Marvel’s mutant heroes the X-Men have been fighting against evil since 1963, collecting some of the best villains in comics. But which of their antagonists have the coolest designs?
Here are the 10 best supervillain designs from all of X-Men lore, including several classic foes and some deserving modern additions.
10
Sabretooth, aka Victor Creed
Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne
Debuting as an enemy of Danny Rand’s Iron Fist, Sabretooth quickly became the dark opposite to Wolverine, hunting Logan down once a year to ‘celebrate’ his birthday with a vicious brawl.
The whole idea of the pint-sized Wolverine is that even against a bigger enemy, he refuses to back down and will just keep fighting. Sabretooth is that bigger enemy.
While Claremont and Byrne nailed several elements right out the gate – his claws fingers, mane-like hair and the fur trim around his neck – it was Jim Lee’s ’90s redesign that perfect Sabretooth’s most iconic look. Creed should look ridiculous in his stripey get-up, and yet that gleeful smile and wild hair sell him as a vicious killer who just so happens to be wearing a costume.
9
Mister Sinister, aka Nathaniel Essex
Created by Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri
Mister Sinister arguably had something of a false start in X-Men comics, with multiple teases of a grand plan behind the scenes that never quite delivered a satisfying payoff. However, today he’s one of the franchise’s greatest villains of all time – an amoral dandy who will do and say anything to study the mutant genome and perfect his own biology.
His chalky white skin, voluminous cape and Dracula-esque hair make Sinister a grand and imposing threat, but it was only when Marvel added a touch of camp to the character that it all came together. Sinister is a mass murdering eugenicist who really cares that he’s the most well-dressed person in the room.
The addition of a red diamond in Sinister’s design paid off thirty-four years later, when Gerry Duggan and Pepe Larraz unleashed the genius twist that Sinister was one of a set of four villains, each bearing a different card suit symbol.
8
The Brood
Created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum
Shamelessly inspired by Alien‘s Xenomorphs, the Brood are one of the dominant species in the Marvel Universe. The Brood kill and consume their prey then reproduce through them, often choosing mutants in order to inherit their powers.
But while they may be derivative, the Brood are also terrifying. A mass of teeth and red glowing eyes, everything from their extended heads to their earwing-esque tails is designed to feel gross, especially when hundreds of them come charging out of one of their Acanti spaceships – giant space whales they infest, feed on and pilot from world to world.
7
Mystique, aka Raven Darkhölme
Created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum
Introduced as an enemy of Ms. Marvel, Mystique traveled with co-creator Chris Claremont when he shifted titles to revolutionize the X-Men franchise. The shapeshifter is instantly recognizable (when she wants to be), and is one of the main reasons that blue became the unofficial color of Marvel mutants.
Mystique is one of Marvel’s best creations in terms of color, with her fiery red hair, vibrant blue skin and sheer white costume each setting off the others. Add a few skulls and anyone who trusts Mystique kind of only has themselves to blame.
6
The Chairman of 3K, aka Hank McCoy
Design from Jed MacKay and Mark Morales
If you haven’t read X-Men comics in a while, we have some bad news: founding hero Beast has permanently made the move to villain, replaced on the main X-Men team by a blue-furred clone. Hank’s crimes are so terrible and his replacement so complete, it’s unlikely Marvel will ever reverse his turn to darkness.
However, as a result, fans have gotten one of the best villain designs ever. Now going by ‘The Chairman’ and leading the mutant-supremacist 3K group, Hank has cloned himself a white-furred body to inhabit.
The lank hair and shiny reading glasses offset the Chairman’s appearance as a hulking… well… beast, combining cold sophistication with physical power.
5
Juggernaut, aka Cain Marko
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
It’s really hard to design a strong character who actually feels strong, as several of the X-Men’s superstrong members attest. However, Kirby and Lee knocked it out of the park with the living battering ram that is the Juggernaut.
Juggernaut’s round helmet turns his head into part of his squat, hulking body, adding crucial physicality to a character who spends half his time charging or throwing full-body punches at his enemies.
4
The Sentinels
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Aside from Magneto, the Sentinels are the most iconic villains faced by the X-Men. Towering robots created by human scientists to wipe out homo superior, the Sentinels have developed their own artificial intelligence multiple times, as well as being wielded by foes like Kang the Conqueror and Orchis.
The Sentinels have been endlessly reworked, but the core design of their staring, inhuman faces has never gotten old. They’re inherently imposing and it’s always awesome to see them toppled by the franchise’s mutant heroes.
All that and their purple color scheme tends to make an immediate, clear distinction between the android horde and Marvel’s yellow, red and blue superheroes.
3
Cassandra Nova
Created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
Introduced in 2001, it’s hard to understate how creepy Cassandra Nova was when she first took on the X-Men. She locked Cyclops in a telepathic jail full of giant cockroaches, forced Beast’s favorite student to beat him into a coma and carried out a genocidal attack on the mutant nation of Genosha.
Cassandra Nova is a disembodied force of evil (a ‘Mummudrai’) that copied Charles Xavier’s genetics to create a body, only for the X-Men’s leader to kill his sister in the womb. Over the decades, she regrew her body, entering the physical plane as a bald old woman in a safari suit. That lack of apparent physical threat only makes her more terrifying once she begins taking Marvel’s heroes to pieces.
Cassandra is particularly scary in her true Mummudrai form – a gigantic transparent body mostly made of fists and a huge grunting maw.
2
The Dark Phoenix
Created by Chris Claremont and John Byrne
The Dark Phoenix is what happens when the cosmic Phoenix Force attempts to manifest via a human host and fails, stoking their worst impulses into a fire that can burn down the world. The most iconic example is Jean Grey, with the Dark Phoenix inhabiting or copying her body at different times.
As the Dark Phoenix, Jean Grey is turned into a goddess of fire and destruction. What makes her special is that she retains a color scheme Marvel almost exclusively reserves for heroes, but turns it dark and evil – a symbol of how the Dark Phoenix corrupts its host.
1
Magneto, aka Max Eisenhardt
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
No-one else could have been our number one. Magneto is the X-Men’s first and best villain. A dignified, wrathful force of nature whose design accentuates his power and sense of authority.
Magneto’s helmet is a thing of beauty. It evokes medieval knights and gives him an undeniable warrior presence, while also allowing artists to play with light, often setting his glowing eyes against shadow. The cape accentuates the speed and motion of his powers, whipping around his body as he wields magnetism against Xavier’s students, and can be used to play around with his physical size when draped over his body.
Magneto’s powers are all about gesture, meaning Kirby was free to design his costume around awesome poses, and the legendary artist basically nailed it from Magneto’s first appearance.
Those are the 10 best villain designs from X-Men comics – let us know in the comments below what you think of our ranking, and what other villains should appear on this list (and no, we didn’t forget about Apocalypse.)
- Movie(s)
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X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
- First Film
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X-Men (2000)
- TV Show(s)
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X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men ’97 (2024)
- Video Game(s)
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X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine’s Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
- Character(s)
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Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
- Comic Release Date
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213035,212968