Apocalypse (character)

Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is one of the world's first mutants, and was a principal villain for the original X-Factor team and later the X-Men and related spin-off teams. Created by writer Louise Simonson and artist Jackson Guice, Apocalypse first appeared in X-Factor #5 (June 1986). Apocalypse is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. Since his introduction, the character has appeared in a number of X-Men titles, including spin-offs and several limited series. Apocalypse has also been featured in various forms of media. Oscar Isaac portrayed the character in X-Men: Apocalypse. While writing the first five issues of X-Factor, Bob Layton dropped hints of a villain operating behind the scenes and leading the Alliance of Evil (mentioned in X-Factor #4, May 1986). Layton intended to reveal this character to be the Daredevil villain the Owl on the final page of X-Factor #5. However, Layton left the book after writing this issue and was replaced by writer Louise Simonson. Editor Bob Harras said that the character arose because of storytelling needs: "All I had communicated to Louise was my desire that an A-level, first class character be introduced. I wanted a Magneto-level villain who would up the stakes and give the X-Factor team reason to exist." In a 2011 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Simonson explained that when the X-Factor series was created, the original five X-Men were pulled out of the purview of Chris Claremont, who was writing The Uncanny X-Men. However, Simonson felt that the series needed an archenemy, or what Simonson called "a big, bad villain", and conceived of Apocalypse. Simonson described the character thus: When X-Factor was created, it caused a split in the "Mutant World" [and] several seminal characters were pulled out of [writer] Chris Claremont's X-Men. Apocalypse is the first mutant – a brilliant shape-shifter who is virtually immortal – and sees himself as the father of mutantkind.