The current state of X-Men canon is in absolute shambles as Mr. Sinister has effectively conquered the planet through a genetically-mutated army of clone minions and his newfound ability to alter the timestream as he sees fit–though no matter how hopeless the situation may seem, there is one person who can be mutantkind’s savior, and that mutant is Cyclops’ forgotten son, Nate Grey aka X-Man.
The X-Men’s ongoing event, Sins of Sinister, introduces readers to a world that is completely run by Sinister and his clones. By harnessing the ‘universe-restarting’ power of Moira MacTaggert and hijacking the mutant rebirth program on Krakoa, Sinister is able to not only create an army of clones that are merged with any mutant or mutate he wants, but he can also simply restart the universe anytime things don’t go his way. Essentially, Sinister has made himself unstoppable as he exists outside the natural flow of time (since time bends to his will now). Not only that, but Mr. Sinister himself is incredibly hard to kill even without his clones and newly acquired timeline-altering powers. However, just because Sinister may seem unstoppable, doesn’t mean he actually is–as there exists another, vastly more powerful mutant who is also currently residing outside the flow of time, and who’s actually killed Mr. Sinister before in the past.
X-Men’s Age of X-Man & Age of Apocalypse Sets Up Mr. Sinister’s Death
In X-Man #4 by Jeph Loeb and Steve Skroce, readers are reaching the end of the Age of Apocalypse storyline with this final installment in Nate Grey’s debut run before the grand finale of the iconic event in X-Men Omega. So far, Nate has been shown to be perhaps the only mutant strong enough to take down Apocalypse–and he’s being manipulated by Mr. Sinister to do so. Nate Grey is a result of Sinister’s obsessive experimentation with the genes of Scott Summers and Jean Grey. On Earth-616, Sinister consistently tried to create the ‘ultimate mutant’ from the DNA of these two X-Men, but he never truly succeeded. However, in this reality, Sinister had everything he needed to make his perfect mutant, and he was successful–though in this issue, Nate was finally able to see through Sinister’s deception, and he killed him with a single attack.
So, if Nate Grey is a proven Sinister-killer who is supposedly the ‘perfect’ mutant literally bred to kill Apocalypse, where is he? Well, in the event Age of X-Man, Nate Grey tried to create the perfect utopia for mutantkind by forming a pocket dimension in which all of them could live, making him something of a ‘mutant messiah’–but when they all found out it wasn’t real, the mutants wanted to leave while Nate opted to stay. What’s even more interesting is that Age of X-Man was the last major storyline before the launch of House of X/Powers of X, which is the prelude to the entire current age of X-Men comics from which Sins of Sinister stems. So, while all of this timeline-altering trouble is going on, Nate Grey is sitting in his pocket dimension outside the timestream that is being manipulated by Sinister, and is thereby unaffected by it. All Nate has to do to kill Sinister (again) is pop back into the main timeline of Earth-616 and obliterate him.
The prospect of Nate Grey being the one to kill Mr. Sinister is too perfect not to happen. Throughout his entire Marvel Comics career, Mr. Sinister has been obsessed with two things: creating the ultimate mutant from the genes of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, and taking over the world. How perfectly ironic would it be if Nate Grey, the only real successful result of Sinister’s obsessive experimentation, was the one to kill Sinister right as he finally found a way to conquer the planet. Nate Grey has the power, the opportunity, and the meta-factor of narrative symmetry behind him–making Cyclops’ forgotten son the perfect choice for becoming X-Men’s ultimate hero in Sins of Sinister.