AOA I added AOA in my page because I think Gambit played a huge part in it..Enjoy

Imagine a world conquered by a madman bent on "survival of the fittest." Such
is the world that was created by Marvel Comics in their 1995 X-Men
crossover entitled "The Age of Apocalypse."

Due to the X-Men's failure to
stop the mutant Legion from
altering history, Charles Xavier
was killed before he had a
chance to form his school for
gifted youngsters. More
importantly, the mutant
Apocalypse launched his plans
for mutant supremacy and
human genocide nearly a
decade earlier than the
explosion of superhumans in the
Marvel Universe, thus allowing
him victory where he should
only have found defeat.

Resistance to Apocalypse's rule was found in the man known as Magneto,
who was diverted from a similar belief of mutant supremacy by the death of his
then friend Charles Xavier at the hands of Legion.

Instead of becoming mankind's deadliest enemy, he became the founder of that
reality's version of the X-Men, a band of mutant outlaws dedicated to
overthrowing Apocalypse and ending the death and destruction that was
carried on in his name.

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The following are short biographies of the major characters that appeared in
the Age Of Apocalypse and their importance to the overall story:


Erik Magnus Lensherr is the founder and leader of the
X-Men. As a young man, Magnus saw firsthand the
inhumanity that man could practice against fellow man in
Nazi concentration camps during World War II. His
experiences then began to shape his belief that if given a
chance, humans would exterminate mutants out of fear
and prejudice. For a time, he too believed in the idea of
Mutant supremacy as Apocalypse does. However, the sacrifice of his then
friend, Charles Xavier, in Israel convinced Lensherr to vow to make Xavier's
dream of mutant-human equality a reality. As Apocalypse began his rise to
power, Magnus saw the need for other mutants to be ready to use their own
abilities to counter Apocalypse. As such, he formed a school for mutants in
Europe at Wundagore Mountain, far from Apocalypse's reach. When the time
came, Magneto lead his X-Men back to the United States and began the war
for independence from Apocalypse's rule.


Charles Francis Xavier was secretly a mutant telepath
that believed in peace between humans and mutants. He
pursued his dream and utilized his unique talents to help
people with then incurable mental disorders. His journey
eventually took him to Israel, where he met an orderly
by the name of Erik Magnus Lensherr. The two quickly
became the best of friends, despite their differing
ideologies on the eventual path of mutantkind. Xavier's plans for the future
were suddenly destroyed when he sacrificed his own life to save Magnus from
being murdered by Legion, his own son from the future. Grieving over the body
of his friend, Magnus vowed that Xavier's death would not have been in vain
and set out to make Xavier's dream of human-mutant harmony a reality.


Apocalypse has been around since early Egyptian times.
In that long time, he has become obsessed with
Darwinistic principles that only the strong can survive. In
the name of "Survival of the Fittest," Apocalypse has
conquered all of North America and has massacred
millions of humans, beings that he does not deem fit to
survive. If not for the intervention of the mutants known
as the X-Men, Apocalypse would surely have destroyed the world in the
twenty-some years since the death of Xavier. Although Magneto and his
X-Men have been partly successful in stemming the tide of Apocalypse's evil,
he is convinced that they too will eventually fall, for he counts them among the
weak. . .


Sinister's agenda is a mysterious one. Although he is
among Apocalypse's highest ranking officials, Sinister
apparently does not believe in Apocalypse's agenda and
has his own plans. To aid him, Sinister has adopted, for
lack of a better word, both the Summers brothers and
put them in charge of security at the pen where genetic
experiments for Apocalypse's empire are conducted. To
further his own plans, Sinister has secretly utilized genetic material from both
Cyclops and Jean Grey to create what is potentially the most powerful mutant
alive. It has been made clear by Sinister that this weapon was created for no
other purpose than to destroy Apocalypse once and for all. . . .


The man known only as Bishop was found wandering in
Seattle by Magneto and the X-Men. Magneto
immediately recognized him as being one of the four
mutants that had attempted to protect both him and
Xavier from Legion twenty years ago in Israel. Using
Rogue's mutant ability, Magneto was able to glean from
Bishop's mind that Xavier was not meant to die in Israel.
Bishop also claims that the timeline in which they were living was a cosmic
error that resulted from Xavier's death and the battle to protect him and that it
was imperative to restore that timeline, regardless of the consequences to the
inhabitants of this one. Unsure of whether Bishop was mad or speaks the truth,
Magneto nevertheless set plans into motion that would allow him to travel into
the past, prevent Xavier's death, and thus correct the timeline.


The boy known as Nate Grey is arguably the most
powerful mutant alive. Created by Sinister for the sole
purpose of killing Apocalypse, Nate was able to
temporarily escape his destiny when he was freed by
Cyclops. Rather than trust Cyclops, Nate ran from him
and eventually stumbled across Forge and his band of
rebel mutants. There, Nate began to refine control of his
considerable power under the tutelage of Forge. He met a woman named
Theresa who he quickly became enamored with and seemed happy for some
time. Eventually, however, Nate is manipulated by man known as Essex (in
reality, a disguised Sinister) into attempting to fulfill his destiny of killing
Apocalypse.


Rogue is Magneto's wife and the leader of one division
of the X-Men. Although her mutant ability affects
anyone she comes into skin contact with, her magnetic
powers along with Magneto's is able to create a
magnetic buffer that allows her to touch Magnus without
absorbing his personality. Perhaps realizing how
precious life is after the sacrifice of the Scarlet Witch to
save her life, Rogue has become as devoted to the dream as Magneto.
Apparently, she is also as idealistic as him, for when Sunfire reports a culling,
she takes her band of X-Men to Chicago in a futile attempt to stop Holocaust
and his army of Infinites.


Pietro Maximoff is Magneto's son and the leader of one
division of the X-Men. As devoted to the cause of
human-mutant harmony as his father is, Quicksilver is
nevertheless skeptical of Bishop's claim that their world
is not supposed to exist. Perhaps Quicksilver's greatest
sorrow is the death of his sister, the Scarlet Witch. upon
the X-Men's very first mission against Apocalypse.
While Quicksilver had battled the Horsemen of Apocalypse, the mutant
Nemesis attacked the school at Wundagore. Attempting to protect Rogue from
Nemesis, the Scarlet Witch confronted him and was killed in the ensuing battle.


The man known as Colossus has had a troubled past.
Once one of Russia's premier heroes, he became
disillusioned when his brother, Mikhail Rasputin, became
one of Apocalypse's Horseman. When news of the
atrocities that his brother was committing reached
Colossus' ears, he immediately travelled to America and
offered his services to the Magneto, who he considered
the leader of the premier band of mutants. Magneto quickly put both him and
Shadowcat in charge of training the next generation of X-Men to insure that the
fight would continue if he or his X-Men were ever defeated by Apocalypse.
When Magneto saw a chance to change the past, he instructs Colossus and his
charges to secure for him from the slave pits the one possible time-traveller that
Apocalypse had not exterminated: Colossus's supposedly deceased sister,
Illyana Rasputin.


Kurt Darkholme is one of Magneto's oldest and most
trusted friends. When Bishop appeared in Seattle, Kurt
warns Magnus that this might be an attempt by
Apocalypse to divide their forces on a wild goose chase.
Despite his misgivings, Nightcrawler agrees to follow
Mystique, his mother, to Avalon in search of a woman
named Destiny to confirm Bishop's claims. Although he
initially thinks his mother a saint for bringing so many into a paradise, his vision
of her is crumbled when he realizes that she charges exorbitant prices f or
passage.


Remy Lebeau, the man known as Gambit, was once an
X-Man. He quickly fell in love with Rogue but for a time
was unable to express his feelings. Later, when Magneto
perfected a way for him to be able to touch Rogue,
Gambit fell into a fit of jealousy. Gambit eventually
realized that Rogue loved Magneto as much as he did
her, and left the X-Men as a result of this. Years later,
when Magneto stumbled across Bishop in Seattle and learned the truth about
his world, he asks Gambit to take the X-Ternals and traverse the galaxy in
search of the M'Kraan Crystal in order to remake the world as it should have
been. Gambit succeeds in his mission, but at great personal cost as he
sacrifices his love for Rogue in exchange for a shard of the crystal.


Destiny is a mutant whose abilities allow her to see into
both the near future and alternate dimensions. Although
in retirement in the paradise that is Avalon, she agrees to
Nightcrawler's request to return to America in order to
determine whether Bishop's claims are valid. Upon her
word that Bishop is telling the truth, the X-Men fight
against hopeless odds to insure that Bishop is given the
chance to right what once went wrong.


Long thought dead by Colossus, Illyana Rasputin was in
truth slaving away in the Portland Core, a major source
of power for Apocalypse's empire. Magneto, upon
raiding Apocalypse's data banks, discovers that she is
perhaps the last living time-travelling mutant left on the
planet. Despite hopeless odds of securing the Illyana and
escaping alive, Colossus leads his students into the Core
and successfully liberates Illyana, albeit at the great cost. Realizing that their
world is doomed, Illyana agrees to help Bishop return to the past, even at the
cost of her life, in order to recreate a world free from the horror that
Apocalypse has created.


The man known as Weapon X was once a member of
Magneto's X-Men. However, disgruntled at the decision
to leave Jean Grey, also an X-Man, in the hands of
Sinister after a mission gone wrong, Logan decided to
rescue her himself. His mission was successful, but he
lost a hand in the process. Realizing what must be done
to stop Apocalypse from conquering the rest of the
world, Weapon X willingly leads an envoy into the heart of America on a
suicide mission to use nuclear weapons to end Apocalypse's reign of terror.


Clarice Ferguson was rescued as a little girl by
Sabretooth from the site of a culling. Trained for years
by Sabretooth to defend herself, Clarice became one of
the X-Men despite her age. After the supposed "death"
of Sabretooth at Holocaust's hands, Blink
singlehandedly engages Holocaust in battle and nearly
defeats him, crippling Apocalypse's Infinite processing
plant in the process. It is her teleportational power that allow the X-Men into
Apocalypse's Base of Operations and leads to the final battle between them
and Apocalypse's army. (Yea, I know that technically Blink wasn't one of the
most important characters, but it just seemed like blasphemy not to include
her.)

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