X-Men: The Rise of Apocalypse

The Rise of Apocalypse #1-4

by Terry Kavanagh, James Felder, Adam Pollina (Illustrator)

This tells the story of the X-Men's greatest villain Apocalypse, or En Sabah Nur as he was known in ancient Egypt. Witness his rise to power and the challenges he faced in his attempts to fulfill his dream of world domination.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, X Men, Marvel, Comic Book, Superheroes, Adventure

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Terrence "Terry" Kavanagh is an American comic book editor and writer. Kavanagh's last new comics project was the Before the Fantastic Four: The Storms limited series in 2000–2001.

Reviews

[Baba]

This covers Apocalypse's origin, which is a bit droll to be honest although the Fantastic Four guesting in it is quite clever, in the way it is put together with FF continuity :) 4 out of 12, banal Two Stars.

2018 read

[James]

2.5 stars. So this book tells the tale of Apocalypses early life from a child to becoming who he is. The story was a tad boring barely, I mean barely keeping you interested. By the time we were closing in on the end, I had a speck of Hope that it would build to a glorious ending. It did no such thing. Reading all of this while barely being entertained just to arrive at a lackluster ending.

[Rok]

Thousands of years ago, he was cast out for being different, sounds like people these days,(different isn't bad, it's just different). Nobody knew En Sabah Nur was the worlds first mutant, or that he would be one of the most powerful. The origin of the X-Mens' most feared foe is a nice little journey to the past to find out what you never knew about Apocalypse. Would he have been a hero if the people in Egypt were nicer to him?

[Kat | Tropes TBD]

This was definitely not my favorite collection. I was reading it to try to start reading the X-men comics again and I just didn’t like it. It’s very slow and hard to follow and it just feels like nothing happens. This probably wasn’t the best comic to pick up after not reading them for a long time. Hopefully I have better luck next time.

[Tim]

An uninspiring story about one of the coolest bad guys told with some really awful artwork.

[akacya ❦]

2024 reads: 64/250

[Matt Sautman]

Terrible art but an interesting enough backstory that, unfortunately, has been completely outdone by X-Men 97. This is not essential reading.

[Arthur Cristian]

The origins of such a powerful mutant that lived for millennia left me very disappointed at the end. I usually read manga, and in comparison, comics seem to have way more text. I also read other comics, but this one quickly went from exciting to boring.
The art was wonky and hard to understand. If it had been a bit cleaner everything would have looked better.

[M.i.]

An origins story into one of the most notorious characters in the marvel universe. From his scarred youth as the marvel’s universe’ first mutant, to his rise into becoming the notorious character that continually is a thorn in the sides of the X-men.

[Tani]

I wasn't thrilled by the artwork - I had a really hard time telling some of the characters apart. The dialogue was trying too hard to be epic, and didn't have a lot of flow to it. Oh, and the characters didn't really have any depth. Kind of a disappointment.

[Dimitris Papastergiou]

Set in 3100BC

"Look at me. Not with the eyes of a parent, but with those of a stranger. What cruel joke has nature played here? Why was I born as this?!" - En Sabah Nur

This one offers a compelling narrative that occasionally reaches great heights, featuring scenes that linger long after the final page. The relationship between Apocalypse and his father, Baal, is particularly well-developed, adding depth to Apocalypse's character.

What is.. is, Nur. We must take what harsh measure nature gives us and persevere." - Baal

However, it becomes evident early on that his tragic upbringing will lead him to become the angry, vengeful figure who rejects humanity. While there are standout moments in the story, some plot points felt predictable and detracted from the overall impact.

“Do not grasp what you can never hold.” - Osiris

Additionally, while the artwork is good, it doesn’t quite align with the serious tone of the script, which undermines some of the story's intensity. Overall, the comic has its strengths, but the combination of predictability and a mismatch between art and narrative kept it from reaching its full potential.

He has turned his back on this two-faced thing called humanity for all eternity.

[downloaderr]

I've always had a soft spot for manga, thought I would check out comics, and I was a little appalled by this. The art had potential to be interesting, but with the character designs, many characters looked the same, the same character would often have details added or removed or obscured, and it made reading this a little incoherent. Two panels on the same page can have a character drawn/colored so completely differently that I would have to spend time trying to parse who it was, was there a reason this character's appearance changed, was it actually the same character, and I stopped caring at a certain point.

The storytelling isn't very strong either. Instead of portraying the main character's actual origin, it turns into a time travel story about another character that knows about Apocalypse and basically causes his origin story. This time traveling antagonist then just disappears offscreen and the Fantastic 4 are there for some reason, but they also disappear off screen. The story is weak and needlessly convoluted and isn't delivered well by the art, so it just feels like stuff happens, and doesn't have much impact or really leave an impression.

[Steven Bell]

(Review borrowed from my blog)

I caved and signed up for Marvel Unlimited, since I’ve been wanting to do that X-Men read. So I’m doing a read of X-Men, in chronological order, probably very incomplete. I’m kind of… reading the essential stuff plus anything else I decide to on the way.

So with that in mind, I read the chronological oldest X-Men graphic novel, Rise of Apocalypse. I’ll summarise it like this: it’s terrible. It’s Frank Miller-esque dreck. Is it entertaining? No. Is it enlightening? No. Is it cliche? Yes. Does it have only one female character who is terribly written and made to be the reason Apocalypse becomes evil (because she rejected him)? Yes.

Should you ever read it? No. Don’t. It’s bad.

[Rangga Sukmawijaya]

Lima ribu tahun silam, di tanah Mesir Kuno, seorang bayi mungil yang aneh dibuang oleh penduduk Akkaba ke gurun. Bayi berkulit biru dan berwajah menakutkan itu ditemukan dan dipungut oleh Baal, pemimpin suku perompak gurun pasir. Baal mengetahui rahasia masa depan dari si bayi, yang diberi nama En Sabah Nur. Kelak bayi itu akan mengalahkan firaun Rama Tut yang sebenarnya bukan berasal dari masa itu. Ini adalah cerita tentang munculnya Apocalypse, salah satu musuh terkuat X-Men.

[Sebastian Song]

One wonders how such a magnificient villain could be let down by such boring story telling. Lengthy when precision is required and brief when elaboration is critical. Passable.

[John]

let down of a story, really didn't like the 90's style artwork

[K]

Rounding down from 3.5 stars - the version I got was these comics plus about ten others by different authors and artists, so I got a good mix of stuff I liked and stuff I didn’t.

[iamjacsmusings]

X-muddled: the chaotic rise of Apocalypse.

[Edward Correa]

2.5
Sí, la historia es un clásico ya, pero está contada con un ritmo flojo y algunas decisiones extrañas. Es como una cobija hecha a base de parches de otras cobijas mejores.

[Sean]

Kavanagh & Pollina put together a decent story here that tells the untold origin of Apocalpyse, one of the X-Universe's greatest villains. I loved the ties to ancient Egypt and even Rama-Tut but the ties to the Marvel Universe were to loose. They were mentioned and even shown but too quickly glossed over. This series could have used two more issues to expand on the back story. The art was at times hard to distinguish between characters. I loved certain panels and then scratched my head on others. Overall, the ideas were good but the execution wasn't.

[Angela]

Could have been a lot better. Most of it was unsurprising, because a lot of his history had already been told.

[Lyuben]

Kinda cool(haven't read any other comics with apocalypse), but I feel that just 1 volume wasn't enough to tell his story. It just seemed kinda shallow.