Mister Sinister or Nathaniel Essex as some may know him, has been a thorn in the side of the X-Men and fellow good-doers for literal centuries. While mutants like Magneto and Apocalypse have been very clear and upfront about their goals while antagonizing the X-Men, Mr. Sinister has always preferred to stay in the shadows.
Always working in the background to further his plans like a slow-moving virus, impossible to shake. From Jean Grey and Scott Summers to Gambit and everyone in between, Mr. Sinister has integrated himself into the lives of some the X-Men’s finest in a way that they’ll never shake.
10 A Risky Gambit
Throughout his long history, Mister Sinister has had his fingers in some of the worst atrocities ever perpetrated in the Marvel universe. However, though Mister Sinister is...well, sinister, he’s never more nefarious than when he’s manipulating relatively good mutants into doing something awful.
This is precisely the case when Gambit heads to Mister Sinister fearing that his powers are growing beyond his control. And while Mister Sinister agreed to help Gambit by removing the bit of his brain stem that was responsible for that part of the evolution of his ability, he wouldn’t help without making Gambit do something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
9 The Mutant Massacre
Having recognized his own unique signature in the genetic material of the Morlocks, Mister Sinister decided that he needed to prevent any and all unauthorized usage of his theories and procedures. With this in mind, Sinister ordered Gambit to assemble a group of Marauders and lead them to the underground community that the Morlocks had established.
Unbeknownst to Gambit, however, was the fact that Sinister had ordered the Marauders to massacre every living Morlock in the community in order to erase their presence entirely. While Gambit would try to stop the massacre on his own, he would be nearly beaten to death by Sabretooth and left unable to do anything to stop the massacre.
8 Master Manipulator
It may not be one of his mutant abilities, but Mister Sinister is a master of manipulation.
At different times throughout his long and unrelenting career as a villain, Mister Sinister has manipulated Gambit into leading his Marauders to the Morlocks in order to massacre them all, manipulated Scott Summers into falling in love with a clone of Jean Grey so that he could create the perfect mutant specimen, and even (possibly) manipulated Moira MacTaggert and Charles Xavier into falling in love while Charles attended Oxford.
7 Madelyne Pryor
As previously mentioned, Mister Sinister has a habit of involving himself in the lives of people who absolutely do not want him to be apart of their lives. This is perhaps no truer than in the case of Scott Summer, better known as the mutant Cyclops. There’s just something about Scott that screams “pull my strings, oh great and wise daddy Sinister”.
Or that’s how Sinister sees it, at least. Sinister had become convinced that Scott Summer and Jean Grey would create the perfect specimen of mutantkind and he was willing to go to any lengths to make sure that the child was born. Even Jean’s death wouldn’t stop him from realizing his goal. So when she died, master geneticist Mister Sinister simply created a clone and sent her on her way to find Scott.
6 The Original Marauders
Mister Sinister has been around for a long time. In fact, in the Marvel universe, he’s among the oldest threats that the X-Men routinely face in one time period or another. That being said, he wasn’t always the Sinister mutant that many fans have come to know him as. In fact, when he was still human, he was simply known as Nathaniel Essex the anemic geneticist who had become obsessed with genetics after losing his son.
While there’s not much strange about that, at the time, his pale complexion brought him to the attention of the original Marauders who had taken to rounding up disfigured mutants and locking them up under the city. When Essex was captured, he realized how could pay these men to supply him with subjects for his study. Thus taking his first step down a very slippery slope.
5 Enter: Apocalypse
With Mister Sinister well on his way to becoming the mutant villain he would one day become, it was just about time for Apocalypse to awake and make his appearance. Nataniel’s Marauders would come across Apocalypse who would demand to see the man who was responsible for such interesting research.
After meeting Nathaniel, Apocalypse would immediately recognize the value of both the man and his research. It was at this point that Nathaniel would truly begin his descent into becoming unquestionably...Sinister.
4 “To Me... You Are... Literally... And Contempibly... Sinister!”
Because Nathaniel had become so wrapped up in his research, he had become more or less estranged from his wife. While Rebecca Essex was willing to put up with a lot from her absentee husband, one thing she would not abide by was Nathaniel digging up their dead son and using his body in his experiments. And wouldn’t ya know it, when she found her way into Nathaniel’s lab, that’s exactly what she found.
As she inspected his lab, she found an incubation tube carrying the body of their dead son-- still giving her husband the benefit of the doubt, she had the grave exhumed and was shocked to find the coffin was empty. Nathaniel would later return home to find his captives freed, his (no longer pregnant) wife dying of stress with her dying words to him being “To me...You are...Literally...And Contempibly...Sinister!”
3 Sinister Is Born!
With his wife gone and nothing else to really live for besides his research, Nathaniel decides to give himself over to his newfound friend, Apocalypse. After some careful thought, Nathaniel realizes that there will never be enough time for him to complete his work. At least, not with a normal human lifespan.
Luckily for Nathaniel, he has a mutant friend with the technical know-how to make a subordinate life forever. Or at least long enough to outlive his usefulness to the Eternal Pharoah.
2 Laying The Ground Work For The Weapon X Project
Though Nathaniel would quickly realize the mistake that he had made by subjugating himself to Apocalypse, he would never grow tired of his research. In fact, when World War 2 was in full-swing, Nathaniel would use the opportunity to further his experiments in the nazi concentration camps.
Throughout history, Mister Sinister can pretty regularly be found wherever truly atrocious acts against humanity are being performed. After the war, however, Sinister would be forced to abandon the work he had done under the nazis, and this research would eventually be found by Americans who would use the research to jumpstart the Weapon X program.
1 He’s Not Actually A Mutant
While he has somehow found his way onto the Quiet Council after Jonathan Hickman’s run on the X-Men, Mister Sinister is not, in fact, a mutant. This article has already touched on the fact that Mister Sinister (born Nathaniel Essex) was actually born a pasty anemic human back in the nineteenth century.
However, after genetic alteration by both Apocalypse and himself, Mister Sinister has become decidedly more mutant than human. Through his genetic alteration, Sinister has been granted superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, a healing factor and so much more that it’s a wonder he was ever human at all.