Mister Sinister's 'Sins of Sinister' Plan, Explained

Armed with one of the most dangerous minds in the Marvel Universe, Mister Sinister has totally reshaped the future of mutantkind with his terrifying plans in SINS OF SINISTER. As the crossover event propels the Marvel Universe further and further into a future ruled by Sinister, only a few X-Men and their allies stand between Sinister and his ultimate goal: transcending the bonds of time and space to become one of the most powerful entities in existence.

Now, we’re taking a closer look at how Sinister set his plans to take over the world in motion and how they come to fruition in SINS OF SINISTER #1 by Kieron Gillen, Lucas Werneck, Bryan Valenza, VC's Clayton Cowles, and special guest artists Geoffrey Shaw, Marco Checchetto, Juan José Ryp, David Baldeón, Travel Foreman, Carlos Gómez, Federico Vicentini, David Lopez, Joshua Cassara, and Stefano Caselli.

THE MOIRA ENGINE

Despite being one of the X-Men’s deadliest villains, Nathaniel Essex is still one of the Marvel Universe’s leading authorities on mutants and their biology. Because of his expertise, Professor X and Magneto asked Sinister for help when they were laying the foundation for the mutant nation Krakoa. With his massive database of mutant genetic material, Sinister played a crucial role in the development of the Resurrection Protocols, which allow the Krakoans to resurrect dead mutants. In exchange for access to his archive, Sinister was granted a seat on Krakoa’s Quiet Council, which made him one of the island’s chief decision-makers and granted him access to Krakoa’s deepest secrets. 

One of those secrets involved Moira MacTaggert, a longtime X-Men ally who secretly possessed the mutant power to reset reality whenever she died and was reborn into a new timeline with the knowledge she acquired in her previous lives. Although Moira ultimately lost her powers and turned against Krakoa in INFERNO (2021), Sinister created several clones of Moira that have her reality-resetting abilities. Using his “Moira Engine,” Sinister creates “save points” and activates the powers of the cloned Moiras to restart time from a fixed point. With this system, Sinister sends details of future events or specific knowledge of how his schemes failed to his future self so he can manipulate events to his liking.

SINISTER VS THE QUIET COUNCIL

After working with the Quiet Council and Krakoa through several crises, including AXE: JUDGMENT DAY (2022), Mister Sinister tried to kill several members of the Quiet Council in IMMORTAL X-MEN (2022) #9 by Kieron Gillen, Lucas Werneck, and David Curiel. However, these attacks did not meet Sinister’s desired results, so he used a Moira clone to reset reality several times. On his tenth attempt, Sinister attacked the Quiet Council with a telepathic trap that left Professor X, Emma Frost, Exodus, and Hope Summers dead. 

As Sinister revealed in SINS OF SINISTER #1, the death of Hope plays a crucial part in his grand plan. When Sinister initially gave Krakoa his mutant genetic database, he hid copies of himself in every DNA sample. Although those alterations went unnoticed, Hope’s powers subconsciously erased them during her role in the resurrection process. This inadvertently foiled Sinister’s plans to compromise and control every mutant resurrected with his DNA. But with Hope dead, Sinister’s plans can go forward as he originally envisioned. 

When the Krakoans resurrected Hope in IMMORTAL X-MEN (2022) #10, they did so without removing Sinister’s genetic tampering. As a result of that, Hope, Xavier, Exodus, and Frost have all been resurrected with Sinister’s changes to their DNA intact, which effectively lets Sinister warp or influence their personalities. Although Sinister is exiled and imprisoned in Krakoa’s Pit of Exile for his attack, he has control over several members of the Quiet Council and any mutant revived through the Resurrection Protocols from now on.

SINISTER’S X-MEN

Just as Sinister’s exile began in SINS OF SINISTER #1, his agents on the Quiet Council started enacting his plan to take over the world through the resurrection process. At Xavier’s urging, the Council voted to start expanding humankind’s access to the mutant Resurrection Protocols. With Sinister’s influence freeing them from their usual ethical considerations, Xavier and Frost immediately started to telepathically manipulate others into their following their plans, and Hope unleashed Sinister’s DNA on everyone that went through the resurrection process. 

Over the following year, Krakoa started offering a limited version of the X-gene as an implant to the human population. The X-gene implant effectively turned anyone who received it into a mutant, thus ensuring their immortality through Krakoa’s Resurrection Protocols. However, this process also allowed Sinister to implant his DNA in anyone who received the X-gene, thus allowing him to control them. Alongside some telepathic manipulation by Xavier and his allies, this turned human politicians and leaders like J. Jonah Jameson into Sinister’s puppets.

Sinister and his allies on the Quiet Council also implicated Orchis—a mutant-hating organization that includes Moira MacTaggert and the powerful Nimrod Sentinel—in a devastating attack on Krakoa. With a blast from an orbital satellite, Sinister’s Quiet Council killed Krakoa the Living Island and seemingly destroyed most of the archive used to resurrect mutants and humans. With the public increasingly sympathetic to their cause, the X-Men teamed up with the Avengers and the Fantastic Four to take out Orchis, eliminating the greatest threat to mutantkind’s continued existence.

SINISTER VS. THE MARVEL UNIVERSE

After emerging from exile, Sinister spent the next five years eliminating several potential challenges to his total world domination by corrupting more humans and mutants, including Captain America and Namor. When Thanos threatened the Marvel Universe from outside the timestream, Juggernaut was telepathically manipulated into lethally attacking him. Namor ensured that a suspicious Doctor Doom was replaced by one of Sinister’s clones, and Sinister also neutralized the Eternals and the Fantastic Four by manipulating members of both groups into attacking each other. Under Sinister's control, Captain America and the Avengers went through a violent transformation and briefly took over the United States government, which paved the way for the X-Men to defeat them and officially replace them as “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” 

Eventually, Sinister revealed himself to Storm, the last uncorrupted member of the Quiet Council, who immediately retreated to Arakko, the mutant-controlled planet formerly known as Mars. With complete control over Krakoa, Sinister then made underworld treaties to orchestrate the destruction of Asgard. He also coordinated the death of Wanda Maximoff, AKA the Scarlet Witch. 

Around this time, Sinister achieved a long-held goal by creating a Chimera, or a genetically-engineered mutant with two X-genes and the powers of multiple mutants. (In addition to playing a major role in Sinister’s plans to speed up evolution, the creation of Chimera mutants also acts as a pivotal point in multiple future timelines, as introduced in POWERS OF X (2019).) Using a Chimera invasion force, Sinister attacked Arakko in an attempt take down Storm. Although Sinister’s forces successfully destroyed the planet, Storm and her allies survived the attack and retreated to the shadows.

10 YEARS LATER

Ten years after his initial attack on the Quiet Council, Sinister and his forces have near-total control over the world. Although the pollution from Sinister’s city-size Chimera lab threatens to make the entire eastern seaboard of the United States uninhabitable, humans still line up to receive the X-gene implant as Sinister’s forces watch them closely. 

On Krakoa, the Quiet Council votes to openly start acting as agents of Sinister. Additionally, they begin to prepare for an inevitable intergalactic conflict. However, Sinister remains focused on his ultimate goal: to avoid being consumed by a Dominion-status artificial intelligence by becoming a Dominion-level entity himself—the ultimate testament to his intelligence. 

As the members of Sinister’s Quiet Council start exercising more free will and independent thought, Sinister tries and fails to reset the timeline with the Moira Engine. As a result, Sinister finds himself trapped in this reality, where he must now face a nightmarish world of his own creation.

SINS OF SINISTER #1 is on sale now! The next installment in the event, STORM & THE BROTHERHOOD OF MUTANTS #1, hits shelves on February 8.

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