With a release date set for October of 2016, Rupert Wyatt’s Gambit movie is expected to go into production very soon… but at this point it seems like the film still has a lot of stuff to take care of in pre-production. Set to play the titular mutant, a.k.a. Remy LeBeau, Channing Tatum is currently the only actor attached to the project, and it’s extremely unlikely that 20th Century Fox plans to keep it that way. But who exactly will the characters be that surround the A-lister in the future comic book blockbuster? Today it seems that the future is a little less hazy.
The one rumour that keeps popping up is that of Mr. Sinister being the main villain. The cloning obsessed scientist/human mutate already has an interesting history with the Raging Cajun – having originally hired the young thief to steal special diaries from the Weapon X program. The description matches the supervillain to a T, and the bonus of introducing him in this film is that you have him established in the world for future X-Men universe adventures.
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Let’s take a closer look at Who is Mr. Sinister – Marvel Villain?
1. History
The X-Men movies have already introduced many of the superhero team’s biggest enemies, but Mister Sinister is one of the few that hasn’t been adapted yet. Making his comics debut in 1987, Sinister was originally Nathaniel Essex, a biologist from Victorian era England. Believing that morals were holding him back from making true progress with his experiments on evolution, he allied himself with Apocalypse and was genetically mutated by the ancient Egyptian, giving him abilities like prolonged life (allowing him to antagonize the X-Men in the present), regeneration, shapeshifting, energy projection, and more. Sinister has previously appeared in animated shows like X-Men: The Animated Series and Wolverine and the X-Men, as well as video games like X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse.
2. The Perfect Mutant
Sinister was obsessed with creating the perfect ultimate mutant. Feeling threatened by the power of Nur / Apocalypse, Sinister conducted numerous experiments in his time, searching for a powerful mutant to oppose his master and the means to improve himself. For a time, Sinister continued to advance his master plan to serve Nur (and his own ends), but in general preferred to let bloodlines breed naturally (rather than hastily transforming them), in order to produce the most racially-supreme beings.
Sinister eventually realized Scott and Jean Grey’s mingled genes would create a mutant of unparalleled power, to destroy Apocalypse and thus free him from the yoke of that ancient tyrant. Around this time, Jean, actually the Phoenix Force, was acting reckless, so Sinister created a clone of her. Sinister’s plot was to produce a child from the union of the clone and Scott, whom he believed would become a genetically superior mutant. To Sinister’s disappointment, the clone had no life and did not develop any mutant abilities at puberty, as he had hoped. Sinister left the clone in her incubation tube, under the orphanage, as a failed experiment.
3. Powers and Abilities
Following genetic alteration by Apocalypse, Sinister possesses a wide array of powers. Over the years, Sinister has used the genetic material of other mutants to grant himself a vast array of powers.
Powers:
- He has been stated to be an Alpha-Level Mutant.
- Cellular Shape-Shifting: Mister Sinister possesses the ability to control every molecule of his body, allowing him to assume the form of any one he wishes. He once reduced himself into a semi-liquid state and with total control of his body not only can he control his muscles and even his pain but he can also create weapons, clothes, assume animal form and their abilities and also divide himself in multiple forms. Enabled via Implanted X-gene taken from the bio-molecular meta-morph Courier.
- Regenerative Healing Factor: Mister Sinister is able to rapidly regenerate damaged or destroyed tissue with much greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. Sinister can fully heal from injuries that result in massive tissue damage or loss such as multiple gunshot wounds, slashes, puncture wounds, broken bones, and severe burns within a matter of moments. It is unknown if he can regenerate missing limbs or organs, but his healing factor has been compared to that of Wolverine and his healing factor has allowed him to reconstruct his body from almost nothing so his feats suggest that he can.
- Superhuman Stamina: Mister Sinister’s muscles produce considerably less fatigue toxins than the muscles of ordinary humans. He can exert himself at peak capacity several hours before fatigue begins to affect him.
- Superhuman Speed: Mister Sinister is capable of running at speeds far greater than those of the finest human athlete. His speed can be further enhanced by the use of his ability to fly at incredible speeds.
- Superhuman Durability: Mister Sinister’s muscles and tissue are far more durable than those of an ordinary man allowing him to resist gunshot, physical damage, shocks and also energy blasts however he has been heavily hurt by Cyclops´s blast in the past. Although it is possible to harm Mister Sinister in this kind of way, he is able to instantly regenerate his wounds with his extraordinary healing factor plus he can enhance his durability by the use of his telekinesis and his personal force fields.
- Superhuman Strength Mister Sinister possesses superhuman strength, which may be a product of his shape-shifting. Sinister is able to press lift within 2 to 10 ton range, maybe even more but he can also access his telekinesis to enhance his physical strength to more powerful levels.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Sinister’s reflexes and agility are enhanced to levels that are beyond the human body’s natural limits.
- Telepathy: He can read minds and project his own thoughts into the minds of others within a radius of 250 miles (on Earth). With extreme effort he can greatly extend that radius. Not only is Mister Sinister himself resistant to telepathy due to his mutant gene but his clone, Miss Sinister with all his powers has revealed she had telepathic powers that could match those of Emma Frost, making Sinister one of the most powerful telepaths in the world, manifesting the following abilities:
- Mental Paralysis: He has the ability to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis and also pain into the minds of others.
- Mind Control: He is capable of controlling the minds of others but only one at a time and if the target is in his physical presence. He can also manipulate memories, creating new ones or erasing others, such as he as done with his clones and also alter perceptions and appearances.
- Dilate Power: He has the ability to mentally paralyze a foe he’s touching and the ability to psionically “turn off” the superpowers of any mutant, creating a mental block. He can also create mental links with others and even to objects and locations like the bases he has used over the years.
- Telekinesis: He possesses telekinetic abilities enabling him to levitate and manipulate living beings, inanimate objects, and to some extent energy, psionically. He can “lift” as much as 10 tons of weight and possibly even more and can achieve other effects.
- Concussive Blasts: Mister Sinister can fire blasts of concussive force from his hands, eyes or from the diamond-shaped scarlet mark on his forehead. These blasts are powerful enough to match Cyclops´s energy blasts at their full power for a considerable period of time and have a great destructive power.
- Force Fields: Mister Sinister can erect multiple force barriers to repel, reflect and defend against incoming onslaughts, they’re potent enough to stand against Cyclops’s optic blasts with ease. He normally uses them on a personal level but it is assumed he can not only increase and decreased the protection level but also enhance the size of the shield to englobe others and even entire areas.
- Flight: Sinister has shown he can use his telekinesis on himself to accommodate flight, how fast is undetermined but it’s speed is still impressive nonetheless.
- Teleportation: Mister Sinister has exhibited the ability to teleport under large distances, however Beast believes this is a function of his headquarters and this fact remains to be cleared.
- Technology Interface: Mister Sinister is able to directly interface with various technologies he has at his disposal.
- Immortality: Mister Sinister is functionally immortal in the sense that he is immune to aging and disease and he can rapidly regenerate almost any damaged bodily tissue. However, it was possible for him to be killed. He also doesn’t require food, water, or even air to breathe and can survive indefinitely in a complete vacuum. This ability originated from his healing factor and from his exposure to Celestial technology from Apocalypse.
Abilities:
- Genius-Level Intellect: Mister Sinister is a genius with expertise in various fields of science, mainly genetics with years of his research at his command, mutations and their powers, human and alien biology, cloning, all levels of physics, engineering (including mechanical, genetic and electrical engineering) and more. His intellect has been said to match Reed Richards and Doctor Doom and he is one of the smartest people on Earth. Sinister, having lived for over 150 years has acquired vast knowledge over many known fields, being a formidable scientist and a talented inventor. Considered the most brilliant mind of his time, Dr. Essex was already a genius with a PhD and an M.D and other honors in biology and genetics and was a member of the British Royal Society. His intellect later grew to new levels after his time with Apocalypse and the advanced Celestial technology he had access to, mastering not only this and all technology from Earth (allowing him considerable expertise in cybernetics, robotics and computers) but also new sciences to aid him in his goals to create the perfect mutant.
- Genius-Level Geneticist: Mister Sinister is a genius and a geneticist of the highest order, able to predict genetic mutations and splice DNA. It is quite probable his powers are the result of self-experimentation – his shape-shifting power is due to a procedure he performed on himself with help from a time-traveling Gambit. He can also produce large amounts of clones; he has done so with all his Marauders, and with Jean Grey and he is an expert on the art of cloning and also on mutants, with vast knowledge of powers, genes and more due to the hundreds of samples of mutant DNA he has access to. He is normally described as the world’s greatest geneticist and along with Professor X, is one of the leading authorities on mutants of the entire world.
- Master Surgeon: He is a master surgeon, having excised a portion of Gambit’s brain, only to later restore it (although from Sinister’s point of view, he restored a portion of Gambit’s brain and later excised it, as Gambit was traveling back in time when the restoration was completed; possibly a predestination paradox). Besides this area he is also a skilled doctor, one of the best from his time in England with honors in medicine and later in biology.
- Skilled Mechanical Engineer: having created devices that seem to have been taken from the tales of Jules Verne, his inventions include advance ships, devices that negate all mutant powers except for his own or transfer them, perform healing and almost resurrection, teleportation, genetics, project energy blasts and other attacks using mutant powers from many of the X-Men, aircraft and many more. Although his inventions are not as spectacular as those of Iron Man, he is a very talented inventor and engineer with a skill rivaling that of Iron Man among many others.
- Master Manipulator: He possesses a good deal of knowledge in psychology, and is a skilled manipulator, being able to conceive others with simple words and facial expressions. Mister Sinister is also a capable leader and a master strategist, capable of creating plans with ease and even outmatch brains like those of Professor X, Cyclops, Apocalypse, Storm and Magneto, being several steps ahead of his opponent.
- Trained Combatant: Mister Sinister trained himself in martial arts and unharmed combat, capable of defending himself from stronger opponents and even other trained combatants.
