7 Disastrous Decisions the X-Men Regret to This Day

The X-Men have a lot on their plate. They have to fight for a world that hates and fears them, battling anti-mutant bigots, anti-human bigots, and supervillains of all types. There are universe-shaking shenanigans and smaller scale threats, all of which challenge them. They are often looked to by the rest of the mutant community as a guiding light, which means that the choices they make count more than they otherwise would. The group often makes decisions for their entire race, which makes these choices even more fraught with peril than they otherwise would be. It’s one thing to make these kinds of choices for a small group of people, but once you get to the level the X-Men are, there’s so much potential for disaster.

The X-Men have made some decisions that have made things better for mutants, but they’ve also went in the opposite direction as well. The team has made some choices that were a catastrophe and there’s no doubt that members regret them. These are the seven worst decisions the X-Men ever made, heaping calamity upon their people.

7) Listening to Emma Frost in Inhumans vs X-Men

The Inhumans push was its own disaster, both in-universe and especially out, and it all ended with Inhumans vs. X-Men. This story had its genesis in Death of X, where we learned that Cyclops had died of M-Pox and Emma Frost had used a psychic projection of him to strike back against the Inhumans, allowing Black Bolt to “kill” him. Frost became the chief mover against the Inhumans and she was able to get the X-Men to go after them, leading to their war. At the end, she planned on using reprogrammed Sentinels to destroy the Inhumans, showing how the death of Cyclops affected her. She almost fooled the X-Men into committing genocide, which definitely wouldn’t be a good look.

6) Not Finding Out Cassandra Nova Had Taken Over Xavier’s Body Sooner

New X-Men is a sensational comic and it introduced one of the coolest X-Men villains ever in Cassandra Nova. She first appeared in the opening story arc, “E Is for Extinction”, and would end up taking over Professor X’s body. She mind-controlled Beak into beating Beast into a coma before going to the Shi’Ar Empire and wreaking havoc, finally returning to Earth to destroy the X-Men. The team completely missed that their mentor was under the control of a monster and it’s made especially worse by the fact that Charles tried to warn them immediately. Nova devastated the Shi’Ar and the X-Men could have stopped that if they were quicker on the draw discovering Nova’s plans.

5) Xavier Enslaving the Danger Room

The Danger Room has been helping train mutants for years and when Xavier started his relationship with Lilandra, he had the computer system upgraded by powerful alien tech. One day, while working with the computer, it revealed to Charles that it had become sentient, a mutant in its own way, and wanted to create an actual life for itself. However, Xavier felt that the Danger Room was more important training his team, who saved the universe at times, so he enslaved it, partitioning it off in the computer system. It would break loose, create a female body, and become Danger, attacking them with years of their weaknesses. The X-Men are all about civil rights, so finding out that they were technically slave owners was something of a blow.

4) Beast Leading X-Force

Beast has become an entirely different character and that had its genesis from his time as X-Force leader. The team was the Krakoan CIA and McCoy was chose to lead them; they figured that his pragmatism would be tempered by his legendary good nature and compassion. However, this wasn’t mama McCoy’s bouncing blue-furred Beast, it was a man who had watched mutants lose time and again, willing to do anything to save his people. This caused him to take the most brutally pragmatic courses, not caring about who died, as long as they weren’t Krakoans. He more than lived up to him name and the members of the Quiet Council who allowed him to lead the group have almost certainly been kicking themselves ever since.

3) The Secret of Moira X

Moira MacTaggert was a human scientist who specialized in mutants and was one of the X-Men’s most stalwart allies. However, she, Xavier, and Magneto had a huge secret – she was a mutant with the power to reincarnate at birth, remembering everything that happened in her previous life, which she had done ten times by that point. The mutant leaders kept her secret and helped her fake her death, the three of them laying the groundwork for Krakoa. Moira’s secret being revealed was a disaster, one that was much worse than it would have been if they had just been upfront with everyone.

2) Xavier Mindwiping Magneto

Professor X and Magneto have one of the most complicated relationships in X-Men comics, which is saying something. The two have been the best of friends, working together in a number of ways over the years. They’ve also been bitter enemies, trying to destroy the other’s dream. After Mags ripped the adamantium from Wolverine’s skeleton, Xavier decided that he had enough of his former friend and mindwiped him. This led to a portion of Magneto’s evil and power going into Charles, creating Onslaught. While it seemed justified at the time, it caused so much turmoil in the not-so distant future.

1) Giving Sinister So Much Power on Krakoa

Mister Sinister is Marvel’s most evil scientist, a man who is obsessed with genetics and tinkering with the building blocks of life. During the years when Xavier, Magneto, and Moira were setting up Krakoa, Charles used his mental powers to make Sinister make a mutant DNA library and that he would join them on Krakoa once the nation was ready. Sinister came and was made a member of the Quiet Council, even getting his own strike team, the Hellions. No one trusted him and they thought they had done their due diligence to keep him from causing too much trouble. They failed, of course, leading to “Sins of Sinister”, which created a monstrous alternate timeline. Trusting Mister Sinister was a huge mistake and if the X-Men aren’t kicking themselves for it, they need their heads examined.

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