2023 broke the X-Men like never before, and no-one suffered more than the team’s five founding heroes, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel and Beast. With three dead, one facing execution, and one now officially a villain, Charles Xavier’s first class of mutants enter 2024 at perhaps their lowest point in Marvel history.
2023 saw the beginning of the Fall of X – a chapter in which the new mutant nation of Krakoa was toppled by the bigoted Orchis group and the X-Men’s greatest heroes were targeted for death. Orchis’ attack on the Hellfire Gala kicked off this fall from grace, seeing Jean Grey fatally stabbed by Moira MacTaggert and Iceman melted alive by the Super-Sentinel Nimrod. Meanwhile, Scott Summers’ Cyclops was captured by Orchis and had his eyes sewed shut to neutralize his powers.
While other X-Men kept fighting for freedom, the Fall of X has been unrelenting on the rest of the original five. Beast betrayed X-Force after his slide into evil was uncovered, and Angel was transformed into a killer and slaughtered by his own team. Now, as Cyclops goes on trial for his life, the X-Men’s leader faces the death penalty in the knowledge that his oldest allies can’t or won’t help him.
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2023’s Fall of X Destroyed the X-Men
As an Era Ends, Precious Few Founding Members Are Left
Since 2019, the X-Men have been in their ‘Krakoan Era,’ as all the franchise’s heroes and villains gathered on the island of Krakoa, forging a nation where they can finally live in peace. Starting in 2024, the twin series Fall of the House of X (Gerry Duggan, Lucas Werenck) and Rise of the Powers of X (Kieron Gillen, R.B. Silva) will bring this era of Marvel’s mutant heroes to an end. However, that final story begins with the original five in a terrible place.
X-Men’s Jean Grey, Angel & Iceman Died in 2023
At Least Bobby Drake Is Back – But Without a Body
The founding X-Men’s three major deaths show how Orchis perfectly prepared to tackle its enemies. Jean Grey was assassinated immediately as the group’s strongest hero. While Louise Jones Simonson and Bernard Chang’s 2023 Jean Grey miniseries has seen Jean attempting to find a way to return to life (while trapped outside reality in the White Hot Room), it notably ends with her still dead, albeit having reconciled her relationship with the godlike Phoenix Force.
Meanwhile, Dark X-Men #3 – from Steve Foxe and Jonas Scharf – saw Warren Worthington III (aka Angel) turned into a demonic predator by Orchis, with Gambit blowing his former ally to pieces to save mutant lives. Steve Orlando and Vincenzo Carratù’s Astonishing Iceman miniseries brought Iceman back after the Hellfire Gala just to melt him again, however it does end on a note of hope. In the final panel, Bobby Drake’s Inhuman ally Romeo finds a message implying that Iceman’s consciousness is capable of returning, but can’t yet reconstitute a permanent body.
Beast Became a Villain in 2023
The Original X-Men Hero Is Being Permanently Replaced
However, it’s Beast’s shift into villainy that is perhaps the darkest fall of 2023. All through the Krakoan era, Beast has become more and more immoral – attacking and experimenting on innocents in his role as leader of X-Force. After cloning Wolverine for a mindless death squad, X-Force finally turned against him, and upcoming issues of Benjamin Percy and Robert Gill’s X-Force will see the team hunt down and attempt to execute their former leader. Indeed, it’s all but certain Beast will be permanently replaced, as the franchise has introduced a younger clone who seems set to take his place.
2024 Begins with Cyclops on Trial
Framed for Orchis’ Crimes, Scott Summers Is the Last Mutant Standing
With Jean and Angel still dead, Iceman without a body, Beast a villain, and Cyclops framed for Orchis’ crimes and heading for a show trial, the founding X-Men have been utterly eviscerated by Orchis. Hopefully, 2024 marks a major comeback for at least some of the iconic heroes, however even if some of the original X-Men find a way to survive, the scars of 2023 will mark the founding five for years to come.
Fall of the House of X #1 is coming January 3, followed by Rise of the Powers of X on January 10 and X-Force #48 January 24, all from Marvel Comics.
