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| “ | I should've let you die! | „ |
| ~ Sinister after Morph shoots him. |
| “ | Your genetic material will be the foundation, the master bloodline for an unbeatable race of mutants who will be my slaves. Through you, I shall give birth to the future. | „ |
| ~ Sinister when he kidnaps Cyclops and Jean. |
| “ | Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home. Your house is on fire, and your child all gone. | „ |
| ~ Sinister taunting Madelyne Pryor. |
Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mister Sinister, is the secondary antagonist of the 1992-97 animated superhero television series X-Men and its 2024 Disney+ sequel X-Men '97.
He is a renegade geneticist that is obsessed with studying and controlling mutations for his own evil purposes. He originally started off as a human, but after discovering the existence of the X-Gene and conducting a series of genetic manipulation experiments, he became a powerful, long-lived human mutate.
Mister Sinister is also one of the X-Men's dangerous and most personal adversaries, particularly being the arch-nemesis of the Summers Family (Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Cable) and Morph.
He was voiced by Christopher Britton.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Dr Nathaniel Essex was a firm believer in Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Believing that this could result in mankind evolving into godhood, he began conducting (sometimes torturous) experiments on mutants in hopes to evolve himself and save his wife Rebecca Grey, who had a terminal illness that no one knew how to cure. After concocting a serum that turned his skin chalk-white and gave him regenerative healing abilities, the townspeople believed he had gone mad when they learned of his experiments, and he fled across the world, chased by James Xavier but to no avail. With his newfound powers leaving him unable to age, he took an interest in finding those who could help him make the world a much more evolved place and took on the name "Mr. Sinister" from that point on.
X-Men: The Animated Series[]
Mr. Sinister makes his first chronological appearance in "Till Death Do Us Part". After Morph was killed by Sentinels at the start of season 1, Sinister brought him back to his lair to revive and brainwash him into his minion, telling him to get his revenge on the X-Men for leaving him to die, which he does by briefly turning them against each other. Meanwhile, Sinister abducts Cyclops and Jean Grey (both of whom he's observed throughout their whole lives) during their honeymoon, planning to create an army of mutant slaves using their DNA. The remaining X-Men arrive to stop him, and Cyclops breaks free and wounds Sinister with his optic red laser blasts, forcing him and the Nasty Boys to retreat. Meanwhile, Professor X and Magneto are stuck in the Savage Lands, de-powered thanks to the island's technology made by Sinister himself.
In the episode "Bloodlines", Sinister orders Mystique to defeat the X-Men so she can reclaim her foster daughter, Rogue. In the season 2 finale "Reunion", Sinister kidnaps Magneto and most of the X-Men except for Wolverine, planning to once again harvest their DNA. Wolverine meets Ka-Zar while fleeing in the jungle, and together they perform a prison break to free the X-Men as well as the Savage Lands' previous inhabitants. During an epic battle, Sinister blows up into pieces due to the combined laser blasts of Cyclops and Morph, and Jean uses her telekinesis to fly the pieces away so it'll take a very long time to build himself back together.
Sinister doesn't reappear until "Beyond Good and Evil", in which he kidnaps at least two psychics (including Jean Grey) for Apocalypse, knowing full-well that he plans to recreate existence. When Magneto betrays Apocalypse and Cable and Bishop arrive to free the psychics, Sinister and the Nasty Boys quickly retreat from the Axis of Time while they still can. His last appearance is in "The Phalanx Covenant", where the titular Phalanx destroys his lab and minions, leaving him no choice but to side with Beast, Forge and Magneto to stop it. At one point, he pushes Moira MacTaggart out of the group's escape plane so she doesn't assimilate the entire aircraft, showing that he's only working with others to save his own skin, which even Magneto points out at the end of the episode. Once the Phalanx is defeated, Sinister runs away into a dark alleyway, never to be seen again.
X-Men 97[]
Shortly after Jean Grey gave birth to her and Scott Summers' baby, Nathan, another woman, identical to Jean, appeared at the X-Mansion, declaring herself to be the real Jean Grey. Dr. Hank McCoy analyses DNA from both women, noting that they are identical, but one is older, and the other holds traces of manipulation from Mister Sinister. The woman who arrived is revealed to be the real Jean, though she collapsed thus unable to answer questions; at some indeterminate time in the past, the women had been swapped without anyone, not even the clone, realizing the reality.
With Sinister's secret revealed, he activated a mind-control probe in the clone Jean that Sinister had switched with the real one at some unknown point in time. Clone Jean overpowered the X-Men and declared herself to be the Goblin Queen; she took Nathan to Sinister's laboratory. Sinister submerged Nathan in some compound, while also infecting him with a techno-organic virus.
The X-Men locate and enter Sinister's manor; the Goblin Queen fights them again. The original Jean uses her powers to communicate with the Goblin Queen in the astral plane. They discuss how neither know when they were replaced, yet as they review pivotal moments from Jean's life, they both still feel the importance of every memory; the clone's love for her baby shatters the mind-control probe, and so she she joins the X-Men in rescuing Nathan. Sinister escapes before being found, but his plans for Nathan are seemingly thwarted. Despite this, the techo-organic virus is too advanced to be stopped by modern science, so Scott and the clone Jean are forced to bid farewell to their child as Bishop takes him to the future where he can be more likely cured.
Sinister's clone Jean renames herself Madelyne Pryor; the original Jean and Madelyne part ways as friends, as the latter seeks to fulfill the impulse they both feel, which is to establish an identity and life outside of Xavier's X-Men, where most of their memories were mad
After the genocide in Genosha by powerful Sentinels (which even appeared to kill Madelyne, thus showing her creator's lack of care about her), Bolivar Trask sends a message to the X-Men that he regrets his Sentinel program and wasn't a part of the destruction in Genosha, but Sinister was; Sinister is also working with some mystery superior whose identity Trask doesn't know. The "superior" is Bastion, as child born from techno-organic manipulation by the Master Mold in the present and Nimrod from the future. Rather than subordinate, Sinister is merely a partner in Bastion's schemes in Operation: Zero Tolerance - which has backers from Baron Zemo to Doctor Doom (the latter lacking the glee the other villains share in the deaths).
OZT is ostensibly to control the population of mutant-kind to protect the dominance of humanity, albeit in reality its long-term goal is to exterminate the majority of mutants, enslave the survivors, and take over the world. Whether Sinister knows the endgame or not—albeit it's likely he is merely participating in Bastion's schemes to facilitate his own agenda—the mad scientist still aided in the creation of human-Sentinel hybrids known as Prime Sentinels, which are humans that act as sleeper agents until a trigger transforms them into powerful cyborgs that are in essence smaller, more agile, and self-repairing Sentinels.
After Magneto creates a worldwide electromagnetic pulse to deactivate all un-shielded electronics and electrical machinery, Sinister appears to accompany Bastion to his primary headquarters.
The X-Men split into two teams, one flying to stop Magneto on Asteroid M and the other assaulting Bastion's main Sentinel factory. The assault squad are again divided to battle separate enemies. Jean Grey faces Sinister; while evading her attacks, Sinister taunts her with the claim that he knows the actual moment when Jean and Madelyne Pryor were swapped. Sinister offers to reveal the truth to her, but Jean refuses to bow to his provocations. Concurrently, Sinister activates the brainwash probe in Cable's mind—the same type that had been in his mother, Madelyne, before her freedom - and thus Sinister commands Cable to fight Jean Grey. Cable nearly kills her with a psionic blast, forcing her to hide underwater.
Bastion, with further cybernetics than before, has his Sentinels hold the X-Men helpless; he demeans them for their foolishness and how they are merely "Neanderthal 2.0." Bastion orders one of his Sentinels to kill Cable; however, Sinister angrily protests, complaining that the only reason he helped was so that Nathan Summers would be his to continue his experimentation. Bastion dismisses Sinister's incredulousness, preparing to kill Cable in front of his father.
Just as Cable was about to be killed, Jean establishes a re-connection with residual Phoenix force, transforming her into the Phoenix once more. After cutting Bastion's connections to the Prime Sentinels, Jean telekinetically held Sinister in front of her, condemning him for his over a century of harvesting from mutants to compensate for his own weaknesses and fear; she then ripped the stolen mutant DNA out of Sinister's body, leaving him defenseless, old and frail; Sinister's mind control probe in Cable also disintegrates, freeing the Future warrior.
Jean declared that despite Madelyne giving birth to Nathan, she also considers him to be her son. Sinister begs Morph to copy his face so he can see it himself; Morph replicates Sinister's desiccated visage, taunting that they don't see any difference, leaving Sinister to flee in despair.
Personality[]
| “ | Sinister's the most evil man who ever existed. He was a scientist in the 1800s. Then he started cutting up mutants, stealing our DNA to enhance himself, prolong his life. He can even take away their will. I should know. | „ |
| ~ Morph on Mister Sinister. |
Similar to his comic counterpart, this version of Mr. Sinister is essentially the same: a heartless, egotistical mad scientist who seeks to create the perfect mutant. He is also deeply insecure and selfish; hence, he had spent over a hundred years harvesting X-Genes from other mutants to give himself power and longevity.
He lacks empathy and compassion, even for his own creations and experiments, such as dismissing Morph as a failed experiment and allowing Madelyne Pryor to die in the genocide on Genosha, with a lot of his scorn perhaps based upon the fact his malevolence made them betray him.
His cruelty isn't limited to the methodology of his experiments, as he would often deride and demean enemies and often allies, too. He had a dark sense of humour, either to undermine the wills of an opponent or simply doing it for his own amusement.
Sinister does have limits to his depravity, as he will not let Earth be conquered by aliens, although that is only because that would deprive him of a lot of his freedom and potential test subjects. He will, however, ally with those who give him what he wants in exchange for his genius, which is why he works with Bastion to enslave mutants.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Genius Intellect: Despite the technological limitations of his home era of the 19th Century, he was able to concoct breakthroughs that were over a century and more ahead of the standard.
- Genius Geneticist: He had such mastery of genetics that he could halt his aging and extend his own lifespan. He could also splice X-Genes into others and his own body.
- Cloning Expert: Sinister could create an identical replication of another person, even a mutant, thereby recreating mutant powers. He could also copy the original's memories so perfectly that they won't be aware of the fact that they are a clone.
- Mind Control: While he needed to implant a control crystal within a subdued body, it would allow him complete control of the person. It takes immense psychic powers or immense willpower to break the bind.
- Expert Roboticist: While his expertise is in genetics, he was able to cooperate with Bastion to create Prime Sentinels.
- Expert Virologist: He holds comprehensive understanding of viruses, including techno-organic kinds.
- Artificially enhanced physiology: Mister Sinister self-experimented on himself, granting him numerous powers
- Regeneration: Mister Sinister can regenerate from injuries, even fatal ones
- Immortality: Mister Sinister has been alive for centuries and still looks like a middle-aged man
- Shapeshifting: Sinister can change his body in different ways, such as releasing tendrils to attack Jean Grey, as well as modifying his body to evade her attacks.
- Telepathy: Mister Sinister can read minds. He was able to place a mind control probe on Cable.
- Telekinesis: Mister Sinister can move objects with his mind
- Energy Blasts: Mister Sinister can project blasts of yellow or red energy out of his hands and fingers that are strong enough to match Cyclops's optic blasts
- Regeneration: Mister Sinister can regenerate from injuries, even fatal ones
Quotes[]
| “ | You deny the future, so you shall not live to see it! | „ |
| ~ Sinister attacking Magneto |
| “ | You join us at last. I trust your defeat wasn't too tiring? | „ |
| ~ Sinister taunting imprisoned Cyclops |
| “ | Like sheep without a shepherd, they become lambs to the slaughter. | „ |
| ~ Sinister upon Xavier's disappearance |
| “ | As my creations. As my gift to the world. The mutant powers of all, combined in each! As my children. | „ |
| ~ Sinister justifying his schemes |
| “ | Valerie Cooper: Bastion's very own Doctor Mengele. Mr. Sinister: (laughs) Valerie Cooper: Whats so funny? Mr. Sinister: I knew Mengele, he could've been so much more but he settled on being a Nazi pup. I'm using Bastion. Pigpens brimming with mutant test subjects...That's my dream. |
„ |
| ~ Mr. Sinister to Dr. Cooper about his past and his true intentions. |
| “ | I've waited for this moment. I know your genes, Jean. Your strengths, weaknesses. | „ |
| ~ Sinister showing his arrogance to Jean Grey during their battle |
| “ | Only I know where you end and Madelyne begins. If you ask nicely, I can tell you when I switched you. | „ |
| ~ Sinister taunting Jean Grey with the knowledge of when she was replaced with her clone |
| “ | Sinister: I have studied you, Jean; dissected you. Jean Grey: Then face me! I'm shocked that such a coward hasn't abandoned Bastion yet. |
„ |
| ~ Sinister leading Jean into fighting her brainwashed genetic son Cable |
| “ | You think peacocking makes you whole again? Think it rebuilds your past? If so, truly, you did not think at all! | „ |
| ~ Sinister taunting Jean Grey's Phoenix form despite being at her mercy |
| “ | Sinister: Show me! Show me my face. Morph: (Smirking as he transforms into the frail Mr. Sinister to taunt him) Looks the same to me. |
„ |
| ~ Mr. Sinister begging Morph to see what happened to him. |
Trivia[]
- He knew the infamous Mengele, feeling he limited himself by allying with the Nazis. He confesses admiration for his work but disappointment in what he felt was a lack in ambition.
- His voice always has an eerie, tinny echo, unless transmitted through radio or static-afflicted television.
- Sinister replaced Jean with Madelyne by 1996, when "Jean" stopped wearing her hair in ponytails while in uniform.
- Beast could have carbon-dated Madelyne to find out precisely when the swap happened, but it's only been confirmed to have occurred after the Dark Phoenix Saga.
