This article is about the character. You may be looking for movie of the same name.
- "Elohim, Shen, Ra - I've been called many names over many lifetimes. I am born of death. I was there to spark and fan the flame of man's awakening, to spin the wheel of civilization. And when the forest would grow rank and needed clearing for new growth, I was there to set it ablaze."
- ―Apocalypse to Magneto
Apocalypse (born under the name En Sabah Nur) is an immensely powerful and ancient mutant. He is believed to be the very first mutant, having lived for several millennia.
Biography
Early Life
En Sabah Nur, known by others as "Apocalypse", the firstborn of the mutant race, was born prior to 3600 BC (possibly millennia and claiming to have been worshiped by several ancient civilizations over his many lives, being called Elohim, Shem, Ra, Krishna, and Yahweh, among other names), as he rules the world in Akkaba of ancient Egypt. According to Moira, wherever Apocalypse ruled, it would always end in a cataclysm or apocalypse of some sort. Throughout his reign, he had helped grow and eventually destroy many cities and civilizations. He was responsible for destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, Athens and Pompeii and ruling over the the Acadians, the Samarians, and the Babylonians before wiping them out.
X-Men: Days of Future Past
In Ancient Egypt, a young En Sabah Nur is seen in using his powers to construct the Great Pyramid of Giza while a vast crowd of people bow before him, chanting his name while his Horsemen look on.
X-Men: Apocalypse
While performing a transferal of his consciousness to a newer body, his worshipers betrayed him and set for the destruction of his pyramid. The Four Horsemen ensure Apocalypse still survives the ordeal even as the monument is collapsed, killing the followers while keeping En Sabah Nur entombed for millennia.
Following the 1973 incidents that revealed mutantkind to the world, a group of Egyptians started the Cult of En Sabah Nur and discovered where his resting place lied in Cairo. As Moira investigated them in 1983, she saw En Sabah Nur awaken at the ruins, killing the cultists.
En Sabah Nur decides to explore the modern day world, and while roaming Cairo, he sees street thief Ororo Munroe use her weather control powers to steal food. The shopkeepers go threaten Ororo, being interrupted by the intervention of Apocalypse. After miscommunication due to En Sabah Nur speaking outdated dialects, he eventually kills the men chasing Ororo by using sand to punch through the sides of their necks and literally melting the last into a wall.
Ororo takes En Sabah Nur to her house. Once he sees a television, touching it enables Apocalypse's powers to connect to all broadcasts in the world, making him learn modern languages and how mankind evolved the previous millennia. Believing that without his presence, humanity has grown weaker, he decides to destroy it in order to rebuild society from his point of view. He enhances Ororo's powers to turn her into the first of the new Horsemen.
Apocalypse and Storm then go to Berlin seeking Caliban, a mutant broker who knows the location of other Homo superior. Caliban refuses to concede information without getting paid and draws a gun on En Sabah Nur, who proceeds to use his powers to disintegrate it. Caliban's enforcer Psylocke then extends a sword and her psi-katana upon Apocalypse to protect her boss. Impressed, En Sabah Nur goes on to enhance Psylocke and turn her into a Horseman, and she replies by taking her to a powerful mutant. Angel, a former cage fighter who went into drunk depression after injuring his wings fighting Nightcrawler, becomes the third Horseman as Apocalypse replaces his wings with metal ones, renaming him "Archangel", "my Angel of Death".
After recruiting the trio, Apocalypse arrives together with them to a steel plant factory in Poland, where Erik Lehnsherr, also known as "Magneto", wants to kill his former co-workers for causing the death of his wife and daughter. Apocalypse kills the workers by fusing them to the ground, and teleports with Magneto to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where Erik had seen his powers awaken 40 years prior. After some encouragement from En Sabah Nur, who tells Erik that Earth's magnetic field and ground metals can be exploited by Magneto's powers, Erik proceeds to destroy the ruins, and promptly agrees to join forces with the ancient mutant (who further enhances Erik's already immense mutant powers), becoming his fourth and final Horseman of the Apocalypse
As Apocalypse gathers his Four Horsemen and gives them special armor, Erik is contacted telepathically by Charles Xavier through Cerebro. En Sabah Nur notices the communication and uses his powers to take over Xavier's mind, and by extension Cerebro. Apocalypse forces military around the world to launch Earth's entire nuclear arsenal into space so it cannot be used against him. After Havok destroys Cerebro with his powers, Apocalypse and the horsemen teleport to the X-Mansion to kidnap Xavier. Havok's attempt at attacking Apocalypse ends hitting a generator and causes a massive explosion that destroys the mansion, with everyone inside other than Havok only surviving due to Quicksilver's intervention.
Xavier is brought by En Sabah Nur to Cairo, and forced to broadcast a threatening message to all the human race on the behalf of Apocalypse. Without En Sabah Nur knowing, Xavier also revealed his location in a hidden telepathic message to his student Jean Grey. En Sabah Nur destroyed most of Cairo to rebuild his pyramid, and ordered Magneto to stand outside it using his powers to control Earth's magnetic poles, causing widespread destruction across the planet and mass casualties. Meanwhile, inside the pyramid En Sabah Nur would transfer his consciousness to Xavier's body, as the telepath's powers would allow him to "be everywhere, be everyone".
The X-Men arrive during the process, and Nightcrawler interrupts the transferal by teleporting Xavier out of the pyramid, but not before Professor X loses his hair. As Apocalypse steps outside the pyramid, he witnesses Angel defeated and is repeatedly punched in the face by Quicksilver, who uses his super speed to not be noticed, until En Sabah Nur catches on and traps one of the speedster's feet to the ground. As Psylocke comes closer, he requests for her to execute Peter. Instead she strikes En Sabah Nur on the neck, and seeing it is not his Horseman, he proceeds to attack and strangle the mutant, revealed as a disguised Mystique.
He orders Xavier to reveal his location, and the telepath goes on to attack Apocalypse at the Astral Plane. En Sabah Nur finds Xavier's hideout, but his attempt at getting there is interrupted by two Horsemen switching sides: Storm, who idolized Mystique, and Magneto, who did not like seeing his former friends attacked.
While the X-Men fight Apocalypse, Jean ventures into the astral plane and learns from Xavier that Apocalypse is weakened after centuries in the same body. Jean and Magneto join forces and dismantle Apocalypse's armor, with Jean tapping into the Phoenix Force. Once En Sabah Nur's frail true form is exposed, Magneto pierces him with a tremendous torrent of high-speed metal projectiles, after which Phoenix incinerates him, finally ending the threat of Apocalypse.
Personality
En Sabah Nur, or commonly known as "Apocalypse", is a god-like mutant as well as the world's first mutant. Because of his godly status in the world, he had been worshiped as a deity over the years and ruled ancient Egypt. En Sabah Nur was born with numerous superhuman abilities, so much so that he proclaims himself as not only a god, but a "savior" of sorts in order to establish a new world in the wake of the previous one.
He is a ruthless and manipulative mutant, as such he uses his manipulative streak to recruit many followers, including new ones. Apocalypse has also been shown to be very cruel, shown when he looks down at a defeated Angel and only says that Angel was "useless". While he is tremendously powerful, he is also shown to be psychopathic, having no care for the consequences of his actions, and exposes one's weakness on a psychological level for his own personal gains. Apocalypse even has no qualms about killing other mutants who would dare defy him.
Actor Oscar Isaac, who portrays Apocalypse in the movie, described his character as: "He is the creative/destructive force of Earth when things goes awry for him, or those things do not seem that they are moving forward evolution to him. So, Apocalypse destroys those civilizations."
Powers, Abilities, and Weaknesses
Powers
- Host Power Absorption - Every time Apocalypse's essence enters a new host body, he not only retains all of his previous abilities, but also gains the abilities of his host, thereby continually expanding on his arsenal of abilities. However, instead of absorbing the genetic material to absorb their power, his powers are absorbed in essence form and fused to his soul instead.
- Superhuman Strength - Apocalypse has immense strength, making him one of the physically dominant mutants, able to effortlessly beat an immobilized Quicksilver to the ground (breaking his leg with a single kick) and easily strangle and lift Mystique above his head with a single hand.
- Superhuman Durability - Apocalypse is incredibly durable, able to withstand several supersonic strikes from Quicksilver and resist for a short period blasts from Phoenix. Ultimately, it took a combined assault from the all the X-Men, including Magneto, to finally destroy him.
- Regenerative Healing Factor - After transferring his consciousness into a mutant with advanced healing powers, Apocalypse acquired near-instantaneous recuperative powers to mend wounds and regenerate lost anatomy. When Mystique (disguised as Psylocke) slit his throat, Apocalypse recovered immediately. Even with his armor ripped off, Apocalypse was still healing from the disintegration caused by the Phoenix. However, the combined effort of the X-men and Magneto proved able to damage him faster than he could heal, thus ultimately destroying and killing Apocalypse.
- Ageless - Apocalypse's healing powers keep him from aging beyond his prime, enabling him to remain dormant for over 5,000 years. To which, he also proved self-sustaining, as during this time, he required no nourishment to live or keep up his strength.
- Telekinesis - Apocalypse has formidable, telekinetic abilities, which border on matter manipulation. He is able to pull dust-like particles from matter that he can turn into various objects; he can also disintegrate objects into said particles. Apocalypse can levitate objects of immense size to launch at his opponents. Apocalypse also frequently utilized this to fuse his opponents within walls or in the ground. At the largest scale, he was shown destroying much of Cairo in a "sandstorm" and re-assembling much of the material into his own personal pyramid. However, his telekinesis is not absolute, as he needed Magneto's manipulation of the magnetic poles to destroy human civilization.
- Matter Transmutation - Apocalypse is able to transmutate matter into anything he wants, as he gave new, metallic wings for Archangel and a new helmet for Magneto. Apocalypse could liquefy rock surfaces and turn portions of it gelatinous and rubber-like, enabling him to trap his foes.
- Telepathy - Apocalypse had some mild telepathic abilities, able to sense telepathic activity and block enemy telepaths. He could not, however, look into someone's mind, plant or erase memories, or control it, which is why he wanted Charles' body. Still, he can instantly connect with Cerebro and force the nations to destroy all their nuclear weapons. In fact, while battling mentally with Charles, Apocalypse gained the upper hand relatively quickly, to which the fight only shifted out of Apocalypse's favor when Phoenix joined the fight.
- Knowledge Absorption - Apocalypse is able to learn vast amounts of information inhumanly quickly. After awakening from his long slumber, he extracted data from the media network, gaining an understanding of the modern world, and learning to speak fluently in English, all in a matter of seconds. When using this ability, it seemingly causes the network system to act haywire, as the television began randomly showing various channels.
- Barriers - Apocalypse can generate an extremely durable, yellow-hued energy shield around himself, able to withstand the combined attacks of Storm's lightning, Cyclops's optical blasts, and Magneto's tremendous torrent of high-speed metal projectiles. However, it did not protect him from Phoenix's power for long.
- Teleportation - Apocalypse is able to teleport over tremendous distances at will, generating an immense sphere of violet light around himself and others or a hazy, violet portal he and others can walk through.
- Mutant Power Bestowal - Apocalypse can bestow others with great powers and abilities, or even enhance their natural mutant powers, as he would periodically do with each new generation of his Four Horsemen. He made Psylocke capable of generating more powerful and versatile energy projections, granting Archangel bio-metallic wings (far more formidable than his previous, organic ones), increasing Storm's electrokinesis generation and granting her an early onset of flight (also turning her hair white in the process), and enhanced Magneto magnetic range and scale of control great enough to manipulating Earth's magnetic poles to devastating effects. Apocalypse also amplified Professor X's telepathy, making Charles able to deliver a telepathic message from Apocalypse to all the people of Earth.
Abilities
- Genius Intellect - Apocalypse is extremely intelligent, due to him having gains thousands of years of life and experience, as well as him having the ability to absorb vast amounts of knowledge at inhuman rates.
- Excellent Strategist - Apocalypse is an excellent strategist, tactician, and leader, having successfully taken advantage of Cerebro, quickly ridding Earth of its nuclear weapons, and leading his four Horsemen of Apocalypse against the X-Men, and he would have most likely ultimately been victorious against them, had Magneto and Storm not unexpectedly turned against him, and with Jean Grey unexpectedly tapping into the Phoenix, all at the last moment.
- Master Manipulator - Apocalypse, having been a charismatic leader in ancient times, is an expert at bending others to his will through both his persuasive words offerings of great power, with him notably swaying Storm, Psylocke, Archangel, and Magneto to his cause, making them his four Horsemen of Apocalypse.
- Multilingual - Apocalypse is fluent in his native Ancient Egyptian, as well as English (after absorbing the knowledge of it from the modern world).
Weaknesses
- Arrogance - Apocalypse's other main weakness is his overconfidence in his abilities, which makes him see himself as a god. Hence, Professor X was able to exploit this when he told Jean Grey to "unleash her power", making Apocalypse arrogantly walk towards her, and being caught off-guard with the sheer magnitude of Phoenix's power. The professor even claimed that Apocalypse can never win because his arrogance indices him to stand alone against the X-Men, even after both Magneto and Storm have turned against him and the two remaining Horsemen of Apocalypse.
- Weakened Body - After Apocalypse spends a massive amount of time in a single body, it becomes weaker, requiring him to transfer his essence into a new body through an Egyptian ritual, so as to avoid succumbing to old age. However he overcame his aging through his new healing factor. Despite this, he is still physically vulnerable to any form of physical trauma. This was further shown in the final battle against the X-Men. Without his armor, Apocalypse's truly frail body left him far more vulnerable to physical attacks, despite his healing factor.
Equipment
- Apocalypse's Armor - Apocalypse's mighty armor enhances his physical abilities to immense, superhuman levels while wearing it. However without his armor, his body is as vulnerable as any human being, despite his accelerated healing abilities.
- Essence Transference Ritual - Apocalypse is able to transfer his consciousness and soul into other bodies through an ancient Egyptian altar within an enchanted ancient pyramid. The ritual requires the glow of sunlight as a power source. A golden liquid would then circulate through the symbols and then reach both Apocalypse and his new body, draining the soul (in the form of sapphire-blue, gaseous energy) into the new body. The ritual also induces a bio-metamorphic process into the net host, transforming it into a younger version of Apocalypse.
Relationships
Allies
- Hosemen of Apocalypse (Originals : War, Pestilence, Famine and Death) †
Enemies
- X-Men
- Professor X - Intended Host
- Beast
- Havok
- Cyclops
- Jean Grey/Phoenix - Killer
- Nightcrawler
- Jubilee
- Mystique
- Quicksilver
Trivia
- Apocalypse made himself stronger than he initially was when he merged with the advanced technology of an alien ship, as depicted in the comics, while a similar process is shown in the film.
- When using his powers, his eyes turn completely white while his voice can distort, becoming deeper and monstrous, and changing in tone and pitch repeatedly.
- Apocalypse is the only character in the series so far to be alive in the original timeline and deceased in the revised timeline.
External links
Apocalypse on the Marvel Wiki- Apocalypse on Wikipedia
