Apocalypse (character): Difference between revisions

Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur) is a fictional character, a comic book supervillain in Marvel Comics' universe. He was a virtually immortal mutant bonded with extra-terrestrial technology.

A powerful foe of the X-Men, Apocalypse was often accompanied by four servants who were called, unsurprisingly, the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse, named after the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation. He often claims to be the first mutant. It is unclear whether this is true as Selene is much older than him. Saul and Azazel are also older, although it is unclear whether they are sorcerers or mutants or both.

The next oldest superhuman would be Ozymandias, although it is likely that Apocalypse gave him their powers by use of Celestial technology.

He was thought to be an External for some time but recently, Selene mentioned that it is not possible, as Apocalypse is not a true immortal as he depends on technology to enhance his powers.

Apocalypse first appeared in shadow in X-Factor #5 (June 1986), though he was not fully shown until X-Factor #6 (July 1986). He was created by Louise Simonson and Jackson Guice.

Apocalypse was born in the mid-30th century BC in ancient Egypt during the First Dynasty.

He was born disfigured in the settlement of Akkaba and abandoned in the desert to die. He was the last child born in the settlement, as nomadic raiders known as the Sandstormers slaughtered the population of Akkaba shortly after his birth. Their leader, Baal, found the child and considered it to have the potential of a god. He raised the child as his own.

He named the child En Sabah Nur ("The First One") in anticipation of others like him. The tribe lived and died by the simple rule and philosophy of survival of the fittest. En Sabah Nur earned the right to adulthood at the age of seventeen. He and Baal were the only Sandstormers fit to survive when General Ozymandias attacked their camp. They found refuge in nearby caves, but Baal was killed when one of the caves collapsed. En Sabah Nur made his way to the surface only to be made a slave.

There, he came into the attentions of the Pharaoh Rama-Tut, actually the time traveler who later became known as Kang the Conqueror. En Sabah Nur was beaten for daring to rebel and was left to die; he survived, due to the sudden emergence of his mutant power of immortality, and he came to a position of power once Rama-Tut had been forced to depart for his native time by the time-traveling Fantastic Four and West Coast Avengers. These events were revealed in the 1996 Rise of Apocalypse miniseries.

Centuries later, En Sabah Nur discovered a starship created by the alien Celestials in Mongolia. He used the technology therein to gain control over the molecules of his body. Becoming one of the most powerful mutants who has ever lived, he took the name "Apocalypse" and came to believe in a philosophy that would later be erroneously identified with Darwinism. He then entered a state of suspended animation until mutants like him were populous enough to rule the Earth. He emerged briefly in Victorian England to see if the world was ready for him, as told in the Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries. During that time, he turned Nathaniel Essex into the being known as Mister Sinister. However, Sinister rebelled against him and Apocalypse was forced to re-enter his slumber.

Upon re-awakening in full, Apocalypse came into conflict with the original X-Men (then organized as the superhero team X-Factor) on repeated occasions. When one of them, the Angel, lost his wings, Apocalypse granted him an artificial pair in exchange for his servitude; Angel accepted, becoming Apocalypse's Angel of Death, but eventually he rebelled. Later, Apocalypse infected Cyclops's son Nathan with a "techno-organic virus" derived from the alien technology that gave him his powers; as a result, Nathan was sent to the future for a cure, where he became the time-traveling mutant warrior known as Cable.

Apocalypse again came into conflict with the X-Men, X-Factor, and X-Force when Cable's clone, Stryfe, traveled to the present and attempted to assassinate Professor X and frame Cable for the crime. At the end of this conflict, Apocalypse was presumed deceased after a battle on the moon with his former servants, the Dark Riders, and being left for dead by Archangel.

How he survived and returned to Earth is unclear; it is most likely that this was the point at which he began to use host bodies within a robot resembling his prior self, as his future self had done in Cable's time. It is unlikely that he began to use host bodies earlier, as he was shown to be fully organic before he "died" in this story.

Later, the storyline of The Twelve unfolded (in January & February 2000). Supposedly lost diaries of the mutant seer Destiny surfaced, telling of twelve beings of fantastic power that could defeat Apocalypse once and for all. These diaries, however, were forgeries created by Apocalypse himself; once the Twelve were assembled, he planned to use them to transform himself into a godlike entity on par with the Celestials. The Twelve—chosen not only for their mutant powers but also for the Jungian quasi-archetypes they represented—consisted of:

• Magneto and Polaris, representing opposing magnetic poles;
• Storm, Sunfire and Iceman, representing elementals;
• Cyclops, Phoenix and Cable, representing family as Father, Mother and Son;
• Bishop and Mikhail Rasputin, representing time and space, respectively
• Professor X, representing the mind;
• with the Living Monolith as the core.

Apocalypse planned to funnel the powers of the rest of the Twelve into The Living Monolith, then from the Monolith into Nate Grey. As the power flowed into Nate, Apocalypse would possess Nate's body, since his current physical body was being rapidly worn out by his power, thus achieving godhood. Magneto had been weakened in some previous battles, however, so he could not supply enough energy to "complete the circuit," thus shorting it out.

The Twelve escaped and confronted Apocalypse as he was preparing to transfer his essence into Nate. Cyclops jumped in the way of the transfer, saving Nate, but Apocalypse merged with Cyclops instead, giving birth to a whole new horror (unofficially dubbed by some fans as "Cyclopalypse"). Although he did not achieve the godhood he wished, Apocalypse managed to escape in Cyclops' body, with Jean Grey the only one who believed her husband still survived within the form.

After teleporting away, an amnesiac and powerless Cyclops regained control of the merged form. As Apocalypse began to re-emerge, however, Jean and Cable were alerted to his location, and she finally managed to free Cyclops by telepathically forcing Apocalypse's spirit out of her husband's body. Apocalypse was rendered an incorporeal astral form, and Cable took advantage of the opportunity to apparently destroy him, sundering his spirit with his Psimitar. Template:Spoilers

Due to the events of M-Day, in which most of the mutants lost their powers, Apocalypse awoke from his slumber in a tomb in Akkaba, recalling:

"Across the world-- helpless mutants slaughtered. Pogroms. Horror. ...Something has woken me from my slumber. Once, a sudden surge in worldwide mutant power stirred me from a similar sleep. Now-- a plummet in global mutant capacity-- has opened my eyes".

Mike Marts said of the character's return:

"Apocalypse, at his core, has always been about ensuring that the mutant race is strong enough to survive whatever hardships it might encounter. Now, after the events of M-Day, the mutant race is at its all-time low…so if there was ever a time where the mutant race needed a savior, it’s now. And En Sabah Nur intends to be that savior."

Apocalypse was one of the most physically powerful beings on Earth. Thanks to the Celestial technology's modifications to his body, he could alter the molecular structure of his body at will in order to change his form. Using this he could alter his appearance or the size of his body; he could, for example, transform his arms and fists into various melee weapons and grant himself superhuman strength. He also can generate energy, thanks to a combination of his mutant power and the Celestial technology in his body. He can use this energy to levitate himself and others, create force fields, project bursts of concussive force, and can augment himself further by drawing on various outside energy sources. Apocalypse also demonstrated the ability to teleport himself and other beings.

Apocalypse was also unaging. Even before being modified by the Celestial ship, he lived for thousands of years and was highly resistant to injury. With the Celestial modifications, this resistance to harm was amplified, although it is still possible, albeit highly difficult, to cause him injury that would not be immediately regenerated by his power. Should he suffer massive injuries that prove potentially fatal, he can enter a coma-like state of suspended animation during which he may recover from his wounds with the assistance of his Celestial technology.

In the future timeline from which Cable hails, Apocalypse's physical form had grown too aged and enfeebled to contain his vast superhuman energies. Hence, he transferred his consciousness and powers into a succession of host bodies, abandoning each one when it too grew too old to contain his power. This alternate future version of Apocalypse was ultimately defeated in transit from a depreciated body into a potential host body. Shortly before he transferred himself into Cyclops, he revealed that he was in a host body in the present day. It is not entirely clear when this happened, but the most likely time is when he appeared to die on the moon.

Aside from his superhuman powers, Apocalypse was also extraordinarily intelligent, a genius with knowledge of science and technology centuries ahead of conventional science. This was not merely a result of his exposure to alien technology, as he was able to make significant new advances beyond the alien materials to which he was exposed.

When Professor X's son Legion traveled back in time to kill Magneto before he would become a supervillain, he instead killed his own father. This resulted in an alternate timeline in which Magneto, not Professor X, founded the X-Men, and in which Jean Grey never became the Phoenix. In this timeline, the Age of Apocalypse, Apocalypse ruled most of North America until his death at the hands of Magneto and his X-Men. When the timeline was inevitably restored, so too were all who died in that alternate universe.

In Ultimate X-Men, set in the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Apocalypse appears as an entity worshipped by Mister Sinister. It is not clear whether Apocalypse is real or just a piece of fiction in the insane mind of his believer. In Sinister's apartment, he spoke to an Apocalypse which was a stuffed effigy, but while Sinister was in jail, Apocalypse appeared to him (though whether or not this was just a hallucination is unknown).

He demands the lives of 10 innocents with a strike to the heart. Mr Sinister has taken 4 lives,he rewuires 6 more and he has told Sinister that he is looking for another Horseman.

Apocalypse made several appearances in the X-Men animated television series. He was voiced by John Colicos and then by Robert Bockstael.

This Apocalypse wants to pit humans and mutants in a war and rule the stronger race.

In the animated series X-Men: Evolution, Apocalypse was first mentioned in a single episode of the second season. The last half of the third season focused on the battle to stop Apocalypse from waking, and he became the main villain for the fourth and final season of the series. He is played by David Kaye.

The origin of this version of Apocalypse is largely the same as the one created in the comics. In the series, Apocalypse had discovered a device left by Rama-Tut (never explicitly said to be Kang) 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 Himalayan Mountains and imprisoned him behind three doors.

Centuries later, Apocalypse would be able to use telepathy to reach the world outside his prison and used the hypnotist Mesmero to help unlock the doors. 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 shape-shifting abilities to unlock the door (turning her to stone in the process). The X-Men and Magneto 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. To help protect these pyramids, Apocalypse enslaved Magneto, Professor X, Storm, and Mystique to guard the three pyramids and the base hidden under the Sphinx. 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. 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.

In the series, Apocalypse was depicted as a god-like pharaoh with an ethereal white glow. Unlike his comic book counterpart, this version of Apocalypse never spoke, and his powers were never defined. In the final episodes of the series, Apocalypse used Rama-Tut's technology to become a cybernetic being closer to the comic book version, and he began to speak in the grand, self-important tone with which older fans were familiar. Some critics felt the producers had done this to pander to traditionalist fans, feeling that the silent, god-like Apocalypse felt more like a real menace than the talkative, cyborg version he reverted to.

Apocalypse appears as one of the boss characters in "X-Men vs. Street Fighter" and "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter" arcade games. He appears initially as in the picture at left, but then grows to an enormous size, far too big to fit on a single screen. His main weapon and weak point is his gigantic fist, which can turn into various weapons that do major damage when it strikes the player's character. Although he was the main boss in X-Men vs. Street Fighter, he was downgraded to a mini-boss in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter with a cyborg clone of Akuma called "Cyber-Akuma" taking his former spot.

Apocalypse also made a minor appearance in an ending to X2: Wolverine's Revenge and was voiced by Chris Smith.

Apocalypse makes a cameo appearance in the ending to X-Men Legends and he was voiced by Dan Hay. He is also the main villain in the sequel, X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse.

• According to the writers at Marvel, "En Sabah Nur" translates to "The First One" in Arabic. However, the phrase actually translates into something more akin to "Good Morning." It can also mean "The Seven Lights"; with “Sabah” literally meaning “seven” and “Nur” meaning “light” in Arabic.

• A little known fact is that Apocalypse was created as a last minute replacement for the Owl, a Daredevil villain who original X-Factor writer Bob Layton wanted to use as X-Factor's main villain. When Layton was removed from the book and replaced with Louise Simonson, she requested that the last page of X-Factor #5 be changed to a shadowy figured named Apocalypse, as Simonson wanted a new character to be the main villain for the book.

• The Twelve could also be taken as another religious reference to the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament.

• Marvel Database entry for Apocalypse
• "Apocalyptic Accounts" at UncannyXmen.net