Who Are The Final Horsemen Of Apocalypse? The X-Men '97 Villains Explained

Contains spoilers for "X-Men '97" Season 2, Episode 1 — "Days Of Past Future"

Marvel's mightiest mutant heroes are back in Season 2 of "X-Men '97." The three-episode premiere event finds the X-Men scattered throughout time, with Cyclops (Ray Chase), Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale), Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith), Wolverine (Cal Dodd), and Morph (J. P. Karliak) trapped in a dystopian future ruled by the tyrannical Apocalypse (Ross Marquand). In Episode 1, "Days of Past Future," Apocalypse selects Cyclops and Jean's teenage son Nathan (Michael Johnston), a powerful telepath, to become his new host body. He sends his Four Horsemen — Pestilence, Famine, War, and Death — to capture the boy.

Taking their names from the Book of Revelation, multiple variations of the Four Horsemen have fought for Apocalypse in the X-Men comic books and cartoons, as well as the 2016 film "X-Men: Apocalypse" (though that didn't save it from being one of the worst-ranked X-Men movies). Members of the X-Men have been corrupted into becoming Horsemen, with Archangel, Wolverine, and Gambit all carrying the mantle of Death at some point.

But who are the Final Horsemen appearing in "Days of Past Future"? Perhaps the most surprising characters to make their animated debuts in "X-Men '97" Season 2, the Final Horsemen first assemble in 2010's "Uncanny X-Force" #2 by Rick Remender and Jerome Opena. Hailing from eras and locations as disparate as ancient Rome and Edo-period Japan, the Horsemen are a secret team recruited to serve Apocalypse — and his brutal "survival of the fittest" ideology — when all other options fail.

The lone woman in the Final Horsemen, Pestilence is defined by her tragic inferiority complex. Ichisumi grows up in 19th-century Japan, where she is deemed a disappointment by her samurai father. Despite working as a geisha, Ichisumi becomes increasingly jealous of the more beautiful women surrounding her. In "Uncanny X-Force" #3, her long-suppressed fury activates her mutant power, as swarms of yume beetles spew from her mouth and murder hundreds of women.

Claimed by Apocalypse as Pestilence of the Final Horsemen, Ichisumi and her comrades are activated by Clan Akkaba, followers of Apocalypse, after his death. They battle the newly-formed Uncanny X-Force on the moon, where Pestilence is defeated by Fantomex, who casts an illusion of the thing she still fears most — her father.

During the "Dark Angel Saga," Archangel is transformed into a new Apocalypse, and Pestilence becomes his lover. In "Uncanny Avengers" #5, Pestilence gives birth to his children, Uriel and Eimen, who are destined to become the Apocalypse Twins and bring destruction to mankind. Kidnapped and raised by the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror, the Apocalypse Twins reunite with their mother at a cosmic ceremony for Apocalypse's son Genocide, violently supplanting his claim as the heir of Apocalypse. Pestilence does not interfere when the twins murder her fellow Horsemen, and is last seen helping them resurrect Banshee, Sentry, Daken, and Grim Reaper as their Horsemen of Death. Her current activities are unknown, but wherever she is, Pestilence remains dedicated to Apocalypse.

Famine was plucked from one of the darkest chapters in American history: the Civil War. Born Jeb Lee, Famine is a Confederate spy who disguises himself as a drummer in the Union Army. As told in "Uncanny X-Force" #3, Jeb pays a grim, ironic price for his duplicity when his neighbors discover his Union Army uniform and, believing that he betrayed the Confederacy, murder his family in a fire. The horror of this event unlocks Jeb's mutant power: he transmits a "living sound" that acts as a bio-auditory cancer, consuming the flesh of any living being that hears it.

Jeb uses his ability on the battlefield, marching in the Battle of Gettysburg and murdering soldiers with the sounds of his drum. When Famine is taken captive in "Uncanny X-Force" #16, he reveals that he can unleash his powers with a few taps of his fingers, even without his drum. In response, Wolverine cuts off both his hands, literally disarming him. Famine later gains prosthetic hands, but not for long. In "Uncanny Avengers" #7, he is slaughtered by Pestilence's twin children, Uriel and Eimen, for siding with Genocide as the mutant despot's true heir.

War begins life, strangely enough, as the son of a philosopher. Debuting in "Uncanny X-Force" #1, Decimus Furius is orphaned as a young man in ancient Rome, and is on the verge of dying on the streets when his mutant power activates. Physically transforming into a giant, horned man-bull, Decimus's mind is overcome by an all-consuming desire to kill and wage war. He becomes a gladiator, slaughtering his opponents in the arena with a four-bladed axe, and is eventually worshiped as the mythic Minotaur.

Upon his activation by Clan Akkaba, War battles X-Force. He injures Wolverine with his axe, infecting the mutant hero with his uncontrollable bloodlust and temporarily turning him against his teammates. Fantomex uses his illusory powers of misdirection to transform War's feelings of hatred into love for Psylocke — the shock of which causes Decimus to explode.

The fearsome Horseman regenerates and loyally serves the possessed Warren Worthington during the "Dark Angel Saga." Later, War joins Famine in aligning with Genocide as Apocalypse's heir; meeting the same fate as his comrade in arms, War is doused by Eimen's chronokinetic acid. Thus the mutant gladiator who was once worshiped as a god dies in an "eternity of waking untime."

Sanjar Javeed proves that you don't have to be an X-Man to overcome Apocalypse. "Uncanny X-Force" #3 reveals that he is the illegitimate son of the historical Persian emperor Shapur II. Though Shapur is loved by his people, Sanjar resents him for refusing to acknowledge his secret son.

With his mutant "ailment aura," Sanjar can spread terminal illnesses to any person in his proximity, depending on which metal he touches. He ravages the empire, with Shapur deeming his son the "Seraph of Death" before expiring. As a Horseman, Death wields a blade for hand-to-hand combat and wears metal rings to transmit sicknesses. He overwhelms Wolverine's healing factor by striking him with "every terminal disease known to man" at once — easily Logan's worst death in the pages of Marvel Comics.

Death makes a mistake in "Uncanny X-Force" #15, attempting to infect the undead cyborg Deathlok (whose canceled Marvel film in the 2000s could have been a cult classic). Grimly pointing out that diseases can't hurt him, Deathlok decapitates Death. Still, death is not the end for, well, Death: Sanjar is resurrected under mysterious circumstances, which seemingly dissipates Apocalypse's control as well as Sanjar's desire to rule over others. In "Infinity: The Hunt" #1, Sanjar co-founds the Pan-Asian School for the Unusually Gifted, and he later aids the X-Men, helping a town attacked by the anti-mutant organization Orchis. Now using his powers to boost people's immune systems instead of destroying them, the former Death takes a more fitting codename: Life.