Marvel’s X-Men possess some of the most awesome powers within the superhero world. Between their cool backstories, mutant abilities, complex personalities, and character arcs, it’s no wonder why they are among some of the most popular superheroes of our time.
We’ve seen many of the X-Men either emerge from or turn to the dark side, from Rogue’s draining of the powers of Carol Danvers to the destruction wreaked by the Phoenix Force within Jean Grey. Through different arcs, universes, and retcons, writes usually return our beloved X-teams to the side of good eventually, and the mutants’ own experiences with prejudice and hatred often contribute to this desire to change the world for the better.
But what if writers refused to do so? Every once in a while we get a good X-men character gone bad who never returns from the dark side - but suppose they all stayed on the dark side.
What if all of Charles Xavier’s students opted to instead chase careers of a villainous nature, engaging in nefarious lives of crime and violence? There is no shortage of fans speculating on not only how this might happen but what the X-Men might look like if they were to stay on the side of evil.
Many artists have created some pretty impressive renderings of the X-Men and other X-teams as foes rather than friends.
In an alternative world where the powers of good fail and let everything falls to chaos, you’ll find these 25 X-Men Redesigned As Villains.
Wade Vs. Hawkeye
Do you like the idea of Bullseye and Hawkeye combined into a single character? How about witnessing him battle it out with Deadpool in a villainous twist as inspired by the Deadpool: Dark Reign graphic novel, as artist chaos-neverthrive has done here?
Deadpool is already the epitome of the anti-hero: he’s a merc who does the job for money and often chooses a dubious side to fight on, There are plenty of times when we’ve witnessed Wade fully enter the realm of evil, particularly during the Marvel zombie books.
Darth Gambit
Out of the X-Men who’ve gone bad, Remy Lebeau has had more than a few dark days. In fact, he’s still often more of an anti-hero than not, displaying a pretty devious nature when it suits him.
Seabra’s cool “Darth Gambit” piece still feels like a bit of a stretch, but only because it’s unlikely that Gambit could be as powerful as Vader.
He doesn’t really exhibit the same leadership abilities that the former Jedi was known to possess.
Still, it’s a cool concept and one that begs the question: what would the rest of the X-Men look like as Sith lords?
Demon Rogue
Fans of the CW’s Supernatural know about the long and complicated history between the demon Ruby and Jared Padalecki’s character, Sam Winchester, which ultimately ended in marriage for the actors who portrayed the characters.
Artist starry-ice reimagined both characters as Rogue and Gambit in this extraordinary sketch in which the demon definitely has the upper hand, as she always did.
Not only is this just a fantastic piece of art that seamlessly blends the characters, but it also fuels our imagination.
Now we need a whole Supernatural/X-Men cast, including Professor Bobby Singer and Dean as Wolverine.
Angel As Loki
In an alternate universe, artist Patri-ck has imagined what it might look like if the trickster god Loki were to also be X-Men’s Angel. We’ve all witnessed poor Angel’s foray into evil at the twisted hands of Apocalypse, after which he became the troubled and brooding Archangel, which completely transformed the character from his original self.
Angel under the influence of Loki is quite a bit different.
Still charming and handsome, this dark Angel would be cut from cunning cloth, melding his powers with those of Thor’s adopted brother to result in a pretty impressive combination.
Trick Or Treat Nightcrawler
Kurt Wagner has always been linked to a devil, given his unearthly appearance, and witnessing his mistreatment for that reason has always been heartbreaking. That’s why when Marvel decided to not only make him homophobic for a while but also actual demon spawn, it felt like such a low blow.
Perhaps that’s the explanation behind artist MonoFlax’s Inktober creation, which, though technically is a Halloween costume, gives us an idea of what Nightcrawler might look like surrounded by his own minions. His circus attire from X-Men: Apocalypse also provided inspiration for this look.
Venom Logan
Technically, the symbiote Venom could take over any host it desires given the right circumstances. As we eagerly await its takeover of Tom Hardy in Venom, we can check out some of the other possibilities that fans have imagined, such as artist dr-conz’s cool take on what a Venom Wolverine might look like.
Venom is almost wasted on the character, though, right? As neat as he looks with his musculature and fangs, Logan is already known to fly off in Berserker fashion, or to even callously leave a teammate behind, so the addition of Venom seems almost unnecessary,
Storm As Pestilence
Artist singory has depicted the weather witch as something truly sinister here, complete with sharp teeth, scarlet eyes and fur. The artist asks who better to spread disease than the mutant who controls the weather?
Storm’s windy blasts would definitely spread anything airborne pretty quickly, and she could distribute illness via rain as well.
Even though we’ve witnessed Storm as an evil character and as a Horseman, this is still one of the most disturbing examples since she just looks so evil.
The Indomitable Scarlet Witch
She’s one of the most underused characters in the MCU, but in the comics there’s no shortage of examples reflecting the sheer power of Scarlet Witch.
She’s been on the side of evil before, but in artist DURRRRIAN’s version of her there is absolutely no denying the damage this mutant can inflict with her awesome powers.
Yes, that weird wimple she wears is still there, but it looks much more nefarious with the spell orbs, glowing purple eyes and wicked steampunk-like costume the artist created.
Rogue As Famine
The X-women as the Four Horsewomen of Apocalypse are awesomely portrayed by artist singory, and her set includes this fantastic rendition of Rogue as Famine.
Note Rogue’s skeletal figure and the look based on the animated series, complete with the young mutant’s goth outfit and chunky, streaked hair.
Perhaps the coolest part of this look is her apocalyptic cape, although that eerie look on her face is also pretty well done.
Viewers of the X-Men films know that Storm was the actual Famine figure in Apocalypse’s villainous quartet.
Loki And Quicksilver
What might happen if Loki were to tempt Quicksilver to the dark side?
For starters, we’ve already seen Quicksilver on the side of evil many times, particularly when he worked for Magneto with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but he was always a reluctant participant, mainly involved for the sake of his sister.
What if he instead became evil to the core?
In this piece by artist the-evil-legacy, the creepy smirk on Pietro’s face rivals Loki’s expression, making us wonder which character has a more dastardly plan up his sleeve.
Dark Phoenix Wolverine
What if the Phoenix Force inhabited not Jean Grey, who has years of practice with restraining her powers and the desire to control them, but Wolverine instead?
We can’t see anything but destruction and darkness from there on in, but artist Faith84g’s piece displaying what it might look like is ingenious.
Logan appears to be thrilled with his newfound abilities, though it could simply be the Phoenix’s elation displayed on his wondrous face.
Another idea: what if Dark Phoenix and Logan had a child together? Would the result be something similar?
Emma Frost, Queen Of Hearts
Emma Frost’s heart is often a cruel, icy one, so it’s not as ironic as it sounds to portray her as the Queen of Hearts. Is it really that much of a stretch from making out with your lover on his ex’s grave to terrorizing the inhabitants of Wonderland? Okay, maybe, but in artist caanantheartboy’s piece “Kitty in Wonderland,” Emma is the perfect villain calling for decapitation.
Her outraged pointing finger, scrunched up expression of rage and tilted crown might not be in the forefront of this piece but it definitely gets the point across.
Venompool
Venom combined with Deadpool? The result of this symbiotic relationship would be nothing but pure id, and while it would be incredibly entertaining to witness playing out, we can’t see anything but catastrophe coming out of the situation.
It would be a train wreck to watch, but at least neither could really increase the gross factor of the other.
Artist liquid-venom gives us a peek at what this relationship might look like and it’s just as disturbing and brilliant as we would imagine.
We love the little Wolverine figure hanging from Pool/Venom’s sword, too.
Dark Side Wolverine
One of Wolverine’s darkest moments involved taking out his entire team in the Old Man Logan story line, so it’s not difficult to think of him as a baddie at all, as artist zeth3047 has done.
Check out the red glow of that Force: this Logan is definitely a Sith in the making - if he isn’t one already.
Although the artist lists him as a Jedi, we can see it’s not going to be long until he’s transitioned to the dark side. We love the use of his adamantium claws as a replacement for a lightsaber.
Old Friends: Erik And Charles
Professor X and Magneto have one of those close, meaningful friendships gone wrong that most of us can relate to, but their easy camaraderie and closeness make us adore what they had despite its toxicity.
What if Erik had managed to persuade Charles to join his cause for mutant domination over humankind?
This piece, created by erikandcharles, is absolutely breathtaking, but look at their expressions: Erik looks quite pleased with his turning Charles to his side, and Chuck appears even more evil than Magneto!
Whether or not you love them together as dear friends or a couple, this piece should be pinned in every Magneto/Professor X collection.
Apocalypse Rogue
Yes, we get that Apocalypse is one of the most powerful villains of all time: he’s not quite Thanos but he puts Magneto, Mister Sinister, and Mojo all to shame.
Imagining Rogue as the ancient mutant is a pretty cool concept.
We completely get that the mutant could take over the world with her powers if she ever wanted to do so, but just look at the carnage she’s left behind in LuLebel’s piece after seemingly causing the Apocalypse herself.
Did she absorb the titular villain’s powers somehow? Maybe she took everybody’s powers at once. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Zombie Wolverine
Zombie Wolverine is nothing new. Marvel has portrayed Logan in zombie form before and while it was pretty horrific, there are worse zombie characters.
In artist ParisAlleyne’s piece here, Wolverine wasn’t alone in his monstrous quest for brains a la mode. He was joined by Batman, Penance, The Punisher and Daredevil, crossing fandoms and comic publishers in a quest to take over the world. The artist says you could also see them as demons.
There’s a companion piece to this one that features more heroes gone bad, including Ghost Rider, Spawn, Deadman, Darkness, and Haunt.
Jean Grey Symbiote
The Venom symbiote doesn’t often choose a female host, but if it went with Jean Grey, possibly the most powerful mutant of all time, the universe would be in terrible trouble.
First, it’s important to point out that artist cric created the piece with Jean as the Phoenix. This could be problematic since it’s unlikely that the symbiote could overpower the Phoenix Force unless the Force wanted its combined powers and believed that it could control them both.
Still, this combination would make any other Venom combo seem harmless in comparison.
Sinister Remy
There was a time when Mister Sinister held power over Remy Lebeau, but Gambit has since enacted his revenge and then some on the villain.
Artist Cesar-Hernandez postulates what might happen if Remy was actually Mister Sinsiter, but it’s not as evil as it sounds. The artist depicts him in a Halloween costume as Sinister, which looks much more adorable than threatening.
Look as those freckles and that knowing smirk. Had Remy had a decent childhood, this might have been a memory.
Pestilence Pixie
Artist jelloconcoction decided to create a version of one of the Four Horsemen, Pestilence, with one of the All New X-Men: Pixie!
She looks absolutely fierce with her goblin green skin, armor and sword.
The artist says that she’s been influenced by hallucinogenic spores and between her magical skills and the powers bestowed upon her by Apocalypse she’s become a pretty formidable villain.
Pixie’s skin, according to the artist, is a “putrid green” to reflect the plague element of her character, which is simultaneously cool and gross, working great for this idea.
