I collected the original run of X-Factor and I remember the introduction of the character Apocalypse, his lame first team of ‘evil mutants’ (did any of them ever appear again?) even before he had “Horsemen.”
Frankly, despite being considered one of the major heavyweights of the Marvel/X-universe, I have never been all that impressed by him. He is routinely described as some sort of ultimate, all-powerful mutant (often by himself), but I’ve never thought his powers were all that impressive - He has “total control” over his own molecules, so he can take any shape. He’s basically a shapeshifter/metamorph. If that is the most powerful ability to have, why isn’t Mr. Fantastic then considered the most powerful superhero of the Marvel universe? Is Plastic Man the most powerful being in the DC universe?
In the early X-Factor stories, much of Apocalypse’s “power” came from possession of a colossal, alien spaceship and being able to use the advanced technology contained within it – Not technology he devised himself (like Dr. Doom or Magneto or any number of mad scientists running around the Marvel Universe), just alien tech he was lucky enough to discover and stake a claim to and exploit. (X-Factor/the original X-Men wrested control of it from him.)
My comic book reading habits became spotty soon after the first “Horsemen” story-line (in which Warren Worthington briefly became Apocalypse’s “Angel of Death”), but I did read some of the “Age of Apocalypse” graphic novels. One thing I noticed from those books was that the altered timeline quickly skips from Legion killing Prof. X in the 1960s, to the then-modern day 1990s. Before the story-line begins in earnest, Apocalypse had already subjugated the Northern hemisphere. There’s no real explanation as to how Apocalypse dominated the western world.
But I kept wondering “how??” How did Apocalypse manage to become such a power in a world that already had Magneto, Dr. Doom, and the Red Skull? Frankly, I’ve never seen the character really do anything bad-ass enough to justify his “heavyweight” status. In the stories I’ve read, all he ever seemed to do was stand on the sidelines and cackle while his minions du jour fought X-Factor/the X-Men/X-whoever.
Apocalypse to me seems like the character who is regarded as a heavyweight bad-ass because the audience is constantly told he is a bad-ass, rather than for any in-universe reason. And it seems to me that person who crows about him being a bad-ass the most is Apocalypse himself. That’s when it struck me — Apocalypse is Donald Trump!
Both Trump and Apocalypse became famous in the mid 1980s; both of them never stops bragging about how they’re the best of the best – but never have any solid proof to back that claim; both of them stake their claim for superiority on appropriated intellectual property (Trump claims to be a self-made millionaire even though he inherited a million-dollar trust fund / Apocalypse uses alien technology that he had no hand in inventing); both have people into believing they can bestow great personal power on them (Trump University / all those easily defeat-able, forgettable Horsemen); and both of whom seem to feel entitled to have major political powers given to them on the sole virtue that they demand it like spoiled children.
All Apocalypse is missing is the bad hair and the hot trophy wife.
