One of the most powerful villains the X-Men have ever had to face, Apocalypse, has had multiple children throughout Marvel’s multiverse, but one of his sons completely turned against him and joined the X-Men, just like his mother. Armageddon is Apocalypse’s son from Earth-2182 who joined the multiversal team known as the Exiles after rejecting Apocalypse’s evil ways. Even though Armageddon is the spitting image of his father, he was just as equally inclined to being a superhero than a supervillain given that his mother is none other than Jean Grey.
In Exiles #41 by Jim Calafiore, the multiversal X-Men team is battling Apocalypse as the villain tries to—once again—take over the world. In the issue, fans see Apocalypse going toe-to-toe with his equally (if not more) powerful son, Armageddon. During the battle, Armageddon is able to keep Apocalypse at bay while the Exiles free the Phoenix from her containment as she is the only one who can stop Apocalypse once and for all. Before he is vanquished, Apocalypse makes his escape and the Exiles fall back to their headquarters to plan their next steps. Once there, Armageddon questions his place on the team and has doubts about betraying his father the way he did. Armageddon is reassured by Nightcrawler that he is a valued member of the team and that the X-Men can be his new home away from the abusive villainy of his father.
Armageddon looks very similar to Apocalypse with a few key differences in appearance, including a gold coloring rather than blue and a blond mohawk as opposed to Apocalypse’s bald head. As far as his powers go, Armageddon has all of the powers of both Apocalypse and Jean Grey, making him one of the most powerful X-Men members the team has ever worked with. The details of Armageddon’s birth are unconventional, as in Apocalypse and Jean Grey didn’t conceive him by normal means. Instead, Apocalypse artificially created Armageddon using his and Jean’s DNA in an effort to make the ultimate weapon that he could control. Unfortunately for the X-Men villain, Armageddon rejected his purpose and took after his mother, joining the X-Men and becoming Apocalypse’s worst nightmare.
Armageddon is just one of Apocalypse’s sons across the multiverse and the only one who became a hero. Apocalypse’s most loyal son was Holocaust of the Age of Apocalypse timeline. Holocaust was not only Apocalypse’s son, but one of his Horsemen as well, ruling a faction of the conquered North America under his father’s name. Another son of Apocalypse was an adopted one who was thrown away by the villain once it was revealed that he was actually a clone of Apocalypse’s intended ideal son. Stryfe, the clone of Cable, was raised by Apocalypse after the villain infected the original with the techno-organic virus upon his birth as a test of his survival strength. When Apocalypse thought the baby successfully fought off the virus, he stole the non-infected clone and raised him as his own. However, Apocalypse abandoned Stryfe when he realized he wasn’t the original who fought off the virus but a clone who had never been infected in the first place, a rejection that shaped Stryfe into the villain he became.
Out of all of Apocalypse’s sons, Armageddon is perhaps the strongest of the bunch as he has all of the powers of both Apocalypse and Jean Grey. Apocalypse alone is one of the most powerful villains in X-Men history, so the added abilities offered by Jean Grey makes Armageddon a true force to be reckoned with. The incredibly powerful son of Apocalypse, Armageddon, rejected his father’s villainous ideals and became an X-Men hero, just like his mother Jean Grey.