In one shocking twist that rewrites a major comic event, Marvel kills off all the X-Men and all the Inhumans in one fell swoop. Marvel’s mutant population has been at odds with the world for ages, from their fight to escape human oppression to their raging battles with world-threatening supervillains to close calls with total annihilation. Yet, mutantkind eventually prevails to see another day.
Even when the fight is lost and major X-Men figures die, mutants always find a way to cheat death. Jean Grey, Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Wolverine are only a few of the mutants who have come back from the dead to defend their kind. Unfortunately, as the fall of Krakoa suggests, mutants may never find true peace. Yet, a return to a perpetual status quo might be the best scenario for mutantkind.
Ultimatum, Age of Apocalypse, and the likely-to-be-undone Age of Revelation aren’t the only dark timelines where mutants meet utter defeat.
The X-Men And The Inhumans Wipe Each Other Out In Marvel’s The World To Come Timeline
Marvel Knights: The World To Come #4 – Part Four: The Wall; Written by Joe Quesada & Christopher Priest; Art by Richard Isanove
Eighteen years before The World To Come, the Avengers arrive in La Habana, the battlefield of Marvel Knights‘ version of the Inhumans vs X-Men conflict. There, the Avengers find dozens of dead mutants and Inhumans scattered on the ground. A single panel confirms the deaths of Cable, Jubilee, Mystique, X-23, Psylocke, Storm, and Firestar. Sadly, these are only a few of the confirmed casualties, as Captain America declares the event as “a mutual genocide of mutants and Inhumans.”
In Marvel’s main continuity, the X-Men and the Inhumans come to an agreement over the mutant-killing Terrigen clouds before it’s too late. The mutants and Inhumans’ deaths in Marvel Knights‘ timeline are a result of the brutal Race War, which turns deadly much sooner. In this timeline, the age of heroes is evaporating, and icons like T’Challa are gone, with new characters like T’Challa’s adopted son Ketema foreboding a dark age.
Mutants Seem Destined To Die Fighting In Every Timeline
The X-Men Can Postpone Avoid Total Annihilation, But They Can’t Avoid It
The X-Men appear trapped in a cycle of struggle and sacrifice, destined to fall no matter the universe. In countless possible futures and parallel timelines, mutants rarely live to see peace. Moira MacTaggert’s grim revelation that mutantkind is doomed to die seems increasingly accurate. All victories are temporary, and all utopias are short-lived.
Fall of X represents the biggest defeat in the mutants’ dream of peace, but the X-Men continue to fight on, even through the Age of Revelation. However, the fact that mutants haven’t been wiped out yet doesn’t mean that their extinction has been averted. More threats will come, and mutantkind’s total annihilation may crawl closer. Each new era brings different versions of the same doom: another genocide, another betrayal, another war, as if the universe itself refuses to let mutants ever truly win.
In Marvel Knights: The World to Come, mutants and Inhumans destroy each other in the same devastating war that Earth-616’s X-Men averted. In others, Sentinel uprisings, human attacks, or evil mutants manage to annihilate the X-Men. No matter the cause, the X-Men’s extinction always looms.
- Movie(s)
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X-Men (2000), X2, X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men: First Class (2011), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), Deadpool (2016), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017), Deadpool 2 (2018), Dark Phoenix (2019), The New Mutants, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
- TV Show(s)
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X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men, X-Men (1992), X-Men: Evolution (2000), Wolverine and the X-Men (2008), Marvel Anime: Wolverine, Marvel Anime: X-Men, Legion (2017), The Gifted (2017), X-Men ’97 (2024)
- First Film
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X-Men (2000)
- Character(s)
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Professor X, Cyclops, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Phoenix, Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue, Storm, Jubilee, Morph, Nightcrawler, Havok, Banshee, Colossus, Magneto, Psylocke, Juggernaut, Cable, X-23
- Video Game(s)
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X-Men: Children of the Atom (1994), Marvel Super Heroes (1995), X-Men vs. Street Fighter (1996), Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (1997), Marvel vs. Capcom (1998), X-Men: Mutant Academy (2000), Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000), X-Men: Mutant Academy 2 (2001), X-Men: Next Dimension (2002), Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (2011), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011), X-Men Legends (2005), X-Men Legends 2: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), X2: Wolverine’s Revenge (2003), X-Men (1993), X-Men 2: Clone Wars (1995), X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse (1994)
- Comic Release Date
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213035,212968