10 Most Evil X-Men Villains
3. Stryfe
Stryfe is a clone of the time-travelling mutant Cable. Growing up to hate his "brother", he murdered Cable's wife and abducted his son in the future before eventually travelling to the 20th Century. Once there he founded the terrorist group the Mutant Liberation Front and clashed with Cable and his team X-Force before he was eventually killed by Cable.
Really Stryfe is pretty rubbish, mainly due to how incredibly 90's he is. His origin story is horribly convoluted, involving both cloning and time-travel, his name is stupid and his costume is wildly impractical. How does he even move without impaling himself on a poorly placed spike or snapping his neck thanks to the abstract art installation he has strapped to his head?
However, he still absolutely deserves his spot on this list because Stryfe was responsible for releasing the Legacy Virus into the world. The virus was a disease that targeted the X-gene, causing hundreds of mutants across the planet to die an agonising death. Not only that, the virus also caused its victim's powers to wildly flare out of control, ratcheting up the tensions between humans and mutants.
The virus claimed the lives of many, including Mastermind, Pyro, Colossus' sister Illayna and even the X-Men's close friend Moira MacTaggert after it mutated to also affect humans. Beast was eventually able to develop a cure, but the only way to release it was for Colossus to sacrifice his own life as a carrier.