The X-Men’s Most Complicated Villain Is Back (But What Does He Want?)

Exceptional X-Men, by Eve Ewing and Carmen Carnero, introduced three new mutants to readers, trained by Emma Frost, Kitty Pryde, and Iceman. One member of the team, the emotion-controlling Axo, was feeling left out of the team and was taken advantage of by Sheldon Xenos, a brilliant mutant tech businessman. Issue seven brings this plot to a head, as Axo misses a training class with Frost, Pryde, and Iceman, arriving afterward, which creates something of a stink. (SPOILERS) Axo runs back to Xenos, who decides to show him what all of the money he’s made from the Verate app has been used for, taking him into a secret lab and explaining to him the discoveries Xenos and his scientists have made about emotions and genetics, explaining something that sounds an awful lot like Krakoan resurrection. Axo tries to leave the lab, but Xenos tells him the lock has a biometric key. The whole thing keeps getting creepier, as Xenos refuses to let Axo leave the lab, leading to the reveal of who Xenos really is — Mister Sinister.

Mister Sinister is one of the X-Men’s deadliest villains and was a centerpiece of the previous Krakoa Era of X-Men stories. Sinister’s genetic library was a key part of Krakoan resurrection, which earned him a seat on the nation’s Quiet Council government. However, Sinister was always about himself, so he made plans to take over Krakoa – which failed, strangely enough, because he decided that the future that he would have created would have been horrible. Sinister did help the X-Men defeat the Orchis Initiative but disappeared afterward and was thought dead.

So why is Sinister back for X-Men’s “From the Ashes” reboot, and what does he want?

Mister Sinister Seems to be Bringing Back Krakoan Resurrection for His Own Goals

Mister Sinister, posing as Xenos, created the Verate app in order to get access to something he never had before — emotions. The app made an emotional map of the users, which was added to Mister Sinister’s personal database. Sinister tells Axo that this emotional map is the closest thing that science can identify to the human soul, which is partly why he needs Axo, whose powers allow him a measure of emotional control. During their conversation, Sinister says something interesting to Axo, telling the young mutant that he can’t feel anything anymore, giving readers another clue as to what he’s after.

RELATED: Krakoa Was the X-Men’s Most Inventive Era (And It Shouldn’t Have Ended)

So, the whole situation — Mister Sinister creating a database of “souls” — definitely feels like he’s trying to recreate Krakoan resurrection. Sinister was mentally coerced into assembling a library of mutant DNA by Xavier years before the present day; his genetic library is one of the things that has, so far, been missing from the end of Krakoa. The Verate app could be a way to rebuild his old library, except this time using souls. Or Sinister could have the DNA library and use the Verate app instead of Hope Summers or Charles Xavier, who had to implant the memories of mutants into the bodies made from Sinister’s DNA bank.

In the Krakoa Era event “Sins of Sinister”, Sinister was able to put pieces of his DNA into those who were resurrected, which gave him control over them. Sinister conquered Earth and the galaxy for decades until he lost control of the whole timeline, making him decide to go back in time and stop himself. What if this new scheme is him wanting to try the whole thing over again, except this time with a way to control everyone, through Avo? Also, Sinister saying he doesn’t feel emotion could reveal that this isn’t the Mister Sinister we last saw, but one of the many Sinister clones the villain has made. Maybe he’s some kind of failsafe?

Sinister’s Return Doesn’t Bode Well for the Exceptional X-Men

On the one hand, an argument can be made that bringing back Mister Sinister already is a bit of a mistake. Sinister has been one of the main antagonists of the modern X-Men era, especially in the last three years, with him playing key roles in books like Immortal X-Men, A.X.E.: Judgment Day, Sins of Sinister and Fall of X. X-Men fans have had a lot of Sinister since the Krakoa Era started, and a lot of fans are a bit tired of the character.

However, this new plot seems like an extension of Sinister’s old plans. There’s a concept where once a genie is released out of a lamp, you can’t put him back in the bottle. This is meant to talk about technology like nuclear weapons. The concept would also apply to Sinister and his place in Krakoan resurrection: he knows how to resurrect people and can control them to an extent, so it would make sense for him to try and perfect the technology. On top of that, the potential that this isn’t actually the Sinister we spent years following makes it even more exciting. Is this a Sinister clone? Or could it be someone else? Exceptional X-Men #7 brings up a lot of interesting plot elements that could make for some great stories in the future.

Exceptional X-Men #7 is on sale wherever comics are sold.