The credits for “X-Men” are unfortunately incomplete (after season 1, the end credits would only list the main voices), so sources differ on when the recast took place. To my ear, however, Colicos played Apocalypse in four episodes: “The Cure” and “Come The Apocalypse” in Season 1, and the two-part “Time Fugitives” in Season 2. Even with his limited time, Colicos played was able to deliver some unforgettable lines:
“I know more about this world than you imagined!” That’s why I have to destroy it!
“The old world is disappearing. Together, we will forge a new one in fire and blood! From the ashes of this world, I will build a better one!”
“Go, my riders, and let chaos cleanse the world!”
My favorite is in “Time Fugitives,” when a man looks at Apocalypse in fear and exclaims, “A mutant!” A steely-eyed Apocalypse scowls and declares, “I am as far beyond the mutants as they are beyond you!” »
When “X-Men” premiered, Apocalypse had only made his comic book debut six years prior; Louise Simonson and Jackson Guice created him in 1986 as a villain for their comic strip “X-Factor.” Tellingly, Apocalypse’s first appearance on “X-Men” adapts the one and only thing he was known for at the time: transforming the X-Men character Angel into one of his Four Horsemen, with new steel wings.
As the first actor to play Apocalypse, when the character was still quite young, Colicos’ voice set the standard – for Blendick, of course, but also for future Apocalypse actors like David Kaye and Oscar Isaac. That voice became a key part of why young “X-Men” fans (and even some future “X-Men” writers) remembered Apocalypse, with his dominance in the animated series providing a role continued in the comics.
Apocalypse’s real name, En Sabah Nur, is said to mean “the first” in Marvel Comics. (Actually, all three words are Arabic words for “The Seven Lights”, meaning dawn.) Just as Apocalypse marked the dawn of the mutant race, every future actor in Apocalypse relies on the exemplary work of John Colicos to keep the character alive.
