Apocalypse

Origin

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 in X-Factor #5 released in June, 1986. Apocalypse famously almost never seeing the light of day, if not for his 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."

Major Story Arcs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Messiah War

After the events of M-Day Apocalypse traveled into the distant future and 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.

Uncanny X-Force

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 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.

Powers

Apocalypses body is a mix of organics and celestial technology, augmenting and amplifying all of his abilities. Firstly, Apocalypse has complete control over his atomic structure. Harnessing ambient energies, he can augment his physical form in a variety of ways including manipulating his size, giving himself virtually unlimited strength, hardening portions of his body into armor, reshaping his arms into a variety of melee weapons, working wings and booster jets, and much much more. The limits of his transmutation abilities, like many of his other abilities, are unknown and seem to adapt depending on his need and imagination. He possesses the ability to heal himself from most injuries, but larger ones will take longer to heal from. More serious damage can still be healed, and if necessary, the celestial technology in his ship and many bases around the world will heal him from any state including bringing him back to life.

Apocalypse possesses above genius level intellect, as well as some telepathic, telekinetic, and psionic abilities. He is a skilled leader and tactician. Along with his own intellectual abilities, Apocalypse also has a great knowledge of celestial technology. Although his utilization of celestial technology is a part of most of his ventures, his understanding does have its limitations as his ship (comprised mainly of celestial technology) contains many secrets, technology, and even rooms that Apocalypse has yet to discover.

Apocalypse has also demonstrated teleportation abilities, but it is unknown if he actually possesses these abilities, or if they are simply an application of the technology which he possesses.

In several time lines, Apocalypse has also demonstrated the ability to transfer his consciousness into other bodies. 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 power would cause him to exhaust host bodies quickly.

As demonstrated recently, Apocalypse's blood may have some healing properties when exposed to normal tissues. During his last failed conquest attempt, a serum created from his blood was designated to be given to those few that chose to follow him. Its purpose was to prevent infection from the variety of diseases and safeguard these mutants when Polaris was unleashed on the world. It is unknown what kinds of side-effects this exposure has, and the vat was destroyed before it was used on humans, several of the surviving mutants, however,took the vials of his blood that he offered when he attacked the Xavier Institute.

Characteristics

Real Name: En Sabah Nur

Height: Variable (usually 7'9")

Weight: Variable (usually 300 lbs)

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Black

Costume Colors: Blue & Red

Main Enemy: X-Men

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)

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.

Earth-1610 (Ultimate Universe)

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-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. In near of 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 refuse 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 surrounds 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 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.

Television

X-Men : The Animated Series

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. He is secretly behind the assassination attempt of Senator Kelly and he also appears in Time Fugitives, where 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. Out in space, 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, 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. Magneto and Mystique had been assisting Apocalypse without full knowledge of his intentions, believing Apocalypse would merely recreate an Earth ruled by mutants; upon learning Apocalypse's true plot, 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

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, 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 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 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. To help protect these pyramids, Apocalypse enslaved Magneto, Xavier, Storm and Mystique as his four Horsemen 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. After his defeat, Wolverine and Rogue think they may not be so lucky and seeing Apocalypse again won't be impossible .

Wolverine And The 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

• Apocalypse appears as a boss character in Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge (1992); X-Men (1993); X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994); X-Men 2: Game Master's Legacy (1994); X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995); X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse (1997); X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse (2001); X2: Wolverine's Revenge (2003); X-Men Legends (2004) and X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2005).

• Apocalypse appears as a playable character in X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996) and Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997).