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With his current featured role in X-Men '97 season 2, Apocalypse is enjoying another moment in the spotlight. Speculation is running high about what might happen next after the events of the latest episodes. Since X-Men '97 to date has been directly adapting/remixing some of the greatest storylines in X-Men history, from the fall of Genosha to “Lifedeath,” it's safe to assume that whatever happens next will take heavy cues from the comics.

The surprise is that Apocalypse doesn't actually have that much material to draw from. The comics have used him somewhat sparingly, all the better to make him a genuine threat when he does appear. As such, if the next step for Apocalypse is another direct adaptation, here are some of our best guesses as to what could be adapted, taken in order from entirely possible to highly unlikely.

Major spoilers follow for season 2 of X-Men '97.

1

The Twelve

Source: Walter Simonson for Marvel Comics

This is one of the rarest things in X-Men history: a long-running storyline that eventually reached a payoff. There's a deep graveyard of abandoned X-Men plot arcs, due to changes in the creative team, editorial interference, and/or simple human error, but The Twelve actually got an ending. It might not have been the original intended ending, but it still counts.

The Twelve were first mentioned in passing in X-Factor #14 (1986), as a group of mutants that were supposedly future leaders of the species, and were specifically targeted by particularly advanced Sentinels. Some of the identified members of the Twelve included Apocalypse, Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey, Danielle Moonstar, and Franklin Richards.

As originally written, this was presumably meant as part of a low-profile, slow-burn storyline in the '80s X-books where multiple characters were preparing for some kind of imminent war between superhumans. This seems to have been conclusively abandoned around 1991 when long-time writer Chris Claremont left the books for a while.

Later writers (and Claremont eventually) revisited the concept of the Twelve for a storyline in the late ‘90s. It was revealed that the Sentinels had been given the names of the Twelve in the first place by a time-traveler and member of Clan Askani named Sanctity. She had gone back and uploaded the information to the Sentinels' database as an attempt to prevent a particularly dark future.

In the story as written, the Twelve were actually a specific group of mutants whose powers Apocalypse could steal and use to elevate himself to godhood. The list included some obvious names, such as Cyclops, Phoenix, Iceman, Storm, and Magneto, alongside some unexpected characters like Sunfire, Polaris, Bishop, Colossus's crazy brother Mikhail, and the obscure villain the Living Monolith.

The comics' resolution to the Twelve storyline is a particularly messy story in a messy era. It's from the period of time in Marvel history where absolutely everything was an overcomplicated crossover, and The Twelve doubled down with a couple of faked deaths, some time travel, a bunch of renegade Skrulls, and the death of Cyclops. (It didn't take. If you've ever wondered why Scott is so messed up at certain points in Grant Morrison's X-Men run, however, it's mostly due to lingering effects from The Twelve.)

That being said, this is exactly the kind of plot arc that X-Men '97 has seemingly specialized in. Abducting a bunch of seemingly random characters to power-drain them and become a god sounds like the sort of thing that the cartoon's version of Apocalypse would be interested in. Then again, if this season of X-Men '97 is setting up a scenario based on The Twelve, it's running out of time to reveal who those 12 mutants might be.

2

The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix

Source: John Paul Leon for Marvel Comics

In the '90s, Marvel released a couple of different miniseries about a time-traveling Scott and Jean. The first one has already influenced X-Men '97, which suggests the possibility that we might see an animated adaptation of the second.

Peter Milligan and the late John Paul Leon's The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix is set in 1859, and serves as an origin story for Mr. Sinister. Back in Victorian London, he was just Nathaniel Essex, a scientist who wasn't yet mad but was absolutely getting there.

Essex might've died unknown, or more likely been beaten to death by an angry mob, if not for the sudden arrival of Apocalypse. Masquerading as a human, Apocalypse introduced Essex to the cocktail of bad decisions, alien technology, and Darwinian ethics that would eventually transform him into Mr. Sinister. Jean and Scott are then stolen from their proper timeline and unceremoniously dropped into 1859 by Sanctity (see above), with a mission to stop Apocalypse from conquering England and only 48 hours to figure out how.

This is the kind of story that animation is ideal for, where you turn the X-Men into a strange combination of superhero action and Oliver Twist for an episode or two. Call this one a strong possibility.

3

Apocalypse vs. the Brood

Source: Dustin Weaver for Marvel Comics

Fun facts to know and tell about the comics’ En Sabah Nur: He was born 5,000 years ago in Egypt, where his grey skin and strange blue skin markings made him an outcast. He later stumbled upon alien artifacts that allowed him to enhance his powers to the point where he's been able to survive to the modern day. That puts Nur in a long list of immortals and time-travelers who've secretly been active throughout all of Marvel history.

At one point in 2620 BC, in a story that's been mentioned but never told in its entirety, Nur teamed up with the pharaoh Imhotep and that era's Moon Knight to defend Egypt from an invasion by the alien Brood. Their brief alliance would later give rise to the Brotherhood of the Shield, a secret organization that went on to inspire the creation of modern S.H.I.E.L.D.

It's not an entirely likely scene for X-Men '97, but watching Apocalypse and Moon Knight bash Temu Xenomorphs together would make for one hell of an episode.

4

Apocalypse vs. Dracula

Source: Clayton Henry for Marvel Comics

Speaking of Moon Knight: this obscure miniseries from 2006 dealt with a previously unknown blood feud between Nur and (Marvel's version of) Dracula, which began with a mortal Vlad Tepes barely surviving a run-in with Nur in 1400s Romania.

Centuries later, Dracula stumbles across a secret network of Apocalypse's descendants in 1897 London. Shortly afterward, those descendants start showing up in various states of exsanguination, which spurs the survivors to wake Nur to deal with the problem. Soon, Apocalypse has teamed up with vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing to fight Dracula and his minions.

Dracula has his own peculiar history with the X-Men, most of which comes from a famous '80s story where he almost turned Storm into a vampire. (That, in turn, led to an infamous '90s issue of What If where Wolverine usurped Dracula's position as king of Marvel's vampires.) Given X-Men '97's established love of making two major comic storylines do the fusion dance, some kind of Apocalypse vs. the X-Men vs. Dracula brawl could make for a fun episode.

5

Age of Apocalypse (1995)

Source: Roger Cruz and Steve Epting for Marvel Comics

30 years later, this is still the Apocalypse storyline. It's also the least likely of the available options. This section is here to sink hopes, not genuinely speculate.

The AoA event began when David "Legion" Haller, Charles Xavier's estranged son and a powerful mutant in his own right, decided to "fix" his life by going back in time and killing Magneto. Instead, David accidentally murdered Xavier.

Due to David's ability to manifest whatever super-power he feels like having, he was able to bypass both the grandfather paradox and the Marvel Universe's previously established rules about time travel. Instead of spinning off a new timeline, David changed the world. Now Apocalypse’s forces had conquered North America, and the only real forces left to oppose him were a handful of freedom fighters, a dramatically outgunned European blockade, and a few splintered groups of Magneto's X-Men. In the Age of Apocalypse, some heroes were villains, some heroes were villains, and the Avengers had never been formed at all.

An entire generation of ‘90s kids has wanted to see an animated adaptation of Age of Apocalypse for over 30 years, and at first glance, all the ingredients were present in season 2 of X-Men '97. Then episode 4 hit.

It's not impossible for a future arc or season of '97 to go in an Age of Apocalyptic direction, but its chances looked better a few episodes ago. In fact, one could go so far as to say that one of the boldest creative decisions X-Men '97 has made is not immediately zipping towards an Age of Apocalypse storyline as soon as humanly (mutantly?) possible. %!s()

Key Facts

The “President Donald J. Trump Highway” stretches 1,055 kilometers (over 655 miles) down Morocco’s coastline, according to the announcement video shared by Trump, connecting the city of Tiznit to Laayoune and Dakhla, both in the Moroccan-controlled disputed territory of Western Sahara.

The president thanked Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and said he looked forward to “traveling the entire length of this Great Highway someday, hopefully soon!”

The accompanying video thanked Trump for his “historic courage”—Trump previously supported Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara in 2025 and during his first term, which is still disputed by the Polisario Front independence group.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.

Tangent

Since returning to office in 2025, Trump and some Republican allies have repeatedly pushed to place his name and likeness on infrastructure projects, locations, institutions and even government-issued documents. Most notably, Palm Beach International Airport was officially renamed “President Donald J. Trump International Airport” in July. Some of his supporters in Congress have also floated ideas like renaming Washington, D.C.’s, Dulles International Airport after the president, as well as New York City’s Penn Station—although both of these ideas never seemed to have gotten off the ground. His likeness appears on commemorative coins issued for the 250th anniversary, as well as on limited-edition passports and on a National Parks pass.

Key Background

Morocco has occupied most of Western Sahara since 1975 and has been locked in a frozen conflict with the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state in the territory. Trump first recognized Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara in 2020, offering it as part of a deal for Morocco signing on to the Abraham Accords—the landmark agreement that normalized relations between Israel and some Arab states in the Middle East and North Africa. During his second term in office, the Trump administration reaffirmed U.S. support for Morocco’s claim and agreed to encourage U.S. investors to fund infrastructure projects in the territory in 2025. Morocco has been building a $1 billion deepwater port in the territory’s city of Dakhla, which featured in the video Trump shared Sunday. %!s()

I love to cook — from scratch, as often as I can — but after (or before) a long shift working at the bakery, I don't always have the energy for a grandiose culinary adventure.

Here are some of the Trader Joe's products that I always buy, from quick snacks to ingredients I use in easy, home-cooked meals.

For me, it's imperative to start the day off with a cup of Black Acres Colombia Aponte Honey coffee.

I can be a bit picky when it comes to coffee, and as a Philadelphia resident, I am surrounded by many small, high-quality roasters.

However, I often find myself turning to Black Acres' Colombia Aponte Honey beans — a regional coffee option that my local TJ's carries. It's medium-roast, bright, a little fruity, well-balanced, and easy to brew.

I use smoked rainbow trout fillets to make my go-to breakfast.

This smoked rainbow trout can be used in so many ways — sometimes, I'll throw it on a fresh baguette, with just a schmear of sour cream or labneh.

My favorite thing to do, though, is make a super quick and inexpensive whitefish-style salad. I'll simply take the skin off the fish and mix thoroughly with mayo, mascarpone, red onion, salt, pepper, and a ton of lemon juice. Then, I'll throw it on a bagel.

Trader Joe's dark russet potato chips are my favorite snack.

If you're a fan of crispy, dark french fries like I am, you'll love these deep-roasted potato chips that have a super strong and rich flavor.

Here's a secret tip from one of my favorite former TJ's managers: Heat up TJ's frozen chicken wings, then throw the hot wings onto a plate of these chips. Pile crumbled blue cheese on top of the whole thing. You will not regret it.

Tabbouli salad is one of my must-buys.

Trader Joe's tabbouli is tasty, simple, and always tastes fresh. It's great with some dolmas and a container of the Mediterranean hummus.

My go-to move, though, is to mix the tabbouli with a can of Greek chickpeas, parsley, and cumin. Boom: a delicious, healthy salad.

Crushed ginger goes a long way in my house.

This Dorot Gardens pre-crushed ginger is one of my favorite Trader Joe's staples.

As someone who loves to cook, especially East Asian food, I'm always chopping fresh ginger and garlic. I'm used to it, and I have pretty good knife skills, but sometimes it's nice to just reach into the freezer and pop a tablespoon or so of crushed ginger into the frying pan.

I love buying calamari pieces to add to soups and pastas.

These calamari pieces, tinned in olive oil, can really improve a weeknight stir-fry, a warm soup, or even a pasta dish. They have a great, not-too-chewy texture and delicious flavor.

I like to add these to my homemade sundubu-jjigae, a simple Korean soup featuring silken tofu and seafood.

One of my favorite sweet treats is the milk-chocolate bar with corn flakes.

Trader Joe's has incredible sweets; it's difficult to choose between my many favorites. One standout, though, is this milk-chocolate bar.

The soft, rich Belgian chocolate pairs perfectly with crunchy cornflakes — so perfectly, in fact, that I usually have to hide these from my roommate so he doesn't eat them all.

Trader Joe's was not involved in the sourcing or writing of this story. The views contained within represent the author's personal views.

Keep reading our Trader Joe's Diaries to see what other shoppers like to buy at the chain.

Read next

Simon Printz is a contributing writer for Business Insider.

• Trader Joe's Diaries

IGN had a chance to speak with both Yang and Rosenberg at Comic-Con, where the duo talked about their shared love of the franchise and how Yang will be handing off the series in the months to come. Read on to learn more.

Rosenberg is coming on board the series at a particularly fruitful time. IDW had a lot of success with the 2024 relaunch, which kicked off with writer Jason Aaron and a rotating team of artists. Rosenberg notes that this assignment is a chance to lend his own take to the franchise while trying to do something genuinely different from what his predecessors did.

"There's a lot of runs I love, but the thing I'm really excited about is that in the past two years, a large group of my favorite comic creators have had the book between Jason Aaron and Juan Ferreyra and Gene's run," Rosenberg tells IGN. "It's so exciting. And I think the thing I love the most was seeing what Jason did was different from what Sophie Campbell was doing or anyone else was doing. And then seeing what Gene did was like a reinvention again, but all still true to it."

Rosenberg continues, "For me, I wanted to study what Gene was doing and then be like, 'But he changed the game, so I have to do that. I can't just run with that.' And that's really fun to me, to be like, ,I want to honor everything he's done because I love it, but also don't want to do a cover band of it.'"

For Yang, working on a book like TMNT means accepting that nothing lasts forever and that eventually he'll need to pass the baton to the next set of creators.

"You know when you're working on a property as big as the Ninja Turtles that it doesn't belong to you," Yang says. "It's sort of a melting pot of creative energy. And I felt really lucky and a little bit intimidated that I was following Jason Aaron's run. I thought what he did was just phenomenal. The amount of energy that came out of his run was incredible. And one of the gifts that he left for me was he brought Splinter back. I think it was the last issue. So that was something that we got to run with, Freddie [Williams II] and I."

Yang also notes that one of the best things about the TMNT franchise is how it allows for such different takes and swings in tone. The original Mirage comics are very different from the 1987 animated series or the contemporary movies, but they're all authentically TMNT.

I'm a huge fan of the Turtles from when I was a kid," Yang says. "And I remember encountering the old black and white Mirage comics in my 6th grade classroom. One of the kids had, I think, maybe a third print of #2 or something. And then I also remember watching the cartoon and seeing that contrast between the grittiness of [Kevin] Eastman and [Peter] Laird's comic and then the colorfulness of the cartoon. And both of those are fundamentally Turtles. I think one of the things that makes the Turtles special is that there are characters that work in nearly any genre. Like you can put them in a sci-fi story or a horror story or martial arts action or like a family comedy and it still can be Turtles. So I felt like with Jason Aaron's run, what he did was he kind of leaned into some of that Mirage energy."

Yang continues, "What I did for inspiration was I read those early Mirage comics. And what I noticed was, I think the energy that Jason Aaron might have been drawing on was in the first few issues. But shortly after that, things get a little bit crazy and a little bit wild. You have talking triceratops and aliens calling out of guns and that sort of thing. So we wanted it to feel a little bit wild and out of control as well. One of the things that I think makes the IDW version of TMNT special is that it ties into Japanese culture and Japanese mythology a little bit more closely. So for my run, I wanted to add the color and the weirdness that kind of happened in those Mirage comics, even though they're black and white. Color in terms of story. And I wanted to do that by kind of leaning into Japanese mythology."

One of the benefits of Rosenberg being tapped to write the series is that he's a native New Yorker. He teases that the city itself is very much a character in his run. We're going to see the Turtles navigate a lot of real-world landmarks in his first arc, which pits the Turtles against a gauntlet of foes in one very chaotic 24-hour period.

"I'm going to start them in the Bronx, start them in Pelham, and they're just going to be in a trip through New York," Rosenberg says. "And the thing about the Turtles that's great is that you can have them fighting in the sewers, fighting on rooftops, but also they're fun. They're teenagers. They're joking and they're distracted and they're not. There are all these things that they're adventurous when they're kids. It's a great chance to show the city as a battleground, but also show the city that they love. And that's what I'm trying to do is in the middle of a fight. My first arc is basically a fight. It's one night. It's the worst night of the Turtles' lives. But in that, there's a lot of who they are. You need to show who they are."

Rosenberg adds, "And so we're figuring out what we can do. There's a lot of stuff that I think is fundamentally New York that we're putting in and fundamental neighborhoods and things like that. But also, we're figuring out how much we can be like, well, here's some weird New York lore and here's some New York myths that we want to do. And it's very fun. I don't think there's been a lot of writers on the book from New York. And I grew up as a kid walking down the streets with these books in my backpack."

Rosenberg has a particular knack for writing teenage characters, as we've seen from books like 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank (the film adaptation of which is hitting theaters in August). Rosenberg will certainly be making use of that experience on TMNT, as the series will really dig into the personalities of the Turtles and their family dynamic.

"I love a family dynamic. I love writing young characters," Rosenberg says. "Being a teenager is an amazing moment in your life as you're transitioning from one worldview to the other. And I think that the contrast of those two things fighting inside of being a teenager is fundamental to the Turtles. I think that they have a heavy burden on them of being these ninja who have to do things, but also they're kids and they're trying to live their lives and figure out where they fit in the world. And I love that. And doing it as brothers is such a gift of a story to be like. It's always a little bit of a coming of age story in everyone, but it's also always a family drama. And I love that. It's amazing."

Finally, Rosenberg teased his upcoming run by saying that he and Cabal plan on tapping into many different characters and eras of the franchise. TMNT's extensive mythology is like a Cheesecake Factory menu - there's almost too much to choose from.

"You don't know who to choose," Rosenberg says. "There's this legacy. We have a legacy of 30-plus years now of just being like, 'Well, where do we go?' I knew that before I had a story. So the story I have is because of that. The story I have is built because I was like, 'OK, That's a big gift. Let's open it. Let's go big with it.' And yeah, you're going to see a lot of folks you don't expect to see or folks you haven't seen in a while. You're going to see some people you've never seen. We're trying to do all of it. I'm trying to at least touch on every era. And for me, that's always something I love. I learned that when I started making superhero comics that every character is someone's favorite and every era is someone's favorite. And so if you can just nod to that or wink to that in some way, it means a lot to the fans."

Look for both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #25 and TMNT: The Last Ronin - Return for New York #1 to hit stores in 2027.

For more biog Comic-Con news, check out everything announced at the Marvel Studios panel and see our exclusive reveal of Hasbro's The Legend of Zelda figures.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky. %!s()

The scene is an obligatory, efficient passing of the baton from the characters’ namesake show “Rick and Morty,” a juggernaut hit for Adult Swim now in its 13th year and ninth season, to its inaugural satellite. But the shared DNA is already evident. “President Curtis,” co-created by “Rick and Morty” collaborators Dan Harmon (also well-known for the cult hit sitcom “Community”) and James Siciliano, is another animated procedural that blends high concept science fiction with proudly juvenile — yet consistently sharp — humor. Keith David’s titular commander-in-chief is a recurring character on the flagship show, and there’s visual continuity between the two series’ dense jumble of 2D sight gags. “President Curtis” nonetheless announces itself as a spiritual sibling to “Rick and Morty” more in sensibility than canonical connections, to fans’ likely satisfaction.

“President Curtis” opens with a press conference in which our nation’s leader declares that “I killed Paul Bunyan today,” with David adding in his sonorous baritone: “Timber, bitch!” (A veteran voice actor, David has long had a gift for leveraging the assumed seriousness of his natural timbre for comedy. The same skill is utilized in live action on the FX crime series “The Lowdown,” among other projects.) The gag is an early indication of a slight preference for the supernatural over the aliens and interdimensional creatures of “Rick and Morty,” though rest assured our protagonists do make the occasional trip to space. They just also interface with vampires, witches and werewolves on a regular basis, as one does when attempting to lead the free world. “We don’t tattle,” one character lectures another. “We’re grown-ups — we fight ninjas!”

Curtis’ trusty aides-de-camp in this enterprise are his new chief of staff Banks (Stephanie Beatriz), a cyborg given to overriding her own self-imposed ethics protocols, and Special Agent O’Doyle (“Community” alum Jim Rash), a Secret Service member who also happens to be half leprechaun. Every episode, the trio confront a new threat that has nothing to do with bo-ring agenda items like reducing the deficit, from investigating escapes at a “paranormal Guantanamo” to locating Napoleon’s mummified penis so France can’t undo the Louisiana Purchase. (Just roll with it.) The chair of Curtis’ unidentified political party may complain that her organization “doesn’t care about you kicking Mothman into high-voltage fencing” while inquiring after an infrastructure bill, but both the show’s priorities and ours are the inverse.

Inventive and breathlessly paced, “President Curtis” brings the “Rick and Morty” ethos quite literally back to Earth, where there’s less head-spinning, stakes-nullifying multiverse material. We’re mostly dealing with one version of Curtis, Banks and O’Doyle, which proves more than enough given all they have on their plate — like keeping the CIA from learning the truth about the moon landing. (The Curtis administration is the stuff of conspiracy theorists’ fantasies or nightmares, depending on one’s point of view.) But “President Curtis” also starts in the place “Rick and Morty” came to only gradually, after the early seasons pursued a more serialized story about Rick, an arrogant absentee father whose only sacred ideal is his own genius, reconnecting with his family. 

Over time, “Rick and Morty” largely abandoned, or at least became much more sporadic with, thematic heft and canon-advancing events as its focus turned to sustainable longevity. From the start, however, “President Curtis” is relatively light on emotional stakes. Curtis is divorced, and still carries a torch for his ex-wife (Kelsey Scott) — now the governor of Illinois and architect of an innovative monster rehabilitation program with the Candyman (as in the movies) its star participant. But the president’s love life is deployed more as a background character detail than a driving force of the overall story.

Instead, “President Curtis” is more comfortable as a vehicle for game guest stars (like Kristen Schaal as a seemingly immortal Amelia Earhart), pop culture allusions (Anne Rice and Us Weekly enter the lexicon) and whatever elaborate bits the writers can come up with. The main cast and the domestic focus may be new compared to “Rick and Morty,” but the general feeling is the same. This means “President Curtis” delivers more on dependability than strict innovation, though that may be what both viewers and a parent corporation looking to beef up its IP reserves on the cusp of a potential merger want. Rick Sanchez is a kid’s fantasy of a zany, indulgent grandpa; President Curtis self-describes as “America’s cool dad.” It doesn’t take a Rick-level genius to see the parallels.

“President Curtis” will premiere on Adult Swim on July 26 at 11:30 p.m. ET, with remaining episodes airing weekly on Sundays and available to stream on HBO Max the next day. %!s()