7 Times the X-Men Were the Real Villains

The X-Men are usually one of the most righteous groups of heroes in the Marvel Universe. The main reason for this is because of their mutant status. Mutants are a hated minority, and humanity is constantly trying to destroy them. The X-Men defend their people against bigotry and they protect a world that hates and fears them. This gives them the moral high ground over most of their enemies. Not only are they fighting against the worst ideas imaginable but they also risk their lives to defend people who have often sold them down the river. The X-Men do look down on other teams pretty often for their treatment of mutants, and while this can get pretty annoying at times (especially for Avengers fans, who are usually the target of the X-Men’s ire,) it’s not exactly unwarranted. However, the X-Men’s moral high ground doesn’t always hold out.

There have been plenty of times that the X-Men have been on the wrong side of things. Most of the time, the team doesn’t really see it that way, and that honestly makes sense. They’re used to being right, and don’t always see how badly their actions are going to affect the world. While it doesn’t happen often — X-Men writers are notorious for making the team a bit oblivious to the consequences of their actions — readers notice it pretty often. Here are seven times when the members of the X-Men were the real villain of the story, their actions making things worse for everyone.

7) Wolverine Ratted Out Cyclops to the Avengers

This one comes from the Schism era of the X-Men, when there were two different factions of X-Men. Wolverine and Cyclops had a violent falling out, and Wolverine took about half the extant mutant race, which at the time was about two hundred people, and created a new school. Wolverine became a mutant leader, but he was also still a member of the Avengers. When the Phoenix Force started to make its way to Earth in Avengers vs. X-Men, Captain America went to Wolverine to talk about the Phoenix, and Wolverine basically spilled the tea about Cyclops and his attitude about things, saying that Cyclops had an agenda and plan for the Phoenix. Wolverine and his team ended up fighting alongside the Avengers against the X-Men, attacking them unprovoked on the island of Utopia. Wolverine and his team thought they were in the right for standing against Cyclops and his team, but they were the bad guys. There’s a good chance that without Wolverine ratting on Cyclops, things may not have escalated as far as they did. The conflict in Avengers vs. X-Men is very complicated, but there’s no doubt that Wolverine and his team made things worse by speaking against Cyclops.

6) The Phoenix Five Tried to Save the World Against Its Will

Avengers vs. X-Men is interesting because in the beginning of the book, the Avengers were definitely the villains, despite the comic trying to show otherwise. The mutant race was at their lowest ebb, and needed something or they would become extinct. Cyclops saw the Phoenix Force as that chance, and began training Hope Summers to handle the power of the cosmic firebird. The Phoenix Force can be dangerous, but this was Cyclops — he had a plan and it was actually a good one. The Avengers and Wolverine’s X-Men went after the island of Utopia, beginning a war between the two teams. Iron Man created a special suit of armor that was meant to stop the Phoenix Force, but only ended up splitting it up, with Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik, Colossus, and Namor each getting a portion of the energy. With the power of gods, the Phoenix Five decided to “fix” the world, using their powers to help everyone, even if they didn’t want their help. The Phoenix Five acted like gods, and their actions were more and more villainous as time went on. Cyclops’s X-Men supported them for the majority of this stage of the conflict, pushing down their misgivings. The X-Men went from the aggrieved party to the villains. The X-Men and the Avengers have an interesting relationship, and Avengers vs. X-Men showed just how complicated it could be.

5) Beast’s Actions Against Terra Verde

The Krakoa Era was a big change for the X-Men, giving them their own country and power for the first time. Mutants became a world power, and that meant it couldn’t be business as usual for the team. Beast was given command of X-Force, and their job was to destroy threats to the nation before they could strike, acting as the mutant CIA. Beast immediately showed that he wasn’t exactly fit for the job because his actions at Terra Verde. The country developed their own telefloronic technology, and Beast saw that as a threat to Krakoa’s own organic technology. So, he took it upon himself to destroy Terra Verde’s industry. However, Beast’s action had terrible effect on the country, as their crops overran the country, killing many of its citizens. The rest of the world never found out about Beast’s action on Krakoa’s behalf, which was a good thing for the mutant nation. This was the first indication that Beast may not have been the best person to run an intelligence agency, and it wouldn’t be his last terrible act as head of X-Force.

4) Imprisoning Sabretooth at the Beginning of the Krakoa Era

The early stages of the Krakoa Era saw the X-Men doing their best to solidify their power base. Mystique, Sabretooth, and Toad were sent out on a mission in order to get some information from Damage Control. Sabretooth killed guards, because he’s Sabretooth, and was captured by the Fantastic Four. Krakoa was able to get him back after they were granted diplomatic immunity, but there would be more punishment for Sabretooth. One of the laws of Krakoa was that mutants weren’t allowed to kill humans, so Sabretooth was made an example of. He was imprisoned in the Pit, an underground prison in Krakoa. There’s something extremely hypocritical about this action. Sabretooth killed while on a mission for Krakoa, and the laws of the nation hadn’t been made at that point. There was no reason to actually imprison the mutant, other than the fact that he would be a troublemaker on the island. Sabretooth was made an example of, and it gets even more hypocritical when Wolverine and X-Force start killing humans for the sake of Krakoa. Sabretooth is unequivocally a monster, but when it comes right down to it, this time he didn’t actually do anything wrong. Sabretooth was defending himself while on a mission for Krakoa, so he definitely should have gotten a pass.

3) Beast Bringing the Original Five X-Men to the Present

Beast’s actions on Krakoa weren’t the first time he showed an alarming tendency to do the stupidest, most damaging thing possible. After the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, Beast wanted to repair the relationship between Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men. He figured the best way to do that was to bring the teenage versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Beast, and Angel to the present, in order to show Cyclops who he used to be before the years of having to keep the nearly dead mutant race alive. This was one of the most dangerous, foolish things that Beast could have done. If anything would have happened to any of the original X-Men, it would have destroyed everything. Beast took a massive chance, all in the name of trying to get Cyclops to give up his darker attitude. While Wolverine tried to force them to go back to the past at first, he relented, allowing them to stay in the present. Later, Cyclop would take the group in, and also not force them to go back to the past. The X-Men played hard and fast with the time stream, and their actions could have made much worse consequences than they did.

2) Krakoa’s Actions to Guarantee Statehood

The founding of Krakoa as a nation saw the X-Men going to some very dark places in order to ensure their power as a state on the world stage. Xavier and Magneto, secretly working with Moira MacTaggert, laid the ground work for Krakoa secretly over the course of a decade. Once they started moving mutants on the island, they petitioned the UN for statehood, sending Emma Frost to negotiate for the new mutant nation. Bribes were made in secret in order to lubricate the works of government, and Emma Frost used her telepathy to change the minds of the most intractable enemies of Krakoa. This is a major breach of decorum, and luckily, the nations of the world never found out. Krakoa also held back their homegrown pharmaceuticals from anyone who didn’t sign the treaties that allowed mutants to basically do whatever they wanted and not face any criminal charges. Xavier, Magneto, and Apocalypse went to an economic conference and basically lorded over the humans there. The Krakoans made themselves into the bad guys in the eyes of the world multiple times. While that wasn’t an excuse for the actions of Orchis, it didn’t help people like the Krakoans any more.

1) Trying to Destroy the Mutant Cure

Astonishing X-Men‘s opening story arc — “Gifted” — introduced a mutant cure, something that the X-Men decided to destroy, after fighting amongst themselves about it for a time. Their reasoning was because they feared that the world would eventually force all mutants to take the cure, destroying the mutant race. Now, they have a point there — the Earth’s governments had always showed a tendency to go to extremes against mutants. However, there are also a lot of mutants that would rather not have their powers. Not all mutant powers are beneficial, and many mutants just want to have normal lives. The X-Men took that decision away from them, which is a rather villainous act when it comes right down to it.

Are there other times the X-Men were the real bad guys? Sound off in the comments below.

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