Dark X-Men is a 2009 series by Marvel Comics, written by Paul Cornell with art by Simone Bianchi and Leonard Kirk.
After Secret Invasion (2008), Iron Man, who had previously taken over S.H.I.E.L.D. from Nick Fury, was upstaged by Norman Osborn, aka the Green Goblin, who was given control over superhuman affairs as "top cop" in the Marvel Universe. Osborn disbanded S.H.I.E.L.D., remade it as H.A.M.M.E.R., and decided to hand pick his own team of "public image superheroes", crafting what would be known as Dark Avengers as the result: super-criminals who assumed the codenames and costumes of heroic predecessors.
Meanwhile, Mutantkind was living on Utopia, an artificial island off the coast of California. Deciding to do the same as with The Avengers, Osborn created a new team of "Dark" X-Men, loyal to him and led by Emma Frost.
Dark X-Men provides examples of:
- Anti-Hero Substitute: The Dark X-Men is this for the X-Men.
- Evil Costume Switch: Subverted when Emma Frost becomes Black Queen again after betraying Norman Osborn.
- Evil Doppelgänger: Dark Beast for Beast after joining Osborn's Dark X-Men, which were deliberately modeled to mirror the real X-Men.
- He Cleans Up Nicely: It took the intervention of Norman Osborn of all people, but after a decade of rocking the hobo look Mimic finally cleaned himself up, and wouldn't you know, he pulled off squeaky-clean all-American just as well as his Exiles counterpart.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Mimic. He continued working for Norman Osborn as a member of the Dark X-Men even after most of the other members of the team defected. Being a former villain himself, he desperately wanted to believe the best of Norman.
- Hypocrite: Osborns fears about "the mutants" are rather undermined by his recruiting some of the most dangerous and amoral mutants for his "Dark X-Men."
- Odd Friendship: Between Omega and Mimic.
- Oh, Crap!: Dark Beast has two, first when he recognizes just who the mysterious energy being possessing the townspeople is: Nate Grey, his old nemesis from the Age of Apocalypse who hates his guts, then later has a second one when he realizes that Nate faked his death and is now possessing Norman Osborn.
- Out-Gambitted: Osborn by Nate Grey, who plays the entire Dark X-Men and Dark Avengers like a harp, nearly dismantling the entirety of Osborn's organization in a day. Unfortunately, Osborn has the last laugh, as Nate makes a fatal miscalculation as regards the Green Goblin persona (which he intended to unleash and put in control, destroying Osborn's Villain with Good Publicity image). However, since Osborn snapped very shortly afterward during Siege, with Goblin makeup on his face, it could be argued that Nate's plan ultimately worked.
- Phlebotinum Overload: The X-Men are able to beat Mimic by having a large number of students Zerg Rush him.
- Those Two Guys: Mimic and Omega are inseparable.
- Unwitting Pawn: Mimic and Omega to Norman Osborn.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: When Nate Grey returns with his powers fully realized, stabilized, and mastered, it was only the intervention of Mystique (conveniently disguised as Jean Grey) that saved Dark Beast from being instantly immolated.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Nate Grey pulls this off fairly effectively in Dark X-Men and, were it not for one miscalculation, would have ended Dark Reign all by himself.
