In recent years, mutants and Inhumans have had a somewhat contentious relationship. Even though these two groups of superpowered outcasts might seem like they have more in common than not, the X-Men and the Inhumans have clashed in stories like the aptly-named 2016 crossover Inhumans vs. X-Men, after the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists began threatening mutant lives all over the world.

While Apocalypse is usually one of Marvel's most stringent mutant supremacists, the longtime X-villain helped some of the most despicable, ruthless mutants and Inhumans in the Marvel Universe find common ground as members of the Dark Riders.

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Dark Riders

Although their origin before meeting Apocalypse remains somewhat of a mystery, the group was originally called the Riders of the Storm and consisted of minor Inhumans who broke bad: Gauntlet, Hard-Drive, Barrage, Foxbat, Psynapse and Tusk. As a group, they shared Apocalypse's belief in the idea of survival of the fittest and that the strongest deserved power while the weakest deserved to be eliminated.

When they debuted in Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio and Chris Claremont's X-Factor #65 in 1991, that made them a perfect fit for Apocalypse's plan to kidnap Nathan Summers. Under Apocalypse's command, they were ultimately successful in kidnapping the baby Cable and carrying out multiple successful attacks on New Attilan, the Inhumans' capital. While they were eventually defeated, this incident led to Cable being infected with the techno-organic virus that necessitated his growing up in the distant future.

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After Apocalypse was defeated by Stryfe, the '90s X-villain briefly became the group's new leader until he was defeated by the now-adult Cable. As the leaderless team began recruiting new members, the Riders began bringing worthy mutants like Lifeforce, Dirtnap, Deadbolt, Hurricane and Spyne into their ranks. However, they killed mutants who they didn't see as worthy of joining them, and they also killed their unworthy teammates like Psynapse and Foxbat.

The group eventually found a steady leader in Cable's evil son Genesis and continued to be a thorn in the side of virtually every mutant team, as Genesis tried in vain to get revenge on Cable and his allies. However, this would eventually lead the team to ruin when Genesis hatched a plan to capture Wolverine and transform him into his Horseman, War.

While the Dark Riders were successful in capturing the hirsute hero, the next step of their plan -- reapplying the adamantium to Wolverine's bones and brainwashing him -- backfired horrifically. Wolverine resisted the process and reverted to a feral state, and he massacred several members of the Dark Riders and Genesis in his rage. Although the group briefly reformed under Stryfe, the team faded into the background after several more members were killed in battle.

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Dark Riders vs X-Men

While it would seem that this would be the end of the team, the Dark Riders reemerged in the lead-up to Inhumans vs. X-Men. Around the time that mutants started falling ill and dying as a result of making contact with the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists, the Dark Riders began to kill off mutant healers so that those who could not survive contact with the mists would perish as the weaklings that they were. This attracted the attention of Magneto and his X-Men team, who began trying to counter this by protecting the surviving healers. Despite the X-Men's best the Dark Riders injured several healers and briefly killed Elixir, who was subsequently resurrected by his own powers.

In Cullen Bunn and Greg Land's Uncanny X-Men #5, Magneto blew up and sunk the island that the Riders were on, presumably killing the entire team in 2016. While it's unclear if the team's mutant members have been resurrected as part of Charles Xavier's efforts to revive every mutant ever on the island nation Krakoa, it's not clear how that kind of charitable action would factor into their moral philosophy.

While the Dark Riders represent an unlikely union between Inhumans and mutants, it's not clear if the Dark Riders could still exist in a Marvel Universe where those two groups are further apart than ever before.

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