The next X-Men movie is going to feature him, and I want to know more about him. I did see the end-credits footage, and figure that someone who can build the pyramids with his mind is not to be trifled with. Plus, his pictures in Google Images look really cool, like a cross between Hulk and Darkseid.
The last X-Men movies showed the Sentinels, where the X-Men ended up losing (only time-travel saved them). I figure Apocalypse would be a step up on the threat level.
So, is he like the ultimate mutant? What are his powers? Does he want to rule the world? How does he compare with Professor X and Magneto views… or is he on his own side? Is he like the Thanos of the Xmen?
The wikipedia sort of goes into too much detail with different continuities, releases, etc. Simplify it for me, please.
Mutant born in ancient Egypt who also stumbled upon alien/Celestial* technology and augmented himself.
(*if you saw Guardians of the Galaxy you’ve seen Celestials–the Knowhere station was built inside the head of one and we saw a glimpse of one of them destroying a planet–they are like cosmic evolutionists)
He believes in militant Darwinist principals–I guess is the easiest comic book way to explain him. World conquest I guess is a big part of his deal–but its more the strong should rule the weak and he should be the strongest of all. I think he views Prof X’s “let’s all get along” idea as silly and contemptible and I think he sees “evil” Magneto’s goals as ultimately ruled by fear and thereby weak. Evil Magneto wants to rule over humans because they can’t be trusted and want to destroy the mutants. Apocalypse wants himself and mutants to rule over humans because it is their right.
The most important thing he ever did was turn Angel into one of his 4 Horsemen, Death (renamed Archangel when he broke free of the brainwashing at the end of that storyline), although like everything ever interesting and daring done to comics characters, this later got undone.
He also turned Hulk and Wolverine into Horsemen in other storylines, but those weren’t nearly as interesting, other than maybe that the Wolverine appearing in all the X-Men and Wolverine comics for several months turned out to be an imposter Skrull while the real Wolvie was going around as a new version of Death. And that interesting part really had nothing to do with Apocalypse.
Namor’s the mutant with the earliest comics appearance, not the first mutant to exist chronologically (And I think there’s uncertainty with that, too). Can’t think of anyone older than Selene, off the top of my head. She’s 12,000 years older than Apocalypse.
This is my problem with trying to get into superhero comics, I don’t know why the comic houses don’t just toss continuity altogether and have like “Joss Whedon’s X-Men” or whoever is steering the ship do whatever they want and then the next producer/head writer can do whatever they want.
It took like 25 years to undo it though, so it wasn’t like a movie where it happened in one and was undone in the sequel. The X-Force stuff with Archangel was pretty good.
Wait, I thought that Namor was just one representative of a whole society of underwater people, all of whom have more or less the same abilities as him. If he’s a mutant, what are the rest of them?
He’s got all the powers of other Atlanteans, plus the ability to be out of the water indefinitely (due to being half-human), flight, and a number of other powers. His page on the Marvel Wikia is a little unclear which abilities are from his Atlantean heritage, which from his mutation, aside from the obvious ones.
If I remember correctly, Apocalypse’s mutant ability is total control of his body at the molecular level. So stretching, size augmentation, can change his mass, phase through sold matter, etc. The alien/Celestial technology has given him energy blasts and eye beams, probably flight, etc.
I’m a long-time X-Men reader, but I totally agree with you - I think the comics should just go the TV series route and just let each title stand alone in its own universe/canon, if they want. If they want to continue a pre-existing one, let them… but no need for everything to be tied to 60 years of continuity. It really limits a lot of story possibilities, as well as having some other strange concepts, such as the sliding timescale (to explain how Magneto could be a teenager in WW2 and still somewhere in his 50s in the comics).
I’m pretty curious to see how they handle Apocalypse in the movies… he’s got both the “hulking behemoth” bit and the “super smart” thing going for him, though he’s got so many powers in the comics you’d wonder how he’d ever lose. His look is pretty iconic, though also horribly comic book-y, with the tights and the underwear and the giant “A” belt. Maybe keep the head and just give him a futuristic-looking suit kinda like Zod’s forces had in Man of Steel. The Days of Future Past teaser had him lacking his iconic cheeklines, unfortunately.
I also really hope they play up the Egyptian background and the Four Horsemen angle (and turning movie Angel into Archangel would be awesome… I’m dying to see those metal wings on-screen).
