Heir Of Apocalypse #4 - And the winner is...

[icon_uk]

This issue closes the miniseries, and looks over the motivation for the four final candidates.

Cable, Forge, Mirage and Cypher



Write: Steve Foxe
Artist: Netho Diaz

Cable was chosen because Apocalypse knows he will ALWAYS resist him, and that's not always a bad thing. Cable wanted it because that level of power would ensure his future never happens. This is hardly news though.

Forge was chosen because he could bring so much to the world, he has a vision of the fully environmentally sustainable super-habitats he was going to launch at the final Hellfire Gala until it went to literal hell. But the fact he also created the mutant neutraliser, which makes him doubt he deserves MORE power.

Dani is an interesting case, Big A see's potential in her that she's never tapped into. She's always been happy to NOT join the X-Men even though trainees from teams after the New Mutants have. She counters that fostering the next generations of mutants is not a failure, and her reason for taking him up on his invitation is also entirely pragmatic, and very Dani.



And that leaves Cypher...

Apocalypse had noticed that Doug builds and maintains trust, but is not above disobedience if he feels it is the right thing to do, and even defied the Quiet Council when he through they were wrong, no matter the power imbalance. And that might be useful...



Doug is pissed off that Krakoa failed (That's the illusion he's seeing). He'd lived there longer than anyone else and resents losing what it represented at a very basic level.

And so... soon...





Oh dear God, he's been 90's-fied! (And I can imagine Doug risking his humanity, but sacrificing his hair?? That's an offence against Nature!)



I have… feelings about this as an idea as you might imagine, and regrettably few of them are especially positive, but in an effort to hold on to optimism at some level, I shall wait and see where this goes.

I mean, I like the reasons Apocaypse chose Forge, Dani and Doug as possible heirs: those with not the greatest power levels, but a new way of looking at things which might proves useful.

The final narrative decision to take a mutant whose whole point was how lowe powers and even baseline human they were and amping them up into… Revelation… It’s going to take a lot of very good writing to make me invested in this. I hope there is plenty of that at least.

I might have expected this to be the end of part four of a five part story, and Doug turns it down in the finale because that’s not how he operates, but, well, this is the end of the series.

Oh well, let’s see what comes next.
 

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

They should bring back Evan and have him have a long talk with Revelation about being A's heir. And why it's better to just say no.

[dan_ingram]

Ugh, I hate that they killed off Evan and still haven't brought him back :(

[scorntx]

He got to sit out Krakoa, though.
(Lucky bastard.)

[thanekos]

I can't believe they took the opportunity to give the guy with communication powers the name " Revelation ".

[icon_uk]

It was either that or "Babel", at a guess.

Or, thinking about it, "CodeX, to maintain his X-Men link, or "Amen", which is the last word in a prayer

[digicom]

Oh, this was the only name they COULD give the heir to Apocalypse.

After all, that's what the Greek word ἀποκάλυψις MEANS.

[remial]

well, Big A said at the beginning of the Krakoa era that Revelation was another way of translating Apocalypse.

[giraffesforever]

Oof, the costume!

Raising Doug's importance level is nice, but this seems like it runs counter to his narrative allure. Does he have assorted Celestial powers now? Super strong, blasters, all that? Maybe communication powers get upped to persuasion powers? And he's an antagonist? Sounds like a new character who happens to use the name Doug Ramsey. Might be interesting with good storytelling, but I'm skeptical.

And what is Apocalypse gonna do now? We've got his wife taking the role of Apocalypse Classic and now we've got New Apocalypse, so what's left for A? Diet Apocalypse? Cherry Apocalypse?

[obsidianwolf]

Classic Pocket Lips is probably going to head off to Mars I mean Arakko until marvel editorial decides to do something to I mean with it.

Then he'll probably come back to reclaim his normal role in the narrative.

[knight_moves]

He randomly joins the Spider-Family and becomes Spider-Apocalypse.

[beyondthefringe]

My immediate reaction: "Well, this is some bullshit. What did they DO to poor Doug?" At least he has his wife and bestie with him to hopefully keep him from going too nuts with the new power and identity. I hope. I really don't want Doug to be ruined by this. I really really hope there's an actual plan to use him in this role going forward, and not something to be interpreted at will by later writers who might play him as Apocalypse Lite.

I fear this is yet another case of "communication powers lol so boring can't zap people" where they fuck up Doug because writers just aren't able to find a good use for him. (*cough Weezie cough*)

[justsotired]

The story had some interesting pieces - I liked Dani's conversation with Apocalypse where she tells him he and the other Externals are terrible and outmoded and holding mutantkind back and he... agrees with her.

There's also the bit with Laura where she specifically says she was sent by Logan to keep someone untrustworthy from winning Apocalypse's competition, and Emma's comment about trusting both Dani and Doug.

But overall unless the Ewings get their hands on this I don't think it's going to work.

Or maybe I just want Al Ewing to write Beto and Doug playing Xanatos speed chess with each other.

[blueprintstyles]

I do think Doug is a good choice if they want to keep Apocolypse in this hero/anti-hero role, which I'm glad for. I do hope Revealation's form can revert to Doug because this is a bit much 24/7

[mastermahan]

Oh good lord no.

I *potentially* like the idea of Doug as a Social Build anti-hero. Doug's abilities to read people and understanding of communication means he can be very silver-tongued. Any roleplayer will tell you Diplomancers can be effective.

But MY GOD that character design. It's ugly, goofy, and lacks any recognizable elements that indicate that this is Doug Ramsey. He's just Little Gold Apocalypse. Compare that to Douglock, who kept Doug's hair and twinky build.

[icon_uk]

Thank you, yes! The design is a deal killer for me more than anything.

Where's our Celestial pretty boy? Taking some of the aesthetic, and making it his own twinkified version would seem to be much more his style, as you say, using Douglock as a previous example of even Warlock letting the Ramsey dominant hair genes override his own.

[angelophile]

I imagine this will last about as long as Chamber's Apocalypse Jr. makeover did.