X-Men’s Apocalyptic New Threat Is the Price of Them “Defeating Death”

Warning: Contains spoilers for Uncanny X-Men (2024) #1!A terrifying new villain joins the Marvel Universe, to punish the X-Men for cheating death in the Krakoa era. The “Endling” makes her debut in the first issue of the relaunched Uncanny X-Men, which features Rogue leading the new team alongside Gambit and Wolverine, with Jubilee and Nightcrawler promised to join imminently. As the sinister antagonist preys on young mutants, the heroes come together to take on this powerful threat.

The opening of Uncanny X-Men (2024) #1 – written by Gail Simone, with art by David Marquez – finds Rogue and Gambit reunited with Wolverine to battle Sadurang the God-Snake. After striking a deal with Gambit, the Asgardian dragon warns them about the terrible threat.

Since Rogue and Wolverine were brought back to the land of the living via the X-Men’s Resurrection Protocol, Sadurang reminds them that they’ve cheated death and questions if they truly didn’t think that would come back to haunt them; soon enough, their reckoning comes from the Endling, a villain hunting mutants for scoffing at mortality.

The X-Men Beat Death – But Now They Face The Consequences In The Form Of A Terrifying New Enemy

Uncanny X-Men (2024) #1 – Written By Gail Simone; Art By David Marquez; Color By Matthew Wilson; Lettering By Clayton Cowles

The menacing threat in Uncanny X-Men proves that the mutants’ actions during the Krakoa era are not being swept under the rug in their Marvel future, and will instead come back to bite. The new villain the Endling could be devastating to all mutants, not just those that were resurrected in Krakoa, as she feels that all mutants must pay for what was done. When she hunts down Fawn in Uncanny X-Men #1, the young mutant’s lack of involvement in Krakoa is disregarded as the Endling tells her that her blood betrayed her.

The X-Men’s Resurrection Protocol, introduced in 2019’s House of X, saw five mutants bring various others back from the dead as long as they had the X-Gene. Though the development helped a lot of mutant heroes come back to life and truly go all out during their battles, it seems that the X-Men “defeating death” will have catastrophic consequences for mutants moving forward. The mutants’ resurrection power went away with the end of Krakoa, but will continue to affect young mutants and possibly make them resent the X-Men for their choices.

The Endling Is Hiding In Plain Sight At The Start Of Uncanny X-Men

The New Series Introduces A Serious Mystery

In addition to a new villain, Uncanny X-Men introduces six young mutants to the Marvel Universe and instantly kills two off to establish the series’ horror Southern gothic tone. When Nightcrawler invites Rogue, Gambit, and Wolverine to visit a boy with mutant pre-cog abilities, he dies in front of them after delivering a haunting and cryptic message. The boy, named Harvey X, warns the team about the team of Outliers coming their way before he succumbs to a stroke. He tells the X-Men that although they’ll have to save the young mutants, one of them is actually the Endling.

With the terrifying villain revealed to be hiding in plain sight as one of the new Outliers, the five iconic heroes making up the new Uncanny X-Men and the remaining young mutants must work together to uncover the terrifying antagonist threatening the mutant population. The Resurrection Protocol always had a slightly haunting and wrong tone during the Krakoa era, but that leading to the Endling targeting children with nothing to do with the resurrections is a frightening development. The Uncanny X-Men mustunravel the devastating consequences of their death-defying stunts over the last five years of Marvel Comics.