Hullo Legion. Were you perhaps expecting to find two of us here to serve your pleasure... silly boy? 
- —Destiny[src]
History
Origin
Visually impaired from birth, Irene Adler was born to a wealthy family in Salzberg, Austria in the mid to late 19th century. Her precognitive powers activated when she was thirteen. To cope with the nearly overwhelming visions, she transcribed what she saw into a series of diaries over the next thirteen months. By the time she was finished, she was completely physically blind.
A few years later, Irene hired Raven Darkholme, a consulting detective, to help her make sense of her diaries. The two found that they shared a desire to use their powers to change the world. Not long afterward, they became lovers.[3] Although the pair deeply cared for one another, they parted periodically, took up other lovers and even raised separate families.
Young Destiny and Mystique
Irene travelled across Europe, and lived for several years in London,[4] purchased a home in Valencia, and worked as a carnival future teller before becoming an archivist for the Black Womb Project in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Here she worked with other visionary scientists including Kurt Marko, Brian Xavier, Nathan Milbury, and Amanda Mueller.[5][6]
Eventually, Mystique and Destiny reunited and together they raised their adopted daughter Rogue in a small home in Caldecott County, Mississippi. They remained together until Destiny's death.
Shadowcat preventing Destiny from assassinating Senator Kelly
Brotherhood of Mutants
Together Mystique and Destiny formed their own Brotherhood of Mutants. This group of ideologically-motivated terrorists worked for a pro mutant agenda. On one of their missions, Destiny almost assassinated the anti-mutant politician, Senator Robert Kelly, but was stopped by Shadowcat.[7] She was arrested and taken to Ryker's Island, but was freed by Mystique and the Brotherhood resulting in a conflict with the Avengers.[8]
Freedom Force
Eventually, this Brotherhood became U.S. sanctioned Freedom Force. In exchange for a pardons, they agreed to protect mutants from anti-mutant sentiment. While on a mission with Freedom Force to Muir Island, Destiny was killed by Legion, who was being influenced at the time by the Shadow King.[9] Destiny's consciousness survived within Legion's mind, and after Legion was also slain, both his and Destiny's spirits ended up assisting Margali in Limbo for a time, though slain subsequently turned up alive again.
Influence Beyond the Grave
Shortly before her death, she predicted that Mystique would become romantically involved with Forge. Although the pair loathed each other at the time, they did develop a brief relationship while both were members of X-Factor.
Sometime before her death, Irene also predicted that she would make Raven laugh if it was the last thing she ever did. She also gave Mystique very specific instructions for the dispersal of her ashes. After her death, Mystique carried out the instructions, throwing the ashes out to sea at a specific place and time, and then a sudden gust of wind blew the ashes back in her face. Realizing that Irene had planned the instructions specifically to reach this outcome, Mystique actually did laugh and received some measure of comfort.[10]
After Destiny's death, Mystique protected a young mutant named Trevor Chase who addressed her as "Auntie Raven," strongly implying that Chase was Destiny's grandson.[11]
Chases for the Diaries
The X-Treme X-Men spent some time searching for Destiny's diaries with her predictions of the future.
After M-Day, Sinister, the Marauders and the Acolytes began searching for the diaries hoping to gain information about the rebirth of the mutant species, clashing with the X-Men, assaulting the Mansion and killing everybody who could be aware from information contained in it.
Necrosha
Destiny was resurrected by Selene with the help of Eli Bard's Techno-Organic Virus. She was kept in a prison cell on Genosha and used by Selene as a personal seer.[12] However, after persuading Leon Matheson, a guard, she escape to Muir Island. She next attempted to contact Rogue on Utopia via astral projection, but instead accidentally contacted Blindfold.[13] Blindfold and a small group of X-Men travelled to Muir Island and after defeating Proteus, freed Destiny.[14] She briefly shared a moment with both her adopted daughter, Rogue, and her alleged great-granddaughter, Blindfold.[15]
Chaos War
Destiny's soul was not allow rest for long; when the Chaos King put the living asleep and opened the underworld, several X-Men were among those resurrected at the ruins of the Xavier Institute. There, Moira MacTaggert discovered one of Destiny's Diaries with a passage on about the Chaos War. Reading the passage did cause Moira to become possessed by Destiny's soul, and the small group was able to defeat Carrion Crow.[16]Attributes
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Powers
Destiny was a mutant with the following abilities:
- Precognition: Destiny possess the psionic power of precognition: the ability to perceive in her mind's eye the events of possible futures. Although she was blind, Destiny could mentally scan the probability spectrum of alternate futures and mentally perceive sounds and sights of events that distinguish them. By concentrating she could focus on only the most probable alternate futures. The accuracy of Destiny’s ability to foresee future events decreased in direct proportion to the number of alternate futures to scan. She could comfortably scan the alternate futures that exist from one second away up until those that exist fifteen minutes away. Hence, she could be 97% accurate in her predictions of the future ten seconds away or less. Despite the limited extent to her certainty, her long-range scanning could be of great use in the early detection of possible random factors that could disrupt her to her partners’ plans. The more likely that a particular alternate future would manifest itself in her reality, the clearer and more distinct her mental impression of it would be. Less likely alternate futures would appear hazy and indistinct. If she left her precognitive perceptions fully open, she would "see" an overlapping succession of images drift in and out of focus as probabilities shifted and further elements transpired. By active participation in the events around her, she could help shift the probabilities toward desired ends. Her personal phenomenal field, that area with which she could not scan the future for events that might take place on the other side of the world or even a mile away.
- Astral Projection: After her death and brief resurrection, Destiny projected her astral spirit to Blindfold's room. It is unclear if this is a power she always had or a side effect of her resurrection.[13]
Weaknesses
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Destiny's Diaries - A twelve volume record of Destiny's visions and predictions for the next hundred years or so. The full content has never been revealed.
Weapons
- Hand crossbow
Transportation
Trivia
- Destiny's name, "Irene Adler", is shared by another fictional character from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia (1888). In Chaos War: X-Men #2, Destiny claims the Sherlock Holmes character is based on her.
- A different fictional character from Arturo Pérez Reverte's book El Club Dumas (1993) says that her name is Irene Adler, but she is trying to make a reference to Conan Doyle's story and at the same time hiding her true identity.
- In Destiny's earliest named appearances, including Uncanny X-Men #170, her given name is Irené (with an accent on the final e).
- Creator Chris Claremont has stated that he originally intended Mystique and Destiny to be Nightcrawler's biological parents (with Mystique having morphed into a man for the act of conception),[17] but Marvel didn't agree because at that time the Comics Code Authority and Marvel policy prohibited the explicit portrayal of gay or bisexual characters.[18][19] Much later,[20] the two were confirmed to have been a couple.
- Destiny has been confirmed to have predicted such events as the Apocalypse: The Twelve, Fall of the Mutants, M-Day[21], the Messiah Complex[21], the Chaos War[16], Fatal Attractions, Schism, the Death of Wolverine[22], and the final Incursion.[23]
See Also
- 128 appearance(s) of Irene Adler (Earth-616)
- 14 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Irene Adler (Earth-616)
- 22 minor appearance(s) of Irene Adler (Earth-616)
- 45 mention(s) of Irene Adler (Earth-616)
- 8 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Irene Adler (Earth-616)
- 100 image(s) of Irene Adler (Earth-616)
- 11 quotation(s) by or about Irene Adler (Earth-616)
- 1 item(s) used/owned by Irene Adler (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ X-Necrosha #1
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #3
- ↑ X-Treme X-Men #1
- ↑ Chaos War: X-Men #2
- ↑ New X-Men (Vol. 2) #41
- ↑ X-Men: Legacy #211
- ↑ Uncanny X-Men #141–142
- ↑ Avengers Annual #10
- ↑ Uncanny X-Men #255
- ↑ X-Factor Annual #6
- ↑ X-Factor #135
- ↑ X-Necrosha #1
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 X-Men: Legacy #231
- ↑ X-Men: Legacy #231–233
- ↑ X-Men: Legacy #233
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Chaos War: X-Men #1–2
- ↑ "The Bisexual Mystique," After Ellen: News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media (July 12, 2006)
- ↑ Nyberg, Amy Kiste. Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1998), pp. 143, 175–176, ISBN 0-87805-975-X.
- ↑ Bartilucci, Vinnie. "One Thin Dime an' Two Thick Pennies" (Jim Shooter interview), Thwack!.
- ↑ Uncanny X-Men #265
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 New X-Men (Vol. 2) #46
- ↑ Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #6
- ↑ Wolverines #20
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 3