WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the Season 1 finale of Loki, “For All Time. Always.,” streaming now on Disney+.
Making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the final episode of Loki’s first season, Kang the Conqueror is one of Marvel’s most crafty villains. With his control over the time-stream and the various weapons available throughout history, Kang has made a habit of turning almost any and every aspect of the timeline into a weapon, including some of the most deadly mutants of the recent era. Who were the Apocalypse Twins, the cruel children of a founding X-Man — and how did Kang turn them into pawns in one of his schemes against the Avengers?
In the “Dark Angel Saga” from Uncanny X-Force #11-18 by Rick Remender, Mark Brooks, Jerome Opeña, Esad Ribić, and Dean White, Warren Worthington III — aka Archangel — was corrupted by his connection to Apocalypse. Taking his place as the “Celestial Gardener,” Worthington almost destroyed the world. X-Force was able to stop him, but not before he impregnated his Horseman of Pestilence, Ichisumi. Dark Beast escorted Ichisumi to safety, where she gave birth to twins, Uriel and Eimin in Remender and Olivier Coipel’s Uncanny Avengers #5. Born mutants, they each had enhanced strength, speed, and endurance. They possessed collapsible metal wings like their father, with the edges of the feathers possessing dangerous qualities: Uriel’s had a neural poison much like Archangel’s wings, while his sister Eimin’s could produce a powerful acid.
Uncanny Avengers #5 by Remender and Olivier Coipel revealed that the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror had an interest in the twins. The Avengers villain saw the two as potential threats to his plans, and shortly after their birth kidnapped the pair and raised them as his own, indoctrinating them with his views on the world. This exposure to the greater timeline improved their mutations, granting them both powers: when in close proximity to one another, Uriel gains the ability to freeze or accelerate small pockets of time, while Eimin can loop temporal fields — with the sadistic young woman often using it to force victims to suffer the pain of her acid over and over.
Believing he needed to shatter their views on mutant/human relations, Kang left the pair in a timeline where Red Onslaught was victorious and mutants ended up in a series of concentration camps. This instilled a deep distrust of humanity in the twins that Kang could then use to motivate them into creating a massive mutant exodus from the Earth, removing the wildcard of mutants from his overarching plans. His teachings inspired them to become ruthless warriors — and also to despise their teacher. The pair later stole weapons from Kang and used them to frame Thor (and by extension Earth) for the murder of multiple Celestials. They also revived the then-dead Banshee, Daken, Sentry, and Grim Reaper as their four Horsemen of Death.
Targeting the Avengers Unity Division, they effectively split the team over their moral choices. Capturing Scarlet Witch, they tricked her into taking part in the mutant exodus. The in-fighting within the Avengers proved disastrous, resulting in the deaths of most of the heroes, the successful exodus of almost all mutants to Planet X, and the destruction of Earth by vengeful Celestials — serving as one final affront to Kang in the process. For all intents and purposes, the Apocalypse Twins won their crusade, although Uriel was killed in a final battle with Thor. Eimin moved past this loss and, selling the remaining mutants on a version of events where Thor’s creation of Jarnbjorn was the cause of the Celestial rage, the Scarlet Witch willingly sacrificed herself to help save mutantkind.
Peace was briefly achieved on this lie but was threatened to be undone by the last free members of the Uncanny Avengers who knew the truth, Havok and Wasp. With the assistance of Kang and his host of time-displaced figures, the group was able to reverse time and prevent Scarlet Witch from casting the spell — in turn halting the events that would have resulted in the deaths of most of the Avengers. It was later revealed that Kang had arranged the entire conflict, using the Apocalypse Twins and their hate for him as nothing more than pawns in his plans to claim the power of a Celestial and rally a Chronos Corps of multiversal figures. All of their pain and suffering, as well as their planning and betrayal, were just cogs in one of his many designs to gain power.
The pair were last seen being dragged out of their crashing ship by Daken and the Grim Reaper, with their current status unknown. The pair were incredibly dangerous and came closer to conquering the remnants of the world than almost any other recent villain, given the relative success of Planet X. But in the end, the Apocalypse Twins just served as a reminder to the Avengers, the X-Men, and the entire Marvel Universe about how dangerous Kang really is.
About The Author
