The Marvel multiverse has no shortage of terrifying villains that have appeared in the panels
of the comic giant’s stories.
Whether they’re physically intimidating, have corrupt and horrific intentions or they’re
just flat out incredibly deadly, we’ve seen a whole lot of baddies over the years that
have left us shaking in our boots, compelled to read more and see how our beloved heroes
stop their reign of terror.
So today, we’re taking a look at a particular group of heroes – the X-Men – and some
of their most unsettling foes with our list of the top 10 scariest X-Men villains, coming
at you with a part two!
In part one, we focused more so on aesthetically scary baddies, but this time, we’re looking
at more than just creepy appearances.
So with that
in mind, let’s get
to it!
10 Holocaust His name enough should have you wary!
Holocaust first appeared in 1995’s X-Men Alpha, and is one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.
Holocaust was initially from the Age of Apocalypse timeline, where he was known as Nemesis, where
he was said to be one of Apocalypse’s children.
Magneto would strip Nemesis of his flesh in a battle, enraged for the deaths that Nemesis
had caused – his body was retrieved by Apocalypse who gave him to Dark Beast who managed to
capture his spiritual essence inside a near indestructible crystalline exo-armour – a
procedure in which Nemesis became Holocaust, or rather, Holocaust was born.
The character is terrifying for one specific reason – his abilities.
He initially possessed the power to generate highly destructive bio-nuclear microwave energy
blasts, which can be incredibly destructive, and later on, when he became an energy being,
he gained the ability to drain the life force from other beings in order to charge his own
exoskeleton that acted as a suit of armour for him.
He’s pretty much physically invulnerable.
Or was – the character was killed by Hyperion, who cracked open Holocaust’s exoskeleton,
and then absorbed all of his bioenergy into himself by literally inhaling him.
So that’s a fun way to go.
9 Krakoa Krakoa is one of the X-Men’s earliest villains,
having appeared in Giant Size X-Men issue 1 in 1975.
There’s been two versions of Krakoa over the years, with the first being the villainous
one.
It appeared initially as a small island in the Pacific Ocean that was located near a
nuclear bombing test site.
The radiation from the test site mutated the island’s eco-system, which altered the island
into a hive mind entity in 1945 – something that Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos witnessed
– they encountered much of the island’s intelligence and established a peaceful treaty
in exchange for keeping the island’s existence a complete secret.
Flash forward to 1975 – Krakoa decides it’s hungry, and it wants to feed on the life force
of mutants.
It kills a young mutant team, and later captures the original iteration of X-Men.
This is what causes Professor Xavier to create the second wave of X-Men – the team that
consists of Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Thunderbird, Sunfire, and Banshee.
Polaris eventually launches Krakoa into outer space, and later, it becomes captured by the
Stranger.
This Krakoa is perhaps one of the most physically intimidating entities that the mutant team
has ever fought – it’s a literal monstrous island.
The second Krakoa, in case you’re wondering, is much more benevolent, having been grown
by a member of the Hellfire Club, but wanting to redeem itself with the X-Men and become
one of them.
It ends up becoming a part of the school, and even helps the X-Men financially by growing
diamonds on a tree he produces.
How kind! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marvel_Comics_characters:_K#Krakoa
8 Sauron Don’t be confused by its name – this ain’t
no middle Earth Sauron, luckily.
Sauron of the Marvel universe is quite different, despite being evil and having taken the name
Sauron after the Tolkien villain.
Sauron is the alter ego of Karl Lykos who has a Jekyll and Hyde relationship of sorts
with this humanoid Pteranodon form of his – he’s essentially an energy vampire who
often lives within the prehistoric jungle known as the Savage Land.
First appearing in this form in X-Men issue 60 back in 1969, Sauron was initially meant
to be a giant bat like creature.
Back in those times, the comics code authority was still in affect, and his creators, Roy
Thomas and Neal Adams, inquired with the organization, who suggested that the character’s vampiric
traits would be in violation of the code.
So instead of going with something that resembled a vampire, which was banned according to the
code, they ended up opting out for a form that looked more like a pterodactyl.
Anywho, what can Sauron do, aside from look absolutely terrifying?
He’s got all the superhuman fixings – strength, speed, stamina, durability and intelligence.
He flies (duh), has hypnotic eyes, fire breath, razor sharp claws, and, most importantly can
absorb life forces and mutant powers, and can sense mutants, too.
In addition to this, he can gain the powers of other mutants – once, when battling against
the Avengers and the X-Men, he was shot in the head by the second black widow, but survived
thanks to having absorbed wolverine’s healing factor.
7 Wendigo The Wendigo is most well known in Marvel comics
for being the first foe of Wolverine’s – the enemy in which Wolverine and the Hulk take
on together.
Based on the Wendigo legend of the Algonquian people, it’s a large beastly creature with
superhuman strength, stamina, durability and agility, has enhanced speed, hardened and
sharp talons, and a regenerative healing factor.
It’s found in the woods of Northern Canada, and is the result of a curse that takes place
under very specific conditions, primarily when a human in the forests feed on human
flesh.
Any of you familiar with the recent title Until Dawn may be familiar with the legends,
although the Wendigo of marvel comics looks quite different than that video game’s representation.
Over the years, the Wendigo has taken on it’s fair share of mutants, including Wolverine,
Nightcrawler, and the members of Alpha Flight.
And the Wendigo isn’t just one character – various different wendigo have appeared
over the years, all formerly humans who partook in cannibalism and have become these wretched
creatures.
6 Predator X Predator X first hit the panels of Marvel
comics back in 2007 in New X-Men issue 34.
It’s a grotesque beast, reptile like, with superhuman strength and speed, sharp claws
and teeth, toxic salvia, accelerated hearing, and its body is covered in non toxic inorganic
mercury.
That latter bit means its highly resistant to physical damage and can draw in materials
in the environment surrounding it to help reform itself.
Why is it scary?
It can track mutants on their genetic signature, and is pretty much tireless, meaning it can
track its prey relentlessly until it succeeds, wearing down its target for as long as necessary.
It can run at speeds of 199 kilometers an hour for a total of 19 hours before having
to slow down.
Luckily, it’s insides are not as durable as its outsides – Wolverine managed to kill
it by tearing it apart from the inside out with his claws.
But fun fact – it killed one of the villains we mentioned on our part one of this list,
Peeper, who it devoured on the side of a road.
It’s vicious, to say the least.
Predator X was created thanks to Stryker, who, prior to dying requested that a living
weapon be made in order to combat the coming of a mutant Anti-Christ – aka Hope Summers.
5 Sugarman Sugarman is by no means a good X-Men villain,
but he’s definitely a terrifying one to take in.
First debuting in the Age of Apocalypse timeline, Earth 295, in Generation Next issue 2 in 1995,
Sugarman would manage to sneak his way out of that reality and onto Earth 616 when bombs
were blowing the crap out of 295 as a last resort means to be rid of Apocalypse.
Sugarman, aside from being hideous and offensive to the eyes, is an expert biologist and geneticist,
he has four arms, superhuman strength, razor sharp teeth and claws, an indefinitely long
bio electric tongue (ew), an enhanced sense of smell and has the ability to alter his
body mass and size, which is how he sneaked his way over to 616 – by hiding in Colossus’
boot, of all places.
He’s responsible for a handful of deaths on Earth 295, and when he arrives on 616,
he ends up forcibly enslaving hundreds of mutants for the Magistrates.
4 Reavers The Reavers are a team of criminal cyborgs
who first debuted in Uncanny X-Men issue 229 back in May of 1988, created by Chris Claremont
and Marc Silvestri.
The Reavers, led by a man named Donald Pierce, are dedicated to the destruction of mutants,
and specifically, Wolverine.
Initially, they were a gang of looters who operated in Australia, but began to branch
out when they used the mutant Gateway to teleport across the globe in order to pull off more
sophisticated robberies.
The X-Men stop them, with only a handful of the Reavers escaping that first encounter,
later reassembling under Pierce who makes the team into a more militarized direction,
using them as an assassination squadron of sorts bent on taking vengeance on the X-Men.
They’ve done some pretty messed up stuff over the years, including capturing Wolverine,
torturing him and crucifying him.
They’re an extremist team bent on eliminating mutant kind, humans who have become cyborgs
as part of the cause.
And they’ve even stirred up trouble in alternate timelines – in Age of Apocalypse, they were
a band of human traitors who served the titular villain, and in the Ultimate Marvel universe,
they are human gladiators who have undergone surgery to become cyborgs all for the purpose
of hunting down mutants on live television.
That’s messed up.
I mean, imagine running into a team of extremists like that who embrace technology in order
to wipe out a race.
They’re scary because they’re a foe of the X-Men’s who are more realistic antagonists
compared to some of their other enemies.
We also got to see the Reavers make a cinematic debut in Logan, and needless to say, they
were pretty darn scary as a live adaptation as well.
3 Purifiers The Purifiers are one step up from the Reavers,
and are unsettling for very similar reasons.
They’re a paramilitary and terrorist organization, also created by Chris Claremont, that debuted
in Marvel Graphic Novel issue 5, X-Men God Loves, Man Kills.
And they’re led by none other than Reverend William Stryker, who is their founder.
So they’re whole schtick is that they’re Christian Fundamentalists who believe they
are fighting a holy war against mutants.
They see mutants as the children of the Devil and therefore need to be exterminated.
In their first appearance, they abducted Charles Xavier and several members of the X-Men team,
killed mutant children, fought against Magneto, and almost executed Kitty Pryde.
Luckily for her, one of Stryker’s guards grew horrified with his actions and shot him,
resulting in Kitty getting away and Stryker being sent to prison.
That wasn’t the last of them though – even after Stryker no longer led the group, other
successors took over the leadership mantle, including his son Jason Stryker.
Later on, the Purifiers got their hands on Angel’s wings and using blood from them,
extracted Apocalypse’s techno organic strain in order to graft it and give the Purifiers
wings of their own – a specific sub group that would be called The Choir, whose whole
MO was to, I quote, “strike down Satan’s spawn with God’s own might.”
Archangel would later massacre all of the Choir minus three members.
2 Mister Sinister Mister Sinister is one of the most notorious
X-Men villains.
Sinister, aka Nathaniel Essex, first debuted as the employer of the assassin group the
Marauders, mentioned in the Uncanny X-Men issue 212 in 1986, and first see in The Uncanny
X-Men issue 221 almost a whole year later.
Not only is his aesthetic unsettling, but he’s also capable of some really terrifying
stuff – he is telepathic, telekinetic, has superhuman strength, durability and longevity,
can create concussive energy projections and, potentially scariest of all, can manipulate
his body on a molecular level.
Born in 1859, he was obsessed with Darwin’s theories and was considered an unorthodox
biologist, conducting immoral experiments that would make him an outcast amongst his
peers.
He even dug up his dead first born child to experiment on it.
After awakening Apocalypse, the villain would painfully transform him into an ageless being,
with Essex taking on the name Sinister – the last thing his wife called him on her death
bed.
1 The Phoenix Force One of the most terrifying foes that the X-Men
have ever faced off against is the Phoenix Force – an entity that is an immortal and
immutable manifestation of the universal force of life and passion, born of the void between
states of being, the nexus of all psionic energy which does, has and ever will exist
within the Marvel multiverse.
The Phoenix Force requires a host, and it manifested within Jean Grey, who, when losing
control of it, became the Dark Phoenix.
Dark Phoenix has a vast amount of abilities, is able to manipulate matter, energy, and
life force, and has cosmic awareness, all of which make Jean’s Dark Phoenix incredibly
powerful and threatening.
In many cases, in alternate realities, Jean has completely wiped out the planet or consumed
the universe when not stopped by the X-Men.
And while much of the Phoenix Saga has been retconned, along with Jean dying and coming
back to life and dying and coming back to life, the Phoenix Force has still proven to
be rather deadly regardless.
Over the years in the comics, the Phoenix force has proven capable of taking on all
powerful foes like the Beyonder, absorbs stars for energy that creates super novas capable
of wiping out entire planets, and even flat out wiping out all of existence in What If
issue 27 volume 1.
Duno about you guys, but to me, that’s scary as hell.
Alright, there we have it friends!
What other X-Men villains do you find scary, based on either their abilities, their motivations
or their aesthetic?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know all of your thoughts and feels!
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I’ll catch you all in the next video!