En Sabah Nur, the mutant better known as Apocalypse, has been a thorn in the X-Men’s side since the ’80s. His mutant powers, coupled with celestial technology and his ironclad will, make him one of the X-Men’s mightiest foes to date. As a villain who embodies the trope of the “big bad” guy, En Sabah Nur has been adapted from the comics into various media. Among them, his most famous adaptation is perhaps the one from X-Men: The Animated Series. When that show was revived by Marvel Studios as X-Men ’97, it was only a matter of time until Apocalypse made his comeback.
The recent episodes 3 and 4 of the new second season loosely adapted the Rise of Apocalypse comic book miniseries, bringing the pharaoh Rama-Tut into play. New Marvel fans might’ve discovered through episode 4 that Rama-Tut in, in fact, one of the many identities of longtime Avengers villain Kang The Conqueror. That and the cameo of the celestial Eson The Searcher raises a curious question: has Apocalypse interacted with other characters of the Marvel Universe outside of the X-Men?
The answer is a resounding yes! While most of those interactions have been brief, Nur has, in fact, met with non-mutant heroes and villains. If you’re curious to know more, keep on reading and discover nine times Apocalypse interacted with the wider Marvel Universe (as well as three honorable mentions).
Note: I have only included moments that happened on Earth-616, the main Marvel continuity.
1. The Hulk became one of Apocalypse’s Horsemen
At the time, Bruce Banner’s body had been separated from the Hulk’s by the entity Onslaught during the events of the Onslaught saga. With Banner away on Counter-Earth, the Hulk was dealing with his own troubles, which included hearing the voice of his abusive dead father and dealing with a grenade shrapnel stuck in his brain.
Seeking a way to defeat the Celestials who were on their way to judge Earth, Apocalypse manipulated the Hulk into accepting an upgrade that would free the green goliath from his aforementioned vulnerabilities. Thus, Apocalypse turned Hulk into one of his horsemen, War. Donning a new costume and wielding a sword and a whip, War fought the Absorbing Man and Juggernaut. His friend Rick Jones tried to talk sense into him, but War hit him in a fit of rage. Realizing what he’d done, the Hulk broke free of Apocalypse’s influence.
What comic to read: The Incredible Hulk #455-457, by Peter David and Adam Kubert.
2. Dracula had a personal feud with Apocalypse
Vlad Tepes Dracula, the Prince of Darkness, has been a foe to Blade, the Avengers, the X-Men, and he even had a comic series dedicated to him in the ’70s, The Tomb of Dracula. As an immortal who’s been around for that long, it’s only natural he crossed paths with other immortals, be they humans or mutants.
During the Crusades, Apocalypse’s army, the mythical Riders of the Dark, slaughtered part of Vlad’s army and caused the rest to flee. Apocalypse then mortally wounded the Impaler. With his pride also wounded, Vlad, now a vampire, returned in the 19th century to declare war against Apocalypse. Dracula began turning members of the Clan Akkaba, Apocalypse’s cult, into vampires in order to turn them against their leader. Fearing the worst, Akkaba awoke Apocalypse from his slumber, setting En Sabah Nur on a path towards Transylvania.
What comic to read: X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula #1-4, by Frank Tieri and Clayton Henry.
3. Loki tried to recruit Apocalypse against the Avengers
During the event known as Acts of Vengeance, Loki desired to get revenge on the Avengers and on his brother Thor. In order to achieve that, the god of mischief disguised himself and began recruiting major villains to sic them against members of the Avengers who’d never fought them before. Those villains included the Red Skull, Magneto, the Wizard, the Kingpin, Doctor Doom, and the Mandarin.
One other villain Loki tried to convince to be a part of his plan was Apocalypse. However, En Sabah Nur knew better and refused to be dragged by Loki’s schemes. They both fought against each other and the battle ended with Loki fleeing, while Apocalypse declared the god of mischief his enemy.
What comic to read: X-Factor #50, by Louise Simonson and Rich Buckler. However, this particular moment happens in a backup story in that issue, also written by Louise Simonson, but drawn by Terry Shoemaker.
4. Apocalypse was pulled from the past and met She-Hulk
Simon Meke, an obscure Golden Age villain known as Isbisa, had been disguising himself as “Doctor Sanderson.” He studied the dimensional Fourth Wall, a subject he taught to his students. Hoping to restart his career, “Sanderson” created a machine capable of tapping into the Fourth Wall and its space-time capabilities. Using the machine alongside his students, they pulled Venom from the past into the present where Jennifer Walter, the She-Hulk, was dealing with a case in court. His goal was to “increase the Fourth Dimension’s interest.”
“Sanderson” left the machine in the hands of his students, who used it to summon more heroes and villains. They also summoned a mysterious alien-like ship from the past. Wondering why superhumans were popping up out of nowhere, Jennifer assumed the source of the phenomenon was the ship hovering above Manhattan. Hopping in her flying car, she rushed to the ship only to discover it belonged to none other than Apocalypse. Nur threatened She-Hulk as she attempted to explain the situation. Finally, Nur realizeed she was telling the truth: he sensed he’d indeed been pulled forward in time. Apocalypse then tracked the origin of the Fourth Wall machine and prepared to obliterate it. Afraid, Sanderson’s students sent Apocalypse back to his time before it was too late for them.
What comic to read: The Sensational She-Hulk #29-30, by Louise Simonson and Tom Morgan.
5. Apocalypse fought Thor to secure his own future
As part of his schemes, Kang The Conqueror traveled to 1013 A.D. in his Rama-Tut alter-ego and made a bargain with his old foe Apocalypse. Apocalypse was aiming to kill people or the ancestors of people who would potentially undo his future and Rama-Tut’s plans.
The first of those people was a young Thor in Scandinavia. The thunder god almost died in the hands of Apocalypse, but fled to Asgard in the hopes of bringing more Asgardian forces with him. Odin refused to help, bringing up the pact he and other skyfathers had of not interfering with the plans of the Celestials, since Apocalypse is the “evolutionary caretaker of the Celestials.”
Enraged, Thor accepts Loki’s (who was secretly Kang) proposal of casting a spell on Thor’s axe, Jarnborn, enchanting it with the power to pierce through Apocalypse’s celestial armor. Thor then travels to London where Apocalypse plans on murdering Wolverine’s ancestor, where he defeats the mutant and his four horsemen.
What comic to read: Uncanny Avengers #6, by Rick Remender and Daniel Acuña.
6. Apocalypse fought Thor (again) and a time traveling Jane Foster
After the events of Secret Empire, the sentient cosmic cube Kobik sent a few of the heroes who fought against Hydra’s empire to the past. Through this gift, those heroes would undergo a journey of self-discovery by meeting their legacy counterparts. That story continued in the anthological mini-event called Generations. In in, Jane Foster—the Mighty Thor at the time—found herself in Egypt. There, she witnessed as a younger Thor Odinson answered the prayers of one of the vikings who’d invaded the country through the Nile. They didn’t expect those lands to be under the protection of En Sabah Nur and his Clan Akkaba. Odinson recognizes his old foe and teams up with Jane Foster to take him down, igniting an epic battle.
What Comic to read: Generations: The Unworthy Thor & The Mighty Thor #1, by Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar.
7. Apocalypse had a philosophical disagreement with the High Evolutionary
The High Evolutionary had plans to guide the evolution of all life on Earth, an event that was known as the Evolutionary War. His goal was to accelerate that change by manipulating genetic variables, so that all that’d be left would be in his image. His first strike towards that goal was by sending his Purifiers and Gatherers to Subterranea to sterilize the moloids, a race which the Evolutionary considered a genetic dead end.
Among the moloids was the mutant telepath Val-Or, whose scream of desperation was sensed by other “sensitives” around the planet, including Caliban, who served Apocalypse at the time. Apocalypse then teleported himself to the High Evolutionary’s base with the intention of convincing him to stop. Nur believed war and strife were the way that’d lead to the natural weeding out the weak, and he considered the High Evolutionary’s modus operandi to be “unnatural selection” and one influenced by impatience.
Unable to convince the other of the right way to do evolution, the debate became a brawl. At the end, Apocalypse teleported himself and his foe to Subterranea to study their subjects closely. While the X-Factor and the Subterraneans fought the Purifiers, Val-Or unlocked more of his potential, rising above the cognitive limits of his race in order to defeat his enemies. With that, Apocalypse realized the High Evolutionary was, at the end of the day, doing his work for him, and left.
What comic to read: X-Factor Annual #3, by Louise Simonson and Terry Shoemaker.
8. Ikaris stopped Apocalypse from pitting humans against deviants
En Sabah Nur had plans to ushering in his Age of Apocalypse, but only one of two races would prove fit to survive long enough to witness his rise to power. His plan was to initiate a war between the deviants and humankind by mutating deviants and having them attack humans, as well as kidnapping them and forcing them to fight each other to see who survives. In addition, Nur sends a mutated Karkas (a deviant who is an ally to the Eternals) to destroy San Francisco. The Eternals show up to stop Karkas, and Phastos locates the point of origin of the force that manipulated the deviant. Ikaris goes after it and finds Apocalypse’s pyramid fortress in space. The prime eternal and the mutant fought each other, resulting in Nur fleeing with his plans thwarted, but with glee in his face.
What comic to read: New Eternals: Apocalypse Now #1, by Karl Bollers, Mike Higgins, and Joe Bennett.
9. Apocalypse met the Black Knight after the Crusades
The Black Knight (Dane Whitman) and Sersi of the Eternals had been stranded in the Ultraverse. In their attempt to return to present-day Earth-616, they ended up in its past after the Crusades. While Sersi was still in her body, Dane found himself in the body of his ancestor Eobar Garrington, the second Black Knight.
Eobar’s best friend, Bennet du Paris, had the feeling a strange power was calling to him. Destined to achieve that power, Bennet traveled to a place in the desert called Akkaba, where he was tested by a mysterious voice. That voice guided him through the awakening of his mutant powers. Not wishing to leave his friend to die in the desert, Eobar/Dane and Sersi looked for him until they found Bennet now serving the one behind the voice: Apocalypse. Now calling himself Exodus, Bennet fought the Black Knight under Nur’s order as a rite of passage to a new world where mutants would rule. Dane talks sense into Exodus, who turned against Apocalypse before disappearing.
What comic to read: Black Knight: Exodus #1, by Ben Raab and Jim Cheung.
Honorable mentions
Apocalypse and Moon Knight were among the first of Earth’s protectors
The origin of the organization Brotherhood of the Shield (who would later inspire the creation of S.H.I.E.L.D.) started in Ancient Egypt when the Brood first invaded Earth. The hero who stood against them was the legendary Imhotep, whose shield and spear became significant. Alongside him, the Moon Knight of that era and a young En Sabah Nur helped fend off the alien invasion. That is recounted in S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (of the 2010 series), by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver.
The New Avengers helped the X-Men fight Apocalypse
Apocalypse once planned to destroy humankind down to 10% of their population in order to even the numbers as mutantkind had also been dwindled to 10%. As he crashed into a UN assembly to offer them a deal to “cull” most humans on Earth, the New Avengers stepped in with the X-Men to stop Apocalypse. The reason I have included this in the honorable mentions is because the Avengers never interacted with Apocalypse directly, but instead fought the Sphinx ship Apocalypse was commanding. This happened in X-Men #182-185, by Peter Milligan and Salvador Larroca.
Apocalypse faced the Avengers of the 11th Century
In 1,000 A.D., the demon Mephisto disguised himself as a crow and told Apocalypse the Avengers were like false gods that mocked Nur’s right to power. Seeing that these “gods” needed to die before he could make the world in his image, Nur sought to destroy them. Those Avengers included Thor Odinson, The Phoenix Witch Theodosia Szardos, Bodolf the Black, the mysterious indigenous Ghost Rider of that time, and the sorcerer supreme Murkfoot. That one-panel encounter can be seen in Avengers #38, by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness.
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