Marvel Comics does love sending out teasers with no additional information. This weekend the publisher released its latest, which promises the "Death of X" this fall. Without any context, that leaves us to speculate wildly on what this means for the X-Men, and who it might be that meets their untimely death.

The first likely candidate is Cyclops AKA Scott Summers. We know that Cyclops is currently missing, presumed dead, because of something that happened with the Inhumans in the eight-month gap that followed Secret Wars. We don’t know what happened to Cyclops, although everyone talks about him as if he did indeed die, so maybe "Death of X" will be a flashback to the events that lead up to Scott Summers’ demise.

If Marvel really wants to go for shock tactics, there’s no bigger death that it could go for than Storm. Ororo Munroe is one of the most popular X-Men, and currently leads the X-Men from their base X-Haven in Limbo. While most X-Men have died in spectacular fashion, Storm hasn’t had a big superhero death like WolverineColossus, Nightcrawler, or Jean Grey, so killing her off would certainly make some waves.

One interpretation for "Death of X" could be that the X represents mutants as a whole, as they are currently once again existentially endangered due to the Terrigen Cloud, which makes them fatally sick and sterile, meaning no new mutants are being born. There are conspiracy theorists out there who believe that Marvel is actively trying to destroy the X-Men franchise in favor of the Inhumans. While this is probably not true, putting the entire fate of the mutants on the line would attract a lot of attention.

Other candidates for death later this year could include any of the time-displaced original five X-Men, currently residing in the present, as their deaths would have major repercussions for the timeline. Hopefully Iceman is not on the chopping block, because the death of a recently out gay character could produce a significant backlash from fans.

Magneto is also a possibility, as he has become increasingly aggressive and arrogant under the pen of Cullen Bunn, and his death could represent a possible end to Bunn’s time with the character.

Regardless of who dies, we’re sure of two things. Marvel will let us know before the comic it takes place in is released, and whoever dies will come back eventually, as is the nature of superhero comic books.

 

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