Origin

The Nemesis Days

In the Age of Apocalypse time line, Holocaust first appeared in a more human appearance and was then known as Nemesis. His first assignment from his alleged father, Apocalypse, was to spy on the X-Men and attack them when the chance arose. Nemesis waited in a nearby mountain range in hiding until most of the mutant team had left. He then attacked the base, which was only guarded by the Scarlet Witch and a small group of young mutants. Nemesis killed most of the students early on in the fight, but then was engaged by Scarlet Witch. Even with her probability manipulation, Wanda found it difficult to harm Nemesis. Nemesis then killed Scarlet Witch. Enraged by the death of the students and his own daughter, Magneto hunted down Nemesis and destroyed his physical body, leaving his spiritual essence, which was then sent back to Apocalypse and put into the near indestructible armour that was made by the Dark Beast. This was the birth of Holocaust.

Holocaust: The Man in the Armor

When Nemesis, who was then called Holocaust, was given his next assignment, he was to keep a watch on an Infinites (the army of Apocalypse) manufacturing factory. There, Holocaust was assaulted by Sabretooth, Wild Child, Blink, and Rogue. Holocaust was first attacked by the eager Sabretooth, but, after a few minutes of vigorous battle, seemingly dispatched of the mutant. Blink, enraged by her friends alleged death, attacked Holocaust. It was then that Holocaust proved the durability of his new armour by emerging from a tub of acid unscathed after being pushed in by Blink. Because Blink was obviously being defeated, Rogue interfered the battle and may have defeated Holocaust had he not teleported to the safety of his father Apocalypse's domain. Though he had hoped to teleported to safety, he arrived in time to interfere in a battle between Apocalypse and Nate Grey, the X-Man. Though Nate seemed to have easily dispatched Holocaust with a powerful psionic blast, he soon recovered to interfere the fight again. When Holocaust attacked Nate, Magneto took the initiative to attack Apocalypse. The battle between Holocaust and Nate was fairly even, until Nate found a small shard of the M'Kraan Crystal and stabbed it into Holocaust. The Crystal combined with Holocaust's unique genetic make-up seemingly transported the two combatants into the earth-616 dimension, which is true Marvel Universe continuity.

Earth-616

While it is unknown where Nate Grey was transported after the Crystal event, Holocaust wound up in space near Magneto's space station Avalon. The station, unknowing of Holocaust's origin, brought the frozen mutant into their protection. Holocaust awoke in time to kill his guard, the mutant known as Rusty, and absorb his life force, which put him back to his normal power. Holocaust then fought the leader of the space station, Exodus. The fight ultimately resulted in the destruction of the space station. When Holocaust returned to earth, he found the psionic being Onslaught and embraced the being as a chance to get back at Nate Grey. Holocaust became an agent of Onslaught willingly. Holocaust's first assignment under Onslaught was, to Holocaust's satisfaction, to attack Nate Grey. Holocaust was barely defeated, and was forced to retreat. Onslaught later revealed to Holocaust that he had sent him merely to test the mettle of the X-Man.

Exiles: Reluctant Hero

In one event occurring from Nate Grey's time manipulation, Holocaust became trapped in time. He was then forced to join the superhero team the Exiles in order to return to the correct time line. Holocaust replaced Blackwing who had been near-fatally wounded in a previous mission. In the foreign time line, Holocaust leaned that Apocalypse had died. This left Holocaust's father's empire without a ruler. This fact was so tempting to Holocaust that he forgot about his time issue and went forth to claim the throne. He would have done so, too, had he not stumbled upon the even more tempting power of the M'Kraan Crystal once again. Holocaust remained with the Exiles, believing that their resourcefulness in time travelling would aid him in acquiring the Crystal. The Exiles' ventures eventually lead them to the Panoptichron before it became their base, and found an evil alternate reality form of Hyperion ruling as an emperor there and controlling the M'Kraan Crystal. Holocaust, enraged at Hyperion's possession of what he believed was rightfully his by blood, attacked the emperor, but to no success. Hyperion broke Holocaust's armour and absorbed his essence, apparently killing him. It is unknown whether or not Holocaust is truly dead this time or, like many times before, simply biding his time, waiting for another comeback at the Marvel Universe.

Powers

Holocaust is considered one of the most powerful mutants in Marvel continuity to date. His powers included extremely destructive radiation blasts usually emitted from his arm that he would shape shift into a gun, shape shifting, phasing, invulnerability to an unknown but presumably high extent, super strength, speed, reflexes, and stamina, and a high level life absorption ability that fuelled his other powers and made them more powerful. It is thought that his invulnerability was much more powerful when he still had his human body.