Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.

Now that mutants can never die, the entire dynamic of the X-Men and the various teams are different. Why worry about a character getting torn in half when you know they can come back to life in just a few days? It’s an intriguing concept that comes with it a bevy of philosophical and moral dilemmas, but so far Xavier and the mutant population are cool with it. But what if that ability stopped entirely?

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That seems to be a possibility eventually. You need Goldballs, Hope, Proteus, Elixir, and Tempus to make an embryo and finally Xavier to put the soul back into the body. If just one of them dies, the process likely doesn’t work. Unless of course something else goes wrong, and it appears to be going very wrong in Marauders #9.

Near the end of the issue, Emma Frost is called to check in with Xavier. We see the rebirth team looking quite harrowed.

The fact that Emma says, “Again” suggests this is a reoccurring issue. Likely rebirth is still happening, but not every time.

In the next scene, we learn it’s the husk itself that is not viable for life. Is something wrong with Krakoa itself, or one of the heroes? Considering mutants will be fighting plants in Empyre, that may be the case. Regardless, this is a huge problem for mutants in general, but also now that more threats than ever are ramping up their efforts to destroy mutantkind and Xavier’s plans.

This is only a fraction of the story in Marauders #9 and I highly recommend you check out the issue. It’s quite cool.