WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Men #4, by Jonathan Hickman, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Sunny Gho, VC’s Clayton Cowles and Tom Muller, on sale now.
Going purely by his track record against the X-Men, Apocalypse doesn’t quite live up to his reputation. Despite being an immortal mutant with millennia of experience and impossibly advanced alien technology at his disposal, En-Sabah Nur has had only occasional success against the team.
Although he’s really only left lasting scars on a few X-Men, like Cable, Archangel and the handful of others he turned into his Horsemen, Apocalypse is still widely considered one of the team’s greatest adversaries, either in the Marvel Universe and the real world.
But as X-Men #4 reiterates, Apocalypse’s fearsome reputation is still justified by what he’s done in the distant past. Like his similar conquests in the far future and alternate realities, such as Age of Apocalypse, he’s carved a bloody swath through the MU's history. And as Apocalypse tells a world leader in this issue, he wiped out several ancient civilizations at the end of the Bronze Age.
Despite his history with the team, Apocalypse has been on shockingly good terms with the X-Men lately. Since accepting Charles Xavier’s invitation to join the mutant homeland Krakoa, Apocalypse has even found himself on the island’s ruling Quiet Council.
Apocalypse makes this bold claim at a meeting between some Quiet Council members and several other global leaders and luminaries. After Magneto mentions that humans still don’t know what ended the Bronze Age, Apocalypse plainly states that he ended it.
While it might seem like an empty boast coming from most, it fits into what we know about Apocalypse’s extremely long life. Apocalypse was born almost five thousand years ago in Ancient Egypt.
As one of the first mutants in the world, Apocalypse’s gray skin and blue features made him an outcast until he was taken in by the roving Sandstormers. As he grew into adulthood, Apocalypse rose to power in Ancient Egypt, began using Celestial technology and united his loyal followers in Clan Akkaba.
Apocalypse would’ve been actively wandering and conquering around the time that several civilizations around the Mediterranean Sea mysteriously fell, ending the Bronze Age around 1200 B.C. While historians still debate the real causes of the Bronze Age’s end, Apocalypse’s claims in this issue call back to one of his earliest appearances.
In Louise Simonson and Walter Simonson’s X-Factor #24, Apocalypse told a group of X-Men that he played prominent roles in several ancient civilizations around the world. While he had different names and appearances in different regions, he claimed to be a force of destruction and seemingly took responsibility for the fall of civilizations.
Even in a world with dozens with villains who’ve taken over the world at one point or another, Apocalypse one of the few villains who can say that he successfully brought down multiple civilizations for good.
While Apocalypse’s claims in X-Men #4 puts a more specific name on the civilizations that he brought down, he’s not the only mutant with ideas about conquest.
Where Apocalypse spread his influences through battle, Xavier and Magneto tell the assembled world leaders that they want Krakoa to dominate the world through economic influence. Powered by Xavier’s vast personal fortune and the proceeds from the miracle drugs they’re shipping around the world, the mutant leaders want to make investments across various industries to reshape the world to their liking.
While their efforts are ultimately geared towards building a mutant civilization than destroying a human one, Apocalypse’s presence serves as a stark reminder of just how much power is sitting on the shores on Krakoa.