Apocalypse (Marvel)

Apocalypse appeared in 1985 Marvel Comics called Marvel Graphic Novel. En Sabah Nur, translated as "The Seven Lights," is an ancient mutant warrior known as the ruthless Apocalypse. He was the first of the second generation of mutantkind, born in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. Abandoned at birth due to his monstrous appearance, he was found and raised by a ruthless nomadic warrior. Forced into slavery, his powers allowed him to turn on his masters and conquer all that stood in his way. He championed an extreme philosophy of mutant supremacy and "survival of the fittest"; only the strong deserve to survive and weakness should be mercilessly destroyed. Recruited by the Celestials, he became the latest in a line of guardians charged with ensuring that evolution takes its natural course. They enhanced his form which became a mix of organic and Celestial technology, boosting his shapeshifting and other powers to godlike levels.

Over the centuries, Apocalypse was worshipped as a god by various cultures around the world, enforcing his rule using his strike force known as the Horsemen of Apocalypse. He would periodically enter lengthy periods of regenerative rest to prolong his lifespan and seek out powerful mutants as host bodies. During his slumber, his decedents known as Clan Akkaba guided the world using his philosophy. He awoke at various points to influence history. The explosion in the mutant population in the modern age awoke him from his sleep, prompting him to actively provoke a war between humans and mutants. This brought him into conflict with the X-Men, who he regards as worthy opponents who have earned the right to live in his new world.

When the Mutant nation of Krakoa was formed he took the mutant name Apocalypse and was invited to join the Quiet Council, the ruling body of the country.

En Sabah Nur was born nearly five thousand years ago in a lone settlement on the Amentet at the very edge of the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt, as a member of a tribe in Akkaba. Even as an infant, the child inspired fear, being born with gray skin and blue lines running across his lips and face. Ugly and malformed, the infant was abandoned by the tribe, to die in the harsh desert sun. However, out of the desert, the Sandstormers, a roving band of feared nomadic raiders, slaughtered the citizens of Akkaba. Their leader, Baal of the Crimson Sands, found the infant crying and recognized the potential power in the child. Baal named the infant En Sabah Nur, literally meaning "The Morning Light", and raised him as his own son.

As Nur grew, he surpassed the other tribesmen in intelligence and strength. Everyone in the tribe, except for Baal, hated and feared Nur for his inhuman looks and great abilities. Nur did not understand their fear but hardened his heart against it. Moreover, Nur believed in the principle that Baal and the tribe lived by, that only the fittest, toughest, most ruthless, and pitiless, tested by hardship, would and should survive. At this time Egypt was ruled by Pharaoh Rama-Tut. On the day of his tribal rite of passage into manhood, the seventeen-year-old Nur killed three armed warriors of the tribe using only his bare hands and Baal explained to him that Rama-Tut was no god, as most believed, but a man, who had arrived to Egypt in a Sphinx. Baal brought the young Nur to a sacred cave, whose entrance became blocked by a cave-in, trapping them underground.

After a week of wandering without food or water, they found the remnants of Rama-Tut's time ship, within an underground Egyptian tomb. Baal told Nur that he believed him to be a conqueror, whose coming was foretold in ancient prophecies, and that Nur was destined to overthrow Rama-Tut. After Baal died from lack of nourishment, Nur, whose mutant physiology kept him alive, vowed to take vengeance on Rama-Tut and claim his destiny. Four weeks later, Nur finally made his way back to the surface and was found by Logos, the grand vizier of Rama-Tut, who gave him water and hid him as a slave. Nur was determined to kill both Rama-Tut and his warlord, Ozymandias, for their part in Baal's death.

While a slave, Nur kept his disfigured lips constantly covered and Nephri, sister of Ozymandias, became attracted to the mysterious slave. Eventually, Nur had a vision of the Egyptian death god, Seth, who urged him to become a conqueror. Nur was thrown into a pit of snakes, but survived when his superhuman powers began to activate. Nur grew in size and strength and was attacked by guards, but defeated them all, taking the name of Apocalypse.

At a time when many time-traveling super heroes, including the Fantastic Four, West Coast Avengers, and Dr. Strange, arrived in Rama-Tut's Egypt, the Pharaoh finally came face to face with Nur. In actuality, Rama-Tut was a time traveler from the far future, who would later become known as Kang the Conqueror. Tut knew Apocalypse as one of the most powerful mutants who ever lived and the one who was destined to rule the world. Hence, Rama-Tut had gone back in time to find Apocalypse as a child, raise him, and thereby become the master of the most powerful being on the planet. Rama-Tut offered to make Nur his heir, if he would swear his loyalty. At that time, Nur revealed his face to Nephri, who rejected him for his appearance. Rama-Tut then tried to kill Nur, when he refused. Nur was then shot, by the Pharaoh, with the same weapon he used to de-power the Fantastic Four, and was again left to die, but survived with the sudden emergence of his mutant immortality and mass shifting.

With his powers flaring, Tut fled as Nur defeated Ozymandias and his soldiers, Nur ran into the night to claim the Pharaoh's Sphinx and all its secrets. As morning came Ozymandias found Tut's lab within the Sphinx and a changed Nur. He attacked Ozymandias and threw him into the devices, turned Ozymandias into a sand-like being, who could see the future almost right before it happened and would record Nur's accomplishments throughout time, as his scribe. While Nur unleashed his rage on the Pharaoh's technology, Tut who had been fighting the Fantastic Four escaped back into the future, eventually to take on the identity of Kang. The Fantastic Four went back to their era, thinking the explosion a booby trap. Nur emerged from the Sphinx as the only survivor. While the Pharaoh's servants bowed before him, Nur dismissed them as a weak and disgusting people, declaring he would return when the sands of the desert had buried them. After fifty years, Nur returned to his homeland, which by now was crumbling and soon to be overrun by its enemies. He revisited Nephri, now a queen, and mocked her fading beauty, as he was still as he had been years before.

In 2620 BC, Apocalypse joined forces with Imhotep and the Moon Knight of Khonshu (forming a protectorate who would become the Brotherhood of the Shield) to successfully fend off a Brood invasion. Other accounts stated Apocalypse only helped Imhotep against the Brood, but did not join the Brotherhood created afterwards.

At some point, using old hieroglyphs, Nur built his large Sphinx-shaped ship with alien materials. As Nur worked on the ship, he found that it was building itself as much as he was. When he was done, he heard an ephemeral voice speaking to him. The voice belonged to the Celestial, Eson the Searcher, who spoke through telepathy and called Nur "Apocalypse". Eson presented Nur with the proposition to use the technology on the ship to become a feared, great, powerful creature, to shape the destiny of the world, or simply leave and forget the wonders of the ship. Nur accepted and Eson stated that one day, maybe in centuries or millennia, the Celestials would come for payments for their gifts.

From then on, Nur plotted the conquest of the planet, through bringing about wars and conflict, in which the strong would defeat and destroy the weak.

When Apocalypse fully realized his power and defeated the Pharaoh and his army, Egypt entered a new age, one in which his children walked among them. Offspring of Nur received a portion of his power, those closest related having near identical abilities. Nur forged his clan, now called Clan Akkaba after his birthplace and those who had abandoned and left him to die. During this time, the site of Akkaba reached somewhat of a renaissance as great monuments were erected there, whether by Nur, his descendants, or by the new Pharaoh no one knew. Egypt peaked, and so too did the clan's influence on the world. With attacks by Alexander the Great and his Persian armies, Nur and his kin fought valiantly in a battle he would never forget. This battle helped Nur winnow out the weak in his clan and, as Egypt became nothing but a distant memory to the clan's influence, Nur moved on to Ancient Rome.

Over the ages Apocalypse also had often banded together the best human warriors from around the world to serve in his army of foot soldiers known as the Riders of the Dark. His group of fanatics devoted to the Darwinian ideals that the strong ("fit") should inherit the Earth and the weak ("unfit") should be culled, weeded them out.

At an uncertain point in the distant past, Apocalypse found and began living on the sentient island of Okkara. Apocalypse became the leader of a thriving mutant society based on the island and took a wife by the name of Genesis, who bore him four children; two sons and two daughters, who eventually became their First Horsemen. When the island was split by a force wielding the Twilight Sword, the mutants led by Apocalypse and his family fought the invading Daemons spilling forth from the hellish reality of Amenth.

During the war, the living god of the Daemons, Annihilation, offered peace to the mutants, in terms spoken only to Genesis. The terms were refused, but it eventually became clear that the mutants would inevitably lose. In order to buy Earth time, a plan was concocted to seal off the half of Okkara gripped by the daemons, along with Genesis, the Horsemen, and the remaining mutants of the island, who would hold off the Amenthi hordes. Apocalypse was left behind, as he was deemed too weak to cross over. Before Genesis left for Amenth, she had Apocalypse promise to use the time they would buy him to shepherd mutantkind, to judge them, and to ensure that only the strongest survived, so that they would be prepared for when the daemons inevitably returned.

By 281, Apocalypse was already recruiting his "Final Horsemen" as a contingency plan, collecting Decimus Furius and storing him away to awaken later. In 325, he recruited Sanjar Javeed for the same purpose.

Powers and Abilities

• Mutant Physiology: Apocalypse has constantly evolved to survive, increasing his powers over the centuries. His original ability to control his molecular structure was augmented by Celestial technology and further enhanced through the Celestial armor to become the Evolutionary Caretaker. He was also exposed to at least two different techno-organic viruses over the years, which he assimilated and made his own.
  • Immortality: As an External Apocalypse's original body was immortal; even before being modified by the Celestial ship, he had lived for thousands of years. Though he has been put out of commission or seemingly destroyed for various periods of time, Apocalypse can not be permanently killed.
    • Self-Resurrection: Like the other Externals, Apocalypse has shown to be able to resurrect himself in various ways, but due to being enhanced by Celestial technology and Techno-Organic Virus, he has been able to come back in unique ways from the other Externals.

• Psychic-Link: Apocalypse is not only immortal like these rare subspecies of mutants, but shares a telepathic-link with his fellow Externals that allows them to not only sense each other and where, but can call on each other at will from great distances. He is also able to sense when one rises from their first death and when one is killed by another External.
• Self-Molecular Manipulation: Apocalypse has control over the molecular structure of his own body and can alter it at will. This means he can adapt his molecular structure to adversity. Apocalypse can perform the following feats:
  • Biomorphing: Apocalypse is also a non-terrestrial metamorph, able to elongate like taffy, change into machinery, transform his arms and fists into various melee weapons like claws, axes, swords, tentacles, maces, scythes, shields, and ranged weapons like plasma cannons, separate & reattach his own body parts, and even alter his physical appearance at will to blend in with the world around him.
  • Regeneration: Apocalypse's control over his bodily molecules, his External nature and techno-organic cells allow him to regenerate from a single drop of blood. But Apocalypse when sustaining immense amount of damage that not even he can heal, can enter a coma-like state of suspended animation during which he may recover from any wounds with the assistance of his Celestial technology.
  • Size Alteration: Apocalypse is able to change his size at will; he can increase or decrease the size of his body by taking on additional mass or ridding of it from a presumably extra-dimensional source.
  • Self-Power Bestowal: Due to En Sabah's total control over his molecular and sub-molecular structure, further bolstered by the Celestial technology augmenting him, he can also consciously or spontaneously grant himself with a wide array of new superpowers at will.

• Matter Manipulation: Apocalypse has shown the ability to disintegrate an opponent with a touch of his finger.
• Superhuman Strength: Apocalypse possesses superhuman strength that he can further increase by drawing upon outside energy sources; Apocalypse was shown to be strong enough to physically restrain the Hulk, while the Hulk was separated from Banner and explicitly lacked the ability to increase his strength with his rage, but also had a stronger base level. He is also able to fight and defeat a young Thor armed with Jarnjborn. Hence, Apocalypse is above the "Class 100" limit.
• Superhuman Durability: Apocalypse is highly resistant to injury. With the Celestial modifications, this resistance to harm is amplified.
• Superhuman Stamina and Endurance: Apocalype's body suffers no fatigue, so much so that he felt it for the first time when he experienced degeneration.
• Superhuman Reflexes: He is able to speed up his reflexes and reaction time.
• Psionic Manipulation: At various times Apocalypse has demonstrated differing but vast levels of mental capacity.
  • Telekinesis: Apocalypse possesses telekinetic abilities enabling him to levitate himself, or others, by sheer force of will and manipulate living beings, inanimate objects, and to some extent energy, psionically.
    • Flight: Apocalypse can enable himself to fly, by either transforming his arms into wings, jets, or through telekinetic use. He can achieve supersonic velocity in this manner.
  • Telepathy: He's also an accomplished mentalist of undefined extent. An example of his power would be him battling a weakened Jean Grey (a vastly powerful telepath in her own right) within the psyche space of Baby Nathan and win.
    • Telepathic Control & Manipulation: He's able to project his own thoughts and memories or read those of others in order to glean and impart whatever information he desires from them.
    • Cyberpathy: Thanks to his synergy with the Celestial Technology bonded to him, due in part to his paradoxical jaunt of afflicting Cable with the T.O Virus, Apocalypse gained the ability to mentally link with and control most any kind of tech and machinery he could reach out too.

• Celestial Energy Manipulation: Apocalypse seems to have a range of energy harnessing and projecting capabilities, either naturally derived or based on Celestial technology built into his physical frame. He can use these metaphysical forces to accomplish a great many facilities; such as illusion & memory conjuration, matter reconstruction, healing as well as total physical restoration of damaged or destroyed bodily tissues.
  • Force-Fields: Ability to create nearly impenetrable force fields
  • Energy Blasts: Apocalypse can project raw destructive energy from anywhere on his person, be it as concussive blasts from his hands and eyes or even full body energy waves.
  • Energy Absorption: He can also absorb energy from outside sources to augment both himself and his overall power.
  • Energy Transfer: In his time as Murshir, En Sabah found he could share his celestial force with other individuals to enhance their abilities. Similar to how Galactus imparts his power cosmic upon a chosen herald.

• Teleportation: Apocalypse can teleport himself and others around vast distances across the planet. The ability seems to be artificial, linked to the Celestial technology bio-mechanically incorporated into his body, headquarters, and equipment, and so is not always available to him.
• Sorcery: He can use magic, but the extent of his magical capabilities and knowledge are unknown.
• Super-Genius Intelligence: Apocalypse is an extraordinary genius, and has knowledge of certain areas of biology, primarily genetic engineering and mutation, and technology that are far in advance of contemporary science and technology.
• Omnilingual: En Sabah Nur is fluent in all of human language from across history, including Celestial.
• Expert Combatant: Although he doesn't often engage himself in personal combat, usually relying on servants such as his Horsemen and other allies to fight for him, Apocalypse is a ruthless combatant and was trained at a young age in both hand-to-hand and with weapons such as swords. He often combines his powers alongside his martial skill in battle.