Marvel put out their solicitations for March earlier today (link) and while scrolling through I stumbled across this:

AMAZING X-MEN #5

JASON AARON (W) • ED MCGUINNESS (A/C)

• Nightcrawler and his pirate band of X-Men take on Azazel and his hellish hordes!

• One of the X-Men must make the ultimate sacrifice!

32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

.....

Five issues in and someone's already going to die? Seriously? Wow, okay then...

The big question, assuming the solicit actually means that someone is going to die and isn't blatant lies or immediately retconned, is: Who's gonna bite the dust?

Obviously, it's not going to be Wolverine. He's got like four other titles he's appearing in (2 solos, Uncanny Avengers, and Wolverine and the X-Men), so I'm pretty sure we can mark him down as safe. Nightcrawler isn't gonna get axed after just being reintroduced and Storm is an enormously popular and iconic character appearing in at least three titles (X-Men, Amazing X-Men, and Wolverine and the X-Men) so they're both safe.

This is where things get speculative.

Since Wolverine and the X-Men is being re-launched with more of a focus on the student body and New Avengers 13 has solicited "The gathering of a new Illuminati," the safety of Beast and Iceman is no longer assured. This means that of the remaining four characters, Beast, Firestar, Iceman, and Northstar, each of them is appearing in approximately 1 title each.

Firestar was just introduced to the X-Men in this series so it's possible she could die, thus leaving some of the more famous X-Men alive, but given that Aaron brought her into the title and the X-Men family specifically, it's doubtful that he would introduce her to the X-Men only to immediately kill her off.

Northstar, like Storm, is a very well-known character and was Marvel's First openly gay character, as well as their first gay character to be married (insert DC potshot here). Killing him might be suitable for story purposes but it would open Marvel up to allegations of homophobia (most likely baseless, but still potentially damaging).

Beast is one of the original five X-Men and appears in three titles (Wolverine and the X-Men, Amazing X-Men, and New Avengers). However, two of those titles appear to be undergoing cast changes so they do not assure his safety. Considering the damage he's done to the time stream by bringing the O5 forward, if he were to die now it might provide another obstacle for them to overcome when they eventually have to go back.

Iceman is also a member of the original X-Men and is currently appearing in two titles (Wolverine and the X-Men and Amazing X-Men) but, as with Beast, they do not assure his safety. If Aaron were to kill Iceman in an act of self-sacrifice, it could be a form of redemption for his nearly freezing the world in Astonishing X-Men.

Personally, I think it's going to be Beast because I've always viewed him and Nightcrawler as the "heart" of the X-Men, often being portrayed as highly moral, so it would make sense for Kurt to replace him. Of course that's just pure speculation based on a solicit of dubious veracity so I could be utterly wrong.

Which of the team do you think is likely to die, or do you think the solicit's lying and they'll live? And more importantly, how long will they stay dead?

I'd be more shocked if they didn't kill off a character ala Snyder death of the family but I think beast

Considering his reaction to seeing how his future self turned out in BotA and the fact that he's responsible for a lot of the time stream mess, I could see Beast sacrificing himself as an act of atonement, much like Iceman from what happened in Astonishing. To be honest it could be either one but my money is leaning toward Beast since I think Firebird was brought in as a romantic interest for Iceman but that's me going out on a limb.

I get that too. Not sure how that romance will play out in the long run. Maybe if Beast dies, she tries comforting him at the funeral after he yells at Scott (who will inevitably teleport there). I'm still not sure how I feel about the two as a couple, but I'm not immediately opposed to the idea.

The first thought was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZj6AC7jAO4

They could mean Nightcrawler himself to make a sacrifice. I mean what's bigger than giving up the chance of living someplace of eternal happiness?

Yes he gives up eternal happiness for going back to earth and being alove again, calling it now.

I think that would be a nice way for it to work.

i think its kind of the opposite, i think Nightcrawler stays in Hell and Stays dead. Oldnightcrawler mentioned it in another thread about him only being here for the first arc and i actually see that making sense, i think nightcrawler is just to pull readers in and will be gone after the first arc so he will be the sacrifice

No i want nghtcrawler back alive already. Hes coming home. Didnt you see the preview pages of x-men:no more humans(new graphic novel only, cant collect them comic by comic). It looks like hes alive and on wolverines side.

http://www.comicvine.com/x-men/4060-3173/forums/x-men-face-moral-dilemma-in-no-more-humans-1519792/#11

I'm thinking it's Firestar.

Na-uh

Good point but there's no guarantee that X-Men: No More Humans is 616 canon. It could be an AU story.

I guess we wont know till march, lol

Agreed. As a sidenote, I'd like to point out that I practically giddy at the though of Mike Carey writing X-Men stories again.

I just always assumed he would return alive though him winding up in Hell, possibly to keep as father from attempting to escape again would make sense. He did say he fell/leaped from Heaven and it would make a little more sense for him to be narrating how he ended up in Hell

im not saying like 100 percent but thats just my guess, and i didn't know about this story either ima hav eto check it

Yea I know I'm just saying it actually makes sense. You should definitely read it though, the first two issues were pretty good

5 issues in and someone really has to die?

lol......Life in the comicbooks, I guess.

Who cares, it's comicbooks. They will be back some other time anyway.

And MARVEL solicitations are always horribly exaggerated.

Good point. I think this is the likely way this will go.

that's exactly what I thought too.

I said it was just a hunch!

and, yeah, I've since noticed him in previews for other books, soo..

yeah.

:v

Since when is dying in Marvel 'the ultimate sacrifice'. This book literally proves that it isn't.

I hope it's beast.

It will be Northstar if anyone. Hes by far the most expendable other than Firestar but I think Firestar will be sticking around for awhile.

So true.

When I hear sacrafice I kinda guess it had to do with Kurt giving up his time in the after life and he will come back with the rest of the X-Men to the land of the living.

I totally agree and it could be very resonant move...

resonant how?

@oldnightcrawler said:

It would be different from making more gays from established characters (Alan Scott, Prodigy) and gay-versions of characters (Wolverine from Extreme X-men, Ultimate Colossus) and this would be surprising because people think about other characters (Hank, Kurt). This sudden sacrifice would cause not yawns, but genuine feelings.

Making the ultimate sacrifice =/= death

It's a solicit, they're trying to convince the reader to BUY the issue. They have been using this tactic since the beginning of comics!

I'm sorry but this is a tad bit of a major overreaction. Jason Aaron has been writing a fun, child-friendly, X-Men series, he's not going to end the first arc with someones death. If anything the "ultimate sacrifice" will be Nightcrawler giving up his right to heaven to be alive again. He trades in HEAVEN for LIFE. That's the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE.

I guess it would.. I would hate it, myself.

Besides that Northstar's a favorite of mine, they've already killed him and brought him back at least once. That makes me think that his death would be just for shock value or controversy or whatever, at the expense of a classic and fairly singular character.

I'm sure more than a few people would be put off by it because he's their first mainstream superhero who was gay, having been written to be gay since the early 80's (though they couldn't overtly say so, the early issues of Alpha Flight do make convincing evidence). Repeatedly killing your marquee homosexual character, in a genre where they're already rare, it does seem a bit crass.

To me, who grew up seeing him as a cool, French-Canadian superman* before I ever knew that he was gay, it would just seem like a further waste of one of my favorite, classic characters.

(*and, yeah, I understand the irony of saying Canadian Superman..)

Beast?

Since Jean Grey in the Dark Phoenix Saga ....lol

I'm not sure any of the X-Men are going to die, as each characters have other things to sacrifice besides there life. Maybe one must bargain their powers or something. Who knows....

sell is soul to the devil to get free??? Has to go on a quest to find his soul on earth??? Oh wait its starting to sound like magik....lol

@raggedscarecrow:

Oh i got it nightcrawler leaves heaven which is the ulimate sacrifice and he also has to stop being a catholic priest.

@jrock72

I'm not sure any of the X-Men are going to die, as each characters have other things to sacrifice besides there life. Maybe one must bargain their powers or something. Who knows....

Wolverine has to gice up his healing factor??? cool