There might not be superheroes in Marvel Comics with a darker history than the X-Men. Marvel’s mutants already have the most dangerous lives of any heroes in the comics, since the public hates and fears them almost more than the villains do. This hatred and bigotry are what have led to many of their darkest storylines because the X-Men have made it a habit of entering into alternate futures more than once, and they are almost always destructive and see mutants persecuted, imprisoned, or even hunted down and killed. It’s not just the multiverse, either, as mutants have also faced dark storylines on Earth-616, highlighting their ongoing struggle to fit in.
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Here is a look at the darkest storylines the mutants in the X-Men have ever been part of in Marvel Comics.
10) Sins of Sinister
Sins of Sinister was one of the storylines during the Krakoa Era, and what made it so dark was that it was proof that there were mutants on the peaceful island that didn’t want peace at all. Mister Sinister wanted to ruin the mutants’ peaceful life. The story showed events 10 years, 100 years, and 1000 years into the future. Sinister created clones of Moira MacTaggert and used their mutant powers to reset the timeline, allowing him to manipulate events in each change to his preferred outcome. Finally, Sinister achieved a godlike level at the expense of the mutant nation. However, what was really dark was when the real Moira realized what was happening. She headed into the future to kill that clone, stranding Sinister there, and then resetting the past before killing the rest. Mother Righteous showed up from the future, revealed what happened, and this is the moment that kickstarted the Fall of X, which ended the idyllic life the mutants had built on Krakoa.
9) Inferno
Inferno was a dark X-Men storyline that took place in the main timeline. This all surrounded Madelyne Pryor and her ascension as the Goblin Queen. Mister Sinister created Madelyne as a clone of Jean Grey. She married Scott Summers, and the two retired to Alaska, where they had a baby named Nathan. However, when Jean Grey turned out to still be alive, Scott left Madelyne and Nathan in Alaska and returned to Jean. The Maurauders showed up to kill Madelyne and kidnap Nathan, but Madelyne survived and went to the X-Men for help. When she saw Scott was back with Jean, she began to lose her sanity, and her powers manifested, creating a vindictive, very powerful mutant clone. She then took her own child, Nathan, and planned to sacrifice him to bring Hell to Earth. This brought all the mutant teams together to stop Madelyne, but her tragic origin story and the dark subject matter were enough to almost bring the X-Men to their knees.
8) Age of Apocalypse
Age of Apocalypse was a shocking storyline and crossover event because it happened suddenly and without warning. Legion went back in time to kill Magneto to help his father’s dreams come to fruition more easily. However, Professor X sacrificed himself to save Magneto and died, meaning Legion never existed, and Xavier never created the X-Men. Instead, Magneto took Xavier’s place and failed miserably because Apocalypse showed up and conquered the world. With Apocalypse terrorizing the world as its new ruler, the renegade mutants rose to fight and defeated him. Even after they killed Apocalypse, the world couldn’t heal as Weapon Omega (Wolverine) rose, ascending as Apocalypse’s heir, and he was even deadlier than his predecessor.
7) X-Men: Schism
X-Men: Schism was a dark event because it tore the X-Men and the entire mutant nation apart. After M-Day, there were fewer than 200 mutants left in the world, but the world still hated them thanks to the built-in bigotry of humans, and instead of standing together in the face of this hatred, the mutants turned on each other. When nations around the world begin to weaponize their Sentinels to “protect” them from mutants, the Sentinels begin to attack everyone. When the Hellfire Club orders an attack on mutants at a museum, a young mutant asks what to do. Wolverine tells her to run, and Cyclops tells her to do what she needs to, so she blows up the building and kills the Hellfire Club soldiers while saving the X-Men and civilians. This leads the two mutant leaders to fight each other in the middle of a Sentinel attack. When the dust settled, Wolverine left Utopia, taking any mutant who wanted to go with him, and the rest stayed with Cyclops, fracturing the X-Men.
6) Dark Phoenix Saga
The Dark Phoenix Saga did something that Marvel Comics had never done before. While it is a regular occurrence now to see Marvel killing beloved heroes in shocking ways, only to resurrect them later, when Jean Grey died, it was something readers had never seen before. During this event, the Shi’ar demanded that Jean stand trial for the genocide of billions of people in a galaxy that the Dark Phoenix destroyed. The X-Men stood up for her and fought the Imperial Guard. While the original plans were for Jean to end up depowered and returned to Earth, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter ordered that she had to die for the lives she took, so Jean sacrificed herself to save the X-Men. This was retconned later when it turned out it wasn’t Jean the entire time, but at that moment, Marvel Comics killed a major hero for the first time.
5) Old Man Logan
The Old Man Logan storyline opened with one of the darkest moments in X-Men history. On Earth-807128, the villains of the world finally decided to team up rather than working separately, and this made them powerful enough to finally win. For the X-Men, Mysterio used his powers of illusion to trick Wolverine into believing that villains had attacked Xavier’s school. He raced in and, in a blind rage, killed every villain he encountered. Sadly, this was an illusion, and Wolverine killed every mutant in the school, destroying the X-Men. Devastated, Logan retired and refused to fight anymore as villains like Red Skull, Doctor Doom, Kingpin, and Hulk (who beat Abomination for control) controlled the populated parts of the country. It was a wasteland straight out of Mad Max, and the survivors had to hide or fight to stay alive. It all ended with Old Man Logan moving over to the Earth-616 universe.
4) Days of Future Past
X-Men: Days of Future Past depicted a future where the Sentinels attacked all heroes, leaving only a few alive. By the time the story starts, most mutants have either been killed or placed in concentration camps. This future began when Jean Grey’s father chose to accept her as a mutant, meaning she never went dark. However, this change led to others, including when Senator Robert Kelly turned the public against mutants. After Kelly’s assassination, the U.S. government created the Sentinels, which killed even the Avengers and Fantastic Four. The Sentinels then destroyed the government and took control. Things were so dark that the survivors sought to change the past by sending back Kitty Pryde to swap places with her younger self to stop the assassination, although this only created a separate timeline.
3) E is For Extinction
E is for Extinction is one of the darkest X-Men storylines due to the massive death toll that occurred in the main Earth-616 timeline. In this era of X-Men comics, the mutants lived a peaceful existence on an island called Genosha. The world considered it a sovereign island nation where the mutants could live without persecution and hatred from the bigoted human race. However, as with all eras of peace for mutants, this wouldn’t last. Cassandra Nova, Professor Xavier’s powerful telepathic twin sister, sent wild Sentinels to the island for a surprise attack. By the end of the attack, there were almost no survivors, although Emma Frost did live after she underwent a secondary mutation to turn to diamond and save her life. This deadly attack killed around 16 million mutants.
2) God Loves, Man Kills
God Loves, Man Kills was a small storyline that was mainly self-contained, but it showed the dangers of religious zealots who push their beliefs so hard that it results in death and destruction for entire groups of people. In this case, it is a minister named William Stryker who reads from the Bible and claims that mutants are demons sent from Hell to pollute the Earth. He has followers called the Purifiers who go as far as to murder children they label as possible mutants. As the Purifiers become more dangerous and it turns out they are working for Stryker, the entire story takes an even darker turn as the minister claims he is killing mutants in the name of God, and he has enough followers to make him a dangerous man.
1) Mutant Massacre
The darkest story in X-Men history is the Mutant Massacre. While there were more mutants killed in E for Extinction, the deaths in Mutant Massacre hit harder since it was an entire community, and not even X-Men, X-Factor, Thor, and the Fantastic Four could save them. This saw Mister Sinister send the Marauders into the tunnels under New York City, where they slaughtered the Morlocks — men, women, and children — while also attempting to crucify Angel. This was the first mutant crossover event, and the shocking deaths up close and personal were proof that the mutants in the world always had something to fear, even the ones who tried to live in peace.
What are your thoughts about the X-Men’s darkest moments? Let us know your picks in the comments below.
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