Extraordinary X-Men Reveals The New Horsemen Of Apocalypse

SPOILERS for Extraordinary X-Men #8 follow.

Today's release of Extraordinary X-Men #8 begins the "Apocalypse Wars" series of stories that will be spread across the X-Men team books for the next few months. The issue didn't waste any time in bringing back one the signature tropes of any Apocalypse story, the Four Horsemen!

Here's the setup: the Terrigen Mist cloud circling the globe has made it impossible for new mutants to be born, so Storm is shocked when she finds out that Forge's sensors have picked up 600 new mutant signatures in Tokyo. Believing this to be a relatively safe mission, Colossus takes some of his students out to investigate.

In Tokyo, Colossus and his students discover Sugar Man, a geneticist from the Age of Apocalypse timeline. Sugar Man has artificially grown 600 perfect mutant embryos somewhere safe from the effects of Terrigen, and he is in the process of teleporting them somewhere where he can raise them as his minions. The other X-Men arrive in time to stop Sugar Man, but Colossus, the X-Haven students, and the embryos are all teleported away.

Some investigation reveals that the teleportation device is actually a time travel device. The X-Men use it to follow Colossus and find themselves 1000 years into the future. They discover Colossus's student, who have grown stronger since they left, but Colossus is missing.

And that's when the Horsemen arrive:

That's Colossus, Deadpool, Moon Knight, and what appears to be a Venom symbiote. Colossus is giving the orders, suggesting that he's Death, but the others' roles remain unknown. As Venom is an alien symbiote, and Deadpool has his healing powers, it makes sense for them to be around so far into the future. As for Moon Knight, whom Extraordinary X-Men writer Jeff Lemire will be writing when the new Moon Knight comic launches in April, this is apparently not Marc Spector, but a new, female Fist of Khonshu.

Intriguingly, the story makes no mention of Apocalypse himself. Perhaps that's still to come.

So what do you think of the new Horsemen? Let us know in the comments below.

"Apocalypse Wars" continues in Extraordinary X-Men #9, releasing April 20.