Bennet du Paris, a French crusader who did not yet know he was a mutant, trekked into the desert hunting the legendary Tower of Power near Aqaba — and found Apocalypse waiting instead. En Sabah Nur awakened the knight’s latent psionic gifts, amplified them enormously, renamed him Exodus, and installed him as his champion.
The loyalty test arrived immediately. Apocalypse ordered his new weapon to kill the Black Knight — du Paris’s closest friend Eobar Garrington, whose body was then hosting the time-displaced Dane Whitman, with the Eternal Sersi at his side. Exodus refused, denounced his maker as a false god, and turned his borrowed power against Apocalypse himself.
The rebellion lasted moments and the sentence lasted centuries. Apocalypse stripped the stolen power back out of him and sealed the comatose crusader inside a crypt in the Swiss Alps, under a curse that let other people wander in but never let Exodus walk out. He remained there until Magneto freed him in the 20th century and recruited him into the Acolytes.
THE RECRUIT
THE TEST
THE SENTENCE
THE RELEASE
Bullpen Bulletins
- Marvel.com — Exodus Official Marvel profile confirming Apocalypse unleashed du Paris’s powers, named him Exodus, and sealed him in a Swiss Alps chamber after his betrayal.
- Marvel Database — Bennet du Paris (Earth-616) Full history of the Crusades encounter, the refused kill order against the Black Knight, and the centuries-long entombment.
- Wikipedia — Exodus (comics) Independent summary of the Black Knight: Exodus #1 (1996) origin and Magneto’s later freeing of Exodus.