Marvel's X-Men are some of the most famous super-powered heroes in the world. As mutants, they have powers and abilities that can save people and protect themselves against those that hate them, fellow mutants with malicious intent, aliens, and more. Most mutants don't need to use any devices, gadgets or weapons to protect themselves or defeat their enemies. Despite all their impressive mutant abilities, however, deadly weapons can still come into play for the X-Men. Some of these weapons are tied specifically to different characters' innate abilities, like Psylocke's psychic knife, Storm's control of the elements, or Cyclops' optic blast. This list, however, isn't about those.

This list is about some of the most powerful weapons the X-Men have ever faced, as well as the most powerful weapons the X-Men have had to use in their fight for justice. Everything from the Sentinels -- the most iconic man made weapons to take on the mutant population in the franchise -- to the Phoenix Buster Armor will get covered. Yes, there is definitely more than one Phoenix-related weapon in here because it's the X-men, and of course there is. Also, we'll be talking about weapons from the future because the X-Men sure do love time travel!

20 SENTINELS

You knew these guys were gonna show up on this list! The Sentinels, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, have been an integral part of X-Men lore since they premiered back in X-Men #14. Their primary function is to either incapacitate and capture or kill mutants. Most Sentinels have been depicted as being dozens of feet tall with an array of weapons at their disposal in addition to being able to fly.

Over time, the Sentinels received upgrades that allowed them to adapt to and counter many mutant abilities and more accurately track mutants. There are even more impressive upgrades when you count the Nimrod unit from the future that traveled back to the present. They've even had versions that were nano-machines designed to infect mutants and attack them on a cellular level. The Sentinels are not only some of the most powerful weapons the X-Men have fought, but the most versatile as well.

19 LEGACY VIRUS

This weaponized virus that was relevant in the X-comics for nearly a decade was first released onto the page by Stryfe, arguably one of the worst villains in the X-franchise. An airborne virus that had three different strains, it would go on to kill multiple mutants and even some humans before Colossus sacrificed himself to end the Legacy virus by activating the cure with his body.

Stryfe's goal to create extreme human and mutant tensions was achieved with the Legacy Virus, which also killed other prominent mutants outside of Colossus, including his sister Magik, Pryo and Mastermind. That easily makes this one of the most effective weapons ever used against the X-Men.

18 BASTION

Created by Scott Lobdell and Pascual Ferry, Bastion first appeared during the Operation: Zero Tolerance storyline in the mid '90s as the architect that put this government-sponsored anti-mutant strike force together. Bastion is a living weapon, a fusion between the Master Mold Sentinel, the large Sentinel unit that creates the standard Sentinels, and a Nimrod unit, a Sentinel from the future.

Bastion would be a thorn in the X-Men's side for decades in the comics, working alongside well-known mutant haters including Cameron Hodge and William Stryker. This would all come to a head in the event Second Coming, wherein Bastion kills an X-Man -- the fan favorite Nightcrawler -- cementing itself as one of the deadliest weapons the team has ever faced.

17 CARBONADIUM TENTACLES

Created by the Soviets and first appearing in X-Men #4 (1992), carbonadium is an attempt at recreating adamantium. Comparable in strength and durability while being more malleable, carbonadium can be crafted into tentacle-like weapons that could be used for grappling, as well as offensive moves.

Most popularly wielded by X-Men villain Omega Red, these powerful tentacles not only rival Wolverine's own adamantium claws, but they have the ability to literally drain the life out of someone who is entangled in them. These powerful weapons do come at a price though, as the artificial metal slowly poisons its wielder. To some, it's a small price to pay to have a weapon powerful enough to face the X-Men.

16 M'KRAAN CRYSTAL

First appearing in X-Men #107, this ancient alien crystal has been claimed by the Shi'ar Empire who are sometimes allies, sometimes adversaries of the X-Men. Lilandra, who has been Professor X's lover, had enlisted the X-Men to help stop her brother D'Ken from harnessing the power of the crystal. Spoiler alert, the X-Men stop him; of course, there was a very good reason to do so, besides helping out Lilandra.

The M'Kraan Crystal is safely stored under a stasis field to prevent any of its energy from being exposed to the universe. The crystal holds within it the power of a black hole so immense that it could end the entire universe. If anyone could harness that power, they would easily become one of the most dangerous beings in existence, capable of ending all life. Hard to think of a deadlier weapon than that!

15 THE GEM OF CYTTORAK

Many X-Men fans know who the Juggernaut is, but some might not know about the source of his power, the Gem of Cyttorak. The stone first appeared in X-Men #12 and is nearly always depicted as being wielded by Cain Marko, Professor X's step brother, better known as the Unstoppable Juggernaut. Whoever wields the gem becomes an avatar of the godlike being Cyttorak.

The gem makes its wielder literally unstoppable by giving them immense strength with apparently limitless stamina and energy. In fact, said wielder no longer even requires food or oxygen. The only weakness he or she possesses is to psychic attacks. This can easily be sidestepped with proper head gear or magical wards, however. The gem turns anyone into a one-person army that can always give the X-Men a hard time!

14 KISS OF AGONY

Appearing in Uncanny X-Men #481, which is chapter seven of The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire event, the Kiss of Agony is a torture device used by the Shi'ar. Vice Chancellor K'Tor, working in a Shi'ar faction against Lilandra, is successfully able to capture Professor X; one of the devices he has at his disposal that could potentially hurt him is the Kiss of Agony.

According to K'Tor, the device creates a searing pain that goes right to your brain. According to Professor X's reaction, it works. Erring on the side of caution, K'Tor opted to put a mutant inhibitor collar on Xavier before starting up the torture device, but any weapon that's powerful enough to cause that much pain to Charles Xavier is definitely one of the most powerful weapons the X-Men have ever faced.

13 SIEGE COURAGEOUS

Introduced in Avengers Vs. X-Men #6, the Siege Courageous was a device used by the Phoenix Five, a group of renegade mutants made up of Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik, and Namor, who all had a fraction of the power of the Phoenix Force at their disposal.

The Siege Courageous allows instant teleportation anywhere the user desires. This allowed the Phoenix Five to easily enforce world domination, in addition to being able to gain access to any place they desired to infiltrate, like when they used it to gain access to Mr. Sinister's underground city in London. Having the powers of the Phoenix Force was one thing, but the Siege Courageous made them a near unstoppable force.

12 MUTANT CONVERSION MACHINE

One of the earliest plots in the X-Men comics that was recently re-imagined in Ed Piskor's X-Men: Grand Design and immortalized in the first X-Men movie revolved around Magneto's Mutant Conversion Machine. The goal of the machine was to bring out latent X-genes in non-mutants in the hopes of activating a mutation.

Though Magneto's goal of creating more mutants doesn't sound as evil as some of his other plans, the machine ultimately ended up frying people's chemical makeup and ultimately killing them in a fairly short period of time. Some versions of the machine, like the one in the movie, would have been capable of killing the entire city of New York. Now that's deadly!

11 STRYKER'S BRAINWASHING MACHINE

When William Stryker first appeared in the comics back in the original graphic novel X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, he was a televangelist whose goal was to wipe out all of mutantkind. As part of that mission, he knew he would have to defeat the X-Men. In order to defeat them, he understood that he had to defeat Professor X, resulting in a machine capable of brainwashing this powerful mutant.

In doing so, Stryker was able to use Professor X as a weapon against his own students. While it ultimately didn't work out that way this time, any machine capable of controlling Professor X is incredibly powerful and deadly. When part of this story was adapted for the movie X2: X-Men United, the machine instead was replaced with a chemical Stryker would use on Professor X in conjunction with manipulating him using the mutant Mastermind.

10 PHOENIX GUN

First appearing in Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #2, this gun is as ridiculous as you probably think it is. For those not familiar, you might be saying to yourself, "So is this a gun that fires Phoenix powers?" Well, actually, you'd actually be mostly right. It doesn't have infinite Phoenix power, it just fires Phoenix Force bullets, which is still staggeringly dangerous.

The gun was created by Beast, the same guy that created a time machine to bring the past X-Men into the president for some reason. The Phoenix Force bullets are so powerful that it was decided that it was used, in one shot, to defeat an amalgamation of Doctor Doom and Ego the Living Planet. That alone makes this hands down one of the deadliest weapons the X-Men have ever used! Of course, the downside is, it kills its user at the same time. Good thing Wolverine was the one who fired it.

9 CEREBRO

Cerebro debuted in X-Men #7. Created by Professor X and Magneto, the device was designed to amplify the user's mental powers (often Professor X) to enable them to search for people on a worldwide scale, and sometimes even stretching its range to space. It allows the user to distinguish between humans and mutants, and is commonly shown aiding the X-Men in locating new mutants or finding lost comrades.

It's also been depicted as a very powerful weapon at times. One of the most well known instances was in X2: X-Men United, where modifications to Cerebro allow Professor X to telepathically attack individuals or entire groups of people by amplifying his powers. Being able to attack people anywhere around the world from the comfort of your own secret headquarters definitely makes Cerebro one of the most powerful weapons the X-Men have used!

8 WEAPON X

Listen bub, you all knew there was no way we could put a list together about X-Men weapons without talking about the most famous one they've got: Weapon X! Wolverine, Logan, James Howlett, or whatever else you might want to call him, he's a near perfect killing machine between his healing factor and his adamantium laced skeleton wielding three adamantium claws on each hand.

Weapon X's claws have killed countless people over the years. Whether we're talking about his days working for the Canadian government, Uncanny X-Men #133 where he murders a ton of the soldiers in the Hellfire Club, or killing some of the most powerful mutants in Marvel comics like Daken, Omega Red, and Jean Grey, there is just no question that Weapon X is one of the deadliest weapons the X-Men have!

7 XSE GUN

The mutant Lucas Bishop was created by Johny Byrne and Whilce Portacio for Uncanny X-Men #282. A time traveler from a dystopian future, Bishop is a member of Xaviers' Security Enforcers, who are armed with XSE Guns. This powerful weapon from the future can fire beam and plasma blasts, but that's not all! Bishop's mutant power is that he can absorb kinetic energy and send it back at his opponents, and he can do a pretty neat trick with this sidearm.

Because of how his power works he's able to use that with an XSE Gun to fire more powerful blasts in combat. While it's still possible to overload Bishop with too much kinetic energy, this unique power being amplified with the XSE Gun makes this weapon from the future particularly deadly and powerful in the present day.

6 PHOENIX BUSTER ARMOR

Okay, so this isn't the first weapon on this list related to the Phoenix Force, but what did you expect? It's the Phoenix Force! During the Avengers Vs. X-Men event, the Phoenix was heading back towards earth. Tony Stark created a new armor -- the Phoenix Buster -- which was supposed to defeat the Phoenix Force before it could unite with Hope or the renegade mutants led by Cyclops.

Unfortunately for Tony, the Avengers, and the X-Men that were working with them, the Phoenix Buster Armor failed to defeat the Phoenix. It actually fractured the Phoenix so it was able to imbue Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik, and Namor with a fraction of the power each. While the Phoenix Buster Armor did not defeat the Phoenix like they had hoped, the fact that it was able to shatter the Phoenix Force into pieces makes it quite the deadly weapon!

5 SOULSWORD

Created by Chris Claremont and Walt Simonson for Uncanny X-Men #171, it was crafted by Magik while she was trapped in Limbo from her own life force. The Soulsword can be used both as a regular sword, but is also capable of combating magical forces and magical beings who would normally be immune to the slice of a blade. What makes the Soulsword such a potentially deadly weapon is that it get more powerful with every use.

Not only does the blade become more powerful and ornate, but it creates more powerful armor for Magik as well. And although other people can wield the Soulsword, only Magik can use it to its full potential. After the Phoenix Force possessed Magik in Avengers Vs. X-Men, it became an incredibly powerful offensive and defensive weapon, making it one of the deadliest weapons in the X-Men's arsenal.

4 SIEGE PERILOUS

For all the Arthurian scholars reading this, no, this is not the Siege Perilous of Arthurian legend (although that Siege Perilous also appears in Marvel Comics). This Siege Perilous has been depicted as both a gem and a mirror that can open a portal for the wielder to enter that will completely wipe out the user's memory of their life, giving them a fresh start that is reflective of how good or bad they lived their life.

Back in Uncanny X-Men #246, Dazzler was tempted to use the Siege Perilous to see different possibilities of when she wanted to start a new life. It has also been used to neutralize enemies like the Reavers. Having an object that could completely neutralize even the most powerful of enemies is definitely the makings of a very dangerous weapon!

3 DANGER

During Joss Whedon's lauded Astonishing X-Men run, it was revealed that the Danger Room was in fact sentient because of Shi'ar technology. The Danger Room in robot form, simply called Danger, was the primary antagonist in the second arc of the run. After Danger was defeated, like quite a few X-Men villains before it, they became a powerful ally and team member.

In addition to possessing super human levels of power and intelligence, Danger is also able to transfer its consciousness into other robot bodies and computers, which makes it nearly impossible to defeat. On top of that, Danger can also combat magic. One of its only weaknesses is that it's unable to kill the X-Men, which makes Danger the perfect weapon in the X-Men's arsenal.

2 SHIP

During the original X-Factor run when Apocalypse was introduced, he had a base of operations simply called Ship. The base would eventually fall into the possession of X-Factor after Apocalypse's defeat in the Fall of Mutants event. X-Factor would soon figure out that Ship had a sentient A.I. and was a powerful being in its own right.

Ship is filled with defense mechanisms and traps, making it a powerful weapon to lead in and weed out opposing mutants trying to combat X-Factor. One of the most impressive capabilities Ship has, however, is its force field, which prevents any non-mutants from entering. This allows X-Factor to easily protect and strategize against all non-mutant adversaries.

1 NEUTRALIZER GUN

Created by Forge, the neutralizer gun is easily one of his most powerful creations. The gun has the power to completely remove someone's super powers. Unfortunately, this weapon stripped Storm of her powers in Uncanny X-Men #185 and it would be years before her powers were fully restored. Considering how powerful of a mutant Storm is, you know that this gun had some kick!

The neutralizer technology went further than that, and Forge was able to help the government set up defense satellites to protect earth from invading forces like the Dire Wraiths. The device is ultimately used to banish all the Dire Wraiths to another dimension. Forge has created many powerful and deadly weapons over the years, but one of the first we ever saw, the neutralizer gun, is still the most impressive.