Fan-Favorite X-Men Die in X-Men: Hellfire Gala, and Resurrection Might Not Work This Time

07/26/2023 10:00 am EDT

Over the past few years, the X-Men's Hellfire Gala has become a surprising staple of Marvel Comics. The event has not only brought some beautiful sartorial designs for the X-Men and other Marvel characters, but it usually ushered in a new chapter for the mutants writ large. The 2023 Hellfire Gala delivered that in spades — but unfortunately, it also delivered some pretty traumatic and possibly definitive deaths. Obviously, major spoilers for X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 by Gerry Duggan, Adam Kubert, Luciano Vecchio, Matteo Lolli, Russell Dauterman, Javier Pina, R.B. Silva, Joshua Cassara, Kris Anka, Pepe Larraz, Rain Beredo, Cecil De La Cruz, Matthew Wilson, Erick Arciniega, Marte Garcia, and Virtual Calligraphy below! Only look if you want to know!

For the first few pages, the Hellfire Gala seems to go off without a hitch, with mutantkind (including the newly-resurrected Kamala Khan) gathering alongside the Avengers and a number of humans who had been impacted by Krakoa's life-saving medicine. The event then announced the new X-Men team (revealing that somehow, each of this year's X-Men Vote nominees had been inducted) only for everything to come crashing down. Nimrod quickly attacked the gala, and the brunt of his landing managed to brutally kill nearly all of the nominees — Dazzler, Cannonball, Frenzy, and Prodigy — in a single blow, before immediately stabbing Jubilee. Nimrod then proceeded to target other Omega-level mutants, stabbing Iceman with a Blightswill dagger that grotesquely melted his body into nothing. Later on in the issue, Moira X emerged, stabbing Jean Grey through the chest with a Blightswill dagger, in the same exact framing as Moira's previous lives had died multiple times over. Jean then used her last moments of consciousness to send telepathic messages to Firestar, Cyclops, and Wolverine, before turning into a skeleton.

The bloodshed only continued from there, with Lourdes Chantel dying after helping teleport the remaining mutants to safety, Juggernaut getting his head bashed in by Nimrod, and Mystique falling to her death after Charles' psychic powers overwhelm her. By the end of the issue, Charles becomes convinced that every mutant who followed his orders, going through the Krakoan gates that Stasis and Orchis claimed were programmed to go off-world, is dead as well, as he can't psychically hear them. In Charles' mind, the vast majority of mutantdom was killed in "a meat grinder."

Did the X-Men Really Die in Hellfire Gala 2023?

It's safe to assume that, in one form or fashion, the deaths of the Hellfire Gala will eventually be undone in Marvel canon. At very least, two sequences midway through the issue add a new layer to Charles' "meat grinder" comment, as Mother Righteous is shown trapping Krakoa's Atlantic Island into a protective bubble, and Exodus is shown shoving The Five through a very specific Krakoan gate. There's a chance that The Five, or maybe all of the mutants who went through the gates, ended up on that secret island, unbeknownst to Charles.

That still leaves the bulk of the issue's other deaths, which are very clearly, graphically shown on panel. Again, it all goes back to the status of The Five — if they're alive, and eventually able to combine their powers as they have countless times on Krakoa, then we might see the resurrection of characters like Jean, Dazzler, Jubilee, and Iceman at a later point. Either way, that possibility is something that only starts to soften the gruesomeness of these deaths, as well as the absence of these characters for the time being. 

What do you think of the deaths in X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!