Of the course of the nine movies in the X-Men: Apocalypse.
Mr. Sinister was one of the most popular recurring X-Men villains at the height of X-Men's popularity in the '90s. He was a mainstay in the comics, video games, and X-Men animated series for over a decade. But what do we really know about Mr. Sinister? Despite doing some being a card-carrying villain, he would occasionally help out the X-Men (when it suited him), and possessed his own twisted sense of morality. Unlike a lot of comic book villains, Mr. Sinister has lots of depth and mystery surrounding his character.
We are here today to uncover the truth behind this mad scientific genius. Here are 15 Things You Didn't Know About Mr. Sinister.
15. The Real & Fictional Origin Of Mr. Sinister
Mr. Sinister was created in the late 1980s by longtime X-Men writer Chris Claremont. Claremont had grown bored with the major recurring X-Men villains (like Magneto) and wanted to create someone new. It was revealed during the Mutant Massacre storyline that a shadowy figure was behind the whole thing. This figure was revealed in Uncanny X-Men #221 to be Mr. Sinister, an evil scientist who was obsessed with Scott Summers.
The next big X-Men crossover was Inferno, where it was revealed that Cyclops' wife, Madelyne Pryor, was actually a clone of Jean Grey created by Mr. Sinister. Pryor would eventually gain demonic powers, becoming the Goblin Queen. The Inferno storyline involved an army of demons invading New York and it took an alliance of several Marvel teams to stop them
As more writers used Mr. Sinister in their stories, his character the form we are familiar with today. He is an evil scientist with a wide range of mutant abilities at his disposal, who has an obsession with the DNA of both Scott Summers and Jean Grey. He believes that there is something hidden within their genetic code that he desires for his own mysterious ends. What he exactly wants from the DNA tends to change from writer to writer.
14. The Origin Of His Silly Name
So here is the biggest question about Mr. Sinister - what's the deal with his name?
According to Chris Claremont, Mr. Sinister was originally going to be the front for another supervillain. It was going to be revealed that the orphanage where Cyclops grew up was being controlled by an 11-year-old boy with mutant powers. The boy was actually an old man whose powers forced his body to stop growing. This boy would control a crime syndicate, but would have to act through agents due to his appearance.
Through the use of his powers, the boy would create a scary-looking supervillain to act as his representative to the outside world. This creation was Mr. Sinister, who was intentionally designed to look like he was designed by a child. This is why he has such a childish name - he was literally created by a kid. This backstory was abandoned before it could be revealed.
The funny thing about the name is that Mr. Sinister actually holds a doctorate, and could call himself Dr. Sinister if he wanted a more legitimate sounding name (unless he just likes the rhyme).
13. His Healing Ability Is Better Than Wolverine's
Mr. Sinister officially holds the classification of "Alpha-Level mutant". This is a designation given to the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe, and it extends to characters such as Magneto, Professor Xavier, and Storm. By being included in this group, Mr. Sinister is considered a force to be reckoned with.
The most impressive of Mr. Sinister's abilities concerns his body. His control over his cellular structure is so complete, it not only makes him immortal, but makes him practically impossible to kill.
While Wolverine can heal from almost any wound with his healing factor, Mr. Sinister can regenerate from almost total annihilation. His regeneration ability is close to that of Cell from Dragon Ball Z - so long as even a small part of Mr. Sinister's body survives, he can rebuild himself.
Mr. Sinister has also managed to cheat death by mixing his telepathic abilities with his knowledge of cloning. So long as Mr. Sinister has fresh clones of himself available, he can put his consciousness into one of them upon the destruction of his true body, allowing him to return as many times as he wants (which is a handy ability for a supervillain to possess.)
12. His One Weakness Is Cyclops
A villain who is indestructible would be very boring indeed. In order to make them interesting, a villain needs weaknesses for the good guys to exploit. Mr. Sinister is no exception to this, and he has one major weakness that his regeneration ability cannot counter - Cyclops's optic blasts.
The one person who Mr. Sinister is obsessed with kidnapping is also the one person who can truly harm him. For some unexplained reason, Cyclops's optic blasts can damage Mr. Sinister, to the point where his regeneration ability will not work (or at least, is nullified from working, making it possible for Cyclops to kill him once and for all.)
While the effects of Cyclops's blasts on Mr. Sinister tend to differ depending on the writer, the one place where it was set in stone was in the classic '90s X-Men animated series. In several episodes of the show, whenever Cyclops' hit Mr. Sinister with an optic blast, we would see an open wound that would bleed green blood. It was a very gruesome sight, especially for a kids show.
11. He Had A Unique Way Of Defeating Professor Xavier
In the year 2000, Marvel released a new line of comics referred to as Ultimate Marvel (or the "Ultimate Universe" by fans). This new series was intended to act as a fresh reboot of all of the big Marvel series, whilst leaving the regular Marvel series untouched. Ultimate Marvel would be new takes on some of their biggest series likeThe Avengers (referred to as The Ultimates), and X-Men.
The Ultimate version of Mr. Sinister was a human scientist who worked for Norman Osborn. He gained superpowers by performing experiments on himself. In exchange for his new abilities, however, he slowly lost his mind, and became obsessed with killing all mutants. After murdering several young mutants, the X-Men began a city-wide search of New York in order to track him down. Sinister was not hiding in New York City, however, as he was too busy breaking into the X-Men's Mansion.
It was inside the X-Men's home that Ultimate Mr. Sinister had his most famous scene. He was confronting Professor Xavier, the most powerful telepath on the planet, who could have lobotomized him with a thought. Sinister had other plans, however, and he used the same tactic that the Doctor has been dying to use on the Daleks for over fifty years.
He pushed his wheelchair down the stairs...
10. He Was Given His Powers By Apocalypse
When Mr. Sinister's origin story was revealed, it turned out that he may not have originally been a mutant at all.
Mr. Sinister was originally Nathaniel Essex, a scientist working in 19th century London. After his firstborn child died due to numerous birth defects, Essex became obsessed with trying to discover the cause of human mutations. He worked with a gang known as the Marauders, who would bring him disfigured people in exchange for money. The Marauders eventually ran into Apocalypse, who had just awoken in Victorian times. While Apocalypse generally has no time for people who aren't mutants, he was so impressed with Essex's work that he offered him a chance at immortality.
Essex, surprisingly, did not accept his offer straight away. It took the death of both his second child and his wife to convince him to side with Apocalypse. While it is not clear if Essex was a mutant before (he never showed signs of possessing any mutant powers), he was transformed into one by Apocalypse. Through the use of Apocalypse's technology, Essex became Mr. Sinister, one of the most powerful mutants alive.
9. He Was Secretly Betraying Apocalypse
In 1995, all of the X-Men comics series were dragged into a crossover known as The Age of Apocalypse. Professor Xavier's son, David (better known as Legion), went back in time to try and kill Magneto before he could become a villain. He messes up and accidentally kills Charles Xavier instead, who es on his dream of peace between humans and mutants to Magneto. This event created a new continuity, where Apocalypse has taken over most of the world, and a team of X-Men led by Magneto are fighting to stop him.
One of the big selling points of The Age of Apocalypse was how different a lot of the characters were. Former heroes like Beast were now performing horrific experiments on unwilling test subjects. Former villains like Sabretooth were now of the X-Men, battling against Apocalypse.
In this reality, Mr. Sinister served as one of Apocalypse's Four Horseman. What Apocalypse doesn't realize is that he is being betrayed by Sinister. In this reality, Mr. Sinister is leaking vital information about Apocalypse's plans to the X-Men and the Human Resistance in Europe. This Mr. Sinister had adopted Scott Summers, which finally gave him complete access to his DNA. With Apocalypse close to ending the world, Sinister needed to stop him before he could ruin his experiments.
8. He Creates Clones From Cyclops & Jean Grey DNA
If there is one thing that Mr. Sinister loves, it's creating clones. After all, his whole gimmick is being a mad scientist obsessed with genetics. His two most famous clones are Madelyne Pryor and Nate Grey, or as they are more commonly known, the Goblin Queen and X-Man.
Madelyne Pryor was a woman who Cyclops fell in love with and married after Jean Grey's. When Jean Grey returned (it turned out she wasn't dead, but being kept in stasis by the Phoenix Force), Cyclops ditched his old wife and went back with Jean. It was revealed to Madelyne that she was a clone of Jean Grey, created by Mr. Sinister in order to seduce Cyclops. He believed that a child of both the Grey and Summers bloodline would create the ultimate mutant. With Jean Grey believed to have been killed during The Dark Phoenix Saga, Sinister was forced to create a clone of Jean Grey in order to accomplish his dream.
Nate Grey actually comes from the world of the Age of Apocalypse. Mr. Sinister created him by splicing Cyclops's and Jean Grey's DNA together. He had tremendous telepathic and telekinetic abilities (like his mother) which manifested from his eyes (like his father). During the final issue of Age of Apocalypse, Nate stabs Apocalypse's son, Holocaust, with a shard of the M'Kraan Crystal. This attack has the unintended effect of sending them both to the main Marvel Universe, where they became part of the regular X-Men series.
7. He Once Transformed Into A Woman Called "Miss Sinister"
Gender-swapping characters is something that has exploded in popularity on the Internet in recent years. It is where you take an established character and reverse their gender in some sort of fan work (usually a drawing or cosplay). This is sometimes referred to as "Rule 63", and is commonly done by famous cosplayers, who dress like female variants of popular male superheroes.
The reason this is so popular in comics is because this is the area of fiction where it happens the most. Some of the most famous characters have female equivalents who closely match them, like Superman and Supergirl, Batman and Batwoman, and the Hulk and She-Hulk, to name a few.
Mr. Sinister is a rare case of a character who ended up changing gender himself. During the Messiah Complex storyline, Mr. Sinister was killed. Due to his powerful telepathic & scientific abilities, he was reborn within the body of a woman named Claudine Renko. He then became Miss Sinister, whose mind & abilities were the same as Mr. Sinister, only now they were inside the body of a woman who dressed like a Gothic pinup model.
6. He Was The Mastermind Behind The Mutant Massacre
In 1986, Marvel Comics began one of their darkest ever multi-series crossovers - the Daredevil, The New Mutants, X-Factor, and Power Pack
There existed a group of mutants that lived in the sewers beneath New York City called the Morlocks. Unlike the typically good looking X-Men, the Morlocks were hideously disfigured by their mutations. The Morlocks maintained their own society in the underground and wanted nothing to do with the outside world.
A supervillain team known the Marauders entered the Morlocks' home and went on a murderous rampage. The Morlocks reached to the outside world for help, leading the X-Men and other superheroes to respond to the call. The series became known for its violent content - many Morlocks were massacred in horrific ways, whilst established characters like Angel and Nightcrawler were badly injured.
Whilst Mr. Sinister did not show up during the crossover, it was revealed by Psylocke after reading Sabretooth's mind that the whole thing was planned by a shadowy figure. This figure was later revealed to be Mr. Sinister, who managed to involve another major character in his schemes...