Comic Book / Fall of X

Fall of X is a soft revamp of the X-Men series. Beginning on July 2023, this storyline continues the X-Men: The Krakoan Age with a much more different tone.

Following Destiny of X, in the aftermath of events such as Sins of Sinister and X-Men: Before the Fall, the mutants of Krakoa are put through their darkest moment yet when Orchis breaches their island home during the latest Hellfire Gala. Put on the ropes, mutantkind is once more defending a world that now hates and fears them.

It is followed by Fall of the House of X, which serves as the Grand Finale of the X-Men: The Krakoan Age.

Fall of X

Ongoing series

• Deadpool (2022) (#10): The final issue of Deadpool's solo series is badged as Fall of X, and resolves the previous arc ahead of his appearance in Uncanny Avengers, but has no other connection to the Fall of X arc.
• Immortal X-Men (#14-18): Xavier had a dream, but now he has nothing... as the Quiet Council is reduced to him and him alone! By Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck.
• Invincible Iron Man (2022) (#8-13): Tony Stark’s war against Feilong continues as he builds an all-new stealth suit. By Gerry Duggan and Juan Frigeri.
• Wolverine (2020) (#36-40): Wolverine crosses over with Ghost Rider in Weapons of Vengeance by Ben Percy and Geoff Shaw.
• X-Force (2019) (#43-47): Colossus takes the reins as the leader of X-Force. By Ben Percy and Robert Gill.
• X-Men (2021) (#25-29): The Queen is Dead. Gerry Duggan’s run continues into the Fall of X with art by Joshua Cassara and Stefano Caselli.
• X-Men Red (2022) (#14-18): Genesis returns and kickstarts a conflict that will remake the Red Planet! By Al Ewing and new series artist Yildiray Çinar.
• X-Men Unlimited (2021) (#100-): Continuing the Infinity Comics webcomic series, initially with an arc about the lives of the new X-Men candidates in the weeks leading up to the vote.

Limited series

• Alpha Flight (2023): The original Canadian superteam reunite as Guardian, Snowbird, Shaman and Puck must protect their homeland from whatever mutantkind might do... as well as a second Alpha Flight team composed of Nemesis, Northstar, Aurora and her beau Fang. Five issue limited series written by Ed Brisson with art by Scott Godlewski.
• Astonishing Iceman: Following the events of the Hellfire Gala, Iceman strikes out on his own as a solo hero. Five issue limited series written by Steve Orlando with art by Vincenzo Carratù
• Children of the Vault: the Children of the Vault may be humanity’s salvation and mutantkind's doom - but how do Bishop and an Orchis-captured Cable factor into their plans? Four issue limited series written by Deniz Camp with art by Luca Maresca.
• Dark X-Men (2023): a new team (Goblin Queen, Havok, Gambit, Azazel, Zero, Archangel, Albert, Gimmick, and Emplate) will come together to fill the void left by the X-Men - but will they turn the tide for mutantkind, or make things worse? Five issue limited series written by Steve Foxe with art by Jonas Scharf.
• Jean Grey (2023): The final founding member of the X-Men may be the key to mutantkind's salvation, but before she can save them, she must save herself. Four issue limited series written by Louise Simonson with art by Bernard Chang.
• Realm of X: Magik and Dani Moonstar must lead a team of mutants (Typhoid Mary, Curse, Dust, and Marrow) to explore mutant magic after getting stranded in Vanaheim. Four issue limited series written by Torunn Grønbekk with art by Diógenes Neves.
• Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant: Resurrected after her death during The Amazing Spider-Man (2022), Kamala Khan now deals with a new label — being a mutant. Four issue limited series written by Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel of Ms. Marvel (2022)) and Sabir Pirzada with art by Carlos Gomez and Adam Gorham.
• Uncanny Avengers (2023): Gerry Duggan returns to Avengers Unity Squad (Captain America, Rogue, Deadpool, Penance, Quicksilver, and Psylocke) with artist Javier Garrón as they track down an imposter Captain Krakoa and stop him from starting a war.
• Uncanny Spider-Man: In the aftermath of the Hellfire Gala, Nightcrawler returns to New York with a new wall-crawling identity. Five issue limited series written by Si Spurrier with art by Lee Garbett.

One-shots

• X-Men: Hellfire Gala (2023) #1. The 2023 Annual Hellfire Gala special, which launches the entire Fall of X publishing slate. Written by Gerry Duggan.
• X-Men: Hellfire Gala Last Rites. A one-shot webcomic focused on the new X-Men candidates ahead of the gala's vote. Written by Steve Foxe with art by Jim Towe and color art by Erick Arciniega.
• X-Men Blue: Origins. Nightcrawler and Mystique reunite to learn the true secret origin of everyone's favorite fuzzy blue elf. Written by Si Spurrier with art by Wilton Santos.

Events

• Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance: A late Summer 2023 crossover between Ghost Rider (2022) and Wolverine (2020). In the aftermath of the Hellfire Gala, Johnny Blaze and the now-fugitive Wolverine must join forces against an old supernatural foe.

Tropes Featured in this Era:

• Accidental Proposal: Tony Stark has to resort to this when Emma Frost/Hazel Kendal nearly takes off the damper ring hiding her from most mutant detection equipment; Tony is trying to put it back on when a member of Orchis walks into the room, so the two claim it's a proposal to avoid blowing their cover.
• Bittersweet Ending: Collectively, a decisive victory is not done, but what victories are obtained are blunted by sacrifices: Alpha Flight's actions are revealed and they're arrested for treason, Ms. Marvel is revealed to be a mutant, and Madelyne Pryor's X-Men team falls apart.
• Bullying a Dragon: If your organization's whole mission statement is built on the belief that mutants are dangerous, maybe it’s bad idea to laugh in a experienced pissed off X-man’s face when they threaten to kill you. Well, a bunch of Orchis mooks didn’t consider that when they came face to face with Kate Pryde after the massacre at the Gala. They didn’t regret it for long.
• Crossover:
  • Wolverine and Ghost Rider, both written by Benjamin Percy, cross over for the Weapons of Vengeance storyline.
  • X-Men and Invincible Iron Man, both written by Gerry Duggan, cross over in September 2023 for the wedding of Emma Frost and Tony Stark.
• Darkest Hour: Fall of X's starting point is a massive Orchis attack on Krakoa, with the nation left abandoned and its inhabitants lost, scattered or dead. Meanwhile, Arakko is plunged into civil war by the return of Genesis. After the flawed utopia of previous phases, it's all falling apart...
• Didn't Think This Through: Orchis is now learning the hard way that most of the mutants left standing are the ones who've got absolutely no problem killing their opponents, and should've probably been taken down first. Kate ruthlessly murders an entire Orchis squad in X-Men #25 after they laugh in her face.
  Orchis Guard: Wait! The X-Men saved me—when I was up on the Bloom! I was sucked out into space, and they saved me!
  Shadowkat: Yes. That's what the X-Men do. They save everybody they can. Even their enemies. A shame those X-Men are dead now.
• Domed Hometown: A variation; for mysterious reasons, when Orchis makes its move Mother Righteous absorbs the Atlantic off-shoot of Krakoa into one of her orbs. It's later revealed that she brought it with her to the White Hot Room, as the mutants who disappeared after Orchis' attack ended up there.
• Downer Beginning: The storyline begins with Orchis attacking Krakoa and threatening to eradicate humanity if mutantkind still lives on Earth, forcing virtually the entire species to leave Earth.
• Enemy Mine: Emma finds herself doing this with both Wilson Fisk, whose wife went missing, and Tony Stark, whose former company is being used by Orchis via its new owner Feilong.
• Everyone Has Standards: In Uncanny Avengers, Steve Rogers darkly implies he has no issue with the mutants using lethal methods against Orchis's forces after the genocide they inflicted. Considering this man fought actual Nazis, he knows what's appropriate.
  Psylocke: I don't think I can stand any lectures about my methods. They killed hundreds of thousands of mutants.
  Captain America: Then avenge them.
• Everyone Knows Morse: Firestar is shown communicating with Cyclops by using Morse, tapping it on his skin while officially interrogating him so that nobody else knows what she's doing.
• Eye Scream: Cyclops has been captured by Orchis and is in Doctor Stasis' custody with his eyes sewn shut.
• Future Badass: During the Gala, Rasputin IV, a badass amazon gestalt mutant from a thousand years into a Bad Future, gushes over Ms. Marvel, referring to her as a "saviour of all the tribes".
• Gone Horribly Right: The events of the Bad Future that was Sins of Sinister were undone thanks to time-travelling shenanigans- in that timeline, Sinister and the Quiet Council destroyed Orchis before they could become a threat, but in this timeline Sinister was defeated before he could make his move and the Quiet Council purged of his influence, which is what left Orchis free to move ahead with their Evil Plan. While the Sinister timeline was probably worse overall as it spanned a millennium and saw genocidal mutants warring amongst the stars and not just on Earth, a mutant genocide is still a bitter price to pay especially given that's what the X-Men have been trying to avert since their very inception.
• Handicapped Badass: Cyclops not only has his eyes sewn shut, he's also got a broken back and paralysis from the battle in Central Park.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: All of mutantdom is framed for the massacre of the Hellfire Gala and the tainted medicine of Krakoa by Orchis to provide pretense to persecute mutants in a very familiar manner. Doctor Stasis is trying to compound it by trying to coerce a captive Cyclops into agreeing to publicly admit Krakoa's culpability.
• Intergenerational Friendship: After her resurrection, Kamala and Cyclops acknowledge their friendship, since Cyclops's younger version from the past was her teammate for a time in the Champions.
• I Told You So: In Invincible Iron Man #8, Tony tells Emma that he warned her back at the last Gala that the revelation of their technology would cause them trouble.
• La Résistance: The X-Teams in this era are this, thin in number and fighting against a fascist enemy attacking their people.
  • The X-Men and Avengers Unity Division are the main faction with Emma Frost and Tony Stark as allies. The X-Men, lead by Synch and Talon include, Shadowkat, Ms. Marvel, and Rasputin IV with Woofer as an informant on Arakko. The Unity Division, led by Captain America, includes Rogue, Deadpool, Kwannon, Monet, and Quicksilver. These two teams regularly meet in the sewers of New York to trade information. As well as the teams, Nightcrawler is operating as a new Spider-Man in New York, with the blessing and support of the original.
  • With things going the way they are for mutants, Madelyne Pryor started her own faction to help mutants escape from Orchis. Her team includes Havok, Azazel, Zero, and Emplate. She formed an alliance with Gambit, Maggott, Archangel, and Gimmick.
  • In Canada, Northstar is leading a resistance with his sister Aurora, Fang and Nemesis against his old Alpha Flight teammates who are working with Orchis. Except the Alpha Flight members, Guardian, Shaman, Snowbird and Puck are secretly cooperating with the resistance helping keep mutants safe.
  • On Arakko, Storm is leading her own resistance against Genesis who took over Arakko after coercion from Orchis allies. Her resistance includes Sunspot, Nova, Kobak, Lodus Logos, Xilo, Jon Iron Fire and the Fisher King.
  • With the Children of the Vault influencing humans, Bishop and Cable have their own resistance going.
• Life/Death Juxtaposition: The Hellfire Gala one-shot begins with the resurrection of Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan) by the Five mutants. The one-shot ends with Krakoa's mutant population being killed in gory ways on- and off-panel and reduced to a single person on the island: Xavier.
• Living on Borrowed Time: This is what's going on with Iceman post-Hellfire Gala: his boyfriend Romeo was able to pull enough of Bobby together to allow him to revive himself. However, when he steps out of Antarctica, his body starts to fall apart and he can no longer use the full extent of his powers.
• Loophole Abuse: With Krakoa and its government having fallen, the Quiet Council's Laws are now only ink on a page and no longer being enforced. This ironically backfires on Orchis, because the First Law ("Kill No Man") was protecting them from the full brunt of Mutant power, wrath, and retaliation. With Krakoa and its Laws having ceased to exist, surviving Mutants like Kitty don't have to obey them anymore and feel no compunctions about employing lethal force on the humans who're trying to eradicate them all.
• The Mole:
  • Firestar is working with Orchis, and most of her fellow mutants believe that she is a collaborator who has betrayed them. When confronted by Shadowkat, Firestar reveals that she is undercover infiltrating the organization on Jean Grey's orders. She asks Shadowkat to share this information with the surviving X-Men, but Kate refuses, reasoning that if angry mutants believe Firestar is a traitor and go gunning for her, this will help sell her cover to her Orchis handlers, who will consider her above suspicion once they invariably discover security leaks in the organization.
  • Alpha Flight appear to be working with Orchis to keep the peace, but are secretly helping the mutant resistance.
• The Power of Love: Romeo's empathic powers work stronger on people he has stronger feelings towards. Because of this, he managed to detect Bobby's scattered consciousness after Nimrod melted him when no telepath could and reconstitute him. It's imperfect, as Bobby needs proximity both to arctic conditions and Romeo to keep himself together, but he can last long enough to handle crises across the globe.
• Red Shirt Army: Even Lampshaded with most of Orchis geared with red combat suits and helmets. After the Gala massacre, now Orchis soldiers and personnel are massacred in their every following story appearance.
• Revisiting the Roots: The storyline goes back to the X-Men's classic plot points of being defenders of a world that hates and fears them. Further cementing this is Kate returning to her Shadowcat identity (though renamed “Shadowkat”) and Wolverine returning to his classic yellow and blue uniform.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Notably Averted this time. For years the the X-men and Mutantkind kind have had to deal with threats from Sentinels, Purifiers, Reavers, Bastion, M-Pox, the Legacy Virus, O.N.E. and antimutant threats. And for the most part, they’ve had to do it without help from the Avengers or other heroes, with the Avengers only intervening when mutants were threats themselves like the Brotherhood. And it’s mostly been because of this trope. However, this time around, the Avengers aren’t ignoring the blatant fascistic approach Orchis is taking against mutants, helping in their efforts to free mutants and even exact revenge on Orchis. Cap puts a team together and recruits Monet and Kwannon, Tony and Emma are allied against Feilong and his Stark Sentinels, Spider-Man is assisting Nightcrawler in operating as a new hero while investigating Orchis undercover, Thor is seen freeing Leo Eng from Orchis mooks, and all of Alpha Flight are working as moles within the Canadian governments alliance with Orchis to ensure the safety of mutants.
• Teleport Interdiction: Using data provided by Hordeculture, Orchis has successfully hacked and locked the Mutants out of the Krakoan Gate Network — thereby depriving them of one of their main strategic advantages of the Krakoan Age up to this point. The one exception is Kitty Pryde, who has ironically gone from being the only Mutant who couldn't access the Gates back in Marauders to literally the only Mutant who can use the Gates now despite the lockout.
• Villains Want Mercy: The last Orchis mook left standing in Kate's onslaught shown in X-Men #25 fearfully brought up how the X-Men saved him on a previous mission. This earns him a broken neck as Kate tearfully declares those X-Men who saved him are now dead.

---