On March 3rd, 2017, Hugh Jackman will be delivering his swan song as the scrappy Canadian mutant who is “the best there is at what he does”. Fox’s currently untitled Wolverine 3 promises to be the final outing for Jackman’s portrayal of Logan, though the possibility of a recast down the line is always in the cards. Little has been revealed about the plot of the film itself, as Jackman and director James Mangold (The Wolverine) are keeping things under wraps this time around, though one of its villains has finally come to light. Mr. Sinister, one of the big bads of the X-Men universe, will be making his cinematic debut in the upcoming blockbuster and will most likely be playing the main threat for Wolverine this time around.
Sinister has had a long run in the comics, acting as a strange antagonist to the X-Men, and sometimes the rest of the Marvel Universe. His appearance alone is enough to have readers questioning what exactly his deal is, so we thought we’d go into some detail of who Mr. Sinister is and why he may be one of the biggest threats that Wolverine in the movies has faced yet.
Sinister Beginnings
Mr. Sinister’s cinematic debut has been a long time coming as he’s considered by many fans to be one of the biggest villains of the X-Men universe. Alongside Magneto and Apocalypse, Mr. Sinister has tormented the band of mutants for decades and has a long history in Marvel comics, particularly with the leader of the team: Cyclops—he shadowed the poor guy from childhood to adulthood. Sinister was originally created by comic book legend Chris Claremont, who’s arguably responsible for more of the X-Men mythology than any other writer out there, and premiered during an event dubbed, “The Mutant Massacre”, in Uncanny X-Men #221. In this storyline, Sinister hired a band of mercenaries called “The Marauders” to eradicate a number of mutants living in the sewers dubbed the Morlocks. Mr. Sinister would then reappear during a big X-Men crossover called “Inferno” wherein he made a clone of Jean Grey and remained a thorn in the X-Men’s side while the team was struggling with a horde of demons (mutants have a LOT of problems).
For a long time, Sinister’s origin was a mystery, but his beginnings were revealed as those of Nathaniel Essex, a biologist in London in 1859. As Essex worked closely with the theories of Charles Darwin, he was approached by the X-villain Apocalypse and was charged with creating a virus that would kill the weak of the world, as that’s En Sabah Nur’s modus operandi. Nathaniel struggled with the decision, as he had a wife and unborn child to look after, but having worked with Apocalypse on other ventures, his wife grew to hate him and eventually died in childbirth. However, before dying, Rachel Essex called her husband “sinister”, and thus Apocalypse took his chance and offered to make Nathaniel immortal. Essex jumped at the chance, was given a new body with a slew of powers, and went by the name Mr. Sinister from that day forward.
Sinister Abilities
Aside from Mr. Sinister having a slew of powers, one thing you can take notice of is how unique his appearance is. I can’t quite think of another comic book character that quite looks like Mr. Sinister, and his abilities are somewhat as idiosyncratic. Essex’s body, as stated above, is immortal and, much like the man who gave him his powers, is a veritable catch all when it comes to mutant skills (even though he isn’t really one to begin with!). Sinister can control every part of his body on a cellular level which means he has super strength, super speed, can regenerate from any damage inflicted, and can shapeshift. For some reason, the only thing he’s really weak against is Cyclops’ eye beams, which is more than likely why he’s so fascinated by him. He’s also been known to use telepathy from time to time, and even teleport, which leads one to believe that he may have other tricks under his sleeves.
Regardless of all the bells and whistles of Mr. Sinister, the most dangerous part about him is his intellect that he’ll usually exhibit through the art of genetic cloning. Aside from making a clone of Jean Grey named Madelyne Pryor in the X-Men’s history, as mentioned earlier, Essex tampers with the laws of nature on a nearly constant basis. In one recent appearance, he actually was cloning sets of Cyclops’ eyes, loading them into a shotgun, and firing them at people! Needless to say, Sinister stories can get a bit bizarre sometimes but it’s a nice change of pace every once in awhile for Marvel’s main mutants.
Sinister Appearances
Outside of the movies, Sinister has appeared in a lot of “X-Media”, most notably the 1992 animated series X-Men, wherein he was the main villain of the show’s second season. Mr. Sinister and his Nasty Boys (no seriously those are the names of his henchmen) plagued the team by setting up shop in the Savage Land, a part of the Marvel world that is separated from society, locked in the age of dinosaurs that has surprisingly not yet appeared in the films. He also made a number of appearances in the short lived animated series Wolverine and the X-Men, which was sadly cut short before it could have a solid run outside of one season. On top of these cartoons, Mr. Sinister also made appearances in numerous video games such as Wolverine’s Revenge, X-Men Legends 2, and even good old Deadpool, in the wisecracking antihero’s titular video game.
For Wolverine 3, we’re still not sure who will be bringing Mr. Sinister to life or what his role is. In the post-credit scene of X-Men: Apocalypse, we’re shown a number of shady individuals collecting blood samples left by a rampaging Wolverine, only for them to be revealed as employers of “Essex Corp”. A clear nod to Nathaniel Essex, Mr. Sinister is precisely the kind of villain to swoop in after the violence has passed and pick away at the remains like a vulture for his nefarious pursuit of ill begotten science. As mentioned above, Sinister is a master geneticist and harboring Logan’s blood to further his research seems right up his alley. Considering that this is Hugh Jackman’s last movie, what better time than now to introduce the successor to the throne of Wolverine than his “daughter”, X-23? X-23 is currently Wolverine in the comics, having replaced her “father” (as she’s his clone) after Logan died at the hands of the original Weapon X program.
X-Men: Apocalypse was not the critical darling that Deadpool was this year, but there seems to be a lot of love going into Wolverine’s third solo outing with it being the swan song for Jackman. Adding an outlandish yet intriguing villain like Mr. Sinister to the mix promises to give Wolverine an interesting final ride if nothing else.
