Mister Sinister ( Dr. Nathaniel Essex ) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . Created by writer Chris Claremont , the character was first mentioned as the employer behind the team of assassins known as the Marauders in The Uncanny X-Men #212 (December 1986), and later seen in silhouette in The Uncanny X-Men #213, with both issues serving as chapters of the 1986 " Mutant Massacre " crossover. Mr. Sinister then made his first full appearance in The Uncanny X-Men #221 (September 1987). His appearance was designed by artist Marc Silvestri .
224-662: A villain who usually prefers to act through agents and manipulation, Mr. Sinister was born Nathaniel Essex in Victorian London. A human scientist, Essex is inspired by the work of his contemporary Charles Darwin and becomes obsessed with engineering humanity into a perfect race of superhumans. As he learns about mutants (superhuman beings born with the X-gene), Essex encounters the mutant villain Apocalypse . The two become allies and Apocalypse uses alien Celestial technology to transform
448-451: A genealogical branching of a single evolutionary tree , in which "It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another", thereby discarding Lamarck's idea of independent lineages progressing to higher forms. While developing this intensive study of transmutation, Darwin became mired in more work. Still rewriting his Journal , he took on editing and publishing the expert reports on his collections, and with Henslow's help obtained
672-617: A mutant gene . Making frequent appearances in the X-Men comics and related spin-off titles, Mr. Sinister has also featured in associated Marvel merchandise including animated television series , toys , trading cards , and video games . IGN 's list of the "Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time" ranked Sinister as #29. The character was exposed to a wider audience with his television debut on X-Men: The Animated Series voiced by Christopher Britton , as well as an appearance in Wolverine and
896-555: A 230-page "Essay", to be expanded with his research results if he died prematurely. In November, the anonymously published sensational best-seller Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation brought wide interest in transmutation. Darwin scorned its amateurish geology and zoology, but carefully reviewed his own arguments. Controversy erupted, and it continued to sell well despite contemptuous dismissal by scientists. Darwin completed his third geological book in 1846. He now renewed
1120-827: A Bachelor of Arts degree as the first step towards becoming an Anglican country parson . Darwin was unqualified for Cambridge's Tripos exams and was required instead to join the ordinary degree course. He preferred riding and shooting to studying. During the first few months of Darwin's enrolment at Christ's College, his second cousin William Darwin Fox was still studying there. Fox impressed him with his butterfly collection, introducing Darwin to entomology and influencing him to pursue beetle collecting. He did this zealously and had some of his finds published in James Francis Stephens ' Illustrations of British entomology (1829–1932). Through Fox, Darwin became
1344-516: A DNA sample from Jean. Soon afterward, Sinister discovers a recently orphaned mutant boy named Scott Summers (descendant of Daniel Summers) released the same type of optic blasts displayed by the time-traveling hero Cyclops. Sinister tracks down Scott and his younger brother Alex, both of whom survived an airplane explosion that seemingly killed their parents. Scott awakens in the hospital and accidentally releases another optic blast, unable to shut off his power (perhaps due to brain-damage suffered during
1568-660: A Treasury grant of £1,000 to sponsor this multi-volume Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle , a sum equivalent to about £115,000 in 2021. He stretched the funding to include his planned books on geology, and agreed to unrealistic dates with the publisher. As the Victorian era began, Darwin pressed on with writing his Journal , and in August 1837 began correcting printer's proofs . As Darwin worked under pressure, his health suffered. On 20 September, he had "an uncomfortable palpitation of
1792-579: A beginning to each crop of species". Darwin's book The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs on his theory of atoll formation was published in May 1842 after more than three years of work, and he then wrote his first "pencil sketch" of his theory of natural selection. To escape the pressures of London, the family moved to rural Down House in Kent in September. On 11 January 1844, Darwin mentioned his theorising to
2016-542: A book on geology. When they reached Brazil, Darwin was delighted by the tropical forest , but detested the sight of slavery there , and disputed this issue with FitzRoy. The survey continued to the south in Patagonia . They stopped at Bahía Blanca , and in cliffs near Punta Alta Darwin made a major find of fossil bones of huge extinct mammals beside modern seashells, indicating recent extinction with no signs of change in climate or catastrophe. He found bony plates like
2240-709: A break and went "geologising" in Scotland. He visited Glen Roy in glorious weather to see the parallel "roads" cut into the hillsides at three heights. He later published his view that these were marine-raised beaches, but then had to accept that they were shorelines of a proglacial lake . Fully recuperated, he returned to Shrewsbury in July 1838. Used to jotting down daily notes on animal breeding, he scrawled rambling thoughts about marriage, career and prospects on two scraps of paper, one with columns headed "Marry" and "Not Marry" . Advantages under "Marry" included "constant companion and
2464-465: A calm spell. On their first stop ashore at St Jago in Cape Verde, Darwin found that a white band high in the volcanic rock cliffs included seashells. FitzRoy had given him the first volume of Charles Lyell 's Principles of Geology , which set out uniformitarian concepts of land slowly rising or falling over immense periods, and Darwin saw things Lyell's way, theorising and thinking of writing
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#17330851379442688-414: A cell sample from the latter, Sinister gains complete control over his physical form, allowing regenerative abilities and shape-shifting. Before the two time travelers leave, Sinister sees evidence of his own surgical techniques on Gambit. In 1899, Apocalypse emerges from hibernation again and is pleased with Sinister's work, including the development of a deadly techno-organic virus . Sinister then injects
2912-518: A cloned body of his old form, then infiltrates the X-Men's original mansion home, recently renamed the Jean Grey School, through its student Ernst . Ernst provides Sinister access to DNA samples from the mutants within the school in exchange for providing her friend Martha Johannesen with a new body. His efforts are ultimately foiled by the students and Spider-Man, who was asked by Wolverine to help locate
3136-557: A close friend and follower of botany professor John Stevens Henslow . He met other leading parson-naturalists who saw scientific work as religious natural theology , becoming known to these dons as "the man who walks with Henslow". When his own exams drew near, Darwin applied himself to his studies and was delighted by the language and logic of William Paley 's Evidences of Christianity (1795). In his final examination in January 1831, Darwin did well, coming tenth out of 178 candidates for
3360-418: A complete bad ass has been himself all his life, that he's been lying to everyone, including himself, about who he is — that should be freeing. The Scott we're going to see is going to be a little bit different. This guy is either completely out of control or in control of something we're not used to. I wanted him to be an unabashed tough guy. He is shooting people and turning very much into a leader. Not everyone
3584-504: A contingency plan in X-Men: Legacy #214-215 involves him attempting to take a new host body, but fails. In X-23 (vol. 3) #5-6 (2011), another resurrection contingency plan led to the creation of Miss Sinister and to Mr. Sinister's mind inhabiting a clone body of himself. In The Uncanny X-Men #544 (2011), it is revealed that Sinister is now an entire colony of Sinister clones co-existing, each with minor differences. In subsequent battles,
3808-412: A copy of his journal for his family. He had some expertise in geology, beetle collecting and dissecting marine invertebrates, but in all other areas, was a novice and ably collected specimens for expert appraisal. Despite suffering badly from seasickness, Darwin wrote copious notes while on board the ship. Most of his zoology notes are about marine invertebrates, starting with plankton collected during
4032-555: A copy of Jean Grey. Scott concedes and over time the two fall in love, deciding to marry soon afterward. They have a son, Nathan Summers . While Christopher was Scott's father's name and Charles was Professor Xavier's first name, it is later said that Sinister influenced Scott and Maddie to name their son Nathan Summers after him as well. Scott decides to leave behind the dangerous world of the X-Men so he can raise his family in peace in Anchorage, Alaska, nearby his own grandparents. Studying
4256-502: A criminal named Jack Winters who abuses the boy and forces him to help with crimes. Rather than bend to his abusive guardian, Scott resists and is discovered by Professor Charles Xavier and his ally FBI agent Fred Duncan . With Duncan's help, Scott becomes Xavier's ward and the first official recruit of the original X-Men , a team of mutant heroes trained to stop mutant terrorists. Jean Grey joins this same team weeks later. Sinister continues to monitor Scott somewhat but keeps his distance so
4480-404: A desert lab. Renko explains Sinister's mind is like a virus attempting to overtake her. She hopes to maintain her own mind by switching bodies with X-23. The plan backfires when Essex's mind telepathically takes control of X-23 and uses her to mortally wound Renko. Laura overcomes Essex's presence, then escapes the lap with Alice and Gambit, freeing the other children test subjects in the process. In
4704-412: A different person rather than a host or a clone, Renko takes the name Miss Sinister . Gambit and Laura Kinney, a young woman known as X-23 , who was cloned from Wolverine's DNA, encounter a girl named Alice, who introduces them to her owner/adoptive mother, Miss Sinister. Renko explains Alice is also a clone, the fourth of a series created by Essex as one of several experiments involving children held in
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#17330851379444928-450: A dozen major American cities resulting in the emergence of primary mutations in people that didn't possess the X-Gene, as well as the appearance of secondary and tertiary enhancements in mutants. The time-displaced X-Men attack but are quickly defeated and captured. Seeing the damage done by Mothervine and realizing all mutants may become enslaved to Miss Sinister, Emma Frost telepathically forces
5152-596: A fascination and expertise in marine invertebrates, dating back to his student days with Grant, by dissecting and classifying the barnacles he had collected on the voyage, enjoying observing beautiful structures and thinking about comparisons with allied structures. In 1847, Hooker read the "Essay" and sent notes that provided Darwin with the calm critical feedback that he needed, but would not commit himself and questioned Darwin's opposition to continuing acts of creation . In an attempt to improve his chronic ill health, Darwin went in 1849 to Dr. James Gully 's Malvern spa and
5376-555: A father. Discovering the house is completely empty, he concludes Maddie left with Nathan, deliberately leaving no trace of where she might be. He is then confronted by Master Mold , the robot whose primary task is to create mutant-hunting Sentinels . During the battle, Master Mold refers to Cyclops as one of "the Twelve" who must be destroyed. Later on, Master Mold explains the Twelve are "The dozen mutant humans who will one day rise up and lead all of mutantkind in war against Homo sapiens in
5600-683: A favorite piece by Franz Schubert . During his work with the Nazis, Sinister creates a clone of Namor named N2. This clone is defeated by Captain America. Soon afterward, Sinister leaves the Nazis, concluding they will lose the war. Mr. Sinister's research during World War II is later recovered and used by the Weapon X project. Following World War II, Sinister adopts the name "Dr. Nathan Milbury" again and works on Project: Black Womb with Dr. Kurt Marko (the father of Juggernaut ), Dr. Alexander Ryking (who, like Marko,
5824-546: A five-part epilogue: AvX: Consequences . As part of Marvel NOW! , there are two Cyclopes: the original Cyclops is featured in volume 3 of The Uncanny X-Men , which was launched in February 2013, and a younger time-displaced version as part of the All-New X-Men team, both series are written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Chris Bachalo . Uncanny X-Men features the remnants of Cyclops' Extinction Team, who have taken up
6048-428: A form of telekinesis. En Sabah Nur tells the transformed scientist to shed his past identity and choose another, and Essex renames himself " Sinister ." Although he claims his humanity is gone, Essex continues to carry Rebecca's photo until 1882. When Apocalypse demands Sinister create a plague that will wipe out much of humanity, leaving only "the strong" alive, the scientist refuses, arguing that cruelty without purpose
6272-518: A fortnight mapping strata in Wales. After leaving Sedgwick in Wales, Darwin spent a few days with student friends at Barmouth . He returned home on 29 August to find a letter from Henslow proposing him as a suitable (if unfinished) naturalist for a self-funded supernumerary place on HMS Beagle with captain Robert FitzRoy , a position for a gentleman rather than "a mere collector". The ship
6496-518: A freed black slave who had accompanied Charles Waterton in the South American rainforest . In Darwin's second year at the university, he joined the Plinian Society , a student natural-history group featuring lively debates in which radical democratic students with materialistic views challenged orthodox religious concepts of science. He assisted Robert Edmond Grant 's investigations of
6720-469: A friend in old age ... better than a dog anyhow", against points such as "less money for books" and "terrible loss of time". Having decided in favour of marriage, he discussed it with his father, then went to visit his cousin Emma on 29 July. At this time he did not get around to proposing, but against his father's advice, he mentioned his ideas on transmutation. He married Emma on 29 January 1839 and they were
6944-518: A giant capybara . The armour fragments were actually from Glyptodon , a huge armadillo-like creature, as Darwin had initially thought. These extinct creatures were related to living species in South America. In mid-December, Darwin took lodgings in Cambridge to arrange expert classification of his collections, and prepare his own research for publication. Questions of how to combine his diary into
Mister Sinister - Misplaced Pages Continue
7168-488: A giant lab where he could create the ultimate race of superhumans. Sinister's plan is then stopped by the X-Men, who restore mutant powers to all of those with the X-gene. The surviving Neo then hunt Sinister to avenge their fallen members, killing 17 clone doppelgangers. Sinister later resurfaces as Dr. Robert Windsor , experimenting on mutants again, with Scalphunter acting as his bodyguard. Later on, an encounter with Colossus and
7392-556: A giant version of the armour on local armadillos . From a jaw and tooth he identified the gigantic Megatherium , then from Cuvier's description thought the armour was from this animal. The finds were shipped to England, and scientists found the fossils of great interest. In Patagonia, Darwin came to wrongly believe the territory was devoid of reptiles. On rides with gauchos into the interior to explore geology and collect more fossils, Darwin gained social, political and anthropological insights into both native and colonial people at
7616-500: A great name among the Naturalists of Europe". On 2 October 1836, Beagle anchored at Falmouth , Cornwall. Darwin promptly made the long coach journey to Shrewsbury to visit his home and see relatives. He then hurried to Cambridge to see Henslow, who advised him on finding available naturalists to catalogue Darwin's animal collections and to take on the botanical specimens. Darwin's father organised investments, enabling his son to be
7840-638: A high-tech, underground laboratory. Later, young Jean Grey's mutant telepathy prematurely activates when she witnesses the death of her best friend. Becoming aware of Jean's power, Mr. Sinister plans to kill her parents and bring her to the orphanage, only to learn the Greys have already contacted the now adult Charles Xavier for help, due to his background as a leading geneticist and psychological expert in trauma cases. Not wishing to be detected by Xavier, who at this point has already fought terrorists and superhuman menaces, Sinister decides to keep his distance after acquiring
8064-643: A hospital patient in San Diego for the rest of her life, her treatment provided by Sinister himself, who visits annually in his human guise of Nathan Essex. During World War II, Sinister works with the Nazi Josef Mengele . Several Nazis who encounter Sinister nickname him " Nosferatu ." A young Max Eisenhardt (who will grow to be Magneto ) encounters him at this time and realizes Sinister is experimenting on children, killing those he deems failures or no longer needed. During these experiments, Sinister sometimes plays
8288-557: A host, the Phoenix Force reverts to its original nature and feels remorse for its role in Jean's death. To make amends, it restores Jean's consciousness to her original body, now fully healed. Simultaneously, the Phoenix Force causes a spark of life in the Jean Grey clone Sinister created. Deciding his clone may be useful after all, Sinister names her Madelyne Pryor (a joke on the fact that she
8512-460: A job working alongside Scott's grandfather in Alaska. Unaware of her own true nature, Maddie meets Scott at a Summers family reunion. Seeing Maddie's resemblance to Jean and hearing about the timing of her experience in a plane crash, Scott wonders if Pryor is somehow his first love reborn. Maddie admits to having feelings for Cyclops but insists she is her own person and must be seen as such rather than as
8736-499: A machine to steal the powers of twelve select mutants and the body of Nate Grey which will make him virtually omnipotent. In order to save Nate, Cyclops willingly merges with the villain Apocalypse. He is believed dead until Jean and Cable track him down to Egypt and separate him from Apocalypse, killing Apocalypse's spirit in the process. Upon Cyclops' return to the X-Men following his possession, his personality has been altered as
8960-429: A metal crane causing it to fall towards an onlooking crowd. Scott thinks quickly unleashing a second blast that destroys the crane. The crowd thinks this is an act of violence, and forms a lynch mob. Scott hops onto a train and runs away. Wandering Scott encounters Jack O' Diamonds who tries to recruit Scott as a thief/villain but eventually battles the villain. Scott is found by Charles Xavier , directly after who erases
9184-509: A minor role to natural selection, and it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed in which natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences , explaining the diversity of life . Darwin was born in Shrewsbury , Shropshire, on 12 February 1809, at his family's home, The Mount . He
Mister Sinister - Misplaced Pages Continue
9408-551: A mutant who can sense the dying and draw energy from them. Not long after Scott and Jean's wedding, the X-Men learn that due to an alteration to history, their reality is about to be replaced by another. Believing they are about to die, the X-Man Rogue kisses her teammate Gambit, something she had not done before due to the risk that her energy absorbing abilities could harm him. During the kiss, she sees his memories and learns of his part relationship with Mr. Sinister. The alteration to
9632-586: A neighbor to Scott Summers' grandparents. During the storyline " X-Cutioner's Song ", Stryfe gives Sinister a canister he claims contains a sample of his own genetic material, in exchange for a service. When Sinister opens the container, he is angered to find it seemingly empty. He later realizes that he unknowingly unleashed the Legacy Virus , a pathogen engineered by Stryfe that targets mutants. Not long afterward, Scott Summers meets Mike Milbury, who then reveals himself to be Mr. Sinister, still alive. Sinister warns of
9856-457: A new clone body to inhabit. In the 2019 mini-series Powers of X , it is revealed that several years before the present-day, one of the Sinister clones created possessed an X-gene, making him a mutant like the X-Men. This mutant Sinister assumed leadership of the community of Sinister clones and seems to be the surviving version who operates today. The same mini-series involved Mr. Sinister joining
10080-400: A new group of X-Men, which includes Storm , Colossus , Nightcrawler , Banshee , Thunderbird , Sunfire and Wolverine to rescue the others. When the other original X-Men ( Angel , Beast , Iceman , Jean Grey, and later additions Havok (his own brother Alex) and Polaris ) decide to leave in light of the arrival of the new X-Men, Cyclops stays, feeling that he will never be able to lead
10304-596: A normal life because of the uncontrollable nature of his powers. As an adult member of the X-Men, Cyclops unknowingly meets his father, now known as Corsair , leader of the Starjammers , a group of aliens opposing what they see as the tyranny of the Shi'ar empire. Jean learns of Corsair 's identity but keeps it from Scott and several more years pass before he learns his father's true identity. Cyclops privately questions his relationship with Jean after Jean dies trying to pilot
10528-518: A parachute and pushed them off the plane, hoping that they would survive. In Cyclops's first appearance in The X-Men #1, he is already leading the X-Men under tutelage of Professor X . Later, Scott's origin is first presented in The Uncanny X-Men #38–42 and later refined in The Uncanny X-Men #144 and The Uncanny X-Men #156. In 2010, Marvel released X-Men Origins : Cyclops #1 that describes
10752-461: A passionate kiss on the way home. A few days before Jean dies, Scott psychically proposes, and she accepts. After her death, he quits the X-Men, unsure of what to do anymore. He signs on as crew of a fishing boat, captained by Lee Forrester . After an adventure in which Lee's father is possessed by D'Spayre , Cyclops and the Man-Thing must fight D'Spayre, Scott and Lee find themselves shipwrecked in
10976-457: A powerful mutant time traveler and one of Apocalypse's most persistent enemies. This also makes the mutant terrorist Stryfe a son of Cyclops in his own way, as he is a clone of Cable. Sinister recruits a new team of agents called the Nasty Boys and allies with Stryfe , now leader of the terrorist Mutant Liberation Front. During this time, he establishes a new cover identity of " Mike Milbury ",
11200-532: A programmer of laws. Darwin stayed with his freethinking brother Erasmus, part of this Whig circle and a close friend of the writer Harriet Martineau , who promoted the Malthusianism that underpinned the controversial Whig Poor Law reforms to stop welfare from causing overpopulation and more poverty. As a Unitarian, she welcomed the radical implications of transmutation of species , promoted by Grant and younger surgeons influenced by Geoffroy . Transmutation
11424-507: A real relationship with Emma. Together, the pair rebuild the Xavier Institute as co-headmasters. The new relationship between Emma and Scott leads to problems between them and the rest of the X-Men, all of whom believe that the pair are doing Jean's memory a disservice. Rachel Summers in particular feels hurt and angry by her father's lack of remorse for the psychic affair that hurt Jean before her death and Emma's part in it, and takes on
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#173308513794411648-464: A relationship with Jean Grey during their time in the "original" X-Men. For a long time, he refuses to admit, even to himself, that he has feelings for her, afraid he would be hurt again or that his optic blasts would hurt her – or anyone else he cared about for that matter – and also because he feels he is no match for his wealthy teammate Warren Worthington III , a.k.a. Angel, who is at first also romantically interested in Jean. What Scott does not know
11872-409: A result of being bonded with Apocalypse. This change causes a rift between him and Jean; he claims that Apocalypse made him question not only their relationship, but his life as a whole. He is instrumental in preventing the mutant Xorn 's suicide and in recruiting the powerful mutant to the X-Men. The two establish a close friendship; similarly, repeated missions with Wolverine result in the growth of
12096-534: A result, choosing to hide underground and join a sewer-dwelling mutant community known as the " Morlocks " (taking the name from the subterranean race of the novel The Time Machine ). Years later, Dark Beast's experiments indirectly lead to Sinister ordering the " Mutant Massacre ." Returning to America, Sinister creates an orphanage to monitor some of the children of families he first observed during Project: Black Womb. The State Home for Foundlings in Omaha, Nebraska hides
12320-722: A revolutionary, and sometimes violent course to promote mutant rights, and started up a new school for new mutants, the New Charles Xavier School for the Gifted. The younger Cyclops tries to make sense of his future and find a place for himself, while deciding if he even wants to stay an X-Man. In the new Dawn of X saga Cyclops has been given the role of Great Captain Commander. The X-Men Senior Editor Jordan D. White said regarding Cyclops role in Krakoa in an interview: "I think he [Cyclops]
12544-486: A romance with Jean, reclaiming his son. Scott soon learns that Mister Sinister ran the orphanage in which Scott was raised, and battled Sinister over this. Shortly after the X-Tinction Agenda , Scott reencounters Apocalypse, who infects Nathan with a techno-organic virus . Although Scott saves his son with the help of his teammates and through the combined strength of Nathan, Jean, and himself defeats Apocalypse, he
12768-442: A sample of his own DNA. Mr. Sinister concludes that offspring of Jean Grey and Scott Summers could represent the ultimate stage of mutant potential, possibly a mutant capable of destroying Apocalypse. Using Jean Grey's cell sample, Mr. Sinister creates a clone who is rapidly aged. When the clone shows no sign of the X-gene, Sinister leaves her in a hibernation chamber. Years later, Jean Grey suffers catastrophic radiation poisoning but
12992-587: A sand beach. He theorised that as the land rose, oceanic islands sank, and coral reefs round them grew to form atolls . On the geologically new Galápagos Islands , Darwin looked for evidence attaching wildlife to an older "centre of creation", and found mockingbirds allied to those in Chile but differing from island to island. He heard that slight variations in the shape of tortoise shells showed which island they came from, but failed to collect them, even after eating tortoises taken on board as food. In Australia,
13216-506: A self-funded gentleman scientist , and an excited Darwin went around the London institutions being fêted and seeking experts to describe the collections. British zoologists at the time had a huge backlog of work, due to natural history collecting being encouraged throughout the British Empire, and there was a danger of specimens just being left in storage. Charles Lyell eagerly met Darwin for
13440-570: A series of books, and in his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Actions of Worms (1881), he examined earthworms and their effect on soil. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species . By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact . However, many initially favoured competing explanations that gave only
13664-739: A series of psychic therapy sessions, but the two soon engage in a full-fledged psychic affair. When Phoenix discovers the affair, Cyclops claims he and Emma shared only thoughts and thus had done nothing wrong. Meanwhile, Emma's snide and mocking jeers provoke a hurt and angry Jean to psychically confront her, using the full power of the Phoenix Force to 'burn through lies'. She forces Emma to admit her true feelings for Scott, and to face her many failures, sins, and personal demons. Furious at both himself and Jean, Scott confronts Jean and demands that she read his mind; Jean finally complies, only to discover that Scott and Emma never engaged in any physical contact, though Emma had offered it. After confronting Jean with
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#173308513794413888-719: A similarity between farmers picking the best stock in selective breeding, and a Malthusian Nature selecting from chance variants so that "every part of newly acquired structure is fully practical and perfected", thinking this comparison "a beautiful part of my theory". He later called his theory natural selection , an analogy with what he termed the "artificial selection" of selective breeding. On 11 November, he returned to Maer and proposed to Emma, once more telling her his ideas. She accepted, then in exchanges of loving letters she showed how she valued his openness in sharing their differences, while expressing her strong Unitarian beliefs and concerns that his honest doubts might separate them in
14112-539: A space shuttle through a solar flare, and then is reborn as Phoenix , feeling that this reborn Jean was not the same Jean he had loved. Yet when he thinks her dead for an extended period of time after a battle in the Savage Land , Scott is not able to mourn her, and believes this meant he did not really love her anymore. He briefly dates Colleen Wing . However, when Scott and Jean are reunited on Muir Island to fight Proteus , he rediscovers his love for her, and they share
14336-616: A team. Throughout this time, Cyclops continued to make appearances in Uncanny X-Men Marvel has also used Cyclops to launch variant series of X-Men titles most notably Ultimate X-Men and New X-Men . Cyclops has appeared in limited series including Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix , Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix , X-Men: The Asgardian Wars , the second series of Astonishing X-Men , X-Men: The Search for Cyclops , his own self-titled series Cyclops , and X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1. In 2000, Joseph Harris wrote
14560-496: A tentative friendship between the two veteran X-Men. When Jean begins to show signs of the Phoenix Force again, the distance between the two grows larger and Scott begins abstaining from sex with Jean for the five months. Jean attempts several times to confront Cyclops, but he continues to push her away, claiming that Apocalypse had changed him too much on the inside. Jean, confused by the change in their relationship, confides in Logan and
14784-468: A time of revolution, and learnt that two types of rhea had separate but overlapping territories. Further south, he saw stepped plains of shingle and seashells as raised beaches at a series of elevations. He read Lyell's second volume and accepted its view of "centres of creation" of species, but his discoveries and theorising challenged Lyell's ideas of smooth continuity and of extinction of species. Three Fuegians on board, who had been seized during
15008-576: A time when events completely out of his control had effectively shattered the life he had led up to that point. Scott admits that this theory is the truth, further admitting that he had blocked making this decision out of his memory, to preserve the fallacy in his own mind and prevent others from discovering his "secret". The issue ends with Scott apparently in a catatonic state, with his eyes uncovered and displaying their natural shade of brown, with no evidence of his powers manifesting. Later he manifests, and has full control over his optical blasts, although it
15232-531: A version of the heroic mutant Hank McCoy from an alternate timeline (known as the " Age of Apocalypse ") enters the mainstream Marvel reality. Known as the Dark Beast , this corrupt version of McCoy is former student and employee of his reality's Sinister. Dark Beast eventually makes his way to New York City and experiments on many mutants, using techniques his Sinister taught him. Several of his surviving test subjects become deformed or disabled by their own abilities as
15456-497: Is a friend and colleague of Brian Xavier, father of Charles Xavier ), and the precognitive mutant Irene Adler . They conduct research on many mutant children and take note of several families that may produce mutant children later, allowing Sinister to monitor these bloodlines for decades. Concerned his own physical death may be inevitable, Sinister uses the Cronus Device to implant his own hidden cells of his genetic information into
15680-461: Is able to briefly bypass his own mental block and control his powers, though he reveals that his control is waning and temporary. For a time, Scott had prolonged amnesia about his childhood. Parts of his memory returned when he was unexpectedly attacked by the demon D'Spayre while on a leave of absence after Jean Grey's perceived first death. Scott spent most of his childhood at the State Home for
15904-522: Is alive, Cyclops leaves his wife and son and rejoins the other original X-Men as X-Factor , who pose as mutant hunters but in reality are trying to help their genetic brethren. Meanwhile, Pryor goes on to be an assisting member of the X-Men, apparently sacrificing her life during the Fall of the Mutants with her teammates, although she was left with feelings of despair over the loss of Scott, who felt bad himself over
16128-437: Is confronted by Cyclops and Phoenix , heroes from the future who arrive via time travel. Nur defeats the two heroes, leaving them for Essex to experiment on. Hoping to stop Apocalypse and possibly the origin of Mr. Sinister, Phoenix tells Essex that continuing his work with Nur will lead to worldwide destruction. Sensing truth in her words, Essex releases the heroes and decides to rededicate himself to family, as his wife Rebecca
16352-516: Is devastated by Jean's death, and considers leaving the X-Men once more. It was revealed in the " Here Comes Tomorrow " storyline that, had he done so, it would have led to an apocalyptic alternate future. To prevent this, a resurrected, future-version of Jean uses her powers as the White Phoenix of the Crown and telepathically reached back in time to tell Cyclops it was okay to move on, leading him to start
16576-533: Is discovered and revived by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four . It is revealed that Jean Grey was alive and had never been The Phoenix. The Phoenix is revealed to have been a cosmic entity who placed a dying Jean Grey in a healing pod at the bottom of Jamaica Bay and replaced her taking on her appearance and memories, to the point of not realizing that "she" herself was not the real Jean Grey. After hearing that Jean
16800-519: Is fatally infected by a techno-organic virus. Rather than watch his son die, Cyclops sends him into the future where treatment exists. Soon afterward, Gambit joins the X-Men team after having befriended the X-Man called Storm. His connection to Sinister and the Mutant Massacre is not revealed for some time. Many months after Nathan Summers is sent into the future, the X-Men learn he grew up to become Cable ,
17024-436: Is going to like it." Now, the X-Men leader has become more confident, outspoken, and audacious. This has had a significant effect on his leadership and his respect among teammates, most notably Wolverine. However, since the birth of Hope Summers , Cyclops has become increasingly unstable with his own self. Overprotective of those close to him, amoral in his new, Magneto -like view of humanity, and mentally ambiguous, Cyclops
17248-527: Is ignorance and the enemy of science. Appreciating Sinister has shown strength through defiance, Apocalypse returns to his hibernation state, promising that when he returns he and Sinister will reshape the world. Following the death of Charles Darwin, Sinister travels to America and assumes the identity of obstetrician " Nathan Milbury " (taking the name of his ancestral home), head of the Essex Clinic in New York in
17472-615: Is kidnapped by Omega Red and the ninjas of The Hand . After the captured teammates' rescue, Mr. Sinister sends Caliban , a former X-Factor member, to kidnap Cyclops and Jean for Stryfe , a madman and rival to Cable , both time-lost mutants. Stryfe tells the two that he is Nathan, sent to the future and abandoned. In a fight, Cable and Stryfe apparently die. Afterwards, the team battles Omega Red again, and teammate and telepath Psylocke tries to lure Cyclops into an affair behind Jean's back. Ultimately, however, Cyclops remains with Jean. Cable returns as well and reveals to Cyclops that he
17696-471: Is known as a Malthusian catastrophe . Darwin was well-prepared to compare this to Augustin de Candolle 's "warring of the species" of plants and the struggle for existence among wildlife, explaining how numbers of a species kept roughly stable. As species always breed beyond available resources, favourable variations would make organisms better at surviving and passing the variations on to their offspring, while unfavourable variations would be lost. He wrote that
17920-518: Is most often portrayed as the archetypal hero of traditional American popular culture—the opposite of the tough, anti-authority antiheroes that emerged in American popular culture after the Vietnam War (e.g., Wolverine , his X-Men teammate). James Marsden initially portrayed Cyclops in the 20th Century Fox X-Men films , and a younger version of the character was portrayed by Tim Pocock in
18144-422: Is now generally accepted and considered a fundamental scientific concept. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace , he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called natural selection , in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding . Darwin has been described as one of
18368-571: Is pregnant again. Meanwhile, Rebecca Essex discovers Nathaniel's imprisoned human test subjects and his lab where he has experimented on the remains of their son. After freeing the prisoners and reburying her son, Rebecca goes into premature labor and her second child dies in stillbirth. Nathaniel then finds Rebecca, who is now dying from blood loss, and asks for forgiveness. Rebecca refuses, saying with her dying breath, "To me, you are... utterly... and contemptibly... sinister!" Following Rebecca's death, Essex continues his alliance with En Sabah Nur, becoming
18592-466: Is responsible for his poor control over his optic blasts. Several origin stories do not feature the head injury account with X-Men Origins: Cyclops #1 being the most recent. The head injury account has also been retconned in Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 as being due to a self-imposed mental block he made as a child to deal with the traumatic events of his life. With the help of Emma Frost, Scott
18816-637: Is saved by the cosmic Phoenix Force , who desires her to be a host. With her increased power, Jean creates a new body for her consciousness and the cosmic Phoenix Force to occupy, while creating a healing cocoon to repair the damage done to her original body. As "Phoenix", Jean becomes a more powerful hero. She is later temporarily corrupted, causing the Phoenix Force itself to become a corrupt and deadly entity. The new "Dark Phoenix" asserts control, burying Jean's personality. Jean's personality later resumes control and she eventually kills herself rather than allow Dark Phoenix to rise again and destroy more lives. Without
19040-512: Is seemingly erased but some of its inhabitants are transported to the original timeline. Dark Beast is transported to the past and experiments on several Morlocks. Nate Grey winds up in the modern day Marvel Universe, appearing on Earth only days after the X-Men thought their world would wink out of existence. Learning of Nate Grey and his similarity to Cable, Sinister assigns Threnody to earn the young man's trust. When Threnody develops genuine friendship with Nate and decides to leave Sinister's employ,
19264-464: Is that Jean actually has a crush on him, but is too shy to make a move. Finally, on Bobby Drake 's 18th birthday, they reveal their passion for each other and become lovers. During one of the X-Men's adventures he rediscovers his brother Alex as his powers were manifesting. Alex would join the team with Scott as Havok. When the original team of X-Men are defeated by Krakoa , Cyclops is the only member able to escape and return to Xavier. He helps train
19488-416: Is that, with no powers, he's going to be the best that he's ever been. That's what the arc is about. [Cyclops has] been the team leader and the team washout in terms of popularity. He was defined by Jean [Grey] so much, and I just think that this guy is so interesting in his struggle against mediocrity. Then, when it's all laid on the line, when you find out the thing that's been holding him back from being just
19712-431: Is the character's origin story . As a young boy, Scott Summers is orphaned after watching his parents die in a plane crash. Scott and his brother, Alex , were the only survivors as their parents placed the two boys in the only available parachute and forced them to jump from the plane just prior to crashing. The boys become wards of the state and are separated. When Scott's powers manifest uncontrollably, he runs away from
19936-402: Is the real Nathan Christopher Summers, while Stryfe is a clone of Nathan created in the event of his death who was stolen and raised by Apocalypse. Scott Summers and Jean Grey finally marry. During their honeymoon, they are brought into the future where they raise Cable for the first 12 years of his life during The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries. After helping Cable defeat
20160-488: Is the rock that their island nation is built upon. And I think that he is still very much a leader of his people, I think the people of Krakoa know him and what he has done for them over the years, and they look up to him. He is the head of the X-Men in any Super-Hero activity which is essentially the military of Krakoa. He might not be RULING Krakoa, but he is definitely leading it." Cyclops's history has undergone various revisions, both minor and major. The central fixed element
20384-529: Is told Sinister may have use for him in the future. Some years later, as "Dr. Milbury", Mr. Sinister becomes a professor at the University of Oxford. His students include Moira MacTaggert and the mutant telepath Charles Xavier, who realizes he cannot sense Milbury's thoughts. Years after Sinister's time back at Oxford, and during the time that Charles Xavier is first befriending Magneto while both are living in Israel,
20608-459: Is transformed into the evil Onslaught , as a result of his recent attempt to wipe Magneto's mind causing Magneto's darker impulses to merge with Xavier's own subconscious darkness and manifest as a new personality. Although the X-Men defeat the evil entity and free Xavier, most of Earth's heroes are lost for a time. Xavier, who is left powerless after Onslaught's defeat, is arrested for his part, leaving Scott and Jean as leaders and co-headmasters of
20832-527: Is viewed as an antihero and occasionally even a villain in the minds of his fellow superheroes. Kieron Gillen 's run in Uncanny X-Men ended with an unrepentant Cyclops, who had become increasingly hardline during Gillen's run, in prison for his actions during Avengers vs. X-Men , up to and including him killing Xavier while under the influence of the Phoenix Force . Gillen wrote him openly suicidal in
21056-613: The Bermuda Triangle , where they stumble upon Magneto 's new base of operations. Scott soon returns to the X-Men. He then discovers that Corsair the leader of the Space Pirate group the Starjammers is actually his father. Scott originally believed that his parents died in the plane accident and is unaware that they, in fact, had been captured and sold into slavery by the Shi'ar. His mother
21280-594: The High Evolutionary . He influences the powerful geneticist to use his advanced space station to remove the powers of all mutants on Earth, causing widespread injury and several deaths, including most of the community of evolved mutants known as the Neo. Sinister then reveals his true nature and takes over the High Evolutionary's satellite, intending to use it to alter the genetics of people at his discretion, making Earth
21504-660: The Linnean Society of London . Darwin's work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of natural diversification. In 1871, he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex , followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). His research on plants was published in
21728-541: The Narrative were resolved at the end of the month when FitzRoy accepted Broderip's advice to make it a separate volume, and Darwin began work on his Journal and Remarks . Darwin's first paper showed that the South American landmass was slowly rising, and with Lyell's enthusiastic backing he read it to the Geological Society of London on 4 January 1837. On the same day, he presented his mammal and bird specimens to
21952-496: The Nasty Boys team and displaying the ability to regenerate from damage. He played a major role in the 1992-1993 crossover storyline " X-Cutioner's Song ", unwittingly helping to unleash the Legacy Virus on the world. In X-Men (vol. 2) #22-23 (1993), Sinister reveals his seeming death in 1989 was a "ruse" so he could retreat rather than fight the combined X-Men and X-Factor teams. The same story depicts Sinister willing to protect Cyclops from other villains. By 1994 Mister Sinister
22176-590: The Royal Society 's Royal Medal, and it made his reputation as a biologist . Upon the conclusion of his research, Darwin declared "I hate a barnacle as no man ever did before." In 1854, he became a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London , gaining postal access to its library. He began a major reassessment of his theory of species, and in November realised that divergence in the character of descendants could be explained by them becoming adapted to "diversified places in
22400-539: The X-Factor title through X-Factor #70. In October 1991, Summers returns to the X-Men to launch X-Men #1. This series was the second of two X-Men titles and featured Cyclops, Wolverine , Gambit , Psylocke , Rogue , and Beast as Blue team. Cyclops has recently been featured in another title launch with the second introduction of a new X-Men series Astonishing X-Men . Astonishing X-Men features Cyclops, Wolverine, Shadowcat , Colossus , Emma Frost , and Beast as
22624-912: The Zoological Society . The ornithologist John Gould soon announced that the Galápagos birds that Darwin had thought a mixture of blackbirds , " gros-beaks " and finches , were, in fact, twelve separate species of finches . On 17 February, Darwin was elected to the Council of the Geological Society, and Lyell's presidential address presented Owen's findings on Darwin's fossils, stressing geographical continuity of species as supporting his uniformitarian ideas. Early in March, Darwin moved to London to be near this work, joining Lyell's social circle of scientists and experts such as Charles Babbage , who described God as
22848-516: The first Beagle voyage then given Christian education in England, were returning with a missionary. Darwin found them friendly and civilised, yet at Tierra del Fuego he met "miserable, degraded savages", as different as wild from domesticated animals. He remained convinced that, despite this diversity, all humans were interrelated with a shared origin and potential for improvement towards civilisation. Unlike his scientist friends, he now thought there
23072-509: The marsupial rat-kangaroo and the platypus seemed so unusual that Darwin thought it was almost as though two distinct Creators had been at work. He found the Aborigines "good-humoured & pleasant", their numbers depleted by European settlement. FitzRoy investigated how the atolls of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands had formed, and the survey supported Darwin's theorising. FitzRoy began writing
23296-585: The ordinary degree. Darwin had to stay at Cambridge until June 1831. He studied Paley's Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (first published in 1802), which made an argument for divine design in nature , explaining adaptation as God acting through laws of nature . He read John Herschel 's new book, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831), which described
23520-482: The " Mutant Massacre " event, a series of battles that include the X-Men, the new X-Factor team, and other heroes such as Thor . Some of the Marauders are killed in action. Scanning the mind of Sabretooth, the X-Man called Psylocke learns the massacre was ordered by someone called "Sinister", alerting the X-Men to his presence for the first time. Soon afterward, Cyclops returns to Alaska to make amends with Maddie and be
23744-596: The "final cause of all this wedging, must be to sort out proper structure, & adapt it to changes", so that "One may say there is a force like a hundred thousand wedges trying force into every kind of adapted structure into the gaps of in the economy of nature, or rather forming gaps by thrusting out weaker ones." This would result in the formation of new species. As he later wrote in his Autobiography : In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate
23968-433: The ( ♥️ ) was of his late wife Rebecca who became a magical user called Mother Righteous. The four clones were unaware of one another for a long time, and each of the three men believed himself to be the original Nathaniel, with no memory of dying and being cloned. In different possible futures, each had eventually succeeded in ascending to categorical godhood as a Dominion, only to be blocked and had their progress harvested by
24192-495: The 1890s. There he continues secret experiments on people. He comes to understand more and more that mutants are human beings born with an "X-factor gene" or "X-gene", causing powers, traits, and abilities that often manifest during puberty or trauma. One early test subject is a mutant with a long lifespan named Amanda Mueller. To study how the X-gene may pass on to children in different ways, Sinister arranges for Amanda to marry his former test subject Daniel Summers (who recently became
24416-681: The 2009 prequel film X-Men Origins: Wolverine . He also was portrayed by Tye Sheridan in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and Dark Phoenix (2019), as well as a cameo in Deadpool 2 (2018). Cyclops first appeared in The X-Men #1 (September 1963). He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby , and has been a mainstay character of the X-Men series. Lee said that Cyclops and Beast were his two favorite X-Men, elaborating that "I love tortured heroes—and he
24640-639: The A.I. imprint of the original Essex, who thus retroactively brought itself into existence as Enigma , a universal-level godlike intelligence existing outside space and time. Born in Milbury House in Victorian London, Nathaniel Essex is the son of Admiral Erasmus Essex and Mary Essex. Earning a full scholarship to the University of Oxford , Essex becomes a biologist in 1859 and marries his wife Rebecca. A contemporary of Charles Darwin , Essex becomes highly interested in research regarding evolution and "survival of
24864-598: The British scientist into Mr. Sinister, an ageless man with super-powers. Later on, Sinister increases his power through self-experimentation. In the modern day, Sinister develops a great interest and protective attitude towards the mutant heroes Cyclops and Jean Grey , believing their DNA can create the ultimate mutant. This and other factors lead him to have repeated clashes with the X-Men (a group Cyclops and Jean Grey helped found) and related teams. Through clones, Sinister has managed to cheat his death repeatedly and even acquire
25088-643: The DNA strands of the Marko, Ryking, Shaw, and Xavier family lines. In time, their descendants can act as hosts for Sinister's consciousness. During the Vietnam War, Mr. Sinister sets up a lab in Saigon and has his agent Scalphunter bring him soldiers and civilians for experimentation. Locals refer to Sinister as the "White Devil." In 1968, Sabretooth investigates Sinister's operation but is then bribed and blackmailed to not interfere. He
25312-489: The Earth in his quest to eliminate the weak, Sinister still works to create a living weapon against him using DNA from Scott Summers and Jean Grey. The result is a powerful teenage mutant named Nate Grey . Later on, the timeline is restored. Rogue is disturbed by Gambit's connection to Sinister, which is later revealed to the rest of the X-Men. This drives a wedge between them and Gambit for some time. The Age of Apocalypse reality
25536-589: The Foundlings in Omaha, Nebraska and was subjected to batteries of tests and experiments by the orphanage's owner, Mr. Milbury, an alias for the geneticist Mister Sinister , who also placed mental blocks on Scott. In The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix limited series , both Scott and Jean were sent back in time to 19th century England by Madame Sanctity , a surviving member of the Askani sisterhood . In 1860, prior to
25760-575: The Goblyn Queen and leading into the Inferno storyline. During this storyline, the mutant precog Irene Adler (now calling herself Destiny) sends the X-Factor team to Sinister's lab where they discover and rescue Nathan along with other children. The Goblyn Queen then arrives and retrieves Nathan and several other babies to use as sacrifices for a demonic ritual. Sinister reforms his Marauders, even resurrecting
25984-467: The Legacy Virus and also hints that there is a third Summers brother unknown to either Scott or Alex. When the villainous Dark Riders arrive to attack Cyclops, Sinister declares the mutant hero under his own protection. Not long afterward, Scott and Jean Grey marry while Sinister monitors from afar, interested in the possible offspring that may result. Some time later, he recruits a new agent named Threnody,
26208-426: The Marauders and Acolytes to murder all those who have knowledge of the future. Some time later, the first new mutant since M-Day is born. Sinister sends agents to kidnap the child in the storyline " X-Men: Messiah Complex ." Later, Sinister (whose powers are still weakened) is confronted by Mystique , who presses the villain's face against an unconscious Rogue . Rogue's energy absorption abilities are amplified at
26432-409: The Marauders are sent after her. Nate Grey intervenes, killing the entire team except for Prism (though Sinister later clones the fallen again). Apocalypse gathers the Twelve, now revealed to be twelve powerful mutants he can use to ascend to a god-like state of power, with Nate Grey acting as a new host. After this plan fails, Sinister takes on the appearance of an elderly man, "Dr. Essex", and visits
26656-684: The Morlocks, Sinister learns the Avengers have discovered Jean Grey is alive and well in her cocoon. Sinister decides to seize the opportunity and at last kidnap Nathan Summers for experimentation. When Scott Summers learns of Jean's reappearance, Sinister mentally influences him to immediately leave Alaska to see for himself that it's actually her, leaving his family behind and without protection. Sinister then continues his mental influence, causing Scott to abandon his family and remain in New York City with Jean and
26880-620: The New Marauders to fight Renko. Miss Sinister activates genetic implants in the New Marauders, killing them instantly. Emma Frost frees Jimmy Hudson from his metal restraints, and he seemingly slays Miss Sinister. The effects of Mothervine are then contained and reversed by Magneto and Elixir. Mister Sinister is eventually able to fully possess the fifth clone of Alice, returning in The Uncanny X-Men #544. Now dressed in Victorian-era garb and using knowledge gained from Apocalypse, he merges with
27104-531: The Phoenix Five. After help arrives, the Phoenix Five kill each and every clone of Sinister present. In the aftermath of "Avengers vs. X-Men," Sinister visits Cyclops and explains that some time ago he killed the X-Men public relations manager Katie Kildare, placing his own personality in the woman's mind while a secondary Sinister clone was left in charge of the city. While his clones and resources are gone, he still lives and will strike again. Sinister, now again in
27328-455: The Phoenix Force arrives on Earth during the " Avengers vs. X-Men " storyline, its power is divided between five people, including Cyclops. The Phoenix Five track down Mister Sinister, learning he has built his own city (based on Victorian-era London) within Subterranea that is inhabited by clones of himself, several of his agents, and some acquaintances. Sinister orders his clones to war against
27552-464: The Phoenix Force. When Scott finally returns to the X-Men, their new teammate Xorn (who was revealed to be Magneto, but was subsequently retconned as an imposter) attacks the X-Men. Having at last reached full Phoenix power, Jean confronts Xorn-Magneto and is killed in the process. As she is dying, Scott apologizes for hurting her, but Jean instead tells him that she understands and has never seen him more alive and urges him to live on. Scott, however,
27776-548: The Royal Society and the scientific community. Angry and bitter, Essex accepts that being a "monster" in the eyes of others may be necessary to achieve his goals. Essex later hires the criminal Cootie Tremble and his gang, known as the Marauders . The Marauders kidnap homeless people off the streets of London as test subjects for Essex's experiments, including a man named Daniel Summers (whose descendant Scott Summers will one day be
28000-605: The Wedgwoods were adopting Anglicanism . Robert Darwin, a freethinker , had baby Charles baptised in November 1809 in the Anglican St Chad's Church, Shrewsbury , but Charles and his siblings attended the local Unitarian Church with their mother. The eight-year-old Charles already had a taste for natural history and collecting when he joined the day school run by its preacher in 1817. That July, his mother died. From September 1818, he joined his older brother Erasmus in attending
28224-472: The X-Men voiced by Clancy Brown . Writer Chris Claremont conceived Sinister as a new villain for the X-Men . Having felt "tired of just going back to Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and the same old same old" Claremont recalled: Dave Cockrum and I went over ideas, and what we were coming towards was a mysterious young boy—apparently an 11-year-old—at the orphanage where Scott ( Cyclops )
28448-509: The X-Men Shadowcat, Colossus, Nightcrawler , and Wolverine. Later, Mister Sinister tells Xraven he plans to create a new generation of mutants through cloning. Realizing Sinister will enslave these mutants, Xraven destroys the samples and causes the destruction of Sinister's lab and hideout. Sinister survives, but Xraven's fate is unknown. During the storyline Blinded by the Light , Sinister sends
28672-803: The X-Men villain Sebastian Shaw ). It is possible that during the 1920s, Sinister also gave Dr. Herbert Edgar Wyndham information regarding how to map and break the human genetic code. Wyndam, a student of the Inhuman scientist Phaeder , later becomes the master geneticist called the High Evolutionary . During the 1920s, Sinister lives in Los Angeles as "Nathan Essex" and befriends radio comedian Faye Livingstone. Realizing Faye's potential to have mutant children, Sinister temporarily imprisons and experiments on her. After her release, Faye never has children and develops cancer. As her mind and health deteriorate, she becomes
28896-470: The X-Men years before. Written by Claremont, the series revealed how he would have continued the stories and what revelations he would have made about different characters. The 2010 sequel series, X-Men Forever 2 features Mr. Sinister as a character who is over a century old yet still physically an adolescent boy, using a robot called Mr. Sinister to act as a proxy. Despite his apparent death in 1989, Sinister appeared again in X-Factor in 1992, now leader of
29120-468: The X-Men. Scott has a difficult time adjusting to life outside of the X-Men and later, to his wife's dismay, he challenges Storm to a battle in the Danger Room for leadership of the X-Men. Despite Storm no longer possessing her mutant powers, she defeats Cyclops. Madelyne gives birth to their son, Nathan , and Scott returns to retirement from the X-Men. Shortly after the birth of his son Nathan, Jean Grey
29344-453: The afterlife. While he was house-hunting in London, bouts of illness continued and Emma wrote urging him to get some rest, almost prophetically remarking "So don't be ill any more my dear Charley till I can be with you to nurse you." He found what they called "Macaw Cottage" (because of its gaudy interiors) in Gower Street , then moved his "museum" in over Christmas. On 24 January 1839, Darwin
29568-474: The alien giant known as the Dreaming Celestial, gaining great power. Sinister turns San Francisco's residents into doppelgangers of himself and attempts to create a society resembling 19th century England, which he claims to now see as a perfect culture. His true plan is to gain the attention of the alien Celestials so they might deem humanity too chaotic and then eradicate the species, leaving him to rebuild
29792-497: The anatomy and life cycle of marine invertebrates in the Firth of Forth , and on 27 March 1827 presented at the Plinian his own discovery that black spores found in oyster shells were the eggs of a skate leech . One day, Grant praised Lamarck 's evolutionary ideas . Darwin was astonished by Grant's audacity, but had recently read similar ideas in his grandfather Erasmus' journals. Darwin
30016-652: The assassin Sabretooth as the employer behind the team of assassins known as the Marauders in The Uncanny X-Men #212 (December 1986), which was part of the 1986 " Mutant Massacre " storyline, in which Sinister ordered the Marauders to kill the Morlocks living beneath New York City. In the next issue, drawn by Alan Davis , Mr. Sinister is first glimpsed as a generic silhouette when the telepathic X-Man Psylocke scans Sabretooth's mind. Mister Sinister appeared unobscured for
30240-427: The beams with the aid of special eyewear, which he must always wear. He is typically considered the first of the X-Men , a team of mutant heroes who fight for peace and equality between mutants and humans, and one of the team's primary leaders. The first-born son of Corsair , Scott Summers is the older brother of Havok and Vulcan . His first and most enduring love interest is his current wife, Jean Grey , with
30464-437: The botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker , writing with melodramatic humour "it is like confessing a murder". Hooker replied, "There may, in my opinion, have been a series of productions on different spots, & also a gradual change of species. I shall be delighted to hear how you think that this change may have taken place, as no presently conceived opinions satisfy me on the subject." By July, Darwin had expanded his "sketch" into
30688-534: The character's childhood through his joining the X-Men. The early accounts in the X-Men comics use flashbacks to tell the origin story of Scott parachuting from his parents' plane. The flashbacks are often told from various narrative perspectives and place different emphasis on the events of this period. Scott's poor control over his power have been attributed to events in his childhood. In The Uncanny X-Men #156, Scott's parachute caught fire and Scott struck his head upon landing. This caused brain damage to Scott which
30912-407: The course of the characters' publication history, he eventually emerges from Xavier's shadow as the X-Men's undisputed leader. Dave Cockrum created the Starjammers , including Corsair , and convinced X-Men writer Chris Claremont to use the characters for this series. In order to provide a plausible excuse for the Starjammers to make repeat appearances in X-Men , they decided to make Corsair
31136-401: The criminal community? [...] So he built himself an agent in a sense, which was Mister Sinister, that was, in effect, the rationale behind Sinister's rather—for want of a better word—childish or kid-like appearance. The costume... the look... the face... it's what would scare a child. Even when he was designed, he wasn't what you'd expect in a guy like that. Mister Sinister was first mentioned by
31360-550: The crowd's memories. Xavier then asks Scott to join him and the X-Men, he gladly accepts, as the first official member. In the X-Men's first field mission, he battles Magneto . With the X-Men, he battles the Vanisher, Unus the Untouchable, the Blob , and many others. Xavier would soon choose him to be deputy leader of the team and act as field leader whenever he was absent. Cyclops has
31584-435: The destruction of Ord's homeworld in the coming year. Not long after, the X-Men's Danger Room becomes sentient, attacking the X-Men and seeking to ultimately kill Xavier. Calling itself "Danger", "she" reveals that Xavier knew she had been self-aware since Shi'ar technology was installed in the Danger Room years ago, but chose to ignore her, effectively inhumanely using her only to train his teams of X-Men. After her defeat on
31808-538: The duties of Secretary of the Geological Society. After initially declining the work, he accepted the post in March 1838. Despite the grind of writing and editing the Beagle reports, Darwin made remarkable progress on transmutation, taking every opportunity to question expert naturalists and, unconventionally, people with practical experience in selective breeding such as farmers and pigeon fanciers . Over time, his research drew on information from his relatives and children,
32032-541: The economy of nature". Cyclops (Marvel Comics) Cyclops is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics and is a founding member of the X-Men . Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby , the character first appeared in the comic book The X-Men . Cyclops is a member of a subspecies of humans known as mutants , born with superhuman abilities. Cyclops emits powerful beams of energy from his eyes and can only control
32256-486: The epilogue of the story, a young English orphan named Daniel (who was freed, one year ago, from the clutches of Nathaniel Essex by Scott and Jean) is shown arriving in New York Harbor from London . As a form of reverence toward the couple who recently showed him great kindness, when urged by his apparent guardian to adopt a new surname at the immigration station , Daniel chooses Summers. Although Scott does not make
32480-420: The fall). To experiment on the boy in a controlled environment, Sinister causes Scott to slip into a coma then arranges for him and his brother to be entrusted to the State Home for Foundlings. Mr. Sinister allows Alex to be adopted by people he can easily monitor, then spends the next year conducting experiments on the comatose Scott. Concluding the boy will never be able to fully control his power, Sinister learns
32704-464: The fallen ones through his now perfected cloning technology. He then confronts Madelyne and reveals her true origins. At the end of Inferno, Maddie dies and her life-force and memories merge with Jean Grey's. As the X-Factor and X-Men teams fight Sinister, the villain reveals his many manipulations of Scott Summers over the years, how he mentally influenced Scott to abandon his family, and his quest to create offspring from his and Jean's DNA. After realizing
32928-413: The familial connection between Daniel and himself, he suspects that his presence in this time (along with Jean's) did something else to affect the course of history, aside from stopping Mister Sinister and Apocalypse . When Scott is sixteen, he goes on a trip to New York with his orphanage supervisor. Scott walks near a construction site and his optic beam activates for the first time. The blast damages
33152-713: The family butler, neighbours, colonists and former shipmates. He included mankind in his speculations from the outset, and on seeing an orangutan in the zoo on 28 March 1838 noted its childlike behaviour. The strain took a toll, and by June he was being laid up for days on end with stomach problems, headaches and heart symptoms. For the rest of his life, he was repeatedly incapacitated with episodes of stomach pains, vomiting, severe boils , palpitations, trembling and other symptoms, particularly during times of stress, such as attending meetings or making social visits. The cause of Darwin's illness remained unknown, and attempts at treatment had only ephemeral success. On 23 June, he took
33376-436: The father of Cyclops. Summers remained a member of the team up through The Uncanny X-Men #138. After departing the main cast, he was a recurring character in the series until The Uncanny X-Men #201, after which he was featured in the launch of a new series by Marvel. This new series, X-Factor , launched in 1986 and starred the original X-Men team of Cyclops, Marvel Girl , Beast, Iceman , and Angel . Scott stayed with
33600-462: The first of his family to immigrate to America). On several occasions when Amanda is pregnant, Sinister pays her to feign miscarriage and then secretly bring him the child for study. Seeing great potential in the Summers genetic line, Sinister decides to monitor the family. Around this same time, Sinister encounters two other mutants traveling from the future: Gambit and Courier. After experimenting with
33824-582: The first time on 29 October and soon introduced him to the up-and-coming anatomist Richard Owen , who had the facilities of the Royal College of Surgeons to work on the fossil bones collected by Darwin. Owen's surprising results included other gigantic extinct ground sloths as well as the Megatherium Darwin had identified, a near complete skeleton of the unknown Scelidotherium and a hippopotamus -sized rodent -like skull named Toxodon resembling
34048-430: The first time on the opening splash page of issue #221 (September 1987), drawn by Marc Silvestri . The character is one of the major antagonists in the 1989 " Inferno " storyline, where it is revealed he created the character Madelyne Pryor , estranged wife of Scott Summers (the mutant hero Cyclops ), by cloning Scott's former lover Jean Grey , who was believed dead at the time. Sinister sent Madelyne into Scott's life in
34272-422: The fittest." He concludes humanity is undergoing increasing mutation due to what he calls "Essex Factors" in the human genome. After the loss of his four-year-old son Adam due to birth defects, Essex becomes more obsessed with his research in perfecting and improving the human race. Arguing that science is beyond morality, his questionable research methods and ideas lead to suspicion, mockery, and finally ousting from
34496-432: The four-issue run titled X-Men: The Search for Cyclops that dealt with Cyclops's return after merging with Apocalypse in the events of the Twelve from The Uncanny X-Men #377. In 1991, writer Brian K. Vaughan worked on the self-titled series Cyclops #1–4. During Joss Whedon 's run of Astonishing X-Men , Cyclops adopts a new attitude unfamiliar to most accustomed fans. After Emma Frost's psychic intervention at
34720-490: The furniture from the house in Anchorage to be removed. Unbeknownst to Sinister, Maddie is taken to a hospital and survives, though she slips into a coma. Returning to New York, the Marauders are finally sent after the Morlocks. Using his stealth and tracking skills, Gambit leads the group to the Morlock community but abandons the group when he learns they intend murder. The Marauders dismiss Gambit and begin their slaughter, causing
34944-504: The future version of Apocalypse, they are sent back to the past. At the request of Rachel Summers, Jean assumes the Phoenix identity. Mister Sinister, involved with the machinations of Apocalypse and Stryfe and still alive, tells Cyclops that there is another Summers brother , and leaves him wondering. As Cyclops deals with the fact that his son is now old enough to be his father, the X-Men are forced to battle their mentor when Professor Xavier
35168-515: The good of people, Cyclops hand-picks a new team in Astonishing X-Men of himself, Emma, Beast, Kitty Pryde, and Wolverine, which is subsequently used by Marvel as the chief representation of the X-Men. The team faces an alien named Ord of the Breakworld , who supplies Earth scientist Dr. Kavita Rao with a "cure" for mutation. The team subdue Ord and rescue the resurrected Colossus, but not before learning that one of their own will be responsible for
35392-482: The government-created time-pocket called The World and then Asteroid M . During his time with Wolverine, Scott reveals that he feels his relationship with Jean is stagnant and that the two of them had not progressed romantically since their initial teenage romance. He also confesses that he feels that Jean is so concerned with the school and her new powers that the two no longer communicate like before and that he feels left behind due to Jean once again being connected to
35616-520: The heart", so his doctors urged him to "knock off all work" and live in the country for a few weeks. After visiting Shrewsbury, he joined his Wedgwood relatives at Maer Hall , Staffordshire, but found them too eager for tales of his travels to give him much rest. His charming, intelligent, and cultured cousin Emma Wedgwood , nine months older than Darwin, was nursing his invalid aunt. His uncle Josiah pointed out an area of ground where cinders had disappeared under loam and suggested that this might have been
35840-471: The hero called Cyclops). Two years after Adam Essex's death, Nathaniel Essex learns that some humans are born with mutant genetics that make them superhuman and discovers that one called En Sabah Nur ("The First One," known in later years as Apocalypse ) is in hibernation. The Marauders awaken En Sabah Nur who then offers Essex an alliance, believing they have similar goals in perfecting the world and humanity. Nur then intends to conquer 19th-century England but
36064-413: The hero's brother Mikhail Rasputin reveals that Sinister's powers are weakening and he is becoming desperate to find a way to restore them. Due to the event known as M-Day , most mutants lose their powers overnight and it seems there are no new mutant births occurring on Earth. Later on, a mutant named Joe Buggs is murdered by a mysterious mutant hunter. His friend Ed seeks the X-Men for help, claiming
36288-472: The highest aim of natural philosophy as understanding such laws through inductive reasoning based on observation, and Alexander von Humboldt 's Personal Narrative of scientific travels in 1799–1804. Inspired with "a burning zeal" to contribute, Darwin planned to visit Tenerife with some classmates after graduation to study natural history in the tropics. In preparation, he joined Adam Sedgwick 's geology course, then on 4 August travelled with him to spend
36512-470: The hopes that the combined DNA of Grey and Summers would result in the birth of a powerful mutant . Soon after "Inferno", Sinister is also revealed to have manipulated Cyclops' life since early childhood and who at times has influenced his behavior from afar. After a battle with the X-Men and X-Factor , the villain is apparently destroyed by Cyclops' optic beam, leaving behind only bones. Months after his apparent death, backup stories by Claremont published in
36736-461: The island of Genosha, the X-Men abandoned Xavier in disgust, with Cyclops no longer welcoming Xavier's input at the School or with the team. Cyclops also tutored a squad at the institute called The Corsairs , named after Cyclops's father. The team consisted of Dryad , Quill , Specter , and the three remaining Stepford Cuckoos . In Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #14, during an impromptu telepathic "therapy session", Emma Frost presented Cyclops with
36960-504: The killer is Kraven the Hunter (believed dead at the time). The X-Men consult with Spider-Man, Kraven's greatest enemy, and the heroes discover the true killer is Sinister's later creation, Xraven, a telepathic hunter. Realizing Xraven believes he is Sinister's "favorite son," Cyclops invites the hunter to read his own mind. Seeing Cyclops' memories of Sinister's obsession with him and learning the scientists treats all of his soldiers and creations like pawns, Xraven flees but takes DNA samples of
37184-565: The kinetic force blasts can be blocked by ruby quartz lenses. After placing temporary mental blocks in Scott, Sinister allows the boy to awaken. Scott experiences migraines until he is given ruby quartz glasses. Scott spends a few years in the care of the State Home for Foundlings. Hoping to make Cyclops an isolated warrior who can be easily manipulated, Sinister takes on the guise of Nate, another orphan who acts as Scott's overly territorial friend while sometimes bullying him. As part of his long-term plan, Sinister allows Scott Summers to be adopted by
37408-416: The last name of Grey in place of Summers. The other X-Men eventually come to accept the relationship and both Scott and Emma manage to reconcile with Rachel in their own ways, such as introducing Rachel to Jean's other family members. Deciding that the X-Men need to play more of a role in emergency rescue and aid, and thus garner attention on mutants in a more positive light where mutant abilities are used for
37632-436: The leader Sinister and other clones were killed, only to be replaced by new clones with the same consciousness and improved genetics. The community of Sinister clones is destroyed in The Uncanny X-Men (vol. 2) #16 (2012). In issue #17 (2012), reveals that one copy of Mr. Sinister's mind survived, however, planting himself in the mind of X-Men public relations manager Kate Kildare. The surviving Sinister mind kills her and creates
37856-464: The man is then freed by coworker Dr. Claudia Russell (ancestor of the werewolf Jack Russell ). Sinister leaves Ravencroft afterward. In 1912, Sinister encounters Grigori Rasputin and encourages him to father many children, promising they will have superhuman potential. Rasputin's descendants later include siblings Colossus , Magik , and Mikhail Rasputin. A few years after meeting Rasputin, Sinister grants shape-shifting abilities to Jacob Shaw (father of
38080-422: The mansion , he temporarily loses his powers after owning up to his self-inflicted, traumatic past. This prompted an interview with Whedon in Wizard magazine #182. When asked if Cyclops did not have his powers anymore, Whedon replied: No, he doesn't have his powers. Well, he had a choice to either be completely out of control or bury them. He can't use them. That's pretty much it. But the thing that would be fun
38304-412: The most influential figures in human history and was honoured by burial in Westminster Abbey . Darwin's early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh ; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates . His studies at the University of Cambridge 's Christ's College from 1828 to 1831 encouraged his passion for natural science . However, it
38528-447: The mutant Morlocks living beneath Manhattan. He hires the mutant thief Gambit (who has not yet time traveled and so considers this to be his first meeting with Sinister) to recruit a new team of Marauders who will work with Sabretooth and Scalphunter. In exchange, Mr. Sinister performs surgery on Gambit to correct a defect that would have ensured the mutant thief would one day lose control of his powers. Before sending his Marauders against
38752-448: The nearby Anglican Shrewsbury School as a boarder . Darwin spent the summer of 1825 as an apprentice doctor, helping his father treat the poor of Shropshire, before going to the well-regarded University of Edinburgh Medical School with his brother Erasmus in October 1825. Darwin found lectures dull and surgery distressing, so he neglected his studies. He learned taxidermy in around 40 daily hour-long sessions from John Edmonstone ,
38976-801: The new mutant community of the island Krakoa , and joining its ruling Quiet Council alongside Magneto , Professor X, Apocalypse, and others. The 2023 series Immortal X-Men established that the original Nathaniel Essex died in 1895 on being murdered by Sherlock Holmes / Mystique . Before his death he created four clones to research paths to Machine Dominionhood independent of one another, whom Mystique's wife Destiny (Irene Adler) ensured would survive to adulthood. The clone branded with ( ♦️ ) continued to operate as Minister Sinister, while two others, branded with (♣️) and (♠️) respectively, became Doctor Stasis who researched various ways to post-Humanity and Orbis Stellaris who abandoned Earth and ventured into space to research alien technologies. The fourth clone with
39200-433: The official Narrative of the Beagle voyages, and after reading Darwin's diary, he proposed incorporating it into the account. Darwin's Journal was eventually rewritten as a separate third volume, on geology and natural history. In Cape Town , South Africa, Darwin and FitzRoy met John Herschel, who had recently written to Lyell praising his uniformitarianism as opening bold speculation on "that mystery of mysteries,
39424-410: The origin of species". Without telling Darwin, extracts from his letters to Henslow had been read to scientific societies, printed as a pamphlet for private distribution among members of the Cambridge Philosophical Society , and reported in magazines, including The Athenaeum . Darwin first heard of this at Cape Town, and at Ascension Island read of Sedgwick's prediction that Darwin "will have
39648-425: The orphanage and wanders before being taken in as ward by Charles Xavier . When Scott was a young boy, his father, USAF Major Christopher Summers , took the family for a flight in their de Havilland Mosquito from his grandparents' home in Anchorage , Alaska , when it came under attack by an alien Shi'ar spaceship. As the plane went down in flames, Scott's parents fastened him and his younger brother Alex into
39872-420: The other original X-Men recruits. The group of old friends decide to create a new team together called X-Factor . With Cyclops gone and occupied, Sinister sends his newly formed Marauders to attack the now vulnerable Summers house in Alaska. The Marauders attack Maddie and leave her for dead, then take Nathan Summers to the State Home for Foundlings. Meanwhile, Sinister erases all records of Maddie and arranges for
40096-465: The parents of ten children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. Continuing his research in London, Darwin's wide reading now included the sixth edition of Malthus 's An Essay on the Principle of Population . On 28 September 1838, he noted its assertion that human "population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio", a geometric progression so that population soon exceeds food supply in what
40320-401: The planet with a better version of humanity. The X-Men restore San Francisco and defeat Sinister, who loses his enhanced power. Foreseeing the Phoenix Force will one day return to Earth, Sinister tells the young mutant Hope Summers about its existence, knowing she will be its choice for a new host. In truth, he intends to steal the Phoenix energy by using a group of Madelyne Pryor clones. When
40544-517: The possibility that "one species does change into another" to explain the geographical distribution of living species such as the rheas, and extinct ones such as the strange extinct mammal Macrauchenia , which resembled a giant guanaco , a llama relative. Around mid-July, he recorded in his "B" notebook his thoughts on lifespan and variation across generations – explaining the variations he had observed in Galápagos tortoises , mockingbirds, and rheas. He sketched branching descent, and then
40768-429: The possibility that his lack of control over his optic blasts actually stems not from physical brain damage, but from a sort of mental block that the young Scott imposed upon himself after the combined traumas of the loss of his parents, separation from his brother, and shocking manifestation of his powers; this is seen as a coping mechanism, giving Scott something to focus on and try to maintain some sort of control over at
40992-415: The purpose of controlling mutant childbirths, causing further evolution in natural-born mutants, and triggering mutation in non-mutants. Though she realizes the secondary and primary mutations caused by such tampering are debilitating to the point of being lethal, Renko works with Bastion, Emma Frost, and Havok to unleash Mothervine on a global scale. Mothervine bombs containing the catalyst are launched into
41216-454: The replacement of extinct species by others" as "a natural in contradistinction to a miraculous process". When organising his notes as the ship sailed home, Darwin wrote that, if his growing suspicions about the mockingbirds, the tortoises and the Falkland Islands fox were correct, "such facts undermine the stability of Species", then cautiously added "would" before "undermine". He later wrote that such facts "seemed to me to throw some light on
41440-490: The reprint series Classic X-Men #41–42 (December 1989) detailed the role Mister Sinister played in Cyclops' early life at an orphanage in Nebraska . The stories feature a boy named Nate who is roommates with the young Scott Summers. Despite Scott saying he does not particularly like Nate, the boy appears to be unhealthily attached to him and is aggressively protective, blocking Scott from having other friends. Claremont intended Nate to actually be Mister Sinister, revealing this
41664-416: The school's mole. Sinister escapes but his new DNA samples are destroyed. Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( / ˈ d ɑːr w ɪ n / DAR -win ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist , geologist , and biologist , widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology . His proposition that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor
41888-432: The school. However, the pair go into retirement following Operation: Zero Tolerance , in which Cyclops is gravely injured when a bomb is placed in his chest. Scott and Jean return to the X-Men sometime after at the request of Storm, when she grows concerned about the mental well-being of Professor X (who had returned sometime prior). Their return then leads to the events of The Twelve , in which Apocalypse plans to use
42112-415: The sewer-dwelling community known as the Morlocks, Mr. Sinister decides these mutants should not be allowed the chance to mix with the gene pool of other mutants and humans. His studies also reveal that several Morlocks bear signs of genetic manipulation based on his own research (due to Dark Beast's experiments). Enraged that someone has used his "signature" without his permission, Sinister decides to wipe out
42336-408: The struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here, then, I had at last got a theory by which to work... By mid-December, Darwin saw
42560-409: The systematics of the taxa. He wrote his first examination of the species in 1846, but did not formally describe it until 1854. FitzRoy's long delayed Narrative was published in May 1839. Darwin's Journal and Remarks got good reviews as the third volume, and on 15 August it was published on its own. Early in 1842, Darwin wrote about his ideas to Charles Lyell, who noted that his ally "denies seeing
42784-406: The telepathic Xavier and the other X-Men don't become aware of and interfere with his plans. Not long afterward, Mr. Sinister hires the villains Blob and Kraven the Hunter to fight and wound each of the X-Men. This results in a battle that draws the attention of the teenage hero Spider-Man . Kraven then brings the blood samples of the X-Men and Spider-Man back to Sinister for study, even providing
43008-836: The time, causing her skin-to-skin contact with Sinister to kill the villain almost instantaneously. Thanks to using the Cronus Device decades earlier to implant his own genetic information into the Marko, Ryking, Shaw, and Xavier family lines, Sinister's consciousness is able to inhabit Charles Xavier's body following his death at Mystique's hands. Sebastian Shaw and Gambit destroy the machine, enabling Xavier to drive out Sinister's consciousness. A fail-safe plan allows Sinister's consciousness to then activate within former test subject Claudine Renko, whose body then transforms to mimic Sinister's powers and genetics but with female sex characteristics. Although she gains some of Sinister's memories and his knowledge of science, Renko's personality remains intact and resists Sinister's personality. Seeing herself as
43232-601: The timeline is due to Xavier's powerful mutant son Legion traveling back in time to kill Magneto before the X-Men have even formed, but accidentally killing Charles Xavier instead. This creates a new " Age of Apocalypse " reality where Apocalypse conquers much of the Western hemisphere and Magneto forms his own team of X-Men rebels, naming them in honor of his fallen friend Charles. In this reality, Sinister helps Apocalypse rule, adopts both Alex and Scott Summers as his personal soldiers, and recruits Henry McCoy (Dark Beast) as his lab assistant. Believing Apocalypse will ultimately destroy
43456-428: The truth, Scott leaves the Xavier Institute, and a short time later Emma is found shattered in her diamond form and believed killed. Scott soon finds himself at the Hellfire Club which had been turned into a sleazy strip club and tries to get drunk, attempting to escape the responsibilities, expectations, and demands which he feels are unjustly placed on him by the X-Men. He then accompanies Wolverine and Fantomex to
43680-469: The twilight of Earth." Months after Nathan's kidnapping, Maddie awakes from her coma, amnesiac. After regaining her memory, she contacts and reunites with the X-Men. Now bitter and increasingly desperate regarding her missing child, Maddie believes Scott completely abandoned them and never cared enough to contact her or look for her. She later joins forces with the demons S'ym and N'Astirh who take advantage of her state of mind and corrupt her, turning her into
43904-419: The two having a daughter, Rachel Summers , from an alternate future. Other significant love interests include his ex-wife Madelyne Pryor —a clone of Jean and mother of his son Cable —and fellow X-Man Emma Frost . Cyclops' archenemy is Mister Sinister , who is obsessed with the Summers and Grey bloodlines and has often manipulated events in Cyclops' life, resulting in various clashes with the X-Men. Cyclops
44128-586: The two kiss in the woods outside the school, but Logan walks away telling her that she should remain with Scott. Xavier leaves Earth while under the control of Cassandra Nova and Jean is left as Headmistress of the school. Her new responsibilities along with her growing powers, force Jean to put her attention elsewhere leaving Scott feeling ignored and his trauma from being possessed trivialized. Instead of attempting to reconcile with her, Scott turns to Emma Frost for consolation, feeling that he can talk to Emma about his problems. Their relationship ostensibly begins as
44352-434: The villain's first " prelate ." Apocalypse reveals he has alien technology belonging to the Celestials (god-like beings who manipulated humanity in the past, resulting in the creation of the Eternals and the Deviants , as well as humanity's genetic potential for superhumans). With the Celestial machines, Apocalypse subjects Essex to a painful genetic transformation, turning him into an ageless being with chalk-white skin and
44576-413: The villainous scientist may be vulnerable to his power, Cyclops releases a high-intensity blast that seems to atomize Mr. Sinister, leaving only charred bones. The battle over, Scott and Jean decide to raise the baby Nathan together. In truth, Mr. Sinister is alive, having decided to fake his death so he can retreat rather than continue to battle both X-Factor and the X-Men single-handedly. Later on, Nathan
44800-419: The virus into Apocalypse, but it only weakens the villain. As Apocalypse returns to hibernation to heal, he promises to kill Sinister when next they meet. Sinister decides to engineer a mutant who can kill Apocalypse . In 1907, Sinister works at the Ravencroft Institute and employs the mutant killer and mercenary Sabretooth as an agent. Sabretooth brings him the mutant called Logan for experimentation, but
45024-420: The voyage began on 27 December 1831; it lasted almost five years. As FitzRoy had intended, Darwin spent most of that time on land investigating geology and making natural history collections, while HMS Beagle surveyed and charted coasts. He kept careful notes of his observations and theoretical speculations, and at intervals during the voyage his specimens were sent to Cambridge together with letters including
45248-421: The voyage, Darwin began detailed investigations and, in 1838, devised his theory of natural selection. Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research, and his geological work had priority. He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay that described the same idea, prompting the immediate joint submission of both their theories to
45472-459: The way he had handled the situation. The demons S'ym and N'astirh corrupt Madelyne's feelings of self-despair, transforming her into the Goblin Queen. Madelyne seeks revenge on Scott for leaving her. When it is revealed that she is a clone created by geneticist Mister Sinister , essentially for the purpose of becoming a brood mare , Madelyne cannot take it anymore and kills herself. Scott seemingly kills Sinister with an optic blast, and pursues
45696-403: The work of earthworms , inspiring "a new & important theory" on their role in soil formation , which Darwin presented at the Geological Society on 1 November 1837. His Journal was printed and ready for publication by the end of February 1838, as was the first volume of the Narrative , but FitzRoy was still working hard to finish his own volume. William Whewell pushed Darwin to take on
45920-468: The wreckage left behind, Claudine Renko lives, looked over by a fifth Alice clone who now contains Mr. Sinister's consciousness in her mind. Miss Sinister is next seen in the company of the reality displaced X-Men of a now-dead universe. One member of this team, Jimmy Hudson , has a genetic anomaly that could enable Renko to create and control spontaneous mutation. Over the following months, Renko further researches this anomaly, calling it Mothervine , for
46144-585: Was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). On 29 January, Darwin and Emma Wedgwood were married at Maer in an Anglican ceremony arranged to suit the Unitarians, then immediately caught the train to London and their new home. Darwin now had the framework of his theory of natural selection "by which to work", as his "prime hobby". His research included extensive experimental selective breeding of plants and animals, finding evidence that species were not fixed and investigating many detailed ideas to refine and substantiate his theory. For fifteen years this work
46368-418: Was a " wren " was in the finch group . Darwin had not labelled the finches by island, but from the notes of others on the ship, including FitzRoy, he allocated species to islands. The two rheas were distinct species, and on 14 March Darwin announced how their distribution changed going southwards. By mid-March 1837, barely six months after his return to England, Darwin was speculating in his Red Notebook on
46592-409: Was anathema to Anglicans defending social order, but reputable scientists openly discussed the subject, and there was wide interest in John Herschel's letter praising Lyell's approach as a way to find a natural cause of the origin of new species. Gould met Darwin and told him that the Galápagos mockingbirds from different islands were separate species, not just varieties, and what Darwin had thought
46816-421: Was birthed from a "prior existence", a cell sample taken from a previously existing person). Mr. Sinister gives "Maddie" false memories and documentation of a life where she is a pilot who survived a plane crash that occurred at the same time Jean Grey killed herself. After influencing her personality to be one that will appeal to Scott Summers and will also fall in love with him, Sinister arranges for Maddie to have
47040-418: Was his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836 that truly established Darwin as an eminent geologist. The observations and theories he developed during his voyage supported Charles Lyell 's concept of gradual geological change . Publication of his journal of the voyage made Darwin famous as a popular author. Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on
47264-447: Was his true form and the armored villain was an illusion he used to threaten others. However, Claremont left the X-Men comics before this origin was revealed to readers. Fans later considered "Nate" to be Sinister in disguise as a boy, whereas his adult, armored appearance was his true form. The 2009 series X-Men Forever (vol. 2) showed an alternate timeline, beginning at roughly the same point where Chris Claremont left as head writer of
47488-425: Was in the background to his main occupation of writing on geology and publishing expert reports on the Beagle collections, in particular, the barnacles . The impetus of Darwin's barnacle research came from a collection of a barnacle colony from Chile in 1835, which he dubbed Mr. Arthrobalanus . His confusion over the relationship of this species ( Cryptophialus minutus ) to other barnacles caused him to fixate on
47712-403: Was murdered by then Emperor D'Ken, leaving a grieving Corsair to escape captivity and form the Starjammers. He also finds out through Corsair that he has living grandparents, who own a shipping company in Alaska. During his first visit to his grandparents he meets Madelyne Pryor , a woman who bears a strong resemblance to Jean. Eventually he marries her, and after she gets pregnant he retires from
47936-453: Was no unbridgeable gap between humans and animals. A year on, the mission had been abandoned. The Fuegian they had named Jemmy Button lived like the other natives, had a wife, and had no wish to return to England. Darwin experienced an earthquake in Chile in 1835 and saw signs that the land had just been raised, including mussel -beds stranded above high tide. High in the Andes he saw seashells, and several fossil trees that had grown on
48160-551: Was only temporary. After the events of House of M , nearly all mutants were left depowered , and Xavier was missing. A mysterious villain then attacked and easily defeated several members of the team, including Cyclops and his alternate-reality daughter, Rachel . The two were captured and taken to an undisclosed location, which Cyclops vaguely remembered visiting in the past. Eventually managing to free themselves, Cyclops and Rachel attempted to escape, only to run into their captor (revealed to be Vulcan ), who informed Cyclops that he
48384-443: Was originally a Victorian-era scientist named Nathaniel Essex who later gained superhuman powers from Apocalypse, thus abandoning Claremont's idea that he was an immortal trapped in the form of a child. The 2006 mini-series X-Men: Colossus Bloodline revealed that Mr. Sinister's powers were weakening and he hoped to restore them. Before he can restore his full power, Sinister is killed in New X-Men (vol. 2) #46 (2008). The same year,
48608-430: Was popular enough that Chef Boyardee used him to advertise its pasta. In X-Men (vol. 2) Annual 1995, flashbacks reveal Sinister living in Los Angeles in the 1930s as "Nathan Essex" and depict him as an adult man during that era. In the 1996 limited series The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix , writer Peter Milligan (with artists John Paul Leon and Klaus Janson ) establishes Sinister's origin, revealing he
48832-507: Was raised, who turned out to be the secret master of the place. In effect what we were setting up was a guy who was aging over a lifespan of roughly a thousand years. Even though he looked like an 11-year-old, he'd actually been alive since the mid-century at this point—he was actually about 50 [...] He had all the grown-up urges. He's growing up in his mind but his body isn't capable of handling it, which makes him quite cranky. And, of course, looking like an 11-year-old, who'd take him seriously in
49056-457: Was rather bored by Robert Jameson 's natural-history course, which covered geology – including the debate between neptunism and plutonism . He learned the classification of plants and assisted with work on the collections of the University Museum , one of the largest museums in Europe at the time. Darwin's neglect of medical studies annoyed his father, who sent him to Christ's College, Cambridge , in January 1828, to study for
49280-574: Was surprised to find some benefit from hydrotherapy . Then, in 1851, his treasured daughter Annie fell ill, reawakening his fears that his illness might be hereditary. She died the same year after a long series of crises. In eight years of work on barnacles, Darwin's theory helped him to find " homologies " showing that slightly changed body parts served different functions to meet new conditions, and in some genera he found minute males parasitic on hermaphrodites , showing an intermediate stage in evolution of distinct sexes . In 1853, it earned him
49504-482: Was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor and financier Robert Darwin and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood). His grandfathers Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood were both prominent abolitionists . Erasmus Darwin had praised general concepts of evolution and common descent in his Zoonomia (1794), a poetic fantasy of gradual creation including undeveloped ideas anticipating concepts his grandson expanded. Both families were largely Unitarian , though
49728-446: Was to leave in four weeks on an expedition to chart the coastline of South America. Robert Darwin objected to his son's planned two-year voyage, regarding it as a waste of time, but was persuaded by his brother-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood II , to agree to (and fund) his son's participation. Darwin took care to remain in a private capacity to retain control over his collection, intending it for a major scientific institution. After delays,
49952-568: Was tortured because he couldn't control his power." Originally dubbed "Slim Summers", by The X-Men #3 his name was changed to "Scott", with "Slim" becoming a nickname. Scott Summers is the first of the X-Men recruited by Professor X ; Xavier hand-picks Scott to lead his X-Men, and to carry on the legacy of his mutant-human-harmony ideals. Xavier views Scott as one of his most prized pupils; their relationship exhibits father/son qualities. From time to time, Scott's extreme loyalty to Xavier has cost him dearly in his relationships with others; but, over
50176-399: Was unable to save his son from the fatal infection. Distraught, Scott sends his son into the future where he can be cured. Next, Xavier's psionic enemy, Shadow King , returns to combat the X-Men and X-Factor. After his defeat, Cyclops and X-Factor rejoin the X-Men team, and Scott is named leader of a newly created "Blue Team". After Cyclops's return as field leader, much of the Blue team
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