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Event Template
Mutant Massacre
Mutant Massacre from Blockbusters of the Marvel Universe Vol 1 1 001.jpg
Information-silk.png Official Name
Mutant Massacre
Information-silk.png Universe
Event Details
Information-silk.png Locations
Information-silk.png Villains

Event Synopsis

The Mutant Massacre or the Morlock Massacre was an event in which Mister Sinister ordered his assassins, the Marauders, to execute the entire population of the Morlocks, a mostly peaceful tribe of mutants living in the sewers under New York City. Heroes such as the X-Men and X-Factor, the New Mutants, Power Pack, Thor, and Daredevil tried in vain to stop the massacre.


A map for the Mutant Massacre reading order.

The mysterious Marauders attack a mutant named Tommy and her Hellfire Club boyfriend Richard Salmons in Los Angeles for the purpose of following her back to New York and finding the location of the underground mutant community known as the Morlocks. They kill Tommy and hundreds of Morlocks, before the separate arrivals of the X-Men and X-Factor fight the group of murderers and save scores of innocent Morlocks from death. The two teams however do not meet during the battle and suffer crippling losses: X-Factor's Angel is crucified by the Marauders[1] while Colossus, Shadowcat, and Nightcrawler are all severely wounded as well.[2] X-Factor's casualties are less due to the arrival of Power Pack and Thor, who help save the horribly wounded Angel and the rest of X-Factor from suffering any additional harm.[3]

Thor uses his powers to cleanse the dead from the Morlock tunnels with fire, which caused problems for the X-Men, who briefly believe that the firestorm was caused by the Marauders and believe that the New Mutants died in said fire.[4]

Meanwhile the Marauder Sabretooth and X-Man Wolverine fight and Sabretooth follows Logan home to the X-Mansion. He destroys Cerebro, but is kept from hurting the other Morlocks when Psylocke engages Sabretooth in battle. Wolverine and the rest of the X-Men arrive and Sabretooth falls off a nearby cliff in order to escape the X-Men, pursued into the water by Wolverine. As the fight continues in the ocean, Psylocke is able to glean some information about the Marauders from Sabretooth's mind, including information about the Marauders' mysterious boss.[5]

After the events of the main Mutant Massacre, Sabretooth moved into the Morlock Tunnels as his "den". He encountered Daredevil in the tunnels while defending his territory.[6]


Originally it was stated that the Massacre was held to remove 'wild card' mutants (such as the Morlocks). It was later revealed that due to his arrival 20 years prior to the present Earth-616 the Dark Beast was responsible for the creation of the Morlocks using his world's Mister Sinister's technology. As a result Sinister wanted all traces of his unwarranted material removed and had the Marauders carry out the extermination of the Morlocks.[7][8][9]


  • Angel was pinned to the wall by Harpoon and Blockbuster, causing massive trauma to his wings. These later required amputation following the onset of gangrene.[1]
  • Shadowcat became permanently trapped in phase form whilst protecting Rogue from one of Harpoon's attacks.[2]
  • Stabbed by hundreds of throwing stars by Riptide, Colossus was briefly paralyzed as a result of Magneto using his powers to heal the damage done to his metal form.[10]
  • Nightcrawler, already badly injured after a battle with Nimrod, was beaten by Riptide who used his speed to injure the weakened X-Man, leaving him comatose.[2]
  • Many of the surviving Morlocks were later brought into the Dimension called the Hill where their children formed an aggressive terror group called Gene Nation.[11][12] Gene Nation's first major action was to take revenge on the upworlders (normal New Yorkers) by killing one human for each Morlock slain. The plan failed when Storm killed the Gene Nation leader Marrow who had survived the massacre as child.[13]
Mutant Massacre Event: Episodes and Synopses


  • No special notes.


  • Originally, the mutant massacre was planned of Nimrod killing off the Morlocks. However this was later changed and the Marauders were created, save for Sabretooth and Vertigo, as a killing team.

See Also

Links and References

Mutant Massacre