WARNING: Major spoilers for Immortal X-Men #3 ahead
The infamous Marvel mutants Destiny and Mystique, former villains fighting against the X-Men, only recently were able to rekindle their love and centuries’-long marriage, and now Immortal X-Men #3 is hinting that their iconic relationship is already doomed. Destiny and Mystique were some of Marvel’s original mutant villains, introduced by Chris Claremont in the late 1970s and early 80s as members of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and Claremont intended them to be in a lesbian relationship from their creation.
However, because of homophobic executives at Marvel Comics at the time their queer relationship was only ever sub-textual, at least until they finally kissed on panel in 2019, and are now explicitly seen as being wives, and the adopted mothers of X-Men hero Rogue. Destiny was famously killed decades ago by Legion during the “Muir Island Saga,” and it wasn’t until 2022’s Inferno event that she was finally resurrected on Krakoa and reunited with her wife Mystique at long last.
Destiny is an incredibly adept precognitive, perhaps the most powerful prophet in the Marvel Universe, and is famous for having written “Destiny’s Diaries,” after her mutant ability first manifested, which were 12 books of coded prophecies she wrote in a few weeks team before going blind. Immortal X-Men #3 – written by the legendary Kieron Gillen with gorgeous art by Lucas Werneck – does a truly beautiful job of illustrating Destiny’s experience writing her original Diaries, as well as the centuries-long romance between herself and Mystique that has been the grounding center of Destiny’s entire life, and was surprisingly the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. It is also revealed that Irene is going through another period of major precognitive spells, just like she did after first manifesting her powers, and many potential futures for the X-Men and Krakoa are revealed, some horrifying and others miraculous. Unfortunately, Destiny’s inner monologue reveals something terrible, which is that in all the multitudes of potential future realities, Raven is not alive in any of them…
Marvel fans have been truly overjoyed to see Destiny revived and the beautiful lesbian relationship between her and Raven be allowed to bloom explicitly on panel, so it would truly be shocking if Marvel decided to officially kill of Mystique, because fans of the couple would honestly be livid. Raven is one of the X-Men’s most recognizable characters, and her and Destiny have become essential to the continued success of Krakoa’s future as new leaders sitting upon the Quiet Council, but that doesn’t mean that Mystique won’t die for at least a while. With Destiny and Mystique being one of Marvel Comics most prominent queer couples currently, some might worry that Mystique’s potential death could turn into the much-derided “Bury Your Gays” trope, where a queer character is killed without reason, and often to re-center their partner in a straight relationship. However, not only is Immortal X-Men written by Kieron Gillen, who is a wildly talented bisexual writer, but the nation of Krakoa is now so explicitly queer, that even if one queer character is killed, it doesn’t remove LGBTQ+ representation from the franchise as a whole, so hopefully X-Men won’t be recreating this tired trope.
Irene has only been resurrected and back to life for weeks, maybe months, so it is truly devastating to think that Marvel may already be breaking up the gorgeous marriage between Raven and Destiny by killing off Mystique, but hopefully Destiny will be able to find a path forward that keeps Krakoa safe and the love of her life alive.
Immortal X-Men #3 by Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck is on sale now!
