En Sabah Nur
The season finale of X-Men ‘97 took us to some dramatically unexpected places; though these days, it’s not exactly unusual for time travel to arrive inside comic storylines.
We had a glimpse of that this season with Cable and Bishop, but now? It looks like season two of X-Men ‘97 is going to be set in both the distant past and the far future. In the past, we meet En Sabah Nur, the man who would become Apocalypse, and here’s more to know more about him.
Who Is En Sabah Nur From ‘X-Men ‘97’ Finale?
The man at the end of the episode in very ancient Egypt is En Sabah Nur, who was born as a second generation mutant. The lines on his face made him an outcast, abandoned by his family, so he had to become a nomad, and eventually, an extremist.
En Sabah Nur has a host of powers, like your normal superhuman strength and endurance, but he eventually can fly and is almost invulnerable. But his powers were enhanced over time, and we’ll get to that in a minute. In the show, we didn’t see any of his actual powers in action. It’s not even clear he has them yet.
En Sabah Nur at one point communes with Egyptian gods like Isis who encouraged him to rebel as a slave against his masters, and when he was thrown into a pit of snakes, his powers first manifested so he could take all his oppressors out.
Then, he would become the villain Apocalypse, who other than Magneto, is probably the most infamous X-Men villain in history.
Apocalypse
Who Will Apocalypse Be In ‘X-Men ‘97’?
En Sabah Nur adopts a survival of the fittest philosophy for mutant kind, valuing strength above all else. Across the centuries Apocalypse was worshipped by a god due to his immense power, and he was recruited by the Celestials who enhanced his powers to extreme degrees.
In addition to the powers listed above, Apocalypse can rearrange his entire molecular structure, including allowing him to grow massive in size. He commands Celestial energy to make force fields, absorb energy and blast energy beams. He also has some level of telekinesis and telepathy.
Above all that, he is effectively immortal, and ageless. So needless to say he’s tough to beat.
What’s The Plan For En Sabah Nur And Apocalypse In ‘X-Men ‘97’ Season Two?
Given that viewers are teleported to the beginning of his story, possibly even before he gets his powers, we are likely going to see his rise into a villain.
Even if the X-Men are there to temporarily save him and possibly guide him, I don’t see any way that X-Men 97 rewrites his story so he does not become the murderous god-king Apocalypse. I know the show made Magneto have a good amount of morality and hero moments this season, but I’d be shocked if they did the same for Apocalypse here.
There have been so many Apocalypse stories in the comics over the years, it’s hard to know where we’re going to end up. I have no doubt that at some point the X-Men will return to their usual timeline, but Apocalypse will either come with them, or have lived long enough where he’s already there because, again, he’s immortal. I am curious if we’ll see the Celestial part of his story play out.
Apocalypse is also the eventual leader of the Four Horsemen. There are more than a few versions of this group, but they have the titles of Pestilence, War, Famine and Death. The original group are the children of Apocalypse and Genesis, who ruled with Apocalypse in ancient Egypt.
I am willing to bet that if they go down this route, Angel/Archangel may show up to be part of the storyline, given that he was not featured at all in this season. But we’ll wait and see.
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