Sinister is revealed to be the mastermind behind the plan that created the dark future of the timeline, in which civil society was destroyed and replaced with supervillain-controlled fiefdoms, killing millions in the process. Sinister came up with the plan to unite the supervillains, kill all the superheroes and take over the world, and presented this plan to Red Skull. When Old Man Logan traveled to the past, trying to stop this dark future from taking place, Sinister, in the form of Miss Sinister, learns of the future. Wanting to ensure the Old Man Logan future comes to pass, Miss Sinister recruits Mysterio, hoping to use him to trick the superhero community into killing each other and takes her plans to Red Skull's daughter Sin, working with her to ensure this plan succeeds and helps Sin kill everyone who could stand in their way. After Logan defeats Miss Sinister in the past, Logan goes back to the future, where Sinister has once again taken the form of Mr. Sinister. Mr. Sinister has created a hit squad of Sabretooth clones to do his bidding. Mr. Sinister sends these clones to kill anyone who prevents him from capturing Logan and Bruce Banner Jr.—Hulk's preteen son—massacring a gang of cannibals and Forge's encampment of refugees. Mr. Sinister wants to experiment on Logan and Bruce, so he can create an army of Super Soldiers to conquer the world.
Old Man Logan (2016)'s "Days of Anger" & "King of Nothing" arcs: The Maestro, a corrupt version of The Incredible Hulk from an alternate future, stands out as a particularly vile villain. Maestro arrives on Earth and takes over Hulk's brood of inbred children after Logan killed this world's version of Hulk. Maestro has the Hulk Gang take over a military base in the Yukon territories, killing all the guards there. Maestro also has one of the Hulk Gang, Billy Bob, killed for his incompetence. Maestro uses the base's resources to create several nuclear bombs. Maestro plans to use the Hulk Gang as suicide bombers and have them blow up several major cities, destroying most of humanity. Maestro promises the Hulk Gang they will survive the blasts, but that is a lie, they will die along with most of humanity so that Maestro can rule over a post-nuclear-holocaust world. After Maestro's genocidal scheme is foiled and he is confronted by Logan and Hawkeye, Maestro attempts to set off a nuke, to take out everyone in the area, out of spite. After that defeat, the Maestro reappears later, having conquered a small Northern Canadian town, where Maestro kills anyone who opposes him and turns the women of the town into his sex slaves.
Old Man Hawkeye: Baron Helmut Zemo is presented as a far crueler villain than his 616 counterpart. Zemo was enraged that Hawkeye took away the Thunderbolts from him, so in the lead up to the supervillain take over, Zemo strong-arms the Thunderbolts into betraying the Avengers. When the Avengers are ambushed by supervillains, the Thunderbolts turn against the Avengers and help the villains kill them. Zemo personally kills Black Widow in front of Hawkeye and only spares him because he thinks Hawkeye is worthless. In the future, Zemo is running a Super-Soldier program at the Weapon X facility for Red Skull, experimenting on people. His test subjects often become deformed and beg for death after Zemo is done with them. Eventually, Zemo succeeds and creates a new Captain Hydra, Zemo has him test out his abilities by having him kill several of Zemo's guards. Zemo also plans to kill all the scientists at the Weapon X facility, so no one can recreate his research.
Galactus serves as the dark god of the Church of Universal Truth. Galactus steals the Power Cosmic from the Silver Surfer, putting the latter into a coma in the process. Galactus then uses the Power Cosmic to create a machine to mind control people, mentally enslaving people to fill the Church's ranks. Galactus devours worlds that defy him, including the planets of Spartax and Xander, resulting in the deaths of Peter Quill's family. When Galactus learns the planet Earth is no longer defended by superheroes, he goes to Earth to devour it as well.
The Matriarch is the leader of the Universal Church of Truth and one of the only Church members who is Not Brainwashed, choosing to serve Galactus of her own free will. The Matriarch leads the Church's armada to planets for the Church forcible convert and summons Galactus to destroy any planet that refuses to submit. The Matriarch intentionally distracts Peter Quill so Galactus can devour the planet Spartax and summons Galactus to Earth when she learns there are no superheroes left to defend it. When some Church members break free from Galactus's control, the Matriarch has them executed.
Catharsis Factor: After spending a large section of the novel watching Roland going slowly mad trying to reconcile two different sets of memories, his cry of joy when Eddie gives him the key that makes the voices go away brings a rush of relief from the reader on his behalf.
