The Apocalypse is nigh. This week sees the release of X-Men: Apocalypse in a number of territories, with its full domestic release set to debut next Friday, and before we all get to know Oscar Isaac’s version of the character, it’s time to examine the thirty years of Apocalypse lore that have come before.
Created by Louise Simonson and Jackson Guice, Apocalypse made his debut in “X-Factor #5” and went on to become a frequent thorn in the side of the X-Men. What is most notable about the character is how entrenched in X-Men lore he became, creating the likes of Sinister and (by extension) Cable. The character is a millennia-year-old immortal however, so his history is as long as any of the other characters in Marvel comics. It wasn’t long after his first appearance that he assembled his first group of Four Horsemen too, so dive into the history of Apocalpyse below along with a guide to his different Horsemen!
Directed by Bryan Singer, X-Men: Apocalypse also stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Rose Byrne, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Olivia Munn, Lucas Till, Evan Peters, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Josh Helman, Lana Condor and Ben Hardy.
O&E: Apocalypse + Horsemen
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Early days
Though he first appeared in the pages of X-Factor in 1986, Apocalypse's origins were further explored in a miniseries ten years later. Titled Rise of Apocalypse, the series reveals rise thousands of years before the modern day where he is born with the first X-gene. Abandoned by his parents due to his gray complexion, the young babe is found and raised by a group called The Sandstormers and given the name En Sabah Nur (Meaning "the Morning Light" in Arabic). During his time, he encounters a number of other characters from Marvel lore, including the time-traveling villain Kang the Conquerer, posing as Pharaoh Rama-Tut, and technology from The Celestials. Once his full mutant powers emerge, he uses the alien technology to further his conquest.
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Forming Clan Akkaba
Following his conquest of Egypt, Apocalypse formed a group of his followers and descendents under the banner of Clan Akkaba, named for his original birthplace. While Apocalypse slept for centuries, waiting for the Earth to be ripe for the taking, his clan followed his creeds.
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Fighting Thor
Apocalypse awakened from his slumber in 1013 BC to take down the mighty Thor thousands of years ahead of his time as an Avenger. Unfortunately for him, All-Father Odin intervened.
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Fighting Dracula
2,000 years later, Apocalypse and Clan Akkaba would fight Vlad the Impaler, the warrior that would go on to become Count Dracula. The groups sparred once again in the 19th century, with Apocalypse winning both times.
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Making Mr. Sinister
In the mid-19th century, Apocalypse awakens once again where he learns of scientist Nathaniel Essex, who has a theory that humans will one day evolve into something greater than they are. What he calls “The Essex Factor” is what mutants in the present know as the X-Gene, and makes Apocalypse realize that he is himself a mutant. The villain makes a deal with Essex that he will transform him into something greater and they can conquer the world together, changing the man into the villain Mr. Sinister.
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Awakened by Cable
In an attempt to do away with Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister conspired to create an all-powerful mutant and deduced that the offspring of Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (a clone of Jean Grey, yes) would be just the right amount of powerful to do it. He manipulated the two into having the child, Nathaniel Summers aka Cable, who was so powerful when he was born that he awakened Apocalypse from his sleep.
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First time at bat
Seeing the world now densely populated with mutants, Apocalypse began his plans early and formed his first iteration of Horsemen to take over. That did not go well as they were handily defeated by the X-Men.
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Evolutionary War/Acts of Vengeance
During the “Evolutionary War” storyline Apocalypse found the villain the High Evolutionary and sought to let him do most of his dirty work and eliminate the weakest of the species without Apocalypse lifting a finger. Later in the “Acts of Vengeance” story, an event centered around villains fighting heroes they'd never fought before. Loki attempted to recruit Apocalypse and tried to kill him after he refused.
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Endgame
Apocalypse moves to the next phase of his plan: targeting Cable. Still an infant, Apocalypse infused him with the Techno-Organic Virus which would result in his metal arm, leading to an epic fight with X-Factor. Once the battle is over, a woman from the future appeared to take Nathan to the future where she promised he could be cured and would become a freedom fighter.
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The Twelve
Between “Endgame” and “The Twelve,” Apocalypse would find himself fighting a number of battles, some as an ally of the X-Men, but this was his next major storyline. In the story, Apocalypse picks out twelve mutants “destined to alter the course of history” and decides to take all of their powers and have them siphoned into him. Among those he chose were Cyclops, Phoenix, Polaris, Bishop, Sunfire, the Living Monolith, Mikhail Rasputin, Cable, Professor X, Storm, Iceman, and Magneto. Naturally the scheme didn't go as planned, but resulted in Cyclops and Apocalypse merging. This didn't set well with Jean Grey, who pulled Apocalypse's essence from his body, and Cable, who killed him dead.
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Blood of Apocalypse
Using the techno-Organic Virus, Apocalypse was able to heal himself back to fighting form from just one drop of blood. After the events of House of M, which decimated the mutant population, Apocalypse took it upon himself to be the actual savior of mutants instead of just saying that he is. He turned his focus towards the humans of Earth, with plans to conquer them, but was defeated... again. This time, however, he's defeated by the Celestials, who return to take back their technology, which they claim to only have lent to him back in Ancient Egypt.
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Back as a babe
It didn't take long for Apocalypse to return though, but this time he was reborn as a kid. Clan Akkaba plans to indoctrinate the child into becoming who he was meant to, but X-Force decides to intervene. When they learn he is a child, some members of the team think they can turn him into a force for good, except for Fantomex, who shoots the child.
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Speaking of kids...
It's revealed in the pages of Uncanny X-Force that Apocalypse had a child early on in his reign with one of his horsemen, Autumn Rolfson (the original Famine). Rolfson hid the child, fearing what Apocalypse would do to him if he found him. The child was last seen under the care of Clan Akkaba.
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Genesis
Despite killing the child-version of Apocalypse, Fantomex had a secret: he cloned the villain and raised him in another dimension under the name of Genesis and where he teaches him to use his powers for good. After he helps defeat Arcangel, Genesis is enrolled in the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and given the name Evan Sabahnur. Evan learns of his resemblance to Apocalypse and the catastrophes the villain has caused throughout the years, and even earns the unfortunate nickname “Kid Apocalypse.” Wolverine's son Daken eventually kidnaps Evan and tries to force him into ascending into his destiny as Apocalypse. Evan puts on a suit of Apocalypse's Celestial armor and nearly succumbs to his power, but is talked out of it by both Wolverine and later Deadpool.
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They grow up so fast
During the AXIS event, Evan is propelled into adulthood via comic book magic where he fully resembles Apocalypse. As a result of the Inversion, The X-Men and Apocalypse decide to eliminate humanity after the years of oppression, and nearly succeed. The Avengers may have stopped them from eliminating all of the non X-Gene'd humans, but Deadpool is the one that convinces Evan to be a force for good.
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Age of Apocalypse
The most popular alternate version of Apocalypse comes from the Age of Apocalypse storyline, which kicks off with the death of Professor X and sees Apocalypse do what he's always dreamed of doing: fully conquering the Earth. In this alternate world, Magneto leads the X-Men and is the eventual victor over Apocalypse.
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Heroic Age
An alternate version of Apocalypse appears very briefly in the Heroic Age storyline where his four horsemen are Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Red Hulk, and Wolverine. This version of character was trapped in the time stream and appeared just long enough in the present to fight The Avengers to a standstill.
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Ultimate Apocalypse
The difference in the Ultimate version of Apocalypse and the primary version mostly came from his body. Instead of being the eons-old Mutant as his own entity, the Ultimate version of Mr. Sinister transformed into Apocalypse. Many tried and failed to defeat him, though he was later brought down by Phoenix.
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Animated Apocalypse
Apocalypse has appeared in all three major X-Men cartoons, the 1990s X-Men, X-Men: Evolution, and Wolverine and The X-Men.
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Apocalypse in video games
The character has also had appearances in a number of X-Men video games including Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, X-Men 2: Game Master's Legacy, X-Men 2: Clone Wars, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse, X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse, X2: Wolverine's Revenge, X-Men Legends, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, and Marvel: Avengers Alliance.
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X-Men: Days of Future Past
A post-credit scene in 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past revealed a young Apocalypse constructing the pyramids in Egypt plus his four horsemen, setting up...
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X-Men: Apocalypse
The follow-up to the film finally brought the X-adversary to the big screen with Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor Oscar Isaac in the role. The actor wore prosthetics on his body and face to get the look for Apocalypse, which were later enhanced digitally.
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The Four Horsemen
Apocalypse has always had four loyal followers throughout his trials, each of which he names after the beings from the bible, Death, Famine, Pestilence, and War. Recent comics have retconned the lore around the character to reveal other versions of the Horsemen have followed Apocalypse from the beginning and not just the modern versions.
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11th Century Horsemen
During Apocalypse's battle with Thor during the 11th century, his horsemen included a mutant with a body made of gas for Death, a native american mutant for Famine, a mutant with an eye for a head and wings for arms for Pestilence and a Mummy like mutant for War. Thor kills all of them.
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War defeats Dracula
During his first fight with Dracula, only one of Apocalypse's horsemen is seen, War, but the rider and Apocalypse's army handily defeat the pre-vampire Vlad the Impaler.
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First Iteration
The first modern version of the Horsemen featured Archangel as Death, Autumn Rolfson (whom he would father a child with later) as Famine, the morlock mutant Plague as Pestilence, and a Vietnam vet named Abraham Lincoln Kieros as War. T
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The Hulk as the Horsemen of War
At one point, Apocalypse recruits The Hulk (at the time a separate being from Bruce Banner) to be his new Horsemen of War, giving him an all-new outfit which didn't last all that long.
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Second Iteration
The second version of the Horsemen debuted during “The Twelve” storyline and featured supervillain Ahab as Famine, the Morlock Caliban as Pesitlence, the alien Deathbird as War and Wolverine himself as Death.
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Third Iteration
During the “Blood of Apocalypse” storyline, the third version of the Horsemen arrived with Sunfire as Famine, Magneto's daughter Polaris as Pestilence, Gazer as War, and Gambit as Death. Unlike other Horsemen, who are often forced into the servitude, Gambit willingly became the Horseman of Death for the villain.
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The Final Horsemen
Though not actually the final horsemen, it was revealed upon Apocalypse's revival as a child that he had assembled his best versions of each Horsemen and placed them in stasis for a later time when he would need them. Picked from across time, Famine was a former Confederate soldier of the American Civil War, Pestilence a woman from 19th century Japan, War a Roman soldier from the third century, and Death a former servant of the king of Persia in the fourth century. This death would later be killed and replaced by Psylocke.
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Horsemen of Death
Though not technically Horsemen of Apocalypse, this version was assembled by the Apocalypse Twins (the children of Archangel and the “Final” Pestilence Horseman) four dead heroes were chosen as the “Horsemen of Death” in order to destroy the Avengers Unity Squad including: Banshee, Daken, Grim Reaper and The Sentry.
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Apocalypse Wars Horsemen
Most recently a version of the Horsemen from a thousand years in the future was seen in the pages of Extraordinary X-Men wherein Colossus, Venom, Deadpool and a female Moon Knight were the four horsemen.
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Age of Apocalypse Horsemen
In the alternate reality of the Age of Apocalypse, there was a rotating roster of Horsemen but Apocalypse later held a competition among all his Horsemen to choose the four that would stand at his side which ended up being Holocaust, Mikhail Rasputin, Bastion, and Mister Sinister.
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Deadpool vs. The Horsemen
In the pages of Cable & Deadpool, the Merc with a Mouth scoured time to find his buddy and stumbled upon an alternate universe where the Blob was (ironically) Famine, an eight-armed Spider-Man was Pestilence, Archangel was Death, and Cable himself was War.
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X-Men: Evolution Horsemen
The cartoon versions of Apocalypse also had their own horsemen. The original '90s series followed the comics and had the first incarnation as its horsemen while X-Men: Evolution went a different route choosing Storm as Famine, Mystique as Pestilence, Magneto as War, and Professor X as Death.
