Rebecca Essex

Origin

Rebecca Essex was the wife of Nathaniel Essex, a bio-engenieer that would later become Mr. Sinister. She lived in London in the 19th century. Although the marraige was pre-arranged, the two cared a great deal for eachother and had a son. Disaster however struck when their son died, aged four, of various birth defects. To cope with the pain of this loss, Essex started to intensify on his work and theories about evolution, ignoring Rebecca, whom was again pregnant, for most of the time as a result.

Creation

Rebecca Essex was created by Peter Milligan and John Paul Leon and first appeared in The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix issue 1 (1996).

Major Story Arcs

Struggles and Death

Essex absence in Rebecca’s life took it’s toll on the woman. It was however when she discovered that Essex had used humans as living test-subjects that Rebecca started to resent Essex. This resentment turned into hate after she discovered that Essex had also used their own dead son as a test-subject, trying to figure out what had caused his death. Essex however had a change of heart due to his encounter with the ancient evil known as Apocalypse and two time-displaced X-men, Cyclops and Phoenix. When Essex returned to Rebecca, she was in labor prematurely of their second child. The child was however stillborn the moment it came to earth. Doctors also told Essex that Rebecca would not survive the premature labor. Essex begged Rebecca to hold on so that he could make her better. He promised her he would be there for her again. His pleas where however met with resentment and hate from Rebecca. With her dying breath, she told him that she had loved him once, but now utterly hated him for what he had become, ‘sinister’.

Legacy

Rebecca’s death had a profound impact on Nathaniel Essex. He eventually took an offer of Apocalypse which would alter him into an inhuman mutant. When asked by Apocalypse to take on another name, Essex took on the name Sinister, as an adjective to the last words his dying wife Rebecca had named him.