HOLOCAUST

 

HOLOCAUST

Real Name: Unknown

First Appearance: X-Men: Alpha (Vol. 1) #1, February 1995

Powers: Originally known as Nemesis, Holocaust's mutant powers originally included flight and projecting bio-genetic microwave blasts from his hands which could cause considerable pain and devastation. He also may have had superhuman strength and durability to some degree. Magneto critically wounded Nemesis for killing his daughter Wanda, and Nemesis was reborn as Holocaust, an energy-based being housed in a crystallized armor created for him by the Dark Beast. Holocaust was massively strong and his armor was impenetrable to most forms of attack while channeling his microwave energy into tremendous blasts of power.

Holocaust has also demonstrated the power to animate or rejuvenate himself with the life essence of other living beings. He can drain this energy from a distance with a thought, either slowly so that his target grows slowly weaker and more weathered looking before finally being consumed, or all at once so that they disintegrate completely in a matter of seconds. Holocaust can apparently reform a relatively human solid body for himself even without his armor by siphoning enough life energy. His armor also has certain exceptional properties built into it, such as the ability to morph itself around him into a duplicate of his old Nemesis body, or into any other physical form he focuses on, with the life energy he drains from others serving as a fuel source for these transformations.

*This is Holocaust from Earth-295 (aka "The Age of Apocalypse"). He does not have an Earth-616 counterpart and he technically first appeared as a profile in Stryfe's Strike File (Vol. 1) #1, January 1993.

APOCALYPSE

 

APOCALYPSE

Real Name: En Sabah Nur

First Appearance: X-Factor (Vol. 1) #5, June 1986

Powers: Apocalypse is one of the first Earth-born mutants. His mutation originally consisted of superhuman strength, megamorphic capabilities, longevity, and energy discharges. He possesses Class 100 superhuman strength, superhuman agility, endurance, reflexes, and invulnerability. He can withstand a tremendous level of physical assault. As a megamorph, he can alter the molecular structure of his body in anyway in order to change his shape and form.

Apocalypse has an extremely long lifespan due to his status as an External. Externals are mutants who, in addition to having powers from their active x-factor gene, are gifted with near-immortality. An External’s immortality manifests at the point of their first mortal death. Externals apparently can die at the hands of another External’s powers, the Legacy Virus, or the destruction of their astral forms.

After becoming a techno-organic cyborg merged with Celestial technology, Apocalypse incorporated his mutant powers into those modifications. The mechanical aspects of his body are equally controllable by his powers, enabling him to transform his hands into giant drills or vise grips, stretch his arms, legs, or torso to great lengths, grow wings and/or jet booster engines in order to fly at supersonic speeds, and manifest projectile or energy weapons of various types out of his own skin. Apocalypse can also transform into human forms, completely hiding his cybernetic parts. He is capable of teleporting instantaneously from one location to another. His cybernetics contain sub-spatial accesses, allowing him to tap into vast storages of raw energy from his Celestial technology, amplifying any of his abilities to even greater levels. Apocalypse's costume is actually part of his body, and he can alter its appearance at will. He can also levitate himself telekinetically has demonstrated some level of telepathic skill.

Despite his External status, he is unable to exert his accumulated power levels indefinitely, requiring him to spend decades at a time in rejuvenation chambers or transition into a new form. The various techno-organic viruses in his body have added a polymorphic capacity to his DNA to make it highly adaptable to take that new form. He does this either by taking possession of a living host or mixing his blood with raw materials, using his T-O virus to re-write existing genetic codes to reincarnate himself with all his powers and memories from existing sources of living or dead tissue over a period of time.

Apocalypse is an extraordinary genius possessing knowledge of genetic engineering, technology, and various areas of science that is advanced beyond humanity. He is also a master strategist.