The X-Men are one of the greatest teams in the Marvel Universe. Consisting of some of the most respected mutants, the team has one of the hardest mandates in all of comics- not only do they have to fight some of the most dangerous villains on the planet but they also have to deal with the worst of humanity and its racist tendencies.
This makes things pretty hard for the team and while they do their best, sometimes things can go pretty wrong. Every hero team has some skeletons in their closet, but the X-Men’s can be worse because every one of those acts reflects badly on mutants.
10 Wolverine Led A Mission To Kill A Young Clone Of Apocalypse
Cyclops restarted X-Force to act as the X-Men’s black ops group and even after he dismantled it, Wolverine decided to keep it going. His team was extremely dangerous and on their first mission, they went after one of the most deadly mutants of all time- Apocalypse. However, there was a complication and it was that this Apocalypse was a young clone of the ancient mutant.
The team almost didn’t go through with it but Fantomex shot the young clone in the head. Then, he cloned the clone and raised it in virtual reality to prove that nurture beat nature. As nice as that was, he still shot a child.
9 Professor X Was One Of The Founders Of The Illuminati
The Illuminati was a secret gathering of the leaders of the Marvel Universe and Professor X was one of its founding members, representing mutants and the X-Men. The Illuminati got up to some pretty shady things during its time together and Professor X was complicit in their actions.
While Professor X eventually left the group, he was still around for some of its worse actions and he did it all in the name of helping the X-Men and mutants. For most of his time as the X-Men’s leader, he was lying to them and every other hero in the Marvel Universe that wasn’t a part of the Illuminati.
8 Beast Helped The Illuminati Destroy Countless Worlds
Beast learned a lot from his mentor and is easily one of the shadiest members of the X-Men. When the Illuminati reformed to deal with the Incursions, Beast joined up in Professor X’s place. This group of the Illuminati was all about protecting the Earth from encroaching universes and so committed genocide on a massive scale, destroying the Earths that tried to take the place of the 616 Earth.
Beast did everything he could help to the team out and while their goals were laudable, it still cost countless lives.
7 Archangel Is Known For Snapping And Killing Scores People
Archangel was one of the team’s founding members but things went very bad for him during the Mutant Massacre. Captured by the Marauders, they ripped his angel wings off, a move that nearly drove him to suicide. He was saved by Apocalypse, who transformed him into the Horseman of the Apocalypse (Death) and gave him deadly, razor-sharp metal wings.
While he learned to control it for a time, as the years went by, it was harder and harder to hold in the Death side of him. Eventually, the Death would take full control and he ended up killing an entire town trying to become the new Apocalypse. Ever since, he has walked the tightrope of controlling his dark side but there’s always a chance it will rear its ugly head.
6 Professor X Mindwiped Reed Richards
Since the establishment of Krakoa, the X-Men have had strained relations with other hero teams but their relationship with the Fantastic Four was stretched to its breaking point by Professor X. Reed Richards, fearing for his son’s life, built a machine that would take away a mutant’s power and Professor X took exception to this, so he completely wiped away the knowledge of the machine from Richards’ mind.
He made sure that Richards would never be able to build another one ever again, tampering with the mind of a man he used to call a friend. While it was justified to an extent, it was bridge burning at its most extreme.
5 Emma Frost Messed With The Minds Of UN Council Members
Emma Frost was made into the Krakoan ambassador to the UN in the country’s early days. It was her job to get as many countries as possible to sign the agreement recognizing Krakoa as a state and she had to do it in the most Emma Frost way possible at times- by using her prodigious mental powers to literally change the minds of the delegates.
The one thing humans are always afraid of is mutants using their powers in this way and if they were to ever find out, it would spell disaster for Krakoa. On top of that, Professor X basically gave her the go-ahead, making it all the worse if anyone ever finds out.
4 Beast Modified Telefloronic Biotech To Take Control Of An Entire Nation
Beast was made head of the mutant CIA on Krakoa and has gotten up to some shady things but the worst was modifying the telefloronic biotech of the country of Terra Verde to take complete control of it and its people. From there, he used them to seed telefloronic listening devices in embassies and basically used the state as a puppet for intel gathering.
While Terra Verde did attack Krakoa first, transforming their nation into a literal puppet state and robbing its people of its free will is a horrendous act and one that almost had grave consequences until Sage fixed the situation for Beast.
3 Cyclops Ordered A Teenage Mutant To Kill A Bunch Of Hellfire Club Soldiers
Cyclops went pretty hard during the days after M-Day, doing everything he could to hold the mutant race together and protect it from harm. With the foundation of Utopia, he gave mutants a place to live, one that was threatened by a new Hellfire Club. The Inner Circle attacked a group of X-Men at a museum opening, taking hostages and threatening to kill everyone.
With Cyclops and Wolverine racing to get there but unable to stop the Hellfire Club’s soldiers in time, Cyclops ordered teenage mutant Oya to take care of things. She was able to kill all of them and save the day but it caused a massive schism between Wolverine and Cyclops, one that would split the mutant race.
2 Cyclops Killed Professor X And Went Dark Phoenix
The X-Men and the Avengers came to blows because of the Phoenix Force, with five members of the team gaining the power of the cosmic entity. The Phoenix Five started out making the world a better place but the absolute power started to corrupt them, causing them to commit terrible crimes.
Eventually, Cyclops and Emma Frost, flush with pilfered power from the other three, battled against the Avengers. Cyclops killed his mentor Professor X, drained Emma of the Phoenix’s powers, and then went Dark Phoenix, endangering the world. While he was defeated, it was close.
1 Jean Grey Destroyed An Entire Star System As Dark Phoenix
When the Phoenix Force first came to Earth, it took the place of Jean Grey on the X-Men, using its amazing might to help the team. However, the machinations of the Mastermind and the complexity of human emotions caused it to become the Dark Phoenix. After slapping the X-Men around for a while, Dark Phoenix went to the D’Bari star system and ate its sun, ending all life in the system.
While it wasn’t technically Jean Grey that did it, Phoenix was still a member of the X-Men at the time and ended billions of lives.
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