History
This version of En Sabah Nur was the future version of the modern era. Roughly in the late 36th century, Apocalypse ascended to power and ruled much of North America unchallenged, for 100 years, where humans and whoever else resistant to his rule could be killed at any moment and the only opposition was a quiet hope and belief in the Twelve, mutants who battled Apocalypse in the modern era, by the Order of the Witnesses. Apocalypse commanded the Prelates and Canaanite Army and, at some time, sired a daughter, Diamanda Nero, who became a High Counselor and viceroy. However, when Apocalypse became debilitated, burning through host bodies faster and faster, Nero assumed much of his power and position. After hearing of the arrival of a chronal anomaly, Apocalypse began creation of three new weapons to cull the weak, but Nero had to finish, as he was preparing to transfer his essence.
Clan Askani
After Alyr'n Summerset attended Apocalypse's Festival of Resurrection and battled his prelates and Diamanda, she began to gather followers, under the name Clan Askani, meaning "family of outsiders", and opposed Apocalypse's rule. Apocalypse sent Nero to deal with the Clan and the Order of the Witnesses, a group believing Rachel Summers was the "Lost Child of the Twelve". Nero successfully destroyed the Order of the Witnesses, but while battling the Askani in the ruins of the Savage Land, Nero was left depowered, by Rachel.
Over the next several years, believers of the Askani deified the ancient X-Men: "the Xavier" became a father figure, the Bright Lady a mother goddess, and the prophesied "Dayspring" or "Askani'son" their messiah. After Ch'vayre, a prelate that had become an Askani and was left in the past, returned, Apocalypse eventually made him a trusted adviser.
Askani'son
3000 years prior, Apocalypse had infected the infant Nathan Summers with a Techno-Organic Virus. Nathan's father, X-Factor's leader Cyclops, reluctantly allowed a Sister Askani to take Nathan forward to her time, to cure the virus. Upon baby Nathan's arrival, Mother Askani cloned him in an attempt to save his life. Learning of the infant Askani'son's arrival, Apocalypse ordered his Canaanites to massacre the Askani, killing many Askani, including Throeblood, then Apocalypse himself seized the clone, believing him to be Nathan. Not knowing this second child to be a clone, Apocalypse ceased his hunt for the real Nathan and raised the child, naming him Stryfe, after a villain that he faced in the modern era whose machinations nearly destroyed him but who, in the end, only made Apocalypse stronger (which was actually the adult Stryfe), and training him intensely under his tutelage, to become a terrorist. Apocalypse later revealed that he was actually making Stryfe powerful, so that he could one day claim the boy's body for his own. Since his current body had grown old and feeble, Apocalypse planned to transfer his consciousness and power into Stryfe's. Ch'vayre voiced disapproval of this plan many times over the next decade, believing it went against Apocalypse's "survival of the fittest" credo.
Apocalypse had succeeded in wiping-out the Clan Askani, but a small sect lived-on as the Clan Rebellion. Apocalypse encouraged Stryfe's arrogance and cruelty as he grew into adolescence and had him watched over by Apocalypse's aide, Ch'vayre. Years later, during the ritual of transferring Apocalypse's mind into Stryfe, Ch'vayre openly opposed and was restrained. "Redd Dayspring" and Ch'vayre attacked Apocalypse, stopping him from placing his essence into a teenage Stryfe, until Apocalypse beat them and realized that Stryfe was a clone and not the original. Stryfe's body possessed the ability, but not the capacity to maintain Apocalypse's essence. Deciding to go-through with it, until he could find another body, Stryfe began to mentally fight against Apocalypse's intrusion. Confronted by "Slym", "Redd", and Nathan "Dayspring" (as the Askani'son was now called), Apocalypse used his power to see through their physical bodies and recognized them as Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Cable, stating that if he had met them before, he could have deduced this earlier. After Slym, Redd, and Nathan attacked Apocalypse, the disillusioned Ch'vayre betrayed his master, distracting him, and Slym ordered Nathan to disrupt any telepathic links between Apocalypse and Stryfe, seemingly killing Apocalypse. After so many millennia of menacing humanity, the elderly Apocalypse finally perished in combat with the teenage Nathan, who would grow up to become the warrior Cable.Attributes
Powers
Apocalypse is easily one of the most powerful mutants who ever lived. After exposure to the Celestial Ship, all of Apocalypse's powers have been enhanced far beyond their original limits.
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Apocalypse withstands a scream from Black Bolt, as well the combined attacks of the Inhumans and X-Factor
- Superhuman Strength: Apocalypse possesses superhuman strength that he can further increase by drawing upon outside energy sources; Apocalypse has shown to be strong enough to physically restrain the Hulk while the Hulk was in an enraged state. Hence, Apocalypse is capable of lifting far in excess of 100 tons.
- Superhuman Stamina: Apocalypse's body produces practically no fatigue toxins during physical activity. He can exert himself at peak capacity indefinitely.
- Invulnerability: Apocalypse is highly resistant to injury. With the Celestial modifications, this resistance to harm was amplified, making him virtually impervious to harm, although it is now possible (after his original body was destroyed) to cause him injury that would not be immediately regenerated by his power.
- Flight: Apocalypse can enable himself to fly, by either transforming his arms into wings, jets, or through telekinetic use.
- Teleportation: Apocalypse can teleport himself and others around vast distances across the planet and has shown the ability to teleport an entire fortress with him while leaving those within behind.
- Bio-Molecular Alteration: Apocalypse has total control over the molecular structure of his body and can alter it at will. This means that matter manipulation has no effect on him, and can adapt his molecular structure to any adversity. Apocalypse can also perform the following feats:
- Malleable Form: Apocalypse's entire body can be reshaped at will. He can alter his appearance, allow his body to become extremely malleable, maintain his full dexterity, and elongate his body or limbs.
- 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.
- Physical Superhuman Powers: Through this ability to alter his form, Apocalypse can give himself virtually any physical superhuman power, as he can transform his arms and fists into various melee weapons.
- Transmutation: Apocalypse possesses transmutation abilities, as his descendants have already proven capable of.
- Energy Generation: ability to generate energy for a number of effects, including but not limited to:
- Energy Absorption: ability to absorb energy and mass to augment the levels of both his strength and power to unlimited potentials.
- Superhuman Speed: by infusing his body with energy he is able to speed up his reflexes and reaction time in which to seemingly move at super speeds. It is this ability that allows him to counteract others with super-speed powers themselves.
- Force-Fields: ability to create nearly impenetrable force fields
- Energy Projection: ability to project massive energy blasts of destructive force. Apocalypse can also expel energy from his body, and control it's directions.
- Telekinesis: Apocalypse possesses telekinetic abilities enabling him to levitate oneself or that of others by sheer force of will and manipulate living beings, inanimate objects and to some extent energy psionically. He can “lift” far in excess of 100+ tons of weight and can enable himself to “fly” at great speed.
- Virtual Immortality: Apocalypse's original body was immortal, even before being modified by the Celestial ship, he had lived for thousands of years. Apocalypse can enter a coma-like state of suspended animation during which he may recover from any wounds with the assistance of his Celestial technology. The down side of his altering by the Celestials and his enhancement was that the techno-organic virus needed to allow this to happen ravaged his body requiring him to find new ones over the years.
- Retarded Aging: His molecular rearrangement ability has allowed him to constantly renew his cells, thus he’s unable to age.
- Blood of Apocalypse: As recently revealed, Apocalypse's techno-organic blood has many unique properties. With only a drop of his blood into a vat of organs, blood, etc. the virus can rewrite the genetic code of the material within to form a new body for Apocalypse.
- Technology Interface: Apocalypse is able to directly interface with various technologies he has at his disposal.
Abilities
- Apocalypse is a genius, a level of which humanity cannot comprehend 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. This was not merely a result of his exposure to alien technology, as he was able to make significant new advances beyond the alien materials to which he was exposed.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Several of Apocalypse's bases have a rejuvenation chamber. Apparently Celestial technology capable of manipulating the genes of mutants giving them altogether new abilities or augmenting the ones they already possess. (The process seemingly has the effect of warping the minds of the subjects more to Apocalypse's way of thinking).
Weapons
Transportation
Notes
- According to the writers at Marvel, "En Sabah Nur" translates to "The First One" in Arabic. However, the phrase actually translates into something more akin to "Good Morning". The reason is that the term is grammatically incorrect, as it should be "Sabah an-Nur", assuming that was what the Marvel writers were shooting for. It can also mean "The Seven Lights"; with "Sabah" literally meaning "seven" and "Nur" meaning "light" in Arabic. This is interesting for Islam depicts the eternal afterlife as having seven heavens, and could be a direct reference to his god-like powers. Since Apocalypse was born thousands of years before modern Arabic existed, this must either be a translation of his true name, or it is a name in Proto-Semitic that simply coincidentally resembles Arabic words. 'En Sabah Nur' can also mean "birth of light","Awakened Light",and (in literal sense)"Dawn".
- A little known fact is that Apocalypse was created as a last minute replacement for the Owl, a Daredevil villain who original X-Factor writer Bob Layton wanted to use as X-Factor's main villain. When Layton was removed from the book and replaced with Louise Simonson, she requested that the last page of X-Factor #5 be changed to a shadowy figured named Apocalypse, as Simonson wanted a new character to be the main villain for the book. [1]
See Also
- 10 appearance(s) of En Sabah Nur (Earth-4935)
- 4 minor appearance(s) of En Sabah Nur (Earth-4935)
- 29 mention(s) of En Sabah Nur (Earth-4935)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of En Sabah Nur (Earth-4935)
- 1 image(s) of En Sabah Nur (Earth-4935)