One of the X-Men's Most Powerful Villains Was Wasted By Marvel
While the X-Men have faced off against their fair share of incredibly powerful villains, from Magneto, to Mr. Sinister, and even the world-conquering Apocalypse, one bad guy stands out as one of the most powerful among them all, but Marvel wasted this character. This villain, who showed some of the greatest potential for catastrophic fallout upon his debut, was completely and utterly wasted by Marvel Comics, both in the exhibition of his power and amount of time present in a comic book.
In X-Men #63 by Scott Lobdell and Carlos Pacheco, the X-Men have teamed up with Shang-Chi to obtain the Elixir Vitae which was heavily guarded by Shang-Chi’s father during his life. The reason the X-Men were after the Elixir–which offers those who use it eternal life–is because they were working to stop the spread of a deadly mutant-killing disease known as the Legacy Virus. Even though the heroes know where this potentially life-saving serum is, it wasn’t going to be as simple as plucking it from its secure location, although, disappointingly, it wasn’t that hard for them to break through the initial defenses.
While heading to the Elixir’s location, Shang-Chi and the X-Men are met by a gang of cyber-ninjas who were trained by Shang-Chi’s father with the added advantage of having cybernetic upgrades. Those upgrades gave these ninjas superpowers, and one of them stood out with an ability that was insanely powerful, at least in theory. The ninja known as Bludgeon had the ability to control gravity which is crazy powerful for a throw-away bad guy. While the power to control gravity is godlike, Bludgeon uses it to lift a car into the air. No worries, though, because the car was gently put back down on the ground moments later courtesy of Jean Grey’s telekinetic powers, so no harm there. Then, Bludgeon was punched in the face by Wolverine, and that was that.
The power to control gravity gives one nearly limitless attacking potential. Bludgeon could have crushed every one of the X-Men by altering the gravitational pull around them, or he could have done the exact opposite and have each of them sucked into space. Not only that, but Bludgeon would not have to limit his potential by being a mere henchman, he could have used his power to take over the world. The entire universe revolves around gravity, and if he has complete control over it as he claimed, he could have mastered that ability and become an actual universal threat.
The only logical conclusion that can be drawn is that this X-Men villain greatly exaggerated the extent of his powers. Having complete control over gravity would give him powers on a cosmic scale, but it seems like he’s basically only able to pick up things that are really heavy. However, if Bludgeon was being truthful and the X-Men were able to just catch him off guard before he was really able to get ramped up, then he would be one of the most powerful X-Men villains in Marvel Comics, and he was completely wasted.