Merge:Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, also known as "The Brotherhood" and Brotherhood of Mutants, is a Marvel Comics supervillain team devoted to mutant superiority over normal humans. They are among the chief adversaries of the X-Men. The original Brotherhood was created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby and first appeared in X-Men #4 (March 1964).

The group's roster and indeed its very ideology has varied from incarnation to incarnation, ranging from world domination to serving as a terrorist group that targets anti-mutant public figures. They are almost always at odds with the more peaceful X-Men, though on rare occassions the two sides have allied against a common threat.

The Brotherhood was founded by Magneto and was his primary allies in his early battles with the X-Men during 1960s. The original Brotherhood ultimately disbanded though, with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch going on to become members of the Avengers.

In 1981, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was revived under the leadership of Mystique while the group's most visible incarnation during the early 1990s was led by Toad. With each additional incarnation, the group has abandoned its political ideology and regressed to the status of "hired goons" by the end of the 1990s, though the most recent incarnations have sought to return the political roots.

The Brotherhood of Mutants has also appeared in several animated series featuring the X-Men and have been Magneto's group in the recent X-Men film series.

Ideology
While later incarnations of the Brotherhood promoted the group's existence as a political and ideological rival Professor Charles Xavier's dream of peace with humans, the group was orginally conceived as simply a small, but powerful army of minions gathered by Magneto to aid in his schemes for world domination. But since the group's second incarnation, the group has become a much more politically motivated group designed for use of violence to provide justice and lead the so-called 'mutant revolution' against mankind.

As such, one of the greater ironies of the group has been its use of "Evil" in its name. Since the early 1990s, writers have attempted to explain away this oxymoron by having Toad explained away the word as irony, based upon the preceived notion that all mutants are "evil". Later writers have opted instead to simply abandon the "Evil" part of the group's name and refer to the group as "The Brotherhood".

Many of the group's members have been shown to be past victims of anti-mutant prejudice, which has made the group a haven for many mutants who feel they are outcasts and pariahs. While many of these outcast mutants have willingly embraced the violent aspects of the Brotherhood's ideology, several have ultimately rejected it and left the group because of it. Most notably, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch left the group due to their disdain for Magneto's various schemes for world domination to join the Avengers, a group of heroes dedicated to help save the world as opposed to ruling it.

Ironically, in spite of his later development as a more ethically complex figure, Magneto's original incarnation of the group is regularly viewed as the most ideologially one-dimensional incarnation of the group. The Brotherhood, under Magneto's original leadership, existed solely as an army to aid in Magneto's dreams of world domination with it being stated on numerous occassion by Magneto, that his political ideology was simply a recruiting tool to gather troops for Magneto's mutant armies. Grant Morrison would counter this portrayal in the controversial "Planet X" storyline, by allowing Magneto to form a new politically motivated incarnation of the Brotherhood, though certain actions taken by Magneto during the course of the story created such an outrage amongst fans of the character, that Marvel quickly (and rather haphazardly) retconned Magneto's presence as being that of an imposter.

Version One
The original leader of the team was Magneto, a mutant with the ability to control magnetic fields. The group's purpose originally was to provide Magneto with allies to fight the X-Men with and to aid in Magneto's various schemes for world domination. It was shown (and expanded upon after the fact) by both Scarlet Witch and the Toad, that Magneto had little to no respect for his minions and routinely used physical violence against the group whenever any member showed any doubt towards Magneto's schemes for world domination.

The members of the original team were Quicksilver, who can run at incredible speeds, the Scarlet Witch, who has the power to affect probability fields, the Toad, a snivelling villain with incredible jumping ability and a medieval costume, and Mastermind, with the power to create illusions of sight, smell, taste, touch and sound. Other members (who appeared for a single story then left) included the Blob, Unus the untouchable, and Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Also is the fact that the Savage Land Mutate known as Lorelei was a member & the Vanisher was an associate member!

The group fought the X-Men quite regularly and later, when Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch joined the Avengers, Magneto would come into combat with the Avengers in order to try and reclaim his renegade members back to the side of evil.

Many of the early Brotherhood of Evil Mutant stories have become controversial amongst fans of Magneto, due to the way that the stories portrayed Magneto as a cruel villain who simply wanted to control the world and saw his fellow mutants as nothing more than cannon fodder for his dreams of domination. Later Magneto stories have attempted to retcon Magneto's motivations in these tales away from world domination to him having an honest desire to help his fellow mutants through violence and terror.

Furthermore, during the early 1980s, it was revealed that Magneto's relationship with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch ran much deeper than had been previously portrayed, with the revelation that the two were children sired from a previously never-before mentioned marriage between Magneto and a human wife.

Another retcon, added to the franchise in 1999, was the introduction of Astra. Astra was a teleporter/alien scientist who joined the original Brotherhood and supplied Magneto with the bulk of the technology used by the original Brotherhood. But Astra's tenure with the group would be very short; the jealous Astra was furious that Magneto didn't focus all of his attention on her, leading to her quitting the group before its first battle with the X-Men.

Version Two


The shapeshifting mutant terrorist Mystique would organize the second incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Unlike Magneto's initial incarnation, this group would be overtly political and not seek world domination. Instead, Mystique's Brotherhood would operate as a political assassination squad, targeting high profile anti-mutant activists for death. Original members included Pyro, the Blob, Avalanche, and Destiny.

In their first appearance (Uncanny X-Men #141-142), the group went after its first target in the form of Senator Robert Kelly. Ironically, the group's assassination attempt was foiled by the X-Men, who had been warned by a future version of its newest member Shadowcat that the Brotherhood's assassination of Kelly would have the reversed effect of what Mystique planned and lead to a nightmarish future where Kelly's death would trigger a tidal wave of anti-mutant prejudice that would lead to mutantkind being almost entirely wiped out and the few survivors being placed in concentration camps. The X-Men defeated the Brotherhood and all but Mystique were arrested and sent to jail.

The group would later be joined by Rogue, who in her debut appearance in Avengers Annual #10, permenently stole the super-powers of Ms. Marvel for the purpose of freeing the Brotherhood members from prison. Rogue would serve the Brotherhood for several additional battles before the consequences of Rogue stealing Ms. Marvel's powers came back to haunt the young mutant as Rogue found herself suffering from schizophrenia and the onset of multiple personality disorder. This caused Rogue to flee the Brotherhood and her step-mother's care for the X-Men, only further fueling Mystique's hatred for the X-Men. Mystique launched an ambush against the X-Men that left Colossus mortally wounded before Mystique was convinced by Rogue to respect her decision to stay with the X-Men.

Mystique's tenure as leader of the Brotherhood and her disdain for the growing anti-mutant hysteria of the time led her to make a deal with the devil in order to ensure her own safety and the safety of her minions. Mystique would offer the Brotherhood's services to the US Government in exchange for the group receiving a full presidential pardon for all past crimes. The group was renamed Freedom Force and was given a new member, Spiral, who quickly became the team's most powerful member and single-handedly led to the Brotherhood defeating the X-Men on two seperate occassions (Uncanny X-Men #199 and #206).

The group also accepted the second Spider-Woman (who ultimately turned against the team during a battle against the Avengers), and later included Super Sabre, the Crimson Commando, and Stonewall. As Freedom Force, the group became less political and more generic villains in service of the government. In particular, the Brotherhood became flunkies for the various anti-mutant forces within the US government, enforcing the controversial "Mutant Registration Act" and kidnapping mutants Skids and Rusty Collins on trumped up charges, when the two discovered that the US Government had faked the deaths of a dozen mutant infants so as to raise the children as potential assassins.

The ultimate fate of this incarnation of the Brotherhood would be fittingly tragic, due to their utter betrayal of their core values. Destiny, Super Sabre and Stonewall were murdered, Spiral turning against Mystique over Mystique's refusal to let Spiral murder the mutant Firestar, the apparent death of Mystique, Crimson Commando being maimed in an explosion, and ultimately Avalanche betraying Blob and Pyro by leaving them behind enemy lines during a mission in Iraq.

Version Three
The Toad, during one of his periods of sanity, organized the next incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and included Blob and Pyro, a woman named Phantazia who could disrupt machines and superhuman powers, and the vampiric humanoid pterodactyl called Sauron, who is not an actual mutant. The group debuted in X-Force #5 and were treated mainly as minor villains, facing X-Force and X-Factor and not the X-Men themselves. The group's most notable act was during the events of X-Force #5-9, where they formed an alliance with the Morlocks and attacked X-Force. In the ensuing battle, Morlock leader Masque was stabbed to death (though he later revealed that he survived) and Sauron apparently "killing" Cannonball, triggering his secondary mutation of immortality (later retconned as Cable accidentally declaring Cannonball dead).

The group ultimately disbanded when Pyro was revealed to have contracted the deadly Legacy Virus and Toad once again was consumed by his long-standing mental problems.

Version Four
Havok, while suffering from the after-effects of a nervous breakdown brought on by having his mind violated and controlled by the Dark Beast, was the leader of a short-lived group called "The Brotherhood". The group's membership included himself, the Dark Beast, Fatale, Random, Nate Grey, several members of "Gen-Nation", and, briefly, Aurora.

Despite hints that Havok may have murdered anti-mutant Presidential Candidate Graymond Creed, the group was notable for its utter lack of storyline and activities. Furthermore, despite writers promoting that Havok had truly gone evil, the group was disbanded when it was nonsensically revealed that Havok was faking being evil all along and was simply trying to get close to the Dark Beast so that he could bring him to justice,

Version Five
The fifth incarnation included new members the Mimic and Post, as well as the Blob and Toad. They freed Charles Xavier from prison and helped the X-Men battle the mutant detection device Cerebro, which had suddenly gained sentience and was seeking to capture all mutants on the face of the Earth. Despite Xavier attempts to train the team to beat Cerebro, the group were easily captured alongside the X-Men, who then defeated Cerebro and let the Brotherhood go free. This incarnation is generally considered to be the weakest and most disliked incarnation of the group, as the Brotherhood was portrayed as weak and hopeless, a case that was most apparent with its portrayal of Toad as a insane, rambling buffoon and Blob as its leader.

The group reappeared and for a single mission, cooperated with Mystique in a failed attempt to capture the Machine Man. Mystique left the group after the failed kidnapping attempt and the group ultimately disbanded when the High Evolutionary temporarily depowered all mutants on the planet.

Version Six
The next incarnation of the Brotherhood was led by Mystique again. Though it would not be revealed until several months after the storyline began, with the publication of "X-Men Forever", Mystique was driven mad due to a time travel adventure resulted in her being forced to murder her son Graymond Creed (an act her past self desperately attempted to prevent) and the revelation that Destiny was an active part of the anti-mutant conspiracy Mystique had fought against for so long.

Mystique organized this new Brotherhood by drawing members from nearly every incarnation, and adding Sabretooth to the lineup. A training session also showed a new Super Sabre and Crimson Commando, but they were not included on the group's one and only mission: to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly. Kelly was running for President of the United States and despite having renounced his anti-mutant prejudices in private, was remaining coy in public over whether or not he would enact anti-mutant legislation if elected. To prepare for her mission as well as prepare for another project she was working on, a new biological weapon based upon the anti-mutant Legacy Virus, Mystique kidnapped Moira MacTaggert and impersonated her in order to access MacTaggert's research on the Legacy Virus. In the end, while her minions attempted to assassinate Kelly, Wolfsbane (Moira's surrogate daughter and New Mutant) realized that Mystique and Sabretooth had taken over the island. In the ensuing battle, Moira MacTaggert was killed by Mystique, who also depowered Wolfsbane and fatally stabbed her beloved adopted daughter Rogue (who survived due to Wolverine's healing factor. Rogue responded by stabbing Mystique (who had done what MacTaggert could not have done and found a cure for the Legacy Virus).

Meanwhile, Pyro (dying from the Legacy Virus) turned against his teammates and with his dying breath murdered Post in order to prevent Post from carrying out their mission to killy Senator Kelly. The Brotherhood was arrested and taken into police custody; however their failure would bring about Mystique's goal in a darkly ironic fashion. Pyro's sacrifice and a conversation with the mercenary X-Men Cable gave Kelly the courage to openly denounce his past as an anti-mutant bigot and vow to use the Presidency, if elected, to help mutantkind instead of persecuting mutantkind. For his couragous action, Kelly was promptly shot dead by an anti-mutant bigot who was furious that Kelly was renouncing his anti-mutant beliefs.

Version Seven
Shortly afterwords, a short-lived Marvel series called The Brotherhood was released that featured a large group of mutant terrorists, unrelated to any other version of the Brotherhood active within the mutant community. The group was founded by the mutants Hoffman, Orwell and Marshal, but Marshal left the group and became a government agent. Hoffman hid his identity under the alias "X". Marshal had the orders to take down the Brotherhood, but was really planning on killing Hoffman and becoming the new "X". This series was cancelled after nine issues, at which point all members had either been killed in the power struggle between Hoffman and Marshal or by the publicity-driven X-Force (later renamed X-Statix).

Version Eight
The Brotherhood would return yet again in Uncanny X-Men #401-407 and included the new member Fever Pitch and Martinique Jason, aka Mastermind II. This Brotherhood had infiltrated the X-Corps and involved a complex scheme of fake identities and manipulation of the mutant Banshee, who had formed the X-Corp with the former Brotherhood members Blob and Avalanche, along with former Generation X members Jubilee, M, and Husk and former X-Factor member Jamie Maddrox. Mystique posed as an electicity-themed mutant called Surge; as well as the leader of an anti-mutant hate group in order to stir up anti-mutant sentiments, while having Mastermind II slowly take mental control over Maddrox, in order to launch a full scale assault on Paris, France (home of the X-Corps) as the beginning of a mutant revolution. In the end, Mystique slit the throat of Banshee and for her troubles was tossed into a dimensional rift by the mutant Abyss, where she ended up landing in the middle of a battle between the X-Men and the father of her son Nightcrawler.

In her shortlived ongoing series (that began ironically enough, before she reappeared after being banished by Abyss), Mystique was forced to work with the X-Men as a secret agent. Because of the mass amount of carnage she had inflicted upon the X-Men as well as the attempt to murder Rogue, Mystique attempted (without much success) to blame it on an imposture who sought to destroy Mystique's reputation by engaging in acts of violence and bloodshed against her adopted daughter and the X-Men. But no one believed Mystique, who promptly abandoned her attempts to scapegoat her actions on an imaginary figure.

Version Nine
Another Brotherhood was formed by Magneto, who survived the destruction of the nation of Genosha and had gone into hiding in China. When Magneto's Chinese supporters began to be kidnapped for vivisection experiments by John Sublime and the U-Men, Magneto concocted a desperate gambit where he pretended to be a Chinese mutant named Xorn who was "sold" to the U-Men's master John Sublime. This drew the attention of the X-Men, who rescued "Xorn" and shut down Sublime's U-Men operation. Magneto opted to stay in China, hiding under his "Xorn" identity, as Magneto's apparent death in Genosha had resulted in him achieving martyrdom and public acceptance. But Magneto was forced out of his exile and aided the X-Men as "Xorn" to save Professor X from his evil doppleganger/twin sister Cassandra Nova. Magneto even "healed" Xavier, rewiring nanite Sentinel technology to restore his former friend's ability to walk. After Cassandra Nova's defeat, "Xorn" was offered membership with the X-Men and a teaching job, working with Xavier's "Special Class" (which consisted mainly of physically deformed mutants).

Magneto worked with the students, while keeping up his disguise of the pacifist "Xorn". But Magneto grew angry at the lack of progress he felt Xavier was making in the wake of Genosha's destruction and the massive changes being brought about by the latest generation of mutants. Magneto also found himself developing a close bond with the "Special Class" of students, who were all bitter and angry at how they had been recruited by Xavier only to be shoved into the shadows due to their deformities. In particular, Magneto formed a close bond with Angel Salvadore, a young hispanic mutant with dragonfly wings who saw Magneto murder a group of "U-Men" who had stumbled upon the Special Class during a camping trip and Esme, a member of the Stepford Cuckoos telepathic mind-trust.

Esme was a spy for John Sublime (who ran the Weapon Plus Project as well as the U-Men), who on the side dealt the mutant drug "Kick" on the side, to her fellow students. Though it was never shown how she knew Magneto was Xorn, Esme convinced Magneto that he needed to return and bring about a mutant revolution. But Magneto, still aching from injuries and doubts regarding whether or not he should return, was seduced by Esme to return to villainy when Esme had Magneto try the "Kick" drug. Magneto found his energy and strength returning and began to recruit a new Brotherhood, aided by Toad and his new underlings, his Special Class students.

There would be problems though, as Esme would go against Magneto's wishes and use Angel Salvadore, via telepathic mind control, to attempt to assassinate Emma Frost. Frost had taken an interest in Angel after the Stepford Cuckoos rejected her mentoring. Magneto would be forced to intervene personally, arranging for Esme to escape as he prepared to unfurl his plans.

With the Extreme X-Men entangled with rescuing Rachael Summers, the Uncanny X-Men busy protecting the Gunthrie family from anti-mutant forces, and Storm busy fighting Masque's attempts to enslave expatriot mutants in Japan, the scene was set for Magneto to stage his return. Luring the remaining X-Men out of the X-Mansion, Magneto and his new Brotherhood attacked Xavier as Magneto removed his "Xorn" mask and deactivate the nanites, effectively crippling Xavier once again.

Magneto then burned down the X-Mansion and led his forces to Manhattan, where he lured the rest of the heroes of the city away by sending them off on a wild goose chase involving a non-existing black hole bomb. Magneto then took full control over the city and laid waste to it, destroying landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Brocklyn Bridge and ordering all mutants in the city to round up all humans for mass extermination. Aiding them in this task were Esme and another Special Class telepath, Martha Johansson, were using their collective powers to keep the rest of the Special Class Brotherhood members under Magneto's control. But as Magneto personally began executing humans (and ordering the creation of gas chambers to murder human prisoners), his young recruits began to rebel against him.

Further alienating things was Magneto's growing mental instability, due to his now full-blown addiction to "Kick". It would later be revealed, in the following arc "Here Comes Tomorrow", that "Kick" was the true form of John Sublime, who was ultimately exposed to be a parasitic creature that has existed since the dawn of time. During the arc, a futuristic Wolverine revealed that by taking the drug, Magneto unknowingly gave up control over his own body to Sublime, resulting in Sublime forcing Magneto to commit acts of mass murder against the human population of Manhattan.

As such, Magneto's mental instability soon became so great that he murdered the nephlyte mutant Basilisk for no reason, resulting in his students rebelling against them. Alongside Phoenix, Wolverine, and Cyclops, Magneto was defeated and exposed as a mass murdering hypocrite to the mutants of the city. As Phoenix approached him, Sublime ordered Magneto to murder Phoenix (the only figure who could detect Sublime's control over Magneto), which he did. Magneto was then promptly decapitated by Wolverine, ending the battle once and for all.

The story was extremely controversial for its portrayal of Magneto, even though writer Grant Morrison himself went out of his way to establish that Magneto was not responsible for his acts of mass murder. Despite this, the story evoked a very polarizing reaction from fans that was made even worse when Marvel Comics haphazardly forced a retcon declaring that Magneto had never left Genosha after the nation was destroyed and that Xorn was real person pretending to be Magneto, as opposed to being a disguise Magneto crafted to allow him to live a private life.

Version Ten
The most recent version of the Brotherhood appeared in the "Heroes and Villains" arc that concluded Chuck Austen's run on X-Men and only appeared once. The team was led by the powerful mutant Exodus, who had once been Magneto's herald, and its other members included Avalanche, Sabretooth (who had simply been hired by Exodus), and new members Black Tom Cassidy, Mammomax, Nocturne (who was revealed to be a spying on the team), and Juggernaut (who's loyalty was divided between the Brotherhood and the X-Men). After Black Tom killed Juggernaut's friend Sammy "Squid-Boy" Pare, Juggernaut tried to destroy the Brotherhood. After knocking Juggernaut and Nocturne unconscious, Exodus led his team to the Xavier Institute to claim revenge for the apparent death of Magneto. However, during the battle, Exodus was betrayed by Black Tom, who then attempted to destroy the rebuilt X-Mansion and slaughtered several staff members at the school using his new plant-based body. In the end, the second Xorn sucked the group (sans Juggernaut) into the "black hole" within his head; Nocturne was sucked in as well, having possessed Black Tom in a futile attempt to keep Black Tom from killing any addition people. Juggernaut followed her into the black hole, to protect her from being killed by the Brotherhood once she was forced out of Tom's body. They eventually landed in Mojoworld, where the others sold Nocturne and Juggernaut to Mojo and returned to Earth.

Other Marvel continuities
In Ultimate X-Men, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is called the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy. Unlike the mainstream Marvel Universe incarnation, the Ultimate Marvel version of the group is a large organization that includes such neutral mutant members as Forge.

In the first issue of X-Men: Fairy Tales limited series, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants appear as a group of demons who have captured the Emperor's daughter (Jean Grey). Hitome/Cyclops subdues them. The team members used for this issue were Magneto, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and Toad.

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
The Brotherhood made their first ever appearance in other media on Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. In the episode entitled The Prison Plot, the Spider-Friends are called into action when Magneto appears, demanding the release of his 'Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' (here, represented by Toad, Blob, and Mastermind) from jail.

Pryde of the X-Men
Their next appearance would be in the 1989 animated television pilot Pryde of the X-Men. there referred to as "The Brotherhood of Mutant Terrorists." This Brotherhood was comprised of Magneto, Toad, Blob, Pyro, Juggernaut, and White Queen.

X-Men: The Animated Series
The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants appeared mainly in its second incarnation, with Mystique, Blob, Avalanche, and Pyro as members of the group and Rogue being shown to be a former member (which was included as a retcon, due to Rogue and Mystique being portrayed as not knowing each other when the characters first meet). The group were shown also to be initially financed by the mutant Apocalypse, though only Mystique knew this.

Notably absent from the series was the lesbian Brotherhood member and Mystique's longtime lover Destiny, who was a major member of the second incarnation. As such, major changes were made towards the cartoon adaptation of "Days of Future Past", which Destiny played a major role in the climax of the story.

X-Men: Evolution
In X-Men: Evolution animated television series, the group is simply called the Brotherhood of Mutants and is portrayed less as a group of terrorists and more as a group of trouble-making teenagers. In the animated series, the group consists mainly of teenagers brought together by Mystique (secretly working for Magneto), and consisted of teenage versions of Avalanche, Blob, Toad, and Quicksilver. Due to the shifting loyalties of Mystique and long periods of absence from Magneto, these four teens were often left without any guidance and as the series progressed, they went from super-villains to standard criminals until the point where they simply stopped caring and just stayed home most of the time. Towards the end of the series, they became a wild card team that could be swayed to any cause, and often teamed up with the X-Men, who remained their rivals, but no longer necessarily enemies. The Scarlet Witch was eventually added to the team.

Film trilogy (2000-2006)


In 2000's X-Men movie the Brotherhood included Sir Ian McKellen as Magneto, Tyler Mane as Sabretooth, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique and Ray Park as Toad. In the sequel X2 the line up was greatly reduced to Magneto and Mystique. However at the end of the film they were joined by Pyro (Aaron Stanford). The third installment of the series, X-Men 3, gave fans a glimpse of a much larger brotherhood including, Juggernaut (Vinnie Jones), Callisto (Dania Ramirez), Arclight (Omahyra Mota), Multiple Man (Eric Dane), Quill (Ken Leung), Psylocke (Meiling Melançon), Spike (Lance Gibson), and Phoenix (Famke Janssen), among many unnamed others.