| Holocaust | |
|---|---|
Panel from Astonishing X-Men #4 (Age of Apocalypse) Art by Joe Madureira |
|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Men Alpha (February 1995) |
| Created by | Scott Lobdell Roger Cruz |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | William Rolfson |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations | Horsemen of Apocalypse Dark Descendants Exiles |
| Abilities | Superhuman strength and durability Energy blasts Life-force absorption |
Holocaust is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in X-Men Alpha (February 1995) and was created by Scott Lobdell and Roger Cruz, however a character with the same name and similar appearance (without armor) was featured in "Stryfe's Strike Files" (January 1993) two years before "X-men Alpha" was released. The info on Holocaust in "Stryfe's Strike Files" would seem to support that both versions of the character are one in the same.
Contents |
Holocaust, originally known as Nemesis,[1] is the purported son of Apocalypse and also served as one of his Four Horsemen in the Age of Apocalypse timeline. His first assignment from his alleged father was to spy on the X-Men and attack them when the chance arose. Nemesis waited in a nearby mountain range in hiding until most of the mutant team had left. He then attacked the base, which was only guarded by the Scarlet Witch and a small group of young mutants. Nemesis killed most of the students early on in the fight, but then was engaged by Scarlet Witch. Even with her probability manipulation, Wanda found it difficult to harm Nemesis. Nemesis then killed Scarlet Witch.
During Apocalypse's blitzkrieg launched against Europe and Asia, Nemesis joined Apocalypse in Japan. The Horseman slaughtered thousands of humans in Apocalypse's name and captured Sunfire, but before they could kill him, Sunfire unleashed a nuclear level plasma blast. Nemesis absorbed the blast, saving himself and Apocalypse.[2]
When Apocalypse returned home to recuperate, Nemesis, now charged with Sunfire's energies, was left to take care of Japan. A small squad of X-Men attacked him. Using Sunfire's energy, Nemesis was about to murder Quicksilver when Magneto, still enraged by the death of the students and his own daughter at the hands of Nemesis, used his powers to strip away most of Nemesis' flesh. The X-Men then retreated, many of them injured, and left Nemesis for dead.
The burnt corpse of Nemesis was however still alive and he was eventually recovered by Apocalypse. Nemesis awoke in the labs of the Beast and his spiritual essence was fitted with a near indestructible crystalline exo-armor that would not only channel his energy but also contain him and keep him from dissipating. This was the birth of Holocaust and he would eventually become a Horseman again.
When culling the state of California, Holocaust was annoyed to find that his hound Sabretooth was finally fed up with murdering innocent women and children and instead began hiding some children from the cullings. He announced Sabretooth’s betrayal to his Infinites and ordered them to take him away to prison. The Infinites wondered aloud why Holocaust would let Sabretooth live. None of them could figure it out, but Sabretooth knew. Holocaust knew Sabretooth was not afraid to die. He also knew that Sabretooth’s only fear is that of the uncontrollable beast inside him. Instead of letting him die, he wanted Sabretooth to become the feral monster he had the potential to be.[3]
Later, hoping to get his revenge against Magneto for forcing him to live out the rest of his years in a specially made suit of armor, Holocaust sent his hound Wolverine to eliminate the one closest to Magneto. However, Wolverine would fail in his mission.[4]
In recent times, Holocaust would be a mainstay of Apocalypse's Horsemen, he would clash with Blastaar and his Baluurians, invaders from the Negative Zone who sought to take over the Earth, Holocaust would manage to fight them into fleeing.[5] With the signing of the Kelly Pact, Apocalypse was to cease his ghastly experiments and genetic cullings, however Apocalypse would have no desire to do so. Later when his fellow Horseman Sinister defected, Apocalypse and Holocaust failed their attempt to search for him.[6]
Holocaust would later be dispatched to Chicago to initiate a culling of the humans that were living there. Learning about this, the X-Men would send a squad to stop him.[7] Sabretooth, now an X-Man would seek to defeat Holocaust on his own and have his teammate Blink teleport him and Wild Child closer to the site of the culling. In a one-on-one battle, Sabretooth would smash Holocaust's armor, however he would fail to stop him, but not before his comrade Wild Child could escape to tell the other X-Men where Holocaust was located.[8] Holocaust would savagely maim Sabretooth, and leave him for dead before resuming his operations.[9] Coming across Sabretooth's seemingly dead body, Blink would go after Holocaust alone and the overconfident Horseman was taken by surprise and nearly killed by the young X-Man who hold her own until the other X-Men arrived to help her out. Rogue nearly defeated Holocaust but he teleported himself to Apocalypse’s stronghold just in time, but not before telling Rogue that Apocalypse had captured her husband Magneto.[10]
During the final battle in the Age of Apocalypse, Holocaust attempted to slay Magneto but would be stopped when Nate Grey intervened. Holocaust battled Nate Grey which ended with Holocaust being stabbed with a shard of the M'Kraan Crystal. This caused an unexpected result as both vanish without a trace.[11]
By using the M’Kraan Crystal fragment as a dagger that he plunged into Holocaust’s chest, Nate somehow transported both of them to the present of the regular marvel Universe. Holocaust materialized in Earth’s orbit, his containment suit shattered, and his body encased in a block of ice. He was found by the Acolytes, and Exodus ordered him brought aboard Avalon.[12] Inside Avalon Holocaust was able to drain the life energy of a few Acolytes to regain some of his strength. He escaped his containment chamber and began to battle Exodus, whom he remembered as an X-Man from his timeline. Their battle destroyed the station, and they crashed to Earth, where Holocaust drained more human lives to prevent his essence from dissipating.[13]
Holocaust was eventually found by Sebastian Shaw. Shaw and Holocaust formed a short-lived and uneasy alliance, with Shaw providing Holocaust with a new containment suit. Holocaust then helped Shaw capture and brainwash X-Force, but after that plan failed their partnership dissolved.[14]
Holocaust then found the psionic being Onslaught and embraced the being as a chance to get back at Nate Grey. Holocaust became an agent of Onslaught's Dark Descendants willingly. Holocaust's first assignment under Onslaught was, to Holocaust's satisfaction, to attack Nate Grey.[15] Holocaust was barely defeated, and was forced to retreat.[16] Onslaught later revealed to Holocaust that he had sent him merely to test the mettle of the X-Man.[17]
When Onslaught finally launched his massive assault on the city of Manhattan, Holocaust would be dispatched to cause chaos in the streets along with fellow Dark Descedant's minion Post. He would clash with the Avengers who would trick the two into knocking each other out with their powers.[18]
During the incident when he, Dark Beast, Sugar Man and Nate, all refugees from the Age of Apocalypse, were captured by the Shi'ar, who viewed the fact that Holocaust still had part of the M'Kraan Crystal inside him as the highest heresy, Holocaust appears to have renamed himself Nemesis, mostly due to Dark Beast's refusal to call him anything else.[19] He then found out that his new containment suit has a shape-shifting capability, which can be used if enough bio-energy is absorbed. Nemesis used this ability to make himself look like Nate Grey, killing more and more people until the two adversaries finally clashed. Nemesis was defeated and so much of his energy was drained that he was searching out Dark Beast, who created his first suit, for assistance.[20]
Suddenly, he became unstuck in time, and (again calling himself Holocaust), he returned to his birth reality, where he was told to join the Exiles.[21] Angered at the Timebroker's interference, and learning that Apocalypse had died, this fact was so tempting to Holocaust that he forgot about his time issue and went forth to claim the throne. He would have done so, too, had he not stumbled upon the even more tempting power of the M'Kraan Crystal once again. He tracked down the M'Kraan Crystal and took control of the army base housing it.[22] Believing that the Exiles' resourcefulness in time traveling would aid him in get away from the Timebroker's influence, he convinced the Exiles to help him sync the Tallus to the Crystal and attack the Timebroker directly.[23] Unfortunately for him as they reach the Panoptichron, the base of the Timebroker, they find instead the Weapon X member, Hyperion ruling as an emperor there and controlling the M'Kraan Crystal. Holocaust, enraged at Hyperion's possession of what he believed was rightfully his by blood, attacked the emperor, but to no success. Hyperion cracked his exoskeleton open and absorbed Holocaust's bio-energy into himself by literally inhaling the villain, effectively killing Holocaust.[24]
Holocaust originally possessed physical invulnerability and the power to generate highly destructive bio-nuclear microwave energy blasts, which he can use to fly. Upon his later evolution into an energy being, he could also drain the life-force from others to charge his bio-phasing and shape-shifting crystalline-based life-support exo-armor, which also granted him superhuman levels of physical power.
Holocaust's Earth-616 version has finally made his presence known in the main reality as Genocide, the son of Apocalypse and Autumn Rolfson. Afraid that Apocalype would see the child as a threat to himself and that he would kill him, Autumn kept his existence hidden apparently with the help of the Clan Akkaba and Dark Beast.
Warren Worthington III, who had succumbed to the darkness within him and was now becoming the new Apocalypse arrives to the location where Autumm and Genocide were hidden and they both join Archangel's quest. They traveled to Cavern X where they face Warren's former teammates and half of Wolverine's body ended being incinerated by Genocide. Later, under Archangel's orders, he wiped out a small town in Northern Montana.[25]