In A.X.E. Judgment Day, the X-Men fight the Eternals for their very survival. This epic comic book crossover event pits mutants at their most powerful against beings with god-like advantages and tests the X-Men like never before. But even with their power, the Eternals only share the stage with the X-Men’s most powerful villains in the Marvel Universe.
Marvel throws everything at the X-Men, including cosmic threats and magical ones. Their villains include characters like the Scarlet Witch, who erased most of them from existence with a single phrase, and former allies and colleagues like Moira MacTaggert, who have turned their knowledge and skill against them.
Magneto
Magneto died a hero in AXE: Judgment Day #4, but he started out as a villain. He first appeared in X-Men #1 in 1963, applying his supreme mastery of magnetism to quickly establish himself among the best X-Men villains ever. His powers only grew over time, with his latest feat including keeping himself alive after losing his heart by manipulating the iron in his blood.
Magneto also contributed to the terraforming of Mars, creating a mutant haven in a single day. An Omega-Level mutant with an unrelenting commitment to protecting mutants, Magneto proves a powerful foe for any who oppose him.
Nimrod
Nimrod represents in some ways the ultimate threat the X-Men face. A super-advanced sentinel from the Days of Future Past timeline, among the darkest timelines in Marvel Comics, this sentient cyborg possesses such destructive power that Moira MacTaggert organized her many lives around avoiding his creation at all costs.
Nimrod possesses highly destructive offensive capabilities like energy beams, but his primary power stems from his adaptability. Not only does he constantly evolve, but he can also manipulate his form at will. His consciousness also exists essentially in the cloud, meaning the instant he comes online he’s functionally immortal.
Apocalypse
Few villains outrank Magneto in terms of commitment to their ideology, but Apocalypse is certainly one. He strives to wipe out the weakest people on Earth and leave only the strong, with himself ruling over the ashes. This immortal mutant wields technology stolen from the Celestials, among the most powerful cosmic beings in the Marvel Universe.
Apocalypse possesses the power to shapeshift, as well as integrate with the advanced technologies he uses, allowing him to generate truly deadly weapons like the techno-organic virus that ravaged Cable.
Legion
Apocalypse arguably achieved his greatest success in the Age of Apocalypse storyline from the 1990s. That dystopian alternate timeline existed thanks to Legion. With the power to alter time, space, and reality, David Haller went back in time to kill his father, Professor X. This sent history down a dark path.
Legion’s powers theoretically observe no limit. His ability to manipulate reality gives him the power to also spawn any power he wishes, arguably making him the most powerful X-Men villain.
Loki
Loki counts among the most powerful Thor villains in Marvel Comics, but he’s fought the X-Men as well. A powerful magician who qualified to become Sorcerer Supreme, Loki also possesses superhuman strength, speed, and stamina thanks to his unique Asgardian-Frost Giant physiology.
Loki’s greatest power lies in his manipulations. He transported the X-Men and New Mutants to Asgard in New Mutants Special Edition #1 and submits them to many challenges for disrupting his attempts to drain all magic from the world. This continues in X-Men Annual #9, where he tries to control Storm by gifting her a facsimile of Mjölnir.
Moira MacTaggert
Moira MacTaggert served as an ally of the X-Men for decades going back to her first appearance in Uncanny X-Men #96. That all changed in the last few years, beginning with the shocking retcon that she had been a mutant the entire time. Moira possesses the ability to resurrect after she dies, with the full retention of her memories from that life.
That gives her an enormous advantage over her enemies, who in recent developments, have become the X-Men. When Mystique and Destiny strip Moira’s powers and exile her from Krakoa, they unleash a woman dedicated to destroying mutants once and for all.
Mephisto
Mephisto numbers among the most powerful magical beings in the Marvel Universe, especially within his own dark dimension. An immortal demon with the ability to alter reality, Mephisto routinely corrupts others for his own maniacal reasons, with his greatest accomplishment erasing Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson’s marriage from existence.
He fought the X-Men in the 1987 miniseries Mephisto vs., where he takes Marvel’s greatest superhero teams in an escalating gambit to acquire a new soul to corrupt. This ultimately leads to him attempting to corrupt Rogue.
Dark Phoenix
The Phoenix Force arguably represents the greatest power in the cosmos, an eternal force with the power to reshape matter and energy on a universal scale. When Jean Grey became the Dark Phoenix, she used that power to drain a sun of its energy, destroying an entire solar system and all its people.
Dark Phoenix also utilizes Jean Grey’s terrific psionic powers. She counts among the most powerful Omega-Level mutants alive, with telepathic and telekinetic abilities few in the Marvel Universe can rival, as the Eternals recently discovered.
The Eternals
The Eternals all possess immortality thanks to genetic engineering from the Celestials. They also mostly share numerous superpowers in common, including superhuman strength, speed, endurance, along with flight. Their advanced knowledge, power, and will result in devastating blows against mutants on Arrako, killing many, including Magneto.
The Eternals proved their power in the past by fighting the Asgardians for control of Asgard in an epic war as well as challenging the Celestials who created them.
The Scarlet Witch
Few X-Men villains delivered more devastating blows than The Scarlet Witch. A powerful magician with the power to alter reality on a whim, she erased all but 200 mutants of their powers with a single phrase, “No more mutants.” She also defeated the Phoenix Five, including X-Men wielding the Phoenix Force, with little effort.
The Scarlet Witch’s status as a Nexus Being, a figure unique in the multiverse, gives her power beyond imagination. She often uses it for good, but sometimes for evil, as the X-Men well know.
