Marvel's December X-Men Solicits Point to a Beast-Shaped Hole After DNX

Marvel's December X-Men solicits confirm the fallout from DNX hits harder than a line-wide status quo shuffle. X-Men #42 (December 9) opens with the team already grieving a fallen teammate, while X-Men #43 (December 23) has Magneto restored and Jean Grey back from space just in time to fight over who leads next. Jean Grey #2 (December 30) picks up her side of the story as she resettles in Merle, Alaska, and starts side-eyeing a figure the solicit text only calls "the Chairman."

Writer Jed MacKay is running all three threads, with Vincenzo Carratù on X-Men and Rogê Antônio on Jean Grey. Nobody at Marvel has said the name out loud, but "the Chairman" lines up with Beast's old Krakoan-era title, and with mutant resurrection protocols off the table, a death in these pages would actually stick for once.

Whether or not it's Hank McCoy on the chopping block, the solicits make clear Marvel is using DNX to reset the X-office's leadership and emotional stakes ahead of Avengers: Doomsday — one more sign the publisher is quietly building toward that movie faster than it's letting on.

Source: Bleeding Cool