In ancient times, Apocalypse has assumed the names Set, Sauru, Huitzilopochti and Kali-Man. Apocalypse's technology was stolen from the Celestials (see X-Factor #'s 43-50). In Cable's future, Apocalypse becomes one of the High Lords of New Canaan.

The main advocate of the mutant contest for "survival of the fittest" and perhaps the most lethal of the X-Men's "new era" enemies is none other than Apocalypse.

Also known as En Sabah Nur, Apocalypse is a mutant of rare ability. He is apparently immortal, having lived since the age of the pharoahs, though that is by no means his greatest strength. His greatest power is the ability to manipulate mechanical and organic matter and meld it to his purposes.

Often this entails altering the structure of a fellow mutant to serve him. Among his creations are Mr. Sinister, the Horsemen of the Apocalypse and the X-Men's own Archangel.

Apocalypse's unique enmity with Cyclops is based on the fact that he infected Cyclops' infant son, Nate, with a techno-organic virus. Cyclops was forced to send his child into the future so that he could receive care from the Askani, a time-travelling mutant cult. Though Nate eventually grew up to become Cable, a powerful leader of mutants in both the present and future, the loss of Cyclops' son in the timestream severely envenomed him against Apocalypse.

Apocalypse has been around since the beginning of Egypt. In that long time, he has become obsessed with the principle that only the strong can survive. In the name of creating his perfect utopia, Apocalypse has conquered all of North America and has massacred millions of humans that he does not deem fit to survive. If not for the intervention of the mutants known as the X-Men, Apocalypse would surely have destroyed the world in the twenty-some years since the death of Xavier. Although Magneto and his X-Men have been partly successful in stemming the tide of Apocalypse's evil, he is convinced that they too will eventually fall, for he counts them among the weak. . .