7 X-Men Characters Who Always Get Experimented On

The X-Men are a very different kind of superhero team. Sure, they fight evil and use a lot of the same sci-fi tropes that other superheroes do too, but they deal with different things because of their status as mutants. Homo Superior are the next evolution of mankind and scientists in the Marvel Universe have been studying them for years. This has led to mutants becoming a favorite of scientists, their genetic structure making them a tantalizing object of research. Mutants have been experimented on in a variety of ways, both humanely and inhumanely, sometimes against their will and sometimes with their blessing.

The X-Men are the most powerful mutants with the most interesting powers, and this has led to them getting experimented on a lot. Some characters have had their lives defined by this experimentation, with some of them even created by it. These seven X-Men have been experimented on the most, their lives being changed forever by science.

7) Apocalypse

Apocalypse is one of the X-Men’s greatest villains. He’s also one been one of the chief experimenters on mutants for centuries, including on himself. Millennia ago, he found a Celestial ship and began his quest to make sure the strong survive, discovering that he had much in common with them when it came to their beliefs on life and genetics. He wanted to create a world of the strong and the ship gave him the ability to do that. However, the first mutant he experimented on was himself. He tested the limits of his powers and learned to use Celestial technology to enhance them. He’s also worked with scientist villains like Mister Sinister and has constantly looked for way to make himself better and more powerful.

6) Beast

Beast has become the black sheep of the X-Men, but for years he was one of the foremost evolutionary biologists in the world. He also looked very different from the way he does now; he was once a regular-looking human with large hands and feet, his current furry countenance coming from his own experimentations with his genome. In fact, for years, he used himself as his guinea pig for mutant studies. He almost sacrificed himself to end the Legacy Virus and along with a past version of himself he saved his own life from his own mutation. He knows his way backwards and forwards around his own DNA.

5) Fantomex

Fantomex is a mutant who owes his entire existence to mutant experimentation. He was created by Weapon Plus in the World, a giant time-manipulating laboratory meant to make mutants into weapons. He was made into a living weapon, his body enhanced to superhuman levels and his mind trained to perfection. They were constantly refining him the whole time he was there, but a life of experimentation wasn’t in the cards for ol’Charlie Cluster-7. He escaped the World, creating a fake identity for himself, and has worked with the X-Men and X-Force. He even let Charles Xavier take over his body to come back to life, which can be looked at as sort of an experiment as well.

4) Mister Sinister

Mister Sinister is the Marvel Universe’s most dangerous mutant scientist, having spent years trying to use genetics to unlock the ultimate power. Sinister was long believed to be Nathaniel Essex, a Victorian geneticist, but it was revealed that he was a clone himself, meant to use mutant genetics to unlock the power of becoming a Dominion. Sinister wasn’t born a mutant, but he does have a variety of mutant powers, all of which came from him experimenting on himself. He learned to create chimeras – mutants combining the genetic traits of several others, boasting multiple powers – by learning from doing it on himself and has no problem giving himself a new shot or graft that will make him even more powerful.

3) Laura Kinney

Laura Kinney is another mutant who was created through mutant experimentation. It all started with her father, Wolverine. He destroyed Weapon X after getting his adamantium skeleton, but the super soldier scientists in the Facility knew that he was too good of a subject to lose. They started experimenting with cloning him, with Sarah Kinney using her DNA and his to create Laura. She was enhanced in every possible way, the only difference between her and her father being that she only got adamantium claws and not bones, something that would change in the Krakoa Era. She became one of the most formidable fighters in the world thanks to the experiments done on her and has joined her father as a second Wolverine.

2) Deadpool

Wade Wilson was a skilled soldier, working as a mercenary and a black ops worker until he learned that he had cancer. He would end up joining Department H, the Canadian governmental body that Weapon Plus had worked with, for a second chance at life and was given a souped up version of Wolverine’s healing factor. He was also enhanced in various other ways, becoming the ultimate unkillable soldier. Over the years, his seeming immortality meant that numerous bad guys have wanted to experiment on him, so he’s often had to deal with being experimented on against his will.

1) Wolverine

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does and what he does is get experimented on. Logan’s healing factor made him someone that everyone doing research into living weapons wanted to get their hands on and Weapon X made him into one of the world’s most efficient killing machines. However, it didn’t end there. Over the years, scientists, both good and evil, have used him as a guinea pig for experimentation and he’s had more holes poked him than he’s poked in others. He’s proven to be the perfect research specimen and there’s certainly going to be more stories involving someone experimenting on him.

What X-Men character do you think get experimented on the most? Leave a comment in the comment section below and join the conversation on the ComicBook Forums!

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