Real Name: Dr. Nathaniel Essex A geneticist of unparalleled genius, Sinister foresaw the coming mutations that would befall mankind when he was still human. However, his unorthodox experiments caused him to be rejected by the Royal Society, and by his own wife in 1857, leading him to Apocalypse, who gave him a silvery skin and stripped him of his humanity. Interestingly, Cyclops and Phoenix were sent back in time by Sanctity of the Askani, not to prevent Essex's transformation, but to instead stop Apocalypse's rise to power and induce Sinister to betray his master, which he did by infecting him with a virus, sending En Sabah Nur back into suspended animation.
Sinister has conducted numerous experiments in his time, plotting the course of certain genepools for over a century. He ran an obstetrics clinic in New York in the late 19th century and performed genetic research on society's deviants on the side. In the early 20th Century he traveled the globe searching for mutants, but mostly found freaks and genetic dead ends. However, on a trip to Russia he found Grigoriy Rasputin, the mad monk purported to have healing and other abilities, and a pair of siblings, Ivan and Elena, who also demonstrated powers. Sinister worked with Rasputing to breed a new generation of mutants, having Rasputin impregnate mutant or latent-mutant women, then monitoring and genetically manipulating the pregnancies. After Rasputin was killed, Sinister apparently abandoned his Russian project, likely due to the Communist Revolution, but it should be noted that Colossus, Mikhail and Magik are all results of that effort.
During WWII, Sinister joined the Nazi scientists and managed to get a blood sample of the Sub-Mariner from which he created a clone, N2. N2 had the ability to absorb and project water, and defeated Namor and the original Human Torch quite easily, but fell to the unexpected skill of Captain America. Working first in the Nazi death camps as a "doctor," he counted Gabrielle Haller among his patients. After WWII, one of Essex's journals was left behind in the Nazi labs and found by the Professor, who began the Weapon X Program. In his guise as Dr. Essex, Sinister influenced the research of Herbert Wyndham, the man who became the High Evolutionary. He also secured a position at Oxford as a biology professor, and taught Professor X and Moira MacTaggert, even becoming Moira's faculty advisor.
Over time Sinister found that the combination of Scott Summers' and Jean Grey's genes would generate a mutant of incredible power. The young Scott was brought to Sinister's orphanage in Nebraska, and Sinister collected a blood sample from Jean Grey to confirm his findings. When Phoenix died, Sinister used that sample to create the clone who was known as Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne was set up to meet Scott, and naturally, the two fell in love and married. Madelyne gave birth to Nathan Christopher, a child with telekinetic powers, but before Sinister could get a hold of him, Madelyne allied herself with N'astrih and became the Goblin Queen. After that, Nathan was cared for by his father and the "resurrected" Jean Grey. Before Sinster could make another attempt to get Nathan, Apocalypse, sensing that this child could be a weapon for Sinister to use against him, infected Nathan with a techno-organic virus, which forced Cyclops to send him into the future, where he grew up to be the man we know as Cable.
In his pursuit of genetic perfection Sinister had Gambit assemble a group of assassins known as the Marauders. The Marauders entered the Morlock tunnels under Manhattan and commenced a slaughter, because Sinister considered the Morlocks genetically useless. However, Sinister sometimes aids the X-Men, for reasons all his own. He helped Gambit save Sabretooth's life after his adamantium was removed, he took in Threnody and helped her control her power before she escaped, and in the 19th Century, he helped Gambit stop the current Thieves' Guild from revealing Apocalypse's secrets to Candra, as well as returning Courier to a more human state. In each case, though, Sinister exacts a price, and it is usually very costly, not to the pocket, but to the soul.
When Herbert Wyndham (the High Evolutionary) activated a satellite that reverted all mutant DNA to human DNA, stripping all Earth's mutants of their mutations, Dr. Essex, who had come to support his student's work, then revealed himself as Sinister. He locked down Wyndham's armor and modified the satellite's beam to mutate every human being on Earth, providing Sinister with an entire planet of lab subjects. Fortunately he was stopped by the X-Men. Soon after, nearly 20 of Sinister's facilities were attacked by Domina, and she appeared to have killed him at each one. Exactly what happened to Sinister is unclear.
What is known is that Sinister survived, and after Colossus sacrificed himself to cure the Legacy Virus, he offered Nightcrawler the opportunity to resurrect Piotr as a clone. He was flatly refused.
Later, Sinister insinuated himself into the reborn Weapon X Program as "Dr. Windsor." He appeared to be saving mutants from the Neverland concentration camp, but in reality was bringing them to his secret lab and experimenting on them. As Windsor, Sinister was privy to the secrets of the Program's members, such as the fact that Mesmero had lost his powers and Sabretooth was again free of mind control, but he seems not to have acted on this knowledge, except to ensure that his identity was not uncovered.
Soon after, Sinister was attacked by Sabretooth, but just as Sabretooth defeated Sinister's minions, Creed's employer paid him to leave... revealing that the employer was John Sublime, head of the Weapon Plus Program, itself based on Sinister's research. Sinister made a deal with Sublime, the details still unknown.
Recently, Sinister donned a white mask and traveled through Russia, killing the descendants of Rasputin while traveling with Mikhail. They were eventually confronted by Colossus and Larisa Mischenko, a Rasputin cousin, in the cabin of Vlad Rasputin, where Sinister related his part in the Rasputin family genesis. Sinister tried to eliminate the entire bloodline, allowing the essence of Rasputin's soul to consolidate within Mikhail, so he could continue his work with Grigoriy. However, his plan was ultimately foiled when Mikhail sacrificed himself to save Colossus, exiling himself to an interdimensional void. Strangely, during this encounter Sinister's powers seemed severely diminished, leading to speculation that M-Day had affected him somehow.
After Apocalypse attacked the X-Mansion and the United Nations and was defeated, Sinister suddenly appeared to former horsemen Sunfire and Gambit (Death IV) in Japan. He made them an offer, but the terms are still unknown.
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