Look, I get you - turning to the last page and finding out the answer is 'you' is probably about as lame as those museum exhibits on the world's most dangerous animals that end with a mirror staring you in the face. But equally, what other characters have caused as much harm to mutantkind than humanity? We're kind of the worst.
Humans have been persecuting mutants for decades now, and that prejudice and persecution invariably leads to disaster. Whether it's Sentinels massacring mutants by the dozen or humans literally sacrificing their own humanity in the aim of self-preservation and anti-mutant hatred, it is ordinary human beings who have committed the most heinous acts in the X-Men's history.
Yes, you could argue that Apocalypse is pretty awful. So too could you argue the same of Mister Sinister or maybe even Omega Red. But neither of them are real. The reason why human horror hits so close to home in these books is because it reminds us of the William Strykers and Robert Kellys of our own world, and how we're no closer to defeating them nearly a century on from humanity's darkest hour.
That hate - that cruelty - is really the most disturbing foe of all. No ghastly ghoul or freaky mutant comes close to matching it.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
