Every installment of Abandoned Love we will be examining comic book stories, plots and ideas that were abandoned by a later writer while still acknowledging that the abandoned story DID still happen. Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of Abandoned Love. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

This time around, based on a suggestion by reader Andrew L., we take a look at how Apocalypse's immortality has been handled over the years...

Okay, we first see Apocalypse fully in X-Factor #6 (by Louise Simonson, Butch Guice and Bob McLeod), where we learn that he's A. basically immortal and B. he can manipulate his own molecules...

This continues in X-Factor #24 (by Louise and Walter Simonson)...

Finally, the kicker, the 1999 mini-series, Rise of Apocalypse (by Terry Kavanagh, Adam Pollina and Mark Morales), where we see the young Apocalypse's powers kick in in ancient Egpyt...

So that's just Apocalypse's deal, right? He was born one way in ancient Egypt and he controls his own body's molecules, so he is immortal and he has the same body now that he did then.

Or is it?

Check out the next page for the new take on Apocalypse's immortality...

The first hint we got that this was not the case was in the storyline Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix #2 (by Scott Lobdell, Gene Ha, Al Vey and Terry Austin), which is set in the future and we see that in the future, Apocalypse takes on other bodies (he plans to take over Stryfe's body)...

During the Twelve storyline (by Alan Davis and friends), though, we learn that that is the case in the PRESENT, too, and what APPEARED to be Apocalypse's body was actually just an armor protecting a frail dude...

Okay, so after Cable manages to separate Apocalypse from Cyclops, we learn that Apocalypse is now actually immortal not because of his own body or because he takes over host bodies, but in Cable and Deadpool #26 (by Fabian Nicieza, Lan Media and Ed Lateo), it is because Cable had accidentally given him some of his blood, filled with the techon-organic virus, which now means that Apocalypse can regenerate from a single drop of blood...

But then in Uncanny X-Force (by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena), now it is CLONES of Apocalypse...

Only then LATER in Uncanny X-Force (still by Remender), it is the "death seed," where Apocalypse once again takes over people, in this case, Archangel...

Sooo...yeah, I really don't know where we are now with Apocalypse and immortality. It is kind of nuts.

I suspect the next time he pops up it will be a whole new deal, as that seems to be the pattern now. Each new writer has a new take on the concept.

THanks for the suggestion, Andrew! If anyone else wants to make a suggestion for a dropped comic book plot, send me an e-mail at bcronin@comicbookresources.com