X-Men: Marvel Reveals Which X-Man Is the New Apocalypse

An unexpected member of the X-Men has stepped up to be Apocalypse’s heir and replacement. After the Fall of X and the fall of Krakoa, the X-Men franchise is relaunching with a slate of new titles and creative teams. We’ve already seen Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman’s X-Men and NYX from Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Francesco Mortarino, but a precursor to X-Men: From the Ashes is X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse. As the name indicates, it features Apocalypse holding a pseudo-tournament to handpick someone to follow in his footsteps. We’re down to the final participants, but only one will walk away as the next Apocalypse.

*WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #4. Continue reading at your own risk!

X-Men: Heir of Apocalypse #4 comes from the creative team of Steve Foxe, Netho Diaz, Sean Parsons, Alex Sinclair, and VC’s Clayton Cowles. We’re down to the final four potential heirs of Cable, Forge, Mirage / Dani Moonstar, and Cypher / Doug Ramsey. Apocalypse spends time with each mutant, playing on their emotions and forcing them to question if they’ve truly done enough for mutantkind, and if gaining the power of Apocalypse would help them achieve their goals. Cable has fought his entire existence to rid the world of Apocalypse, Forge’s mind and ideas have gone to waste trying to help the humans, Dani Moonstar has never risen to her full potential, and Doug Ramsey had to sit back and watch Krakoa, the place he helped found and the utopia for mutants, be jettisoned and kicked to the curb.

As the remaining challengers of Wolverine (Laura Kinney), Rictor, Emma Frost, Archangel, and Penance (Monet St. Croix) await the winner on Arakko, Cable and Forge are teleported to join them. This means that the final two comes down to Mirage and Cypher. But after Dani is teleported to Arakko, that leaves Douglas Ramsey with a choice to make.

Apocalypse introduces his heir, Douglas Ramsey aka Revelation

Apocalypse, Douglas Ramsey’s wife Bei the Blood Moon, and best friend Warlock look on as Doug is transformed into Apocalypse’s heir, Revelation. Bei the Blood Moon and Warlock are named Revelation’s disciples. Douglas takes on the physical appearance of Apocalypse, down to the tattooed on his head and arms. He is know dressed in a gold cloak with matching boots.

“I won’t shepherd as you have–with force and might,” Revelation tells Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur responds that he’d be disappointed if Revelation did. While Apocalypse ruled with an iron fist, Revelation will look to use diplomacy and his mutant ability of language to achieve his goals. Revelation claims that new mutant leaders will rise out of the ashes of Krakoa. And if they should choose to not follow his edicts, then he’ll reveal to them the error of their ways. X-Men: Heir of the Apocalypse #4 ends with the note that Revelation will return.

This is a big status quo change for Doug Ramsey and the X-Men franchise, with one of their own and a former New Mutant now cemented as a potential villain and adversary. We can expect both Revelation and Apocalypse to come back in the future, after the X-Men: From the Ashes relaunch is well underway.