What MU non-X villain should the X-Men face soon?

[ChronoRogue]

Squadron Sinister / Squadron Supreme would be great villains.

They're basically the evil Avengers, not sure why any government officials haven't sicked them on the X-Men before; it makes perfect sense to.

[Master of Sound]

I am intrigued by the notion of the X-folk interacting in some way with the Serpent Society. The Serpents have had multiple mutant members for quite some time (Slither and Puff Adder for sure, but also Rock Python and Black Racer, perhaps?), and none of them seemed even a little bit interested in Krakoa, which piques my interest. What motivation did they have, if any, to avoid Krakoa / stick with their non-mutant teammates? Did one or more Serpent Society mutants actually spend time on Krakoa, as a sort of 'non-extradition hideout' from their criminal activities and end up overstaying their welcome / abusing the privilege?

Good thoughts. It would indeed be great to know why the mutant members of the Serpent Society/Squad, never joined the other mutants on Krakoa.

[Master of Sound]

It’s kind of bizarre that Ultron has never teamed up with the Sentinels before

I thought Marvel was heading for an IA versus humans crossover with all what happened with Orchis.

And Ultron would be a great ally for Nimrod and Karima.

[Sutekh]

Always believed The U-Foes had potential, so definitely they're getting my vote

The U-Foes connecting with or perhaps even creating new cosmic-radiation-powered mutates like themselves (such as the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes), could have made for an interesting post-human commentary. It might even be belatedly 'discovered' that the machines Magneto used to empower the Savage Land Mutates used cosmic radiation, making them all kinda/sorta connected to this group (and the Fantastic Four). They'd be advocates for all of humanity being able to join mutantkind's evolutionary arms race. Gamma mutates like the Hulk, Leader, Abomination, Doc Samson might prove a *third* sub-faction, or be grudgingly folded into the 'cosmic radiation' empowered mutate faction.

And some new characters, either heroes or villains, could arise, from folks empowered by this process, as well as explore the idea introduced back in Days of Future Past, that *some* humans have zero potential for mutation, the ones the Sentinels called 'pure' and allowed to breed in their dystopian future (and, presumably, if given the heavy dose of gamma or cosmic radiation that would make a Hulk or Human Torch, instead just died horribly of radiation poisoning...).

There's fertile ground to explore there, as well. Some small percentage of humanity somehow escaped or lost the DNA tinkering from the Celestials eons ago that gave humanity the potential for superhuman mutation (either by birth, for a few, or by 'activation' via cosmic rays, gamma rays, radioactive spider bites, etc.) for the larger majority). The revelation of this, that the vast majority of humanity *can* mutate, and *can* give birth to mutants, because they have that potential baked in, and it's *from alien 'space-gods' tinkering*, could cause a vast upset with all sorts of political, social and religious consequences. And how would the millions of racists who have that DNA react to finding out they are one freak radiation exposure away from becoming one of them, and that the more kids they have, the more likely one of them will be a mutant? How will the 'pure' react to finding out that *almost everyone else on the planet* has some alien tinkering to their DNA that causes this whole thing? Will they self-segregate, like how some people in real life are exclusively into friends and partners with X or Y traits? Will some, no doubt, despair that they can't 'get cool powers' like it seems pretty much everyone else can and 'the future' has passed them by?

There's a ton of story potential here.

[Master of Sound]

Could be interesting indeed.

[mysterio1989]

The U-Foes connecting with or perhaps even creating new cosmic-radiation-powered mutates like themselves (such as the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes), could have made for an interesting post-human commentary. It might even be belatedly 'discovered' that the machines Magneto used to empower the Savage Land Mutates used cosmic radiation, making them all kinda/sorta connected to this group (and the Fantastic Four). They'd be advocates for all of humanity being able to join mutantkind's evolutionary arms race. Gamma mutates like the Hulk, Leader, Abomination, Doc Samson might prove a *third* sub-faction, or be grudgingly folded into the 'cosmic radiation' empowered mutate faction.

And some new characters, either heroes or villains, could arise, from folks empowered by this process, as well as explore the idea introduced back in Days of Future Past, that *some* humans have zero potential for mutation, the ones the Sentinels called 'pure' and allowed to breed in their dystopian future (and, presumably, if given the heavy dose of gamma or cosmic radiation that would make a Hulk or Human Torch, instead just died horribly of radiation poisoning...).

There's fertile ground to explore there, as well. Some small percentage of humanity somehow escaped or lost the DNA tinkering from the Celestials eons ago that gave humanity the potential for superhuman mutation (either by birth, for a few, or by 'activation' via cosmic rays, gamma rays, radioactive spider bites, etc.) for the larger majority). The revelation of this, that the vast majority of humanity *can* mutate, and *can* give birth to mutants, because they have that potential baked in, and it's *from alien 'space-gods' tinkering*, could cause a vast upset with all sorts of political, social and religious consequences. And how would the millions of racists who have that DNA react to finding out they are one freak radiation exposure away from becoming one of them, and that the more kids they have, the more likely one of them will be a mutant? How will the 'pure' react to finding out that *almost everyone else on the planet* has some alien tinkering to their DNA that causes this whole thing? Will they self-segregate, like how some people in real life are exclusively into friends and partners with X or Y traits? Will some, no doubt, despair that they can't 'get cool powers' like it seems pretty much everyone else can and 'the future' has passed them by?

There's a ton of story potential here.

I was about to post that MU villains shouldn't or need to interact with the X-Men mythos. Let the X-Men stick to their Brotherhoods and Orchis villains.

BUT! Dammit all that does seem, mildly interesting

[Huntsman Spider]

Ex-S.H.I.E.L.D agents would view any nation run by the likes of Exodus, Mystique, Apocalypse, Shaw and Mr. Sinister as a threat to global peace and stability and with their parent organization disbanded see Orchis as the best means of countering that threat. They would probably push for the removal of the QC and replacing it with someone friendly to humans. The Hydra guys just want a excuse to hurt people and the A.I.M probably ran calculations that show Orchis is humanity's best chance of survival.

Fair enough. It would be a case of "the enemy of my enemy" rather than those ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. guys being seriously anti-mutant.

Squadron Sinister / Squadron Supreme would be great villains.

They're basically the evil Avengers, not sure why any government officials haven't sicked them on the X-Men before; it makes perfect sense to.

Happened, in a way, during the Heroes Reborn timeline that was altered by Mephisto's machinations to replace the Avengers with the Squadron Supreme of America as the premier heroes of the Marvel Universe, and there, the Squadron was unleashed against mutants.

I thought Marvel was heading for an IA versus humans crossover with all what happened with Orchis.

And Ultron would be a great ally for Nimrod and Karima.

I thought Dan Slott was setting that up somewhat with his Iron Man run dealing with the subplot of a Robot Revolution sparked by sapient machines getting fed up with --- in their minds, at least --- being abused and exploited by organic lifeforms. Considering that was somewhat the motivation of the AIs that turned out to be the real movers behind Orchis . . .

[Vegeta]

With careful planning Baron Zemo was able to absolutely wreck the Avengers. I'd love to see him orchestrate a carefully planned attack on the X-Men. (He should probably have more heavy hitters than the T-bolts though. Maybe add the Enchantress, Absorbing Man and the Wrecking Crew.)

I also would like to see a Nimrod/Ultron alliance.

[Sutekh]

With careful planning Baron Zemo was able to absolutely wreck the Avengers. I'd love to see him orchestrate a carefully planned attack on the X-Men. (He should probably have more heavy hitters than the T-bolts though. Maybe add the Enchantress, Absorbing Man and the Wrecking Crew.)

Zemo's a pretty clever guy, and he'd have to actually want something out of this, like access to Krakoan or Shiar tech. I think he'd be far more likely to engineer a fight between the Avengers and X-Men, so that the X-Men would be unwilling soldiers (or distractions) to mask his own objective (and, end up adding yet another group of heroes to his sizable enemies list!). Engineering a conflict between the humans and mutants of some made-up country like Sokovia, so that the Avengers are drawn in to protect the civilian populace from 'mutant terrorists' and the X-folk are drawn in on the other side to protect the innocent mutants from 'hate and persecution', while in both cases, the 'mutant terrorism' *and* the most egregious acts of anti-mutant prejudice, have been triggered and amplified in the media by Zemo and his agents directly, could be one way to keep them both off the board and allow him to run his true game without their interference. (But his true objective would have to directly involve mutant resources in some way, or else he'd have no justification to involve a potential *new* group of enemies! Perhaps seizing control by using a machine that doesn't just block telepathy but redirects the psionic energy and allows the wearer of the McGuffin to use the telepathy of those attacking him to control others? The hot second that Xavier or Emma or Jean attempts to mind-blast him, he locks on to their frequency and their power now works for him! He's already done some similar mind control shenanigans with the Overlord and Purple Man, so it wouldn't be out of his wheelhouse to attempt to usurp mutant telepathy similarly, perhaps hijacking some lesser telepaths like Third Eye as 'appetizers' to prepare for taking on the big gun X-telepaths...)

[marhawkman]

I'm a Serpent Society stan but I voted for the Femizons because I feel like we'll never see them as a group again.

Also... the Femizons have an interesting connection to the X-Men. It's a giant grab bag of female villains. Arclight, Frenzy, and Whiteout were part of the Femizons at one point. Certain members of the team have also fought the Xmen too.

[Huntsman Spider]

Zemo's a pretty clever guy, and he'd have to actually want something out of this, like access to Krakoan or Shiar tech. I think he'd be far more likely to engineer a fight between the Avengers and X-Men, so that the X-Men would be unwilling soldiers (or distractions) to mask his own objective (and, end up adding yet another group of heroes to his sizable enemies list!). Engineering a conflict between the humans and mutants of some made-up country like Sokovia, so that the Avengers are drawn in to protect the civilian populace from 'mutant terrorists' and the X-folk are drawn in on the other side to protect the innocent mutants from 'hate and persecution', while in both cases, the 'mutant terrorism' *and* the most egregious acts of anti-mutant prejudice, have been triggered and amplified in the media by Zemo and his agents directly, could be one way to keep them both off the board and allow him to run his true game without their interference. (But his true objective would have to directly involve mutant resources in some way, or else he'd have no justification to involve a potential *new* group of enemies! Perhaps seizing control by using a machine that doesn't just block telepathy but redirects the psionic energy and allows the wearer of the McGuffin to use the telepathy of those attacking him to control others? The hot second that Xavier or Emma or Jean attempts to mind-blast him, he locks on to their frequency and their power now works for him! He's already done some similar mind control shenanigans with the Overlord and Purple Man, so it wouldn't be out of his wheelhouse to attempt to usurp mutant telepathy similarly, perhaps hijacking some lesser telepaths like Third Eye as 'appetizers' to prepare for taking on the big gun X-telepaths...)

Engineering conflict by amplifying if not flat-out deliberately inciting the worst elements on both sides? Could be an apt commentary on bad actors in real life doing exactly that to further inflame existing tensions between various groups and causes.

[Sutekh]

Engineering conflict by amplifying if not flat-out deliberately inciting the worst elements on both sides? Could be an apt commentary on bad actors in real life doing exactly that to further inflame existing tensions between various groups and causes.

Art imitates life.

It was snarkily said in the GURPS rules that the 'etiquette' skill had the counter-intuitive role of being used also to provoke a rival so subtly as to cause them to violently overreact in a situation where doing so could get them killed, while creating the illusion that you are blameless and 'the victim' of the person you provoked. (Provoking them in such a way as to cause them to draw steel on you in the presence of a superior, causing *them* to be punished for aggressive behavior, for example.)

[Joy Boy]

Technet, the Multidimensional Mercenaries!

IMG_5969.jpg

[Thirteen]

HIGH EVOLUTIONARY and his NEW MEN

[Huntsman Spider]

Art imitates life.

It was snarkily said in the GURPS rules that the 'etiquette' skill had the counter-intuitive role of being used also to provoke a rival so subtly as to cause them to violently overreact in a situation where doing so could get them killed, while creating the illusion that you are blameless and 'the victim' of the person you provoked. (Provoking them in such a way as to cause them to draw steel on you in the presence of a superior, causing *them* to be punished for aggressive behavior, for example.)

As TV Tropes would call it, the Wounded Gazelle Gambit.

HIGH EVOLUTIONARY and his NEW MEN

The High Evolutionary has had dealings with the X-Men before, if I recall right. Would be interesting to see him go up against Sinister.