The X-Men Universe is full of mutants of various shapes, sizes and powers. While some have weird and quirky others have mutations that give them access to so much power that they have the potential to be extremely dangerous and all-consuming. This video is about one such mutant that seemed to have immense power, likening them almost to a God. It is none other than – Apocalypse.
He is one of the world’s first mutants, and was a significant enemy for the original X-Factor team, as well as the X-Men and their spin-offs. Apocalypse was the brainchild of writer Louise Simonson and artist Jackson Guice and originally appeared in X-Factor #5 in May 1986.
Apocalypse is one of the Marvel Universe’s most powerful entities. The character has starred in a variety of X-Men titles since his debut. This video has all you need to know about this absolute force of nature.
Origins explored – the making of a terrifying mutant villain
Apocalypse’s origin story is long, dark and twisted, so stay with me here. En Sabah Nur was brought into the world nearly 5,000 years ago. He was born as a member of a tribe in Akkaba in a solitary settlement on the Amentet at the very periphery of the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The boy, who was born with grey skin and blue lines across his lips and face, elicited terror even as a baby – mutants as always scared the shit out of regular people.
The tribe abandoned the infant, who was ugly and misshapen, to die in the scorching desert sun. The Sandstormers, a wandering gang of fearsome nomadic raiders, killed the residents of Akkaba out of the desert. Their leader, Baal of the Crimson Sands, saw the sobbing infant and saw the child’s potential strength. Baal gave the baby the name En Sabah Nur, which means “Morning Light,” and nurtured him as his own son.
Nur’s knowledge and power developed as he grew older, and he eventually exceeded the other tribesmen. Except for Baal, everyone in the tribe despised and feared Nur because of his freakish appearance and extraordinary skills. Nur didn’t comprehend their terror, so he hardened his heart in defiance.
Nur also believed in the same concept as Baal and the clan did: that only the strongest, roughest, most cruel, and merciless would and should survive when put to the test. Pharaoh Rama-Tut governed Egypt at this time. Nur, at seventeen, murdered three fully armed tribe warriors with his bare hands on the day of his tribal rite of passage into manhood, and Baal conveyed to him that Rama-Tut was not a god, as most believed, but a man who had simply arrived in a Sphinx.
Baal took Nur to a sacred cave, but when the entrance was closed by a cave-in, they were trapped underneath. They discovered the remains of Rama-Tut’s time ship within an underground Egyptian tomb after a week of roaming without food or drink. Nur was intended to topple Rama-Tut, according to Baal, who considered him to be a conqueror whose arrival was prophesied in ancient prophecies. Nur decided to pursue vengeance on Rama-Tut and claim his destiny after Baal died from a lack of food. Nur ultimately made it to the surface four weeks later, where he was discovered by Logo, Rama-grand Tut’s vizier, who gave him water and kept him as a slave. Nur was dead set on assassinating both Rama-Tut and his warlord Ozymandias.
Nur’s deformed lips were continuously covered during his time as a slave, and Nephri, Ozymandias’ sister, was drawn to the intriguing slave. Nur eventually had a vision of Seth, the Egyptian death god, who encouraged him to become a conqueror, and he was tossed into a pit of snakes, but he survived when his superhuman abilities kicked in. Nur increased in size and strength and faced guards, but he destroyed them all and declared himself Apocalypse.
The Pharaoh finally met Nur at a time when several time-traveling superheroes appeared in Rama-Tut’s Egypt including the Fantastic Four, West Coast Avengers, and Dr. Strange. Rama-Tut was, in fact, a time traveller from the distant future who would later be known as Kang the Conqueror. Tut was well aware that Apocalypse, one of the most formidable mutants of all time and the one destined to dominate the world, was a product of ancient Egypt.
As a result, Rama-Tut travelled back in time to discover Apocalypse as a kid, raise him, and by doing so, become the master of the planet’s most powerful being. Nur accepted Rama-offer Tut’s to be his heir if he swore his allegiance. Nur showed his face to Nephri at that time, who shunned him due to his appearance. When Nur refused, Rama-Tut attempted to kill him. Nur was then shot by the Pharaoh with the same weaponry he used to de-power the Fantastic Four and left to die, but he miraculously survived thanks to his mutant longevity and mass shifting ability.
As Nur vanquished Ozymandias and his warriors, Tut escaped, and Nur went into the night to claim the Pharaoh’s Sphinx and all its mysteries. As dawn broke, Ozymandias discovered Tut’s lab inside the Sphinx and also encountered a changed Nur, who attacked Ozymandias and threw him into the technology, turning him into a sand-like being who could see the future almost precisely as it happened and would serve as Nur’s scribe, recording Nur’s accomplishments throughout time.
Tut, who had been battling the Fantastic Four, escaped back into the future and assumed the identity of Kang while Nur unleashed his wrath on the Pharaoh’s technology. The Fantastic Four thought the resulting explosion was a booby trap and returned to their era. Only one thing walked out of the ruins alive, and that was Nur and his nature, to conquer and crush. He then repudiated the Pharaoh’s people who wanted to be his slaves and be protected by him, and withdrew into the desert alone. Nur returned to Nephri, now an ancient Egyptian Queen, fifty years later and derided her withering beauty, just as she had done to him years before.
Nur began to hear a voice inside his head after constructing his large Sphinx-shaped ship with alien materials using old hieroglyphs. The voice actually belonged to Celestial, Eson the Searcher, who addressed Nur as “Apocalypse” through telepathy. Nur was given the option of either using the ship’s technology to become a feared, tremendous powerful creature who could change the world’s destiny, or just leaving and forgetting everything.
Nur agreed, and Eson stated that the Celestials would come for compensation for their gifts at some point in the future, perhaps centuries or millennia. Nur plotted the takeover of the Earth from then on, causing wars and warfare in which the powerful would conquer and eliminate the weak.
Egypt started a new age when Apocalypse finally grasped his power and vanquished the Pharaoh and his army. Nur’s descendants inherited a percentage of his power, with the closest relatives possessing nearly comparable skills. Nur formed his clan, which is now known as Clan Akkaba in honour of his birthplace and those who abandoned him and left him to die. Great monuments were created on the site of Akkaba during this time.
It is safe to say that Apocalypse has been there during almost all of the crucial events in history that have taken place since he was born thousands of years ago. He has tried out his evil schemes from time to time as well. In the fifteenth century, Apocalypse brought together the original Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – War, Pestilence, Famine and Death and rode with them to usher in a new dawn with him at the helm of all creation. He has at all points tried to carry out his ultimate goal, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. It is this path of violence that led him to be entangled with multiple villains like Vlad the Impaler and Dracula over the course of history before he encountered the modern mutants that we know.
Even when he did encounter the modern mutants including Erik, Magneto, Storm and so on, he continued on his path of destruction.
Apocalypse in the animated series
Some villains are just too good to be confined to the pages of a comic book. They are larger than life and thus deserve to be portrayed vis tv shows and movies. Apocalypse is one such villain. Therefore, he has been featured in various shows and even a titular film of his own, but we’ll come to that later.
Apocalypse features in X-Men: The Animated Series that debuted all the way back in the year 1991. This was a 5 season long show which ran for a total of 76 episodes. The plot of the show mainly focused on the heroic X-Men mutant team and their adventures as they fought against evil mutant villains like Magneto and Apocalypse, who endangered the peace between humans and mutants and were heralds of destruction. As far as the series goes, Apocalypse was shown as a rough and tough mutant villain and features in 11 episodes in total. He is season 1’s overarching villain, a minor adversary in seasons 2 and 3, and season 4’s primary antagonist.
He is shown to be a highly powerful, ancient mutant whose ultimate goal is to conquer the entire planet and reshape it in his own image. He devised a mechanism to transform mutants into his Horsemen. The X-Men eventually defeated this attempt. In the future, Apocalypse discovered that the war of good vs. evil could never seem to be won when faced with Cable. During their fight, Apocalypse stole a technology that allowed him to travel through time. Apocalypse sought to travel back in time to remove the most powerful psychics, only to land up in the Axis of Time, the epicentre of all time.
Apocalypse spent ages learning about the Axis’ power and discovered that by sacrificing the psychics, he could cause time to collapse on itself due to their tremendous powers, with all of them dying at the exact moment in the Axis affecting the time stream.
Apocalypse recognised that not only would the Axis and people inside escape, but they’d also be able to re-create reality as they saw proper. Recruiting several mutants while only revealing the truth to Mister Sinister and a select few. The X-Men eventually discover the secret of Apocalypse’s immortality, a mechanism that revived him every century, and scheme to destroy it at the time it was constructed. They complete their objective with Cable’s assistance and the new time machine, and they believe they have successfully handicapped Apocalypse.
Apocalypse, on the other hand, is unaffected because he doesn’t require the gadget to recharge him in the Axis, and he isn’t affected by those occurrences because he is outside of time altogether.
Magneto and the X-Men eventually succeed in rescuing the psychics before Apocalypse can sacrifice them. Following the failure of his plot, the psychics banded together to exile Apocalypse to the astral dimension.
Apocalypse, unbeknownst to everyone, saved Fabian Cortez while in the Axis just in case such a thing occurred. Apocalypse requested that Cortez locate him a new body so that he could change it into an identical replica of his original and return to Earth. After failing to locate one, Apocalypse resurrected Cortez and returned to Earth to complete his insane dream.
Thus, he is portrayed as the God Wannabe that he is in the comics. He has the powers of immortality and all the other powers that Apocalypse has been shown to possess over the years. Even though he isn’t a cataclysmic God, he still has committed heinous crimes which include terrorism, mass murders, brainwashing people, attempting world domination and torturing people. Even in the series he was quite the formidable foe.
The X-Men animated series was a fantastic attempt to adapt the wildly successful comic book series about mutant outcasts onto the small screen. While the animation was at best poor and jerky, the voiceover work was a special standout. The stories were remakes of plots from the comic’s 30-year history. The animation is extremely realistic and evocative, and the character designs, particularly for Wolverine, are highly complex for the time period.
The action sequences have a lot of elegance in that aspect, since they never suspend disbelief and have some wonderful components for both youngsters and adults to enjoy. The soundtrack is also fantastic; the opener is one of the most memorable of any animated shows from the 1990s, and the background scoring is both beautiful and sad.
The writing is clever, at times impacting, at times comedic, the sense of mixed emotions and varying tones is equally compelling, while the plotlines are enticing and always intriguing, and the characters, from the charming Wolverine to the glamorous Rogue to the adequately antagonistic villains, are well-written and likeable. The voice acting is consistently emotive and never comes across as stereotyped, dull, or excessive. All in all, a fantastic series.
X-Men: Apocalypse – the movie that dives deep into the supervillain
This movie was practically centred around Apocalypse and showed him in all his god-like glory. He has been revered as a divinity from the birth of humanity. Apocalypse, Marvel’s X-Men universe’s earliest and most powerful mutant, collected the powers of many other mutants, becoming indestructible and immortal.
He is disenchanted with the world as he sees it after thousands of years and gathers a band of powerful mutants, including a discouraged Magneto, to cleanse mankind and establish a new world order over which he will reign. In this film, Raven, with the help of Professor X, must lead a squad of youthful X-Men to stop their deadliest foe and preserve mankind from complete catastrophe as the fate of the Earth lies in the balance. Apocalypse is played by the amazing Oscar Isaac here.
The movie starts all the way back in Egypt when Apocalypse was known as En Sabah Nur. As En Sabah Nur, he was the ruler of ancient Egypt. He and his four followers are ambushed after a ceremony in which his consciousness is transplanted into another man’s body in order to receive his healing factor. His followers are slaughtered in the process, and he is buried alive.
But as we all know that it is tough to keep such powerful beings buried for long. A group of believers reawakens En Sabah Nur decades later, in the 1980s. Ororo Munroe, an orphan, becomes his friend and teaches him about humanity. He intends to reconstruct the planet after concluding that humanity has lost its way. After the increase Munroe’s power, she becomes his devotee.
What follows in this movie is how Apocalypse recruits four incredibly strong mutants to form the four horsemen of the apocalypse and then unleash them onto the world to wipe out all of humanity. He defends Ororo Munroe, as we already know and takes her under his wing – Ororo will go on to become a mutant we all know and love – Storm. Angel, a fallen angel, is recruited, and Apocalypse converts Angel’s wings into steel, allowing him to fling razor-sharp metal feathers that are similar to machetes.
Magneto, Erik Lehnsherr, who has endured yet another major personal tragedy at the hands of mankind, is the most significant recruit that Apocalypse draws after the townspeople murder his wife and children. Magneto also joins Apocalypse after fleeing. With the help of Erik, Storm, Angel, and a “Wonder Woman” lookalike fighter Psylocke, who has both telepathic and telekinetic skills and dresses like a dominatrix, Apocalypse resolves to change everything in the world.
Wherever Apocalypse went, he always had four main disciples on whom he bestowed abilities, and wherever he governed, there would be a cataclysm or an apocalypse of some form. It is assumed that during his rule, he assisted civilizations in growing and that when they grew too populated, he would eliminate them to make space for a new civilisation.
Apocalypse and his henchmen cause so much collateral damage that it overwhelms the whole Disney Marvel Universe. At one point, Erik is contacted telepathically by Charles Xavier through Cerebro as Apocalypse collects his Four Horsemen and equips them with special armour. En Sabah Nur notices the communication and utilises his abilities to take control of Xavier’s mind, and thus Cerebro’s as well.
Embarrassingly, Apocalypse causes all of the superpowers to shoot their nuclear bombs into space, where the ordinance will be useless and society will rely on Professor Xavier and the X-Men, who are much younger than their predecessors, to save the day. In the end, Apocalypse is defeated by jean Grey who unleashes the true extent of her power and incinerates him. The movie got mixed reviews, and not everyone was happy with it, but it was definitely an all-out depiction of one of X-Men’s deadliest foes.
Apocalypse is shown to be deceitful, manipulative and having a god complex that is eventually his downfall. He had developed a God complex as a result of his “godly” standing around the globe, having been venerated as a deity in many locales over the years. En Sabah Nur was born with several superhuman skills, to the point where he proclaims himself not only a god, but also a “saviour” who will usher in a new world in the wake of the old.
As evidenced by his use of his manipulative streak to attract mutant followers, he is a vicious and manipulative mutant. While Apocalypse is very strong, he is also proven to be sociopathic, having little regard for the consequences of his actions and using people’s psychological weaknesses for his own selfish advantage.
Apocalypse has no qualms about murdering other mutants who dare to oppose him. He is revealed to be very delusional, believing that his acts are in the best interests of mutantkind and humanity as a whole, as well as the creation of a better world following the destruction of the current one. He also referred to world leaders as false gods, ignoring the reality that his followers left him after understanding he was not the actual God he had persuaded them to believe he was. Apocalypse is a megalomaniac to the core. He proved to be tenacious in the pursuit of his ambitions of conquering the planet and restoring the mutants as rulers of the world, as they had been during his time.
He thought he was above everyone and that no other mutant could match his power to the point where he strolled right up to Jean Grey, completely oblivious of her almost limitless ability, and was stunned and dismayed when he saw her might and realised he wasn’t the most powerful mutant. This is what led to his demise.
His abilities are depicted slightly differently in the film X-Men: Apocalypse than they are shown in the comics. While he has the same powers and abilities as have been depicted in the comics, the movie shows him with additional powers. Apocalypse, like other so-called “Class 5 Mutants,” has near-godlike talents and capabilities.
His apparent capacity to produce numerous objects from dust, including gigantic buildings and structures, as well as clothing, weapons, armour, and other items, in seconds, is one of his more aggressive abilities. He has the ability to transform objects into dust in a matter of seconds.
His capacity to amplify and prolong the powers of other mutants is another of his key abilities, which he employs sparingly and mostly to recruit co-conspirators for his goals of world dominance. The mutants whose powers he improves are sometimes taken with him as his’ horsemen,’ or apprentices, and eventually acolytes, and are considered as his offspring; yet, even in this role, Apocalypse can judge a mutant unworthy at any time and remove them from his confidence.
Apocalypse is defeated by Jean Grey utilising the Phoenix Force in both X-Men: Apocalypse and Ultimate X-Men #93. So, his end was definitely coming. He is in no way the strongest mutant in the X-Men Universe, but he is definitely a scary and deadly one.
What makes him such a deadly force
Apocalypse is an ancient mutant who gained a variety of superhuman abilities after fusing with Celestial technology. He’s also a member of a rare mutant subspecies with the ability to live forever. Apocalypse, also known as En Sabah Nur in ancient Egypt, has existed for thousands of years. Sustained immortality is one of his mutant talents. As a result, he has been able to influence the path of history. Apocalypse can enter a trance-like sleep in which he regenerates when his body becomes weak. He can cure practically any wound while sleeping, thanks to Celestial technology.
He has complete control over his body’s molecules, allowing him to change his shape whenever he wants, such as making his body remarkably malleable and flexible, improving his physical abilities, transforming his limbs into weapons, wings, or jets, regenerating from fatal injuries, generating a wide range of powers at will, and adapting his body to seemingly any disease or hostile environment. Apocalypse is thus almost indestructible. Even the most powerful strikes would be ineffective against him. In the unlikely event that he is injured, he can simply regenerate or alter his molecular makeup to heal himself.
He can also emit and absorb energy and has technopathy, which allows him to communicate directly with the numerous technology he has access to. Apocalypse’s skills have been further increased with the use of his mutant abilities granting him full control over his body, via the help of unique “regeneration” chambers, Celestial technology, and changing bodies, and he can now manufacture practically any mutant power at his will.
He is practically one of the planet’s most powerful beings. He’s demonstrated to be capable of trading blows with huge hitters like the Hulk and the Juggernaut. While Apocalypse’s base level strength is already unrivalled, he also possesses the power to enhance it. He can accomplish it by absorbing energy or by utilising the Celestial technology available to him.
Any energy strike used against Apocalypse merely strengthens him. He absorbs various energy and may then use them to enhance all of his abilities. Energy absorption allows the ancient mutant to increase his strength, speed, and invulnerability. Apocalypse, on the other hand, is more likely to turn this energy into new attacks and defences. He could generate a nearly impenetrable force barrier to shield himself from practically any attack, or he could simply release a powerful blast of energy from his palms to annihilate any foe in his path.
Apocalypse can also utilise his telekinesis ability to his advantage, eliminating his enemies with a single glance. He has the ability to manipulate not just physical items but also various forms of energy with his mind. Apocalypse can even utilise this power to elevate himself at times, imitating flight. Although the ultimate limits of his ability are unknown, it is thought that he can move items weighing more than 100 tonnes.
Apocalypse also has the ability to teleport himself and others all across the entire planet. It’s possible that he could travel even further, but the comic book pages have never depicted the highest limits of this power.
The true source of Apocalypse’s power, however, is not in his massive stature. It is rooted in his five millennia of experience, his brilliant brain, and rigorous planning. He is an expert at deception and manipulation, and he frequently dupes or coerces others into doing his dirty job for him. He is an accomplished preacher and tactician.
Apocalypse is also a scientific genius with a vast understanding of physics, engineering, genetics, and biology, all of which are more advanced than traditional science. Apocalypse is familiar with Celestial technology, which he employs for his own purposes, such as modifying mutants or humans.
The blood of Apocalypse can heal other mutants, but it is lethal to humans. As witnessed when a big dosage of Apocalypse’s blood regenerates Chamber’s lost body part and gives him a look identical to Apocalypse, Apocalypse’s blood may also revive his de-powered mutant descendants.
This god like mutant has likely absorbed the powers of thousands of other mutants throughout the course of his long life. He may summon these abilities whenever he wants and use them for a variety of purposes. No one knows how many abilities Apocalypse possesses. What’s more, no one knows how many he can get. It’s feasible that Apocalypse will amass an almost unlimited amount of mutant talents throughout time. He would eventually attain the rank of a real deity. Hopefully, such a day will never arrive for the Marvel superheroes.
Apocalypse has always taken the pages of comic books or tv and movie screens by storm. He is a notorious villain, not only because of his god-like powers but also because of his unending quest to annihilate the world and recreate it the way he sees fit. He is a notable villain who can certainly be brought back in several ways, and fans would definitely love a good contest between this villain and other heroes and mutants alike. Do you think Apocalypse can be brought back for more appearances? Let us know in the comments section below!