The X-Men have created some of the coolest villains in the comic industry, including Apocalypse. Apocalypse was created to be the big bad of X-Factor (Vol. 1) and made a wonderful villain for the original five X-Men. “The Age of Apocalypse” made him one of the most popular X-Men villains ever, and since then, he’s basically become the Thanos of the X-Men side of the Marvel Universe. Apocalypse has evolved in some interesting directions over the decades and has become a villain that fans love to hate. One of the more interesting aspects of Apocalypse is the way that he’s all about creating an heir for himself, someone powerful enough to survive the future he wants to create.
Videos by ComicBook.com
There have been numerous heirs to Apocalypse in the X-Men comics with the latest being Revelation, the former Doug Ramsey. The X-Men are currently embroiled in “Age of Revelation”, a story that takes place in a future where Revelation has taken over the world. However, comparing Revelation to some of the other heirs to Apocalypse we’ve seen doesn’t do Revelation any favors. Not only is “Age of Revelation” underwhelming a lot of fans, but Revelation himself is not living up to his potential or filling the shoes of Apocalypse or his heirs.
Revelation Isn’t a Tenth as Cool as the Best Apocalypse Heirs
Looking back at Apocalypse’s history, there are several characters that can be pointed at as heirs to Apocalypse. There’s Holocaust, his son from the Age of Apocalypse Earth (a 616 version of this character would appear in “Dark Angel Saga” and was named Genocide, but he was never really considered an heir), Age of Apocalypse Logan, Archangel, and the Apocalypse Twins. Some would say that the First Horsemen, his children with Genesis, could be considered heirs, but they were more servants than mutants meant to take over for their father.
Each of them has their upsides. Holocaust was amazing as the main villain of Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 1). Logan used the Death Seed to save the world before he became the new Apocalypse, nearly taking over his world (they had to clone Scarlet Witch and have her “no more mutants” to beat him). Archangel became Apocalypse in “Dark Adestrongel Saga”, which is one of the best X-Men stories ever. The Apocalypse Twins were able to outsmart Kang the Conqueror, fool the Celestials into doing their bidding, and y the Earth, with the Avengers Unity Squad having to travel back in time to stop them. Each of these heirs felt dangerous; they felt like the kind of people that would thrive in Apocalypse’s kingdom.
However, Revelation has never felt dangerous. He’s never felt like Apocalypse. Part of this is, of course, that he’s Doug Ramsey. Doug Ramsey is the weakest X-Man of them all. His ability to understand every language is a useful power, but not one that engenders fear in the hearts of those battling him. He didn’t get the Celestial armor that made the other heirs look so dangerous, and he depends on the power-enhancing Choristers to make his power work better. Apocalypse is all about survival of the fittest, but Revelation hasn’t shown that he’d fit at all. He’s just been smarter than some of the people he was facing (look, Cyclops is great, but tricking him isn’t all that hard).
Then there’s story quality. “Age of Apocalypse” is amazing, a beloved story that is still legendary 30 years later. “Dark Angel Saga”, and the issues of Uncanny X-Force building up to it, are outstanding. The Apocalypse Twins were the main villains of Uncanny Avengers (Vol. 1) #6-22, and they smacked around a team of the most powerful X-Men and Avengers, enacting a plan that involved stealing multiversal Death Seeds and fooling the Celestials. These are true heirs to Apocalypse; in fact, in the case of the Apocalypse Twins, you could say they’re greater than Apocalypse. Revelation made a good plan, but he mostly succeeded because a virus killed the most powerful heroes in the world. He can’t hold a candle to the other heirs.
Revelation Never Should Have Became Heir of Apocalypse
The whole idea of an heir to Apocalypse has been a part of Apocalypse for decades, and readers have gotten some amazing villains from this idea. However, Revelation isn’t one of them. Revelation is a boring “know-it-all all” villain, one who uses his power to control everyone and seems to have an unbeatable evil plan. However, his only plan is that he can control minds. There’s not really anything scary about him for readers, not like Apocalypse or any of the other heirs to Apocalypse. The story he’s the focus of isn’t exactly lighting the fan world on fire, unless by lighting on fire you mean some fans think it’s okay and others think it’s bad.
For whatever reason, Marvel decided that Apocalypse needed to take a backseat and chose the exact worst character to do it., My favorite moment of “Age of Revelation” came from World of Revelation #1, when Apocalypse said that he should have never chosen Doug as his heir. This is the most real thing that the X-Men office has said in any book since Tom Brevoort took over as the editor of the X-Men. Revelation already feels like a failure, and Marvel’s going to have to pull out a miracle to make him seem worthwhile.
What do you think about Revelation? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Focus Features.
