Apocalypse vs Aquaman

[byc]

Apocalypse wasn't even that impressive in AoA. He was beating up on Magneto who wasn't really defending himself, and then Mags ripped Apoc in half. I think flashbacks showed Apoc did well to remove his rivals early on through planning and preemptive strikes.

The most impressive I can remember is in Xcutioner's song when he fought Storm, Beast, Colossus, and Gambit I think, and he took them out in 3 pages. Then he took on the Dark Riders off-panel. He didn't do anything in Blood of Apocalypse that I can recall.

He's a big talker with an impressive name that made a good impression during his appearances in X-Factor, but he hasn't do anything else really memorable other than X-Men remarking that Poccy-Lips is really dangerous.

Edit: He wrestled Hulk down Onslaught. So 1 thing.

[HulkSmash666]

Let's compare them:

Strength: Aquaman has been portrayed in the New52 as being somewhat stronger than he was Post-Crisis, and I'm estimating here, but Post-Crisis he was around the Class 50 range, whereas nowadays he's pushing Class 100 whilst underwater. The dude has some seriously impressive strength feats NOW as opposed to what he used to have Post-Crisis. Also, I'm not buying he one-shotted Superman. IIRC he DID hit him and send him flying (kind of a sucker punch, but still...) but that's not that impressive. Superman weighs, what?, 220-230lbs? Aquaman has near Class 100 strength in the water (or wet), so its not much of a stretch to think he can get Supes airborne with a sucker punch haymaker.

Apocalypse, OTOH, is a proven Class 100+, perhaps the physically strongest mutant on Earth, having one-armed wrestled an enraged Hulk into submission, smacked around a young Thor (even headbutted him, causing a shockwave that was felt for miles around) to the point where Thor had to retreat and come back with a weapon specifically enchanted to crack Apocalypse's Celestial armour. He also was treating the Eternal Ikkaris like he was a joke. Ikkaris is one of the most powerful Eternals there are, and second strongest Eternal behind Gilgamesh. He's (unamped) around Class 75-80. He's also restrained She-Hulk with one arm, holding her helpless off the ground by the throat. She's a Class 90ish (or was at the time). So it's fair to say, even though Apocalypse's strength feats are few and far between, he's significantly stronger than Arthur.

Speed: Neither have shown any great speed feats to put them above the other by any great margin. Arthur would no doubt be faster underwater, but given Apocalypse's shape-shifting powers, it's not a stretch to think Apocalypse couldn't morph propulsion units in his feet or whatever. He's morphed gills before, so that'd help him too. Apocalypse has also been fast enough to tag Quicksilver, as well as take out 3 other X-Men, all in a matter of seconds, while literally on death's door. On land, I'm giving the edge to Apocalypse in speed. Plus he can fly.

Durability: Arthur is probably more durable than he is strong, a bit like Luke Cage in that regard. Living on the bottom of the ocean makes you pretty damn tough. But he's not invulnerable. Apocalypse is an immortal, nigh-invulnerable, can control his molecular structure, AND has Celestial armour. He's tanked shots that would vaporise Arthur, or at the least fuck him up beyond repair. Advantage = Apocalypse.

Telepathy: Arthur isn't even in the top 5 telepaths in the DCU. Apocalypse's psi-defences laugh off mental assaults from Xavier and Jean Grey COMBINED. Arthur is screwed if he goes to mind-fuck Apocalypse.

That's about it for the comparrison, as Arthur can only really compete in these areas with Apocalypse. I'm not even including the myriad other powers at Apocalypse's disposal. The dude is the Swiss army knife of mutant powers, let alone the exotic shit he can do with his Celestial tech. You'd have to SERIOUSLY handicap Apocalypse for this to be considered a fight.