Marvel Comics has been radically reinventing the X-Men franchise in recent years, and they've continued to do so each summer with the release of the annual X-Men: The Hellfire Gala special. Each Hellfire Gala brings with it a revamped team of X-Men and new changes to the status quo. That's especially true for 2023's Hellfire Gala issue. This one comic transforms the franchise in a way we haven't seen since House of X and Powers of X started the entire Krakoan storyline in 2019.
Read on for a full breakdown of what happens in this issue and what Marvel's upcoming "Fall of X" storyline is actually about. Beware of full spoilers for X-Men: The Hellfire Gala 2023 #1!
Ms. Marvel Reborn... as a Mutant
Marvel recently killed Ms. Marvel in the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man. With Kamala Khan about to make her big screen debut in The Marvels this November, it should come as little surprise that her death is short-lived. Marvel previously revealed that Kamala will return as mutant, bringing the character closer in line with her MCU counterpart. Now we know the details of that return.
The Hellfire Gala 2023 opens with Kamala returning to life thanks to Krakoa's resurrection protocols. No sooner does she awaken than she learns she's always been a mutant and an Inhuman. Because of that, Professor X created a backup of her mind in Cerebro along with every other mutant in the world. He even offers to alter the memories of Kamala's family so they no longer remember mourning her temporary death.
One mystery still remains, however, Kamala has no idea what her mutant power is. Xaver speculates that her Inhuman genes may be suppressing her mutant side. Presumably, Kamala will begin to discover her mutant energy manipulation powers, simialr to those seen in the MCU. Whatever the future holds, her story will continue in the pages of Ms. Marvel: The New Mujtant, a new monthly series co-written by Iman Vellani herself.
The New X-Men Revealed
As with the previous two Hellfire Gala specials, this year's issue intorduces a new roster of X-Men, including one character that was decided via a fan vote campaign. Here's the new lineup:
In addition to Cyclops and Jean Grey, who are now stepping back into more advisory roles, the revamped X-Men roster includes:
- Talon (X-23's current codename)
- Synch
- Prodigy
- Cannonball
- Frenzy
- Dazzler
- Jubilee
- Juggernaut
Unfortunately, the new team members aren't given much time to celebrate before all hell breaks loose on Krakoa.
Orchis Attacks Krakoa
No sooner are the new X-Men crowned than Krakoa is attacked by Orchis, the cabal of human scientists who have been plotting mutantkind's destruction since the beginning of this prolonged storyline. The futuristic Sentinel Nimrod slams into Mykines Island from orbit, seemingly killing most of the new X-Men in the process.
Joining Nimrod in the fight are Doctor Stasis, Omega Sentinel, MODOK, Moira X and a fleet of deadly Stark Sentinels. Orchis begins targeting the X-Men's Omega-Level mutants, with Nimrod killing Iceman and Moira fatally wounding Jean Grey with a poisoned dagger.
Jean's final act before dying is to telepathically commune with Firestar. Jean convinces her to become a mole within Orchis, implanting false memories inside Doctor Stasis' mind that Firestar has been feeding Orchis intel from the very beginning. This dying trick may give mutantkind the advantage they need against Orchis, but it means Firestar will now be viewed as a traitor by every mutant on Earth.
Jean then dies, with her death felt by both Wolverine and Cyclops. Cyclops, for his part, is clinging to life after a run-in with the new Captain Krakoa, as seen in Marvel's Free Comic Book Day 2023: Avengers/X-Men issue.
Despite these deaths, it appears the X-Men may still gain the upper hand against Nimrod and Orchis. But that's when these evil scientists play their trump card, one that's been lying in wait since 2022's Hellfire Gala.
The Fall of X Revealed
Orchis proves to have a secret weapon against the mutants, one created by Krakoa itself. Orchis has secretly poisoned Krakoa's supply of life-extending drugs, allowing them to kill any human on Earth who has ingested the drug. Xavier is blackmailed into telepathically halting his people in their tracks, lest Orchis begin killing humans and making it appear that mutants are to blame.
Xavier is given an ultimatum - every mutant in the world must leave Earth immediately. For every mutant found on Earth after this point, Orchis will start by killing one human, then ten humans, then a hundred, and so on. Suddenly, the terms "Powers of X" has a whole new meaning for the franchise.
Xavier is forced to give in, and he telepathically commands every surviving mutant to leave through Krakoa's teleportation gates, However, some of his students have been trained to resist mind control. With the help of Kingpin and the mutant teleporter Lourdes (who also dies in the process), a handful of mutants instead flee to New York. There they discover the rest of their kind have simply vanished out of existence instead of being transported to Mars. 250,000 mutants are gone, quite possibly dead. Only a handful now remain. Xavier himself is now the last living resident of Krakoa. The House of X has fallen.
What's Next For the Franchise?
The Hellfire Gala 2023 serves as the official start of the Fall of X storyline. Marvel will kick off a number of new books in the weeks ahead, like the new volume of Uncanny Avengers and Dark X-Men. Meanwhile, some ongoing titles like X-Men, Wolverine, X-Force, Immortal X-Men and X-Men Red will take on a dramatically different status quo to reflect the fall of Krakoa. Mutants have been banished from the planet, and those few who remain have to take care not to be seen, lest they cause more humans to die. Now we now why Nightcrawler is masquerading as the Uncanny Spider-Man.
Making matters worse, the collpase of Krakoa means that the X-Men can't rely on their resurrection protocols anymore. For now, at least, dead characters like Iceman and Jean Grey appear to be permanently gone.
This doesn't necessarily mean Marvel is ending the status quo it began with House of X and Powers of X. Rather, this appears to be the latest phase in that ongoing storyline. One current fan theory posits that, because Krakoa is so closely associated with seasonal imagery, the "Fall of X" name is also meant to indicate we're entering the autumn phase of the mutant nation's existence. That still implies we have a winter phase, but also the promsie of a new spring in the end.
Most of Marvel's new and upcoming X-books are planned as five-issue miniseries right now. That would seem to suggest that Marvel has another major storyline planned for late 2023 or early 2024, one which could revamp the status quo as significantly as the Hellfire Gala just did. Things may continue to get worse for the X-Men before they get better. We hope they survive the experience.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
