Update: Marvel Comics has revealed new details on both Immortal X-Men and the future direction of Marauders.
Immortal X-Men marks former Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen's return to the franchise for the first time in ten years. This new series is billed as a companion to the flagship X-Men title, one focused on the deepening power struggles within Krakoa's Quiet Council. The Trial of Magneto's Lucas Werneck will draw the series.
Echoing his previous House of X and Inferno teasers, cover artist Mark Brooks has crafted a very sobering montage for the series, hinting at deep divides within the Council and potentially a major mutant death:
“So, the match is lit, and IMMORTAL X-MEN is a book about the burning," GIllen teased in a press release. "To speak in a Hickmanian idiom, this is the New Avengers to Gerry [Duggan]'s Avengers. This is the book about Krakoa, and the Quiet Council, with all its muffled screams. It's about a group of people, some of whom are convinced they're in the West Wing, some who have designs to be in House of Cards and at least one who knows they're in Veep. It's big ideas, politics, fights and fashion, lies, creation and destruction, all told across the widest possible canvas, in time and space. It's some characters I've written before, with the volume turned up. It's me falling in love with some characters I've never touched. It's me somehow talking Marvel into paying me for having this much fun.
As for Marauders, the series will be relaunched with a new #1 issue under a new creative team - writer Steve Orlando (Midnighter) and artist Elenora Carlini (Go Go Power Rangers).
The new volume of Marauders looks to follow the same basic premise as the current series, with Captain Kate Pryde sailing the oceans to escort troubled mutants to safety on Krakoa, but the team lineup will be almost wholly different. Only Bishop remains from the original crew, with newcomers Psylocke, Daken, Tempo, Aurora and Somnus coming aboard. Marvel also teases a very unexpected new recruit in issue #1.
The original story is below:
Marvel is giving X-Men readers a closer look at the franchise's next major evolution. 2022's Destiny of X will introduce a new wave of X-Men comics and a major status quo change for mutantkind.
Destiny of X is the latest chapter in the ongoing saga that began with 2019's House of X and Powers of X. In fact, Marvel's press release bills this new storyline as the start of "the Second Krakoan Age." Marvel also released a new teaser image hinting at the big changes to come:
While plot details are being kept under wraps for now, we do know Destiny of X builds directly on the fallout of Inferno and the twin miniseries X Lives of Wolverine and X Deaths of Wolverine. The former serves as writer Jonathan Hickman's final X-Men tale, wrapping up many of the Moira MacTaggert-related loose ends from House of X and Powers of X. The latter two books follow Wolverine as he embarks on a dangerous quest across time with the fate of Krakoa at stake.
The teaser image above reveals a number of new X-Men comics debuting in 2022 alongside current titles like X-Men, Marauders, X-Force, New Mutants and Wolverine. Those include The Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, Legion of X and Knights of X. That lineup doesn't include other smaller-scale new books like the Sabretooth limited series and the one-shot special Secret X-Men #1.
That teaser art hints at a few noteworthy developments in the months ahead. Storm is donning a new costume and reverting to her iconic mohawk, while Magneto is back in his classic red and purple costume. Legion appears to have been assimilated by the Phalanx, who were previously teased as one of the ultimate threats to mutant survival in Powers of X. And we even see Deadpool in this lineup, the first time the Merc With a Mouth has played a part in the current Krakoa status quo.
“The journey of the Krakoan Age is far from over!” teased Senior Editor Jordan D. White in Marvel's press release. “Our long-term plan that all our creators have been working on in our secret Council Chamber has only just begun to come to fruition. With the filling of the two empty council seats, the Reign of X has ended, and it’s time for mutantkind to reach for their destiny!”
What are you hoping to see in Destiny of X? Let us know your theories about the Second Krakoan Age in the comments below.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
