It's a sequel to the previous Terror, Inc. (MAX) series, and once again stars Terror, an immortal being whose patchwork body is built from limbs and organs he's taken from others. He's also an assassin and mercenary, so has ample opportunity to obtain new supplies.
On this occasion he's hired by the Israelis to stop Middle Eastern Terrorists creating a new plague. A job that goes very wrong very quickly.
Terror Inc. - Apocalypse Soon provides examples of:
- Autocannibalism: Zahnak has two demonic snakes bound to him which need to feast on human brains regularly. Terror entombs him in a deep cavern for centuries, where the snakes eventually grow hungry enough to feed on their host, who being immortal grows his brain back, and this keeps repeating over and over and over...
- Big Bad: Aban, the immortal boy who turns out to be the Plaguemaster.
- Distant Epilogue: The last page shows that Zahhak and Aban are still Sealed Evil in a Can five hundred years later.
- Never Grew Up: Prince Aban is an immortal child. This may be part of the reason he wants to kill everyone, but it doesn't seem to be a major factor.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Terror kills the terrorists experimenting with plagues in Istanbul, scares the homeless people sheltering in the building's upper floors out of the building before he blows it up, and gets the boy who's the one surviving test subject to a hospital. The boy is Aban, an immortal Plaguemaster, previously contained for centuries as Sealed Evil in a Can. The experiments weren't trying to create and spread diseases, they were desperately trying to kill him.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Aban is a plague-carrying, immortal young boy who wants to die but can't, so in his frustration, he wants to end the world, hoping that this will kill him. He refers to himself as a true nihilist and enjoys killing.
- The Plague: Seen in flashback to the 14th century, then revealed as the modern threat as well. Both are linked by Aban, the immortal Plaguemaster.
- Plaguemaster: The immortal Aban. He caused the original Black Death and, now he's free again, he intends to kill the world.
- Resurrective Immortality: It's implied, but not directly stated, that Zahhak and Aban have this ability in addition to some level of Regeneration. It's mentioned that whatever's done to them, they're back the following day. And Zahhak does appear to be dead — at least temporarily — after his son attacks him.
- Sealed Evil in a Can:
- Zahhak, the immortal "Dragon King". In the 14th century, Terror chained him up in the deepest, darkest cave he could find. At the start of the story, he's still down there.
- Prince Aban, Zahhak's immortal son. The true Big Bad of the story, buried alive by his father in the 14th century, but released shortly before the series starts.
- Both Zahhak and Aban end up imprisoned again at the end of the series, but this time in the same sealed cave. A Distant Epilogue shows they're still there 500 years later.
- Sequel Series: A sequel to Terror, Inc. (MAX), from the same writer.
- Stop Hitting Yourself: The snakes growing from Zahhak's shoulders feed on brains, usually of his enemies or (when he was a king) victims offered to him. Although they're part of him, he doesn't have full conscious control of them. Terror leaves him chained up in a cave as Sealed Evil in a Can for centuries. Each day, the snakes devour his brain, and he regenerates.
