Marvel comics, in all of their brilliance, produced a comic book series known as The X-Men. One of the most hardcore villains is known as Apocalypse. He is immortal and contains a myriad of names, centuries of history, powers, and more. He was born in Egypt and named En Sabah Nur (translated from Arabic to mean 'The First One,' or more loosely, 'First Light at the Break of Dawn.') Apocalypse appears throughout history, and often tries to convince different cultures to worship him as a God and as a great leader. He sends them on violent conquests and wars to prove themselves as a worthy culture. He lives by the Darwinian code of "survival of the fittest."
He had a minion at one point named Harbinger. The dictionary definition of the word 'harbinger' is "anything that foreshadows a future event; omen; sign." In the 19th century, Apocalypse decided that he would need a powerful agent in the 20th century, so he imprisoned an anonymous man in a coffin in which he would be transformed. Later appearing in the 20th century, Harbinger was tracked down by the X-Men member Cable. According to Wikipedia, which I had to use as a reference because I don't have my comics with me, "The Harbinger told Cable that his programming dictated that he should bring destruction and chaos to the world, but he wanted to judge humanity himself before obeying. Some time later, the Harbinger reappeared in Manhattan and decided that humanity should be destroyed. Cable…battled the Harbinger, but he adapted to all of their attacks. In the end, Apocalypse activated a bomb inside the Harbinger which would destroy New York. Cable managed to prevent the destruction of New York>…. The bomb exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing the Harbinger, but Cable was saved by a group of time travelers."
There are thousands of references and story lines which are too detailed and numerous to recount here, but ... read X-Men. That's the solution.
Apocalypse's powers and abilities include: The ability to mentally manipulate the molecules of objects, immortality, superhuman strength, speed, endurance, agility, reflexes, and durability, teleportation, flight, energy manipulation, technopathy (the ability to manipulate technology), healing factor, genius-level intelligence, an array of mind powers, and access to Celestial Technology (which has to do with time travel and several unstoppable powers detailed further in X-Men and other related comics).
"Toyo Harada (The Harbinger)is the most powerful psionic on Earth, Harada commands the full spectrum of psionic abilities, including telepathy, telekinesis, mind-control, and many other deadly talents. Fearing that humanity may eventually destroy itself, Harada decided early in his life to preserve the planet by clandestinely conquering it. To this end, he established the Harbinger Foundation to recruit others with paranormal abilities, whom Harada refers to as "Harbingers of the next step in human evolution". He seldom confronts his enemies directly, preferring to leave such dirty-work to his elite Harbinger warriors, the "Eggbreakers". With tremendous economic and political clout, Harada seems close to achieving his goals, and is ready to destroy anyone who stands in his way" (wikipedia).
This is a great account of Apocalypse in X-Men. So when you say "Bring on the Apocalypse"—are you actually insinuating that we *kill* the Apocalypse? As in, critique it as a concept? This would follow the logic of the X-Men, wouldn't it?
ReplyDeleteTo do this, we might simply trace how the formulation of Apocalypse (in the X-Men) contains an internal contradiction: On the one hand, you suggest that the Apocalypse reoccurs across time, historically as it were, in different guises. This suggests a kind of cyclical action or repetition. On the other hand, though, you claim that "He lives by the Darwinian code of 'survival of the fittest.'" This sounds more like evolutionary time, in the sense of a clear direction of 'progress' (one that can never be reversed or recycled...it always goes on linearly, forward). It would seem that Apocalypse, then, is always already caught up in a logical break, where linear time and cyclical time cannot be thought together. If this is the case, does X-Men provide its own in-built critique of the Apocalypse?
Make sure to link the Wikipedia page that you reference. Simply choose that little push button with the icon that looks like two magnets opposed, and then insert the url for the Wikipedia page.
After reading your post Molly, I found myself stuck on the immortality of Apocalypse. How could an apocalypse be associated with immortality? Prior to this course I would have thought that an apocalypse would be associated with death or at least a devastating catastrophe, but could Marvel be suggesting that there will always be something changing, fueling some sort of apocalypse? Could these powers of the X-Men character Apocalypse, suggest or reflect the progression of society in years to come?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting and true thoughts that I didn't notice (fully) until you both commented on this. Is Apocalypse (the character) progressing through time? There are some mentions of his gaining strength, but that only happens slightly, it is not an evolutionary growth of strength. He is a constant force of evil, reigning and bringing change, while never evolving from it. Is he, himself, the catastrophe? He is ever-static and immortal, much like Vampires who often lament their own existence. I wonder how Apocalypse feels about his life duties. Is it all for revenge?
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