THE FINAL HORSEMEN

 

THE FINAL HORSEMEN

Roster: (l to r) Famine V (Jeb Lee), Death VII (Sanjar Javeed), Pestilence VI (Ichisumi) and War VI (Decimus Furius)

First Appearances: Uncanny X-Force (Vol. 1) #1, December 2010 (Famine V and War VI); Uncanny X-Force (Vol. 1) #2, January 2011 (Pestilence VI and Death VII)

History/Powers: The Final Horsemen were a set of mutants culled from throughout history by Apocalypse and Ozymandias to be the ultimate group of Horsemen when the proper time came. When a potential member was identified, Apocalypse had them indoctrined in his ways and placed in stasis until they were needed.

Jeb Lee, a Confederate spy during the American Civil War in Gettysburg in 1863 A.D., became Famine. His mutant power manifested when his family was burned alive due to a case of mistaken identity. He could generate a bio-auditory cancer, a psionic signature that consumed living matter, causing organisms to waste away and atrophy. Humans affected by the cancer could be incapacitated by hunger pains and the general weakening and decay of their bodies. While potentially lethal, the effects could be reversed relatively quickly by escaping from Famine's range and consuming enough food. The effect was transmitted via sound waves, and required a repetitive and continuous rhythm to properly direct it. Famine used his army drum to typically focus his power, but could direct it through any form of rhythm, even tapping his fingers. Lee could direct the bio-auditory cancer to only affect specific targets within hearing range if he chose.

Sanjar Javeed, the illegitimate son of King Shapur II of Persia, became the "Seraph of Death" in 4th century (325 A.D.) Persia, before Apocalypse claimed this Death as his own. Death generated an ailment aura, a psionic field which simulated the effects of various lethal diseases, bacteria, and pathogens. The effects were focused through physical contact with metal -- different forms of metal allowed him to generate different kinds of ailments, and so he wore various metal rings to have easy access to various possibilities. Sanjar only psionically simulated the effects of each ailment, he did not actually infect his victims with the pox or other diseases. The body was merely "tricked" into acting as if it had been infected. Leaving Death's immediate range would cause the effects to rapidly vanish from his victims' bodies, but staying in his range too long would cause his victims to expire, simulated ailment or not.

Ichisumi, Pestilence, was originally a geisha from 19th century (1833 A.D.) Kumamoto, Japan. Her mutation cultivated a symbiotic swarm of Yume death beetles inside her body. These beetles could be expelled from her throat cavity with significant force. They were ravenously carnivorous flesh-eaters, able to strip a man down to his bones in a matter of seconds. When the beetles returned to Ichisumi, they shared sensory impressions with her, making her conscious of everything the beetles saw or experienced while separated from her.

War was once known as Decimus Furius, of 3rd century Rome (281 A.D.). He transformed upon puberty into gigantic minotaur of living stone, possessing superhuman strength, endurance, and resistance to all kinds of physical injury. Furius drew further strength from his so-called "warsong". While in an aggressive state, War's directed fury created a kind of psychic armor that permeated his body, significantly increasing his invulnerability. It also protected his mind from mental assault, and threatened to infect telepaths if they tried to force their way into his mind. War could also deliberately infect other people with his "warsong" -- often using his axe or another weapon as a delivery system -- causing them to experience a violent and uncontrollable rage for a period of time. If he should lose his focus and his fury in battle, however, Furius would become vulnerable. Hesitation could even cause his stone body to shatter into pieces, although he could eventually reform himself.

ABYSS

 

ABYSS (AOA Version)

Real Name: Nils Styger

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

Powers: Abyss’s mutation allows him to transform the substance of his entire body so that it unravels as elastic coils of high-tensile strength material. The wrappings stretch out as they unravel, giving him an extended reach and can be used to entangle and constrict around people and objects from a distance. This also completely changes the way his body can be harmed, for any sort of physical force directed at him merely causes his coils to flex with the impact and shoot back into place unharmed. Virtually his entire body can unravel like this, from his limbs all the way down to his tongue.

His internal structure houses an extra-dimensional void that he can swallow objects into. If he draws people into himself, they experience tremendous psychic anguish and torture for as long as he keeps them there. Abyss has also demonstrated certain additional mutant abilities. He has empathic powers allowing him to sense the emotions of other people within his vicinity. By placing someone into his void, Abyss could amplify and broadcast their fear and terror as psionic tremors, radiating negative empathic energy for miles around, sending people into intense emotional turmoil. He may also have been capable of producing psychoplasmic visual images in thin air.

*This is Abyss from Earth-295 (aka "The Age of Apocalypse"). His Earth-616 counterpart first appeared later in Cable (Vol. 1) #40, February 1997.

FAMINE

 

FAMINE

Real Name: Autumn Rolfson

First Appearance: X-Factor (Vol. 1) #12, December 1986

Powers: Famine possesses the mutant ability to induce decay and atrophy in most forms of organic matter. Her power is a two-fold ability:

She can use it to disintegrate food, cause crops to wither and die, and break down large organic materials such as a wooden wall by reducing it to a state that is too aged and corroded to maintain its integrity.

She can also use her mutant power to create what she refers to as a “starvation blight”. Using this specialized form of her power, Famine can manipulate a person’s metabolism to deplete them of their fat cells, turning the victim into a withered, dangerously thin, starving husk. This emaciation effect is debilitating to opponents, making them physically weak and distracted by overwhelming hunger for food. This effect could be reversed by distancing oneself from Famine or consuming a large quantity of food soon after.

Autumn Rolfson suffered from anorexia nervosa, a mental condition that caused her to develop a systemic aversion to eating, deathly afraid of gaining weight, and feeling she was already morbidly obese when, in fact, she was severly malnourished.

WAR

 

WAR

Real Name: Abraham Lincoln Kieros

First Appearance: X-Factor (Vol. 1) #11, November 1986

Powers: War was born with the mutant power to create explosions in his immediate vicinity by clapping his hands. His power operates by harnessing the minor kinetic energy created when his hands strike each other, amplifying it to a significant degree, and redirecting it spatially so that it strikes and affects any object within his line-of-sight, causing an explosive release of force.

Kieros was originally a soldier in the United States Army who sustained injuries during battle which left him paralyzed from the neck down and confined to an iron lung mechanical respirator. The mutant known as Apocalypse modified him into one of his Four Horsemen created a suit of armor which restored his mobility and scattered energy beams directed at it. and could only move thanks to his Horseman armor.

At an unrevealed point, he lost his Horseman powers and gear. Without the armor to support his broken body, he became completely paralyzed again and even lost the ability to speak. However, the mutant named Archangel used his short-lived light powers to heal Kieros's broken body.

PESTILENCE

 

PESTILENCE

Real Name: Unknown

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #169, May 1983 (As Plague); X-Factor (Vol. 1) #19, August 1987 (As Pestilence)

Powers: Formerly Plague of the Morlocks, Pestilence's mutant ability produces lethal diseases (any disease, actually) within her body and transmits the bio-agents through her hands to make others feel sick, delirious, and eventually die. Her power was extremely potent to the point where she could even affect people who were intangible, claiming that a single molecule was all it took for her powers to take hold. She could remove the illnesses she had generated with a single touch. She was immune to all known infections, viruses and other illnesses.

CALIBAN

 

CALIBAN

Real Name: Unrevealed

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #148, August 1981

Powers: Caliban's mutant powers originally seemed to be advanced forms of natural animal survival instincts, detecting predators and the fight-or-flight reflex. Besides his chalk white skin and round yellow eyes, Caliban was a mutant detector, able to sense the unique energy rhythms being emitted by mutant biology. Caliban was able to gain a relative sense of how close or how powerful the mutant was within a 25 mile radius, and recognize the sensation if it was a mutant he had encountered before. During times of intense stress, mutagenically-altered adrenaline would flow through Caliban's system, triggering two new powers:

First, he developed superhuman Class 7 strength, as his muscles were pumped full of this adrenaline compound. Second, he also developed a fear-casting power which made him into an amplification unit for emotional residue -- absorbing the cast-off negative empathic energy other people around him were producing and then radiating it back into the environment at much greater intensities, often creating panic and hysteria.

After agreeing to work for Apocalypse, Caliban was put through genetic engineering procedures that greatly enhanced his powers. His muscle mass increased phenomenally over his entire body, and he developed permanent levels of superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, leaping ability, senses, fangs, claws, and resistance to all forms of physical injury. In addition to his physical power, Caliban's fear-casting power developed a new wrinkle, according to at least one source. Caliban now seemed capable of absorbing fear to become "emotionally-charged", boosting his physical powers even further. He was also able to access this 'shadow force' more easily, causing tremendous fear in others on command. After leaving the employ of Apocalypse, Caliban deteriorated mentally to a child-like demeanor, and either lost his fear-power or simply could no longer remember how to access it. After being re-recruited as the Horseman Pestilence, Caliban regained access to a variant of his fear-casting power: By harnessing ambient emotional energy from his environment, he could direct a psychoactive virus at specific targets, a debilitating effect which somehow targeted both the psyche and the metabolism, causing his victims to experience fever and delirium in addition to a detrimental psionic pressure on their mind, bringing pre-existing emotional pain to the surface and inhibiting their thinking and actions.

It should be noted that, considering the permanence of his superhuman physical attributes, it is possible that Apocalypse was able to genetically modify Caliban's x-factor so that mutagenic adrenaline is maintained at a constant presence in his system, instead of just in times of stress, much like a type of naturally produced steroids. If it is similar to steroids, that chemical imbalance could explain Caliban's wild mood swings and mania following the changes in his powers.

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.