The classic X-Men villain Mr. Sinister is becoming more complex than ever before, with a disturbing new cloning arc that suggests there are at least three other versions operating in the Marvel Universe. A scientist who lived at the time of Charles Darwin, Nathaniel Essex became fascinated with the concept of evolution. He proposed that evolution does not necessarily happen slowly; rather, there is also the capacity to undergo rapid transformation - mutation - in just one or two generations. Though Essex did not know it, he was speaking of the existence of mutants.
As told in The Further Adventures of Cyclops & Phoenix, Essex was expelled from the Royal Society due to his unethical experiments. He believed science should not be constrained by petty morality, and indeed saw in Darwin's ideas the opportunity of separating science from God-given ethics. Unfortunately Essex's experiments drew the attention of the immortal mutant Apocalypse, and he underwent a dramatic transformation thanks to Apocalypse's Celestial technology. Essex became functionally immortal, and dedicated his life to continuing his research as Mr. Sinister. Sinister has long tended to form the most disturbing alliances. He sided with the Nazis during the Second World War, reveling in the opportunity for experimentation. After Germany's defeat, he seems to have taken advantage of Operation: Paperclip and found his way into the United States, running a dangerous project at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in which he worked alongside Professor X's father, Charles; this secret history of the mutant race has yet to be explored. More recently, though, Sinister allied with Professor X and Magneto to provide storehouses of genetic information that would prove key to unlocking the secret of mutant resurrection. He's seated on Krakoa's ruling Quiet Council, albeit still distrusted - with good reason. Now, Marvel has revealed Sinister's background may be a lot more complex than anyone previously believed.
Mr. Sinister May Not Be The Genuine Article
The X-Men are currently facing the threat of Orchis, an alliance of anti-mutant forces who threaten everything the mutant race has built on Krakoa and Arakko. One of their most dangerous members is a man named Dr. Stasis, a ruthless scientist who successfully figured out the secrets of the Resurrection Protocols and launched a Machiavellian plan that would have boxed the mutants in if Cyclops hadn't exposed their newfound immortality to the world. Cyclops managed to bait a trap for Dr. Stasis, and was shocked to learn the truth - Dr. Stasis is another version of Mr. Sinister.
Emma Frost confronted the Quiet Council's Sinister in Immortal X-Men #4, by Kieron Gillen and Michele Bandini, and he was shaken to see a psychic image of the unmasked Dr. Stasis. He was particularly troubled by a specific detail - the fact Dr. Stasis' forehead is not marked with the traditional diamond icon of Sinister, but rather with a club. Sinister immediately deduced this suggests there are four versions of Nathaniel Essex out there, each bearing the mark of a different suit: the diamond, the club, the heart, and the spade. Both Sinister and Stasis believe there are the genuine article, and it is likely Heart and Spade do as well. But, disturbingly, it's entirely possible the true Nathaniel Essex is still out there - unmarked, responsible for creating all four of these beings.
Nathaniel Essex has always been obsessed with cloning and genetic engineering. That's actually how Mr. Sinister originally became a mutant in the first place; he obtained genetic samples of the X-Men's Thunderbird, and incorporated his DNA into his own. He's also an expert at recording and flash-implanting memories, meaning clones have believed themselves to be the real deal in the past. But it's now possible four or five versions of Essex have been operating in the shadows all along, with the clones presumably created to pursue scientific research in specific avenues. If all four have indeed been created - Sinister, Stasis, Heart, and Spade - then presumably the original Nathaniel Essex has an agenda all his own.
Sinister's Shocking Revelations Rewrite The History Of The Marvel Universe
This is clearly a major retcon for the X-Men's classic enemy. It's surprisingly easy to weave this concept into X-Men history and lore, however, simply because Mr. Sinister is noted for his secrecy. He first came to the X-Men's attention when he orchestrated the so-called "Mutant Massacre," in which he hired Sabretooth and a group of Marauders to slaughter an underground mutant community who he believed carried traces of his own genetic engineering programs (in reality they'd been experimented on by Dark Beast, an alternate-universe variant of Beast who'd been mentored by Sinister in the Age of Apocalypse timeline). Sinister managed to remain a mystery even then, with the X-Men only gradually learning the truth about him.
Dr. Stasis has clearly been just as secretive as Mr. Sinister, and it's therefore possible the other versions have been just as cautious about revealing themselves to the world. That would certainly explain why Sinister and Stasis have never crossed paths before, discovering one another's existence; it is only now, when the scale of mutant evolution is greater than ever before, that they are being drawn into one another's orbits. If there are two incarnations of Nathaniel Essex operating with no awareness of one another, focused on completely different scientific disciplines, then there can easily be more.
The most interesting element here, however, is the fact Mr. Sinister had not stumbled upon Dr. Stasis' existence before now as a result of his temporal manipulations. Sinister has reverse-engineered Moira MacTaggert's reincarnation power, meaning he can essentially reboot the timeline whenever he wishes - and he's clearly done so a number of times, reveling in the effective foreknowledge this gives him. Despite this, however, Dr. Stasis' identity came as a shock to the X-Men's uncomfortable ally, meaning this is the first timeline Sinister has lived through where Stasis was unmasked. This further suggests other aspects of the timeline are proceeding in ways Sinister has never lived before - and mutants and humans alike, Orchis and X-Men alike, all have everything to play for as the story continues to unfold.