Uncanny X-Force
, particularly “The Dark Angel Saga,” which details Archangel's ascension and the twins' conception. Reading that series provides crucial context for their motivations and origin.
The Apocalypse Twins, Uriel and Eimin, were created by writer Rick Remender and artist John Cassaday. They first appeared, albeit as infants, in a flashback sequence in Uncanny X-Force
#18 (December 2011) during the critically acclaimed “Dark Angel Saga.” Their full, adult debut as primary antagonists occurred later in Uncanny Avengers
#5 (March 2013), a flagship title of the Marvel NOW! relaunch initiative.
Their creation was the culmination of Remender's long-form storytelling that began in Uncanny X-Force
. The Marvel NOW! era sought to shake up the status quo following the events of Avengers vs. X-Men
, and the Uncanny Avengers
series was formed to bridge the gap between the two teams. The Twins were conceived as villains formidable enough to challenge this new “Unity Squad,” embodying the darkest legacies of both Apocalypse's mutant supremacy and Kang's temporal warfare, making them a perfect thematic threat for a team dedicated to human-mutant cooperation.
The origin of Uriel and Eimin is a tragedy forged by manipulation and war across time. They were conceived during the “Dark Angel Saga,” a period when the X-Man Warren Worthington III had fully succumbed to the dark influence of the Celestial Death Seed and become the heir to Apocalypse. In this state, he took Ichisumi, a member of Clan Akkaba and his Final Horseman of Pestilence, as his consort. Their union produced twins, a boy and a girl. However, their birth was immediately beset by conflict. The covert team X-Force, led by Wolverine, was desperately trying to stop Archangel from scouring all life from Earth. During the final battle, Ichisumi was seemingly killed, and the newborn twins were discovered by the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror. Seeing their immense potential as both descendants of Apocalypse and possessors of Archangel's Celestial-mutated genetics, Kang abducted the infants and vanished into the timestream. Kang's motives were, as always, complex and self-serving. He took the twins to a bleak, alternate future, specifically Akkaba Metropolis in the year 4145, a concentration camp where mutants were brutally oppressed. He raised them under the harshest conditions, feeding them a twisted narrative: that he was their savior, “Rama-Tut,” who had rescued them from the humans and mutants of the past who sought to kill them. He instilled in them a fanatical devotion to the “survival of the fittest” creed, teaching them that only the strong, like them, deserved to live and that they were destined to be the saviors of all mutantkind. Their pivotal moment came when Kang tasked them with a grim test: to acquire the ancient Asgardian axe, Jarnbjorn. The axe, once wielded by a young Thor, was enchanted to be capable of piercing Celestial armor. To prove their worthiness, Kang sent them to 6th Century Scandinavia to battle Thor himself. Though they failed to defeat the God of Thunder, their ferocity impressed Kang. He then orchestrated their journey to the hidden tomb of the Asgardian destroyer, the Executioner, where they faced another trial. Eimin, showing her ruthlessness, murdered the guardian of the tomb to claim the weapon for her brother. With Jarnbjorn in their possession, Kang revealed their true purpose. He armed them with Celestial technology and sent them on their ultimate mission: to return to the 21st century, assassinate a Celestial Gardener, and use its power to trigger a mandatory evolution or extinction event for Earth, ensuring the rise of mutants and, by extension, Kang's own preferred timeline. Manipulated from birth and armed with cosmic power, the Apocalypse Twins began their crusade against the world that, in their eyes, had abandoned them.
As of the current phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Apocalypse Twins, Uriel and Eimin, do not exist. Their storyline is deeply intertwined with characters and events that have either not been introduced or have been depicted very differently in the MCU. Specifically, their origin relies on:
While the MCU has introduced Apocalypse in the separate 20th Century Fox timeline (in X-Men: Apocalypse
) and Kang the Conqueror as the primary antagonist of the Multiverse Saga, there has been no connection established between them.
Speculative Adaptation: Should Marvel Studios choose to adapt the Apocalypse Twins, it would require significant changes. A potential route could involve a variant of Kang from the Council of Kangs discovering a timeline where Apocalypse had children. He could then “rescue” these children from an Incursion or other multiversal threat, raising them as his personal assassins to prune timelines he deems unworthy. Their powers, based on controlling time and cosmic energy, would fit perfectly within the themes of the Multiverse Saga. They could be introduced as formidable lieutenants to Kang, providing a physical and ideological threat to a future lineup of Avengers or the MCU's eventual X-Men.
Uriel and Eimin's powers are a unique and devastating fusion of mutant genetics inherited from Archangel and advanced temporal technology gifted to them by Kang the Conqueror. They were further empowered by the energies of a Celestial Death Seed.
The Twins' core philosophy is a corrupted version of Apocalypse's “survival of the fittest,” filtered through the lens of Kang's manipulation. They genuinely believe they are mutant saviors.
As the Apocalypse Twins do not exist in the MCU, their powers and abilities have not been depicted. If adapted, they would likely retain their core temporal abilities to align with Kang's role as a time-based villain. Speculative Adaptation:
The Twins operated with a messianic complex, viewing most others as tools rather than true allies. Their primary “allies” were resurrected and empowered by a Celestial Death Seed, making them loyal but corrupted servants.
The entirety of the Apocalypse Twins' existence is contained within one massive, multi-arc storyline in the pages of Uncanny Avengers
.
This epic storyline chronicles the Twins' arrival, their war against the Unity Squad, their victory, and their ultimate defeat via timeline manipulation.
Ragnarok Now
: The story begins with the shocking arrival of Uriel, wielding Jarnbjorn, and his successful assassination of a Celestial Gardener who had come to judge the Earth. This act immediately establishes the scale of the threat. The Twins then systematically assemble their Four Horsemen by resurrecting Daken, Grim Reaper, Sentry, and Banshee. They use these brainwashed figures to attack the Avengers, sowing chaos and striking personal blows, such as using Banshee to kidnap the Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man.Avenge the Earth
: The Twins' master plan is revealed. They manipulate the captive Scarlet Witch, preying on her guilt over depowering mutantkind, to convince her to cast a spell that will bring forth “the Rapture.” Believing she is saving them, Wanda begins the incantation. Simultaneously, the Twins use their Celestial technology and the power of the slain Gardener to create a massive ship, the “Tachyon Dam,” designed to pull the Earth into it and destroy it. The Unity Squad is fractured; Captain America's team tries to stop the Rapture spell, while Havok's team assaults the Twins' space station. Both teams fail. The Scarlet Witch's spell teleports every mutant on Earth to the Twins' ark, just as the Earth is shattered. The Apocalypse Twins win.Planet X
: The story flashes forward seven years to a new reality. Earth is gone, replaced by Planet X, a world ruled by Uriel and Eimin. Mutants live in a supposed utopia, while the last surviving humans are kept in prison camps led by a broken Havok. The remaining Avengers—Wasp, Thor, and others who were off-world—have been fighting a losing war for years. It's revealed that Kang the Conqueror foresaw this disastrous outcome and had created his own team of time-traveling Avengers (pulled from different points in the past and future) to undo it. The climax involves a massive battle on Planet X, where Kang's true motive is revealed: he wanted the Twins to destroy the Earth to absorb the cosmic power of the slain Celestial for himself. In the final moments, as Kang is about to claim his prize, Havok and Wasp manage to send their consciousnesses back in time to their past bodies, giving them the knowledge needed to prevent the Twins' victory from ever happening. The timeline is reset, and the dark future of Planet X is erased, though the heroes who lived through it retain the traumatic memories.Due to their limited publication history and time-travel-based story, the Apocalypse Twins have very few “variants” in the traditional sense. Their primary alternate versions are the future selves they become in the timeline they create.
Uncanny X-Force
, particularly “The Dark Angel Saga,” which details Archangel's ascension and the twins' conception. Reading that series provides crucial context for their motivations and origin.Thor: God of Thunder
series, which Remender cleverly integrated into his Uncanny Avengers
story.AXIS
event. The psychic trauma and residual energy from the ordeal, combined with Scarlet Witch's later actions, contribute to the moral “inversion” of heroes and villains that defines that crossover.