7 Classic X-Men Villains Who Don’t Get Enough Credit

The X-Men have a legacy that spans nearly 70 years now, becoming one of the most popular teams in the history of comics. This popularity saw Marvel create a mini-universe of heroes, villains, and supporting characters around Charles Xavier’s team. The most well-known mutants are extremely popular and have starred in video games and on the big and small screens. X-Men villains are especially good, and an argument can be made that the X-Men have the greatest roster of villains in comics. There are so many all-time great villains among them, several of them joining the ranks of Marvel’s greatest villains, in general. While the more popular villains are all stars, some amazing villains don’t get enough credit.

The X-Men’s history is full of ups and downs, and the team has faced off against the most dangerous villains ever since the beginning. Many classic X-Men villains are amazing, but most of them have been overshadowed by the more well-known foes. These seven classic X-Men villains are awesome, but they haven’t gotten the spotlight they deserve.

7) Mojo

The X-Men have starred in some fantastic stories, and they’ve become well-known throughout the Marvel Universe. A big reason they’ve become so popular in-universe outside of Earth-616 is Mojo. Mojo is the leader of the Spineless Ones. The Spineless Ones crave entertainment, and Mojo gives that to them, bloody games, brutal sitcoms, and live-streaming. Mojo is known for abducting the X-Men and putting them in the most dangerous situations, all so his people will have the entertainment they crave.

Mojo is every terrible Hollywood producer stereotype out there, and this has made him an awesome villain. He’s a vile being, and he’s starred in more great stories than a lot of better-known villains. He rarely gets the credit he deserves.

6) Deathbird

Chris Claremont revolutionized the X-Men, introducing nearly everything that fans love the most about the team. One of the coolest things that Claremont created was the Shi’Ar Empire. They’ve become an integral part of the team’s mythos, with the ruling Neramani family being the most connected to the mutants. There are loads of cool Shi’Ar, but the best of them has always been Deathbird. Deathbird is kind of a cliche, an alien warrior who is about all fighting and gaining power for herself, but that doesn’t change how much fun she is to read about.

Deathbird is a character who can work as a hero or a villain, is tough enough to fight even the most skilled X-Men, and looks amazing. Deathbird is awesome, and it’s about time she got the spotlight.

5) Unus the Untouchable

The old school X-Men comics by creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby aren’t nearly as beloved as other works from the two of them. While they aren’t the most popular or even among the best of Lee and Kirby’s work, the two brought their excellent character creation skills to bear and gave readers some cool characters that we don’t talk about very much anymore. Unus the Untouchable is one of them. Unus’s powers allow him to create a force field around his body that can repel just about any attack.

Unus is just a standard Silver Age villain, but he has awesome powers, and his lack of any major characterization means that he’s a nearly blank slate for anyone who wants to use him.

4) Toad

Magneto is more heroic than ever before, and a lot of readers ignore his past terrible actions. One of the worst of those was the way he abused Toad. Magneto treated Toad like a slave, mocking him and beating him, and using him in numerous ways. Toad would break away from Magneto and, since then, has become a joke more than anything else, despite having some pretty cool powers, his jumping ability supplemented by his prehensile tongue and acid spit.

Toad has led his own version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and is much smarter than he seems. Toad is a villain that could be made into an X-Men big bad with only a little bit of work.

3) Sauron

Sauron is one of those villains who could have been so much more than he was. Karl Lykos was bitten by a Savage Land pterodactyl and gained the ability to drain mutant life force to become a were-pterodactyl. The monster gained super strength and durability, flight, hypnosis, and the power to breathe fire ,making him a formidable threat. He would later gain electrical powers because of Weapon X experimentation and telekinetic abilities, making him more dangerous than ever.

He was never a big deal as a villain, but there’s just something awesome about a were-pterodactyl. Sauron’s an excellent villain, and it’s long past time that he became a major Marvel villain.

2) Blob

The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was a powerful team, but the most underrated member is easily Blob. He is super strong, has basically indestructible skin, and can control his center of gravity, meaning he can’t be moved unless he wants you to.

The villain is something of a problematic character nowadays, thanks to the change in the way we view obesity and obese people, but his powers are just way too cool. He’s a bruiser of the highest order, a villain who could give some of the most powerful heroes a great fight. He can grow beyond an X-Men villain and become like Juggernaut was for a while, a near-unstoppable force of evil.

1) Mastermind

Mastermind has the potential to be one of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel Universe, but no one has ever used him correctly. The evil mutant has mind control powers of the highest order. He was able to use his powers on Phoenix Jean Grey, planting the seeds for the rise of the Dark Phoenix. His powers work on even the most powerful telepaths, making him extremely dangerous.

One of the more interesting things about him is the pettiness that drives all of his actions; he even uses his powers to change the way he looks because he doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s kind of homely. There’s a lot of potential there. Mastermind is one of those villains who could make short work of just about every hero out there, and all it would take is to make him more serious as a villain.

What classic X-Men are we missing? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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