After 63 Years, Marvel Unveils Their Darkest X-Men Team Of All Time
Marvel introduces a new X-Men team, and they're all dark, supernatural counterparts of several major mutant heroes. The X-Men's rogues' gallery is divided into two major categories: mutants and anti-mutants, the latter of which is divided into humans and a wide variety of enemies who oppose mutants from outside the species. Power-hungry mutants like Magneto, Apocalypse, Mister Sinister, Mystique, and Exodus are natural opponents of Charles Xavier's dream. Meanwhile, many forms of anti-mutant hostility have threatened mutant society, from human supremacists like the Friends of Humanity to Sentinels and Nimrod to the Phalanx, the Brood, Shadow King, and Onslaught.
The X-Men and the Avengers share the responsibility of protecting Earth, but their stories tend to divide their threats according to the scale and nature of the danger. The Avengers are Earth's first response to catastrophes that can devastate the planet or wipe out entire countries, like alien invasions and cosmic entities. Since mutantkind is often the target, most of the X-Men's battles are focused on extinction campaigns, genetic experimentation, hostile mutant factions, and enemies who seek control over mutant evolution.
One type of conflict the X-Men and the Avengers share is the supernatural, which tends to catch all Marvel teams off-guard due to how unpredictable all paranormal threats can be.
The X-Men Must Fight Demonic Versions Of Themselves
X-Men United #6; Written By Evan Narcisse & Eve L. Ewing; Art By Eduardo Pansica, Tiago Palma, And Brian Reber
The main X-Men team and their young protégés have lost track of each other, as the illusion-casting human mutate Ben Liu accidentally creates a pseudo-reality where evil entities attack the mutants. While the young heroes are overwhelmed by supernatural creatures that possess them like symbiotes, the classic X-Men team wake up in a separate illusion, where they come face to face with dark versions of themselves. These villainous counterparts apparently have the same powers, as the evil Psylocke places a telepathic lock on Magneto's mind.
Ben Liu's evil X-Men are some of the darkest versions of the mutant heroes yet. Beast grows a Toad-like tongue, sharp claws, and horns, while Nightcrawler spawns tattered devil wings, and Magneto sports bone-like rings around his back. Wolverine and Gambit's primary weapons are much longer and sharper than usual, Storm commands jagged red lightning, and Kitty Pryde looks like Samara from The Ring. Since she's leading the pack and sporting the longest horns, it seems like evil Psylocke is the most dangerous of the group.
Ben Liu Accidentally Stumbles Across The X-Men's Biggest Weakness
The X-Men's Biggest Enemies Are Themselves
The X-Men's greatest enemies often come from within their own ranks, and not just because of mutantkind's constant in-fighting. Throughout the years, Marvel has introduced multiple evil versions of Professor X's apprentices and other heroic mutants. Bloodstorm is an alternate Ororo Munroe who became a vampire, and Dark Beast uses Beast's scientific genius without moral restraints, which allows him to conduct experiments with a level of cruelty the heroic Hank McCoy would never accept. Apocalypse has repeatedly weaponized familiar heroes as his Horsemen, with characters like Wolverine, Gambit, Polaris, and Archangel forced into roles that turn their gifts against their former allies.
The Shadow King took the same concept even further with his Shadow X, a dark counterpart to the X-Men whose members possess versions of the team's familiar powers under his psychic control. X-Men Noir reimagined the original team as street-level criminals in an alternate 1930s setting, and the terrifying Ex-Men from the Cancerverse are mutated equivalents to X-Men United #6's supernatural versions of the heroic mutants. Just like Wolverine confirmed while fighting Godshredder's mind-controlled X-Men, the X-Men's immense power, variety of abilities, and talent for teamwork makes them a huge threat, even to themselves.
What's your favorite evil version of the X-Men?
X-Men United #6 is now available from Marvel Comics