Nathaniel Essex was born at Milbury House on the outskirts of London. As a child, Nathaniel traveled to Greenwich Park, south of the River Thames in London, and was amazed by the endless number of people, walking what he believed to be preordained paths for them. Essex believed that the sanctity and purity of it was Heaven on Earth. He gained a full scholarship to Oxford University and later became a biologist in 1859 Victorian England. He developed advanced theories on human evolution and was obsessed with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, though he felt Darwin and his contemporaries were shackled by too many moral constraints, and that science was beyond morality. Dr. Essex dreamed of bringing the perfection of the evolution of the human race to the masses. After Dr. Essex's son, Adam's, death at the age of four from numerous birth defects, including crooked bones and hemophilia, Dr. Essex was driven deeper into his work.
As a member of London's Royal Society, Dr. Essex was regarded by some to be the greatest scientific mind of his generation and, by others, a dangerous man twisted by the obsession of his own research. An atheist, Dr. Essex believed in Darwin's theory of evolution and discovered that humanity was undergoing increasing mutation due to what he called “Essex Factors” in the human genome. Dr. Essex also believed that in the offspring of certain racially superior individuals, these parcels will, within a hundred years or so, mutate. Dr. Essex's theories were mocked, making him bitter, and his disclosure of an unorthodox experiment resulted in his ousting from the Royal Society. Even Darwin himself suggested that Dr. Essex see a physician due to the trauma of losing his son. Angry, Dr. Essex stated to Darwin that if becoming a monster was what was required for science to progress, then he would become a monster.
After meeting Cootie Tremble, Dr. Essex was taken underground, where the Marauders were collecting freaks, fools, and all types of misshapen folk off the streets of London. Dr. Essex hired the thugs to continue their work so he could perform experiments on the victims in the name of science. After awaking, the immortal mutant, En Sabah Nur, ordered the Marauders to take him to Dr. Essex; meanwhile, the time-travelers, Cyclops and Phoenix, arrived, believing that they were to prevent Dr. Essex’s future transformation into Mister Sinister, unaware that Madame Sanctity of the Clan Askani had sent them to the past to stop Nur from conquering England. As Mister Sinister, Dr. Essex was necessary for the birth of Nathan Dayspring, the Askani'son, who Madame Sanctity worshiped. Dr. Essex even went so far as to dig up his dead son and experiment on him. Growing more curious of her husband's work, Rebecca Essex checked in Dr. Essex's lab to find the body of their son in an incubation tube. After digging up Adam's grave to prove her suspicions, Rebecca passed out from the shock of finding the coffin empty, and Nur approached Dr. Essex, stating that he was interested in his work.
MISTER SINISTER
Left with the choice of continuing his work or his wife shunning him, Dr. Essex allied himself with Nur. Dr. Essex explained to Nur that he believe he was the first born in, what Dr. Essex suspected, would be a great mutation in the human race. After taking Nur to the Hellfire Club, Nur demonstrated his power before the men and explained that Dr. Essex's theories of mutation were nearer than he believed. After defeating Cyclops and Phoenix, Nur left them to Dr. Essex as test subjects, and Phoenix explained to him that if he accepted Nur's offer, the world would be destroyed. Deciding to leave his life of unorthodox science and dedicate his life to his wife and unborn child, Dr. Essex returned home to learn that his wife had freed all of his captives, prematurely had their baby, and was dying of stress. Asking for forgiveness at her side, Rebecca denied him, stating, "To me, you are... utterly... and contemptibly... sinister!", with her dying words. Dr. Essex then agreed to Nur's offer and was ordered to create a plague to destroy the weak of the world, as Nur's first prelate. Apocalypse painfully transformed Dr. Essex into an ageless being of extraordinary pallor, using telekinesis in his Alien Ship, asking him to shed his past name and choose another. With his new abilities and dispassionate outlook, Dr. Essex took the new name, "Sinister," Rebecca's last words to him.
Emerging from Nur's machines, Mister Sinister stated that he willingly allowed whatever humanity he had to be carved out of him, all for the sake of science. Cyclops escaped and began to fire his optic blasts intensely at Mister Sinister, prompting Sinister to question what he did to make Cyclops hate him so much, realizing that Cyclops held hidden knowledge. After escaping, Mister Sinister returned and killed Cootie, whom Phoenix was attempting to telepathically ease his pain, stating that her supposed kindness caused more suffering than any tyrant and one must be willing to be cruel to search for the truth. Cyclops pleaded with Sinister not to create the plague and Sinister realized, with the ease that Cyclops spoke his name, that he had met him before in the future, starting an obsession to dissect Cyclops or any of his bloodline. After the time-traveling duo defeated Nur and began to shift back to their own time, Mister Sinister appeared and stated to Cyclops that he was sure they would meet again. Returning to Nur's ship, Nur demanded to know why the plague was not complete and Mister Sinister stated that he manipulated the plague so that it would affect only Nur himself, but his immune system quickly adapted to it. Nur asked why and Mister Sinister replied that cruelty for no purpose was ignorance and ignorance was the greatest enemy of science. As Nur began to return to his hibernation, he stated that Sinister's defiance was a sign of his strength, but it would not be tolerated again. Nur warned Sinister to never forget who had the true power and, that when he returned, it would be the dawn of the Age of Apocalypse and Sinister would be his servant.
HOUSE AND POWERS OF X
During sometime in the past, Sinister was approached by Professor Xavier and Magneto regarding the genetic collection of mutant DNA that he had acquired over the years. Xavier wanted Sinister's help in prioritizing all the material he had into a comprehensive database that would be safe, secure, and redundant. He offered to provide samples that Sinister would have trouble getting on his own including Magneto and himself.
Mister Sinister wasn't interested in the deal but was suddenly killed by another Sinister who was enticed by the proposal since he himself possessed a functional X-Gene (Thunderbird's). Sinister agreed to the compromise but ended up having his memories of the encounter repressed so he would be sent on his course without knowing Xavier and Magneto's involvement until the day they told him to remember.
Sinister was eventually welcomed to the new mutant island of Krakoa, created by Xavier, Magneto, and Moira X. He entered through the teleportation gateway alongside other villainous and fractious mutants who had been invited to join the nation in order to heal mutantdom and start over as a whole species together.
He was later asked to join the Quiet Council as part of the Winter section. The Winter section consisted of himself, Exodus, and Mystique, representing the more zealous, criminal, and/or morally ambiguous elements of mutant society. Exodus did not particularly like Sinister, threatening Sinister with harm if he spoke to him directly again.
Mister Sinister eventually grew tired of this status, and decided to resume his mutant DNA harvest, setting his sights on Franklin Richards.
PERSONALITY
Despite the recent development of an apparently witty, light-hearted, and flamboyant persona, Sinister is a ruthless and sadistic man who has no compunctions about ruining or taking away the lives of others to get what he wants. He prefers to operate in the shadows, letting lackeys and unsuspecting dupes do his dirty work. He is very cruel, confident, unsympathetic, and expects total obedience from his underlings. He is known to have collaborated with members of the Nazi party, as well as other depraved individuals who share the same twisted worldview as he does. All he truly cares about is himself, and is known to callously experiment with innocent humans or mutants, all to his sick glee.
POWERS AND ABILITIES
Powers
-Genetic Enhancements Using Mutant DNA: Following genetic alteration by Apocalypse, Nathaniel Essex was transformed from human into superhuman. He has continually improved upon his original transformation over the years, incorporating the genetic material of certain mutants into his DNA to gain their abilities, or performed other self-experiments to alter his genetic capabilities.
---Cellular Shape-Shifting: Mister Sinister possesses the ability to control every molecule of his body, Enabled via Implanted X-gene taken from the bio-molecular meta-morph Courier. This allows him to assume the form of any one he wishes. He can reduce himself into a semi-liquid state, or harden his body like living armor. ---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. Apparently an extension of the cellular control he derived from Courier, Sinister's healing factor is such that he no longer requires the functionality of his brain or other internal organs to survive. In the past, he has been blasted in half or had holes blown through the center of his head without consequence. ---Superhuman Stamina: Mister Sinister's muscles produce considerably fewer fatigue toxins than the muscles of ordinary humans. He can exert himself at peak capacity for several days 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. ---Superhuman Durability: Mister Sinister's muscles and tissues are far more durable than those of an ordinary man allowing him to resist gunshots, physical damage, shocks and energy blasts. His durability can be enhanced by his regeneration ability, telekinesis, and force fields. ---Superhuman Strength: Mister Sinister possesses superhuman strength, which may be a product of his shape-shifting. Sinister has been categorized as able to press lift within 2 to 10 ton range. Later classification has identified him having an upper limit of possibly 25 tons. ---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. Mister Sinister is resistant to other's telepathic powers. ---Mental Paralysis: He has the ability to induce temporary mental or physical paralysis and project pain into the minds of others. ---Telepathic Illusion: Ability to create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring. ---Telepathic Cloak: Can mask his presence from being detected by others. Can extend these defenses to others around him as well. Sinister's abilities can, at --- times, go undetected or be counteracted by other more powerful telepaths, depending on their level of skill in using their own psi abilities. ---Mind Link: Ability to develop a mental link with any person, which remains as a connection to that individual. ---Telepathic Camouflage: Ability to mask himself and other people's' presence from those around him. Can telepathically disguise himself, making his appearance to those around his quite different (changing the appearance of clothing, as well as more involved disguising). ---Mind Control: Ability to control the minds and even voluntary and involuntary bodily functions of sentient beings (such as other Humans). ---Mind Trap: Ability to take another person's mind from their body and effectively trapping that mind within his own. ---Mind Possession: Ability to possess the mind of another, and use that beings body as his own. ---Mind Alteration: Ability to alter the minds of others by force of will. ---Mental Amnesia: Ability to cause loss of particular memories and amnesia in another person or even in a group of people. ---Psionic Shield: Ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of himself and of others minds. Sinister has proven very difficult to psychically assail, as he is very well skilled in shielding his own mind from mental-attacks (such as attempts to read, control or harm his own mind), and has been sufficient to protect himself from other psychics. ---Psionic Blasts: Can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind, so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and can even kill an adversary. ---Astral Projection: Ability to astral travel and communicate with others astrally through his own will or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others. In the Astral Plane, he can use his powers to create "ectoplasmic" objects. Sinister has a mastery of astral projection, and is able to remain on his own plane of existence or to traverse into any of the so-called "Astral Planes". ---Mental Detection: Can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within an as yet undefined radius of himself, by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being. ---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 psionically manipulate living beings, inanimate objects, and to some extent energy. He can “lift” as much as 100 tons of weight and possibly even more and can achieve other effects. Capable of very fine control over objects, including himself. ---Concussive Blasts: Mister Sinister can fire blasts of concussive force from his hands. 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 are 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 decrease the protection level but also enhance the size of the shield to englobe others and even entire areas. ---Telekinetic Flight: By levitating himself, he can “fly” for indefinite amounts of time and at varying speeds. ---Teleportation: Mister Sinister has exhibited the ability to transport over large distances, however, Beast believes this is a function of his headquarters and this fact remains to be understood. ---Technology Interface: Mister Sinister is able to directly interface with various technologies he has at his disposal, mentally activating or summoning them. One example would be if his teleportation ability is purely technological (above). ---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. This ability originated from his healing factor and from his exposure to Celestial technology from Apocalypse.
ABILITIES
---Genius Intelligence: 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.
STRENGTH LEVEL
Class 10; while the exact amount has never been revealed Sinister can lift within 2 to 10 ton range. He can further increase his strength by using his telekinesis.
PARAPHERNALIA
Equipment
He at one time possessed tissue samples of thousands of people, dating possibly as far back as the 1860s, including several American Presidents. Many of his bases seem to have some quasi-biological properties, able to "grow" tentacles from a surface to hold a prisoner at Sinister's mental commands. Sinister augments much of his technology with clones of mutants, primarily from the X-Men and Marauders, such as a device harnessing Dazzler's ability to turn sound into light in order to render people mute, or a gun firing the cloned eyeballs of Cyclops as explosives.
TRANSPORTATION
He was believed to possess the power of teleportation, but it was revealed this was not an innate ability, but a function of his tesseract headquarters.
NOTES
Due to his involvement in mutant affairs, his use of mutant henchmen and his powers, it is often believed that Sinister is himself a mutant, and he is even listed as an Alpha-Level Mutant. Although technically Sinister was altered by Apocalypse and was not born a mutant he should be classified as a mutate.
In a flashback scene in Powers of X #4, Professor X and Magneto met with Essex on Bar Sinister to discuss cataloging the mutants who were already born and those who would be. The de facto leader of Sinister's clones denied their request, while another Sinister killed him and took his place. This Sinister agreed, and explained that he had implanted himself with Thunderbird's X-Gene, effectively becoming a mutant himself due to his own genetic manipulation.
