Marvel Comics has revealed the cover of their June Pride issue, X-Men: The Wedding Special, which will see long-time queer couple Mystique and Destiny tie the knot.
Marvel’s annual Pride issue is something queer fans look forward to every year, and it’s exciting to see one of X-Men’s most prominent queer characters make it official. Destiny (Irene Adler) and Mystique ( Raven Darkhölme) have been linked ever since Chris Claremont co-created the characters in 1980 and 1978, respectively.
At the time, Claremont wanted Mystique and Destiny to be Nightcrawler’s parents, with Mystique impregnating Destiny while in their male form. But this queer coupling proved to be too controversial for the Comics Code Authority, so Nightcrawler was written as the son of Mystique and a German baron, who was later revealed to be Azazel.
Claremont’s original vision was retconned in 2023’s X-Men Blue: Origins 1, where Destiny and Mystique are restored as Nightcrawler’s parents.
Destiny and Mystique’s romance spans centuries in the comics, as the blue shape-shifter and the blind mutant with precognitive abilities first got together in the 19th century. Mystique was Sherlock Holmes at the time … it’s a long story. Together they worked to prevent the apocalypse that Destiny foretold.
As with most long-running comics characters, Mystique and Destiny have split up, reunited, died, and been resurrected countless times. But the two always find their way back to one another. Marvel’s Voices: Pride one-shot X-Men: The Wedding Special, which comes out in June, is written by Kieron Gillen.
Other stories in the Pride issue feature writers Tini Howard (Captain Britain) and Wyatt Kennedy (Nights), along with Tate Brombal (House of Slaughter) and Yoon Ha Lee (Ninefox Gambit). You can check out the cover art by Jan Bazaldua below:
X-MEN: THE WEDDING SPECIAL #1 hits the stands on May 29, wherever comics are sold.
(featured image: Marvel Comics)
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