He is as far beyond mutants as they are beyond you.
He is the rocks of the eternal shore.
But really, just who is Apocalypse?
Do you hear it, children of the atom?
Do you sense it, X fans everywhere?
Do you feel the sands of time crunching beneath the despotic boot of the X-Mens most powerful foe?
This leads to aDen of Geekconundrum.
So whenX-Factor#1 hit the stands, comic fans responded and it was an instant sensation.
For five issues, writer Bob Layton was building a new super villain team called the Alliance of Evil.
That villain was supposed to be…The Owl!!!
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Well, that could have been anti-climactic, huh?
It was clear from the first moment Apocalypse appeared, that this villain was special.
He was regal, terrifying, and unique.
Before we get into the villains next contemporary appearance, lets talk origin.
En Sabah Nur was born with grey skin and blue lips.
He was cast out by his village because humanity sucks and rescued by beings called the Sandstormers.
The Sandstormers raise Nur and teach him all sorts of Darwinian theories about survival.
At this point Rama Tut arrives.
Tut or Kang or (ARRGGHH CONFUSING!)
Tut destroys Nurs tribe and the grey skinned warrior swears revenge.
The girl rejects him and the spurned and enraged Nur has a bit of a tantrum.
Nurs mutant powers manifest and he is transformed into Apocalypse.
Apocalypse steals some of the Celestials technology.
So when you see Apocalypse with high-tech sci-fi ships and guns and whatnot, now you know why.
Apocalypse forces his new creation to join the Hellfire Club and plans to use him to conquer the world.
Sinister betrays his maker, forcing Apocalypse into a long slumber.
Like all great villains, Apocalypse has added to the tapestry of the Marvel Universe.
Sinister is perhaps Apocalypses most important creation but there would be more.
But first, when Apocalypse awoke from his long sleep, his strangest adventure began.
So, yeah Apocalypse versus Dracula, and neither Abbott nor Costello show up.
This clash of immortals was told inX-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula(2006).
It was written by Frank Tieri, drawn by Clayton Henry, and was all sorts of awesome.
Bauhaus has a song about it.
No, they dont, but they would be even cooler if they did.
We wrote more about Marvel characters fighting Dracula right here because thats what we do around here.
Around the time of theFall of the Mutantscrossover, Apocalypse began recruiting members for his Four Horsemen.
This left Worthington a sullen and bitter mess.
Apocalypse found Angel on the verge of suicide and transformed the once great hero into the razor winged Death.
Worthington of course regained control of his new profoundly deadly form and betrayed Apocalypse.
But Apocalypses forbidden science had changed the character forever.
The long of the short of it is this.
Now, thats a malleable character.
In 1995, Marvel tried something unheard of with its X-Men titles.
This caused time to shatter as the X-Men was never formed because Xaviers dream was dead.
What replaced the world protected by Xaviers students?
Magneto was good, Cyclops was bad, Wolverine had one hand, and everything was just twisted.
If the X-Men were to lose, the world would be plunged into the chaos ofAoA.
Lets not forget the Messiah War where a ravaged Apocalypse begs his creation Archangel to end his ancient existence.
The X-Men film franchise has plenty of story directions to choose from as the cinematic Age of Apocalypse begins.
