The X-Men‘s absence from the MCU shaped it the early the early years of Marvel‘s superhero films. Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox has finally allowed Marvel Studios to take over the adventures of Marvel’s merry mutants. There have already been massive successes — X-Men ’97 and Deadpool & Wolverine – –and Kevin Feige has teased how important the X-Men will be in the MCU. Many fans are assuming that the X-Men’s MCU debut will hew close to the comics, pitting them against Magneto, but there’s a better alternative: Mister Sinister.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Mister Sinister debuted in Uncanny X-Men in the mid-’80s, with the character being teased in issues #212-213 before fulling appearing in issue #221. Mister Sinister quickly became one of the X-Men’s most important villains. His obsession with mutant genetics, specifically the genomes of the Summers and Grey families, made him the perfect villain for the mutants and his shadowy manipulations paved the way for stories like Inferno and Sins Of Sinister and the debut of characters like Cable, the Marauders, and Madelyne Pryor. Mister Sinister is a tantalizing choice for the X-Men’s first MCU villain and it makes more sense than using Magneto.
Mister Sinister Is a Better Choice Than Magneto
To begin with, Magneto is no longer the villainous character he once was. Magneto is an important member of the X-Men, but, more importantly, the view of Magneto has changed. Magneto went through a character renaissance in the 1980s, when writer Chris Claremont established Magneto’s past as a Jewish Holocaust victim and brought him closer to the X-Men. While Magneto would go back to being a villain when Claremont stopped writing the X-books, Magneto became a more heroic character in the late-’00s and has been a member of the X-Men ever since. Magneto represents a more militant view of mutant rights, and this view has appealed to fans in a way it never had before. Magneto is sympathetic in a way he never has been, and in today’s political climate, he’s a better fit with the team than against it. X-Men ’97 used this to its advantage and even the First Class Fox X-Men movies made him more of a heroic character.
Mister Sinister, meanwhile, has never had the type of wholesale redemption that Magneto has. Sinister is a monster, a eugenics-obsessed scientist who cares little for the pain he causes. While Sinister became more of a campy character in recent years in the comics, thanks to writer Kieron Gillen, and took a leading role in the Krakoa Era, Sinister’s role as an evil manipulator was the core of the character. X-Men ’97 reminded fans of Sinister’s evil by doing a mini adaptation of Inferno. However, what truly makes Sinister the perfect villain for the X-Men’s inaugural MCU movie is the lore it can establish.
Sinister Could Be Used to Explain the Absence of Mutants From the MCU
Mutants have existed in the comics for millennia, with characters like Apocalypse and Selene’s lives stretching eons into the past. Because of the lack of film rights, the MCU has not been able to use mutants, and Mister Sinister can explain that away. In the comics, Sinister worked with the Nazis and it can be easily established that he was a member of Hydra that secretly formed the backbone of SHIELD. Establishing that Sinister has been working behind the scenes to block the existence of mutants from the world would go a long way towards explaining why no one has heard of them without getting into the weeds of the Multiverse.
Sinister’s obsession with Cyclops is also another feather in the cap for the idea. Cyclops got more spotlight than ever in X-Men ’97, something that fans loved. The MCU might take this Cyclops-centric approach as well, and that makes Mister Sinister the perfect villain. In the comics, Sinister experimented on Cyclops for years, as the boy was put into one of his orphanages. Sinister even made sure that Havok, Cyclops’s brother, was adopted out and that Cyclops would stay in the orphanage. The X-Men MCU debut could take a page from the 2000’s X-Men, but instead of the team finding Wolverine, they could free him from Sinister and being him onto the team. This would allow Cyclops to seem important in the eyes of fans and build Mister Sinister as a new mega-villain in the MCU.
Mister Sinister Would Allow the MCU to Go in Different Directions Than Fox
One thing that Marvel Studios needs to do is make their X-Men movies different from the Fox ones. Fox historically made the X-Men the Wolverine, Xavier, and Magneto show, an approach that started to stall. X-Men ’97 did a great job of focusing on other portions of the X-Men and the X-Men’s MCU films should do the same thing. Going with Mister Sinister as the main villain would not only serve to do that, but also give a possible explanation on why mutants haven’t played a bigger role in the MCU.
Bringing Sinister in allows for stories like Inferno and Mutant Massacre, and characters like Madelyne Pryor, Cable, the Marauders, and Apocalypse. It allows the MCU to do more interesting things with Magneto than just making him the evil opposite of Xavier, and gives Cyclops a chance to shine in ways he hasn’t gotten to on the big screen before. Mister Sinister deserves his time to shine and would give the MCU X-Men movies the chance to build their own identity.
Related Posts
-
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios.
