The ‘90s was an incredible time for X-Men comics. Uncanny X-Men was still going strong, continuing the success of its iconic run through the ‘80s. In 1991, Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza concluded their run on New Mutants and released a new comic titled X-Force. The sales for this new comic exploded, selling five million copies and setting the record for most single issues sold of a comic book, ever. The popularity of the X-Men was steadily increasing throughout the '80s and as the sales figures show, had just reached an all-time high. The same summer that X-Force debuted, Chris Claremont and Jim Lee left the Uncanny X-Men title to relaunch the X-Men book as a spinoff to the parent book. Just a few months after X-Force set the record for comic sales, X-Men #1 dethroned it and is still known as the bestselling comic book of all time with over eight million copies pre-ordered.
The ‘90s started off very well for X-Men comic books and although sales declined throughout the decade, there is no shortage of thrilling and outrageous stories. It was a time for comic creators to push the boundaries, to test how big, shiny and muscular they could make everything. In the X-Men comics, the question became how overpowered and dramatic can the villains become? A lot of the ‘90s villains did not make it out of the decade and most that did were eventually depowered in following stories. Today, we want to revisit those over-the-top ‘90s X-Men villains and rank them based on strength.
20 REAPER
In February 1990, a supervillain group known as the Mutant Liberation Front (MLF) made their debut, clashing with the X-Force in New Mutants #86. Reaper (aka Pantu Hurageb) is one of the team’s original members. After losing both his hands and a leg in three separate incidents, Reaper becomes a punchline when his team starts comparing him to Darth Vader, but do not let the laughter deceive you; Reaper is very powerful.
He is able to slow the physical movement of any living being through touch, which is even effective on Quicksilver. This power is able to extend through his scythe and his bionic limbs, making Reaper a mutant you don’t want to mess with. Who’s laughing now?
19 FOREARM
Another original member of the MLF, Forearm has established himself as a pillar of the team, joining the crew on every mission regardless of who is leading them. Forearm has the powers of super strength, increased stamina and invulnerability. Also, his mutation caused his body to sprout another two arms, giving him four in total, hence the name.
For a mutant who looks like he is molded out of clay to be a fighting machine, he often breaks that mold and displays a compassionate side. On multiple occasions, Forearm reminds the team there is no need for innocent civilians to be injured during their missions. He is just a good guy running with the wrong crowd.
18 NEOPHYTE
In 1991, another team of supervillains arose to oppose the X-Men called the Acolytes. Neophyte did not join these Magneto-followers until 1993 and as the youngest member was left behind when the rest of the group went into battle. Despite the mutant’s age and inexperience he has one of the strongest powers on the team.
He is able to phase his body through any object in a unique way. When he enters the substance he can merge his molecules with the material and travel through it, rematerializing his body from anywhere along the material. He is also able to separate into a number of small masses, as he did once in the rain, separating his mass among the raindrops.
17 KLEINSTOCK BROTHERS
Before Grant Morrison created the Stepford Cuckoos, Scott Lobdell and Brandon Peterson created the Kleinstock Brothers, members of the Acolytes. Harlan, Sven and Eric are identical triplets who possess the power to shoot plasma blasts and fly. But that's not all -- the Kleinstocks can merge into one super-body and gain the powers of superhuman size, strength, stamina, speed and durability.
In their first battle with the X-Men, Eric was shot and killed by Tom Corsi. The remaining living Kleinstocks are greatly depowered by the loss of their brother. They no longer pose a major threat to the X-Men. It did not last long, but for a brief moment the Kleinstock Brothers were a major force to be reckoned with.
16 KAMIKAZE
As a member of the MLF, Kamikaze was a physical threat for the X-Force. His enhanced speed, strength and stamina proved to be a handful in physical confrontation. Kamikaze had the ability to excite the atomic friction between molecules, which allowed him to release an explosive charge upon physical contact. On top of all these powers, Kamikaze could also fly.
In the events of “X-Cutioner’s Song”, Kamikaze was able to sneak up on Archangel with the intent to blast him, but right before he could deliver the blow, Archangel spread his metallic wings and accidentally took out the sneaking Kamikaze. After giving the X-Force a few tough battles the living bomb was defused.
15 FABIAN CORTEZ
Fabian Cortez is the original mind behind the Acolytes. He put the team together and rallied them around Magneto’s cause. Fabian would often manipulate Magneto and the Acolytes to wage war against humanity and in turn, the X-Men. Not only is Fabian an incredible hand-to-hand combatant, his mutant ability is also extremely powerful.
Fabian has the power to enhance another mutant’s abilities, sometimes increasing them to an uncontrollable level. His power is so strong that he can use it to heal others as he temporarily enhances their natural healing factor. Although Fabian cannot be effective without other mutants he is able to easily influence others to use them as pawns in his games, making him a formidable leader.
14 TEMPO
Tempo is both a founding member of the MLF and a short-time member of the Acolytes. She has the power to manipulate time by either slowing or increasing any of her opponents’ or allies’ movements. Not only is this character extremely powerful, but it is also exciting to find out how she will use her power next.
At times she uses it to slow or even freeze a number of enemies, while at other times she uses her power to speed up her enemies until they lose control and injure themselves. It is refreshing to see the way Tempo adapts her power to a number of different scenarios.
13 AMELIA VOGHT
Originally a love interest of Professor X, Amelia Voght turned away from him to join the Acolytes and follow Magneto’s cause. She became one of Magneto’s most trusted allies before she inevitably reached her tipping point with the Acolytes and their radical notions, which prompted her to leave the group and temporarily join the X-Men.
Voght has the unique power to turn anyone or anything she can see to mist, including herself. The mist is also able to travel through the Astral Plane, which allows her the capability of long range teleportation. Voght has even shown the ability to teleport distant people to herself by visualizing that person turning to mist and bringing that mist to her presence.
12 FERAL
Feral was originally a member of the X-Force. In X-Force #27-#28 the team embarked on a mission to save government official Henry Gyrich from the MLF organization. Feral was not pleased with the mission because Gyrich was known to hate mutants. When given the opportunity by Reignfire to join MLF by killing Gyrich, Feral pounced. She is a strong mutant with many physically enhanced abilities.
She has the superhuman ability of strength, agility, speed, stamina and reflexes. All of these powers make her one of the fiercest characters at hand-to-hand combat. She also possess razor-sharp claws, heightened senses and a mild regeneration ability. This is one cat you do not want to meet in an alley.
11 DARK BEAST
One of the few mutants to make it out of the “Age of Apocalypse” timeline, Dark Beast proved to be a pesky foe for the X-Men in the late ‘90s. He was able to capture the real Beast and alter his own fur color to infiltrate the X-Men. This lasted for quite some time as the vicious mutant took out a number of Hank McCoy’s childhood friends to keep up the ruse.
Dark Beast had many of the same physical abilities as Beast, which made him one of the strongest villains of the ‘90s. He also exhibited a genius-level intellect, conducting several genetic experiments on himself and altering his power level for better or worse many times over the years.
10 HARVEST
Harvest was originally a human with a hatred for mutants. In order to keep his family safe from mutants he volunteered to give up his humanity and be transformed into a Phalanx. The Phalanx are techno-organic beings, whose nervous systems are comprised of organic connections, but their bodies are structured like machinery.
The Phalanx share a hive-mind and all have the same powers. They can infect living organisms with the techno-organic transmode virus, which either turns their victim into a Phalanx as their underling or absorbs their victim to gain mass. Although Harvest was very strong, he rarely engaged in combat. He would make his many underlings fight the battles, which is the true power of Harvest.
9 SKINNER OF SOULS
In only 19 issues of X-Men comics, the Skinner of Souls (or Soul Skinner) makes his impressive mark. The Skinner is a powerful mutant who possesses the ability to enter another's mind and psychically attack them with their greatest regrets and sorrow.
He uses the emotions of his victims to inflict such devastating psychological pain that he often leaves them in a mindless state, which he can then control. Even though this power seems very dark, Fabian Nicieza, writer of X-Men #19, had a little fun with it when he wrote Skinner attacking Psylocke with her greatest fear -- lying in the same bed as Cyclops.
8 SHINOBI SHAW
After allegedly killing his father Sabastian Shaw, Shinobi assumed his father’s role as leader of the Hellfire Club, a group of mutants who are often a thorn in the X-Men’s side. Shinobi has the mutant ability to alter his body density from intangible to diamond-hard.
This power allows him to escape any dangerous situation by either passing through objects or making himself impervious to damage. Shinobi is able to use the intangible nature of his touch to reach into an opponent's body and scramble their molecules. Shinobi is ruthless, dangerous, powerful and rich, a very bad combination for the X-Men.
7 HOLOCAUST
Holocaust, another character from the “Age of Apocalypse” timeline, is the son of Apocalypse and one of his Four Horsemen. Holocaust is a spiritual essence living inside indestructible armor. He is able to drain the life force from other beings to charge his suit and increase his mutant attributes.
Aside from being basically invulnerable to any physical injury, Holocaust can generate and fire highly concentrated plasma beams, which are extremely deadly in combat. He can then use those beams to propel himself in flight. Did we mention he is also impervious to psychic attacks? How did the X-Men handle this guy?
6 JONATHAN CHAMBERS
Jonathan Chambers (aka Empyrean) has a very unique mutant ability. He is able to absorb the agony and painful emotions of anyone anywhere in the world and channel that into an energy blast that would have the same agonizing affect on his victims. The closer the pained individual is to Chambers, the stronger he gets.
Since Chambers craves power over everything, simply absorbing pain from all over the world was not good enough. He created an island sanctuary for all the victims of the Legacy Virus, which was a biological weapon that could kill humans and mutants. With all these victims on one island, Chambers was able to leech off of them to make himself exponentially powerful.
5 OMEGA RED
Perhaps one of the most marketable character designs of the ‘90s, Omega Red was constantly causing the X-Men trouble. He has a massive power set including superhuman strength, agility, stamina, speed, durability and reflexes. These abilities combined with his high level healing factor allowed him to repeatedly clash in battle with Wolverine.
In combat he uses his retractable tentacles as a weapon which, similar to Wolverine, he has implanted in his body. The most interesting of Omega Red’s powers is his ability to secrete pheromones that can cause organic life to fade. These pheromones make Omega Red one of the top X-Men baddies of the decade.
4 STRYFE
Following a very ‘90s comic tone, Stryfe is the clone of Cable who was raised by Apocalypse. He is the founder of the MLF and the creator of the Legacy Virus. Stryfe is an uncontrollable madman, with no regard for human or mutant life. As the clone of Cable, he possesses all of Cable’s psychic abilities; however, Stryfe’s psychic powers are far stronger.
He is able to use his psionic abilities in a variety of ways, such as amplified telekinesis, reading minds, mind control, negating others’ powers, camouflage and flight. Apocalypse also genetically supplemented Stryfe’s powers by adding superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina and intelligence -- as if he wasn’t already powerful enough. Overall, he’s someone the X-Men don’t want to tangle with.
3 BASTION
Bastion is a mixture of two powerful Sentinels, Master Mold and Nimrod. The combination of the two makes Bastion a Super-Sentinel. He has the power and determination to locate and destroy all mutant “threats”. As a Sentinel, he has the usual robot powers of superhuman strength and speed.
Being a machine also makes him immune to psychic attacks. Bastion has complete command of all other Sentinels and has the ability to turn people into armored beings with powerful weapon systems called Prime Sentinels. With a self-repairing system, which simulates a healing factor, Bastion became one of the biggest threats in the X-Men comics.
2 EXODUS
From the pages of X-Factor, Exodus is one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe. He has displayed an immense amount of telekinetic, telepathic and teleportation powers. His telepathic powers have been matched to Professor X and his teleportation ability can transport him and others from Earth to an orbiting space station.
He also possesses a healing power that can be used to bring others back to life. An interesting and unique aspect of his power is that it increases when he and others around him have faith in his ability. Exodus has proven many times to be a huge threat to the X-Men and he is almost the strongest villain of the ‘90s.
1 ONSLAUGHT
Perhaps the most outrageous, but definitely the most powerful X-Men villain of the ‘90s, is Onslaught. The idea of Onslaught is simple: what if a mutant had the powers of both Professor X and Magneto? Enter Onslaught, a psychic entity created from the consciousness of these two men while they were engaging in battle. Onslaught combines the anger and vengeance of Magneto with the suppressed negative feelings of Xavier.
He is extremely powerful, possessing both men’s high-level abilities. The extent of his power is so vast that it is almost immeasurable. Onslaught was responsible for the deaths of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, leading to the “Heroes Reborn” storyline later in the decade. Maybe not your favorite X-villain, but without a doubt the strongest.