7 Darkest Versions of the X-Men

The X-Men are more than just a common superhero team. While they definitely fight against supervillains and save the day, they also deal with way more than that on a regular basis. Their entire remit is to create a world where bigotry no longer exists, and this has made their mission much more difficult. They are fighting the hate in people’s hearts and that sort of thing can get pretty dark. Over the years, the men and women of X have found themselves in the worst situation imaginable, both on Earth-616 and elsewhere, and this has given readers glimpses at some of the darkest mutant teams ever.

Being an X-Man is a difficult thing at the best of times, and that’s before you get into the multiversal shenanigans, mind control stories, villains joining teams, and everything else that can make things darker for them. We’ve seen various versions of the X-Men deal with everything you can imagine, and saw how these situations change them for the worst. These are the seven darkest versions of the X-Men, some of them hailing from twisted realities and some from Earth-616.

7) The Extinction Team

The 2010s were a time of change for the X-Men. They moved to the island of Utopia, and the Hellfire Club was able to start a conflict that ended with Wolverine and Cyclops splitting the pitiful remnants of post-M-Day mutantkind between themselves. Wolverine started a school and Cyclops created the Extinction Team. This team combined the most powerful beings on Utopia – Magneto, Storm, Emma Frost, Hope Summers, Danger, Namor, Magik, and Colossus while he had the power of the Juggernaut – and was meant to deal with the biggest threats around. Scott named them the Extinction Team, because if it came down to it, they could render life on Earth impossible. They were mutually assured destruction personified.

6) X-Statix

The X-Statix started out as a new version of X-Force. They were basically a reality show superteam – constantly followed by cameras and enjoying their notoriety, all while being thrown into missions that were often little better than meat grinders. The team’s vibe was basically “eat well, drink well for tomorrow we dine in Hell”. Members of the group were constantly dying and being replaced, giving them a fatalistic vibe that few other mutants teams can match.

5) Age of Apocalypse X-Men

“Age of Apocalypse” is a fan-favorite ’90s story, taking readers to a very different Earth. Xavier was killed when Legion went back in time to kill Magneto, with the mutant master of magnetism taking his friend’s spot as the leader of the mutant race. However, Apocalypse decided that since mutants had made their first move and revealed themselves, that it was time to begin his war against humanity. Magneto’s X-Men was a small resistance force battling against the most powerful empire in human history, warring against the endless waves of Infinites and powerful mutants that made up the core of Apocalypse’s fighting forces. Every day was a potential suicide mission for them, and they were constantly on the verge of defeat, willing to do anything to save the day, no matter how many lives it cost.

4) The X-Men From Moira MacTaggert’s 9th Life

The Krakoa Era heaped change on the X-Men, and introduced readers to numerous new alternate realities through the lives of Moira X. She lived ten lives, watching mutants lose in all of them, and in her 9th life she decided to team up with Apocalypse. Eventually, the Sentinels took over, forming the Man-Machine Ascendancy, and the two of them formed their own team of X-Men, with members like Wolverine, Xorn, and the Magneto-look alike North along with Sinister-created chimera mutants like Rasputin, Cardinal, and Cylobel. They were the resistance, trying to stop the Man-Machine Ascendancy, battling against the odds and constantly losing members in their hopeless struggle.

3) The Krakoa Era Dark X-Men

Madelyne Pryor had a great change in the Krakoa Era. She was given control of Limbo and made peace with Cyclops and Jean Grey, establishing the Limbo Embassy in New York City. When the Orchis Initiative declared mutants outlaws, she took in as many as she could and decided to create her own team of X-Men. Pryor’s team consisted of heroes like Havok and Gambit and villains like Azazel, Zero, and Emplate. When Havok was injured, Pryor made him into a zombie and had no problem manipulating members and pulling rank. Their missions were bloody and hopeless, but they never stopped fighting. The team’s whole vibe was bad people doing the right thing in the wrong ways, and they ended up battling against the Orchis magical division, hurting the enemies of mutantkind. Pryor wanted to fight for good, but she did it in her own monstrous way.

2) The Days of Future Past X-Men

“Days of Future Past” was the first major alternate reality X-story. On their Earth, the Mutant Registration Act led to the Sentinels attacking mutantkind, starting a genetic war. The team’s entire existence became one long defeat. They took loss after loss, with members dying and being imprisoned, never able to find a place to call home. They had no hope of victory, and yet they kept going, throwing themselves into the breach over and over again. They were willing to sacrifice anything in order to keep their world from happening, including going back in time and changing reality itself, ending their own existences in the hope for a better world.

1) The Red Diamond Empire

The Red Diamond Empire was one of Mister Sinister’s greatest, albeit accidental, creations. Sinister had suborned the Krakoan resurrection process, allowing him to make others like him – although they weren’t under his mental control. They were still themselves, they just would act as Sinister would, something he thought would make him king of the mutants. This led to them transforming Krakoa into an army, and using it to conquer first the Earth and then the universe. Using chimera mutants and clones, Emma Frost, Xavier, Hope Summers, and Exodus created an empire that was basically unstoppable. Eventually, they ended up fighting against each other, and Sinister was forced to destroy the entire universe in order to keep it from contaminating the rest of the timeline.

What’s your favorite dark X-Men team? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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