Cerebra's Files: Age of Apocalypse

Mikhail Rasputin was the hero of the Soviet Union and leader of its team of super soldiers. When Apocalypse attacked the Soviet Union, Mikhail single-handedly killed Apocalypse’s horseman War and drove most of his forces into retreat. Apocalypse then fought him one-on-one and decided to capture him to turn him into his next horseman. Mikhail was brainwashed into serving Apocalypse and his first task was to return to the Soviet Union and destroy it. There, his brother Piotr (who had taken up his brother’s position as leader of the super soldiers) tried to stop him but failed. Mikhail murdered all of the super soldiers but could not bring himself to kill his own brother.

Apocalypse placed Mikhail in charge of his Eurasian lands. There, he became secluded and began to use his reality-warping powers to alter his appearance. He also began to create his own force of enhanced humans. Some of these people followed him out of gratitude for their enhancements while others were brainwashed. Sensing that Apocalypse was about to be defeated, Mikhail went rogue and declared the lands he supervised as his own. He then took his fleet to London in an attempt for peace with the Human High Council. He was greeted by Victor Von Doom and Doom’s entourage of Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Gwen Stacy, Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, Clint Barton and Donald Blake. All of whom were associated with the human resistance in some aspect. As the crowd praised and applauded Mikhail, he invited Von Doom and the others onto his ship to prove he had nothing to hide. While on the ship, they were betrayed by Bruce Banner and captured. Mikhail planned to brainwash and enhance them.

At the same time, Mikhail was offering enhancements to whomever volunteered. This was greeted with praise by some humans and hatred by others. Unknown to those volunteering was that they were actually imprisoned and brainwashed to loyally serve the horseman. Mikhail also forced the mutant Empath to control the emotions of the human refugees, making some love him like a god. Then, under the false pretense of peace Mikhail went to meet with the Human High Council. The humans, betrayed by Banner, managed to escape and free all those imprisoned by Mikhail. Donald Blake and Victor Von Doom then went to warn the Council who were still meeting with Mikhail. An all out riot also ensued on the streets below between humans wanting to be enhanced and those who thought it was betraying their own race. The former prisoners of Mikhail were also able to take control of his airship. Mikhail, knowing that his cover was blown, had his elite forces attack the meeting to tried to kill the council. This plan was stopped by Donald Blake who tackled Mikhail, forcing the two off the top of Big Ben to their apparent deaths.
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