Marvel Just Lowered Its Number of Mutants to Near Extinction Levels Again

Marvel seems to go through an oscillating process of having the mutant race flourish, and then face near-extinction. We're now entering one of the latter periods of that pendulum swing, with X-Men: The Hellfire Gala (2023). The latest installment of the X-Men's annual party event took a drastic turn, as (SPOILERS) the mutant-hating human organization ORCHIS launched a surprise attack against the X-Men and Krakoa, slaughtering some of the most powerful X-Men, and forcing mutant-kind into a drastic decision: leave Earth for good or die. 

However, even when Charles Xavier capitulates and psychically-coerces every mutant on Earth to be transported away, ORCHIS is revealed to be deceiving the mutant leader: ORCHIS tampers with the mutants' Krakoa gate portals, allegedly sending all the transported mutants to their deaths. 

At the end of X-Men: The Hellfire Gala (2023), Rogue and Xavier do the horrific math on the slaughter: of the estimated 250,000 mutants that were living on or affiliated with Krakoa, the only known survivors are: a small group of mutants  (and Kingpin) that Emma Frost escaped with (Talon, Sync, Aurora, Katherine Pryde, Kamala Khan); a few isolated and/or maimed mutants (Cyclops, Wolverine); a double-agent embedded within ORCHIS (Firestar), Xavier and Rogue, and few key figures yet to be accounted for (Sinister, Beast). 

The losses the X-Men suffered are immense: Omega mutants Iceman and Jean Grey both die in the fight with ORCHIS; the holy team of mutants known as "The Five" are also seemingly warped into oblivion, ending mutantkind's practice of unlimited resurrection from death. Other casualties at the Gala included most of the new X-Men team that was selected at the event: Cannonball, Juggernaut, Jubilee, Dazzler, Frenzy, and Prodigy. They were all either brutally annihilated by Nimrod in its initial crash-landing in the gala, or beaten to death by Nimrod (Juggernaut) during the fight. Mystique's brain shorted out trying to resist Xavier's commands, and she fell to her death, while her wife Destiny inexplicably walked through a corrupted gate, despite being able to see the future. 

Are Marvel Mutants Really X-Tinct? 

As stated, Marvel has a pendulum-swing tradition when it comes to building the mutant population up, and then tearing it down. From Mister Sinister's Morlock Mutant Massacre to New X-Men's Genosha Massacre and Scarlet Witch's "M-Day" during House of M... This latest "Fall of X" event isn't exactly re-inventing the wheel. 

That's all to say: It's hard to measure just how long or permanent this latest near-extinction of mutants will be – or if the initial picture of doom is as bad as we've seen. A lot of fan theory speculates that ORCHIS didn't corrupt Krakoa's warp gates to kill all those mutants that Xavier moved: they may have corralled them into prison camps. 

It seems more than likely that the X-Men and mutants would have to bounce back from this by the time the dust settles on "Fall of X" and a new status quo is set – but it'll be interesting to see how we get there. 

X-Men: Hellfire Gala #1 is now on sale from Marvel Comics.