Now, for the first of our Villain Profile characters, En Sabah Nur aka Apocalypse. I've been praying to see this guy since X3 so I'm glad that he finally got a few minutes of screen time. Telekinetically making a pyramid is a pretty awesome way to introduce him.
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| The Inevitable, Invincible Apocalypse. |
Apocalypse is the most powerful foe that the X-men have faced, and arguably one of strongest beings the Marvel-verse has ever seen. To put his power into
perspective, Magneto is an absurdly powerful Mutant, capable of immense acts of
destruction and benevolence depending on his mood. In the TV series X-men:
Evolution, Magneto and Apocalypse face off. Magneto throws everything he has at
Apocalypse, abandoned tanks and weapons, a metal sphere and more. Apocalypse
simply raises his hand and balls it into a fist. Magneto is obliterated. The most powerful Mutant, up to that point in the series, who had underwent many procedures to enhance his powers destroyed in a nanosecond. And perhaps the most painful part for Magneto, Apocalypse just seemed annoyed by the whole thing.
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| Bad ass for Millennia. |
Now that I’ve given a bit of a
power scale, let’s dive into the man behind the cloak.
Apocalypse, born in ancient Egypt,
is one of the most powerful Mutants ever born. He claims to be the first Mutant. While
that claim might be disputed, he is the first recorded instance of “Homo
Superior” in the Marvel version of Earth. He possesses a vast array of powers,
from the telekinesis shown in the post credit scene, to matter and energy
manipulation, size changing, shape shifting, technopathic (machine controlling)
powers, and telepathy. His abilities haven’t been fully revealed but what has
been is terrifying.
He is also greatly augmented by
advanced technology. Another supervillain, Kang the Conqueror, traveled back in
time to make the super mutant part of his army. In classic Chicken Egg
situation, Nur evades Kang, steals his technology, and sets about becoming the
most feared being for the next 5000 years, thus getting Kang’s interest in the
far future.
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| Are you going to tell him the A is silly? Cause I sure as heck am not. |
Nur suffers from some pretty severe
psychological scars, having been abandoned in the Egyptian desert as an infant
for his grey skin and blue lips. Given the destruction and suffering he’s wrought
across five millennia I can’t really argue with his parent’s decision. He was saved from certain doom by a band of bandits. His
surrogate father Baal gave him the name En Sabah Nur, meaning the First One.
Baal gets a 1 for originality but a 10 for how intimidating it sounds in his
native tongue. Baal taught Nur an ancient Egyptian form of Survival of the
Fittest, a philosophy that became his mantra and obsession.
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| When your #2 dresses like this, need I say more? |
Apocalypse is incredibly long
lived, his regenerative abilities surpassing even Wolverine’s, but he isn’t
immortal. The secret behind his eons long life span is due to a form of alien
suspended animation. He hibernates for centuries at a time while waiting for mutants to become more
common. Occasionally he’d awaken to cause trouble. The most problematic thing
he did for everyone, including himself, during one of his short bouts of
consciousness was with a young Victorian era scientist named Nathaniel Essex. Essex was obsessed with evolution
and unorthodox experiments into Mr. Sinister, his sort of henchman sort of
worst enemy. Activating a mad scientists dormant X-gene, telling him to have
fun with horrible experiments, and leaving will do that. Fun fact, the X-gene was discovered by Essex. So the X in X-gene is for Essex, not Xavier.
To qualify Sinister's evil, he dug up his young son's corpse, autopsied and experimented on the child, experimented on countless people with dormant and active X genes, then had the audacity to ask his dying wife for forgiveness. Apocalypse is an evil bringer of chaos and destruction, but at least his actions could be considered "noble" in a way. Sinister is just a sick monster.
To qualify Sinister's evil, he dug up his young son's corpse, autopsied and experimented on the child, experimented on countless people with dormant and active X genes, then had the audacity to ask his dying wife for forgiveness. Apocalypse is an evil bringer of chaos and destruction, but at least his actions could be considered "noble" in a way. Sinister is just a sick monster.
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| About the amount of force it takes to beat him. And the messed up part about that is the defeat is temporary. |
Apocalypse has battled the X-men
and other Marvel teams several times. While always defeated he usually spouts
off at how Apocalypse is inevitable. Similar to Victor Von Doom. His goals are
similar to Magneto’s, Mutant Superiority, but while Magneto does his best to
not do lasting damage to Mutants, anyone who stands against Apocalypse gets put
down fast if he thinks their usefulness has run out. Mr. Sinister has barely
evaded his master’s wrath a few dozen times by the skin of his teeth.
Apocalypse has a plethora of Mutant powers. He's telekinetic and telepathic on the same scale as Jean Grey with her Phoenix power. He can grow to towering heights or shrink to a miniscule speck. He can control machines with his mind. Apocalypse can absorb energy and discharge it into powerful blasts of energy. He can morph into any form that he wants. This includes shapeshifting into any person that he wants, as well as also morph his limbs into any sort of weapon that he can imagine. His ability to shapeshift, combined with his own healing powers makes Apocalypse able to absorb INSANE amounts of damage, and recover from just about any injury short of being completely vaporized. These powers, combined with the various cybernetic enhancement's he's given himself over the centuries makes him a devastating opponent. He has the knowledge of several centuries, making him a brilliant strategist as well as a hand to hand combatant. His biggest weakness is derived from this, he's an arrogant son of a B. As he once put in the X-men: The Animated Series he claims to be "as far beyond Mutants as they are beyond you, (Humans)." Because of this, he thinks that every plan he has is too perfect to fail, he then overlooks some major flaw in his plan and is thus defeated.
Apocalypse has a plethora of Mutant powers. He's telekinetic and telepathic on the same scale as Jean Grey with her Phoenix power. He can grow to towering heights or shrink to a miniscule speck. He can control machines with his mind. Apocalypse can absorb energy and discharge it into powerful blasts of energy. He can morph into any form that he wants. This includes shapeshifting into any person that he wants, as well as also morph his limbs into any sort of weapon that he can imagine. His ability to shapeshift, combined with his own healing powers makes Apocalypse able to absorb INSANE amounts of damage, and recover from just about any injury short of being completely vaporized. These powers, combined with the various cybernetic enhancement's he's given himself over the centuries makes him a devastating opponent. He has the knowledge of several centuries, making him a brilliant strategist as well as a hand to hand combatant. His biggest weakness is derived from this, he's an arrogant son of a B. As he once put in the X-men: The Animated Series he claims to be "as far beyond Mutants as they are beyond you, (Humans)." Because of this, he thinks that every plan he has is too perfect to fail, he then overlooks some major flaw in his plan and is thus defeated.
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| X-men: Evolution. More silent in this form. Hope that's the angle they go with. |
It’ll be interesting to see how
Singer and Fox use this immensely powerful character. I imagine they’ll paint
him as the next logical extreme of Magneto. So, a bit like the movie series
version of Sebastian Shaw. But where Kevin Bacon’s Shaw would try to manipulate
people using charm and wit, Apocalypse will just pump a Mutant with enough mind
controlling drugs and cybernetics until they just want to do his bidding. His top four minions, The Horsemen of Apocalypse, are made up of the strongest mutants he can find which usually includes at least one X-man. Angel (the real one, think X-men III), Wolverine, Gambit, and the Hulk have all served him on at least one occasion.
Do I even need to say why Apocalypse is awesome? He's incredibly powerful, confident, and let's not forget he Won. At least in one timeline. There is an entirely Marvel plot line exploring a future where Apocalypse has conquered most of North America. He's evil, he's sadistic, but like Magneto the basics of his argument could be viewed as true. Evolution is messy, and Apocalypse is just trying to make it a cleaner process. And, the enhanced Mutants he creates are several times more powerful than they were before. Don't get me wrong, he's a sociopath with absolutely no moral compass, his methods are extreme as well as incredibly sick, and I'd much rather be locked in a room with Ted Bundy than being in the same timezone as Apocalypse, but I can definitely see a small amount of logic to his argument.
Since the aim of the new movies will be a new X-men timeline it is likely that Apocalypse will either convince Magneto to change his ways or push him further down his path of Mutant superiority and human domination. Just need to wait in see I guess.
Do I even need to say why Apocalypse is awesome? He's incredibly powerful, confident, and let's not forget he Won. At least in one timeline. There is an entirely Marvel plot line exploring a future where Apocalypse has conquered most of North America. He's evil, he's sadistic, but like Magneto the basics of his argument could be viewed as true. Evolution is messy, and Apocalypse is just trying to make it a cleaner process. And, the enhanced Mutants he creates are several times more powerful than they were before. Don't get me wrong, he's a sociopath with absolutely no moral compass, his methods are extreme as well as incredibly sick, and I'd much rather be locked in a room with Ted Bundy than being in the same timezone as Apocalypse, but I can definitely see a small amount of logic to his argument.
Since the aim of the new movies will be a new X-men timeline it is likely that Apocalypse will either convince Magneto to change his ways or push him further down his path of Mutant superiority and human domination. Just need to wait in see I guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_%28comics%29
http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/animated-superman-vs-animated-apocalypse-668250/
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/12/05/x-men-apocalypse-2016/
http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/apocalypse-x-men-evolution-vs-darkseid-dcau-1513672/
http://www.comicvine.com/images/1300-300441
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