Chapter I: Deliverance to New Dark Ages
Chapter II: The Rise of Apocalypse
Section 6: Ancient Egypt Under Rama Tut
Cable soon traveled back to the 20th Century, at first by accident during one of the Clan Chosen’s missions. Cable would find that he was accompanied by the Professor and a time-ship orbiting Earth called Graymalkin. On several occasions, he’d jaunt back to the future, with guests such as Garrison Kane, as noted at the end of Section 5. As we return to Cable’s quest in the present day, these events will be clarified. But before we continue his story there, we’ll go back even farther to explain the origins of Apocalypse and Sinister, who would later play a pivotal role in Cable’s life. Apocalypse, in no small manner, was the reason for Cable’s existence. Mister Sinister, who orchestrated Nathan’s birth to create a being capable of dealing with his master Apocalypse, also had much to account for Cable’s life.
The time-traveling pharaoh, Rama Tut, commanded Egypt’s army to destroy Nur’s tribe. The expedition was led by Ozymandias, he who would be king but for the arrival of Rama Tut from a future period. Baal lead Nur beneath the sands of battle to a craft sunken below the ground. It was the place around which Nur and Rama Tut were found when they arrived in this time period. A cave-in caused Baal to become injured. Before dying, Baal told Nur that he and Tut are somehow connected. Nur traveled to Egypt, where he posed as a lowly slave for a time. He exhibited metahuman power derived from, according to what Nur saw, a god appearing before him that declared he was destined for greatness. En Sabah Nur’s feat was observed by his slave drivers, who brought the matter to the attention of the pharaoh. Rama Tut offered Nur a position as his chosen heir. Nur refused and escaped. The Fantastic Four, who traveled to this era, launched a separate confrontation against Rama Tut within the Sphinx. Rama Tut and the FF traveled back to the 20th Century. Nur came upon the Sphinx, and he discovered the futuristic technology which had brought Rama Tut to Ancient Egypt. This Nur used first to enslave and empower the interfering Ozymandias. Ozymandias was granted knowledge of the future and was appointed to become Nur’s chronicler. Nur prepared to leave Egypt to begin his quest to destroy the weak from the strong (X-MEN: THE RISE OF APOCALYPSE #s 1-4).
Based on the discovery of hieroglyphic blueprints, Nur constructed a Sphinx of Celestial design before his departure. The ship itself turned on him as through it a Celestial, light-years distant, made contact with En Sabah Nur. It offered him technology of great power in exchange for a vague promise of repayment to be collected later, with the promise of still greater suffering. Nur assented (X-MEN #186).
Between protracted periods of hibernation and rejuvenation, En Sabah Nur fathered a multitude of mutants, each one possessing a limited manifestation of his powers. All of his descendants bore some aspect of them, their measure depending upon their closeness to him and the degree to which his blood—his power—ran through their veins. His descendants’ ranks formed the Clan Akkaba, which carried out Apocalypse’s bidding throughout the centuries and across every civilization. The size of the clan’s motto, tattooed on its members, identified their position, their fitness and power within the organization. This social standing was more often than not attained by means of violent internal competition.
Clan Akkaba’s inner council alone was empowered to summon Apocalypse from his slumber to aid it in times of extreme urgency. In such cases, Apocalypse would slaughter one of the council in sacrifice for their weakness and inability to resolve their affairs independently. Afterwards, only the fittest of the clan had the right to address him (APOCALYPSE VERSUS DRACULA #s 1-2).
Introduced in APOCALYPSE VERSUS DRACULA, the notion of “descendants of Apocalypse” represents a huge retcon. While it makes sense that a character with such a long lifespan would have had occasion to get busy with it from time to time, the kids’ intentional organization into an ages-old clan that worships him is pushing the limit. Clearly a pet concept of writer Frank Tieri, they don’t appear in any other early Apocalypse story. (To be fair, Ozymandias doesn’t appear in all of them either, but it’s easy enough to explain away the absence of one character than an entire group that exists for no other reason than to be doting.) This additional layer to the mythos helps support the significance of the blood (albeit not in the way Nicieza will develop it), but it also creates a broken picture of the character—Apocalypse is at once this glam focus of cultic devotion as well as an unfettered wanderer (X-FORCE #37 and CABLE AND DEADPOOL) and forgotten monster (FURTHER ADVENURES OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX and CABLE #-1). En Sabah Nur forged a blade incorporating ancient Celestial technology. Imprinting his own mutant life force onto it, the blade, called the Five Fingers of Annihilation, was by any estimation a weapon of formidable power.
Nathan, travelling to the distant past on holiday from the weighty realities of his dystopic future, was in this period known as Traveler. Even in this era, buffered by innumerable centuries from his responsibilities to his world and his clan, Nathan was still in hot pursuit of En Sabah Nur, who he’d chased from Bahrain to Phoenicia to East Asia. On one occasion, at a place called the Relic of Karanada, he encountered and killed a creature called the Skornn, which fed off of mutants and could only be prevented from doing so when smitten with the Five Fingers of Annihilation (X-FORCE LIMITED SERIES #s 6, 1).
Having finally tracked Nur to East Asia, Travler faced off against his Dark Riders, which he’d assembled from the local warrior population. After besting them, he turned the fight to Nur himself. Although Nur succeeded in injuring Traveler and severing his techno-organic arm, Traveler claimed victory by taking recourse to his weapons of the future and blowing Nur’s brains out. Having vanquished their leader, the Dark Riders bowed down at Traveler’s feet. Satisfied, Traveler walked away, leaving behind a directionless army, his adversary’s corpse, an Ozymandias still loyal to his dead master, and a pool of techno-organic blood…
Ozymandias brought Nur’s deceased body back to the Celestial ship, hoping that its strange technologies might restore him to the living. The peculiar techno-organic blood that was spilled had commingled with Nur’s own while he lay dead; the relevance of this Traveler would come to understand and regret in short order. In time Nur, now revivified, used the ship to mend his body back to health. Because of Traveler’s techno-organic blood, which had been commingled with his own, Nur found that he was better able to commune with the ship, to exploit its resources to the fullest.
Traveler paused to realize that it was his own blood which had afforded Nur the great power he would wield throughout the coming millenia. He knew that when Nur returned aboard that ship, he would arrive transformed, as Apocalypse (CABLE AND DEADPOOL #s 26-27).
However, writer Fabian Nicieza’s infrequent flashback sequences to the Celestial ship in China, which first occurred in X-FORCE #37 some years ago (published, incidentally, before RISE OF APOCALYPSE), seem to propose that it was Ship that granted Apocalypse his mechanical powers. And then there’s Peter Milligan, who in X-MEN #186 asserts that it was a pseudo-Celestial ship built by Apocalypse himself while in Egypt that granted him his alien technology.
I’ve asked myself first if it could be feasible that Apocalypse first gained power through Tut’s ship, and then more power still through the Celestial ship. I suppose this is feasible, but it is nonetheless clear that the two accounts don’t jibe and more likely than not directly contradict one another. Firstly, and with no pun intended, I turn to Apocalypse’s lips. THE RISE OF APOCALYPSE limited series represents this feature as being prominent since En Sabah Nur’s birth. In Nicieza’s version, the lips become his trademark only once the alien Ship had transformed him. Another piece of evidence that suggests that Rama Tut’s technology and Ship came to be confused as catalysts of Apocalypse’s power is an offhand quote by Ozymandias in CABLE AND DEADPOOL #27. There, Ozymandias mentions that he refuses to reenter the Celestial ship, having already entered it once and been irrevocably transformed. Clearly, this is an error, or at least not in keeping with RISE OF APOCALYPSE, which sites Tut’s technology as the sole transformative factor for Ozymandias.
I cannot judge which version is more “correct.” Technically, Fabian’s came first, although three or four pages in an otherwise unrelated issue of X-FORCE hardly holds up to the detailed, fleshed-out version presented by Kavanagh in RISE OF APOCALYPSE. And so I leave this subject with that.
The whole business with the blood, then. I suppose I should have seen it coming, the whole title of the current crossover being BLOOD OF APOCALYPSE and all. Presumably the effects of Cable’s close association with the Professor, who was housed within his chest cavity for some years, would explain how having techno-organic blood should somehow equate with being able to interface with the early version of Ship shown here. The virus itself, otherwise, should not allow him any such ability, since it has consistently been shown to be more of an impediment than anything else.
Cable realizes that he alone is guilty, by blood, of creating Apocalypse. This is debatable and, again, it gets into all sorts of paradoxes related to time travel. I could argue that Apocalypse, having infected Cable with the techno-organic virus in the present in the first place, is ultimately responsible for his own creation. I could argue that Apocalypse, already being a mutant and an immortal (I’m avoiding the term External), was threatening enough even without the fancy mechanical enhancements—and really, how many times can you recall his enhancements being essential to any of his victories? Even his threatening size comes as a result of his mutant ability to alter his body on a molecular level, and not through anything else. Cable’s guilt at being to blame, though, is interesting in that it parallels CABLE #-1, in which his arrival in the present day actually did cause Apocalypse to arise early and during the 20th Century. Clearly one cannot wade to and fro throughout the time-stream without stepping on a couple of butterflies.
The last point worth mentioning here is that these two recent issues of CABLE AND DEADPOOL (in addition to that atrocious X-FORCE limited series) are the only issues documenting instances in which Cable traveled back in time to a point prior to the 20th Century—to a point in the ancient past. Prior to 2004, Cable was thought to be active in the present and the future alone. The past was Apocalypse’s. By writing Cable into the past, both he and Apocalypse are more closely equated, being at each other’s throats at every step along the way, for all of their lives. Apocalypse, due to his immortality, progresses through time linearly while Cable, with the benefit of time travel technology, can jaunt back and forth along these key nodes in time. Cross your fingers, now, that Apocalypse himself never sinks a foot into the time-stream. That would complicate things beyond comprehension. Apocalypse, after returning to once again establish himself on the planet, empowered a young mutant who would in time become known as Exodus, Acolyte of Magneto (EXODUS/BLACK KNIGHT one-shot).
In mid-15th Century Walachia, the Riders of the Dark, Apocalypse’s standing army, intervened in a historical battle between the Ottoman Turks and Vlad Dracul’s forces. After the latter were routed by a horseman, Apocalypse himself crushed Dracul (APOCALYPSE VERSUS DRACULA #1).
This episode is only alluded to, in an off the cuff manner, by an aged member of the Clan Akkaba. In the year 1859, in London, a geneticist named Nathaniel Essex was intrigued by mutations. He conducted research and discovered that mankind would, in about a hundred years or so, begin to evolve. His fellow scientists called him a madman and cast him out.
He was approached by a band of humans who called themselves the “Marauders,” and was led to an underground prison of freaks. The Marauders had heard of his research, and thought that they could be of use to the geneticist, for a pretty penny. Essex was fascinated, but the Marauders turned against him before Essex convinced them to join him in his scientific cause. In the sewers, a group of Marauders not with Essex stumbled upon the sleeping chamber of the eternal Apocalypse, who was awakened. He destroyed them. Before Apocalypse killed the Marauders, he was told of Essex. He too was intrigued at the man's science. He disguised himself as human and sought him out. Apocalypse allied himself with the man called Essex. He, after listening to Essex, realized that he was the first born mutant. Elsewhere, Cyclops and Phoenix were sent by Madame Sanctity to 1859 London with a new mission. This time they dwelled within their own bodies, but Cyclops was without his visor. He had no alternative but to keep his eyes shut lest he unleash the destructive force of his optic blasts. He awoke in the sewers amongst the imprisoned freaks and their captors, the Marauders. Phoenix found herself within a church. Sanctity guided Phoenix to Milbury House, home of Nathan and Rebecca Essex. Cyclops and Phoenix communicated via their telepathic link. Jean arrived to witness Rebecca Essex burying her dead newborn son on her estate. The son had been dead for quite some time and was thought previously by her to have already been buried at his gravesite. Rebecca had only just discovered that her husband had been hiding the body and studying it during the time following its death. Rebecca told Jean that the death of their son had driven Nathaniel insane. Rebecca led her to their basement where Nathaniel held some of the Marauders’ freaks captive for his research. They discovered that Nathaniel Essex had gone to a place called the Hellfire Club. Apocalypse, also present at the club, revealed his plan of conquest to all those present, including Nathaniel. The members saw Apocalypse as a buffoon. Furious, Apocalypse revealed his true form and killed a few of the members to make his point. Cyclops escaped the Marauders and found Jean. Apocalypse attacked the two reunited heroes. Essex was forced at one moment to decide whether he would join Apocalypse to achieve his scientific goals. Apocalypse imprisoned Cyclops. Jean, too, was trapped while attempting to free Scott. Meanwhile, Nathaniel’s wife, Rebecca, died blaming him for what happened to their son. Unable to escape the guilt over his wife’s death, Essex accepted Apocalypse’s offer and was transformed into Mister Sinister. In this new form, he was immortal. Essex was assigned to create a pestilence that would help Apocalypse cull the weak from the strong. Scott and Jean escaped their imprisonment. Apocalypse, at Bukingham Palace, attempted to destroy the Royal Family when Scott and Jean intervened. Sinister, perhaps still weighed by his own conscience, poisoned Apocalypse with the pestilence that he made, affecting the salvation of Scott and Jean. This action also may have had implications to further Sinister’s own agendas as well, since making the plague for Apocalypse would possibly result in the destruction of future generations that might show signs of mutations. Apocalypse was aware of what Sinister had done. Nur found strength in his servant for what he did, and so let him live. Scott and Jean were returned to the present in the 20th Century [[[[[Some of Essex’s freaks become what would be ancestors to the Summers family.]]]]] (THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX #s 1-4).
Vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing mistook Apocalypse for a nosferatu; he managed to survive to recognize the error of his assertions (APOCALYPSE VERSUS DRACULA #2).
Frank Tieri hinted at this early meeting of these two in APOCALYPSE VERSUS DRACULA. You would think that writing one plausible story that pits Apocalypse against vampires would be challenging enough. Tieri absurdly attempts to set the groundwork for a franchise of Apocalypse/vampire crossovers. Frederick Slade, an exceptionally noble soul among his peers in the Clan Akkaba, climbed to attain the position of the fittest. Despite finding favor in the eyes of Ozymandias, the brutal competition and rapid turnover surrounding the title soon reasserted itself. Hamilton Slade, his megalomaniacal brother, crippled Frederick and assumed the role.
In 1897, in London, four members of the Clan Akkaba were murdered by an unknown assailant and its fittest member, Hamilton Slade, went missing. Following these events, the inner council, based at Alexandria House, summoned Apocalypse from his slumber. After the obligatory sacrifice offering, the lesser clansman and police inspector Jack Starsmore brought forward vampirologist Professor Van Helsing to offer insight on the murders. Based upon this old acquaintance’s testimony and the recollections of the scribe Ozymandias, it came to light that Dracula himself was targeting Apocalypse and his clan in a revenge scheme (APOCAYLPSE VERSUS DRACULA #s 1-3).
So it seems Apocalypse can’t get a good night’s rest. Like an alarm clock with a snooze button, Clan Akkaba just can’t help jostling him from his chamber every five minutes. He’s up so often he can’t help recognizing random people from the crowd. “Oh, hey, Professor Van Helsing. Long time, huh? How’ve you been?” Characters with narrative captions explain the summoning ritual to the reader by reminiscing about the previous times they’ve witnessed Apocalypse slaughter someone on a tabletop. The ordinariness of it all sort of cheapens the significance of being forced to wake him up. Soon, in Apocalypse’s absence, Alexandria House was attacked and its occupants turned mutant vampire under the direction of the recently converted Hamilton Slade. Upon his return, Apocalypse, Ozymandias, Starsmore, and Van Helsing were attacked by a legion of the undead. The last unconverted clansmember, wheelchair bound Frederick Slade (whom Apocalypse had earlier dismissed as a lame weakling) teleported the group to safety. From a new location, Apocalypse awaited the next phase of the attack. The group resisted it successfully when it reached them, and the luxury of a new dawn afforded the chance to execute the undead clansmembers in their coffins at Alexandria House. Despite his victory, Apocalypse began to feel the effects of a discrete bite from Dracula suffered during the brawl. The vampires’ strategic destruction of his rejuvenation chamber prevented his immediate recovery.
After razing the house and abolishing Clan Akkaba for all time, Apocalypse redirected the war to Dracula’s doorstep in Transylvania. Teleporting into town, the group was at once attacked by Dracula’s human loyalists and then visited by the lord of the vampires himself, who taunted Apocalypse, pointed out his present weakness, and challenged him to invade Castle Dracula. At the head of the Riders of the Dark, Apocalypse stormed the castle. Frederick Slade dispatched his brother Hamilton while the ancient mutant and the macabre count faced off head to head. While Apocalypse was in a state of fatigue, Dracula, owing to his taste of Apocalypse’s blood, was more powerful than ever before. He was able to hold sway over Apocalypse’s actions, and he planned to keep him enslaved forever in order to quench his own appetites. Only a momentary distraction afforded Apocalypse the opening to impale Dracula and take the day. In the aftermath, Apocalypse returned to hibernation while Starsmore went his own way. Ozymandias, holding custody over Frederick Slade, ignored his master’s edict and used the mutant to breed Clan Akkaba anew. The respective descendants of Starsmore and Slade would become Chamber and Blink, members of Generation X and unwitting vessels of the blood of Apocalypse (APOCAYLPSE VERSUS DRACULA #s 3-4).
In the tradition of showing the forebears of the Summers family in FURTHER ADVENTURES OF CYCLOPS AND PHOENIX, here we get to see the grandparents of two throwaway Generation X characters. And another insistence that Apocalypse’s blood has always been significant is shoehorned into the plot as Dracula can’t help gloating about how yummy it tastes and all it does for him. We also discover that Apocalypse must keep a standing army of Dark Riders discreetly stationed not far from the Romanian border, as they appear for battle in the space of a panel. The craftiest detail on the part of the writer, though, is the bit at the end with Ozymandias resurrecting the clan under his own authority and without Apocalypse’s knowledge. While this is supposed to come off as an ulterior extension of the chronicler’s power, it really serves to paper over the fact that we never see or hear of the clan again until Tieri wants to use it again in NEW EXCALIBUR #9, which takes place more than a century later in the present period and was published within months of APOCALYPSE VERSUS DRACULA. Essex re-routed a train destined for the death camps to his own lab; the bodies of its passengers he used to further his creation of a clone of the Sub-Mariner. The clone faced off and held its own against the original and each of the Invaders save Captain America, who killed it (WEAPON X #14).
Near to the end of the Second World War, an American officer named Thorton, otherwise nicknamed "the Professor," discovered within the basement of an occupied Nazi facility an abandoned lab once used by Nathaniel Essex. Using the information on mutants found in a journal left by the scientist, the Professor would further his own experiments culminating in the Weapon X Program (WEAPON X #23).
Mister Sinister, always opposing his master, once aided the Thieves Guild in finding the location of one of Apocalypse’s abandoned citadels in Egypt. The External Candra, tied to the Guild, had use for any information regarding Apocalypse. A time-displaced Gambit caught up with Sinister, who had abducted his mutant friend Courier for experimentation. In exchange for the means to go after the Thieves Guild and for the freedom and health of Courier, Gambit gave Sinister a piece of Courier’s unique malleable flesh. Sinister used this specimen to alter his own physiology, greatly empowering him forevermore. From it he’d derive a way to shape-shift and clone people. Sinister, referred to locally as the enigmatic "White Devil," began his association with Sabretooth through Scalphunter in Vietnam in 1968. Sabretooth was being paid to investigate Sinister's covert experiments in that country; Scalphunter met his employer's price and Sabretooth desisted from his inquiry (WEAPON X #27).
Amanda Mueller, the Black Womb, obtained babies of genetic intrigue and held them at the Eugenics Information Center. Alex Ryking, Dr. Kurt Marko, Nathan Milbury, and Irene Adler were involved. Though never meeting her face-to-face, “she provided [them] with nearly unlimited means—to map out the growing advancement in human evolution.” For what purpose and for whose benefit she did this was uncertain, yet among the suspects was one most sinister (X-MEN FOREVER #4, X-MEN: ENDANGERED SPECIES). During the 1950s, Mister Sinister discovered the existence of a young Jean Grey. Assured that she was one of the keys to defeating Apocalypse, he planned to eliminate her parents and bring her to an orphanage he controlled in Nebraska. Before he was able to do so, Charles Xavier, the world’s preeminent telepath and eventual founder of the X-Men, recruited the girl for his school. His plans quashed, Sinister was content to create his own copy, or clone, of Jean Grey from blood samples he’d previously obtained. Unfortunately, the clone showed no signs of conscious life or mutant power (UNCANNY X-MEN #241). Scott Summers lost his parents in a fateful plane crash that left his mother and father “dead,” and placed he and his younger brother Alex in an orphanage, the State Home for Foundlings, Sage, Nebraska. Scott remained there for a very long time, never adopted because, he assumed, of his bad medical reports conducted after the crash. His brother was grabbed very quickly, in contrast, and they were separated. At twelve years old, Scott was not a very happy boy.
After a fight on the playground between Toby Rails and Scott’s friend Nate, one in which Scott became involved, he was sent to the medical office where he met Doctor Robyn Hanover. They got to talking, and Scott told her his motivation for jumping into the brawl. He stood up for Nate, a fellow loner, but one that he didn’t even care for so much. “Something about him,” Scott said, “rubs me the wrong way.”
Scott was plagued by another of his common nightmares that night, dreaming of fire. He awoke screaming, so loud that the good doctor came running. She found him beside Nate, who comforted him, and insisted that Scott was fine, it was only a nightmare. Toby arrived on the scene as well, from his own dorm, to torment Scott further. He was sent away, and Scott was taken with Doctor Robyn. Once all was quiet, Nate disembarked on his façade, was revealed as Mister Sinister, and dealt with Toby, citing that while the boy once served his purposes, he’d now become counter-productive.
Chief Administrator Pearson approached the doctor and bidded she not take a special interest in Scott above the other foundlings, not play favorites. Doctor Robyn found him to be somehow upsetting. Regardless of the warning, she allowed Scott to help her move into her new office. They spoke again, about Scott’s headaches, and of his love of flying.
They were interrupted when Toby Rails was spotted atop the ledge of a nearby building. Scott scaled it automatically, intending to dissuade him from jumping. Below, Nate reprimanded Toby in front of the other foundlings. The doctor spoke with him, was given the cold shoulder, and wondered whether she’d come between he and Scott. Atop the ledge, Toby seemed intent on departing the world, and despite Scott’s best efforts, the boy fell to his death. After Scott had cooled off a bit, Robyn took him to the Sage Airforce Base to see a flight show. Robyn introduced him to her friend Rick and his wife. Rick Bogart was a pilot, and he extended care for Scott by inviting him to join him on a flight sometime. Scott was at first exhilarated, but he then declined in fear. Scott later met with Rick again at the base. Rick proposed to his wife Trish that if they couldn’t pull together and find Scott’s family, they themselves should adopt him. Administrator Pearson, upon learning this, dissuaded it where he could. Robyn persisted until Pearson concluded that they’d let events play themselves out. Mister Sinister abducted Robyn as he had Toby, conditioning her to become a woman devoid of emotion, an ice queen. She informed Scott that the Bogarts hadn’t pursued their application, and that it would be dropped. The Bogarts’ plane was sabotaged by Sinister, and the young couple were killed. Scott was visited in a dream by Jean Grey and Professor Xavier, as a prelude to his being recruited to the Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters (X-MEN CLASSICS #s 41-42 from page 18 onward). As for Alex; he was adopted straightaway by the Blandings family which had lost a boy themselves of Alex’s age, thirteen years. His new father invested emotions in him left over from his deceased son, Todd, and Alex was made starting quarterback on his dad’s football team against his will. Alex was pulled aside by an upperclassman roustabout by the name of Vince, who could best be described as an envious boy prone to violent tendencies. His gang by his side, Vince threatened to do Alex in if he didn’t quit the football team and allow Vince to become the big man in town in Todd’s absence. Alex became queasy and stressed, surefire signs of his burgeoning mutant abilities taking stage. Sinister, diguised in his human form as Nathaniel Essex, egged Vince on later that night, when he could speak to the boy alone. Sinister wanted Vincent to “stir the pot for [him].” Vince and his gang busted into Alex’s new home and kidnaped him. They took him and his adopted sister Haley to an abandoned factory on the other side of town. Vince admited to having killed Todd. Alex had another spell. Haley turned on Vince with a vengeance for the life of her dead brother, and Vince shot her in the leg. Vince decided not to kill Alex, but to instead return to his home and kill his parents, taking all from the boy. Alex and Haley chased after him to his their house, and observed Vince preparing to plant a bullet in the place’s gas line. Alex begged him to stop, but that was nothing doing. His powers exploded forth from him to cremate Vince on the spot. Sinister appeared to tell the baffled boy just what he was; a mutant, one “with the ability to absorb ambient cosmic rays into the cells of [his] body where [he] can transform and release it into super-heated waves of plasma energy.” Sinister placed a genetic lock on his powers, impeding their development, for he declared Alex the inferior of the two Summers brothers. Sinister buried the memories of the day’s events deep within Alex and Haley’s minds (X-FACTOR #-1).
Section 7: The Subjugation of Nathaniel Essex
Section 6: Ancient Egypt Under Rama Tut
5,000 years ago (or 7,000 from where we left off in the future), in modern-day Jordan outside of Egypt, Apocalypse was born and abandoned in the desert. He was found and taken in by a tribe of wanderers. Hated and feared amongst them, he was stronger than they were. Baal, his adoptive father, believed that En Sabah Nur was destined to rule.
In the middle of the twelfth century, En Sabah Nur traveled to China to meet Garbha-Hsien, an “immortal magician” and another “forever walker” like Nur himself. Garbha-Hsien, who was in fact an External, greeted Nur and led him to a downed Celestial ship, which had been sheltered in the mountains and protected by local warlords until Nur cut them down upon his arrival. After running Garbha-Hsien through with his blade, Nur claimed the ship as his own and entered into it (X-FORCE #37).
Traveler returned to this century once again, at a point years after he’d first killed En Sabah Nur. When he intercepted the movement of future technology that was being delivered to the ship, he followed it back to Ozymandias, who in turn led Traveler to the Celestial ship wherein Nur resided. Traveler entered the ship alone, soon finding Nur, who was still in the process of recovering. Nur turned the ship’s defenses against Traveler, but Nathan quickly displayed his own finesse in talking to the ship. His techno-organic components allowed him to interface with it. More familiar with this Celestial technology from his youth spent with Professor, Traveler convinced the ship to launch itself into space, carrying Nur, at least for a few centuries, beyond the world which his very presence threatened.
Section 7: The Subjugation of Nathaniel Essex
Early in the 19th Century, in England, Apocalypse encountered and overcame a group of N’Gari demons (APOCALYPSE VERSUS DRACULA #4).
During the Second World War, the Nazi scientist Nathaniel Essex held a special interest in the superpowered group the Invaders. On an occasion when the mutant Sub-Mariner fought in his midst, Essex managed to obtain a specimen of blood from the injured hero.
When United States officer John Greycrow was executed for killing and scalping his fellow soldiers, Sinister was waiting by his gravesite when the mutant that would be Scalphunter emerged from his grave. He recruited him.
Gambit, Sinister, and Courier found the Thieves Guild and Candra, who had since encountered and imprisoned Apocalypse’s slave Ozymandias. They were using the information inscribed on the walls of the underground stronghold to perform spells that would give Candra immense power. Sinister and the others put an end to the Guild’s scheme and Candra was turned over to the Externals to serve punishment for what she had tampered with. Gambit intrigued Sinister, but they parted ways (GAMBIT #s 13-14).