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** Orbis Stellaris, marked with the black spade, went into space and studied cosmic powers, science through machinery and alien genetics
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** Orbis Stellaris, marked with the black spade, went into space and studied cosmic powers, science through machinery and alien geneticsgenetics.
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* PlayingCardMotifs:Each System of Sinister has a pip for a playing card suit marked on their forehead.
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* PlayingCardMotifs:Each PlayingCardMotifs: Each System of Sinister has a pip for a playing card suit marked on their forehead.
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** Mother Righteous, marked with the red heart, explored magic and the astral plane.
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** Mother Righteous, marked with the red heart, explored magic and the astral plane.
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** Diamond Sinister kept the interest in Mutants.
** Club Sinister Explored post-humanity through means other than mutant, eventually joining Orchis.
** Spade Sinister went into space and studied cosmic powers, science through machinery and alien genetics
** Heart Sinister explored magic and the astral plane, becoming Mother Righteous.
** Club Sinister Explored post-humanity through means other than mutant, eventually joining Orchis.
** Spade Sinister went into space and studied cosmic powers, science through machinery and alien genetics
** Heart Sinister explored magic and the astral plane, becoming Mother Righteous.
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** Diamond Sinister Mister Sinister, marked with the red diamond, kept the original Essex's interest in Mutants.
mutants.
**Club Sinister Explored post-humanity through means other than mutant, Doctor Stasis, marked with the black club, explored the non-mutant options for post-humanity, eventually joining Orchis.
**Spade Sinister Orbis Stellaris, marked with the black spade, went into space and studied cosmic powers, science through machinery and alien genetics
**Heart Sinister Mother Righteous, marked with the red heart, explored magic and the astral plane, becoming Mother Righteous.plane.
**
**
**
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* PlayingCardMotifs:Each System of Sinister has a different Card Suit mark on their forehead.
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* PlayingCardMotifs:Each System of Sinister has a different Card Suit mark pip for a playing card suit marked on their forehead.
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%%
%% Please don't change the spoiler policy (including the cut-off point) for this page without discussing it on the Marvel Comics cleanup and maintenance thread:
%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16630056830A15456800
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%% Please don't change the spoiler policy (including the cut-off point) for this page without discussing it on the Marvel Comics cleanup and maintenance thread:
%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16630056830A15456800
%%
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* SelfMadeSuperPowers: Mister Sinister gave himself quite a few powers by copying or implanting X-genes of other mutants, such as shapeshifting.
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* SelfMadeSuperPowers: Mister Sinister gave himself quite a few powers by copying or implanting X-genes of other mutants, such as shapeshifting. He wasn't originally a mutant himself until he modified his body with John Proudstar's X-gene.
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!!'''WARNING:''' There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all comics before ''ComicBook/SinsOfSinister'' (i.e. anything published before 2023).
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!!'''WARNING:''' There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all comics before ''ComicBook/SinsOfSinister'' (i.e. anything published before 2023).
2023) and some characters listed here are {{Walking Spoiler}}s for older stories.
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!!'''WARNING:''' There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all comics before ''ComicBook/SinsOfSinister'' (i.e. anything published before 2023).
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* HiddenAgendaVillain: Her goals are [[GodhoodSeeker the same as all the other Essex clones]], but how she plans to do that is still obscure. In [[BadFuture Sins of Sinister]] she spends all her time cultivating a cult of the Nightkin, having them pilfer magical artifacts for her that she's draining and stockpiling mystical power from. At the same time, she's stopped making deals and instead is asking marks what they'd do differently in the past. Legion calls her out on having a stated goal that veils a hidden one, which is mostly an observation for her allies to pick up on.
* OppositeSexClone: Out of all the Essex clones, for whatever reason she turned out female instead of male like the original.
* OppositeSexClone: Out of all the Essex clones, for whatever reason she turned out female instead of male like the original.
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Categories rephrased a bit based on the book in Immoral X-Men #2, which directly says what each is tasked with
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[[caption-width-right:350:]]
Once thought to just be Mister Sinister, a supervillain with a seemingly innocuous red Diamond on his forehead as an insignia, it was revealed that Mister Sinister is only one of four clones all stemming from Victorian geneticist, Nathaniel Essex. Each clone having a different card suit on their forehead, went in different directions building their own identities. Mister Sinister, with the red diamond became the mutant obsessed Sinister we all know. The black club researched other genetic ventures and became the anti-mutant scientist known as Doctor Stasis. The clone with the spade went into space using alien genetics and technology becoming the seemingly alien Orbis Stellaris. And the sinister with the heart diverged the most perusing magic and apparently achieving godhood as Mother Righteous.
//
Once thought to just be Mister Sinister, a supervillain with a seemingly innocuous red Diamond on his forehead as an insignia, it was revealed that Mister Sinister is only one of four clones all stemming from Victorian geneticist, Nathaniel Essex. Each clone having a different card suit on their forehead, went in different directions building their own identities. Mister Sinister, with the red diamond became the mutant obsessed Sinister we all know. The black club researched other genetic ventures and became the anti-mutant scientist known as Doctor Stasis. The clone with the spade went into space using alien genetics and technology becoming the seemingly alien Orbis Stellaris. And the sinister with the heart diverged the most perusing magic and apparently achieving godhood as Mother Righteous.
//
to:
Once thought to just be Mister Sinister, a supervillain with a seemingly innocuous red Diamond on his forehead as an insignia, it was revealed that Mister Sinister is only one of four clones all stemming from Victorian geneticist, Nathaniel Essex.
Each clone
//
----
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** Club Sinister Explored human evolution through means other than mutant, eventually joining Orchis.
** Spade Sinister went into space and studied science through machinery and alien genetics
** Spade Sinister went into space and studied science through machinery and alien genetics
to:
** Club Sinister Explored human evolution post-humanity through means other than mutant, eventually joining Orchis.
** Spade Sinister went into space and studied cosmic powers, science through machinery and alien genetics
** Spade Sinister went into space and studied cosmic powers, science through machinery and alien genetics
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* TomatoInTheMirror: All of them with the exception of [[WomenAreWiser Mother Righteous]] were under the impression that they were the original Nathaniel Essex. Those three men were wrong as the original died in an insane asylum, possibly before they even existed.
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Expanded and reformatted a bit. Rephrase as 'examples are not recent'
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* WellIntentionedExtremist: Another case of DependingOnTheWriter, and most prevalent during the 90s where most of what he was up to was in the name of opposing Apocalypse. His actions during 2007's ''[[ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex Messiah Complex]]'' storyline also have shades of this, as he was working (in his usual StalkerWithATestTube way) towards the goal of reviving the mutant race after the ComicBook/ScarletWitch sterilized them en masse via reality warping. His current characterization for ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge has settled on legitimately interested in stopping TheSingularity predicted and foretold by various characters, but his all-consuming narcissism and utter lack of morals have sidetracked him into various schemes to accumulate power because he seems himself as the only one fit to have control over everyone to accomplish said goal.
to:
* WellIntentionedExtremist: WellIntentionedExtremist:
** Another case of DependingOnTheWriter, and most prevalent during the 90s where most of what he did wasup intended to was in the name of opposing oppose Apocalypse. His actions during 2007's ''[[ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex Messiah Complex]]'' storyline also have shades of this, as he was working (in his usual StalkerWithATestTube way) towards the goal of reviving to revive the mutant race after the ComicBook/ScarletWitch sterilized them en masse via reality warping. His current characterization for warping.
** ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge hassettled on legitimately interested in stopping Sinister playing a LongGame to avert TheSingularity predicted and foretold by various characters, but his all-consuming narcissism and utter lack of morals have sidetracked him into various schemes to accumulate power because he seems himself as the only one fit to have control over everyone to accomplish said goal.goal. Whereas Essex wanted to save humanity from the AIs, this version of Sinister just wants to save himself, becoming a GodhoodSeeker.
** Another case of DependingOnTheWriter, and most prevalent during the 90s where most of what he did was
** ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge has
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* WellIntentionedExtremist: Another case of DependingOnTheWriter, and most prevalent during the 90s where most of what he was up to was in the name of opposing Apocalypse. His actions during 2007's ''[[ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex Messiah Complex]]'' storyline also have shades of this, as he was working (in his usual StalkerWithATestTube way) towards the goal of reviving the mutant race after the ComicBook/ScarletWitch sterilized them en masse via reality warping.
to:
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Another case of DependingOnTheWriter, and most prevalent during the 90s where most of what he was up to was in the name of opposing Apocalypse. His actions during 2007's ''[[ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex Messiah Complex]]'' storyline also have shades of this, as he was working (in his usual StalkerWithATestTube way) towards the goal of reviving the mutant race after the ComicBook/ScarletWitch sterilized them en masse via reality warping. His current characterization for ComicBook/XMenTheKrakoanAge has settled on legitimately interested in stopping TheSingularity predicted and foretold by various characters, but his all-consuming narcissism and utter lack of morals have sidetracked him into various schemes to accumulate power because he seems himself as the only one fit to have control over everyone to accomplish said goal.
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* CanonCharacterAllAlong: He's eventually revealed to be a version of Victorian geneticist Nathan Essex, better known as ComicBook/XMen villain Mister Sinister]].
to:
* CanonCharacterAllAlong: He's eventually revealed to be a version of Victorian geneticist Nathan Essex, better known as ComicBook/XMen villain Mister Sinister]].Sinister.
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* PunnyName: Referring to herself as "Righteous" is not only a reference to the traditional meaning of the word as she claims to be fighting a just cause, [[spoiler:she's opposite Sinister in every way right down to being the ''Right''eous to his Left (as in Sinister's older meaning of referring to the left)]].
to:
* PunnyName: Referring to herself as "Righteous" is not only a reference to the traditional meaning of the word as she claims to be fighting a just cause, [[spoiler:she's she's opposite Sinister in every way right down to being the ''Right''eous '''Right'''eous to his Left (as in Sinister's older meaning of referring to the left)]].left).
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* DuplicateDivergence: They all began as clones of Nathaniel Essex, a geneticist with a vested interest in Mutants which he narcissistically called “Essex Men” but his clones diverged into different interests.
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* DuplicateDivergence: They all began as clones of Nathaniel Essex, a geneticist with a vested interest in Mutants which he narcissistically called “Essex Men” "Essex Men" but his clones diverged into different interests.
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* DeadAllAlong: Immortal X-men #8 reveals he’s been dead since the Victorian age and The Sinister we’ve been following since his 1987 debut has been a clone, possibly a clone of a clone.
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* DeadAllAlong: Immortal X-men #8 reveals he’s been dead since the Victorian age and The the Sinister we’ve been following since his 1987 debut has been a clone, possibly a clone of a clone.
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Not the end, and rephrased a little
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** At the end of ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', he uses a bizarre form of SaveScumming via [[spoiler: clones of Moira [=MacTaggert=], with her timeline reset ability, to replay multiple future variations on killing Hope Summers - which he does, along with Exodus, via a psychic nuke made of cloned Xavier brains, and a considerable chunk of the rest of the Quiet Council]].
* BadassCape: Your mileage will probably vary, though.
* BadassCape: Your mileage will probably vary, though.
to:
** At the end of In ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', he uses a bizarre form of SaveScumming via [[spoiler: clones of Moira [=MacTaggert=], with her [[ResetButton timeline reset ability, to replay reset]] ability mapping out multiple future variations on killing futures where he attempts to kill Hope Summers - which Summers, sending the results of each option back to his past self. After ten resets he does, finds a route that kills Hope, along with Exodus, via a psychic nuke made of cloned Xavier brains, Emma Frost and a considerable chunk of the rest of the Quiet Council]].
* BadassCape: Your mileage will probably vary, though.Xavier]].
* BadassCape: Your mileage will probably vary, though.
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* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:After the death of his original body, he attempts to pull this on Xavier, before ending up in the body of Claudine Renko, who turns this around on him. Renko in turn attempts to do this to ComicBook/{{X 23}} in hopes of taking advantage of her HealingFactor to prevent Sinister from seizing control of her body and being reborn, but Sinister pulls a fast one and takes control of X-23 first. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Laura then kicks]] ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome him]]'' [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome out!]] And Sinister has to settle for a spare Alice clone when Renko is critically wounded in the fight]].
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* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:After the death of his original body, he attempts to pull this on Xavier, before ending up in the body of Claudine Renko, who turns this around on him. Renko in turn attempts to do this to ComicBook/{{X 23}} [[ComicBook/{{X23}} X-23]] in hopes of taking advantage of her HealingFactor to prevent Sinister from seizing control of her body and being reborn, but Sinister pulls a fast one and takes control of X-23 first. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Laura then kicks]] ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome him]]'' [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome out!]] And kicks him out - and Sinister has to settle for a spare Alice clone when Renko is critically wounded in the fight]].
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Indent fix
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* LargeHam: As written by Jonathan Hickman, he's so hammy you'd swear his DNA had a good percentage of pig in it. This is actually intentional on his part.
** Not to mention Kieron Gillen's previous take on the character.
** Not to mention Kieron Gillen's previous take on the character.
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* LargeHam: As written by Jonathan Hickman, Creator/KieronGillen and Creator/JonathanHickman, he's so hammy you'd swear his DNA had a good percentage of pig in it. This is actually intentional on his part.
** Not to mention Kieron Gillen's previous take on the character.part.
** Not to mention Kieron Gillen's previous take on the character.
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Image usually goes below the !! Subheading bar
!! Sinister Systems
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!! Sinister Systems
* DuplicateDivergence: They all began as clones of Nathaniel Essex a geneticist with a vested interest in Mutants which he narcissistically called “Essex Men” but his clones diverged into different interests.
* DuplicateDivergence: They all began as clones of Nathaniel Essex a geneticist with a vested interest in Mutants which he narcissistically called “Essex Men” but his clones diverged into different interests.
to:
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Godhood Seeker expanded. Righteous is not (yet) identified as an actual god
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** Heart Sinister achieved godhood, becoming Mother Righteous.
* GodhoodSeeker: They were created for outcompete technological advancement developing artifical intelligences in achieving TheSingularity.
* GodhoodSeeker: They were created for outcompete technological advancement developing artifical intelligences in achieving TheSingularity.
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** Heart Sinister achieved godhood, explored magic and the astral plane, becoming Mother Righteous.
* GodhoodSeeker:They were Essex, convinced that AIs would eventually destroy humanity, created for outcompete technological advancement developing artifical intelligences in achieving TheSingularity.them to explore different paths to TheSingularity before that happened. Although his original aims were broadly benevolent, his creations take a more selfish approach to godhood.
* GodhoodSeeker:
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Copying over some content from Righteous' old folder.
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->''"Hope's a '''shoddy''' currency, lads. '''I''' trade in faith."''
-->-- '''Mother Righteous''', ''[[ComicBook/SinsOfSinister Nightcrawlers]]'' #1
-->-- '''Mother Righteous''', ''[[ComicBook/SinsOfSinister Nightcrawlers]]'' #1
* PunnyName: Referring to herself as "Righteous" is not only a reference to the traditional meaning of the word as she claims to be fighting a just cause, [[spoiler:she's opposite Sinister in every way right down to being the ''Right''eous to his Left (as in Sinister's older meaning of referring to the left)]].
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* TheReveal: She's the heart suite Sinister clone
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* TheReveal: She's At the heart end of ''Legion of X'' #10, she unmasks for the first time, confirming her identity as the Heart suite Sinister cloneSinister.
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* GodhoodSeeker: They were created for outcompete technological advancement developing artifical intelligences in achieving TheSingularity.
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* FunetikAksent: She speaks in a strong London (cockney) accent, and her dialogue is written accordingly.
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* FunetikAksent: She speaks in a strong London (cockney) accent, and her dialogue is written accordingly.accordingly. When someone comments on her 'East London' accent, she points out that it's not ''quite'' London - it's Essex.
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No point spoiler tagging all the 'actually Sinister' reveals when they're now on a Sinister page
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** At the end of ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', he uses a bizarre form of SaveScumming via [[spoiler: clones of himself and Moira [=MacTaggert=], with her timeline reset ability, to replay multiple future variations on killing Hope Summers - which he does, along with Exodus, via a psychic nuke made of cloned Xavier brains, and a considerable chunk of the rest of the Quiet Council]].
to:
** At the end of ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', he uses a bizarre form of SaveScumming via [[spoiler: clones of himself and Moira [=MacTaggert=], with her timeline reset ability, to replay multiple future variations on killing Hope Summers - which he does, along with Exodus, via a psychic nuke made of cloned Xavier brains, and a considerable chunk of the rest of the Quiet Council]].
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* BreakTheHaughty: We see his cocky and confident demeanor shatter for the first time when Emma delivers news of Doctor Stasis’s and Orchis scientist who is a Sinister that he never knew about. Furthermore Stasis’ claims at being the original sends Sinister into such a panic that he runs away from the Quiet Council. ''Immortal X-Men'' implies that he's actually [[spoiler: a Victorian era clone - and that there are at least two more...]]
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* BreakTheHaughty: We see his cocky and confident demeanor shatter for the first time when Emma delivers news of Doctor Stasis’s and Orchis scientist who is a Sinister that he never knew about. Furthermore Stasis’ claims at being the original sends Sinister into such a panic that he runs away from the Quiet Council. ''Immortal X-Men'' implies that he's actually [[spoiler: a Victorian era clone - and that there are at least two more...]]
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* EnemyMine: He's allied himself with the X-Men in 2019's ''House of X'' story and seems to be working closely with [[GreaterScopeVillain Orchis]]. But unlike Proteus and Vulcan, he's not listed as being affiliated with the X-Men outright, and in worldbuilding materials it's mentioned that the X-Men still don't trust him as far as they can throw him, which is a perfectly sensible stance to take. This proves justified, though with Orchis, that's [[spoiler: a different version of Sinister, Doctor Stasis]].
to:
* EnemyMine: He's allied himself with the X-Men in 2019's ''House of X'' story and seems to be working closely with [[GreaterScopeVillain Orchis]]. But unlike Proteus and Vulcan, he's not listed as being affiliated with the X-Men outright, and in worldbuilding materials it's mentioned that the X-Men still don't trust him as far as they can throw him, which is a perfectly sensible stance to take. This proves justified, though with Orchis, that's [[spoiler: a different version of Sinister, Doctor Stasis]].Stasis.
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* ArchEnemy: He views himself as Cyclops's, even declaring himself to be his nemesis. Cyclops, for his part, isn't impressed by Stasis at all and views him as just another crazy supervillain to take down. [[spoiler:Then again, he's either a clone of Mr. Sinister or, if Stasis himself was telling the truth, the real Nathaniel Essex.]]
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* ArchEnemy: He views himself as Cyclops's, even declaring himself to be his nemesis. Cyclops, for his part, isn't impressed by Stasis at all and views him as just another crazy supervillain to take down. [[spoiler:Then Then again, he's either a clone of Mr. Sinister or, if Stasis himself was telling the truth, the real Nathaniel Essex.]]
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* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Genetic engineering monsters to combat the X-Men is his whole gimmick. [[spoiler:What else do you expect from Mister Sinister?]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: He’s a human Sinister clone, complete with a card suit black club on his forehead in place of a red diamond.]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: He’s a human Sinister clone, complete with a card suit black club on his forehead in place of a red diamond.]]
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* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Genetic engineering monsters to combat the X-Men is his whole gimmick. [[spoiler:What What else do you expect from Mister Sinister?]]
Sinister?
* TheReveal:[[spoiler: He’s a human Sinister clone, complete with a card suit black club on his forehead in place of a red diamond.]]
* TheReveal:
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* WhamShot: [[spoiler: The reveal of his true faces redefines the meaning of the originally seemingly innocuous red Diamond on Sinister’s (or at least the one we’ve come to know) forehead. With the reveal that it’s a classification, this implies there are at least two other Sinister Systems based on card suites. ComicBook/ImmortalXMen #8 later confirms this.]]
to:
* WhamShot: [[spoiler: The reveal of his true faces redefines the meaning of the originally seemingly innocuous red Diamond on Sinister’s (or at least the one we’ve come to know) forehead. With the reveal that it’s a classification, this implies there are at least two other Sinister Systems based on card suites. ComicBook/ImmortalXMen #8 later confirms this.]]
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!!Orbis Stellaris / [[spoiler:Nathan Essex]]
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!!Orbis Stellaris / [[spoiler:Nathan Essex]]
Nathan Essex
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* CanonCharacterAllAlong: [[spoiler:He's eventually revealed to be a version of Victorian geneticist Nathan Essex, better known as ComicBook/XMen villain Mister Sinister]].
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* CanonCharacterAllAlong: [[spoiler:He's He's eventually revealed to be a version of Victorian geneticist Nathan Essex, better known as ComicBook/XMen villain Mister Sinister]].
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* TheReveal: [[spoiler: She's the heart suite Sinister clone]]
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* TheReveal: [[spoiler: She's the heart suite Sinister clone]]clone
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Character page created for the Essex clones as approved by Thread
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[[caption-width-right:350:]]
Once thought to just be Mister Sinister, a supervillain with a seemingly innocuous red Diamond on his forehead as an insignia, it was revealed that Mister Sinister is only one of four clones all stemming from Victorian geneticist, Nathaniel Essex. Each clone having a different card suit on their forehead, went in different directions building their own identities. Mister Sinister, with the red diamond became the mutant obsessed Sinister we all know. The black club researched other genetic ventures and became the anti-mutant scientist known as Doctor Stasis. The clone with the spade went into space using alien genetics and technology becoming the seemingly alien Orbis Stellaris. And the sinister with the heart diverged the most perusing magic and apparently achieving godhood as Mother Righteous.
[[folder: Sinisters in General]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a899919b_d281_4739_852c_92eb3217112c.jpeg]]
!! Sinister Systems
* DuplicateDivergence: They all began as clones of Nathaniel Essex a geneticist with a vested interest in Mutants which he narcissistically called “Essex Men” but his clones diverged into different interests.
** Diamond Sinister kept the interest in Mutants.
** Club Sinister Explored human evolution through means other than mutant, eventually joining Orchis.
** Spade Sinister went into space and studied science through machinery and alien genetics
** Heart Sinister achieved godhood, becoming Mother Righteous.
* PlayingCardMotifs:Each System of Sinister has a different Card Suit mark on their forehead.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mister Sinister]]
!!Dr. Nathaniel Essex / Mister Sinister
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/00d73cd5_2174_4926_a346_b1238ca86e16.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[ComicBook/XMan You]] are power incarnate, It's true. Crude, uncontained power. But I, child of the atom... I am '''control'''.]]
!!!'''Nationality:''' British
!!!'''Species:''' Human mutant chimera
!!!'''First Appearance:''' ''Uncanny X-Men'' #221 (September, 1987)
->''"You haven't understood at all. You can't kill me. There is no "me." Sinister is a system. Sinister is a species. Everything is Sinister. And if you're not Sinister, your time is over."''
Debuting in ''Uncanny X-Men #221'', Dr. Nathaniel Essex was a respected Victorian scientist and a contemporary of UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin, who read Darwin's theories with interest but thought they did not go far enough. Uncovering evidence for the existence of mutants and viewing them as the [[EvolutionaryLevels next stage in human evolution]], Essex put a radical kind of eugenics forward to the scientific community, arguing that children from the families of these unique bloodlines he was discovering (i.e. the children or descendants of mutants) should be taken and raised as lab rats in order to direct the human race more clearly and quickly to its future. Unsurprisingly, the scientific community were horrified and turned against him, and on her deathbed even his wife denounced him as "Sinister" after she discovered he had dug up their dead son for his increasingly twisted research.
But Essex found a patron receptive to his ideas, the ancient mutant Apocalypse, who transformed him into an immortal and inhuman creature who takes the name his dead wife gave him- Sinister. Though he eventually turned against his master for his genocidal creeds, Sinister continued his unethical experiments throughout the ages and has cast a dark shadow over the lives of many young mutants and innocents. ComicBook/{{Magneto}} knew him as "Nosferatu", a Nazi MadScientist who took blood samples from children in the camps in exchange for sweets; Juggernaut, Prof. X and Sebastian Shaw were amongst a group of children experimented on as part of a long-term GrandTheftMe plot in the unlikely event of his death, and Cyclops was raised in one of his orphanages, after he recognized the potential for the Summers' bloodline as part of this he created a clone of Jean Grey called Madelyne Jennifer Pryor. Sinister was behind the massacre of the Morlocks and a host of other atrocities over the years, but with centuries of study backing him up he is likely the foremost expert in mutant genetics in the world. The combination makes him one of the X-Men's most intelligent, despicable and dangerous enemies.
Appears in the cartoons: ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009''. Also appears in the games: ''VideoGame/X2WolverinesRevenge'', ''VideoGame/MarvelFutureFight'', ''X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalpyse'', ''VideoGame/MarvelHeroes'', ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' and the BigBad of the ''VideoGame/{{Deadpool}}'' video game.
Was originally supposed to appear in ''Film/TheNewMutants'', portrayed by Creator/JonHamm. This role ended up being cut from the film.
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* AbortedArc: It was once strongly implied that Sinister had contracted the Legacy Virus. Nothing ever came of this.
* AchillesHeel: Subverted, as X-Men were led to believe that his only weakness was Cyclops's optic blast (and indeed, in the '90s cartoon it really was) which seemingly destroyed him in their first battle. It was later revealed Sinister was just FakingTheDead and Cyclops's optic blast was no more effective on him than anything else. When he first made his return, it was pointed out that Cyclops's optic blasts have never blown things up before, just pulverized them, so they really should have suspected.
** What truly ends up doing in Sinister is Rogue's PowerParasite abilities that had, at that point, been boosted to an [[DeadlyUpgrade incredibly deadly degree]].
* AgentPeacock: Not originally characterized as such but has become one best seen under Creator/JonathanHickman. This version of Sinister is extremely vain and campy but still a brilliant geneticist and dangerous opponent. During "Powers of X", he comments he loves Magneto's cape and kills his clone who failed to mention he should have one too. He then goes back to business discussing mutant cloning, rejecting the idea outright... then ''another'' Sinister pops up, complete with cape, executes that Sinister and takes charge, declaring that his mutant power is "deposing tyrants and looking absolutely fabulous." Additionally, there are now gossip columns called "Sinister Secrets" started by Sinister hinting at things that have occurred and things yet to come. They are all written in a cryptic and flamboyant manner. ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'' explains this as his clones now having a personality template based on, among other things, five seasons of ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' and a dash of Oscar Wilde. It's implied that he's doing this to be underestimated.
* AntiMagic: What makes him so scary to mutants is his ability to telepathically prevent a mutant from accessing their powers. This was much more emphasized in the 90s when he was at his threat peak, but his continued collecting of mutant DNA in ''House of X'' hints that he may still have this ability on backup for the day of the sudden but inevitable betrayal...
* ArchEnemy: To the Summers family in general and Cyclops in particular.
* BadBoss: He is a ''brutal'' boss to his Marauders, sometimes [[YouHaveFailedMe killing them with his own hands]] for their failure because he knows he can just crank out clones of them anyway.
* BadassBookworm: An evil version, but he is probably the world's foremost expert on mutant genetics, and no slouch in a fight.
** Let's put it this way: the High Evolutionary is a character with cosmic power who has gone toe-to-toe with ComicBook/{{Galactus}} and evolved an entire world's worth of animals into an advanced society, and ''he's'' [[UnwittingPawn behind the curve]] when it comes to Sinister. Hell, Sinister actually went to the trouble of masquerading as an Oxford professor for years just to get him started!
** During ''Avengers vs X-Men'', he beat the Phoenix Five through pure smarts (via his Sinister London and Maddie clones) and made it look ''easy'', harnessing the Phoenix for himself. And when a robot billions of years old, impossibly advanced, so brilliant it was capable of talking entire civilizations to suicide, and serving as a kind of EvilMentor to the Lights (Hope's team) saw Sinister London and the Phoenix Five's prison after the Lights went undercover, his response was stunned shock and that it was a trap of "pure reason", and they should RunOrDie. It took the direct intervention of the Phoenix itself for the Phoenix Five to escape, and even then, Sinister got away clean.
** At the end of ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', he uses a bizarre form of SaveScumming via [[spoiler: clones of himself and Moira [=MacTaggert=], with her timeline reset ability, to replay multiple future variations on killing Hope Summers - which he does, along with Exodus, via a psychic nuke made of cloned Xavier brains, and a considerable chunk of the rest of the Quiet Council]].
* BadassCape: Your mileage will probably vary, though.
* BeardOfEvil: He often appears with a goatee and he sure is evil.
* BigBad: One of the X-Men's main recurrent adversaries, and the architect of much of their misery.
* BreakTheHaughty: We see his cocky and confident demeanor shatter for the first time when Emma delivers news of Doctor Stasis’s and Orchis scientist who is a Sinister that he never knew about. Furthermore Stasis’ claims at being the original sends Sinister into such a panic that he runs away from the Quiet Council. ''Immortal X-Men'' implies that he's actually [[spoiler: a Victorian era clone - and that there are at least two more...]]
* CharacterExaggeration: As mentioned above, the Sinister of ''House of X'' is so exaggerated that to readers unfamiliar with the character he may well come across as a CampGay (or rather CampStraight, since he is still heterosexual as far as we know). Of course, since there are so many Sinister clones, all having different degrees of the original's personality, this could be semi-intentional - especially since Sinister is treacherous, untrustworthy, and most likely wants to be underestimated. It's revealed in ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'' that it is intentional, with the personality programming for his clones involving "five seasons of ''Drag Race'' and a dash of Oscar Wilde."
* TheChessmaster: Sinister always has elements of this, but bonus points go to his [=AvX=] incarnation who constantly refers to his battle with Cyclops and the Phoenix Five in chess terms, and after being beaten reappears before Scott in disguise just to invite him to "come out and play" again.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Don't trust him. Don't work with him. ''Definitely'' don't work [[BadBoss for him]]. It never ends well.
* ChunkySalsaRule: Averted. His shapeshifting and healing powers allowed him to survive getting gibbed.
* CloneByConversion: His "Sinister London" is a town converted into hive mind connected clones. Even ''animals'' such as horses are made genetically identical to him.
* CrazyPrepared: He has plans within plans within plans. He has multiple schemes to cheat death (despite being an immortal and one of the most difficult villains to kill even considering that) that were set up in the 1950's, and many possibly earlier.
* DealWithTheDevil: Has been on both ends of this relationship, though in most ([[UnwittingPawn and often either]]) cases The Devil is him.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: [[DependingOnTheWriter Sometimes]], he gets portrayed as having the kind of prejudices you'd expect of a man from the Victorian era. His internal monologue cops to this in ''Immortal X-Men'', musing that he used to be a massive racist. He then internally adds that he's now surgically removed that part of his personality, on the grounds that in his eyes, ''everyone'' is beneath him (specifically, his basic philosophy is that he's the only truly real lifeform in existence). Therefore, why bother to discriminate?
* DiabolicalMastermind: One of, if not ''the'', foremost of schemers in the X-Men's corner of the Marvel U.
* TheDragon: To Apocalypse, though he [[DragonWithAnAgenda quickly turned against him and went solo]]. While they are both big believers in survival of the fittest and "improving" human evolution, Sinister found Apocalypse's methods appallingly unscientific.
** DragonAscendant: His ultimate goal, which he manages to pull off in various alternate continuities and ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' stories.
** DragonWithAnAgenda: Sometimes overlaps with TheStarscream, but Sinister is usually more interested in keeping the world safe from Apocalypse (so he can continue playing with it as his petri dish, of course) than he is in usurping his former master's power. Not that he'll pass on a chance to have his cake and eat it too, given the chance...
* TheDreaded: His role in the Mutant Massacre and subsequent manipulations has made him one of the most feared names in the mutant community. He is also one of the last opponents the X-Men ever want to tangle with, since they know from painful experience how much trouble he brings.
* {{Egopolis}}: Created an entire city, called "Sinister London", prior to ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen''.
* EnemyMine: He's allied himself with the X-Men in 2019's ''House of X'' story and seems to be working closely with [[GreaterScopeVillain Orchis]]. But unlike Proteus and Vulcan, he's not listed as being affiliated with the X-Men outright, and in worldbuilding materials it's mentioned that the X-Men still don't trust him as far as they can throw him, which is a perfectly sensible stance to take. This proves justified, though with Orchis, that's [[spoiler: a different version of Sinister, Doctor Stasis]].
* EnigmaticMinion: Particularly in earlier appearances, before his real name and history were revealed.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Or had loved ones in his case, as he had a wife and son as Nathaniel Essex and even as Mister Sinister he still retained a shred of compassion in the case of Faye Livingstone, but in the modern day there's no one he wouldn't kill or betray.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: DependingOnTheWriter. His choice to betray Apocalypse was this with a side of PragmaticVillainy, but he also betrays Apocalypse to Cyclops and Jean Grey specifically after Jean implores him to "think of the children" (the loss of his son Adam was a major factor in his SanitySlippage, and during this time he was depicted with a distinct shade of WouldntHurtAChild). He also condemns Stryfe and his Legacy Virus (biological warfare in particular seems to be a line in the sand for Essex) and reveals everything he knows about both to Cyclops of his own volition, and tries to save [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan Nate Grey]] from Onslaught because he knows what Onslaught is up to (unfortunately, Nate is understandably disposed not to trust Sinister in the slightest, having lost his foster-father to the AOA version, who he promptly vaporized). Much of this CharacterDevelopment was forgotten after UsefulNotes/TheNineties and downright contradicted in ''Weapon X'' which used him as a generic Mengele-esque MadScientist instead (a depiction which would go on to become the predominating characterization for him until UsefulNotes/TheNewTens).
* EvilBrit: Born in 19th Century London, he's one of the most evil enemies of the X-Men.
* EvilGenius: Quite possibly the most evil ''and'' the most ingenious villain the X-Men have ever had to face.
* EvilIsBigger: His given height is 6'5, but he's usually drawn ''much'' larger than that, utterly towering over the likes of Sabretooth. This is perhaps not entirely surprising, given that he's a shapeshifter, and thus his size is up to him.
* EvilMentor: ''X-Men'' vol. 2 #99 revealed that Sinister was actually this to the young Herbert Edgar Wyndham (the future High Evolutionary), masquerading as a "Professor Essex" in Oxford and being the only professor on the campus who supported and encouraged Wyndham's more radical theories. Decades later he recycled this identity to use the Evolutionary as a dupe in his EvilPlan of the week.
* EvilutionaryBiologist: Implied to be directly responsible for the abundance of mutants in the modern world due to the strange, ''forbidden'' experiments he conducted in his day.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Acts all suave and gentleman-like, but really is nothing more than a cold, calculating Sociopath with a Supremacy-Complex.
* {{Flanderization}}: While Sinister was an evil scientist from day one, the [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain politically-incorrect]] NaziNobleman interpretation of him was nowhere on his creator Claremont's map (though, to be fair, Claremont originally intended for him to be a contemporary of Cyclops who'd never aged past 8, and 'Sinister's was his projection of himself/a supervillain). That was added some 15 years later, after a decade of stories featuring him as some variant of HeWhoFightsMonsters. He later literally removed the racist part of his personality, considering everyone beneath him.
* ForScience: His usual motive. He has worked with the [[WellIntentionedExtremist High Evolutionary]] on occasion, and in fact back in the day he was the Evolutionary's inspiration, though both have learned [[NoHonorAmongThieves not to trust each other in the slightest]].
* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:After the death of his original body, he attempts to pull this on Xavier, before ending up in the body of Claudine Renko, who turns this around on him. Renko in turn attempts to do this to ComicBook/{{X 23}} in hopes of taking advantage of her HealingFactor to prevent Sinister from seizing control of her body and being reborn, but Sinister pulls a fast one and takes control of X-23 first. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Laura then kicks]] ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome him]]'' [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome out!]] And Sinister has to settle for a spare Alice clone when Renko is critically wounded in the fight]].
--> '''X-23''': Get out of my head!
* HatedByAll: Nobody has ever liked or trusted Sinister. Even in the age of Krakoa, it’s made clear that he’s only there because they need his genius and DNA database.
* HatesEveryoneEqually: He used to be a huge racist until he surgically removed that part of his brain so he could consider everyone equally inferior to him. Apparently, hating one specific group clouds the judgement too much.
* HealingFactor: His signature power; far more advanced than Wolverine's except on the latter's best days. Think the [[Film/Terminator2Judgmentday T-1000]] cranked up. Sinister's latest body does not have this ability (or at least, not at the moment), but he makes up for it by now being a HiveMind.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Believes in stopping Apocalypse by any means necessary. In order to do so, he's sunk to horrifying lows more times than most villains could ever dream of.
* HijackingCthulhu: He managed to hack the DNA of the Dreaming Celestial in San Francisco to siphon enough power to create his Sinister London.
* HopeSpot: He once took on the identity of a seemingly kindly scientist working for Weapon X, offering mutants victimized by the program the opportunity to escape. Those who did were promptly subjected to even worse experimentation.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Yet another person who thought they could trust Mystique. Which eventually gets him killed.
* HumanoidAbomination: What Apocalypse turned him into, though maybe it's better said that he only completed the process and Essex was inhuman in all but fact by that point.
* HumanResources: Fond of using this, particularly in [=AvX=] where he has an entire bestiary stocked with clones of both heroes and villains to use against the heroes. And he doesn't just stop with ''human'' resources; in one particularly hilarious scene, Phoenix Emma Frost is complaining about fighting a "field of weaponized wheat", right before:
--> '''Herd of Cows''': ([[RedEyesTakeWarning with glowing red eyes]]) '''KILL'''.
** By ''Immortal X-Men'', he's stopped bothering with whole clones necessarily, save when he needs them, cloning bizarre things like winged Scott Summers' eyeballs as drones.
* ImmortalGenius: Has been alive since the Victorian Era, having been made immortal thanks to the intervention of Apocalypse, and even now is still widely known as a MadScientist ''par excellence'' specializing in biology and genetics.
* JokerImmunity: Thanks to his knowledge of genetic engineering and BrainUploading, any attempt to kill him never sticks for very long. And that's only if you get past his insanely powerful HealingFactor/kill off every part of his HiveMind. Sooner or later, he'll pop back up again.
* KickTheDog: Seperated the Summers brothers to make Scott more vulnerable and prevented Scott from being adopted.
* LaughablyEvil: From the Krakoa era onwards, he's utterly despicable and unapologetically awful, but he's also absolutely ''hilarious''. As a twist, this is intentional - it makes people lower their guard.
* LargeAndInCharge: Sinister is ''huge'', outright towering over his Marauders and most heroes.
* LargeHam: As written by Jonathan Hickman, he's so hammy you'd swear his DNA had a good percentage of pig in it. This is actually intentional on his part.
** Not to mention Kieron Gillen's previous take on the character.
* MadScientist: He emphasizes the science over the madness at least, being by far the most competent geneticist in the Marvel Universe (and no slouch with other forms of science, either). However, being more competent doesn't necessarily make him any less evil.
* TheManBehindTheMan: The man behind the [[MurderInc Marauders]], the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Nasty Boys]], the [[HellOnEarth Goblyn Queen]], [[AllYourPowersCombined Xraven]] and even the ''[[CosmicEntity High Evolutionary]]''.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: As ridiculous as Sinister might look in his usual getup, he can pull off classy and cultured in a suit very well when he disguises himself as a human. The X-Men's Beast even refers to him in one issue as a "suave, sophisticated sirrah", a backhanded compliment which [[https://i.imgur.com/XLq1fjQ.jpg clearly pleases him]].
* ManipulativeBastard: One of Marvel's best offerings to this trope.
* MeaningfulRename: When Apocalypse grants him immortality, he tells Essex to choose a new name for himself. [[AppropriatedAppellation Essex chooses 'Sinister' as it was the last word his wife Rebecca spoke to him.]]
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: A curious example. Despite having a better claim to the title of doctor than maybe 90% of Marvel villains who claim it, Essex oddly chooses not to, identifying himself as ''Mister'' Sinister even to other doctor characters. This is possibly either because of his AppropriatedAppellation, or because he feels he's so far beyond them he doesn't need to bring up his own doctorate. Given his personality, either is entirely plausible.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: One of the first (ex-) human ''X-Men'' villains who was neither a stereotypical CardCarryingVillain nor an anti-human bigot [[FantasticRacism eradicate the mutant race]], but who instead actually embraced the idea of ''Homo Superior'' and worked towards "helping" the mutant cause in his own twisted way. And ironically, he's turned out worse than nearly all of them.
* MysteriousPast: Was in play regarding Sinister's origins for the longest time; it took nine years in real-world time from when he was introduced for readers to learn his origins.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Sinister's exceptionally unsubtle name has an interesting history behind it, relating to a rejected backstory for the character. He was originally going to be a young child mutant who could psychically project an adult body, whose ObviouslyEvil name and appearance were due to the fact that he's a little boy's idea of what a cool supervillain is. InUniverse, the name is a reference to his wife Rebecca's last words. Still doesn't explain why he chooses to eschew his medical title, though.
* NaziNobleman: Not originally one, this element of his character was added in the pages of 2002's ''Weapon X'', which featured him as the Mengele figure in the tasteless mutant concentration camp "Neverland". Since that story he's been written as having increasingly closer ties to the Nazis, from being retconned into collaborating with them under the alias "Nosferatu" to creating the [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] clone N2 for them. That being said, he was probably just collaborating with them for the same reason he has with the likes of Weapon X: an ample supply of test subjects and more or less free rein in what he does to them.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: At last count, he's an [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld immortal]], [[NighInvulnerability invulnerable]] [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifter]] with {{Telepathy}} (mostly of the MindControl or [[GrandTheftMe body-snatching]] variety), [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]], [[BarrierWarrior force fields,]] SuperStrength, and [[KamehameHadoken energy blasts]] of some kind. And he rarely ever engages in any kind of physical fighting. Seems to have lost most of these powers in his latest incarnation but also gained some [[HiveMind new ones]] and further makes up for it by being more CrazyPrepared than ever.
* {{Nice Job Breaking It|Hero}} AntiVillain: A ''very'' rare case of this character being OutGambitted -- In the ''X-Cutioner's Song'' Stryfe tempts him into an alliance by promising him a canister from his future with 2,000 years worth of Summers genetic code. The canister actually ends up containing the Legacy Virus, with Sinister's assistant becoming its very first victim.
* NobleDemon: He's often a helpful presence when it suits his own ends. Not that he's to be trusted once he [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder no longer has any use for you]]... But he's a villain who understands that if somebody else takes over the world before him (or destroys it), he loses. Magneto and Xavier seek to exploit this in ''Powers of X'', though all indications are that this could end very badly, for one simple reason: Sinister cannot be trusted.
* NonActionBigBad: Played with, as Sinister usually leaves the fighting to his underlings but is perfectly capable of throwing down with the best. As he quickly reminds BigBadWannabe John Sublime:
--> '''Sinister''': While I really do prefer not to resort to violence... that doesn't mean I'm not ''good'' at it.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: During ''Messiah [=Complex=]'', he gathers up the Marauders, the Acolytes and Mystique to try and grab the newborn Hope Summers, mainly for his own goals.
* OppositeSexClone: Miss Sinister, a failed attempt in his early experiments of virally converting others into a copy of himself. Managed to break free from the process completing itself and retain enough identity to have her own ambitions.
* PetTheDog: During his time as a Nazi, he would offer candy to the imprisoned children in exchange for blood samples
* PlayingWithSyringes: Often drawn with comically oversized ones to emphasize his menace.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He varies on this score, sometimes being depicted as entirely uninterested in differences of race and sex, while at others being depicted as... well, what one might expect of a {{Jerkass}} from the Victorian era. As a result, he's been depicted as a racist (refers to Storm as "colonial pet") and a sexist (sees Emma as Scott's sperm receptacle). In the Krakoa era, he's surgically removed that part of his personality, on the grounds that he sees ''everyone'' as beneath him, and there's no point in specifically discriminating.
* PowerCopying: He has a wide range of powers (see below); he got them from copying or stealing them from mutants he captured.
* PracticallyJoker: Since the New 10s he’s become more and more of a LaughablyEvil CardCarryingVillain. For added points he’s always had chalk white skin, resembling a MonsterClown with a loud and flamboyant fashion sense. He’s also obsessed with a stoic hero.
* PragmaticVillainy: The reason he betrayed Apocalypse in the first place was the fact that the latter wanted him to engineer a [[ThePlague genocidal plague]] to unleash upon humanity. Sinister didn't really do this out of any sense of morality however; he just considered it ignorant and bad science (though it is hinted that Jean imploring him to think of the children, like his own recently deceased son Adam, influenced this).
* TheProudElite: He was born into a wealthy British family and had a very privileged upbringing. This, along with the changes made to him by Apocalypse, often results in him lapsing into cartoonish AristocratsAreEvil-inspired sneers. The following is a typical example:
--> '''Sinister''': I cannot abide the stench of the middle class.
* ThePsychoRangers: Sinister's Six, six X-Men clones he created to fight the All-New X-Men.
* PureIsNotGood: As a child, he thought the wealthy part of Victorian-era London he grew up in was Heaven and was fascinated by all the scientific advances being made, as well as how ''clean'' everything was. He became obsessed with purity thanks to this over time, culminating in his insane eugenical theories.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Or rather, about 150 or so.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Sinister's colors are red and black, and he's one of the most evil enemies from the X-Men.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Often comboed with GlowingEyesOfDoom.
* RemovedAchillesHeel: He was initially set up as having a weakness to Cyclops's optic blasts. In the comics this was eventually revealed as a deliberate deception on his part.
* SelfMadeSuperPowers: Mister Sinister gave himself quite a few powers by copying or implanting X-genes of other mutants, such as shapeshifting.
* SinisterSurveillance: Appearances by him more often than not consist entirely of a cutaway to him sitting in his lab spying on the heroes. ''How'' he is seemingly able to observe any of the X-Men anywhere at any time has yet to be explained.
* SissyVillain: [[DependingOnTheWriter Sometimes]] depicted as having shades of this, being rather vain and campy. This is intentionally designed into his Krakoa era clones to lower other people's guard. They know they can't trust him, but it's hard to take him seriously. And not taking Sinister seriously is a horrible, horrible mistake.
* SlaveBrand: [[spoiler: Canonically, the red diamond on his head is "[[http://i.imgur.com/K55yJSm.jpg the mark of Apocalypse]]", branding Sinister as ''his'' forevermore. And yes, you did read that right. One of the most distinctive features of one of the most distinctive villains in the X-Men's rogues gallery is nothing more than a glorified tramp stamp]].
* StalkerWithATestTube: A major TropeCodifier.
* StalkerWithoutACrush: More or less his shtick, as he's forever stalking various X-people ForScience Stalking victims of his have included anyone even remotely connected to the Summers family, Colossus, Gambit, ComicBook/ProfessorX, Exodus, and most recently as of 2020 Franklin Richards.
* SympathyForTheHero: In ''X-Men'' #23 he has a strange conversation with Cyclops, mostly famous for the infamous "third Summers brother" hint, but also unique for Sinister exhibiting a rare sympathy for the X-Men. He [[EvenEvilHasStandards condemns Stryfe and his Legacy Virus outright]], saying that death at the hands of a madman like him is "the worst kind of death for people like you (Scott), who strive so hard to fight for the dream."
* TragicVillain: ''The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix'' portrays Nathaniel Essex as a brilliant SeekerArchetype who is undergoing some ''steep'' SanitySlippage after the death of his infant son Adam. Even Scott and Jean, the two people with the most cause to hate Sinister, can't help but pity Essex and hope against hope his fate can be changed. [[spoiler:It can't]].
* UnwantedRevival: At one point while Colossus is dead Sinister goes to the X-Men and offers to give their teammate a second chance via his cloning technology. Quite understandably, they decline the offer. And then [[StatusQuoIsGod Colossus goes and comes back from the dead anyway]].
* TheVirus: Can transplant his consciousness and physical characteristics into the bodies of others or even multiple bodies at a time. He apparently learned how to do this by studying and reverse-engineering the biology of the Phalanx.
* VoodooShark: Sinister's first full use as a villain, in which he was TheManBehindTheMan and explanation for the {{Retcon}} that Madelyne Pryor was a clone, was definitely this, and it has long been scorned in fandom for the twin crimes of derailing the Madelyne Pryor character and making Sinister himself, supposedly a genius geneticist of the highest caliber, look like a bit of an idiot. The story establishes he acquired Scott and Jean's DNA early and that his goal is to create their child (who he has calculated will be an extremely powerful mutant)... so why didn't he just use their DNA to create their child himself? [[CuttingTheKnot He actually does just this]] in the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse and the result, Characters/MarvelComicsXMan, is genetically identical or thereabouts to [[ComicBook/{{Cable}} the child born to Maddie and Scott]] (and even more powerful), which just makes the original plot even more preposterous. (While Mads was brain-dead when he grew her--he had a Jean-Grey-shaped vegetable until a piece of the Phoenix came along--and his ability to create fully-functional clones came later, theoretically he would have only needed her uterus to work, since presumably that wouldn't have the same problems as his cloning process.)
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Another case of DependingOnTheWriter, and most prevalent during the 90s where most of what he was up to was in the name of opposing Apocalypse. His actions during 2007's ''[[ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex Messiah Complex]]'' storyline also have shades of this, as he was working (in his usual StalkerWithATestTube way) towards the goal of reviving the mutant race after the ComicBook/ScarletWitch sterilized them en masse via reality warping.
* WouldntHurtAChild[=/=]WouldHurtAChild: Zigzags: during the 80s Sinister stalks kid Cyclops, but doesn't harm him and even develops the glasses that allow him to control his power; during the 90s he was firmly in WouldntHurtAChild mode, and from the 2000s since he's been in unrepentant WouldHurtAChild mode (though he does make an exception for baby Hope).
* XanatosGambit: With a side order of XanatosSpeedChess and Batman Gambit and in some cases CloningGambit.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Doctor Stasis]]
!!Doctor Stasis
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6479beba_d702_4e37_8239_c1367a259c08.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:]]
!!!'''Nationality:''' American
!!!'''Species:''' Enhanced Human
!!!'''First Appearance:''' ''X-Men'' #1 (July, 2021)
A scientist who was the chairman of the mysterious Oblivion Institute and director of Orchis' Sixth Petal, Human / Resources.
----
* ArchEnemy: He views himself as Cyclops's, even declaring himself to be his nemesis. Cyclops, for his part, isn't impressed by Stasis at all and views him as just another crazy supervillain to take down. [[spoiler:Then again, he's either a clone of Mr. Sinister or, if Stasis himself was telling the truth, the real Nathaniel Essex.]]
* BigBadWannabe: For all his pretensions of grandeur, he's just one of many pathetic anti-mutant bigots, albeit a moderately dangerous one. But it's telling that the only response Cyclops has to Stasis's attempt at a HannibalLecture is that he's heard that same speech a dozen times before from scarier people.
* CategoryTraitor: He deems Captain America of all people a race traitor for defending mutants.
* FantasticRacism: Unlike most of Orchis, which fears for humanity's safety, Stasis genuinely despises mutants, viewing them as a living cancer.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Genetic engineering monsters to combat the X-Men is his whole gimmick. [[spoiler:What else do you expect from Mister Sinister?]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: He’s a human Sinister clone, complete with a card suit black club on his forehead in place of a red diamond.]]
* TokenEvilTeammate: Easily one of the most unsympathetic members of Orchis, being less of an AntiVillain extremist and more of a sociopathic MadScientist with a virulent hatred of mutants.
* WhamShot: [[spoiler: The reveal of his true faces redefines the meaning of the originally seemingly innocuous red Diamond on Sinister’s (or at least the one we’ve come to know) forehead. With the reveal that it’s a classification, this implies there are at least two other Sinister Systems based on card suites. ComicBook/ImmortalXMen #8 later confirms this.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Orbis Stellaris]]
!!Orbis Stellaris / [[spoiler:Nathan Essex]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dac4bbfd_6009_4502_afab_33e8d50bdb42.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:]]
An intergalactic weapons dealer and representative of the Galactic Rim Collective, who initially clashed with S.W.O.R.D. when Gyrich hired him to stage an assassination attempt on the Shi’ar empress Xandra. Brand later hired him to orchestrate a FalseFlagOperation attack on Arakko.
----
* ArmsDealer: The 'international arms merchant' version, but in Orbis's case he's an ''intergalactic'' arms merchant, and some of the weapons they're selling are super-soldiers, cyborgs and genetically-engineered cloned killers.
* CanonCharacterAllAlong: [[spoiler:He's eventually revealed to be a version of Victorian geneticist Nathan Essex, better known as ComicBook/XMen villain Mister Sinister]].
* CorruptCorporateExecutive:
** Orbis runs a corporation that makes Unusual Weapons of Destruction, but he's pretty honest about that. And they offer bonuses on bulk purchases!
** When Gyrich hired Orbis Stellaris to stage an assassination attempt on Xandra but insisted that it was ''only'' to be a failed attempt, it's implied that Orbis Stellaris was intending to double-cross him and actually kill her. Interstellar war and chaos is good business when you're an ArmsDealer.
* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: His age and infirmity means that he can't survive more than a day without his PoweredArmor keeping him alive.
* EvilOldFolks: About 189 in human years - and he's originally from Earth, so human years are the relevant measure.
* HiddenAgendaVillain: Orbis has his own secret plan he's following. The weapons business just kills time and provides funding.
* LosingYourHead: A variant. Orbis Stellaris is first introduced wearing the spherical PoweredArmor. It's not until he confronts Cable's team that it's revealed that the sphere can also act as the head of an alien Progenitor's huge body.
* PoweredArmor: Data pages from the 'Lethal Legion' catalogue confirm that ‘Orbis Stellaris' is a spherical suit of powered armor. It's later revealed that he [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport relies on the armor for life support]].
* SpeechBubbles: Orbis speaks in a different font to the rest of the cast and the edges of his speech bubbles are irregular rather than a smooth oval. When inside his armor, the tails vanish into the sphere rather than ending with a visible point.
* TheyCallHimSword: A variant. 'Orbis Stellaris' is also the brand and/or model name of the "mechanical fusion shell" he's inside, not his own name. Although it's not been seen in battle, a data page (showing excerpts from the 'Lethal Legion' enhancile catalogue) confirms that it's essentially PoweredArmor designed for combat.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mother Righteous]]
!!!Mother Righteous
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ddd659d2_576d_4495_a37d_f5d45f8c78e4.jpeg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]
A psychic entity who appears at the edge of the Altar, offering bargains. Help and self-improvement, at a very reasonable price.
----
* DealWithTheDevil: It's strongly implied that the price of her help is much higher than it seems, and Blindfold warns Legion on that basis.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Overlaps with MagicalBarefooter.
* FunetikAksent: She speaks in a strong London (cockney) accent, and her dialogue is written accordingly.
-->'''Mother Righteous:''' 'Ere, I'll just let ''meself'' in, shall I?
* PhraseCatcher: So far the only condition for her assistance is that the recipient thanks her by name, "Thank you Mother Righteous." When Ora Serrata refuses, she suffers [[ImHavingSoulPains aches in her soul]] until she complies.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: She's the heart suite Sinister clone]]
[[/folder]]
!! Others
[[folder: Nathaniel Essex]]
!! Nathaniel Essex
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a0dfcbc9_8b3e_4127_b79e_a208b5d6200f.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ]]
The Original Nathaniel Essex from whom the 4 systems stemmed from.
* AlasPoorVillain: He was a racist eugenicist but he also grieved for his lost wife and child so much that he cut his emotions out of himself leading to him becoming a monster than dying a man with a broken mind:
* DeadAllAlong: Immortal X-men #8 reveals he’s been dead since the Victorian age and The Sinister we’ve been following since his 1987 debut has been a clone, possibly a clone of a clone.
* JekyllAndHyde: The original situation he found himself in after experimenting on himself. He would turn tiny into a monster that resembles the Diamond Sinister we know today but was locked up for the safety of others and died in containment.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Miss Sinister]]
!!Claudine Renko/Miss Sinister
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1590880_ms_step_inside_an_i_ll_tell_ya_all_about_it.png]]
!!!'''Species:''' Human mutate clone
!!!'''Appeared in''': ''X-men Legacy'' #214 (July, 2008)
Claudine Renko is the end result of one of Mr. Sinister's ''many'' CrazyPrepared attempts to escape death. He infected her with a virus that, in the event of his death, would allow him to return to life using her body. Upon his death at Mystique's hands during ''Messiah Complex'' the virus activated, [[CloneByConversion increasingly turning Claudine into]] his OppositeSexClone. Claudine, of course, wants no part of it and sees Laura and her HealingFactor as a means of preventing Sinister's return.
----
* AlasPoorVillain: Despite what she tries to do to Laura, it's still pretty easy to sympathize with Claudine: She's a victim of Sinister's experiments, and never volunteered to be the vessel by which he attempted to cheat death. On top of that, now he's FightingFromTheInside to steal her body as a CloneByConversion, which will effectively kill Claudine in the process as he overwrites her mind and fully transforms her body into his own. The poor woman just wants to ''survive'' with her mind her own.
* AntiVillain: Claudine's actions are entirely motivated by self-preservation; she's afraid of what it will mean for her if Sinister returns, and she wasn't exactly a volunteer for his experiment to begin with.
* BodyBackupDrive: Sinister's virus has turned her into this. And much like a computer virus, Sinister is an invasive, malignant presence in Claudine's mind trying to take control of her, making the trope name even ''more'' appropriate.
* CloneByConversion: Sinister infected Claudine with a virus that's slowly converting her into a clone of his body. She had been able to fight this process, however by the time she encounters Laura she has recently suffered serious injuries at the hands of Daken, which has weakened her defenses and enabled Sinister to gain more control, at times even allowing him to manifest entirely.
* DirtyCop: Claudine has an army of corrupt police working for her.
* FightingFromTheInside: Claudine is in a constant battle against Mr. Sinister's attempts to hijack her body and return from death, with her describing him as a malignant presence in her mind.
* GlamourFailure: She attempts to seduce Gambit by masquerading as Laura. Regardless of whether she had him fooled at first, the scheme comes crashing down the second she slips and uses a contraction. Laura, however, uses SpockSpeak...
* GrandTheftMe: She plans to transfer her consciousness into Laura's body to keep Sinister from doing the same thing to ''her''. Sinister screws her over by taking over Laura's younger and healthier body ''himself'', until Laura gets fed up with the entire mess and kicks him out.
* OfCorsetsSexy: Spends most of her time walking around in a corset. And not much else.
* OppositeSexClone: A bizarre case: Claudine was once a normal woman Sinister used as one of his experiments. However when he was killed by Mystique, the virus he infected Claudine with has slowly been taking over her body and converting it into an exact clone of Sinister. Her efforts to save herself from this fate lead her to attempting a GrandTheftMe on Laura.
* SaveTheVillain: Subversion: X and Gambit leave her for dead. However ''Sinister'', whom she spent the arc trying to screw over, "saves" her instead. He promises to take care of her, but considering this is Sinister we're talking about, she may just have been better off being left to die.
* {{ShapeShifting}}: Claudine has some shapeshifting ability, and uses it at one point in an attempt to seduce Gambit while disgused as Laura.
* ShowingOffTheNewBody: Preemptively. Claudine is ''very'' appreciative how beautiful Laura is while in the midst of ''stealing her body''.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Her last appearance or mention in any comic was X-23 #6 (February 2011), leaving her ultimate fate after being "rescued" by Sinister unresolved until she finally resurfaced in ''Comicbook/XMenBlue'' #5 over six years later.
[[/folder]]
[[caption-width-right:350:]]
Once thought to just be Mister Sinister, a supervillain with a seemingly innocuous red Diamond on his forehead as an insignia, it was revealed that Mister Sinister is only one of four clones all stemming from Victorian geneticist, Nathaniel Essex. Each clone having a different card suit on their forehead, went in different directions building their own identities. Mister Sinister, with the red diamond became the mutant obsessed Sinister we all know. The black club researched other genetic ventures and became the anti-mutant scientist known as Doctor Stasis. The clone with the spade went into space using alien genetics and technology becoming the seemingly alien Orbis Stellaris. And the sinister with the heart diverged the most perusing magic and apparently achieving godhood as Mother Righteous.
[[folder: Sinisters in General]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a899919b_d281_4739_852c_92eb3217112c.jpeg]]
!! Sinister Systems
* DuplicateDivergence: They all began as clones of Nathaniel Essex a geneticist with a vested interest in Mutants which he narcissistically called “Essex Men” but his clones diverged into different interests.
** Diamond Sinister kept the interest in Mutants.
** Club Sinister Explored human evolution through means other than mutant, eventually joining Orchis.
** Spade Sinister went into space and studied science through machinery and alien genetics
** Heart Sinister achieved godhood, becoming Mother Righteous.
* PlayingCardMotifs:Each System of Sinister has a different Card Suit mark on their forehead.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mister Sinister]]
!!Dr. Nathaniel Essex / Mister Sinister
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/00d73cd5_2174_4926_a346_b1238ca86e16.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: [[ComicBook/XMan You]] are power incarnate, It's true. Crude, uncontained power. But I, child of the atom... I am '''control'''.]]
!!!'''Nationality:''' British
!!!'''Species:''' Human mutant chimera
!!!'''First Appearance:''' ''Uncanny X-Men'' #221 (September, 1987)
->''"You haven't understood at all. You can't kill me. There is no "me." Sinister is a system. Sinister is a species. Everything is Sinister. And if you're not Sinister, your time is over."''
Debuting in ''Uncanny X-Men #221'', Dr. Nathaniel Essex was a respected Victorian scientist and a contemporary of UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin, who read Darwin's theories with interest but thought they did not go far enough. Uncovering evidence for the existence of mutants and viewing them as the [[EvolutionaryLevels next stage in human evolution]], Essex put a radical kind of eugenics forward to the scientific community, arguing that children from the families of these unique bloodlines he was discovering (i.e. the children or descendants of mutants) should be taken and raised as lab rats in order to direct the human race more clearly and quickly to its future. Unsurprisingly, the scientific community were horrified and turned against him, and on her deathbed even his wife denounced him as "Sinister" after she discovered he had dug up their dead son for his increasingly twisted research.
But Essex found a patron receptive to his ideas, the ancient mutant Apocalypse, who transformed him into an immortal and inhuman creature who takes the name his dead wife gave him- Sinister. Though he eventually turned against his master for his genocidal creeds, Sinister continued his unethical experiments throughout the ages and has cast a dark shadow over the lives of many young mutants and innocents. ComicBook/{{Magneto}} knew him as "Nosferatu", a Nazi MadScientist who took blood samples from children in the camps in exchange for sweets; Juggernaut, Prof. X and Sebastian Shaw were amongst a group of children experimented on as part of a long-term GrandTheftMe plot in the unlikely event of his death, and Cyclops was raised in one of his orphanages, after he recognized the potential for the Summers' bloodline as part of this he created a clone of Jean Grey called Madelyne Jennifer Pryor. Sinister was behind the massacre of the Morlocks and a host of other atrocities over the years, but with centuries of study backing him up he is likely the foremost expert in mutant genetics in the world. The combination makes him one of the X-Men's most intelligent, despicable and dangerous enemies.
Appears in the cartoons: ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen2009''. Also appears in the games: ''VideoGame/X2WolverinesRevenge'', ''VideoGame/MarvelFutureFight'', ''X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalpyse'', ''VideoGame/MarvelHeroes'', ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' and the BigBad of the ''VideoGame/{{Deadpool}}'' video game.
Was originally supposed to appear in ''Film/TheNewMutants'', portrayed by Creator/JonHamm. This role ended up being cut from the film.
----
* AbortedArc: It was once strongly implied that Sinister had contracted the Legacy Virus. Nothing ever came of this.
* AchillesHeel: Subverted, as X-Men were led to believe that his only weakness was Cyclops's optic blast (and indeed, in the '90s cartoon it really was) which seemingly destroyed him in their first battle. It was later revealed Sinister was just FakingTheDead and Cyclops's optic blast was no more effective on him than anything else. When he first made his return, it was pointed out that Cyclops's optic blasts have never blown things up before, just pulverized them, so they really should have suspected.
** What truly ends up doing in Sinister is Rogue's PowerParasite abilities that had, at that point, been boosted to an [[DeadlyUpgrade incredibly deadly degree]].
* AgentPeacock: Not originally characterized as such but has become one best seen under Creator/JonathanHickman. This version of Sinister is extremely vain and campy but still a brilliant geneticist and dangerous opponent. During "Powers of X", he comments he loves Magneto's cape and kills his clone who failed to mention he should have one too. He then goes back to business discussing mutant cloning, rejecting the idea outright... then ''another'' Sinister pops up, complete with cape, executes that Sinister and takes charge, declaring that his mutant power is "deposing tyrants and looking absolutely fabulous." Additionally, there are now gossip columns called "Sinister Secrets" started by Sinister hinting at things that have occurred and things yet to come. They are all written in a cryptic and flamboyant manner. ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'' explains this as his clones now having a personality template based on, among other things, five seasons of ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' and a dash of Oscar Wilde. It's implied that he's doing this to be underestimated.
* AntiMagic: What makes him so scary to mutants is his ability to telepathically prevent a mutant from accessing their powers. This was much more emphasized in the 90s when he was at his threat peak, but his continued collecting of mutant DNA in ''House of X'' hints that he may still have this ability on backup for the day of the sudden but inevitable betrayal...
* ArchEnemy: To the Summers family in general and Cyclops in particular.
* BadBoss: He is a ''brutal'' boss to his Marauders, sometimes [[YouHaveFailedMe killing them with his own hands]] for their failure because he knows he can just crank out clones of them anyway.
* BadassBookworm: An evil version, but he is probably the world's foremost expert on mutant genetics, and no slouch in a fight.
** Let's put it this way: the High Evolutionary is a character with cosmic power who has gone toe-to-toe with ComicBook/{{Galactus}} and evolved an entire world's worth of animals into an advanced society, and ''he's'' [[UnwittingPawn behind the curve]] when it comes to Sinister. Hell, Sinister actually went to the trouble of masquerading as an Oxford professor for years just to get him started!
** During ''Avengers vs X-Men'', he beat the Phoenix Five through pure smarts (via his Sinister London and Maddie clones) and made it look ''easy'', harnessing the Phoenix for himself. And when a robot billions of years old, impossibly advanced, so brilliant it was capable of talking entire civilizations to suicide, and serving as a kind of EvilMentor to the Lights (Hope's team) saw Sinister London and the Phoenix Five's prison after the Lights went undercover, his response was stunned shock and that it was a trap of "pure reason", and they should RunOrDie. It took the direct intervention of the Phoenix itself for the Phoenix Five to escape, and even then, Sinister got away clean.
** At the end of ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', he uses a bizarre form of SaveScumming via [[spoiler: clones of himself and Moira [=MacTaggert=], with her timeline reset ability, to replay multiple future variations on killing Hope Summers - which he does, along with Exodus, via a psychic nuke made of cloned Xavier brains, and a considerable chunk of the rest of the Quiet Council]].
* BadassCape: Your mileage will probably vary, though.
* BeardOfEvil: He often appears with a goatee and he sure is evil.
* BigBad: One of the X-Men's main recurrent adversaries, and the architect of much of their misery.
* BreakTheHaughty: We see his cocky and confident demeanor shatter for the first time when Emma delivers news of Doctor Stasis’s and Orchis scientist who is a Sinister that he never knew about. Furthermore Stasis’ claims at being the original sends Sinister into such a panic that he runs away from the Quiet Council. ''Immortal X-Men'' implies that he's actually [[spoiler: a Victorian era clone - and that there are at least two more...]]
* CharacterExaggeration: As mentioned above, the Sinister of ''House of X'' is so exaggerated that to readers unfamiliar with the character he may well come across as a CampGay (or rather CampStraight, since he is still heterosexual as far as we know). Of course, since there are so many Sinister clones, all having different degrees of the original's personality, this could be semi-intentional - especially since Sinister is treacherous, untrustworthy, and most likely wants to be underestimated. It's revealed in ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'' that it is intentional, with the personality programming for his clones involving "five seasons of ''Drag Race'' and a dash of Oscar Wilde."
* TheChessmaster: Sinister always has elements of this, but bonus points go to his [=AvX=] incarnation who constantly refers to his battle with Cyclops and the Phoenix Five in chess terms, and after being beaten reappears before Scott in disguise just to invite him to "come out and play" again.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Don't trust him. Don't work with him. ''Definitely'' don't work [[BadBoss for him]]. It never ends well.
* ChunkySalsaRule: Averted. His shapeshifting and healing powers allowed him to survive getting gibbed.
* CloneByConversion: His "Sinister London" is a town converted into hive mind connected clones. Even ''animals'' such as horses are made genetically identical to him.
* CrazyPrepared: He has plans within plans within plans. He has multiple schemes to cheat death (despite being an immortal and one of the most difficult villains to kill even considering that) that were set up in the 1950's, and many possibly earlier.
* DealWithTheDevil: Has been on both ends of this relationship, though in most ([[UnwittingPawn and often either]]) cases The Devil is him.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: [[DependingOnTheWriter Sometimes]], he gets portrayed as having the kind of prejudices you'd expect of a man from the Victorian era. His internal monologue cops to this in ''Immortal X-Men'', musing that he used to be a massive racist. He then internally adds that he's now surgically removed that part of his personality, on the grounds that in his eyes, ''everyone'' is beneath him (specifically, his basic philosophy is that he's the only truly real lifeform in existence). Therefore, why bother to discriminate?
* DiabolicalMastermind: One of, if not ''the'', foremost of schemers in the X-Men's corner of the Marvel U.
* TheDragon: To Apocalypse, though he [[DragonWithAnAgenda quickly turned against him and went solo]]. While they are both big believers in survival of the fittest and "improving" human evolution, Sinister found Apocalypse's methods appallingly unscientific.
** DragonAscendant: His ultimate goal, which he manages to pull off in various alternate continuities and ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' stories.
** DragonWithAnAgenda: Sometimes overlaps with TheStarscream, but Sinister is usually more interested in keeping the world safe from Apocalypse (so he can continue playing with it as his petri dish, of course) than he is in usurping his former master's power. Not that he'll pass on a chance to have his cake and eat it too, given the chance...
* TheDreaded: His role in the Mutant Massacre and subsequent manipulations has made him one of the most feared names in the mutant community. He is also one of the last opponents the X-Men ever want to tangle with, since they know from painful experience how much trouble he brings.
* {{Egopolis}}: Created an entire city, called "Sinister London", prior to ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen''.
* EnemyMine: He's allied himself with the X-Men in 2019's ''House of X'' story and seems to be working closely with [[GreaterScopeVillain Orchis]]. But unlike Proteus and Vulcan, he's not listed as being affiliated with the X-Men outright, and in worldbuilding materials it's mentioned that the X-Men still don't trust him as far as they can throw him, which is a perfectly sensible stance to take. This proves justified, though with Orchis, that's [[spoiler: a different version of Sinister, Doctor Stasis]].
* EnigmaticMinion: Particularly in earlier appearances, before his real name and history were revealed.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Or had loved ones in his case, as he had a wife and son as Nathaniel Essex and even as Mister Sinister he still retained a shred of compassion in the case of Faye Livingstone, but in the modern day there's no one he wouldn't kill or betray.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: DependingOnTheWriter. His choice to betray Apocalypse was this with a side of PragmaticVillainy, but he also betrays Apocalypse to Cyclops and Jean Grey specifically after Jean implores him to "think of the children" (the loss of his son Adam was a major factor in his SanitySlippage, and during this time he was depicted with a distinct shade of WouldntHurtAChild). He also condemns Stryfe and his Legacy Virus (biological warfare in particular seems to be a line in the sand for Essex) and reveals everything he knows about both to Cyclops of his own volition, and tries to save [[Characters/MarvelComicsXMan Nate Grey]] from Onslaught because he knows what Onslaught is up to (unfortunately, Nate is understandably disposed not to trust Sinister in the slightest, having lost his foster-father to the AOA version, who he promptly vaporized). Much of this CharacterDevelopment was forgotten after UsefulNotes/TheNineties and downright contradicted in ''Weapon X'' which used him as a generic Mengele-esque MadScientist instead (a depiction which would go on to become the predominating characterization for him until UsefulNotes/TheNewTens).
* EvilBrit: Born in 19th Century London, he's one of the most evil enemies of the X-Men.
* EvilGenius: Quite possibly the most evil ''and'' the most ingenious villain the X-Men have ever had to face.
* EvilIsBigger: His given height is 6'5, but he's usually drawn ''much'' larger than that, utterly towering over the likes of Sabretooth. This is perhaps not entirely surprising, given that he's a shapeshifter, and thus his size is up to him.
* EvilMentor: ''X-Men'' vol. 2 #99 revealed that Sinister was actually this to the young Herbert Edgar Wyndham (the future High Evolutionary), masquerading as a "Professor Essex" in Oxford and being the only professor on the campus who supported and encouraged Wyndham's more radical theories. Decades later he recycled this identity to use the Evolutionary as a dupe in his EvilPlan of the week.
* EvilutionaryBiologist: Implied to be directly responsible for the abundance of mutants in the modern world due to the strange, ''forbidden'' experiments he conducted in his day.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Acts all suave and gentleman-like, but really is nothing more than a cold, calculating Sociopath with a Supremacy-Complex.
* {{Flanderization}}: While Sinister was an evil scientist from day one, the [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain politically-incorrect]] NaziNobleman interpretation of him was nowhere on his creator Claremont's map (though, to be fair, Claremont originally intended for him to be a contemporary of Cyclops who'd never aged past 8, and 'Sinister's was his projection of himself/a supervillain). That was added some 15 years later, after a decade of stories featuring him as some variant of HeWhoFightsMonsters. He later literally removed the racist part of his personality, considering everyone beneath him.
* ForScience: His usual motive. He has worked with the [[WellIntentionedExtremist High Evolutionary]] on occasion, and in fact back in the day he was the Evolutionary's inspiration, though both have learned [[NoHonorAmongThieves not to trust each other in the slightest]].
* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:After the death of his original body, he attempts to pull this on Xavier, before ending up in the body of Claudine Renko, who turns this around on him. Renko in turn attempts to do this to ComicBook/{{X 23}} in hopes of taking advantage of her HealingFactor to prevent Sinister from seizing control of her body and being reborn, but Sinister pulls a fast one and takes control of X-23 first. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Laura then kicks]] ''[[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome him]]'' [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome out!]] And Sinister has to settle for a spare Alice clone when Renko is critically wounded in the fight]].
--> '''X-23''': Get out of my head!
* HatedByAll: Nobody has ever liked or trusted Sinister. Even in the age of Krakoa, it’s made clear that he’s only there because they need his genius and DNA database.
* HatesEveryoneEqually: He used to be a huge racist until he surgically removed that part of his brain so he could consider everyone equally inferior to him. Apparently, hating one specific group clouds the judgement too much.
* HealingFactor: His signature power; far more advanced than Wolverine's except on the latter's best days. Think the [[Film/Terminator2Judgmentday T-1000]] cranked up. Sinister's latest body does not have this ability (or at least, not at the moment), but he makes up for it by now being a HiveMind.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Believes in stopping Apocalypse by any means necessary. In order to do so, he's sunk to horrifying lows more times than most villains could ever dream of.
* HijackingCthulhu: He managed to hack the DNA of the Dreaming Celestial in San Francisco to siphon enough power to create his Sinister London.
* HopeSpot: He once took on the identity of a seemingly kindly scientist working for Weapon X, offering mutants victimized by the program the opportunity to escape. Those who did were promptly subjected to even worse experimentation.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Yet another person who thought they could trust Mystique. Which eventually gets him killed.
* HumanoidAbomination: What Apocalypse turned him into, though maybe it's better said that he only completed the process and Essex was inhuman in all but fact by that point.
* HumanResources: Fond of using this, particularly in [=AvX=] where he has an entire bestiary stocked with clones of both heroes and villains to use against the heroes. And he doesn't just stop with ''human'' resources; in one particularly hilarious scene, Phoenix Emma Frost is complaining about fighting a "field of weaponized wheat", right before:
--> '''Herd of Cows''': ([[RedEyesTakeWarning with glowing red eyes]]) '''KILL'''.
** By ''Immortal X-Men'', he's stopped bothering with whole clones necessarily, save when he needs them, cloning bizarre things like winged Scott Summers' eyeballs as drones.
* ImmortalGenius: Has been alive since the Victorian Era, having been made immortal thanks to the intervention of Apocalypse, and even now is still widely known as a MadScientist ''par excellence'' specializing in biology and genetics.
* JokerImmunity: Thanks to his knowledge of genetic engineering and BrainUploading, any attempt to kill him never sticks for very long. And that's only if you get past his insanely powerful HealingFactor/kill off every part of his HiveMind. Sooner or later, he'll pop back up again.
* KickTheDog: Seperated the Summers brothers to make Scott more vulnerable and prevented Scott from being adopted.
* LaughablyEvil: From the Krakoa era onwards, he's utterly despicable and unapologetically awful, but he's also absolutely ''hilarious''. As a twist, this is intentional - it makes people lower their guard.
* LargeAndInCharge: Sinister is ''huge'', outright towering over his Marauders and most heroes.
* LargeHam: As written by Jonathan Hickman, he's so hammy you'd swear his DNA had a good percentage of pig in it. This is actually intentional on his part.
** Not to mention Kieron Gillen's previous take on the character.
* MadScientist: He emphasizes the science over the madness at least, being by far the most competent geneticist in the Marvel Universe (and no slouch with other forms of science, either). However, being more competent doesn't necessarily make him any less evil.
* TheManBehindTheMan: The man behind the [[MurderInc Marauders]], the [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Nasty Boys]], the [[HellOnEarth Goblyn Queen]], [[AllYourPowersCombined Xraven]] and even the ''[[CosmicEntity High Evolutionary]]''.
* ManOfWealthAndTaste: As ridiculous as Sinister might look in his usual getup, he can pull off classy and cultured in a suit very well when he disguises himself as a human. The X-Men's Beast even refers to him in one issue as a "suave, sophisticated sirrah", a backhanded compliment which [[https://i.imgur.com/XLq1fjQ.jpg clearly pleases him]].
* ManipulativeBastard: One of Marvel's best offerings to this trope.
* MeaningfulRename: When Apocalypse grants him immortality, he tells Essex to choose a new name for himself. [[AppropriatedAppellation Essex chooses 'Sinister' as it was the last word his wife Rebecca spoke to him.]]
* MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: A curious example. Despite having a better claim to the title of doctor than maybe 90% of Marvel villains who claim it, Essex oddly chooses not to, identifying himself as ''Mister'' Sinister even to other doctor characters. This is possibly either because of his AppropriatedAppellation, or because he feels he's so far beyond them he doesn't need to bring up his own doctorate. Given his personality, either is entirely plausible.
* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: One of the first (ex-) human ''X-Men'' villains who was neither a stereotypical CardCarryingVillain nor an anti-human bigot [[FantasticRacism eradicate the mutant race]], but who instead actually embraced the idea of ''Homo Superior'' and worked towards "helping" the mutant cause in his own twisted way. And ironically, he's turned out worse than nearly all of them.
* MysteriousPast: Was in play regarding Sinister's origins for the longest time; it took nine years in real-world time from when he was introduced for readers to learn his origins.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Sinister's exceptionally unsubtle name has an interesting history behind it, relating to a rejected backstory for the character. He was originally going to be a young child mutant who could psychically project an adult body, whose ObviouslyEvil name and appearance were due to the fact that he's a little boy's idea of what a cool supervillain is. InUniverse, the name is a reference to his wife Rebecca's last words. Still doesn't explain why he chooses to eschew his medical title, though.
* NaziNobleman: Not originally one, this element of his character was added in the pages of 2002's ''Weapon X'', which featured him as the Mengele figure in the tasteless mutant concentration camp "Neverland". Since that story he's been written as having increasingly closer ties to the Nazis, from being retconned into collaborating with them under the alias "Nosferatu" to creating the [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] clone N2 for them. That being said, he was probably just collaborating with them for the same reason he has with the likes of Weapon X: an ample supply of test subjects and more or less free rein in what he does to them.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: At last count, he's an [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld immortal]], [[NighInvulnerability invulnerable]] [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifter]] with {{Telepathy}} (mostly of the MindControl or [[GrandTheftMe body-snatching]] variety), [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]], [[BarrierWarrior force fields,]] SuperStrength, and [[KamehameHadoken energy blasts]] of some kind. And he rarely ever engages in any kind of physical fighting. Seems to have lost most of these powers in his latest incarnation but also gained some [[HiveMind new ones]] and further makes up for it by being more CrazyPrepared than ever.
* {{Nice Job Breaking It|Hero}} AntiVillain: A ''very'' rare case of this character being OutGambitted -- In the ''X-Cutioner's Song'' Stryfe tempts him into an alliance by promising him a canister from his future with 2,000 years worth of Summers genetic code. The canister actually ends up containing the Legacy Virus, with Sinister's assistant becoming its very first victim.
* NobleDemon: He's often a helpful presence when it suits his own ends. Not that he's to be trusted once he [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder no longer has any use for you]]... But he's a villain who understands that if somebody else takes over the world before him (or destroys it), he loses. Magneto and Xavier seek to exploit this in ''Powers of X'', though all indications are that this could end very badly, for one simple reason: Sinister cannot be trusted.
* NonActionBigBad: Played with, as Sinister usually leaves the fighting to his underlings but is perfectly capable of throwing down with the best. As he quickly reminds BigBadWannabe John Sublime:
--> '''Sinister''': While I really do prefer not to resort to violence... that doesn't mean I'm not ''good'' at it.
* NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: During ''Messiah [=Complex=]'', he gathers up the Marauders, the Acolytes and Mystique to try and grab the newborn Hope Summers, mainly for his own goals.
* OppositeSexClone: Miss Sinister, a failed attempt in his early experiments of virally converting others into a copy of himself. Managed to break free from the process completing itself and retain enough identity to have her own ambitions.
* PetTheDog: During his time as a Nazi, he would offer candy to the imprisoned children in exchange for blood samples
* PlayingWithSyringes: Often drawn with comically oversized ones to emphasize his menace.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: He varies on this score, sometimes being depicted as entirely uninterested in differences of race and sex, while at others being depicted as... well, what one might expect of a {{Jerkass}} from the Victorian era. As a result, he's been depicted as a racist (refers to Storm as "colonial pet") and a sexist (sees Emma as Scott's sperm receptacle). In the Krakoa era, he's surgically removed that part of his personality, on the grounds that he sees ''everyone'' as beneath him, and there's no point in specifically discriminating.
* PowerCopying: He has a wide range of powers (see below); he got them from copying or stealing them from mutants he captured.
* PracticallyJoker: Since the New 10s he’s become more and more of a LaughablyEvil CardCarryingVillain. For added points he’s always had chalk white skin, resembling a MonsterClown with a loud and flamboyant fashion sense. He’s also obsessed with a stoic hero.
* PragmaticVillainy: The reason he betrayed Apocalypse in the first place was the fact that the latter wanted him to engineer a [[ThePlague genocidal plague]] to unleash upon humanity. Sinister didn't really do this out of any sense of morality however; he just considered it ignorant and bad science (though it is hinted that Jean imploring him to think of the children, like his own recently deceased son Adam, influenced this).
* TheProudElite: He was born into a wealthy British family and had a very privileged upbringing. This, along with the changes made to him by Apocalypse, often results in him lapsing into cartoonish AristocratsAreEvil-inspired sneers. The following is a typical example:
--> '''Sinister''': I cannot abide the stench of the middle class.
* ThePsychoRangers: Sinister's Six, six X-Men clones he created to fight the All-New X-Men.
* PureIsNotGood: As a child, he thought the wealthy part of Victorian-era London he grew up in was Heaven and was fascinated by all the scientific advances being made, as well as how ''clean'' everything was. He became obsessed with purity thanks to this over time, culminating in his insane eugenical theories.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Or rather, about 150 or so.
* RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver: Sinister's colors are red and black, and he's one of the most evil enemies from the X-Men.
* RedEyesTakeWarning: Often comboed with GlowingEyesOfDoom.
* RemovedAchillesHeel: He was initially set up as having a weakness to Cyclops's optic blasts. In the comics this was eventually revealed as a deliberate deception on his part.
* SelfMadeSuperPowers: Mister Sinister gave himself quite a few powers by copying or implanting X-genes of other mutants, such as shapeshifting.
* SinisterSurveillance: Appearances by him more often than not consist entirely of a cutaway to him sitting in his lab spying on the heroes. ''How'' he is seemingly able to observe any of the X-Men anywhere at any time has yet to be explained.
* SissyVillain: [[DependingOnTheWriter Sometimes]] depicted as having shades of this, being rather vain and campy. This is intentionally designed into his Krakoa era clones to lower other people's guard. They know they can't trust him, but it's hard to take him seriously. And not taking Sinister seriously is a horrible, horrible mistake.
* SlaveBrand: [[spoiler: Canonically, the red diamond on his head is "[[http://i.imgur.com/K55yJSm.jpg the mark of Apocalypse]]", branding Sinister as ''his'' forevermore. And yes, you did read that right. One of the most distinctive features of one of the most distinctive villains in the X-Men's rogues gallery is nothing more than a glorified tramp stamp]].
* StalkerWithATestTube: A major TropeCodifier.
* StalkerWithoutACrush: More or less his shtick, as he's forever stalking various X-people ForScience Stalking victims of his have included anyone even remotely connected to the Summers family, Colossus, Gambit, ComicBook/ProfessorX, Exodus, and most recently as of 2020 Franklin Richards.
* SympathyForTheHero: In ''X-Men'' #23 he has a strange conversation with Cyclops, mostly famous for the infamous "third Summers brother" hint, but also unique for Sinister exhibiting a rare sympathy for the X-Men. He [[EvenEvilHasStandards condemns Stryfe and his Legacy Virus outright]], saying that death at the hands of a madman like him is "the worst kind of death for people like you (Scott), who strive so hard to fight for the dream."
* TragicVillain: ''The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix'' portrays Nathaniel Essex as a brilliant SeekerArchetype who is undergoing some ''steep'' SanitySlippage after the death of his infant son Adam. Even Scott and Jean, the two people with the most cause to hate Sinister, can't help but pity Essex and hope against hope his fate can be changed. [[spoiler:It can't]].
* UnwantedRevival: At one point while Colossus is dead Sinister goes to the X-Men and offers to give their teammate a second chance via his cloning technology. Quite understandably, they decline the offer. And then [[StatusQuoIsGod Colossus goes and comes back from the dead anyway]].
* TheVirus: Can transplant his consciousness and physical characteristics into the bodies of others or even multiple bodies at a time. He apparently learned how to do this by studying and reverse-engineering the biology of the Phalanx.
* VoodooShark: Sinister's first full use as a villain, in which he was TheManBehindTheMan and explanation for the {{Retcon}} that Madelyne Pryor was a clone, was definitely this, and it has long been scorned in fandom for the twin crimes of derailing the Madelyne Pryor character and making Sinister himself, supposedly a genius geneticist of the highest caliber, look like a bit of an idiot. The story establishes he acquired Scott and Jean's DNA early and that his goal is to create their child (who he has calculated will be an extremely powerful mutant)... so why didn't he just use their DNA to create their child himself? [[CuttingTheKnot He actually does just this]] in the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse and the result, Characters/MarvelComicsXMan, is genetically identical or thereabouts to [[ComicBook/{{Cable}} the child born to Maddie and Scott]] (and even more powerful), which just makes the original plot even more preposterous. (While Mads was brain-dead when he grew her--he had a Jean-Grey-shaped vegetable until a piece of the Phoenix came along--and his ability to create fully-functional clones came later, theoretically he would have only needed her uterus to work, since presumably that wouldn't have the same problems as his cloning process.)
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Another case of DependingOnTheWriter, and most prevalent during the 90s where most of what he was up to was in the name of opposing Apocalypse. His actions during 2007's ''[[ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex Messiah Complex]]'' storyline also have shades of this, as he was working (in his usual StalkerWithATestTube way) towards the goal of reviving the mutant race after the ComicBook/ScarletWitch sterilized them en masse via reality warping.
* WouldntHurtAChild[=/=]WouldHurtAChild: Zigzags: during the 80s Sinister stalks kid Cyclops, but doesn't harm him and even develops the glasses that allow him to control his power; during the 90s he was firmly in WouldntHurtAChild mode, and from the 2000s since he's been in unrepentant WouldHurtAChild mode (though he does make an exception for baby Hope).
* XanatosGambit: With a side order of XanatosSpeedChess and Batman Gambit and in some cases CloningGambit.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Doctor Stasis]]
!!Doctor Stasis
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6479beba_d702_4e37_8239_c1367a259c08.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:]]
!!!'''Nationality:''' American
!!!'''Species:''' Enhanced Human
!!!'''First Appearance:''' ''X-Men'' #1 (July, 2021)
A scientist who was the chairman of the mysterious Oblivion Institute and director of Orchis' Sixth Petal, Human / Resources.
----
* ArchEnemy: He views himself as Cyclops's, even declaring himself to be his nemesis. Cyclops, for his part, isn't impressed by Stasis at all and views him as just another crazy supervillain to take down. [[spoiler:Then again, he's either a clone of Mr. Sinister or, if Stasis himself was telling the truth, the real Nathaniel Essex.]]
* BigBadWannabe: For all his pretensions of grandeur, he's just one of many pathetic anti-mutant bigots, albeit a moderately dangerous one. But it's telling that the only response Cyclops has to Stasis's attempt at a HannibalLecture is that he's heard that same speech a dozen times before from scarier people.
* CategoryTraitor: He deems Captain America of all people a race traitor for defending mutants.
* FantasticRacism: Unlike most of Orchis, which fears for humanity's safety, Stasis genuinely despises mutants, viewing them as a living cancer.
* GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke: Genetic engineering monsters to combat the X-Men is his whole gimmick. [[spoiler:What else do you expect from Mister Sinister?]]
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: He’s a human Sinister clone, complete with a card suit black club on his forehead in place of a red diamond.]]
* TokenEvilTeammate: Easily one of the most unsympathetic members of Orchis, being less of an AntiVillain extremist and more of a sociopathic MadScientist with a virulent hatred of mutants.
* WhamShot: [[spoiler: The reveal of his true faces redefines the meaning of the originally seemingly innocuous red Diamond on Sinister’s (or at least the one we’ve come to know) forehead. With the reveal that it’s a classification, this implies there are at least two other Sinister Systems based on card suites. ComicBook/ImmortalXMen #8 later confirms this.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Orbis Stellaris]]
!!Orbis Stellaris / [[spoiler:Nathan Essex]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dac4bbfd_6009_4502_afab_33e8d50bdb42.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:]]
An intergalactic weapons dealer and representative of the Galactic Rim Collective, who initially clashed with S.W.O.R.D. when Gyrich hired him to stage an assassination attempt on the Shi’ar empress Xandra. Brand later hired him to orchestrate a FalseFlagOperation attack on Arakko.
----
* ArmsDealer: The 'international arms merchant' version, but in Orbis's case he's an ''intergalactic'' arms merchant, and some of the weapons they're selling are super-soldiers, cyborgs and genetically-engineered cloned killers.
* CanonCharacterAllAlong: [[spoiler:He's eventually revealed to be a version of Victorian geneticist Nathan Essex, better known as ComicBook/XMen villain Mister Sinister]].
* CorruptCorporateExecutive:
** Orbis runs a corporation that makes Unusual Weapons of Destruction, but he's pretty honest about that. And they offer bonuses on bulk purchases!
** When Gyrich hired Orbis Stellaris to stage an assassination attempt on Xandra but insisted that it was ''only'' to be a failed attempt, it's implied that Orbis Stellaris was intending to double-cross him and actually kill her. Interstellar war and chaos is good business when you're an ArmsDealer.
* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: His age and infirmity means that he can't survive more than a day without his PoweredArmor keeping him alive.
* EvilOldFolks: About 189 in human years - and he's originally from Earth, so human years are the relevant measure.
* HiddenAgendaVillain: Orbis has his own secret plan he's following. The weapons business just kills time and provides funding.
* LosingYourHead: A variant. Orbis Stellaris is first introduced wearing the spherical PoweredArmor. It's not until he confronts Cable's team that it's revealed that the sphere can also act as the head of an alien Progenitor's huge body.
* PoweredArmor: Data pages from the 'Lethal Legion' catalogue confirm that ‘Orbis Stellaris' is a spherical suit of powered armor. It's later revealed that he [[DarkLordOnLifeSupport relies on the armor for life support]].
* SpeechBubbles: Orbis speaks in a different font to the rest of the cast and the edges of his speech bubbles are irregular rather than a smooth oval. When inside his armor, the tails vanish into the sphere rather than ending with a visible point.
* TheyCallHimSword: A variant. 'Orbis Stellaris' is also the brand and/or model name of the "mechanical fusion shell" he's inside, not his own name. Although it's not been seen in battle, a data page (showing excerpts from the 'Lethal Legion' enhancile catalogue) confirms that it's essentially PoweredArmor designed for combat.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Mother Righteous]]
!!!Mother Righteous
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ddd659d2_576d_4495_a37d_f5d45f8c78e4.jpeg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]
A psychic entity who appears at the edge of the Altar, offering bargains. Help and self-improvement, at a very reasonable price.
----
* DealWithTheDevil: It's strongly implied that the price of her help is much higher than it seems, and Blindfold warns Legion on that basis.
* DoesNotLikeShoes: Overlaps with MagicalBarefooter.
* FunetikAksent: She speaks in a strong London (cockney) accent, and her dialogue is written accordingly.
-->'''Mother Righteous:''' 'Ere, I'll just let ''meself'' in, shall I?
* PhraseCatcher: So far the only condition for her assistance is that the recipient thanks her by name, "Thank you Mother Righteous." When Ora Serrata refuses, she suffers [[ImHavingSoulPains aches in her soul]] until she complies.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: She's the heart suite Sinister clone]]
[[/folder]]
!! Others
[[folder: Nathaniel Essex]]
!! Nathaniel Essex
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a0dfcbc9_8b3e_4127_b79e_a208b5d6200f.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350: ]]
The Original Nathaniel Essex from whom the 4 systems stemmed from.
* AlasPoorVillain: He was a racist eugenicist but he also grieved for his lost wife and child so much that he cut his emotions out of himself leading to him becoming a monster than dying a man with a broken mind:
* DeadAllAlong: Immortal X-men #8 reveals he’s been dead since the Victorian age and The Sinister we’ve been following since his 1987 debut has been a clone, possibly a clone of a clone.
* JekyllAndHyde: The original situation he found himself in after experimenting on himself. He would turn tiny into a monster that resembles the Diamond Sinister we know today but was locked up for the safety of others and died in containment.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:Miss Sinister]]
!!Claudine Renko/Miss Sinister
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1590880_ms_step_inside_an_i_ll_tell_ya_all_about_it.png]]
!!!'''Species:''' Human mutate clone
!!!'''Appeared in''': ''X-men Legacy'' #214 (July, 2008)
Claudine Renko is the end result of one of Mr. Sinister's ''many'' CrazyPrepared attempts to escape death. He infected her with a virus that, in the event of his death, would allow him to return to life using her body. Upon his death at Mystique's hands during ''Messiah Complex'' the virus activated, [[CloneByConversion increasingly turning Claudine into]] his OppositeSexClone. Claudine, of course, wants no part of it and sees Laura and her HealingFactor as a means of preventing Sinister's return.
----
* AlasPoorVillain: Despite what she tries to do to Laura, it's still pretty easy to sympathize with Claudine: She's a victim of Sinister's experiments, and never volunteered to be the vessel by which he attempted to cheat death. On top of that, now he's FightingFromTheInside to steal her body as a CloneByConversion, which will effectively kill Claudine in the process as he overwrites her mind and fully transforms her body into his own. The poor woman just wants to ''survive'' with her mind her own.
* AntiVillain: Claudine's actions are entirely motivated by self-preservation; she's afraid of what it will mean for her if Sinister returns, and she wasn't exactly a volunteer for his experiment to begin with.
* BodyBackupDrive: Sinister's virus has turned her into this. And much like a computer virus, Sinister is an invasive, malignant presence in Claudine's mind trying to take control of her, making the trope name even ''more'' appropriate.
* CloneByConversion: Sinister infected Claudine with a virus that's slowly converting her into a clone of his body. She had been able to fight this process, however by the time she encounters Laura she has recently suffered serious injuries at the hands of Daken, which has weakened her defenses and enabled Sinister to gain more control, at times even allowing him to manifest entirely.
* DirtyCop: Claudine has an army of corrupt police working for her.
* FightingFromTheInside: Claudine is in a constant battle against Mr. Sinister's attempts to hijack her body and return from death, with her describing him as a malignant presence in her mind.
* GlamourFailure: She attempts to seduce Gambit by masquerading as Laura. Regardless of whether she had him fooled at first, the scheme comes crashing down the second she slips and uses a contraction. Laura, however, uses SpockSpeak...
* GrandTheftMe: She plans to transfer her consciousness into Laura's body to keep Sinister from doing the same thing to ''her''. Sinister screws her over by taking over Laura's younger and healthier body ''himself'', until Laura gets fed up with the entire mess and kicks him out.
* OfCorsetsSexy: Spends most of her time walking around in a corset. And not much else.
* OppositeSexClone: A bizarre case: Claudine was once a normal woman Sinister used as one of his experiments. However when he was killed by Mystique, the virus he infected Claudine with has slowly been taking over her body and converting it into an exact clone of Sinister. Her efforts to save herself from this fate lead her to attempting a GrandTheftMe on Laura.
* SaveTheVillain: Subversion: X and Gambit leave her for dead. However ''Sinister'', whom she spent the arc trying to screw over, "saves" her instead. He promises to take care of her, but considering this is Sinister we're talking about, she may just have been better off being left to die.
* {{ShapeShifting}}: Claudine has some shapeshifting ability, and uses it at one point in an attempt to seduce Gambit while disgused as Laura.
* ShowingOffTheNewBody: Preemptively. Claudine is ''very'' appreciative how beautiful Laura is while in the midst of ''stealing her body''.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Her last appearance or mention in any comic was X-23 #6 (February 2011), leaving her ultimate fate after being "rescued" by Sinister unresolved until she finally resurfaced in ''Comicbook/XMenBlue'' #5 over six years later.
[[/folder]]
