The X-Men have built up a huge list of mutant villains and have made enemies of bigots in both the civilian and government sectors over the years. However, while everyone points to names like Apocalypse, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and the Sentinels as villains who have tried to bring down the mutant heroes, there is another area where the X-Men have ventured. This was especially true during the time that Chris Claremont was guiding the title for Marvel Comics. This is the cosmic Marvel universe. While the Avengers and Fantastic Four have always been connected with the wider cosmic universe, the X-Men split a lot of their time in the 1980s between social issues on Earth and cosmic battles with aliens in space and across timelines.
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From villains who became allies in the Shi’ar Empire to an entire species of aliens who want to breed with other species and target mutants, there are a lot of villains from other worlds who made their way into X-Men comics. The X-Men are also the standard-bearer for alternate world stories, and this includes several villains whose origins come from these other worlds. Apocalypse is part of both the mutant villains and the otherworldly stories, but many villains are even deadlier.
10) The Shi’ar Empire
The Shi’ar Empire has been an ally of the X-Men for years, but it didn’t start out that way. The Shi’ar debuted in The X-Men #97 (1976) by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, which was also the first issue in which Lilandra debuted. The Imperial Guard, the warriors protecting Lilandra and enforcing the Shi’ar Empire’s rule, debuted in The X-Men #107 (1977), from the same creative team. While they debuted as allies for the X-Men, they became enemies in the “Dark Phoenix Saga.”
After the Phoenix took control of Jean Grey, and the Hellfire Club messed with her mind, she flew into space and consumed a star, killing all the inhabitants of the D’Bari star system. The Shi’ar and the Skrull Empire declared her a greater threat than Galactus and ordered her death. The X-Men and Imperial Guard battled for her life before Jean sacrificed herself to end the battle. While often shown as an honorable empire, the Shi’ar have also been shown as unrelenting and almost warlike in their actions, a much more powerful enemy to have than a single villain like Apocalypse.
9) Sugar Man
Sugar Man is one of those X-Men villains who are from another world, originating in the Earth-295 timeline. He made his debut in Generation Next #2 (1995) by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo. This was the “Age of Apocalypse” timeline, and Sugar Man ran Apocalypse’s Seattle Core slave camp, which helped power North America. He has four arms, a razor-spiked prehensile tongue infused with bioenergy, hyper-regeneration, and a geneticist’s intellect.
He showed his true danger levels when Generation Next tried to rescue Illyana Rasputin, and Sugar Man killed Mondo with a blast from his tongue, which exposed the team. This led to the deaths of Chamber, Skin, and Vincente, and Colossus was forced to abandon Husk. Sugar Man ended up traveling to Earth-616 using the M’Kraan Crystal and became a recurring villain there, including taking control of Genosha to build another mutant slave population there. Apocalypse has others work for him, but Sugar Man actually runs a farm of enslaved mutants.
8) D’Ken
D’Ken debuted in The X-Men #97 (1976) by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, which was the same issue in which the Shi’ar Empire debuted. He was born into a royal lineage that ruled over the vast expanse of the Shi’ar Empire, and is the older brother of Lilandra and the younger brother of Deathbird. He became the Majestor when Deathbird committed regicide against her mother. It was D’Ken who attacked the airplane the Summers family was in, which led to him abducting Christopher Summers and his wife, while Scott and Alex were left orphaned before becoming Cyclops and Havok as adults.
This was done because D’Ken had gone mad with power. He killed Cyclops’ mother, while Christopher became Corsair. The child she was pregnant with grew up to become Vulcan. Since he led an entire Empire, this made him one of the X-Men’s most dangerous and personal enemies. He tried to use the M’Kraan Crystal to take over the universe, and the X-Men helped Lilandra stop him. He is more dangerous than Apocalypse, as he had the M’Kraan Crystal to try to rewrite reality.
7) Mojo
Mojo is another X-Men villain who is from a different world in the Multiverse, and he rules what is known as the Mojoverse. Mojo debuted in Longshot #3 (1985) by Ann Nocenti and Arthur Adams. He rules the Mojoverse, enslaving its people through addictive gladiator-style television. He is one of the Spineless Ones and cannot be harmed by contact with most enemies, and not even Rogue can affect him. Uncanny X-Men Annual #10 (1986) is where Longshot joins the X-Men, with Mojo as the villain.
In Mojoworld, he runs the world like a reality TV show and kidnaps mutants from Earth-616 to compete in reality shows, with Longshot being forced to fight in gladiatorial battles. Examples of what he has done to the X-Men include creating the X-Babies, while also brainwashing both Rachel Summers and Domino. While Apocalypse needs his armies to find success, Mojo conquers minds using entertainment, and it allows him to rule an entire population.
6) Deathbird
Deathbird debuted in Ms. Marvel#9 (1977) by Chris Claremont and Keith Pollard. Deathbird is Lilandra’s older sister, and she was supposed to take command of the Shi’ar Empire until she killed her own mother and was banished. Deathbird is actually a Shi’ar mutant with superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, functional wings, razor-sharp talons that can score steel, expert hand-to-hand skills, and specialized javelins.
After her debut in Ms. Marvel, she became a major X-Men villain when she led a coup with the Brood against Lilandra, which is how Earth’s mutants first came into contact with the Brood. In Uncanny X-Men #274-277 (1991), she had the Shi’ar throne, and then in a later story, she became the viceroy of the Kree Empire. At one point, Apocalypse actually turned her into one of his Horsemen, but she is deadlier than Apocalypse because she has actually ruled an entire Empire more than once.
5) The Chairman
The Chairman is an interesting story. This is actually Hank McCoy, the Beast from Earth-616, who was at one time known as the Beast. However, his current persona of the Chairman is something from another world, the world of “Age of Revelation.” In that world, Douglas Ramsey has the power given to him by Apocalypse and then used it to conquer the world, releasing a virus that killed almost all humans and left mutants as the ruling class. Cyclops and Beast ended up lost in that world, and when Beast came back, he used the information about the virus.
The Chairman is now the main villain in the current “DNX” storyline, where he plans to release it on Earth-616, and it is up to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four to stop him. This is the same Beast who lost his sense of morals in Krakoa, and the one who appeared to die when he tried something similar after the end of Krakoa. While McCoy is not from another world, his plans do come from another world, and his brain makes him a massive threat to the Marvel Universe.
4) The Warskrulls
The Warskrulls debuted in Uncanny X-Men #275 (1991) by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee. In that issue, the Starjammers help put Lilandra back on the throne of the Shi’ar Empire. The Warskrulls are a genetically bred strain of Skrulls who use a Nexus Amplifier to assume total physical discorporation of their targets. They copy their superpowers along with their appearance, making them stronger than ordinary Skrull shapeshifters. They then use these powers to try to bring down the Shi’ar Empire.
The Warskrulls infiltrated the Shi’ar Empire, captured the Starjammers to impersonate the Chamberlain, and committed murders and genocide against Shi’ar-affiliated races. One Warskrull impersonated Professor X, and the plan was to control Lilandra through him. Apocalypse is one mutant that the X-Men have to fight. The Warskrulls are a race that can infiltrate anyone and copy even the most trustworthy heroes.
3) The Magus
The Magus is Warlock’s father, a techno-organic being with shapeshifting, superhuman strength, starflight, and interdimensional travel, plus the ability to turn any organic life form into a techno-organic being through the Transmode Virus. He debuted in New Mutants #18 (1984) by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, and the story was personal. In his race, a son and father have to fight to the death before the son reaches adulthood, causing Warlock to flee to Earth to hide.
The New Mutants took Warlock in, and when Magus showed up, he had to fight the New Mutants and X-Men. Cypher found a way to stop Magus when they couldn’t actually beat him, and he was sent back home. His power is immense, and he returned later to attempt to destroy the Phalanx, but his one weakness was another form of the techno-organic virus. Magus is more powerful than Apocalypse because he can infect any living being and drain the entire organic population of a planet.
2) The Phalanx
The Phalanx debuted in Uncanny X-Men #305 (1993) by Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira. The storyline that introduced them was “The Phalanx Covenant,” where mutant-hating humans weaponize a virus derived from Warlock and turn themselves into techno-organic beings programmed to wipe out mutants. This otherworldly alien technology gives them superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, teleportation and shapeshifting, a hive mind, and the ability to assimilate organic matter and convert sentient beings into techno-organic life through the Transmode virus. Mutants naturally resist Transmode, which limits them.
The Phalanx kidnapped most of the X-Men and replaced them with disguised duplicates. Banshee’s group rescued the captive young mutants, Blink sacrificed herself, and those survivors became Generation X. This group of X-Men villains are more powerful than Apocalypse because they can assimilate an entire planet’s population, and the X-Men played only part of the battle in the original crossover.
1) The Brood
The most iconic alien villains that the X-Men have ever faced are the Brood. The alien species debuted in Uncanny X-Men #155 (1982) by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. This saw them working for Deathbird in her battle against the Shi’ar Empire and the X-Men. However, it didn’t take long for them to surpass Deathbird and become threats on their own. Their powers are terrifying. The Brood has wings, fangs, and stinging tails, a queen-led hive mind, and the ability to implant eggs in sentient hosts so the offspring inherits the host’s powers.
That is where they have been the most dangerous when fighting the X-Men. “The Brood Saga” took place in Uncanny X-Men #154-157 and #161-167, and it saw them infect the X-Men and Professor X. Wolverine’s healing factor lets him purge the infection, and Xavier ends up in a cloned body that lets him walk. Uncanny X-Men #232 shows Brood mutants, including Harry Palmer, and X-Men vs. Brood: Day of Wrath has Hannah Connover as a Queen secretly spreading embryos. Apocalypse is one immortal, but the Brood spread through hosts without end, so the X-Men themselves become the carriers.
Who are your favorite X-Men otherworldly villains from the comics? Do you agree the Brood are still the best, or do you have other favorites? Let us know in the comments below.
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