Biography - Page 3
With Alex out of the way, Mister Sinister focused on cultivating his relationship with Scott. With many projects needing his attention, Sinister could not devote all his time to controlling Scott’s every interaction in the State Home, although he did maintain a light form of hypnotic control over most of his long-term staff. Instead, Sinister used his powers to pose as another resident of the orphanage named Nate, or “Lefty,” occasionally prodding staff or other orphans to psychological 
manipulate Scott and keep him a loner, with Lefty as his only potential friend. At other times, however, “Lefty” acted as a bully towards Scott, indicating a change in their relationship over time or layers of telepathically obscured memories as Sinister attempted different forms of provocation on young Scott.
Sinister was not omnipotent, though, and a new physician named Doctor Robyn Hanover unpredictably took a personal liking to Scott and started looking into his case more than Essex would have preferred. He tried to deter Hanover through his puppet the administrator and other means, but Doctor Hanover was curious and determined to help Scott. She even started arranging for her friends the Bogarts to 
adopt Scott, something Sinister could never allow. Instead, he arranged for a plane crash to eliminate the adoptive parents and pulled Hanover into his laboratory to thoroughly brainwash her into serving his needs alone. In the long run, Hanover’s efforts seemed to only further isolate Scott by dangling hope in front of him before snatching it away. [Classic X-Men #41-42]
Sinister overreached, however, in the manner in which he eliminated the Bogarts. Once Scott learned that his potential family hadn’t just abandoned him but died in the same way his real parents did, Scott had a meltdown and ran away from the orphanage personnel in the middle of the city. Scott was lost to Sinister when his powers manifested while wandering the streets and drew the attention of Professor Charles Xavier. Unwilling to confront Xavier directly at this time, Mister Sinister was forced to allow Xavier to take custody of Scott and add him as the first of his mutant student trainees, becoming Cyclops of the X-Men. [X-Men (1st series) #39, Uncanny Origins #1]
[Note: Conflicting reports exist over how involved Mister Sinister was in getting Scott his first set of ruby quartz glasses. In X-Men (1st series) #39, the orphan Scott began experiencing headaches before an optometrist Doctor Tieri tried several lenses and discovered glasses made of ruby quartz alleviated his symptoms. In X-Factor (1st series) #39, however, Scott uncovered repressed memories of Sinister visiting him in the hospital after the plane crash. After observing his optic blasts, Mister Sinister used mental blocks to inhibit Scott’s blasts before discovering the ruby quartz solution himself. It’s hard to dismiss Doctor Tieri as a false memory implant or Sinister in disguise, though – Charles Xavier and Fred Duncan knew about Scott Summers because the optometrist called the FBI tip-line about Scott as a possible mutant, something Sinister was very unlikely to do.]
Fortune smiled on Sinister, however, for he continued to monitor Scott in Westchester as the X-Men formed and so he recognized a young Jean Grey. The mutant couple who stymied his origins had finally appeared in their own time, and Nathaniel Essex began hatching a plan for the genetic potential of these two mutants. The opportunity arose for Sinister to sample Jean’s DNA as well as Scott’s, and he believed a union of these two mutants would create a new mutant of incredible power. According to his genetics research and extrapolation, Mister Sinister believed this potential mutant child would have the power necessary to defeat Apocalypse and finally remove Sinister’s old master as a possible threat to his future work. With this goal in mind and knowing Scott and Jean would one day become husband and wife, Mister Sinister was quite content to allow Xavier to continue raising his former charge.
As he charted the bloodline of the Summers and Grey families, Mister Sinister also kept tabs on the New Orleans Thieves Guild. As a result, he recognized Le Diable Blanc, the time-traveling mutant he encountered in 1891, when he emerged as the adopted son of the clan’s patriarch. As an excuse to observe young Remy LeBeau in action, Essex hired the Thieves Guild to retrieve his 
World War II era journal from the Weapon X Program in Canada. He specifically asked for the teenaged Remy as the Guild’s representative. Remy found the journal just as Weapon X escaped from his captors, and his conscience led Remy to destroy the journal rather than return with it. Undeterred, Essex was satisfied that Remy LeBeau was the same mutant he had met in the past and pondered their future together. [Weapon X: First Class #3]
Mister Sinister observed the X-Men for years and was presumably salivating when Jean Grey seemingly unlocked cosmic-level powers as the Phoenix. But disaster struck Sinister’s long-term plans when Jean supposedly died fighting the Shi’ar Empire on the moon. Unable to proceed without his brood mare, Sinister created a clone of Jean Grey to serve as a substitute. He crafted a false identity and history for her as a pilot named Madelyne Pryor, then planted her at Philip and Deborah Summers’ charter pilot airline where Scott would inevitably cross paths with her. 
Sinister’s schemes bore fruit when Scott Summers met Madelyne Pryor and quickly fell in love with her over the resemblance. In a whirlwind romance, they were married in a matter of months. Madelyne also became pregnant, and soon bore a son crafted from the Summers and Grey bloodlines as he intended. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #101,137,168,175,201,241] (One can detect a note of vanity and influence from Sinister through Madelyne than Nathan Christopher Summers somehow carried his name. [X-Factor (1st series) #37])
[Note: Contradictory reports exist about Madelyne’s creation. Some say Sinister only created her because Jean died, but others say Madelyne was an inert clone that already existed and came to life the moment Phoenix died on the moon.]
The Summers family left the X-Men and retired to an isolated cabin in Alaska, a decision Mister Sinister claimed to have some influence over. Life interfered in Sinister’s plans once more when Jean Grey miraculously turned up alive and well. Cyclops’ life was thrown into chaos and Mister Sinister feared his machinations would be undone if Jean and Madelyne ever met. Cutting his losses, Sinister had Madelyne and Nathan Christopher abducted while Scott was visiting the reborn Jean in New York. Madelyne was surplus to requirements by this point, after all, for Sinister 
now had the child and brought him to the Essex State Home. Madelyne nearly escaped but was cut down by the Marauders and ended up in a coma in San Francisco. When Scott finally returned home to locate his wife, he discovered all traces of her past had been erased and the body of a woman matching Maddie’s description had been recovered. Of his son, there was no sign. [X-Factor (1st series) #1, 13-14, 38; Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #215]
Mister Sinister became reacquainted with Remy LeBeau when he, now an adult, came seeking Essex’s help. Remy had grown into an immensely powerful mutant, but his interkinetic powers had progressed out of his control and made him a danger to everyone around him. In exchange for a debt of service from Remy, Essex agreed to help the thief master his powers. Secretly 
retracing the same surgical pathways he saw in Gambit’s brain a century earlier, Sinister knew exactly how to rewire Remy LeBeau’s powers to reduce them to a far more manageable level. As collateral, Essex retained the extracted portion of Gambit’s brain matter in a small stasis vial. LeBeau’s potential could be restored at any time by Sinister using the contents of that vial, were he willing to accept a further debt. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #350, Gambit (3rd series) #16]
At some point, Mister Sinister became aware of a colony of mutants living under Manhattan called the Morlocks. The Morlocks had a patron known as the Dark Beast, a version of Hank McCoy from the Age of Apocalypse reality who had traveled decades backwards in time. A student of Sinister in his home reality, McCoy carried on his work by experimenting on the residents of the Morlock Tunnels. Essex knew none of this, but he recognized his work when he saw it. Incensed that the Morlocks had “stolen” from him, Mister Sinister wanted the Morlock Tunnels wiped out in a brutal example of genetic cleansing.
Essex reached out to LeBeau to do the preliminary work regarding the Morlocks. LeBeau’s conscience had already begun itching from other jobs he did for Mister Sinister, and so Essex didn’t tell Remy his ultimate goals. He only said that there was a group of mutants living under Manhattan that he wanted information on. Furthermore, Essex offered to free LeBeau completely from his debt, returning the vial to Gambit as severance pay for this last job. Eager to be free, Gambit scouted the Morlock Tunnels for weeks, passing among the Morlocks and charting their habitat as best he could. Perhaps with willful ignorance, LeBeau also assembled a team of 
hunters and killers for Sinister, a modern group of Marauders at Essex’s beck and call. Old associates like Sabretooth and Scalphunter were added to a team of nearly a dozen mercenaries. Gambit had already begun leading the Marauders into the Morlock Tunnels before he realized their intentions. He fought them, briefly, but LeBeau had no chance of stopping what Sinister had ordered: The Morlock Massacre had begun. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #350, Mutant Massacre crossover]
Hundreds of mutants were killed in the massacre, satisfying Sinister’s jealous guarding of his proprietary experiments. Still, the Marauders' actions drew the attention of the X-Men, X-Factor, the New Mutants, even Thor, Daredevil, and Power Pack. The X-Men, in particular, were now actively aware of Mister Sinister's existence and considered it a moral imperative to bring the Marauders to justice. Mister Sinister fortified his team of assassins, cultivating their genetic material to create clones of his soldiers. In this manner, Sinister was able to bring the Marauders Riptide, Prism and Blockbuster back to life soon after they died in the massacre. (Naturally, Sinister also included his own modifications and fail-safes in the clones’ genetic codes, ensuring the loyalty of his clones and consequences for betraying him.) [X-Men (2nd series) #34, Gambit (3rd series) #9] He also arranged for the spectral Marauder named Malice to permanently bond with the former X-Man, Polaris, stealing one of their assets for himself. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #219]
Although he was pleased by the massacre, Mister Sinister was concerned when he learned Madelyne Pryor had emerged from her coma in San Francisco and contacted the X-Men. He sent 
the Marauders out again to kill her, but they failed to prevent Madelyne and the X-Men from reuniting. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #221-222] Still, Sinister’s worries seemed for naught when both Madelyne and the X-Men apparently died fighting the Adversary weeks later. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #227]
Mister Sinister questioned his good fortune and mourned the loss of the X-Men in his own way. Still, he had Scott and Madelyne’s son in his custody, and had other issues to manage. Malice became unruly when she learned she was bonded so closely to Polaris that she couldn’t leave Lorna Dane’s body even if she wanted. Sinister’s silver tongue was needed to keep his field leader under control. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #239]
Everything came unraveled for Mister Sinister at the onset for the “demon night” in Manhattan called Inferno. Madelyne Pryor and the X-Men had actually survived their deaths in Dallas, living in secret in Australia for weeks. Madelyne had been corrupted by a demon from Limbo called Nastir’h and began demonstrating the latent telepathic and telekinetic powers of Jean Grey. Calling herself the Goblin Queen, Madelyne became more aggressive and manipulative, secretly leading the X-Men to believe their original members, Cyclops and X-Factor, had betrayed Xavier’s dream and become mutant hunters. In fact, X-Factor’s public persona as mutant hunters had only been a ruse to find and rescue persecuted mutants, one they had discarded well before Inferno. As the X-Men’s “human” communications specialist in Australia, though, Madelyne sanitized the information the X-Men received about her husband who betrayed her.
Meanwhile, Destiny from Freedom Force gave Cyclops and Marvel Girl the lead they needed to find Nathan Christopher deep beneath the Essex State Home. Mister Sinister’s hypnotic programming began to falter as Scott returned to the orphanage and realized his memories didn’t hold up under scrutiny. Scott and Jean found baby Nathan in Sinister’s labs under the orphanage, but demons in the employ of Maddie and Nastir’h arrived as well, abducting Nathan and other young mutants from Sinister’s crèches. Madelyne had been seduced into Nastir’h’s schemes to sacrifice infants of power in order to summon the hordes of Limbo to Earth under her ostensible control. Her own son would be only one of many victims in her quest for vengeance.
While the X-Men battled the Marauders in New York, Mister Sinister had the opportunity to engage the Goblin Queen directly. He confronted Madelyne with the truth, provoking her to realize what she had sensed but never consciously accepted: she was a clone of Jean Grey with 
no life or memories of her own beyond a certain point. The Goblin Queen was infuriated beyond sanity over her role as Sinister’s “brood-mare”, existing only to produce a child. She fully rejected Scott and Nathan Christopher as nothing more than extensions of Sinister’s plans for her. She then returned to Manhattan to lead an all-out demon invasion, fighting against the X-Men and X-Factor as her manipulation of the teams was revealed. Jean Grey ended up defeating her insane clone in combat. On the verge of death, Madelyne's memories were absorbed and preserved within Jean's surviving mind.
Mister Sinister worked to clean up after himself, telepathically assaulting Madelyne’s memories in Jean’s mind to remove traces of his presence. This only served to alert the X-Men and X-Factor of his intentions and, after a psychic conflict, they traced Sinister back to the ruins of the X-Mansion. Sinister battled the X-Men with the aid of his surviving Marauders Sabretooth and Malice, 
telepathically shutting down Cyclops’ optic blast while trading barbs and energy bolts with the other mutants. Sinister took this opportunity to monologue about the extent of his manipulation of Scott and Jean, taking credit for the various schemes he had set in motion. While Sinister proved impervious to harm by the other heroes, the X-Men reasoned he must have shut down Cyclops’ optic blast for a reason. Alex Summers provoked Scott into overcoming Sinister’s mental blocks, and Cyclops unleashed a massive optical blast that obliterated Mister Sinister’s body, bringing the conflict to a swift conclusion. [Inferno crossover]