The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are mentioned in the Book of Revelations of the Christian Bible as the forces of man's destruction. In the text only one of the apocalyptic riders, Death, is specifically named. In most common interpretations of the theme, the identities of the other three Horsemen are War, Famine and alternatively either Conquest or Pestilence.
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #10 [mentioned] #15 [whole team]
Membership: Plague, Abraham Lincoln Kieros, Autumn Rolfson, Angel / Archangel, Caliban, Hulk, Wolverine, Deathbird, Rory Campbell/ Ahab, Polaris, Gazer, Sunfire, Gambit, Decimus Furius, Ichisumi, Jeb Lee, Sanjar Javeed, Psylocke, Daken, Grim Reaper, Banshee, Sentry
Working for: Apocalypse > Archangel > Apocalypse Twins
Members
Pestilence III (Plague)
First appearance: Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #169
First Horsemen appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #10
Last appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #25 [fell off her flying horse and died]
All Horsemen appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #10, 15, 17, 19, 21-25
Powers: Produces lethal diseases within her body and transmits the bio-agents through her hands to make others feel sick, delirious, and eventually die.
War II (Abraham Lincoln Kieros)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #11
All Horsemen appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #11, 15, 17, 19, 21-27, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #294, X-Factor (1st series) #84, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #295
Powers: Amplify the resonance of kinetic energy created when he claps his hands and can displace it to cause explosions anywhere within his line-of-sight. As War, he wore body armor that refracted Cyclops's optic blasts.
Famine II (Autumn Rolfson)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #12
Last Appearance: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #15 (sliced in half by Archangel’s wings)
All Horsemen appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #12, 15, 17, 19, 21-25, Captain America (1st series) #339, X-Factor (1st series) #26-27, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #294, X-Factor (1st series) #84, X-Force (1st series) #16, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #295
Powers: Creates an emaciation effect that disintegrates organic molecules, ages and withers vegetable matter, and initiate a “starvation blight” within living beings. They become famished and dangerously thin, but eating again can quickly reboot their metabolism.
Death III (Warren Worthington III / Angel)
First appearance: X-Men (1st series) #1
First Horsemen appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #17
All Horsemen appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #17-19, 21-25
Powers: Aerodynamic physiology gives him peak human strength, speed, aerial agility, endurance, reflexes, eyesight, and hearing, a hollow bone structure, zero body fat, and bio-metallic wings which were razor sharp, could retract into his back, and fired wing fletchettes filled with a paralyzing neuro-toxin.
Facts: During his second period as Death / Archangel, Warren shift between feathered and bio-mechanical wings at will.
Death IV / Pestilence IV (Caliban)
First appearance: Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #148
First Horsemen appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #24
Last appearance: New X-Men (2nd series) #45
All Horsemen appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #24-28, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #294, X-Factor (1st series) #84, X-Force (1st series) #16, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #295, Cable (1st series) #73-75, X-Man #59-60, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #377, X-Men (2nd series) #97
Powers: Sensitive to the presence of the x-factor in human genes, allowing him to detect mutants in his area and recognize specific mutagenic signatures. He can also absorb fear and other negative emotions, using them to increase his strength or amplify the emotion and rechannel it back into his victims. After being enhanced by Apocalypse, he gained permanently superhuman strength, speed, endurance, invulnerability, and claws. As Pestilence, his fear-casting power mutated into converting negative emotional energy into a psychoactive virus, causing physical and mental deterioration in his opponents while they relived their greatest fears or worst memories.
War III (Hulk)
First appearance: Incredible Hulk (1st series) #1
First appearance of post-Onslaught Banner-less Hulk: Onslaught: Marvel Universe
First Horsemen appearance: Incredible Hulk (2nd series) #456
All Horsemen appearances: Incredible Hulk (2nd series) #456-457
Powers: Infused with gamma radiation turning him into a super-powered behemoth, giving him immeasurable strength that increased even further with his rage, superhuman endurance, invulnerability, vast recuperative powers, an innate tracking sense and the ability to perceive astral forms.
Facts:
- Apocalypse was still stronger than the Hulk.
- At the time he became a Horseman, the Hulk was separated from Bruce Banner. Banner was living in Franklin Richards's Heroes Reborn universe.
Death V (Wolverine / Logan)
First appearance: Incredible Hulk (2nd series) #180
First Horsemen appearance: Astonishing X-Men (2nd series) #1
All Horsemen appearances: Wolverine (2nd series) #145, Astonishing X-Men (2nd series) #1-3, Hulk (3rd series) #8, X-Men (2nd series) #95, Wolverine (2nd series) #145, Cable (1st series) #75, X-Men (2nd series) #96, Wolverine (2nd series) #146
Powers: Accelerated cellular regeneration augments his strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes, expands his perceptions to give him animal-like senses, and grants him a healing factor that repairs his body at an advanced degree. He also has retractable claws made of dense bone that extend from his forearm, and his skeleton and claws are surgically bonded with Adamantium metal.
Equipment: As Death, his armor resisted most, if not all attacks. Also carried a sword which fired concussive blasts or shock pulses. Death's armor also contained a cloaking device (both personal and psychic shielding) and a teleporter.
Facts:
- Wolverine's Adamantium was forcibly removed from him by Magneto, almost killing him. When Genesis attempted to give him new Adamantium, he rejected it, temporarily losing his sanity and his nose in the process.
- While the X-Men were returning from the Skrull Throneworld, Wolverine was abducted by a group of Skrulls working for Apocalypse, who forced him to battle an Adamantium-enhanced Sabretooth, with the winner becoming the new Death. Wolverine realized that Sabretooth would enjoy this role, and would have less chance of ever breaking free from it, so defeated him and allowed himself to become Death. Apocalypse took Sabretooth's Adamantium and used it to restore Wolverine to his old self.
War IV (Deathbird / Cal’Syee Neramani)
First appearance: Ms. Marvel (1st series) #9
First Horsemen appearance: Cable (1st series) #74
All Horsemen appearances: Cable (1st series) #74, X-Men (2nd series) #96, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #377, X-Men (2nd series) #97
Powers: Genetic throwback of the Shi'ar race, possessing augmented strength, speed, endurance and reflexes, bird-like sensory perceptions, and avian wings equipped with spurred feathers.
Equipment: Deathbird has used a variety of weapons, including various gimmicked javelins, and more conventional energy pistols. As War, she possesses wrist-energy blasters.
Facts:
- Deathbird is the sister of Lilandra, ruler of the Shi'ar, and has made many attempts to steal the throne from her.
- Deathbird seemed to have fallen in love with Bishop, only to sell him out and join up with Apocalypse. What she got out of their alliance is as yet unknown.
Famine III (Ahab / Rory Campbell)
First appearance as Rory Campbell: Excalibur (1st series) #73
First Horsemen appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #96
All Horsemen appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #96-97
Powers: Emaciation force dampens any source of energy upon contact, dispersing energy attacks directed at him and leeching off the bio-energy of living beings, severely weakening them and their powers.
Equipment: Famine's staff either generates his energy blasts, or channels them.
Facts:
- Rory Campbell was once Moira MacTaggert's assistant on Muir Island.
- Campbell lost half of one leg to a security device designed to respond to violent action, after exposure to the pheromones of the Acolyte Spoor.
- Campbell traded all his knowledge on the Legacy Virus to Sebastian Shaw, in exchange for a cybernetic leg.
- The Ahab of the future was the master of the Hounds from the Days of Future Past, and was given the task of preventing alterations to the time-line.
- The future Ahab also has time-travel equipment and machinery he uses to transform mutants into his brainwashed Hounds.
- The identity of Famine was left unresolved. He could have been an altered version of the present day Rory Campbell, the future Ahab, or another version altogether.
Pestilence V (Polaris / Lorna Dane)
First appearance: X-Men (1st series) #49
First Horsemen appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #181
All Horsemen appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #181-187
Powers: Conducts magnetic energy to manipulate ferrous material, produce energy bolts, force fields, perceive her environment as magnetic energy fields, and flight. As Pestilence, Lorna had the power to assimilate hazardous materials such as poisons, disease, viruses, and bacteria into her cells, cultivate these pathogens, and release them as a meta-plague to assail her victims at will.
Facts:
- Polaris's powers were Decimated on M-Day. Apocalypse used Celestial nano-technology to artificially simulate her old powers at first, as seen in X-Men (2nd series) #187. Later, it was confirmed that the nanotech recreated her natural X-gene over time in X-Men Legacy #259.
Famine IV (Sunfire / Shiro Yoshida)
First appearance: X-Men (1st series) #64
First Horsemen appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #182
All Horsemen appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #182-187
Powers: Ionization effect transforms matter into plasmetic solar fire, absorb solar energy and electromagnetic radiation in augment his powers, generate radiation shielding psi-field, sense objects through heat signatures, flight. As Famine, Shiro could project light-flashes which induced feelings of starvation. Apocalypse also gave him bio-oxygen storage abilities, allowing Sunfire to generate flame and survive unaided in the vacuum of space.
War V (Gazer)
First appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #169
First Horsemen appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #182
Last appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #186 [killed by Ozymandias]
All Horsemen appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #182-186
Powers: Bio-engineered with superhuman strength, endurance, leaping ability, reflexes, and resistance to physical injury, carries battle mace which fires explosive beams. Before being depowered, Gazer could harmlessly process and expel radiation through his body.
Death VI (Gambit / Remy LeBeau)
First appearance: Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #266
First Horsemen appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #183
All Horsemen appearances: X-Men (2nd series) #183-187
Powers: Convert an object's stored potential energy into explosive kinetic energy upon contact; hypnotic charm causes others to unnaturally trust whatever he says; As Death, Gambit could produce a transmutator effect to change air into a noxious and lethal gas, or charge his cards with an organic disintegrating effect.
Facts:
- Gambit was supposedly cured of his Death personality by Mister Sinister before X-Men (2nd series) #200.
- Death resurfaced as a second personality inside Gambit in X-Men Legacy Annual #1, and several times after, before eventually disappearing without further explanation. This may have been Remy's Deathseed transformation reacting to the death of Apocalypse, prepping him to become the new Celestial gatherer. It ended when Archangel's Deathseed fully catalyzed and he became the new Apocalypse.
War VI (Decimus Furius)
First appearance: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #1
Last appearance: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #7 (killed by the Apocalypse Twins)
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #1-3, 13-14, 16, 18, Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #5, 7.
Powers: Mutant physiology remade him into a minotaur of living stone supercharged by the psychoempathic energy of his "warsong", giving him colossal size, strength, and durability, and an infectious aggression that can be passed to others through his axe and shields his mind from psychic assault while infecting telepaths who try; becomes physically and psychically vulnerable when his violent thoughts subside
Notes: Decimus hails from ancient Rome and was recruited by Apocalypse in 281 A.D.
Pestilence VI (Ichisumi)
First appearance: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #2
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) 2-4, 13-18, Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #5, 7.
Powers: Symbiotically hosts a swarm of deathwatch beetles that can be expelled from her mouth, devour the flesh of living things, and return that sustenance to her, along with a psychometric recall of what they experienced
Notes: Ichisumi was a Geisha who was recruited in Kumamoto, Japan in 1833. She became mother to the Apocalypse Twins.
Famine V (Jeb Lee)
First appearance: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #1
Last appearance: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #7 (killed by the Apocalypse Twins)
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) 1-4, 13-16, 18, Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #5, 7
Powers: Generates bio-auditory cancer, a flesh-dissolving effect conducted through the air by rythymic sound waves
Notes: Jeb was recruited at Gettysburg in 1863. He was a Confederate spy who disguised himself as a Union drummer to go behind enemy lines. His family was killed by the local townsfolk when they assumed he was a traitor because of his clothes. His hands were sliced off by Wolverine and were replaced with robotic replicas.
Death VII (Sanjar Javeed)
First appearance: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #2
Last appearance: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #15 (killed by Deathlok)
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) 2-4, 13-15
Powers: Psychosomatic ailment aura simulates the effects of various deadly diseases and pathogens by conducting them through different metals
Notes: The bastard son of a Persian king, Sanjar was recruited in 325 A.D. after killing his father.
Death VIII (Psylocke / Elizabeth Braddock)
First appearance: Captain Britain #8
First Horsemen appearance: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #16
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #16-17
Powers: Telepathic and telekinetic abilities, often expressed through a psychic knife or katana that serves as the focused totality of her powers
Notes: Jean Grey, from the Age of Apocalypse reality, entered Psylocke’s mind and used her immense telepathic and telekinetic powers to purge the Death persona from Psylocke.
Daken (Akihiro)
First appearance: Wolverine: Origins #4 (in shadow), Wolverine Origins #10 (full)
First Horsemen appearance: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #9
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #9-11, 13-15, 19-22
Powers: Accelerated cellular regeneration augments his strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes, expands his perceptions to give him animal-like senses, and grants him a healing factor that repairs his body at an advanced degree. He also has retractable claws made of dense bone that extend from his forearm, and pheromones that produce a mood-altering effect on his opponents. As a Horseman, demonstrated an affinity for controlling certain animal life and bio-energetic claws that poisoned living tissue on contact.
Notes: Daken was killed by his father, Wolverine, and then resurrected to become one of the Four Horsemen of Death.
Banshee (Sean Cassidy)
First appearance: X-Men (1st series) #28
First Horsemen appearance: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #9
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #9-10, 12-13, 19-20
Powers: Superhuman lungs and vocal chords combined with psionic control over his vocal sound waves let him produce a "sonic scream", causing deafness, vertigo, trances, or unconsciousness in others, emit sonar waves for mapping his surroundings, scramble electronic systems, project sonic concussions, and thrust for flight. As a Horseman, was encased in Celestial armor that made him virtually invulnerable.
Notes: Banshee was killed by Vulcan in X-Men: Deadly Genesis #2.
Grim Reaper (Eric Williams)
First appearance: Avengers (1st series) #52
First Horsemen appearance: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #9
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #9-17, 21-22
Powers: Motorized scythe can project concussive plasma bolts, electrical shocks, a coma-inducing ray, and spin like a buzzsaw as a shield or cutting instrument. As a Horseman, he received considerable physical enhancement.
Notes: Killed by Rogue in Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #5.
Sentry (Robert Reynolds)
First appearance: Sentry #1
First Horsemen appearance: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #9
All Horsemen appearances: Uncanny Avengers (1st series) #9-11, 13, 15, 21-22
Powers: Experimental serum placed his molecular structure out of phase-shift with conventional reality, allowing him to draw upon a nigh-infinite amount of energy for molecular control powers, governed largely by his subconsciousness, and manifested as superhuman strength, speed, endurance, senses, invulnerability and regeneration, flight, and feats of energy projection and molecular reconstruction
Notes: Sentry was killed by Thor in Siege #4.