation of augmented mutants like the Four Horsemen, engineering and technology all of which is far more advanced than that of conventional science and technology from the Earth itself. Apocalypse has also even shown that he is capable of the Adamantium bone bonding process when he took the Adamantium from Sabertooth and bonded it to Wolverine and it has even been hinted that he was connected to the Weapon X Project. Even Henry McCoy also known as Beast of the X-Men (who is not only a world renowned biochemist, but has even been stated by the super villain group known as the Intelligencia and by Mister Fantastic himself to be one of the eight top mortal minds on the planet) using Shi‘ar medical equipment needed Apocalypse’s expertise in biology to help cure Charles Xavier of a Techno-Organic Virus in order to save his life.

Tactical Genius: Apocalypse is also a master of manipulation, intimidation and strategy, and is able to turn former adversaries and even some of the greatest X-Men to his side and has plans that have had hundreds of year of planning. Apocalypse has also claimed that he is capable of speaking fluently in every human language on the Earth

Indomitable Will: Apocalypse has a strong force of will that is practically indomitable with his own personal belief that he himself is strong. That combined with his own psionic powers and the fact that he has learned how to strengthen his mind’s defenses through centuries of training and experience, Apocalypse possesses almost complete immunity to telepathic attacks even from telepaths as powerful as Jean Grey, Cable, and even Professor Charles Xavier. Apocalypse is capable of shutting out high level telepaths from entering his mind and even causing them a great deal of pain upon any attempts to do so. Because of this, Apocalypse’s mind is almost indomitable to other psionic powers as he has even shown of being capable of shutting out Jean Grey from his mind when his mind was exposed and vulnerable proving his mind or will was stronger. One example of Apocalypse’s strong will was when he battled the X-Men while his body was falling apart due to him dying from being awoke too soon in X-cutioner Song…

Expert Physical Combatant: Although, he does not engage himself in direct physical combat often preferring to use his servants or other beings who serve him to fight his enemies on his behalf, Apocalypse was trained in various multiple forms of armed (most notably swords and daggers) and unarmed combat and has shown to possess enough skill to fight and kill three armed Sandstormer warriors from his tribe using only his bare hands even before gaining control of his powers. however Apocalypse has shown his skilled in swordsmanship when morphing his own limbs into weapons.

Weaknesses

The down side of Apocalypse being altered by the Celestial technology and his power enhancement was that the Techno-Organic Virus was needed to allow this to happen and because of this; it has been further hinted that Apocalypse’s body is ravaged by the Techno-Organic Virus itself as he must find and switch bodies regularly by transferring his consciousness and powers into a succession of host bodies abandoning each one when it becomes too weak after burning through each body out faster than the last to contain his full power in order to survive making it very important that the next body is powerful enough to hold his immense power. Most of his replacement bodies must wear an exoskeleton body armor in order to contain the vast amount of the power and energies he has in order to prevent it from consuming him from within weakening him faster. In Cable’s timeline, Apocalypse had become so powerful and advanced, that transferring his consciousness into new bodies periodically became a necessity as his immense powers would cause him to exhaust host bodies. Apocalypse can apparently switch or merge host bodies at will to continually revive his self-consuming body.

Apocalypse’s only other exploitable weakness lies in the fact he has to regenerate himself at unrevealed intervals by taking long slumbers in his rejuvenation chambers in order to refuel and sustain his immense power which continues to grow and evolve over time allowing him to be at his fullest and most powerful. Should those slumbers be disturb, Apocalypse will be at a weaken and vulnerable state.

Although being capable of astral projection; Apocalypse cannot engage in long range astral projection on the earthly plane.

Although Apocalypse have a great degree of knowledge over celestial technology as he does utilize celestial technology as part of most of his ventures and has even made improvements upon it, his understanding of it have limits as his first ship (which was comprised mostly of celestial technology) contained secrets, technology, and even rooms that Apocalypse had yet to discover.

Paraphernalia

Apocalypse’s armor is cybernetically grafted and bonded to his body and can be physically altered at will as the armor itself is a physical part of Apocalypse’s body. Apocalypse’s armor contains different types of devices including a teleportation device in cause Apocalypse is unable to teleport under his own power, psychic damping arrays’, and sensors so beings who are capable of invisibility won’t be able to evade detection as Apocalypse’s sensors are powerful enough to allow Apocalypse to see even the High Evolutionary while he was invisible and can even see past Uatu the Watcher’s cloaking field and can also withstand the godly might of Thor.

Several of Apocalypse’s bases have a rejuvenation chamber called the Lazarus Chamber which will strengthen and revive his ever-growing powers if weakened and Apocalypse will also have his physical body cloned in case his body is ever destroyed beyond repair. Apparently Apocalypse’s Celestial technology (which is said to be far more advance than the bits of Shi‘ar equipment belonging to the X-Men) is capable of manipulating the genes of mutants giving them altogether new abilities or augmenting the powers they already possess (The process does have the effect of warping the minds of the subjects to more of Apocalypse’s way of thinking) Apocalypse has used this method on many of his Horsemen and on Exodus. If necessary, the Celestial technology in his ship and many bases around the world will heal Apocalypse from any state including from death itself, by bringing him back to life. Apocalypse also has access to other forms of alien technology including from the Skrulls and the Badoon as well as other various alien sources as well. Apocalypse’s technology is so advanced that one of his robots has shown being able to teleported into the Fantastic Four’s headquarters undetected, hack into their computer, steal information and leave without being detected and Apocalypse has used his technology in attempt to drain Loki’s magical energy. Apocalypse even possesses technology that can not only allow time travel, but can even open rifts in reality itself.

Characteristics

Real Name: En Sabah Nur

Height: 7’0″ (2.13 m) (Variable)

Weight: 725 lbs (328.85 kg) (Variable)

Eyes: Red sometimes pale White. Formerly Blue.

Hair: Bald, formerly Black.

Skin: Gray.

Unusual Features: Apocalypse appears metallic at times with extensive disheveled metallic blue lips, disfigured face, blue markings on his head, and bluish birth marks around his mouth and cheeks. Apocalypse’s body is also massive, muscled with proportions considerably well beyond that of normal humans in his natural form.

Costume Colors: Blue & Red

Main Enemy: X-Men

Personality

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Characterizations of Apocalypse’s personality have varied throughout the years as his personality has changed in small subtle ways from story to story and depending on the writers. However, Apocalypse is almost always universally portrayed as a being of almost limitless malice who sees the weak simply deserving death and contempt while viewing those of strength and aggression as those who should survive. In his initial appearances, Apocalypse was depicted as a mutant supremacist, however over time Apocalypse slowly became more of a character with concerns of the continuing evolution of humankind and mutantkind and how it must progress over time. Apocalypse has tested mankind over the thousands of years of his life to provide his own form of natural selection, culling the weak from the strong in order for humanity to grow stronger. Apocalypse is sometimes portrayed as a malevolent and megalomaniac despot, bent on conquering the world as the self-considered fittest. Apocalypse has often been seen as a cruel, vicious, ruthless, sadistic, and masochistic monster appearing to be emotionless and extremely cruel as he is among the most brutal of the X-Men‘s enemies to the point where Apocalypse would kill members of the Clan Akkaba for even asking for help while each member were blood related descendants of himself. It has even been stated that Apocalypse is history’s most notorious villain as even the High Evolutionary has said that Apocalypse is a villain of the first order.

Over thousands of years, Apocalypse has traveled the planet starting countless wars and conflicts in his quest of winnowing out the weak from the strong in which the strong would defeat and destroy the weak in his belief that only the strong should survive and rule while believing that he was the strongest as Apocalypse has even stated that “Peace does nothing to test — to INCREASE — mutants’ strength. To force them to evolve into the strong”. Apocalypse has also been worshiped by many civilizations, under a variety of names and he even created his own cult known as the Clan Akkaba that was made up of his many blood related descendants who lived by the creed “survival of the fittest” whose members would deceive, betray and even kill their own relations merely to be deemed closest to Apocalypse giving he or she control of leadership of the clan in Apocalypse‘s place when absence or in hibernation. Apocalypse also found group of fanatics devoted to the Darwinian ideals that the strong should inherit the Earth while the weak should be culled forming them to be his own private army known as the Riders of the Dark.

As stated Apocalypse has a strong belief in survival of the fittest that has made him a very complex foe. Although Apocalypse was born over 5,000 years ago he waited till the mid 20th century to attempt to conquer the world as he viewed the world as being weak and not worthy to be ruled by him and so waited till there would be more mutants on the planet. Even when seemingly defeated, his plans have meant that even a loss is a victory; as in his first encounter with the X-Men, when the mutant team had defeated his Alliance of Evil, Apocalypse, much to Cyclops’ confusion, displayed satisfaction, stating that they had done well and that their “assistance” has been invaluable and he will find them again when he needs their help in winnowing out the weak as the conflict was really just a test to see how powerful they were and if they were worthy to someday be ruled by him. Due to believing in strength. Apocalypse has shown to admire his servants when they are standing up to him; as his former Horseman Archangel had come to his senses, refusing to serve Apocalypse any longer and attacking him, Apocalypse only responded saying “Excellent! Strong in mind, as well as body!” As well as Apocalypse did not kill Sinister upon learning of his treachery, but forgave him, seeing Sinister’s defiance as a act of strength, although Apocalypse did warn him that it would not be tolerated again.

Apocalypse does not engage in physical confrontation often preferring to manipulate beings to fight on his behalf in order to prove themselves through their loyalty or their strength, and as well as manipulate the events behind-the-scenes as he has even said that he prefers to play the role of the grand manipulator and hates being played as a pawn. Apocalypse regularly cultivates religious awe, devotion, and loyalty in followers who he uses to carry out his will. He has established followers, worshipers, high priests and descendants in groups such as Clan Akkaba. His servants, often named the “Four Horsemen of Apocalypse” (after a passage from the Book of Revelation from the New Testament) typically serve Apocalypse with religious fervour.

Apocalypse has little to no respect for humans as their only important role in life was to create mutants to replace them and Apocalypse has even said that humans are the natural enemies of mutants and that it is his duty as one of the first to save mutant kind. Although their his enemies, Apocalypse does have a high degree of respect for the X-Men and the X-Factor for their strength, skill, power and their loyalty towards Charles Xavier and his belief that humans and mutants could live together in peace as Apocalypse has offered them the chance for them to join him many times. However Apocalypse has no respect for their belief that humans and mutants could live to together in peace as Apocalypse believes that mutants could never achieve true peace with humans as they would send mutants to camps, exterminate mutants, or force mutants to become living weapons for humans in wars against each other and even if there could be true peace between mutants and humans. Apocalypse believes that peace with humans would only slow mutant kind’s growth and make them weak as Apocalypse deems humans no longer fit to survive.

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Out of all the X-Men; most of Apocalypse’s respect goes towards Warren Worthington III also known as Angel or Archangel; his former horsemen due to the strength of mind or will it took for him to break out of Apocalypse’s control and the strength of will at times when Warren Worthington III wanted nothing more but to kill Apocalypse yet at very few times he could have he didn‘t cause he either needed his help for his friends or in order to keep his humanity. Apocalypse has even clamed multiple times that Angel or Archangel was his greatest or favorite horsemen going far enough to call Warren his son and has stated to have such pride in Warren that after Apocalypse died at one point Warren became Apocalypse’s heir.

As Apocalypse’s goal and motivations have been depicted differently throughout the years from writer to writer. Most incarnations simply depict him as a malovent and power-hungry tyrant, bent on enslaving the world. However in his first appearances, Apocalypse was written as a Messiah-like character, with no desire of simply ruling the world, but of making it a stronger place; wanting what he considered the best for humanity and mutant-kind, achieved through brutal and barbaric ways and believe he was strong enough to lead. It has even been stated that although Apocalypse would like to rule the world, it was never his true intent and was just determined to assume the role of caretaker to his fellow mutants and apparently has little to no object to dying as long as he dies by an honourable battle. Apocalypse also has a large degree of patience as he has said that some of his plans he has spent hundreds of years planning. This is mostly due to not only Apocalypse being immortal, but also knowing that there are many alternate realities and possible future time lines where he has won at the end. It is because of this that the X-Men and their allies are to him pawns in a game that he will ultimately win.

Apocalypse does seem to have his own form of honour of which he would keep his word and repay others for helping him such as when he kept his word to cure Charles Xavier of a Techno-Organic Virus in order to save his life. When Apocalypse beat 6 of the X-Men, he didn’t kill them as believed that to kill a enemy while being unconscious is unseemly and unhonourable. Apocalypse seem to enjoy whatever form of pain he feels as of one time Apocalypse awoke from his rejuvenation chamber way too early and what Apocalypse felt was described as “Every step was pain, the slightest gesture was agony, muscles were rended and bones were breaking with each step, only to be reset and broken again, and having withered lungs strive unsuccessfully to separate the air from the blood and bile”. Because Apocalypse was feeling all that, Apocalypse described himself of being happier than he had been in over a 1,000 years. The reason why Apocalypse felt this way is because Apocalypse believes that the secret to life is not living, but surviving which he has spent his whole lifetime believing. That conflict strengthens and that he is always eager to prove that he is strong.

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse

One of the most prominent applications of Apocalypse’s high level of intellect and the celestial technology which he employs is the creation of his Horsemen of Apocalypse. These are four mutants (or occasionally humans) that Apocalypse would choose to adapt to fill the four roles in his conquest: Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death. Those people acting as Famine were Ahab, Autumn Rolfson, and Sunfire. The people acting as Pestilence were Caliban, Plague, and Polaris. The people acting as War were Deathbird, Gazer, Hulk, and Abraham Kieros. Those people acting as Death were Archangel, Caliban, Gambit, and Wolverine.

Alternate Universes

Earth-295 (Age of Apocalypse)

Earth-295Earth-295
Earth-295

When Legion went into the past to kill Magneto, his battle with the X-Men was spied in on by Apocalypse, still in hiding at that point in time. Seeing that there were very powerful mutants existing on the planet outside of himself, he decided to start his plans of domination 20 years earlier than he did in the regular Marvel 616 universe. Apocalypse gathered powerful mutants to fight for his cause, creating a group of Horsemen (Sabretooth, Candra, Gideon, War, Death) to take control of the government’s nuclear weapons base at Cape Citadel. They were defeated by Magneto’s X-Men and Sabretooth defected to the side of the heroes, but Apocalypse was still able to take America unaware, creating a place of fear and death for all humans and capture for those mutants who did not follow his lead. For years Apocalypse confronted the X-Men and planned the final attack over the humans of Europe.

Apocalypse organized a massive destructive agenda, including: conquering Japan, Wakanda and Atlantis; destroying half of South America and Central America with a nuclear attack. His first objectives were marvel potential heroes as Punisher, Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Johny Storm, Black Panther, Namor and thousands of humans and mutants. Moreover he killed all mutants with telepathic abilities and time travelers, disembodied them and create his personal Gate Keepers.

With the help of his new Horsemen — Mr. Sinister, Abyss, Mikhail Rasputin, and Holocaust — Apocalypse ruled America while trying to defeat his only real resistance, the X-Men. He eventually managed to capture Magneto and his son Charles, although the rest of the resistance was able to break into Apocalypse’s Citadel in the ruins of Manhattan. With his last bit of strength, Magneto, furious at Apocalypse for terrorizing the world, magnetically tore his body in half, killing the tyrant.

Apocalypse had the same powers he had in the regular Marvel 616 universe.

What If…? X-Men: Age of Apocalypse

In “What if Legion had killed Xavier and Magneto?”, Apocalypse expanded his rule around the world unchallenged as no one was left to create the X-Men. Twenty year after his first conquest, the Defenders rose in the stead of the unborn X-Men in an attempt to overthrow Apocalypse. He was killed in this story’s final battle.

In “What if Legion had killed Magneto?”, Apocalypse enforced his policy of mutant survivalism with more subtle methods as Xavier’s X-Men had become popular crimefighters with celebrity status, fully supported by the public. Initially, Apocalypse captured and killed mutants silently, but later sent his agents Sabretooth and Pyro to bomb the Hellfire Club. His agents began their brutal crusade against the X-Men but are stopped when Phoenix arrived and murdered most of them to preserve Xavier’s dream. Apocalypse himself was killed in Xavier’s suicidal telepathic assault.

Earth-1610 (Ultimate Universe)

Ultimate ApocalypseUltimate Apocalypse
Ultimate Apocalypse

Apocalypse’s first appearance in the Ultimate Universe was a vision or apparition seen only by the arguably insane Mr. Sinister. Referred to by Sinister as “Lord Apocalypse”, Apocalypse made Sinister his herald. Sinister’s mission was to take the lives of Ten innocent mutants in order to bring about Apocalypse’s rise. After Sinister launched a failed attack on the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, and was subsequently imprisoned by SHIELD, Apocalypse came to Sinister again and commanded him to choke himself. Because of this incident, Sinister was put on suicide watch, and monitored closely by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. He would eventually turn up dead in his cell with his tee shirt lodged in his throat.

How Sinister was able to fool S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel is unknown (perhaps having to do with the chemical enhancements to his body), but Sinister’s death was only a ruse. Apocalypse was pleased by Sinister’s ability to get out of custody. Sinister was again set out to kill the remaining mutants in order to obtain ten for his master. They (Apocalypse was still incorporeal at this point) came to one of the Morlocks within the sewer system, and Sinister forced him to lead the way to the Morlocks’ home. At the entrance Sinister was greeted by Nightcrawler, who quickly recognized him from the attack on the mansion. Sinister began killing the Morlocks when the X-Men arrived. As his final offering to Apocalypse Sinister killed Angel. Since Bishop had done nothing to stop this, Wolverine killed Bishop. While the X-Men and Morlocks were tending to their own, Sinister began to rise up out of the tunnels, straight through the ground and streets above him. On the way his physical form began to change. By the time he reached the surface Sinister was gone. Apocalypse stood tall in his new physical form. The police that were dispatched to stop him were able to do little. The X-Men and the Morlocks attempted to stop him, but Apocalypse managed to rip out one of Wolverine’s arms and the team quickly learned that Apocalypse was able to exert some form of control over the bodies and powers of Mutants around him. The Fantastic Four arrived, but the X-Men were under the control of Apocalypse and attacked them. Apocalypse came under fire from the local authorities. As they fired upon him he apparently grew stronger, and his outfit changed into a larger, more armored form. In the end Jean Grey managed to defeat Apocalypse by calling on the Phoenix Force.

Earth-80521 (The Messiah War)

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In this alternate reality, Apocalypse is ambushed by Bishop and Stryfe. They attack him and injure him. Already severely weakened from his trip to the future he retreats. After the attack he somehow calls for Archangel and asks him to kill him. Archangel tells him no. And to the shock of Apocalypse hands over pieces of his metal wings. Apocalypse touches the wings and he is partially healed. Later Angel takes him to a ship that belonged to the Celestial’s. There Apocalypse is fully healed and declares revenge on Stryfe. Later Archangel and Apocalypse find Stryfe just in time as he was about to kill Hope, X-force, Bishop, and Cable. As the battle wages between Stryfe and Apocalypse, Stryfe realizes even with all his power he is no match for a fully restored and fully powered Apocalypse. In a final act of revenge Apocalypse takes Stryfe as his host (and to the joy of Apocalypse) killing him.

Earth-2182 (Exiles)

In Nocturne‘s home reality, Apocalypse had a son named Armageddon, who was created with the combined DNA of Apocalypse and Jean Grey. He rejected his father’s ideal and philosophy and eventually defected to his father’s enemy, the X-Men.

Earth-691 (Guardians Of The Galaxy)

In this reality, Apocalypse tried to enslave all of mutants. He went to duel against Magneto, but ended up killing each other.

Earth-58163 (House of M)

Magneto defeated Apocalypse, but instead of killing him, he gave him the opportunity to become his lieutenant and in return, Apocalypse will rule all of Africa. He was killed by Black Bolt during his mission to kill Black Panther.

Earth-2301 (Marvel Mangaverse)

Apocalypse is the main enemy of the Avengers, and his horsemen are composed of Archangel, Mr. Sinister, Emma Frost and Juggernaut.

Earth-1298 (Mutant X)

Apocalypse is an ally of the X-Men, he was later killed by an evil Professor X while protecting Havok.

Earth-4935 (Earth-Askani)

This is the reality where Earth-616 Cable was sent to as an infant. Apocalypse was the ruler of the world here.

Earth-5701

Also in this reality Apocalypse rules the world with his Horsemen; Blob (Famine), Spider-Man (Pestilence), Cable (War) and Archangel (Death).

Earth-80521 (Age of Stryfe)

In this alternate future where Stryfe has ruled the world after Apocalypse’s slumber is also the setting for the story arc Messiah War. Apocalypse is hibernating when he was attacked and defeated by the combined efforts of Stryfe and Bishop. Nearing his death, he used his remaining powers to telepathically call on to his last Horseman, Angel, who is now a member of mutant black ops team, X-Force. He commanded Angel to kill as he is weak, but he refuses to do so and only gave him pieces of his metallic wing. Apocalypse used the metal feathers to revitalize his powers and propose to Angel that they should kill Stryfe together. Both of them headed for Stryfe’s citadel and defeated him, afterwards he protected the supposedly mutant messiah, Hope Summers from Bishop. Apocalypse took interest on the girl and said that one day, she will become a vessel for his soul, it was then that Cable and X-Force surrounded him and demanded the surrender of Hope. Angel spoke to his former master and told him that he owes his life to him because he spared him and that he grant the request for the child as a sign of payback. Apocalypse agreed to this and warns Cable that he will be coming back for the child. Apocalypse is last seen dragging Stryfe to fulfill his destiny: to be the next vessel for his soul.

Other Media

Television

X-Men : The Animated Series

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Animated Apocalypse

voiced by John Colicos from 1992–1993, James Blendick from 1994–1996, then Lorne Kennedy in 1997

Apocalypse makes several appearances throughout the series, attempting to destroy and remake the “corrupt” and “weak” world in his own image. His first appearance is in the episode “The Cure“.

His true intro episode is “Come the Apocalypse” where he has Angel converted into his Horseman, Death.

In “Days of Future Past“, though Mystique is responsible the assassination attempt of Senator Kelly, she reveals she’s working for Apocalypse.

In “Time Fugitives“, he masquerades as a member of The Friends Of Humanity, and uses Graydon Creed to create a virus that would kill millions of people if mutants were ever infected.

In “Obsession“, his former horseman Archangel is shown to have become hell-bent on destroying Apocalypse and discovered that the immortal mutant has a weakness. This is revealed to be a hoax created by Apocalypse himself to lure Archangel out into the open. During this episode, Apocalypse is shown to possess a sentient alien ship who sacrificed itself to send its master into deep space and (temporarily) save Earth.

In “Sanctuary“, Apocalypse witnessed Magneto’s television speech declaring Asteroid M a safe haven for mutants, and with Deathbird he revived Fabien Cortez after he had been left to die at Asteroid M by Magneto.

Towards the end of the series, in the 4-part story-line “Beyond Good and Evil“, Apocalypse attempts to attain godhood by kidnapping the most powerful psychic beings from across the universe, planning to kill them simultaneously, in order to release a wave of psychic energy powerful enough to destroy everything. Inside the Axis of Time, he then would recreate the universe in his own image.

Nearly every villain in the series up to then assists him in his plan. Including Magneto who in previous episodes had shown that he still retained elements of good in him. It was revealed that while Apocalypse had promised all the other villains a world ruled by mutants, Magneto’s reward was to have his late wife brought back to life.

After a certain point, both Magneto and Mystique find out Apocalypse’s true plot, so they turned on him and helped the X-Men to stop him.

In the end, the freed psychics used their combined powers to trap Apocalypse in the astral plane, where he would remain for all eternity and never harm mankind or existence again.

In “The Fifth Horseman“, Apocalypse is shown to be communicating from the astral plane with Fabian Cortez, whom Apocalypse had turned into his servant prior to the Axis of Time events. He charged Cortez with finding a powerful mutant for him to be reincarnated in. However, it resulted in Apocalypse claiming Cortez himself for the vessel, and Apocalypse lived once more. This is his last appearance in the series.

X-Men : Evolution

Earlier appearance in X-Men EvolutionEarlier appearance in X-Men Evolution
Earlier appearance in X-Men Evolution

In the series, Apocalypse here possessed vast unsurpassed powers that were never well defined. The origin of this version is largely the same as the one created in the comics; Apocalypse had discovered a device left by Rama-Tut (whose complicated time-travel origin is merely hinted at, rather than explicitly divulged) called the Eye of Ages that would turn all humans on Earth into mutants (similar to the device used by Magneto in the X-Men Movie, but on a global scale). When Apocalypse tried to power the device, he was weakened, and his high priests, afraid of his power, imprisoned him inside the Eye of Ages and then took him to the top of the Himalayas. Millennia later, Apocalypse then controlled Mesmero to help unlock the doors that kept him sealed away from the world. Mesmero used his mind controlling powers to control Jean Gray and numerous other mutants to do his bidding. He makes them obtain some of the the keys that would free Apocalypse. The final door required Mesmero to enlist the aid of Rogue and Mystique. Rogue would use her energy-absorbing power to absorb enough energy from other mutants to revive Apocalypse, and Mystique would use her shapeshifting abilities to unlock the door (turning her to stone in the process). The X-Men and Magneto with his Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants worked together to stop Mesmero, but they were too late. The awakened Apocalypse defeated them all in an instant and vanished. Apocalypse’s master plan included uncovering pyramids in Mexico, China and Egypt that would help to relay the Eye of Ages’ mutating effect across the globe. Professor Xavier and Storm left to his base to contact him but Apocalypse refused to listen and apparently killed them using his powers. After he raised the pyramids he is attacked by Magneto , who hurls a satellite from the sky onto one of his Pyramid’s seemingly in-penetrable protective force field, but in vain. Apocalypse rises from within and defeats Magneto, seemingly killing him. It is later shown that Xavier, Storm, Magneto and Mystique’s bodies were preserved by Apocalypse and were manipulated by Apocalypse to function as his four Horsemen to guard the three pyramids and the base hidden under the Sphinx. It is not clear were they are truly alive or dead. As the Horsemen their abilities were considerably enhanced and some of them exhibited completely new abilities.

Apocalypse's final appearance in X-Men Evolution Apocalypse's final appearance in X-Men Evolution
Apocalypse’s final appearance in X-Men Evolution

The X-Men gathered their allies (including modified Sentinels under the command of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and launched an offensive against the pyramids. They defeat the Horsemen and manage to free them from Apocalypse’s control. The horsemen change into their former selves bringing great relief to the X-Men. In the end, Rogue stopped Apocalypse by using the power she absorbed from Leech to shut off his mutant abilities and trap him in the Eye of Ages. Wolverine then sent Apocalypse through time using the vessel that Rama-Tut had used to arrive in ancient Egypt. Apocalypse was not killed, but his destination was unknown. After his defeat, Wolverine and Rogue think they may not be so lucky and seeing Apocalypse again won’t be impossible. He was voiced by David Kaye.

Wolverine And The X-Men

Apocalypse in the Wolverine and X-Men Apocalypse in the Wolverine and X-Men
Apocalypse in the Wolverine and X-Men

Apocalypse appears in the episode “Shades of Grey.” He is revealed as Sinister’s master. He reappears in the final scene of “Foresight” alongside The Age Of Apocalypse Sinister and Cyclops.

Video Games

X-Men vs. Street Fighter and X-Men Legends II X-Men vs. Street Fighter and X-Men Legends II
X-Men vs. Street Fighter and X-Men Legends II
  • A robotic duplicate of Apocalypse (presumably built by Arcade) appears as the boss of Wolverine’s first stage in Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade’s Revenge. (1992)
  • Apocalypse appears as a boss in X-Men (1993) and X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995) for the Sega Genesis.
  • Apocalypse appears as a boss in the SNES version of X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994).
  • Apocalypse appears as a boss in the Sega Game Gear title X-Men 2: Game Master’s Legacy (1995).
  • Apocalypse appears as the final boss in X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996). He is also playable as a secret character in the home console versions of the game, but only after beating the game on at least a 5-star difficult.
  • Apocalypse returns in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), this time as the sub-boss faced before the true final opponent, Cyber-Akuma. He is also playable in the home console versions of the games, but must be unlocked by beating the game’s Arcade Mode without using any continues.
  • Apocalypse appears in X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse (1997).
  • Apocalypse is a secret character in the Game Boy Color version of X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000).
  • X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse (2001) takes place in an alternate reality ruled by Apocalypse.
  • Apocalypse’s tomb appears as a playable stage in X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), with Apocalypse himself making a cameo appearance in the background.
  • Apocalypse makes a cameo appearance at the end of X2: Wolverine’s Revenge (2003), voiced by Chris Smith.
  • Apocalypse makes a cameo appearance in X-Men Legends (2004), voiced by Dan Hay.
  • Apocalypse is the main antagonist in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), voiced by Richard McGonagle.
  • Apocalypse appears as a boss character in Marvel Puzzle Quest (2013).
  • Apocalypse appears in Marvel Future Fight (2015) as a playable character.

Film

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Young ApocalypseYoung Apocalypse
Young Apocalypse

A child version of Apocalypse appears in a post-end credits scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past as a robed and hooded person stands on a desert hill being worshiped by a multitude of people chanting “En Sabah Nur” while he’s assembling a Pyramid with telekinesis as the Four horsemen loom beyond. He was portrayed by Brendan Pedder.

X-Men: Apocalypse

Oscar Isaac as ApocalypseOscar Isaac as Apocalypse
Oscar Isaac as Apocalypse

Apocalypse was the main villain in X-Men: Apocalypse portrayed by Oscar Isaac. In the movie he was a powerful ancient mutant ruling the ancient Egypt till being betrayed by some of his worshipers who entombed him alive. All of his horsemen died preserving him. He was awaken in 1983 after 4000 years of hibernation. On his wake he was bent on destroying the world and reshape it in his own image. He gathered Angel, Storm, Psylocke and Magneto as his 4 horsemen, and took Professor X to transfer his consciousness to his body to have the power to control the mind of every living human mind. The X men tried to stop him. His horsemen Angel and Psylocke was beaten, and Magneto and Storm turned on him. They attacked Apocalypse, along with Charles and other mutants in order to subdue him, but it wasn’t until Jean unleashed her Phoenix powers he was being defeated. He was incinerated by Jean, and was apparently killed.

Throughout the movie he has shown variety of powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, technopathy, teleportation, flight, cellular regeneration, matter and energy manipulation, mutant enhancement, protective shielding, enhanced adaptive skills, and superhuman physical attributes. He has shown feats such as withstanding Quicksilver’s punches, recreating Magneto’s helmet out of sand, destroying all of Cairo and make a giant pyramid with its remains, overpowering an amped Charles Xavier in the astral plane and generating shield strong enough to withstand combined effort of an amped planetary level Magneto, an amped Storm, Cyclops and Beast.

Merchandise

Marvel LegendsMarvel Legends
Marvel Legends
  • Toy Biz released Apocalypse figures for the X-Men: The Animated Series line.
  • Apocalypse was featured in many other lines from ToyBiz as well.
  • Toy Biz released an Apocalypse figure as part of the Marvel Legends line.
  • Toy Biz later released a gigantic Apocalypse Build-a-Figure that could be constructed by buying the various Marvel Legends figures in the wave, each of which contained a piece of Apocalypse.
  • Bowen Designs released an Apocalypse statue.
  • Sideshow Collectibles released an Apocalypse statue line.
  • Hasbro released an Apocalypse figure for the Super Hero Squad line.
  • Hasbro released an Apocalypse figure for the Marvel Universe line.
  • Hasbro would later release a new Apocalypse Build-a-Figure after taking over the license to the Marvel Legends line.
  • An Age of Apocalypse version of Apocalypse was later released in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line.
  • A version of Apocalypse based on his animated series incarnation was later released in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line.