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Description

Destiny

Real Name: Irene Adler

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #141 (January 1981)

Wherever the shapeshifting mutant spy Raven Darkholme went, Irene Adler was never too far behind. An old soul of unknown age, the only aspect of Adler's origins anyone knew for sure was that she was born in Austria. She was a mutant gifted with the powers of precognition, which let her see visions of the future; but this in turn robbed Adler of her physical ability to see. A longtime lover--and by some accounts, wife--of Raven Darkholme, Adler considered Raven to be the one constant in her life amongst the myriad possibilities the future held for both them and their kind. And in turn, Raven found Adler's visions as a way for the duo to forge their own history, free of the biases of mankind.

It was dark clouds on the horizon for mutantkind that Adler saw, however, and this pushed Raven to join Magneto's brotherhood. But no matter how they pulled at the threads of fate, Adler's visions grew darker yet, and when Magneto was apprehended by SHIELD and the Brotherhood fell, the duo was once again forced to go on the run. Their running days came to an end when fate intersected with chaos and the wave of mutant decimation unleashed by the former Avenger Wanda Maximoff reached them. Stripped of her prophetic ability, death finally caught up with Adler, and she left her lover with the details of her last vision: the decimation would be undone by an alliance between Xavier and Magneto, but at a price mutants could not ever repay.

Beware the coming onslaught.

----

Yeah she's dead. "Destiny" was Raven's chosen term to use to refer to Adler to protect her identity, as she was her closest guarded treasure she didn't like to share with others. Not just due to their love for one another, but because Adler's ability to view the future was too valuable to let others in on her secret, and the eyeless mask was something Adler used to hide her true identity from those Raven didn't trust. She was also very, very old when she died, and she used her powers to "evade death," such as it were, however that works (don't think about it too much), and without them she quickly dies.

Yep, it's Destiny. She's a classic member of the X-Men mythos, but up until very recently she had been dead for decades, her influence from beyond the grave lasting for years. Her role in my universe was already mentioned once way back in Mystique's entry, but she is basically as you'd imagine--Mystique's beloved... friend (as they referenced her in the old comics due to the comics code not allowing open LGBT characters at the time) with prophetic mutant abilities, who ends up dying. Maybe a little cliché but I liked the idea of her being this guiding hand in Mystique's own "destiny" that she ends up losing and having to forge her own path. But her parting words here are setting up something that I have not touched on... now what could "beware the coming Onslaught" mean?

If you are familiar with Sherlock Holmes, yes, she does in fact have the same name as Irene Adler from those stories. What is their connection? It was highly implied in the comics, for quite a while, and now recently confirmed, that she is the actual canon Irene Adler in the Marvel universe, and Sherlock Holmes was, for a time, Mystique's cover identity. No, I'm not kidding. It's canon, Sherlock Holmes in the Marvel universe was Mystique. It's even referenced in her name, Raven Darkholme. Whatever connection there is in my universe is going to be left ambiguous. Maybe they are Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, or maybe Irene Adler is just a pseudonym of Destiny's. Who knows, because Mystique and Destiny aren't telling.

But anyway, that aside, Destiny has a very... distinct look in the comics that was really tricky to apply to my universe and the kind of grungy look of my Brotherhood. I ended up going through a ton of different versions of her look and none of them seemed to work out. It was not until I had a random idea to give her a hooded shawl of some sort that it all came together. This, combined with her mask, lends well to her classic iconography, and then I gave her some fairly old fashioned looking clothes to go along with the ensemble, with a long buttoned coat and such. Makes her look both mysterious and like an old soul, someone from generations before.

Description

Destiny

Real Name: Irene Adler

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #141 (January 1981)

Wherever the shapeshifting mutant spy Raven Darkholme went, Irene Adler was never too far behind. An old soul of unknown age, the only aspect of Adler's origins anyone knew for sure was that she was born in Austria. She was a mutant gifted with the powers of precognition, which let her see visions of the future; but this in turn robbed Adler of her physical ability to see. A longtime lover--and by some accounts, wife--of Raven Darkholme, Adler considered Raven to be the one constant in her life amongst the myriad possibilities the future held for both them and their kind. And in turn, Raven found Adler's visions as a way for the duo to forge their own history, free of the biases of mankind.

It was dark clouds on the horizon for mutantkind that Adler saw, however, and this pushed Raven to join Magneto's brotherhood. But no matter how they pulled at the threads of fate, Adler's visions grew darker yet, and when Magneto was apprehended by SHIELD and the Brotherhood fell, the duo was once again forced to go on the run. Their running days came to an end when fate intersected with chaos and the wave of mutant decimation unleashed by the former Avenger Wanda Maximoff reached them. Stripped of her prophetic ability, death finally caught up with Adler, and she left her lover with the details of her last vision: the decimation would be undone by an alliance between Xavier and Magneto, but at a price mutants could not ever repay.

Beware the coming onslaught.

----

Yeah she's dead. "Destiny" was Raven's chosen term to use to refer to Adler to protect her identity, as she was her closest guarded treasure she didn't like to share with others. Not just due to their love for one another, but because Adler's ability to view the future was too valuable to let others in on her secret, and the eyeless mask was something Adler used to hide her true identity from those Raven didn't trust. She was also very, very old when she died, and she used her powers to "evade death," such as it were, however that works (don't think about it too much), and without them she quickly dies.

Yep, it's Destiny. She's a classic member of the X-Men mythos, but up until very recently she had been dead for decades, her influence from beyond the grave lasting for years. Her role in my universe was already mentioned once way back in Mystique's entry, but she is basically as you'd imagine--Mystique's beloved... friend (as they referenced her in the old comics due to the comics code not allowing open LGBT characters at the time) with prophetic mutant abilities, who ends up dying. Maybe a little cliché but I liked the idea of her being this guiding hand in Mystique's own "destiny" that she ends up losing and having to forge her own path. But her parting words here are setting up something that I have not touched on... now what could "beware the coming Onslaught" mean?

If you are familiar with Sherlock Holmes, yes, she does in fact have the same name as Irene Adler from those stories. What is their connection? It was highly implied in the comics, for quite a while, and now recently confirmed, that she is the actual canon Irene Adler in the Marvel universe, and Sherlock Holmes was, for a time, Mystique's cover identity. No, I'm not kidding. It's canon, Sherlock Holmes in the Marvel universe was Mystique. It's even referenced in her name, Raven Darkholme. Whatever connection there is in my universe is going to be left ambiguous. Maybe they are Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler, or maybe Irene Adler is just a pseudonym of Destiny's. Who knows, because Mystique and Destiny aren't telling.

But anyway, that aside, Destiny has a very... distinct look in the comics that was really tricky to apply to my universe and the kind of grungy look of my Brotherhood. I ended up going through a ton of different versions of her look and none of them seemed to work out. It was not until I had a random idea to give her a hooded shawl of some sort that it all came together. This, combined with her mask, lends well to her classic iconography, and then I gave her some fairly old fashioned looking clothes to go along with the ensemble, with a long buttoned coat and such. Makes her look both mysterious and like an old soul, someone from generations before.