These X-Men Characters Are a Perfect fit in the D&D Alignment Chart But Neutral Evil Might Surprise You

The Dungeon and Dragons alignment chart has proven to be one of the most fun things in pop culture. To begin with, everyone loves charts, but it’s more than that. It’s allowed fans of various franchises to give their opinions on their favorite characters and what makes them tick. It’s deceptively simple – there’s moral alignments like Good, Evil, and Neutral and there’s categories for each: Lawful, Neutral, and Chaotic – but it works for every piece of pop culture you can think of. It’s especially fun to use it on comic characters; creators have spent decades crafting these characters, adding complexities that define who they are and their actions in the world.

The X-Men are one of the most interesting teams when you look at their morality. The team and their enemies run the gamut and their battles against the forces of humanity have made even the good characters a little grey. These nine X-Men characters fit beautifully into the D&D and I guarantee that neutral evil is going to shock you.

9) Chaotic Evil: Sabretooth

Sabretooth is Wolverine’s greatest enemy and he’s been a huge problem for the X-Men over the years. Victor Creed was locked in the basement by his parents when his mutant powers manifested, eventually breaking free and slaughtering all of them. Since then, Victor has traveled the world doing the thing that he loves the most – killing people. Sabretooth is chaotic evil through and through; he’s unpredictable and the only sure thing when he shows up is that he’s going to kill someone. While he has done heroic things over the years, he usually only did them because he was allowed to kill people and/or had some kind of self-aggrandizing reason to do it. He’s just as likely to betray anyone he works with as he is to try to kill someone, which is what makes it so funny when the X-Men think that they can do to him what they did for Wolverine – give him an accepting group of people ready to help him overcome his rage. Animals, in a lot of ways, can be quite chaotic and Victor personifies that.

8) Neutral Evil: Apocalypse

Apocalypse is one of the X-Men’s greatest villains, a force of Darwinism that has spent millennia trying to make sure the strong win out. I think that a lot of people would find him being neutral evil to be a weird, but if you look at his history, it makes a lot sense. To begin with, Apocalypse doesn’t care if you’re a human, mutant, Inhuman, or alien – as long as you’re powerful he’ll work with you. He doesn’t care about Xavier’s dream of peaceful co-existence and he doesn’t subscribe to mutant supremacy, either. If mutants as a whole proved weak, he would lead the war against them. All he wants is to make the strong stronger and he’ll do any terrible thing you can imagine to make that happen. While there is something of an altruistic streak to Apocalypse – he’ll help anyone who is strong or even wants to be to reach their full potential – the way he goes about it is undeniably evil. Strength is all that matters to him and he lets nothing stand in his way.

7) Lawful Evil: Nimrod

Sentinels are one of the greatest threats to the mutant race, machines created specifically to destroy mutants. Over the years, the Sentinels have changed a lot, getting more and more powerful, leading to the creation of the Nimrod unit. Nimrods are the ultimate Sentinel, able to take on any mutant out there and survive, even against Omegas. Nimrods were usually from the future, traveling back in time to end the “mutant scourge” before it gets out of hand. However, during the Krakoa Era, the Orchis Initiative was able to create a Nimrod unit, who became the main threat to the mutant nation. He killed Xavier, Magneto, Cannonball, Jubilee, Dazzler, Prodigy, Frenzy, and numerous others over the course of the era, destabilizing the mutant nation in various ways. As far as the moral alignment goes, Sentinels in general and Nimrods in particular are lawful evil. They are created and deployed by governments, following the laws of the land and targeting mutants. Orchis’s Nimrod was definitely lawful evil, as the Initiative was created by the governments of the world to destroy Krakoa. He was just following the rules he was given, doing terrible things in order to fulfill his monstrous mission.

6) Chaotic Neutral: Mister Sinister

Mister Sinister is Marvel’s most evil geneticist, having spent decades building his power in the shadows. Sinister is a clone of Nathaniel Essex. Essex was obsessed with becoming a Dominion, a godlike being that existed outside of time and space, creating four clones to each try to find a way to ascend. Sinister was made to use mutants to get there, using the intellect gifted to him by his creator to become one of the greatest geneticists in human history. Over the years, he’s worked with Apocalypse, Destiny, Mystique, and many more, trying to create the ultimate mutant. Sinister being neutral may seem weird, but if you look at his motivations, he’s not exactly evil. He doesn’t really take any side but his own and will work with anyone in order to get what he wants. He prefers to mutants to other people, but if you have interesting genes, he’s going to want to get his hands on you. He’s also definitely a force of chaos; look at his time in Krakoa, when he caused all kinds of chaos and confusion so no one would figure out his plans. He’s become much more chaotic in recent years, becoming more dangerous than ever (and honestly, way more fun to read about; 21st century Sinister is way cooler than 20th century Sinister).

5) True Neutral: Destiny

Irene Adler was born to a wealthy Bavarian family, eventually manifesting the power of precognition. She did her best to write down everything she saw in his visions, and would be struck blind when she reached the 13th volume. She’d eventually meet and fall in love with Mystique, the two of them traveling the world. Mystique was the muscle, while Destiny was brains, her visions guiding the two of them through their lives. While you can definitely make the argument that Destiny should probably be evil instead of neutral, it’s one that sort of ignores a lot about the character. She is constantly working to make sure the people she loves survives, all while trying to make sure the mutant race survives and thrives another day. She’s worked with both the heroes and villains over the years and has become the ultimate pragmatist. If it takes a heroic act to save the world, she’ll do it. If it takes a villainous one, she’ll do it. All that matters is her visions (and Mystique) and she’ll do anything in her power to make sure her worst visions don’t come true.

4) Neutral Good: Gateway

Gateway is one of the most enigmatic mutants out there, but you can tell that he has the world’s best interests at heart. Not much is known about his past; he first appeared as a fixture of the Reavers’ base, using his powers to teleport the group anywhere. The X-Men were able to take the base from the Reavers and he became their ally, something that stands to his day. He never speaks (the only comic where I personally remember him speaking was “Age of Apocalypse”‘s Weapon X) and sometimes just shows up out of nowhere. He’ll send you where ever you ask him to, but there are also times when he’s going to send you not where you want to go, but where you need to go. While he started out as a servant of the Reavers, all of his actions since then have proven that when it comes right down to it, he’s a good person who wants the good guys to win. Also, as far as it goes, he is literally lawful; he isn’t at all violent and is quite helpful, even when you don’t know what he’s going to do next.

3) Chaotic Good: Wolverine

Wolverine is the best there is at what he does. The ol’Canucklehead has had one of the most harrowing lives that you can imagine; his mutant powers manifested on the night where he biological father decided to kill him and the man he thought was his dad to steal his mother away. That’s basically just how his life has always worked – bad things happening all at once. He’s spent years having everyone he loved taken away from him. He’s fought in every major war and has devoted himself to being the best person he could be. Logan has done horrible things in his lifetime, but he’s a good man, constantly fighting to make the world better for mutants and humans. However, he’s also definitely chaotic. To begin with, his temper can make him extremely unpredictable. While he does his best to keep everything under control, even he can’t always beat the beast within him. His actions in battle are also unpredictable; sometimes, he’s going to kill his enemies, sometimes he’s going to just knock them out. He’s the type of person who will do anything to make sure the good guys win, a chaotic force of altruism on the battlefield.

2) Neutral Good: Professor X

Professor Charles Xavier was born into a life of wealth and that compounded when his mutant powers awakened. Suddenly, he wasn’t just rich, good-looking, and charming; he was the most powerful telepath on the planet. He could read the minds of everyone around him and this is part of what inspired his dream. He knew that deep down, people all wanted the same things and the best ways to get those things is to work together. His dream of mutant/human co-existence inspired generations of mutants and could give you impression that he is lawful good. However, Xavier knows what everyone is thinking; he knows that people can be greedy and hateful. He knows the worst things they think. This has made him something of a pragmatist. While he’s certainly a good person, there is no limit to the things that he would do to see his dream come true. His pragmatic actions have hurt the mutant race a lot over the years, but they’ve also allowed them to survive some of the greatest threats to their race.

1) Lawful Good: Cyclops

Cyclops is the X-Men’s most storied leader and he is the epitome of lawful good, even if his actions can be kind of illegal at times. Scott Summers lost his parents to aliens, suffering a brain injury escaping his parents’ plane with his brother Alex. He ended up in Sinister’s orphanage and would have become his favorite experimentation subject if it wasn’t Charles Xavier. He brought the teen to the X-Men and the rest is history. Cyclops is undeniably good, but it’s the lawful that may give some people pause. Recent years have seen him take on a more revolutionary idea of human/mutant relations, but that doesn’t change that he’s very much a moral man who follows a very moral code. The things he fight for – mutants being allowed to have any kind of life they want – should be lawful and he’ll do anything to make them so. He’s the best of the X-Men, the shining example of what a mutant superhero can truly be.

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