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Hey everybody, welcome to another week here at Marvel Snapshot! In this week’s great character spotlight, we’ll be looking at one of my favorite X-villains, Mister Sinister! This guy has been scheming against the X-Men for a while now and we’re going to peek at him right now!

One thing I love about certain characters that are favorites of mine, is a good origin story. Mister Sinister, or should I say Nathaniel Essex, has a great one. Nathaniel was a promising young doctor back in mid 19th century Europe. He experimented on the lowlifes and the homeless, but things really got crazy when his wife fell ill. All his efforts to heal her failed, and he was getting desperate. One day he was approached by a man, but this man was actually the nigh immortal Apocalypse. He made a bargain with Essex, that he would grant him eternal life, and powers beyond belief, but in return expected nothing less than one hundred percent loyalty. Essex agreed and the transformation began immediately, and the betrayal wasn’t far behind. Ever since then, he and Apocalypse have been enemies. This was collected in The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix mini-series.

One of the things Sinister is remembered for is cloning Jean Grey. Yes, he is the one who engineered Madelyne Pryor, the subsequent child, Nathan, and pretty much the entire Inferno fiasco. It has also been revealed that he has been influencing Scott Summers since he was a child. The other thing Sinister is known for is his connection with Gambit. It was brought to the forefront that Gambit has received a power upgrade from Sinister in exchange for certain favors. One of those favors was to locate the Morlocks, which eventually led to the slaughter of most of them at the hands of the Marauders. We’ve also seen that Sinister, under the guise of Dr. Windsor, has infiltrated Weapon X and been apart of the experiments that are carried out there. More recently, Sinister once again had a reunion with the Marauders, and then plagued the X-Men during the Endangered Species and Messiah Complex story lines. He did make an appearance as a she (Miss Sinister), and teamed up with Sebastian Shaw to try and control Wolverine’s son, Daken, in Wolverine Origins.

Hopefully, the powers that be can work Sinister back into the center of the Marvel U. Not just specifically the X-books, but anywhere, because I think he’s that good of a villain. He not only is a physically dominating dude, but also a psychological one. Check my recommended reading list out, and some great pics. Enjoy!

Recommended Reading
Revenge of the Living Monolith – Tpb
Inferno – Tpb
Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix – Tpb
Cable – vol. 1 #’s 1-6, 26, 27, 28, 29, 75, and Annual 1999
X-Man – #’s 1-12, 15, 18, 19, 25, 56
Endangered Species – Tpb
Messiah Complex – Tpb





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Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net