The X-Men have experienced a few alternate timelines and realities over the years, but none have had quite as big an impact as the Age of Apocalypse. And while it was a limited event, unique characters from the timeline actually managed to escape to the mainstream reality. The Age of Apocalypse itself has returned in a number of ways over the years as well, further highlighting the lasting popularity of the storyline. The latest return will occur in the upcoming X-Men of Apocalypse by Jeph Loeb and Simone Di Meo, when the fan-favorite AoA team crosses over to the mainstream universe.
Images from the series’ revealed covers also teased the return of one of the most popular AoA exiles, Nate Grey. He is one of the most powerful mutants the world has ever seen, though his journey from the Age of Apocalypse to his upcoming return in X-Men of Apocalypse is a roller coaster with a lot of ups and downs that are befitting of a multiversal outcast like the X-Man. He’s gone from a rebellious overpowered teenager to a mysterious New York celebrity to a multiversal mutant shaman and a creator of worlds, yet Nate Grey still hasn’t found his place among the X-Men.
Nate Grey Was Created in the Age of Apocalypse
The Age of Apocalypse was created when the omega-level mutant David Haller/Legion, the son of Professor Charles Xavier, traveled back in time. He did this in a misguided attempt to kill Magneto to ensure that his father’s dream of mutant and human co-existence would be easier to achieve. Unfortunately, the youthful Xavier dove in front of the killing blow that was meant for Magneto, dramatically changing the timeline. The psychic reverberation of his death resulted in the early awakening of Apocalypse, who took advantage of a world without Xavier. Magneto was weakened in battle with Apocalypse, but he was able to survive and gather his own team that he named the X-Men in honor of his fallen friend.
Apocalypse gathered his own mutant army and conquered North America under his tenet of “survival of the fittest.’ Mutants took control and enslaved humanity, who became genetic material for Apocalypse’s Horsemen to experiment on. Sinister was one of those Horsemen, though he sought a different future for mutantkind. To that goal, and similarly to the mainstream universe Sinister, he decided to combine powerful mutant genetics to create a weapon that he could aim at Apocalypse. On Earth-616, the death of Jean Grey forced Sinister to create a clone named Madelyne Pryor so he could continue with his plans. This led to the birth of Nathan Summers, though Apocalypse sensed the young one’s power and infected him with a techno-organic virus to negate the threat. He was raised in the future to become Cable and remained an ever-present thorn in Apocalypse’s side, but he was never able to reach his full potential.
Things were different in the AoA universe, and Sinister was able to acquire the genetic material from Scott Summers/Cyclops (one of his mutant lieutenants/prelates) and a still living Jean Grey, who was briefly held captive by Apocalypse. This meant that the created infant who would become Nate Grey had the full genetic potential of the Summers and Grey bloodline at his disposal, without a techno-organic virus to hold him back. The powerful mutant was artificially grown to the age of a teenager, and only intermittently let out to experience bits of a childhood. Cyclops secretly turned on Apocalypse and started freeing captured mutants like Grey, though he was unaware of their familial connection. Nate Grey eventually found a new home with a traveling performance troupe that was also a secret resistance cell of mutants led by Forge. However, Sinister kept tabs on the group by masquerading as a mutant named Essex.
Grey was a target due to his incredible telepathic and telekinetic abilities that Forge was teaching him how to control, though it also threatened to burn his young body out before he reached adulthood. Both Apocalypse and the X-Men were searching for him, though it wasn’t until Essex revealed himself and killed Forge that Nate Grey decided to really get in on the fight. He infiltrated Apocalypse’s citadel and entered into a brutal fight with Apocalypse’s son, Holocaust, while Magneto’s X-Men stormed the stronghold to rescue their leader from Apocalypse. Holocaust pushed Nate Grey to the limits of his power, forcing him to use an unknown element in the battle. He grabbed a shard of the M’Kraan Crystal, stolen earlier by Gambit and his X-Ternals to help fix the timeline. Grey used the crystal to stab through Holocaust’s armor. However, the multiversal crystal activated instead, transporting both of them to the 616 reality just as it was restored by the AoA X-Men in a brutally climactic battle that cost them everything.
His Exile To Earth-616 Left Him Alone and Hunted
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After his battle with Holocaust (who would remain one of the X-Man’s most powerful villains), Nate Grey awoke in the snowy mountains of Switzerland. He was disoriented and still in a state of shock from his time in the Age of Apocalypse, which made him very untrusting. His arrival on the planet did not go unnoticed, and he quickly became a hunted mutant. His first encounter with Xavier’s astral form went terribly, though he showcased his incredible psionic potential by forcing Xavier off the astral plane, something no other telepath had ever accomplished. He was also hunted by the Sugar Man and Dark Beast, two fellow exiles from the AoA who each managed to escape into the mainstream reality as well.
He started to travel once he accepted that he was no longer in the Age of Apocalypse, and was delighted at getting to experience a world that wasn’t torn apart by a mutant/human war. He even had a travelling companion in the form of a returned Madelyne Pryor, which raised a few interesting questions since she had been dead for years at that point. However, her psychic energy had remained, and Nate Grey, in his immediate confusion after arriving in the Earth-616 reality, instinctively called out for his mother. His incredible power reached Madelyne Pryor’s psychic ghost, and he unknowingly created a new body for her. This created a lasting connection between them that ranged from romantic to possessive as Pryor returned to her old evil ways.
Grey’s previous encounter with Xavier made him a target of Onslaught, who captured the AoA exile to add his power to the psychic being’s growing collection. Grey briefly worked with the X-Men and teams like X-Force during this time, though he remained untrustworthy of them. Even after they rescued him from Apocalypse, he refused to remain with his fellow mutants. However, he did decide to stay in New York City, where he met a few friends and became a local celebrity. His powers had only continued to increase, which allowed him to perform small “miracles” as his powers manifested in new and unstable ways. This brought him to the attention of Spider-Man, and the two quickly bonded and formed a lasting friendship. While Pryor had left him for her own evil plans, he had met and fallen for another of Sinister’s thralls, a powerful mutant named Threnody. She was forced to betray Nate Grey after they spent a long time together, and it was even implied that she had conceived his child while they were together before she was apparently killed by Pryor.
This left Nate Grey alone again, and he resumed wandering the world he had just started feeling comfortable in. However, it did give him a chance to connect with his new world’s Cyclops and Phoenix, who hoped to build a connection with their alternate reality ‘son.’ Grey started wearing Cyclops’ old X-Factor costume during this time as well to showcase their newfound connection. He had also encountered Cable a few different times since he arrived on their world, though the similarities in them caused a devastating psionic feedback that kept them from spending too much time together. Nate Grey was designed to be a weapon with incredible power, and try as he might, that power kept him alone and separated from the rest of mutantkind. Ironically, this would allow him to take a huge step forward and enter a new role that would forever alter the character.
Grey Traveled The World Spiral as a Mutant Shaman
Warren Ellis and Steven Grant took over X-Man during the “Counter-X” rebranding and dramatically evolved the character into a new role. After years of his powers increasing, he ascended to another plane where he was transformed into a mutant shaman. This change occurred when a dark multiversal Madelyne Pryor had taken over her world and used the powers of numerous ‘failed’ Nate Greys to continue conquering as the Red Queen. However, the AoA’s Nate was able to fight back and increase his power even more by absorbing the last Nate Grey’s shaman mark into himself and allowing him to perceive and travel the Spiral of Worlds.
In his new role as mutant shaman, he protected Earth from dark worlds below him in the Spiral. Monsters called up by dark mutant corporate cults were pushed back down by Nate Grey, while also taking on all-powerful beings from higher up in the spiral who wanted to destroy everything below them. It was a very focused and contained era that didn’t much bother with supporting characters or any of the friends or family he had built along the way. His time as a mutant shaman was short and oft-forgotten, given how drastically the story changed the character. However, it still plays an important part in his development, even if it also led to his demise.
Grey eventually encountered a powerful alien being known as the Harvester, whose race had seeded Earth with life-building elements that eventually resulted in humanity. The Harvester arrived back on Earth, ready to cultivate his “crop” of humanity, though it soon discovered that it couldn’t extend its control across the lone mutant found in a small town in Kansas, where it first arrived. Grey soon realized that the only way he could stop the Harvester was by sacrificing his own life and spreading his psionic energy into the same genetic code being harvested, tainting it with mutant energy and making Earth’s inhabitants unusable to the alien race. It was an odd end to the mutant shaman’s odd life, but one that saved the entire planet and left a small back door open for his eventual return.
X-Man’s Resurrection and Return as a New Mutant
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Other AoA exiles like Dark Beast continued to play a role in events over the years, like in Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign. The former Green Goblin-turned-Iron Patriot decided to create his own team of Dark X-Men after the success he had with his Dark Avengers. AoA Dark Beast was a member of that short-lived roster, and during that time, he helped investigate a town that had fallen into a deep trance. They were under the control of Nate Grey, who used them to anchor himself until he was able to bring his body back together, though he was in a weakened state. He tried to get help from the Avengers, but Osborn had obviously taken over the team. Nate Grey was defeated and imprisoned inside Dark Beast’s Omega Device, which absorbed his power and transferred it to Weapon Omega, a member of the Dark X-Men.
The New Mutants eventually freed Nate Grey from the machine, which had fallen into the possession of Sugar Man. This was during the X-Men’s Utopia era, so Cyclops was in charge of the entire mutant island off the coast of San Francisco. While the recovering Nate Grey still wasn’t sold on the idea of working with Cyclops or the X-Men, he did want to stay nearby after his most recent resurrection. He fell in with the reformed New Mutants, who had become one of Cyclops’ most trustworthy strike teams. Almost all of the members had a long history with Cable as well, so helping Nate Grey find his footing became a priority to them.
Nate Grey actually thrived as a New Mutant and even started becoming romantically involved with team leader Dani Moonstar. Unfortunately, the newest roster of the New Mutants disbanded after Avengers vs. X-Men, leaving Nate Grey alone again. However, Grey wasn’t content with just wandering the world anymore. After all, he was still the mutant shaman and felt a responsibility to his alleged ‘tribe.’ This led him down a new path to regain his lost power with huge repercussions that almost turned him into the very thing he was created to destroy.
Nate Grey Returned To Create His Age of X-Man
During the X-Men Dissassembled storyline, Nate Grey returned yet again with a new appearance that traded in his shamanistic style for a bad messiah look. He had regained his powers and more thanks to one of Apocalypse’s Life Seeds, which were created from Celestial tech. However, he learned that he was dying again, which motivated him to try and fix the world before it turned into the reality he escaped from so long ago. He used his new abilities to take control of David Haller/Legion and converted Magneto, Omega Red, Storm and Blob into his Horsemen of Salvation to take down the X-Men so they couldn’t stop his plans.
Grey revealed to the world that he was their saviour and planned to remake the world in his image during the Age of X-Man. Nate Grey created a whole new realm where he transported most of the X-Men, who were assumed dead in the main reality. Grey reshaped history with him at the center of the X-Men, with the mutants being equally remade in his image. However, some mutants fought back and were able to ultimately convince Nate Grey that while trying to save the world, he ultimately followed the same path as Apocalypse on his world, even if he had altruistic motives. Grey agreed to return the X-Men to their original reality, while the aspect of Magneto that he created in the Age of X-Man reality agreed to stay with him and help him rebuild. That was the last fans had seen of Nate Grey, at least until X-Men of Apocalypse Alpha #1.
The issue brought the AoA X-Men to what they referred to as Xavier’s reality, where they were encountered by Nate Grey as he dropped down from the sky with energy around him. However, this version of Nate Grey looks like the AoA version instead of the Age of X-Man version, so it’s possible this Nate Grey is also from the Age of Apocalypse and traveled with the team to the mainstream reality without them knowing. Or it’s the Age of X-Man Nate Grey, who has reverted to his original look, which seems more likely given the passage of time in the AoA universe. Either way, X-Men of Apocalypse #1 will kick off an exciting new chapter for Nate Grey after a very long and confusing journey as the X-Man.