Villain Profile: Mr. Sinister

Did you get the sword Deadpool?

Yes sir-e, (schwing) one Muramasa. A magic katana that can negate a healing factor, and now it’s all mine. I’m so happy I could cry.

Was it hard to find?

You kidding me? Ol’ Wolvie has like six hiding places. It took me six hours with a shovel in the Canadian Wilderness to find all the pieces. Forge fixed and now we’re ready to go.

Perfect. Be ready, this next guy is a twisted SOB. No letting your guard down this time.

Aye-Aye, Captain. <snick> Oh I cut my finger. Huh, so this is what normal people have to deal with.

Alright, you can come in.

Was getting that weapon really necessary?

Yes, now sit down and keep your hands where I can see them, Essex.

Fine.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and everyone else, hello. Today’s special guest, if you haven’t read the title, is Nathaniel Essex, aka Mr. Sinister. Deadpool is here assisting me, as Sinister is perhaps the smarmiest, slipperiest character I’ve had on here.

It takes a confident man to wear that much eyeliner.

Must focus. No quips. Keep sword to his neck.

Pleasure.

It’s all yours, boyo. Let’s get started. Give ‘em your background, Essex.

So very rude, but alright. I was born Nathaniel Essex, during the reign of Queen Victoria. A biologist by trade, I was inspired by the works of one of my contemporaries, Charles Darwin, to study the theory of evolution. While Charles had many sound ideas, his theories were a little too small minded for my tastes. Through tireless research I discovered the Essex Factor in the human Genome. It is a genetic trait that causes increased, and at times unstable, mutations in humans. I was the first to realize that a new race of humans quickly coming into existence. I theorized that the first individuals would begin to emerge in about a hundred years or so, sooner if the right racially superior individuals were to reproduce.

Your work was read by your universe’s Hitler, wasn’t it?

Possibly. I never had the chance to ask.

Somehow, despite being an extreme workaholic, Essex also found the time to marry and have children. His first born, Adam, died at the age of four. The young Essex suffered from several birth defects, including crooked bones and hemophilia. The boy’s death pushed Nathaniel deeper into his work, creating an obsession in the brilliant mind. His theories, about the new Mutant race and extreme evolution, were mocked by his colleges at large, and caused him to be removed from the Royal Society of London. He grew bitter from these rejections, and Darwin’s own suggestion that Essex seek professional help. Were Shrinks a thing yet in your era?

Not as you know them. It wouldn’t have mattered, anyway. I needed to know, to learn, to understand not grieve. Grieving is for lesser minds then mine. I decided to begin a more…active study on mutation. I hired a local group of street thugs, the Marauders, to gather the undesirables of London for me. The freaks, the physically deformed, the mentally ill. The citizens that few would notice when they disappear. I experimented on these poor undesirables, and through them, gained a greater understanding of mutation and the Essex Factor. Those that survived the process were better for it. By in large. My work was so groundbreaking, so revolutionary, that it awakened something ancient. Something powerful.

Apocalypse.

Apocalypse.

At the same time, Cyclops and the Phoenix were teleported to his era. They did their best to try and turn Essex from the dark path he was on, but the good doctor was too far gone. Hard to stop a man from a life of evil after he’d dug up his own son’s corpse to experiment on, and then his wife found out about it. He allied himself with Apocalypse, and very nearly had two of the most powerful Mutant’s ever born as his test subjects, but Jean was able to temporarily get through to Essex, revealing that his work would destroy the world itself. He swore off his life of unorthodox and cruel science and wanted to dedicate his life to his wife and second child. That is until he got home. Rebecca Essex, in Nathaniel’s absence, had freed the various prisoners he had in the basement, gone into premature labor, and was very nearly dead from stress. He begged for forgiveness but she didn’t have it in her.

Pretty much an average party at Essex's.

“To me, you are…utterly, and contemptibly… sinister.” Two hundred years later, and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. After that, I swore allegiance to Apocalypse.  He took me aboard his ship, and using his advanced technology, awakened dormant Essex’s Genes in my Genome. Transforming me into Mr. Sinister.

The first project that the newly christened Sinister finished for the ancient Mutant was a deadly virus that, had it worked like En Sabah Nur wanted, would have devastated the human population, leaving only those capable of siring Mutants left alive. But, Sinister decided to rework the virus to only effect Apocalypse. The disease forced Apocalypse back into hibernation, and while was infuriated by being betrayed, liked Sinister’s gumption and let him off with a warning, this time.

What can I say? I’m a man of science, not genocide.

Right… Mr. Sinister spent the next century or so cowering in fear and preparing for his master’s return.

I performed the latter, not the former. I kept busy, performing various experiments and pushing mutation to its limits. Different X-Men have crossed my path across the ages, usually during some sort of time-travel stunt. It’s how I met that insufferable Cajun, Gambit. I also began researching the Summers’ family. After meeting Cyclops all those years ago, and seeing his power and his personal grudge against me, my interest was piqued.

Piqued your interest? Seriously.

What? I was curious.

No, the Joker is curious about Batman. Red Skull is interested in Captain America. Thanos is smitten with the personification of Death. You’re the poster boy for obsession. You stalked someone across time. And, when you finally found a young, injured, frightened, and recently orphaned Scott and Alex Summers, you did everything in your power to make their lives horrible.

I wouldn’t go that far.

You actively worked to keep Scott from being adopted. You kept him isolated from his brother. You experimented on him. And, you used your shapeshifting powers to create to assume the role of Scott’s roommate in your bleak orphanage. And also bullied him. That. Is. Messed. Up. Dude.

I made him his ruby-quartz lenses so he could see. That was something.

One good, about fifty-seven bad. Yeah, you’re still an obsessed jerk.

That’s a little hurtful, but not wholly inaccurate.

Essex has continued to serve as Apocalypse’s second-in-command, whenever the big grey-blue lug is awaked. Sinister’s methods are pretty messed up and perverse, but he’s effective. If nothing else.

Was that a compliment?

Not even close, sicko. Now, talk about your powers.

So very rude. Initially, I was merely a gifted intellectual. Brilliant, but misunderstood in my time. I helped develop biology as a science. Since I bid my humanity goodbye, I’m mastered biochemisty, genetics, cloning, and engineering. I’m a jack of all trades, and master of many of those said trades. After meeting Apocalypse, he used his advanced technology to grant me a healing factor. It also turned my skin chalk white, and my eyes bright red. Take the good with the bad. As time has marched on, I’ve incorporated other powers. Including shapeshifting, optic blasts, teleportation, telekinesis, and teleportation.

 Mr. Sinister has been used sparingly outside the comics. Not sure why, he’s an intimidating bad guy.

Does he realize he's dressed like a vampire?

I, like many, was introduced to Mr. Sinister in X-Men: The Animated Series. He was a major recurring antagonist. He uses a group known as the Nasty Boys as his primary henchmen. He’s dismissive of Xavier’s dream of human/Mutant cooperation, and even Magneto’s belief in a war. His only interest is in making Mutants more… Mutantie. He’s obsessed with Scott Summers and Jean Grey, and orchestrates several plans to kidnap them and use their DNA to make the perfect Mutant. Probably his more effective plot involved capturing Xavier and Magneto to lure the X-Men to the primordial Savage Land. Why? Because he was able to setup a device that suppresses Mutant Powers, if they don’t have the right bling. He’s thwarted. How? Wolverine. Enough said. We learn in “Descent” that in this universe he was able to give himself Mutant powers on his own, and was involved with the ancestors of Jean Grey, Scott Summers, and Charles Xavier. Kind of a sad story, not going to lie.

He was a background baddie in Wolverine and the X-Men. Basically the same character as in X-Men: TAS, creepy scientist obsessed with making super-mutants. Cyclops actively hunts him down in a vain attempt to learn what happened to Jean months prior. Cyc’s rational being that the Scott-and-Jean obsessed Sinister would know where, or have, Jean disappeared to. Sinister had no idea, but relished the chance to get his hand on Scott’s DNA. He also transforms Angle into Archangle after his wings are clipped after an accident. Angle recovers his wings, but is reduced to a snarling monster that is only capable of following Sinister’s commands. Sick monster.

I promised him flight, not his sanity.

Boo-yah, (swing).

GHA! You cut off my hand!

Yeah, I have a problem with people that make light of human experimentation, knave. Make another joke, and I’ll cut off the other one.

Are you really going to stand for this? Your assistant assaulting guests?

Stand for it? It’s how I’m paying him.

I was promised one limb removal. If I do really well, he said I could have your nose.

Back on task. While he didn’t appear in X-Men: First Class, it seemed pretty clear elements of him were mixed into the film’s major antagonist, Sebastian Shaw, portrayed by Kevin Bacon. I’m not an expert on Shaw, but in my experience, he’s been a wealthy Brit and Black King (Leader) of the Hellfire Club. Not a former Nazi scientist that delighted in experimenting/torturing children and “unlocking” a mutant power sometime after that. But who knows, I could be way off.

So… Mr. Sinister is a twisted SOB. While he’s probably one of the smartest men of his, and several other, eras, Sinister has used his immense knowledge mostly to perform inhumane experiments on others. Which isn’t all that surprising, given that he’s Apocalypse’s #2. It takes a profoundly disturbed mind to be the Starscream to Apocalypse’s Megatron. Oh, and his obsession with Cyclops is pretty damn disturbing. I mentioned the whole, keeping him in an orphanage, personally bullying him in the guise of another orphan, and the experimentation. But, he also made a clone of Jean Grey after she was believed dead, and did everything in his power to make Scott fall in love with her, so they’d procreate. Who DOES that?

It was for the betterment of the Mutant Race.

Deadpool, you can take your bonus, now.

SWEET! <Schwing>.

Gah! Ou son ob a itch.

Get him out of here.

Can do!

Well, that was interesting. Hope there won’t be any unforeseen repercussions for actively torturing a supervillain. Nah. Next time, X-Men: Apocalypse Review. Hope it does En Sabah Nur justice.

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