X-Men/Characters/Villains

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur)

A 5,000-year-old Egyptian immortal who has spent millenia inciting strife in different civilizations to separate the weak from the strong. Whether or not his claims of being the first mutant are true, he is certainly at least the second oldest, after Selene, and the Celestial technology at his disposal grants him almost godlike power. There is more than one alternate reality where he rules the planet.

  • Achilles' Heel: What would happen if you cut those cables going into his arms?
  • A God Am I
  • Badass Boast: (Most likely in 1990s X-Men cartoon)
    • "I am Apocalypse! Look upon the future and tremble!"
    • "I am as far beyond mutants as they are beyond you! I am eternal!"
  • Bald of Evil
  • Big Bad: For the original X-Factor and Cable, and shares this spot with Magneto for the X-Men as a whole, since he is their most powerful recurring villain by far (not counting one-offs like Dark Phoenix or the Adversary).
  • Capcom vs. Whatever: Was the boss of X-Men vs. Street Fighter and the penultimate boss of Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Has not appeared in the series since...
  • Combo-Platter Powers: Apocalypse's only natural mutations are physical prowess, immortality, and his strange gray skin and blue lips (surprisingly enough). Everything else—the shapeshifting, teleportation, energy projection, etc. -- came from the Celestial technology he stumbled upon.
  • Deal with the Devil: It's been revealed that the Celestials knew about Apocalypse using their technology, and allowed him to keep it in exchange for future services. While they have yet to collect on said services, the Celestials did at one point prevent Apocalypse from dying to ensure that he would be able to pay them back someday.
    • Blue Lips himself does this quite a bit, empowering Mr. Sinister and several mutants (including a few of the X-Men) in exchange for service.
  • Depending on the Writer: Whether he is a cosmic-level entity that can pimp-smack the likes of Loki and go toe-to-toe with The High Evolutionary, or is a has-been dependent upon regeneration chambers.
  • Dystopia Justifies the Means: His ideal society is a bombed-out radioactive wasteland littered with genocide camps and Nazi-style genetic experimentation labs. Think Benito Mussolini on crack.
    • That was however an Alternate Reality.
      • But specifically it was an alternate timeline; the key thing that differed between that and the mainstream verse is simply that in this one Prof X died, Apocalypse woke up earlier, and nobody stopped him. Age of Apocalypse was very much intended to be about what the mainstream Apocalypse would do if he was ever allowed to win; the Bad Futures that he rules aren't really much better.
  • Eviler Than Thou
  • Evilutionary Biologist
  • Evil Overlord: Particularly in the Age of Apocalypse, where he rules North America with an iron fist.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: That bit below about culling the weak? He taught that to his followers, so after he got badly beaten by Stryfe they judged him to be weak, and changed sides.
  • Kick the Dog: In the Rise of Apocalypse" miniseries chronicling his backstory, he as a young man was rejected by the girl he loved due to being physically ugly. When it turned out his powers made him immortal, he went back to her as she was dying of old age and taunted her on her deathbed.
  • Legacy Character: In Uncanny X-Force it's revealed that Apocalypse is part of a long line of beings who made sure evolution headed in the direction the Celestials desired.
  • The Man Behind the Curtain: On rare occassions in more modern day and future storylines, Apocalypse's fearsome exterior visage of an ancient and incredibly powerful mutant is torn away to reveal... an ancient and incredibly old man with a physique roughly akin to that of Mr. Burns, whose current power is largely due to being encased in what is basically glorified (albeit very, very advanced) Powered Armor, while his own power ate away at his body.
  • Man Behind the Man: Not only did he give Mr. Sinister his powers, Apocalypse is also the original source of his resources.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: His names is Apocalypse.
  • Shapeshifter Baggage: Can take any form regardless of size or shape. He almost never reduces himself to petty espionage, however.
  • Shapeshifter Weapon: Apocalypse can make anything from battering rams and saw blades to Energy Weapons from his arms.
  • Social Darwinist: His whole schtick is culling the weak so that the strong survive. This extends to him, too; he has been entirely willing to die whenever he's been defeated due to his belief that his own failure makes him unworthy of life.
  • Start of Darkness: The Rise of Apocalypse mini, which reveals how he was abandoned at birth due to his obvious mutation, adopted by bloodthirsty nomadic raiders, lost his adoptive father, encountered Rama-Tut/Kang the Conqueror, was rejected by the girl he'd fallen in love with, escaped slavery, and eventually rose to power as pharaoh.
  • Super Empowering: In addition to Mr. Sinister, Apocalypse has also empowered most of his Horsemen, either giving them brand new powers or upgrading what was already there. This has even helped the X-Men on occasion (despite the brief episode of brainwashing), as he has restored Angel's wings, Wolverine's adamantium skeleton, and Sunfire's legs.
  • Took a Level in Badass: His 90's animated series version is way more epic.
    • Also, his Evolution counterpart may be the strongest version, and slightly less evil.
  • Touched by Vorlons: Apocalypse was granted much of his power by celestial technology.
  • Worthy Opponent: The only reason he allows the X-Men to live is because he considers them among the strong.

Arcade

A wealthy assassin who grew bored with conventional killing, so he designed a gigantic killer themepark he dubbed Murderworld. Even after that, he grew tired of the lack of challenge, so he redesigned it so he could try to kill superheroes with it. He's yet to actually kill any superheroes with Murderworld, but he has enough fun just watching them escape.

Avalanche (Dominic Szilard Janos Petros )

A Greek mutant terrorist with earthquake powers who joined the Brotherhood with Pyro.

Azazel

A demonic overlord and Nightcrawler's biological father. Millennia ago, he was banished into the Brimstone dimension by the Cheyarafim, a group of xenophobic mutants with angelic appearances. He possesses an impressive amount of powers, teleportation included. He appeared in X-Men First Class (however with a different look) and was portrayed by Jason Flemyng.

Bastion

The half-human, half-robot result of Nimrod and Master Mold (its a long story), Bastion was a high-ranking government operative who initiated Operation: Zero Tolerance in response to the Onslaught Saga and Mystique's assassination of Graydon Creed. The program created a new breed of "Prime Sentinels"; infecting ordinary humans with nano-probes that transformed them into human-sized Sentinels in the presence of mutants. Bastion had Jubilee kidnapped and Mind Raped and captured several other mutants before the government shut down his program and Wolverine beheaded him.

The Purifiers brought Bastion back and gave him an upgraded body. Bastion attempts to kill several X-Men but sets his sights on Hope, the mutant messiah. Nightcrawler makes a Heroic Sacrifice to damage him but Bastion recovers and tries to kill Hope. Hope manifests a combo platter of powers to overwhelm and ultimately fry him.

Belasco

Black Tom Cassidy (Thomas Cassidy)

Blob (Fred Dukes)

A mutant with a layer of protective blubber, bullet-proof skin, and Super Strength. He was discovered by the X-Men and was initially disinterested until he met Jean Grey. After she rebuked him, he decided not to join the X-Men, and the X-Men tried to erase his memory of the events causing him to turn to crime and Magneto, becoming a cornerstone of the Brotherhood of Mutants. Though, really, can you blame him?

The Brood

Your standard race of evil alien bug people who have a queen and wish to assimilate all life in the universe.

Cassandra Nova (Cassandra Nova-Xavier)

Of all X-men's villainesses, Cassandra is generally thought as the most threatening of all. Completely amoral, power-hungry, she is on par with her brother, Charles Xavier, in terms of mental abilities mastery. She has faded in the background lately but she remains unvanquished so far which means she may reappear soon.


Changeling / Morph (Kevin Sydney)

The second-in-command of Factor 3, a replacement for the Brotherhood of Mutants that wanted to start World War III. The leader of Factor 3 was revealed to be an alien and his organization turned on him and was disbanded. He secretly joined the X-Men and was killed shortly after his covert membership was revealed. Morph from the animated series was based on him.

A parallel universe version of him is a constant member of the Exiles, where he's more of a wacky, Looney-Tuneish character who uses his ability to entertain.

The main universe version of Changeling had shapeshifting, and minor psychic powers. The Exiles version has more powerful shapeshifting powers.

Chimera

Dark Beast (Henry McCoy)

Destiny (Irene Adler)

  • Anti-Villain: Much less actively malevolent than most of the people she acquaints with.
  • The Archer: Used a crossbow in combat, when she was forced to fight physically and had a particularly good aim since she "knew" where her dart would land.
  • Blind Seer
  • Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie: She left incredibly precise instructions for Mystique as to how and when to scatter her ashes... so that Mystique would do so at the exact moment that a gust of wind would blow them back in her face. Apparently, Mystique always complained that Destiny never made her laugh, so Destiny set up her funeral to get that effect from her lover.
  • Bury Your Gays
  • Disposable Woman: A rare case where a woman is killed off to push the story of another woman instead of a man.
  • Face Death with Dignity: She knew Legion was coming to kill her, and sent Forge off to help Mystique anyway. When Legion shows up, she just turns to him calmly and asks if he's not disappointed to only find her when he expected to kill Forge as well.

Hullo, Legion. Were you perhaps expecting to find two of us here to serve your pleasure... silly boy?

  • The Fun in Funeral: Destiny invoked this on purpose. All during their life together, she could never get Mystique to laugh... so the instructions she left Mystique as to what to do with her ashes were calculated to the sole purpose of getting Mystique to laugh. (It did.)
  • Generic Cuteness: Defied. She is an elderly woman thus doesn't have the typical knock-out figure of comics women.
  • Hide Your Lesbians: It is never clearly said that she is Mystique's lover but she is referred to as Mystique's leman which is a synonym.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: One of her last actions is to try to set up Mystique with Forge.
  • Killed Off for Real: By Legion. Temporarily revived by Selene in Necrosha
  • Nobody Over 50 Is Gay: Averted. Would have been averted further (the plan was that Destiny and Mystique were to be Nightcrawler's biological parents) except that there was no way that plot development would have flown in the 80s or 90s.
  • Shout-Out: She's named after the antagonist of the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia", possibly as an allusion to her nature as a Femme Fatale.

Donald Pierce / White Bishop

One of the X-men's most loathsome foes, an evil racist cyborg who wants to exterminate all mutants - usually starting with the babies and children and working his way up. Totally repugnant and insane. Ironically, was a former member of the Hellfire Club until his political views influenced him to become an all-out anti-mutant terrorist.

Exodus (Bennet du Paris)

Fabian Cortez

  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Cortez was killed by the vengeful Magneto who used his fully-charged magnetic powers to fling Cortez fifty miles and smash him to the ground.
  • Lethal Harmless Powers: His empowering ability could push the mutant's power out-of-control with fatal results.
  • Manipulative Bastard
    • When he had a Villainous Breakdown in the episode of 90s X-Men cartoon, he attempted to wipe out humans (and remaining mutants) by launching the nuclear missiles from Asteroid M to Earth. Fortunately, the recovered Magneto turned up just in time and managed to stop the annihilation before getting his revenge on him.
  • Reliable Traitor
  • The Starscream
  • Super Empowering: His power was to amplify other mutants powers. That's why Magneto used him for so many years.
  • Power Incontinence: The effect he could inflict on other mutants. He would increase their power to levels where they couldn't control them. With Magneto, he was slowly killing him
  • Healing Hands: When he increased a mutant's powers he could also heal that mutant. He did this for Magneto during his rule over Genosha.

Goblyn Queen (Madelyne Jennifer Pryor)

During Jean Grey's first death, Cyclops flew to Alaska with his family, where he met a charming, red-headed commercial airline pilot...who looked exactly like her. They fell in love, married, and had a son together... then Jean Grey came back. Cyclops left Madelyne alone with their son to go back to superheroing, just in time for her to be targeted by Mr. Sinister. As it turned out, her entire past was faked...she was a clone of Jean, designed to be a "brood mare" for Scott's son so Sinister could have his hands on the most powerful mutant in history. Needless to say, she didn't take this news well...

  • Badass Normal: Started out as a commercial pilot with a mean right hook, then during her time on the run from Sinister's Marauders, she joined the X-Men out of necessity and became their tech support, managing to pull her weight on the team without any (apparent) powers at all.
  • Bad Powers, Bad People: In addition to her Psychic Powers, at the height of her Goblyn Queen phase, Madelyne could draw out the innate evil in things and people, which she used to turn the X-Men against X-Factor.
  • Action Girl: As a woman created by Claremont, this is kind of to be expected.
  • Cloning Blues
  • Deal with the Devil: Which unlocked both her Psychic Powers and Black Magic.
  • Death Is Cheap: Let's see...killed in Inferno, resurrected by Nate Grey, killed again (possibly) by an evil alternate version of Jean, showed up as a psychic ghost to Cyclops and Cable on the Astral Plane, then resurrected again (maybe) as the Red Queen, where she died yet again. The fans are currently taking bets for how long this one will stick.
  • Evil Redheads: Though she didn't start out this way, she eventually became the poster child for this.
  • Evil Twin: She became this to Jean Grey eventually.
  • Face Heel Turn
  • Fan Nickname: She's been called Maddie, Lynne, Queeny, and any number of other things by characters both in and out of universe.
  • Healing Hands: During her stint as "Anodyne" in the Asgardian Wars. She even fixed Rogue's absorption powers during this period, though it didn't take.
  • Heroes Want Redheads: Even evil, she managed to get the attention of more than a few good guys.
  • Mama Bear: Subverted hard. At the start of Inferno, she's pulling out all the stops to get her baby back from Sinister... then it turns out she just wants to sacrifice him to turn New York City into Hell on Earth.
    • She only wanted to make Hell on Earth after Sinister revealed her origins.
  • Psychic Powers: As a clone of Jean, this was to be expected eventually.
  • Replacement Goldfish: She was only this because the writers couldn't bring Jean outright back at the time.
  • Stripperiffic: Her Goblyn Queen outfit, and her costumes as a member of the Hellfire Club.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Became this when the writers couldn't make her just Jean reborn.
  • Trauma Conga Line: The sequence of events that eventually pushed her off the slippery slope.
  • What Could Have Been: She was originally intended to be just as she appeared—a woman who looked exactly like Jean, but nothing more. However, when plans were started to resurrect Jean to reform the Original X-Men for the 25th anniversary of the title, a major problem presented itself—Scott and Maddy had married and were happy. That's when the Summers marriage fell apart. Hence the twist that she was a clone engineered by Mister Sinister, her becoming the Goblyn Queen and her death during Inferno.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity
  • Woman Scorned: A tragic instance.

Graydon Creed

John Sublime

An eccentric millionaire introduced early on in Grant Morrison's run on the book, John Sublime became well-known for proclaiming that the thing he wanted most in the world was to be a mutant. He described this dream in his book, The Third Species, in which he encourages baseline humans to find the mutant within. He first comes under the X-Men's radar after the book is linked to a string of killings of mutants whose organs are subsequently harvested by a group calling themselves "the U-Men." Questioned by Cyclops and Emma Frost, he at first feigns innocence, but quickly reveals that he is the one in command of the U-Men, and is keeping a young telepath, Martha Johansson (reduced to a Brain In a Jar kept alive by drugs) enslaved to sedate mutants while his men dissect them. Scott and Emma escape from the operating table, and Emma forces Sublime out a window (in revenge for the extremely expensive nose job the U-Men had earlier ruined). As Emma debates with herself whether or not to Save the Villain, Martha takes the situation into her own hands and telepathically forces Sublime to let go of Emma's hand.

If only it were that simple. As it turns out, Sublime was the very first life form on Earth to attain sentience, a colony of self-aware bacteria whose greatest pleasure was infecting and controlling the dominant species on the planet, moving to new hosts whenever that role changed. However, a problem for Sublime arose in the case of mutantkind. It would appear that those who carry the X-Gene are immune to Sublime. With mutantkind set to take the role of dominant species from humanity in four generations or fewer, Sublime decided that the only solution was to destroy them, and he came up with multiple ways to accomplish just that. Not only was it Sublime who commanded the U-Men, it was Sublime who gave Cassandra Nova the Nano-Sentinel technology, Sublime who started the Weapon Plus program to experiment on mutants and build weapons to destroy them, Sublime who drove Kid Omega and Xorn to madness, Sublime who would one day cause the Beast to become a Mad Scientist in a dystopian future, and, most shockingly of all, Sublime who caused hatred of mutants to exist in the first place. The X-Men have foiled these plots and more, but chances are Sublime will always find a way to return.

The Juggernaut (Cain Marko)

Xavier's stepbrother, the older, much stupider, and selfish Cain Marko. Growing up, he was abused by their stepfather Kurt Marko and he retaliated by tormenting Xavier. When they were both in the army during the Korean War, they took refuge in a cave where Cain discovered a magical ruby placed there by an Eldritch Abomination that turned him into its avatar - the Juggernaut. Unstoppable in every way but via psionics or advanced magic, the Juggernaut continued to be a thorn in Xavier's side for years, eventually getting trapped inside of the source of his own powers. Since he was let out, he fought briefly on the side of good, before embracing his true evil nature and returning to villainy.

  • Abusive Parents: Kurt Marko used to beat him up horribly.
  • Achilles' Heel: He has a weakness to psychic powers (only when his helmet is removed).
  • Anti-Villain: Very occasionally played as a type IV Anti-Hero. Now he's full-blown evil once again.
  • Ascended Meme: In X-Men: United, "Don't you know who I am? I'M THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH!"
  • Badass Boast
  • The Brute
  • Cain and Abel: With Professor X.
  • Giant Mook
  • Good Is Dumb
  • Heel Face Turn, followed by a Face Heel Turn, followed by a Heel Face Turn shortly after.
    • Heel Face Revolving Door
      • Deadly Change-of-Heart: During World War Hulk, the evil god who gave the Juggernaut his powers made him realize that the reason he was losing his powers was because he'd become soft and weak. In response, Juggernaut fully embraced his evil nature and the evil nature of the god who empowered him, returning to his true villainous nature.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Black Tom
  • The Brute
  • Meaningful Name
    • Fountain of Memes: "Pimp smack yo' ass, bitch!", "Comb yo' beard, I don't wanna hear that shit", "You can't run from the Juggernaut"
  • Name of Cain
  • Pet the Dog: In his villainous career, Black Tom was the only person he has shown concern.
    • During his Heel Face Turn phase, Juggernaut has also shown his soft spot for Squid Boy in Chuck Austen's Uncanny X-Men and Nocturne in New Excalibur issues.
  • Rogues Gallery Transplant: Occasionally clashes with Spider-Man and The Hulk.
  • The Juggernaut: Okay, his unstoppability is refuted fairly often, but he is a real tough bastard.
    • Made even worse in Fear Itself event, Juggernaut becomes posessed by ancient being in service of Asgardian god, The Seprent, becoming "Kull, Breaker Of Stone". In this incarnation he is even more unstoppable. Not only all his usual weaknesses are removed (telepathy and draining his powers did not work and teleporting him away will result in him teleporting back where he was immiediately), the X-Men's attempts had failed so much that Colossus, Magik and Shadowcat had to appeal to the Evil God to remove the Juggernaut powers from Cain and transfer it to Colossus in order to stop him.
  • The Worf Effect: Notably for Onslaught, who made his entrance by punching Juggernaut to New Jersey. It's notable that before this event he was generally stopped through psychic attacks or other, more indirect methods instead of simply overpowered.
    • Also Worfed for Gladiator, who completely no-sold one of his punches and then threw him out to sea.
  • Worthy Opponent: Curiously, the Juggernaut has been known to show respect to people who put up a good enough fight against him. Although Colossus and Dazzler both lost their battles against him, they managed to win his respect.

Lady Deathstrike (Yuriko Oyama)

The Marauders

A bunch of mercenary mutants who appear mainly as Mr Sinister's Mooks. Lead by the psychic entity known as Malice who is famous for having successively possessed Dazzler and more prominently Polaris, they can all be indefinitely cloned and many of them have been shown to have died but have come back to life (except Sabretooth, whose DNA is too complex to clone).

By name: Scalphunter (an assholish Technopath), Arclight (a former servicewoman who causes shockwaves with her punch), Harpoon (a redheaded Inuit who channels energy in his spears), Scrambler (an energy vampire who negates people's powers), Blockbuster (The Brute of the group), Vertigo (a former Savage Land mutate who can cause dizziness and disorientation with her mind), Riptide (a sadist who uses Razor Wind to fight), Prism (a crystalline-bodied guy who can easily deflect energy beams) and Malice (a psychic entity who can possess people).

Sabertooth was originally part of the crew but left soon after the Morlocks' massacre. Gambit was also part of their team.

Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde)

A mutant with the ability to create perfect telepathic illusions. One of the earliest members of the Brotherhood of Mutants. He plotted constantly to overthrow Magneto and marry the Scarlet Witch, who was repulsed by his attentions.

  • Badass Beard
  • Badass Family: His daughters Regan (Lady Mastermind), Martinique Jason (the 2nd Mastermind) and Megan Gwynn (Pixie of the New X-Men)
  • Beard of Evil
  • Big Bad: Of the Dark Phoneix and Dark Phoenix Returns arcs.
  • The Chessmaster: During the Dark Phoenix Returns arc.
  • Dirty Coward
  • Dirty Old Man
  • Evil Genius: Not much of a fighter but if he plans well enough he could devastate the team.
  • Man of Wealth and Taste: Likes to project this image after joining the Hellfire Club.
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • Master of Illusion
  • The Starscream: To Magneto, and later the Hellfire Club.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the 60s all he did was surprise characters by making monsters appear. Then the 80s rolled in and he helped drive Jean Grey mad, had a sword fight on the mental plane with Cyclops, and won. In an annual he created another plan to make them think Phoenix was back and to make Scott look like a villain, forcing him to fight his own team mates. It was a crowning moment of awesome for both characters.

Mesmero

Mikhail Rasputin

A powerful, dangerous and insane mutant Reality Warper, Mikhail Rasputin is a former Russian cosmonaut and the elder brother of X-Men Petyr Rasputin (Colossus) and Illyana Rasputin (Magick). He was driven mad by occasions use of his powers accidentally caused the deaths of countless beings in another dimension (including his wife)) where he was secretly sent on a mission by the Soviet government once they learnt about his powers. Mikhail frequently sets himself up as a Dark Messiah of desperate mutants or others that tends to end violently and badly, which brings him into conflict with the X-Men, mostly out of a desire to use his vast mutant powers for good, but his insanity tends to cause this to backfire. He has a tense relationship with his siblings but generally cares for them.

  • Ax Crazy
  • Cain and Abel: He is the insane brother of Colossus
  • Dark Messiah: For the alternate dimension he was trapped in, later to the Morlocks and later still to Gene Nation.
  • Dimension Lord: When he ruled his dimension The Hill, he forced the young Morlocks to compete in order to become top soldiers by training them to fight to the death.
  • Evil Mentor: For Marrow and the other young Morlocks who became terrorists
  • Reality Warper: Though his reality-warping powers kicked in that saved his life from the botched Cosmonaut experiment, he became insane.
  • Teleporters and Transporters: With his reality-warping powers, this allows him to open pocket dimensions and teleport himself there.
  • Tragic Monster: His descent into madness and villainy started when he accidently killed off a large part of the population of an alternate dimension, including his wife, when trying to close the portal that brought him there. He later had to try again because the portal was going to destroy the dimension.
  • The Social Darwinist
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Mostly, he just wants to put his powers to some kind of constructive use, partly to make up for all the damage they have caused in the past. Unfortunately, being Ax Crazy makes him misinterpret what "constructive use" means.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity

Mr Sinister (Dr Nathaniel Essex)

Dr Nathaniel Essex was a respected Victorian scientist and a contemporary of Charles Darwin, who read Darwin's theories with interest but thought they did not go far enough. Uncovering evidence for the existence of mutants and viewing them as the next stage in human evoution, Essex put a radical kind of eugenics forward to the scientific community, arguing that children from the families of these unique bloodlines he was discovering (ie. the children or descendants of mutants) should be taken and raised as lab rats in order to direct the human race more clearly and quickly to its future. Unsurprisingly, the scientific community were horrified and turned against him, and on her deathbed even his wife denounced him as "Sinister" after she discovered he had dug up their dead son for his increasingly twisted research.

But Essex found a patron receptive to his ideas, the ancient mutant Apocalypse, who transformed him into an immortal and inhuman creature who take the name his dead wife gave him- Sinister. Though he eventually turned against his master for his genocidal creeds, Sinister continued his unethical experiments throughout the ages and has cast a dark shadow over the lives of many young mutants and innocents. Magneto knew him as "Nosferatu", a Nazi Mad Scientist who took blood samples from children in the camps in exchange for sweets; Juggernaut, Prof. X and Sebastian Shaw were amongst a group of children experiented on as part of a long-term Grand Theft Me plot in the unlikely event of his death, and Cyclops was raised in one of his orphanages, after he recognised the potential for the Summers' bloodline. Sinister was behind the massacre of the Morlocks and a host of other atrocities over the years, but with centuries of study backing him up he is likely the foremost expert in mutant genetics in the world. The combination makes him one of the X-Men's most intelligent, despicable and dangerous enemies.

  • Affably Evil: Emphasis on the "Evil" though.
  • Badass Cape: Your mileage will probably vary, though.
  • Big Bad: One of the X-Men's main recurrent advesaries, and the architect of much of their misery.
  • The Chessmaster
  • Crazy Prepared: He has plans within plans within plans. He has multiple schemes to cheat death (despite being an immortal and one of the most difficult villains to kill even considering that) that were set up in the 1950's, and many possibly earlier.
  • Deal with the Devil: Has been on both ends of this relationship, though in most (and often either) cases The Devil is him.
  • Diabolical Mastermind
  • The Dragon: To Apocalypse. Though he quickly turned against him and went solo.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: The reason he betrayed Apocalypse in the first place was the fact that the latter wanted him to engineer a genocidal plague to unleash upon humanity. Sinister didn't really do this out of any sense of morality however; he just considered it ignorant and bad science.
  • Evil Albino: Mr Sinister has been portrayed as an albino in at least some of his incarnations (his physical appearance having changed greatly over the ages). In particular, during World War Two, when he was worked for the Nazis as a geneticist in a concentration camp and was known by the nickname "Nosferatu".
  • Evil Genius
  • Evilutionary Biologist: Implied to be directly responsible for the abundance of mutants in the modern world due to the strange, forbidden experiments he conducted in his day.
  • For Science!: His usual motive. He has worked with the High Evolutionary on occasion, and in fact back in the day he was the Evolutionary's Evil Mentor, though both have learned not to trust each other as far as they can throw.
  • Gender Bender: Recently, after his physical body had died, he tries to transfer his consciousness to Professor Xavier's body but when it went horribly wrong, Sinister's powers ended up in Miss Sinister. Turned out to be only a temporary problem.
  • Healing Factor: His signature power; far more advanced than Wolverine's except on the latters best days. Think the T-1000 cranked Up to Eleven.
  • Humanoid Abomination: What Apocalypse turned him into, though maybe its better said that he only completed the process and Essex was inhuman in all but fact by that point.
  • Human Resources
  • Kill'Em All: Attempted on The Morlocks. Nearly succeeded.
  • Mad Scientist
  • Memetic Mutation: His Ultimate counterpart infamously introduced Ultimate Professor X to the latter's "true enemy": Stairs. [dead link]
  • Manipulative Bastard: One of Marvel's best offerings to this trope.
  • Mega Manning: He has a wide range of powers (see below); he got them from copying or stealing them from mutants he captured.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: One of the first (ex-) human X-Men villains who wasn't a stereotypical Card-Carrying Villain who not only did not want to eradicate the mutant race, he actually embraced the idea of Homo Superior. And ironically, he's turned out worse than nearly all of them.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: At last count, he's an immortal, invulnerable shapeshifer with Telepathy (mostly of the Mind Control or body-snatching variety), telekinesis, force fields, Super Strength, and energy blasts of some kind. And he rarely ever engages in any kind of physical fighting.
  • Pure Is Not Good: As a child, he thought the wealthy part of Victorian-era London he grew up in was Heaven and was fascinated by all the scientific advances being made, as well as how clean everything was. He became obsessed with purity thanks to this over time, culminating in his insane eugenical theories.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Or rather, about 150 or so.
  • Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Mr. Sinister is known for his unethical genetic practices and his somewhat disturbing obsession with the Summers family. However, few people know his original intended origin: he was a young rival of Cyclops who couldn't age. By the time Cyclops was an adult, Kid Sinister was still stuck as an eight-year-old (physically and mentally), and he used his mutant powers to change his appearance into that of a gaudy, over-the-top supervillain: an eight-year-old's vision of a cool supervillain. When considering that origin, Mr. Sinister's corny appearance and stereotypical supervillain demeanor actually make sense. But, The Powers That Be decided not to go with that origin...
  • Shiny Midnight Black: His hair is often drawn as this, and usually almost helmet-like in its stiffness and rigidity.
  • Stalker with a Test Tube

Mojo

Mystique (Raven Darkholme)

An 100-year old shapeshifting mutant. Originally, she could take on the appearance of any humanoid being by having complete control over the cells of her body, in addition to being able to morph the material in her clothes to suit any situation. She later got a superpower upgrade allowing her to produce weapons by morphing her organs and such into wings and talons. For years she was involved in espionage, with her long-time romantic partner Destiny - a blind mutant precognitive. For a time, Destiny and Mystique separated for personal reasons, and Mystique became romantically involved with Sabertooth and a German Baron, resulting in the birth of her two human sons - Graydon Creed and Kurt Wagner. Destiny and Mystique reunited, and depending on the writer - either adopted Rogue or conceived her via Mystique's shape shifting powers. After this, Destiny and Mystique revived the Brotherhood of Mutants to assassinate anti-mutant politicians and began their conflict with the X-Men. Mystique usually has her own personal goals she's fighting for, and is usually constantly involved in multiple webs of deception.

Although she is never paired with Magneto in the comics (they led two completely different incarnations of the Brotherhood), adaptations like to make her into his Dragon.

  • Badass Abnormal: Generally avoids combat, but has demonstrated that she is very capable of throwing down and kicking serious ass.
  • Boxed Crook: When she decided things were getting too dangerous, she took her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants- herself, Destiny, Pyro, Avalanche, and the Blob- and offered their services to the US Government as "Freedom Force". The arrangement lasted a surprisingly long time.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder
  • Dating Catwoman: Arguably, her relationship with Forge.
  • Depraved Bisexual: To an extreme degree. This was even touched upon in an old Marvel Fanfare issue featuring herself and Storm. Random flings in different genders, sometimes while looking like bastardizations of an acquaintance (such as a leather-Nazi Kitty Pryde... no seriously), is apparently very commonplace for her.
  • Evil Is Petty: There are a number of people she cares deeply about and there have been a number of occassions when she looked like she was reforming for good...and those times and those people have all been screwed over by the utterly horrible stuff she can do to someone who has earned her ire, or just happens to be in her way. That this includes several heroes and innocent people is one reason she is still considered very much a villain.
  • Evil Matriarch
  • Evil Redhead
  • Gender Bender
  • Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: When she and the Brotherhood became government agents. But even then, they were still treated as villains in most cases.
  • Jerk Justifications: Claremont treated Mystique as made of this trope, and that comparatively trivial Pet the Dog moments fully redeemed blowing up buldings of civilians and similar, but beyond a certain point it simply turned extremely disturbing, although it was done skillfully enough to drag along a large amount of readers. However, she arguably crossed the Moral Event Horizon when she disguised herself as Carol Danvers and chopped up the heroine's bystander boyfriend with a butcher knife and an ecstatic smile on her face, while maintaining the disguise, just out of spite.
  • Mayfly-December Romance: Mystique doesn't naturally age since her shapeshifting cells are constantly renewing themselves, and the most difficult part of her relationship with Destiny was helplessly watching Irene grow old through the years.
  • Mister Seahorse: Inverted if you subscribe to the theory that she's Rogue's and/or Nightcrawler's FATHER.
  • Offing the Offspring: She killed her son Graydon Creed for his part in murdering Destiny's grandson.
  • Pet the Dog: Towards Rogue, and occasionally Nightcrawler, which, for some, softens her more "evil" moments.
  • Rogues Gallery Transplant: She was originally a Ms. Marvel villain and one of her deadliest enemies, before becoming more closely associated with the X-Men.
  • Shapeshifter Guilt Trip
  • Shapeshifter Weapon
  • Shapeshifting Squick: Uses her ability for seduction purposes a lot. In one case turning into a gorgeous young blonde that Wolverine considered so hot that he accepted her advances despite that he knew who she was. Later in the bedroom she turned into a copy of Jean Grey.
  • The Vamp
  • Token Evil Teammate: In her X-Factor days in the late 90s and in X-Men in mid-2000s.
  • Villainesses Want Heroes: She has had a thing for Forge, Iceman, and Wolverine respectively.
  • Villain Protagonist: Like Sabretooth, she briefly had her own series.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting
  • Wild Card

Nimrod

A Sentinel set back from the future to Kill All Mutants who took up the identity of a superhero/ally of non-powered humans and vigilante who went around helping the community and trying to kill innocent mutants simply because he was programmed to. Ridiculously powerful: in its first several appearances it manhandled the Juggernaut, fought the combined lineup of the X-Men and the Lords Cardinal of the Hellfire Club to a standstill, and survived having the mass-equivalent of a small asteroid (actually Harry Leland overloading his gravity power to pull Sebastian Shaw down from having been Thrown Into The Sky) drop on him from orbit. He was later combined with Master Mold, then reborn as Bastion.

Omega Red (Arkady Gregorivich)

  • Ax Crazy
  • Badass
  • Combat Tentacles: Omega Red, whose tentacles can bash and smash as well as transmit his "death spore virus" (its name changes from one appearance to the next, but he's got a fatal disease he's gotta give to victims periodically or it'll turn back upon him. It becomes his best weapon, though he doesn't appreciate it.)
  • Combo-Platter Powers: Omega Red has a healing factor and life draining powers. Super Strength from draining life, metal tentacles don't fit but were added since healing factor let him take it. Releasing clouds of deadly gas is what doesn't fit.
  • Dirty Communists: Omega Red was made as a Soviet super soldier before turning into an Terrorist Without a Cause.
  • Evil Albino
  • Follow the Leader: Though it's less noticeable then with characters like Wolverine (who had a half a dozen ersatz versions of him in the 90's), after Omega Red showed up there were quite a few villains who's origins were "psychotic Soviet ex-KGB cyborg killer". Then again, Omega Red himself was just riding the wave of "ex-Soviet killer" that had been showing up in the media thanks to the aftermath of The Great Politics Mess-Up.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Omega Red is surprisingly well-known in Japan, thanks to the X-Men's relative popularity there during the 90's. He was even included in the Japanese intro for the 90's X-Men show despite having minimal presence and was a Marvel vs Capcom character.
  • I Shall Taunt You
  • Mother Russia Makes You Strong
  • Poisonous Person
  • Power Incontinence: Omega Red suffers from this as he had to drain people's life energy to survive and temporarily had to release the death spores his body built up or they would kill him. Even after he found a cure that allowed him to survive without other people's life he stole it anyway and would probably do the same with his death spores.
  • Psycho for Hire
  • Super Soldier: Because there is no way turning a seven-foot-tall mutant serial killer into a cyborg with KGB-training could ever backfire, right?
  • Tentacle Rope: He uses his favourite method of fighting his opponents before draining their life energy
  • Walking Wasteland: Omega Red has the ability to produce a "Death Spore Pheromone" that physically weakened anyone exposed to it, to the point that it could kill someone who was exposed to it long enough.

Proteus (Kelvin Mactaggert)

  • Antagonistic Offspring: To his mother, Moira.
  • Body Surf: Proteus burns through he bodies he possesses as he uses his Mutant Powers. However, assuming he doesn't ever use his reality-warping powers, he can stay in a single body for an extended period.
  • Composite Character: In Ultimate X-Men, this version of Proteus is a composite of the original Marvel Universe Proteus (Kevin Mctaggart, son of Moira and Joseph Mctaggart) and Legion (David Haller, son of Professor X and Gabrielle Haller). Ultimate Proteus is David Xavier, son of Moira and Professor X.
  • Freudian Excuse: In the 90s X-Men cartoon, he was portrayed much more sympathetically than his original comics counterpart, including a desire to reconnect with a father who never wanted him.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: In the 90s X-Men cartoon. More manchild than psychopath
  • Reality Warper
  • Violent Glaswegian: Proteus was a psychotic Scottish shape-changing villain. Not technically from Glasgow, but the island he came from was fictional, so it doesn't matter a whole lot.
  • The Worf Effect: Did this to Wolverine in the original comic and the animated series. The animated series version left Wolverine sobbing into his hands and vomiting, it was so nightmarish.
  • Your Worst Nightmare: In any continuity, he's one of a handful of people Wolverine is afraid of.

Pyro (St. John Allerdyce)

Pronounced Sinjin, not Saint John. An Australian mutant with the ability to control, but not generate, fire. In the comics he never worked directly with Magneto, working under Mystique and Toad in their incarnations of the Brotherhood instead, as well as in Freedom Force alongside many former Brotherhood members. Somehow found time to write Gothic horror novels in between getting punched in the face by one X-Man or another. In the movies he was turned into an American named John, with the same skill set.

  • Affably Evil
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Elemental Hair: In most continuities, he has spiky red hair.
  • Elemental Powers: Fire, but not creating it.
  • Hidden Depths: Terrorist, criminal and writer of popular horror novels.
  • Heterosexual Life Partners: With Avalanche; the two were almost never seen apart, although in this particular case the "heterosexual" part is questionable.
  • Land Down Under: Surprisingly averted. While he is Australian, his country of origin is rarely played up as part of his characterization. Which is probably the reason he's so popular with Australian X-Men fans.
    • Although this is more Depending Upon The Writer, having a foreign (i.e. non-Australian) writer try adding in some Australian slang to his dialogue normally backfires to Australian readers. Case in point: Captain America #333, where Pyro briefly refers to John Walker as a "bodgie." NO ONE in Australia talks like this.
  • Punch Clock Villain
  • Playing with Fire: In an interesting variation, he can control fire, but he can't create it himself. He carries around his own portable flamethrowers to do the job for him.
  • Psycho for Hire: In X-Men: Evolution.
  • Pyromaniac: A more subdued version, but there were times when he showed just how much he relished barbecuing people.
  • Redemption Equals Death: When he was severely weakened from the mutant disease Legacy Virus, he killed a Brotherhood member Post and saved Senator Robert Kelly's life. Before dying, he pleaded with Kelly to stop the hatred between humans and mutants.
    • He was resurrected in the ongoing Necrosha story arc.
  • True Companions: He's surprisingly loyal to those he considers his friends. In a battle with the Reavers, he had a tender moment with Mystique when it seemed like they were about to be killed, and was rather torn up when Stonewall was killed.

Quentin Quire

Reverend Craig

Reverend William Stryker

A televangelist who saw himself on a mission from God to eradicate all mutants, he and his Corrupt Church believed that mutants are demons from Hell. He led an army of mercenaries ("Purifiers"), and was not above murdering children to see his will carried out. He was a fairly obscure character whose only appearance was in the graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills, but when the book was used as the basis for the second movie, he resurfaced in the comics and was a recurring villain until his death.

Sabretooth (Victor Creed)

Sabretooth is the anti-mutant case in human form. He is a sadistic, unrepentant, bestial mass-murderer with superpowers and is proud of that fact, believing both Humans and Mutants are Bastards and that he is just the only one honest enough to recognise it, and embrace the Complete Monster within. This plays directly into his relationship with Wolverine, his Arch Enemy, Good Counterpart and Shadow Archetype with nearly identical powers, with whom he shares a long and complicated past Shrouded in Myth, with neither of them really sure how they first knew each other or why Victor feels such a grudge against him.

What is consistent, though, is that Creed is obsessed with Logan and will give him frequent Hannibal Lectures about how he should turn to the Dark Side and become an animal like him, whilst simultaneously hell-bent on proving that he is Logan's Always Someone Better despite- or probably because of- the evidence suggesting it is really the other way round, as Wolverine consistenly gets the better of him, though Sabretooth often leaves scars whenever that happens.

As with Mystique, Sabretooth is likely to end up as The Dragon to Magneto in various adaptations, despite the mainstream comic book versions having very little interaction and Sabretooth being the kind of monster who undermines Magneto's entire pro-mutant agenda. However, those adaptations usually make their working relationship rather short-lived, and sometimes he only joins him to get a chance to fight Wolverine.

  • Abusive Parents: His father was, in many ways, just as bad as him if not worse treating young Victor like an animal and keeping him chained up in a basement. Not that Vic is any better to his own son.
  • Arch Enemy: To Wolverine.
  • Ax Crazy: To put it very lightly.
  • Badass
  • Beard of Evil
  • Big Ol' Eyebrows
  • Blonde Guys Are Evil
  • Blood Knight
  • Card-Carrying Villain: He considers himself a violent and rabid animal and has no problem acting like one and gloating about it.
  • The Dreaded: Very few people ever want to hire or even work with him. There's a very good reason for that.
  • Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: More like "Even hideously sadistic, irredeemable monsters love Their mamas if They were kind to Them".
  • Evil Counterpart: To Wolverine, that is.
  • For the Evulz: This is the reason why he does everything that he does.
  • Genius Bruiser: Doesn't come up much, but he's a very skilled tactician and quite an accomplished hacker. Like Wolverine (but perhaps to a lesser extent) he is an Omniglot, and a highly-trained professional soldier and mercenary as well as a veteran of several major wars. Underestimate him at your peril.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Loves giving these to Wolverine.
  • Healing Factor
  • Heel Face Turn: In the Age of Apocalypse universe, he was at first a villain but he grew tired of the cullings that he joined the X-Men. He also adopts Blink and raises her as a daughter.
  • Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: He considers humans as little more than prey.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Very open about, and even more proud of it.
    • Eats Babies: Has eaten humans many times and he LOVES snacking on live babies.
  • It's All About Me: Sabretooth really doesn't give two shits about anyone other than himself. If he acts like you actually matter to him, it's probably because you fit right into one of his schemes.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Sabretooth is arguably known for his extreme speed, grace, and stealthiness even more than he's known for his savagery and bloodlust.
  • Manipulative Bastard
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: His name alone is usually a sign that things are about to get a whole lot worse.
  • Pet the Dog: He murdered his father, a hideously abusive bastard who treated him like an animal at a very young age, but continued to financially support and visit his mother up until her death because she was the only person who ever showed him kindness.
  • Psycho for Hire: Emphasis on "psycho".
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: No one knows just quite how old he is, but he's easily well over a century in age.
  • Reliable Traitor: Whether it's Weapon X, the Brotherhood, Apocalypse, or even the X-Men themselves, no one who employs him ever really trusts him.
  • Scarily Competent Tracker: He WILL find you, no matter how many pains you take to cover your tracks.
  • Serial Killer
  • Super Senses: If his tracking skills are anything to go by, his senses might be better than Logan's (whose tracking skills are still excellent, of course).
  • Super Strength: On the low-end of the scale, to be sure, but he is certainly stronger than any normal human.
  • Token Evil Teammate: Sabertooth has been on X-Men at least twice (though, one of those times it was a situation where they didn't want to kill him, but didn't trust anyone else to deal with him - he was an involuntary teammate)
    • He becomes a member of the X-Men in X-Men Forever
  • Villain Protagonist: Briefly, when he had his own series.

Sauron (Karl Lykos)

A mutant that was originally supposed to be a vampire, that was a no-go with the comics code at the time, so instead he was reworked into an energy-sucking pterodactyl man. Really. Lykos was on an expedition to Antarctica with his father when they stumbled upon some caves leading to the Savage Land, full of Pteranodons. Lykos was injured by a Pterodon scratch and gained the ability to drain energy from other humans, and later when he did so to a mutant, the ability to turn into a giant were-Pterodactyl with hypnotic powers. Going mad with evil, he names himself after the villain from his favorite books and decides to try to suck the life out of everyone.

Sebastian Shaw / Black King

The long-time leader of the Hellfire Club, a social club for millionaires he remodelled into a secretive society for evil mutants bent on World Domination, Sebastian Shaw is a snobbish, elitist, self-centred Jerkass and Corrupt Corporate Executive with the mutant power of kinetic energy absorption, meaning that any physical attack only makes him stronger making him a very difficult opponent to defeat in combat. However, he mostly relies on manipulation, treachery, deciept, and his oodles and oodles of cash and connections to further his evil schemes.

Selene / Black Queen

Former and most prominent Black Queen of the Hellfire club, Selene is the oldest know living mutant (after she killed the other externals), born over 14000 years ago, after the fall of Atlantis, but before the age of Conan the Barbarian, and is an ancient enemy of Kulan Gath. She doubles as a sorceress and psychic vampire, with a myriad abilities, some of which are magic, some of which are genetic. Regal, vain, manipulative, demonic-level pure evil, and extremely hard to permanently get rid of, she is one of the X-Men's most dangerous adversaries.

Sentinels

Shadow King (Amahl Farouk)

A vastly powerful psychic entity that likes to possess people and bring out their darker emotions. Professor X met him as Egyptian crimelord Amahl Farouk, and killed his human body in a psychic-showdown. Farouk was the first evil mutant Xavier encountered, prompting him to form the X-Men. However, it has been since revealed that the Shadow King might have existed long before possessing Farouk.


Shinobi Shaw

Silver Samurai (Kenuichio Harada)

Spiral (Rita Wayword)

  • The Baroness
  • Cyborg: Two of her arms are at least partially robotic.
  • The Dragon: Mojo may be strong, but he's also nearly immobile, counting on the acrobatics and swordplay of Spiral to keep his enemies at bay.
  • Dual-Wielding: Three times over!
  • Evil Sorcerer: When Doctor Strange retired as Sorcerer Supreme of the entire Marvel Universe, she was mentioned as a contender for the job.
  • Green-Eyed Monster
  • It Amused Me: Her motivation for joining the government team Freedom Force, led by Mystique and consisting mostly of BoxedCrooks, was never really clear- but it seems to have been mainly "bored and had nothing better to do".
  • Mad Scientist: In the Mojoverse, she runs the Body Shoppe, where villains (including Lady Deathstrike) get cybernetic makeovers.
  • Magitek: A sorceress and technological genius as well as an expert hand-to-hand (-to-hand-to-hand) combatant.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: She has six arms, three of which are cybernetic replacements.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot
  • Refugee From TV Land: Like everyone from Mojoworld, she has a lot of off sayings. She doesn't kill people, she cancels them.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl

Sugar Man

Toad (Mortimer Toynbee)

A mutant with amphibian-like abilities, including wall-crawling, sticky tongue, poison spit, and super-croaking. In the comics, he was usually depicted as an annoying, ass-kissing sycophant and Magneto's loyal suck-up with useless powers. He also had an incredibly intense crush on the Scarlet Witch. Outside of the comics, his portrayal has been better. In X-Men Evolution, he was almost one of the most featured characters on the show, even having his own theme song, and was depicted as a well-meaning but mischievous Sad Clown that the universe liked to crap on. In the movies, he was a bad ass martial artist who incorporated his powers into an unexpectedly formidable opponent (and was played by Darth Maul). The comics have tried to incorporate these traits into the character, making Toad his own Canon Immigrant. After his power upgrade/character revamp, Toad became more of a neutral player, having become disillusioned with Magneto.

Unus the Untouchable (Angelo Unuscione)

A narcissistic Italian wrestler with the ability to generate a forcefield to protect him from any harm. He was greedy and wanted to join the Brotherhood of Mutants for power and money. He proved to be unbeatable until Beast constructed a machine that interfered with the intensity of his forcefield and the ability to turn it on and off, nearly starving him. He continued to be a minor recurring villain that kept on having trouble controlling his power, occasionally leaving him unable to touch anything or anyone.

Vulcan (Gabriel Summers)

X-Cutioner (Carl Denti)

  1. ↑ In Ultimatum, the Blob eats the Wasp
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