The Marvel Multiverse Has Been Conquered By A Mystery Villain

The Marvel Multiverse has been under constant threat since the earliest days of Avengers comics, but now there is one mysterious evil (or rather, sinister) power that has transcended the space/time boundaries of the multiverse in order to effectively achieve godhood. Now the heroes of the Marvel Universe are playing against an unseen enemy's controlling hand, and only the X-Men are aware of it! 

(WARNING: SPOILERS) 

The X-Men crossover event "Sins of Sinister" saw Mr. Sinister betray the X-Men's mutant nation of Krakoa by cloning Omega-powered mutant Moira X (MacTaggert) and turning her ability to reset timelines into a "save point" engine, where Sinister could get free resets for every failed experiment and scheme he tried – including assassinating key members of Krakoa's ruling government, the Quiet Council, and resurrecting them as sleeper agents infected with Sinister's own essence. The scheme turned on its side when Sinister's infection spread to many other mutants and key world figures the villain replaced – eventually resulting in all of Earth being taken over by an army of Sinisters and their unholy creations. Few escaped alive or uncorrupted – including Sinister himself, who was forced into hiding when his own agents lived up to his legacy by scheming against their creator, and his "Moira Engine" was stolen so that no one could reboot the timeline again. 

Well, it took 1,000 years of bloodshed and conflict, but the endgame of the 'Sinister Timeline' in Sins of Sinister: Dominion saw the original Sinister emerge and make a play to recover the Moira Engine, which had been stolen by future-seeing Destiny, in order to keep her wife Mystique alive. However, Sinister had many competitors standing in his way, including the Sinister versions of Charles Xavier and Emma Frost; the remaining powers of Storm's Brotherhood of Mutants; his "sister," one of the original Nathaniel Essex clones, Mother Righteous, and in a big twist, Moira herself. 

Who Is Marvel's New Dominion Villain? 

In the final twist of Sins of Sinister, Mr. Sinister (not surprisingly) betrays his allies, revealing that his real plan is not to reset his cursed timeline but to instead complete the end goal he had all along transcending to a state of Dominion (see below). By essentially stealing all the life forces and experiences from all the mutants he infected over a millennium of time, Sinister gets the grand bank of knowledge needed to ascend to a state of Dominion – only to find someone has gotten there first! 

Sins of Sinister was preceded by the retcon revealing that the original Nathaniel Essex never became "Mr. Sinister": he died from the power Apocalypse gave him, and preserved himself in four different clones, each tasked with their own method to reach the state of Dominion. As Sinister finds out the hard way, One of those Essex clones actually succeeded in achieving Dominion in one timeline and walled it off from any competitors. 

Sinister's scheme fails; Moira resets the timeline (keeping key knowledge of events) and Sinister ends up being banished into Krakoa's pit of purgatory, screaming a warning that another Sinister Clone is standing outside space/time of the multiverse, pulling the strings. 

What Is Dominion? 

According to Marvel, Dominion is a modern concept of omnipotence being explored in Marvel Comics: 

Dominions represent the highest stage of interstellar intelligence within the Marvel Universe. A Dominion is essentially the ultimate evolution of machines and artificial intelligence. With a functionally limitless amount of processing ability and knowledge, a Dominion has godlike power and exists outside the traditional bonds of time and space. Put more simply, that means a Dominion exists in its most advanced state across all points in time simultaneously.

...Operating on a near incomprehensible scale, Dominions can include many more Titans and the Dominion that controls Earth and its surrounding area includes 112 Titans. Outside of abstract forces like Death and Chaos, Dominions are so advanced that their only natural threats are Galactus and the Phoenix Force.

While Dominions are generally machine-based, there are other theoretical ways for a being or culture to evolve to Dominion status. However, these methods would require raw power and processing ability on an unfathomably large and complex scale.

Sins of Sinister is on sale at Marvel, and the storyline will be running through X-Men comics.