Destiny of X Guide: Everything You Need To Know

Adam, Akira, Jonathan, and Josh are here with a Destiny of X guide to help new or lapsed readers jump into Marvel’s upcoming X-Men era.

With a constant onslaught of ongoings, mini-series, and one-shots, it’s not hard to fall behind on the X-Men books. You miss a few months, and all of a sudden, they’re all living on an island with Apocalypse, and it can be daunting to catch up. But as we enter this new “Destiny of X” era, what better time to jump back in? With each new book being a continuation of stories from Dawn/Reign of X, here’s a Destiny of X guide to fill you in on any details you might want to know going into them.

If you’re completely new to this Krakoan era, there are some big things you’ll want to know. First of all, Krakoa itself. Going all the way back to Giant-Size X-Men in 1975, the “island that walks like a man” has been a recurring X-Men enemy, ally, and now…home. Established by Charles Xavier, the REAL hero of Krakoa is Cypher, aka Doug Ramsey, who used his mutant powers of language to befriend the island. From there, Krakoan society blossomed, using Krakoa itself to make flowers that can create portals, build houses, and can even be used to make medicines. The Mutants of Earth then announced their new nation to the world, offering these medicines to any nation that recognised Krakoa. While there were a few hold-outs, most accepted, and Krakoa became Earth’s newest nation.

Krakoa has another benefit to Mutantkind, though, kept secret from humanity. Using Cerebro, Charles Xavier had been secretly backing up the minds of all Mutants for years. And with the combined powers of Elixir, Tempus, Proteus, Hope Summers, and Goldballs and these back-ups, any Mutant that died after the back-ups began could return as long as there was a valid DNA sample. So it was a good thing Charles had secretly tasked Mister Sinister with collecting those samples years ago. Now reinforced by the Scarlet Witch’s magical “Waiting Room” to prevent memory gaps between backups and death. With long-dead friends returned, Krakoa is a home for all mutants. And surely there will be no complications to that…right?

Immortal X-Men

Written by Kieron Gillen

Art by Lucas Werneck

Colours by David Curiel

Letters by VC’s Clayton Cowles

Covers by Mark Brooks

Guide by Adam (@krakoa_customs)

Look, a lot has happened in the last few years. But here are the key points for Immortal X-men.

Quiet Council – The ruling council of Krakoa, currently made up of Charles Xavier, Magneto, Destiny, Mystique, Mister Sinister, Exodus, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost, and Kate Pryde. Destiny was recently resurrected against the wishes of Charles and Magneto, who then attempted to regain control of the council by electing longtime X-man Colossus, “someone they know they can trust”, not realising he is under the control of his brother Mikhail and the Russian government. Apocalypse left to return to his family in the dimension of Amenth where they were trapped for centuries. Jean Grey left to co-lead the X-Men alongside Cyclops, who has been forced to take the secret identity of “Captain Krakoa” after his very public death.

Arakko – The literal other half of Krakoa, locked in Amenth for centuries alongside its population of battle-hardened mutants. Ruled by the Great Ring, all of whom are Omega level. Transported to Mars after the X-Men terraformed the planet. Mars became Planet Arakko and the capital of the Sol system. Storm, as Regent of Arakko/Mars, sits on the Great Ring with two deciding votes.

Moira MacTaggart – Longtime X-Men ally. Secret Mutant. Now enemy. With the power to restart her life from birth upon death, Moira has lived ten lives. First a normal one, then one in which she tried to cure herself, and then seven dedicated to finding a way for Mutantkind to thrive. In her 10th, she brought Charles and Magneto together to form Krakoa, manipulating events in secret to go the way she thinks they should. When Emma Frost learns the truth and tells Mystique and the newly returned Destiny, the two depower and eventually kill Moira to ensure the timeline never restarts again. The only people who know the truth that Mutantkind always loses, in the end, are the Quiet Council. However, Moira secretly survives as an AI, and, betrayed by Mutantkind, she returns to her original goal. Curing Mutants.

The Timeline – Frankly, a mess! The timeline of Earth 616 has been edited many times. Firstly, the many lives of Moira X. Secondly, The Omega Sentinel, who travelled back in time to prevent the timeline in which mutants win and form the ORCHIS organisation to stop them. Third, Omega Wolverine, who travels from a future in which the machines win, and upon learning Moira was behind it all, travels back to stop her. Did he succeed? We really don’t know yet.

Marauders

Written by Steve Orlando

Art by Eleonora Carlini

Colours by Rain Beredo

Letters by VC’s Cory Petit

Covers by Kael Ngu

Guide by Akira (@emmafuckinfrost)

The goal of Captain Kate Pryde’s Marauders, penned initially by Gerry Duggan, was to ensure economic stability for Krakoa as the red branch of the Hellfire Trading Company. Delivering the miracle drugs and the occasional barrel of whiskey, this nautical crew found themselves in the seedy underbelly of the Marvel world: Madripoor, making themselves an enemy to the Verendi, the anti-mutant self-appointed government of the island nation. We left off with all crew members except for Shadowcat and Bishop taking a leave of absence, with the two leaders recruiting a new team. 

Joining the Destiny of X lineup of the Marauders first are Daken and Aurora, coming from Leah Williams and David Baldeón’s X-Factor, where the two started a romance and dealt with the question of mutant death in the age of paradise. Speaking of Daken and romance, we have Somnus, a new character created by new Marauders writer Steve Orlando. He was introduced as a one-time lover of Daken with dreamscape powers in the 2021 Marvel’s Voices: Pride anthology. Next up is Psylocke (Kwannon, not Betsy). As the team leader in Zeb Wells’s Hellions, Psylocke grappled with the loss of her body (she had been body swapped with Betsy Braddock by the interdimensional time witch, Spiral) and the loss of her child, digitised and then destroyed. She, too, had a budding romance with a former teammate: Greycrow. And lastly, we have the génocidaire Cassandra Nova, who finds herself with a conscience thanks to Jean Grey.

X-Force

Written by Benjamin Percy

Art by Robert Gill

Colours by Guru Efx

Letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna

Covers by Joshua Cassara and Dean White

Guide by Jonathan Mullen (@JonathanDMullen)

Building a new nation makes many enemies. And after the assassination attempt of Charles Xavier in issue one. A new X-Force is formed off-the-books and known about only by a few. A secret Black ops team designed to strike back at Krakoa’s enemies. However, an organisation with no oversight can become a monster of its own making.

This book mostly revolves around Wolverine, Kid Omega, Forge, Domino, and Colossus fighting bizarre threats and monsters while Sage coordinates with Beast in command. Given that X-Force is one of the X-books continuing in the Destiny of X, a lot of the story is still unresolved, but so far, X-Force has been battling against Xeno, a shadowy organisation that uses dead mutant bodies for biological experiments to turn against the mutants. Kid Omega and Domino have their powers turned against them by monstrous clones of themselves (With Kid Omega dying almost every issue as a running gag). Beast, in return, has begun to use brutal tactics in return, Torture, biological warfare. The slow descent of Beast from hero to paranoid, arrogant murderer has been key to the run so far, causing Jean Grey to leave the team in disgust in issue ten. Beast’s paranoia is made worse, though, by the traitor in X-Force. Colossus. Despite being heavily injured before joining the team, and swearing off violence Colossus has been under the control of the true threat to X-Force, Mikhail Rasputin, who recently attempted to destroy Krakoa before it began by sending Omega Red through time to kill Charles Xaviers’ ancestors using a stolen Cerebro unit. Given Colossus was given a seat on the Quiet Council just before Destiny of X began, this doesn’t bode well for Krakoa.

X-Men Red

Written by Al Ewing

Art by Stephano Caselli

Colours by Federico Blee

Letters by VC’s Ariana Maher

Covers by Russell Dauterman and Matthew Wilson

Guide by Josh Brown (@joshuatbrown)

A lot of hype was given to the X-Men’s Hellfire Gala, where they proclaimed they would display the true powers of mutant-kind. And they did just that when, with a group of Omega mutants, they terraformed the planet Mars and made it the capital of the Sol system, with Storm taking on the role of Regent. The entire mutant nation of Arakko, which had recently been reunited with its Krakoan other half, was also transported to Mars, now called Planet Arakko.

The Arakko world was in an almost constant state of war, and survival of the fittest was the rule of the land. This has already proven to be an obstacle with Storm keeping her title with constant challenges, though no one has been able to defeat her and claim it for themselves yet. Joining Storm on Arakko is longtime X-Men ally/adversary Magneto and New Mutant Sunspot, who has been spending a lot of time with Deathbird, a close advisor to the Shi’ar Empress. Meanwhile, the S.W.O.R.D. space station was under the control of mutant alien Abigail Brand, who was recently revealed to be an ORCHIS mole working with the humans. Brand has recruited Cable, currently overwhelmed by his techno-organic virus, as well as former Shi’ar emperor and long lost Summers brother, Vulcan. With a council of Omega Arakki mutants, interplanetary trade to oversee, and a traitorous Abigail Brand working with Orchis, the Red Planet is sure to be a stage for high drama and action in Destiny of X.

Immortal X-Men releases on the 30th of March, with X-Men Red, X-Force and Marauders on the 6th of April.