- Name: Evan Sabahnur
- Code Names: Kid Apocalypse, Genesis
- First Appearance: Uncanny X-Force #7 (Jun ’11)
- Powers: Apocalypse Ones
- Teams Affiliation: X-Men
About
Philosopher John Locke once said, “If we will attentively consider new born children, we shall have little reason to think that they bring many ideas into the world with them.” His thought was that humanity has no innate principles, nothing guiding what a person will be. Being born a blank slate meant that you weren’t defined by anything, you were formed into something by experiences. It is the trick behind thought experiments about murdering baby Hitler, what if the child was guided into something different? X-Force once found themselves faced with this conundrum, and from it sprung Evan Sabahnur.
To know anything about Evan, we need to know the circumstances of his birth. The ancient X-Men foe Apocalypse had been long dead, but the cult that worshiped him, Clan Akkaba, was dead set on his resurrection. X-Force caught wind of it and determined to stop his rise. What they found was not the massive mutant, but a small boy no more than eight-year-old. They debated on what to do but Fantomex took matters into his own hands and shot the child in the head.
Perhaps it was guilt, perhaps curiosity, but Fantomex went to work to prove a theory. He took DNA from the murdered child and created a clone of him named Evan Sabahnur. He raised the child in a virtual reality Kansas, his fake parents were saints and taught him the difference between right and wrong. The boy’s favorite moments were being visited by his Uncle Cluster, actually Fantomex in a poor disguise. He wanted to give the boy the best, most Superman-like, upbringing he could. He wanted to know if the child he killed could have been good or if he would have been destined to be a monster.
His Uncle Cluster came to the boy one day. The X-Man Archangel had become corrupted, thought himself the heir of Apocalypse, and needed to be taken down. Cluster told the boy, it was time to be a hero. Evan dawned the Celestial power armor and flew to meet his foe. If Archangel saw himself as an apocalyptic revelation, Evan would be Genesis. He battled hard and brave, distracting Archangel enough for Psylocke to deal the finishing blow.
Evan could tell that Fantomex was proud of him. The faux-Frenchman knew that the best place for Evan wasn’t with assassins, it was at a school for heroes. Evan was enrolled in the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning but he wasn’t thrilled. The students looked at him funny, he heard what they said about him, how they feared this reborn Apocalypse and what he might become. But the Kid Apocalypse moved past that, becoming good friends with Oyo and Broo. School felt normal, and that is what he most needed.
Normal wasn’t to last when Evan was captured by Daken’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. In a sick play at revenge against Wolverine, they wanted to corrupt Evan in horrible ways. The Shadow King made him believe that Sabretooth viciously murdered his family before revealing that everything about his past was a lie from Uncle Cluster. Bitter and disillusioned, Evan almost became the apocalyptic figure they feared he might one day be, but Deadpool stopped him. ‘Pool still felt guilty about the death of the Apocalypse child, he saw Evan as his penance. They stopped the Brotherhood and Evan grew close to Deadpool. He saw Deadpool as a hero and Deadpool saw Evan as a symbol of hope. He would frequently visit the child at the school, leaving behind stashes of pornography whenever he left.
Evan spent time at the school but was captured alongside Quentin Quire by Red Skull and his S-Men. He was caught in the Inversion Spell and turned into his moral opposite, Apocalypse. He quickly took control of the X-Men and they seized Manhattan for mutant kind, planting a genetic bomb that would destroy all humans. Deadpool tried to help the child see reason but lost his head for the effort. Eventually, everyone got uninverted and decided it would be best to never mention it again.
Time passed and Evan joined the time-displaced original X-Men on a road trip across the world. Beast was especially eager to find a way back to his home timeline and accidentally transported Evan and himself back to ancient Egypt. Hank was captured but Evan was saved by a boy who looked just like him, a young En Sabah Nur. This boy wasn’t like the Apocalypse Evan had always known about. He was kind, just, a good friend. Evan wanted to find any possible way to stop this boy from becoming Apocalypse, especially when he volunteered to rescue Beast. The mission went poorly. Though Beast was rescued and spirited himself and Evan to the present, En Sabah Nur faired much worse. His father Baal saw softness in the boy and swore to beak that, to mold him into an apocalyptic vision of strength. Evan stayed with the X-Men and continues to hope against all hope that he can be something more than Apocalypse.
Must Read
Evan Sabahnur is in a bunch of good comics, but often as a supporting character. That gets inverted in Rick Remender’s last arc of Uncanny X-Force. Evan is forced to make a choice, probably the first hard choice in his life, to be a hero or embrace his destiny. Take everything away from this arc and it is just one of the most bad ass X-Stories out there. So dive in!
Also listen to the nerdcore rapper Kid Apocalypse who literally raps as Evan and it is delightful.
Ranking
Let’s get into the nitty-gritty. Kid Apocalypse is a good character but I don’t think he is a fabulous one. The initial pitch of him trying not to be Apocalypse is good, but it is played out by now. There isn’t much organic growth left in the character. Every story about him suffers from diminishing returns. He isn’t as good as Apocalypse and I would rather read another story about his friend Oya. He has more depth than Lila Cheney but someone like Rictor has a ton more potential. From a pure X-Universe standpoint, I think he is better than Quicksilver which slides him in as the new number 63 in the Xavier Files.
Kid Apocalypse was requested by Patreon supporter Robert Sherron. Thank you for your support! If you have a request for how about you send it below? If you want to cut to the front of the two-year long line, we have a Patreon you can support Xavier Files for just $1 to get a line cutting reward.
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Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
