Death of X is a 2016 crossover miniseries published by Marvel Comics. Death of X is part of a series of story arcs that have impacted the Inhumans and X-Men titles after Secret Wars ended and Earth 616 was restored along with being related to the events of the Infinity, Inhumanity, and Inhuman story arcs. This miniseries event answers the question about what really happened between Cyclops and the Inhumans in the eight-month gap between Secret Wars and the All New, All Different lineup of comics. This limited series event serves as a prequel to the series Uncanny Inhumans, Extraordinary X-Men, and Volume 4 of Uncanny X-Men, along with impacting the plot to Civil War II: X-Men and ultimately serving as a precursor to lead into the major crossover event Inhumans vs. X-Men.
Publication history
Death of X was a limited series event that was first announced by Marvel in early spring 2016. To help build anticipation for the limited series, in May 2016 Marvel announced the release of variant covers for other titles that would relate to the upcoming limited series depicting various X-Men facing potentially fatal situations. Also to help promote it, Marvel announced the release of a digital comic called Inhumans vs. X-Men: Terrigenocide as a tie-in to their mobile game Marvel: Contest of Champions. X-Men writer Jeff Lemire and Inhumans writer Charles Soule were set to co-write with Aaron Kuder on art. In July 2016 the authors were interviewed about how this limited series event would impact it will have on future issues of X-Men and Inhumans titles. That same month Entertainment Weekly released an article detailing how Death of X was going to finally reveal what happened in the eight-month gap between Secret Wars and the All New, All Different Marvel lineup.
Everyone at Marvel remained tight-lipped as to the meaning of the title, with many fans speculating that it meant Marvel was going to use this event to officially kill off the X-Men and replace them with the Inhumans due to rumors of movie rights disputes between Marvel Studios and 20th Century Fox. This theory became even more popular due to the increased popularity for Inhuman characters after many were introduced on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as the fact Marvel increased their Inhuman presence in their comics ever since the Infinity and Inhumanity story arcs.
Death of X serves as a prequel to the X-Men and Inhuman titles part of the All New, All Different lineup. All of the titles that were part of the All New, All Different lineup of comics were set eight months after Earth 616 was reset with mutants and Inhumans in a state of cold war and Cyclops missing and many Inhumans and X-Men blaming him for the current status-quo taking place within their respective titles. Once Inhumans vs. X-Men was announced Death of X was written to serve as both a prequel for the current titles as well as a lead-in for Inhumans vs. X-Men, which was released shortly after the conclusion of Death of X. The miniseries was released on October 5, 2016 and was sold semi-monthly, ending in November that same year.
Plot synopsis
Cyclops and his team of X-Men land on Muir Island in response to a distress call sent by Jamie Madrox. When they arrive on the island, they find it engulfed in a mysterious gas that they eventually discover is really Terrigen Mist. Upon further exploration, they find all of the mutants on Muir Island suffered painful deaths due to the Terrigen somehow poisoning their systems, including Madrox and all of his duplicates. Goldballs begins to display signs of infection from exposure to the Terrigen. Meanwhile, Crystal leads a team of Inhumans to Japan where one of the Terrigen clouds is about to land any anyone who has latent Inhuman DNA would undergo Terrigenesis. While a few people start to undergo the metamorphosis, a Hydra strike team ambushes everyone, intent on destroying the Inhumans. Crystal and her team try to hold back Hydra and eventually one of the new Inhumans fresh from his metamorphosis named Daisuke helps them defeat the Hydra squad. Cyclops and Emma confer with Beast that the Terrigen really is becoming toxic to mutants and Cyclops immediately blames the Inhumans for carelessly putting their own people ahead of the well-being of mutants.