Spoilers for X-Men: Days of Future Past ahead!

With the X-Men: Days of Future Past post-credits scene showing us our first-ever big screen glimpse of Apocalypse, we couldn't be more excited for ol' En Sabah Nur to star as the villain in the next movie, X-Men: Apocalypse . We decided to pull out our list of must-read Apocalypse comics in order to tide us over until May 27, 2016.

The original article is below. Enjoy!

Loading

Age of Apocalypse

The Twelve

The Debut of Apocalypse

X-Cutioner's Song

The Rise of Apocalypse

The Apocalypse Solution

With Bryan Singer announcing to the world that the followup to X-Men: Days of Future Past will be called X-Men: Apocalypse, it’s easy for any comic book nerd to get excited. What’s all the hubbub about? This movie will undoubtedly feature one of the X-Men’s greatest villains, Apocalypse.Even if you don’t read comics, you’ve probably seen his big blue mug before. He was a huge menace in the ‘90s X-Men animated series as well as X-Men: Evolution. He was the final boss in more than a few X-Men video games, and heck you probably beat him to a pulp with Ryu at the end of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter.But if you have always wanted to know more about Apocalypse, or maybe you want to brush up on the essential stories that define his character before the movie comes out in 2016, then we’ve got you covered with this list of Apocalypse's top stories.This is the big one. We’d put our money on this being the story that Singer will adapt for the X-Men: Apocalypse movie. Age of Apocalypse is an alternate reality story about a world where Professor Xavier was killed before starting the X-Men, which let Apocalypse rise up and conquer the world with no one to stop him. This is all witnessed by Bishop, everyone’s favorite time-traveling mutant who also happens to be starring in X-Men: Days of Future Past.In a twist, Magneto ends up championing Xavier’s dream of peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants, causing him to found his own group of X-Men including a one-handed Wolverine, Rogue, Jean Grey, Sunspot, Blink, and Sabertooth, among others. Meanwhile, Apocalypse's forces included the likes of Mr. Sinister, Holocaust, and Sugar Man, as well as former heroes Cyclops, Havok, and Beast.What made this event so epic was that it took over ten plus comic series at the same time to tell a story that touched all of Marvel’s mutant characters. Well, at least the ones who were lucky to survive. The landscape of a world ruled by Apocalypse was a dreary one where more characters wound up dead than alive, allegiances changed like the wind, and everyone had a hardcore rock metal makeover. Apocalypse is the scariest X-villain because we’ve actually seen the hell on earth his rule would create.A long-brewing prophecy came to fruition in a story called The Twelve. Apocalypse sought to ascend to godhood by absorbing the power of the twelve most powerful mutants in the world: Professor X, Magneto, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Cable, Storm, Iceman, Sunfire, Polaris, Bishop, Mikhail Rasputin, and the Living Monolith. Not to be left out, Wolverine was made into Apocalypse’s Horsemen of Death and was forced to fight his own teammates.This story showcased both Apocalypse’s penchant for manipulation and his insatiable lust for power. He wants to remake the world into one where the weak are culled and only the strong survive (something we saw in Age of Apocalypse), but when he forces the X-Men to work together with their nemesis Magneto, he winds up being his own undoing. This story might sound familiar to you as it was adapted in the ‘90s X-Men cartoon.Here’s a followup story you could read that is a direct spoiler to the end of The Twelve -- it’s called X-Men: The Search for Cyclops and details the quest to find Cyclops after he merged with Apocalypse to foil his plans at the end of The Twelve. It’s a satisfying epilogue that answers the question of what happened to one of the most prominent X-Men and gives a little more insight into the psyche of Apocalypse.Believe it or not, Apocalypse was created because writer Louise Simonson didn’t want to use the underwhelming villain The Owl as the mysterious leader of the Alliance of Evil. She wanted a new bad guy that was a force to be reckoned with and would require the entire X-Factor team to combat. Apocalypse wields a vast array of powers including the ability to use telekinesis, telepathy, rapid healing, and shapeshifting to turn parts of his body into guns, jets, and various pointy objects. In addition to that, he’s a genius-level scientist, a master strategist, and is capable of rallying others to his cause (these people became known as the cultist Clan Akkaba). Suffice to say, Simonson got what she wanted. With artist Walter Simonson drawing the sinister first depiction of the character, he looked the part, too.The initial appearances of Apocalypse in X-Factor detailed his M.O. of enforcing evolution by destroying the weak so the strong can survive, mutant or not. We also learned about his signature Four Horsemen -- powerful mutants hand-picked by Apocalypse himself that embody Death, Pestilence, Famine, and War. Various villains and heroes have been recruited or forced to take on these roles over the year, but the most famous has got to be Archangel.Angel was a founding member of the X-Men, but he was a shadow of his former self when his angel-like wings were crippled and unusable. This made him prey for Apocalypse’s manipulation, who offered to restore his wings in return for service as his new Death horsemen. Angel was subjected to genetic tampering which resulted in blue skin, a sweet new outfit, and a pair of razor sharp metal wings in place of his old feathered ones. The expression “Be careful what you ask for.” comes to mind. Angel was brainwashed into obeying Apocalypse but eventually broke free and became obsessed with getting revenge on his former master. Stay tuned for the last entry on this list to see how Apocalypse came back to haunt him in a big way.This classic Apocalypse tale began when a time-traveling villain from the future named Stryfe journeyed back in time to get revenge on who he thought were his parents -- Cyclops and Jean Grey -- as well as Apocalypse for casting him aside. You see, Stryfe is a clone of Cable (the true son of Cyclops and Jean), was raised by Apocalypse in the future, and was driven mad when he learned of his origin. Teaming up with one of Apocalypse’s signature henchmen, Mr. Sinister, Stryfe abducted his “parents,” infected Professor Xavier with the Techno-organic virus, and pulled it off so everyone thought Cable and Apocalypse were behind it all.This was an excellent story full of enough twists and double-crosses and revelations to make your head spin. Characters intimately tied to the character of Apocalypse like Cable, Archangel, Mr. Sinister, and Stryfe all have character-defining moments. It also showed Apocalypse in a weakened state, a rare sight for the big baddie. He not only had to join forces with the X-Men to take on Stryfe, but he had to cure Professor Xavier as part of their truce. Not to say that he had an easy time; he nearly got beaten to death at one point and when he begged Archangel to end his life, he was denied even that so he may continue to endure his torturous existence.Wondering where a guy as powerful as Apocalypse came from? Wonder no more. The Rise of Apocalypse goes back to his origins in ancient Egypt before he put on that imposing blue suit with all the hoses. The tale takes place 5,000 years in the past when a weird looking baby was found by a tribe of nomads in the middle of the desert. They named him En Sabah Nur, which fittingly means The First One, as in, the first mutant. It’s revealed that it was the tribal leader, Baal, who taught Nur about survival of the fittest, an idea that he would twist into his extremist agenda for destroying those he deemed weak.Sometimes learning the exact details of a villain’s origin can ruin the mystique, like the Joker. But this story wound up being pretty awesome as it attempted to humanize one of the most monstrous villains in all of comics. It showed his father figure, his first love interest, his budding powers, his shame for being different, and the first time he seized power. It also turned out that the Pharaoh at the time, Rama-Tut, was the time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror out to capture Nur for his own uses. But in true fashion, Nur defeats Kang and overthrows his kingdom, earning his new name: Apocalypse.Now we’ve caught up to Apocalypse as he has appeared recently in comics. Wolverine started a clandestine squad of mutants -- Archangel, Psylocke, Deadpool, and Fantomex -- with the agenda of preemptively taking out threats to mutantkind. Their first mission? A young boy version of Apocalypse is being raised by the Clan Akkaba and he needs to be taken care of. We won’t spoil the end (because it’s awesome and polarizing) but suffice to say that in the following issues a new Apocalypse emerges from one of his previous Four Horsemen: Archangel. That led to a little gem of a story called The Dark Angel Saga, which earned a perfect 10 from IGN The entire run of Uncanny X-Force by writer Rick Remender is a love letter to all of the classic Apocalypse stories. It utilizes the Clan Akkaba, the Four Horsemen, Archangel’s personal vendetta, and we even return to the Age of Apocalypse universe. The best part is that you could have never read a single comic about Apocalypse and you’d still be just as entertained and informed by Remender’s engrossing writing and seamless exposition. While Apocalypse never appears as we know him, he is still the number one problem the team must face, even as they take on Deathlok robots and other villains.During the story, a clone of Apocalypse named Genesis is grown into a teenager and given a simulated upbringing not unlike Superman’s. This was Fantomex’s doing in order to prove that it’s nurture, not nature that dictates whether someone is evil or not. At the end of Remender’s Uncanny X-Force, Genesis is made a student at the Jean Grey School. He’s currently still there, although he is frequently picked on by the other kids for what he may one day become. The fate of Genesis is unknown, but it’s not a stretch to imagine it will be full of trials, tribulations, and lots and lots of blue.

Those are our picks for the top must-read Apocalypse stories. What are your favorites? Are you excited to see Apocalypse on the big screen? Sound off in the comments, true believers!

Joshua writes for IGN. He is actively campaigning for Archangel to be in X-Men: Apocalypse. He has that much free time. Follow him on Twitter and IGN