Stranger Things Season 5 draws clear inspiration from a classic X-Men story, one that potentially foreshadows how the story will end. The Duffer brothers have never bothered to hide their love of the X-Men comics; Stranger Things Season 1’s first X-Men reference called out the iconic “Dark Phoenix Saga,” with aspects of the story even setting up Vecna six years before his debut. There are still X-Men Easter eggs in Stranger Things Season 5, which has seen Eleven embrace her identity as a “superhero.”
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Until now, the most visible influence has been that “Dark Phoenix Saga,” with Eleven serving as an analogue of the telepathic / telekinetic Jean Grey. But there were hints in Season 4 that the Duffer brothers were now casting their nets more widely (most notably the collars worn by some of the Hawkins Lab children, evocative of similar anti-mutant inhibitor collars from a story called “X-Tinction Agenda”). Now, another source is becoming clear: an epic called “Inferno.”
Stranger Things Season 4 Set Up the Duffer Brothers’ “Inferno” Story
To understand “Inferno,” you first have to be familiar with a Hell Dimension called Limbo. In Marvel Comics, the Hell Dimensions are various planes of reality ruled by demonic overlords; Limbo is a formless place, inhabited by demonic creatures, shaped by the mind of its ruler, Belasco. Like all other Hell Lords, Belasco sought to expand his sphere of influence and conquer the Earth itself. He did so by spiriting away an innocent child, Illyana Rasputin, the younger sister of the X-Men’s Colossus. That set in motion a chain of events that culminated in 1988’s “Inferno.”
In “Inferno,” the demons of Limbo kidnapped more innocent children. They sought to use shards of their very souls to power portals between the Hell Dimension and Earth, launching a full-scale invasion of New York. Demonic energies poured through the portals, and New York itself was twisted and warped by it all.
The end of Stranger Things Season 4 revealed the Duffer brothers’ version of Belasco, a being who is no longer quite human and who has taken control of a mysterious, Hellish dimension. According to Season 4, this realm – known as Dimension X – didn’t always look like a twisted version of Hawkins; this was something done to it, either by Vecna or somehow by the power of Eleven’s own mind, and it has become a twisted version of the town. Now, finally, Vecna has initiated an “Inferno” of his own, using dying souls to open portals between the Upside Down and Earth. The parallels aren’t subtle.
Holly Wheeler is Illyana Rasputin
Viewed through an X-Men lens, Holly Wheeler is being positioned as Stranger Things‘ version of Illyana Rasputin herself. In the X-Men comics, Illyana Rasputin was the six-year-old, blonde-haired younger sister of the X-Man Colossus, spirited away into Limbo, where she encountered warped astral versions of the X-Men. Illyana’s time in Limbo was explored in the 1983 Magik miniseries, where she even wound up wandering through a mindscape shaped by Belasco – akin to Vecna’s “mind lair,” Camazotz. Holly is seven, not six, but she even winds up wearing a similar outfit to Illyana’s in that 1983 miniseries.
Mike made the parallels even more explicit when he dubbed his younger sister “Holly the Heroic.” He described her as a Cleric (the same class of Dungeons & Dragons character as Will), and said she had the power to create interdimensional portals. Again, the foreshadowing doesn’t exactly feel subtle, but the specific power Mike described is quite important. Due to her time in Limbo, Illyana Rasputin aged up and became Magik, an X-Man with the power to create… interdimensional portals.
It may just be a bit of lampshading, the Duffer brothers making their inspiration explicit. But most viewers are assuming that Holly Wheeler (and, perhaps, the other kidnapped children) will indeed become Holly the Heroic, opening portals between the Upside Down and Earth. If that is indeed the case, then she really is their Illyana Rasputin.
Why Vecna Wants (More) Children
It certainly looks as though Stranger Things is riffing on the X-Men’s “Inferno” event (and the lore surrounding it). If that’s the case, then this potentially explains why Vecna has kidnapped 12 children. In “Inferno,” the demons of Limbo kidnapped 13 children to use their souls as a power source for their portals, expanding their influence across the Earth. Vecna has already broken the souls of others to open the rifts between Earth and the Upside Down, and he could well be trying to do something similar – extending the Upside Down beyond Hawkins.
This would explain why he spirited Holly’s consciousness away into his own mindscape, Camazotz; he doesn’t want to kill her, he wants to bind his own mind with hers, to corrupt her, and then to use the innocence of her soul to extend his domain. If that is indeed the case, then Hawkins is now ground zero in a war to save the entire world, and everything is on the line in Stranger Things Season 5.
Stranger Things Season 5, Volume 1 is streaming now on Netflix.
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