Judgment Day approaches while Destiny and Mother Righteous make plans in Marvel's May X-Men titles

X-Force #28 cover art
X-Force #28 cover art (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Marvel has revealed plans for its May 2022 X-Men line as part of the new Destiny of X' era, including the introduction of a new character named Mother Righteous in Legion of X, Madelyne Pryor takes over Limbo in New Mutants #26, and the haughty Nostradamus-esque book series the Books of Destiny is seemingly coming back for a sequel since its author Destiny is once again in the land of the living and breathing.

Mother Righteous is a proverbial mover-and-shaker in the Astral Plane and makes her debut in Legion of X when Legion asks for her help in getting out of his father Professor X's shadow. It seems this deal comes with some sinister fine print.

Over in New Mutants, one of the team's instructors Magik has been usurped in her other job as ruler of the extradimensional realm known as Limbo. The Hell-ish realm will now be controlled by the one-time Jean Grey clone Madelyne Pryor, who had a baptism of fire early in her life in Limbo with the demons S'ym and Nasterich in the build-up to the classic '90s event 'Inferno'.

And the aforementioned Books of Destiny might be getting a sequel in the upcoming ongoing series Immortal X-Men, a book that centers on the ruling council of X-Men that Destiny is a part of. 

Immortal X-Men is also tying into the upcoming Judgment Day event, crossing over with the Avengers and X-Men titles.

Marvel did not release info about The X-Cellent, possibly because that series is at arm's length from X-Men continuity at this time.

Check all of the other May X-Men titles along with preview covers. 

On sale May 4

X-MEN #11
Written by GERRY DUGGAN
Art and Cover by PEPE LARRAZ
The main team of Krakoan X-Men won’t be safe from the effects of Judgment Day either! The women of the X-Men are heading for the hottest action in the galaxy…Gameworld! But if it’s true that the house always wins, our X-Ladies might be in over their heads…


X-FORCE #28
Written by BENJAMIN PERCY
Art by ROBERT GILL
Cover by JOSHUA CASSARA
Cerebrax stalks the island of Krakoa, and no one is safe! Its hunger for minds is insatiable…but what happens when it absorbs the minds — and powers — of the most powerful mutants?! X-Force will have to STEP. IT. UP. – and Kid Omega leads the way!

On sale May 18

KNIGHTS OF X #2
Written by TINI HOWARD
Art by BOB QUINN
Cover by YANICK PAQUETTE
Betsy Braddock has assembled her Knights! Their mission: to save Otherworld from Merlyn and his powerful henchmen...by finding the holy grail of mutantkind. But Otherworld is vast, and innumerable armies stand in their way. When Merlyn targets the Crooked Market, a safe haven for mutantkind, the Knights must split up. Will Captain Britain find the grail? Will Gambit lead the others into a deadly trap? Death looms over the Knights — in more ways than one.


WOLVERINE #21
Written by BENJAMIN PERCY
Art and Cover by ADAM KUBERT
Outnumbered and surrounded, Wolverine unleashes his berserker rage, and Deadpool embraces his deadly fighting skills in a last ditch effort to save mutant lives. But what’s with all the Robot X-Men, and what do they have to do with the X-Desk?

On sale May 25

IMMORTAL X-MEN #3
Written by KIERON GILLEN
Art by LUCAS WERNECK
Cover by MARK BROOKS
JUDGMENT DAY IS COMING! Tying together current story threads in AVENGERS, X-MEN, and ETERNALS, writer Kieron Gillen and artist Valerio Schiti bring you the next Marvel Comics epic this summer. See the first seeds planted for this upcoming saga in issues of Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck’s IMMORTAL X-MEN! May’s IMMORTAL X-MEN #3 will dive into one of the most fascinating objects in the X-Men mythos: Destiny’s diaries! Over one hundred years ago, Irene Adler wrote twelve books. A sequel is long overdue.


LEGION OF X #2
Written by SI SPURRIER
Art by JAN BAZALDUA
Cover by DIKE RUAN
Meet Mother Righteous. Legion is offered an unholy deal by this major new character, the self-proclaimed wheeler-dealer of the astral plane. But is the price worth the prize for a young man stuck in his father's shadow? Meanwhile, the Skinjacker grows bold. Not content with stealing identities of other mutants, he turns his powers on the Legion of X... And while newly arrived Arakki badass Weaponless Zsen has a beastly clash with a dangerous X-Man, her chaperone Nightcrawler is otherwise engaged – giving a massage...?


MARAUDERS #3
Written by STEVE ORLANDO
Art by ELEONORA CARLINI
Cover by KAEL NGU
Panic in Shi’ar space! The Marauders are prisoners of the Kin Crimson, a secret society stretching back billions of years, who outrank even the Shi’ar Majestrix…or so they think. But Captain Pryde and the Marauders aren’t giving up, not with the Shi’ar holding the last survivors of mutantkind’s first generation hostage. With the weight of history looming like a nuclear threat, can Kate Pryde convince Xandra to side with mutantkind against her kingdom?


NEW MUTANTS #26
Written by VITA AYALA
Art by ROD REIS
Cover by LEINIL FRANCIS YU
While the queen is away, demons will play! A new queen has taken the throne of Limbo — Madelyne Pryor, A.K.A. the Goblin Queen! Meanwhile, separated from Limbo, Magik faces an enemy she thought she had banished long ago…


X-MEN RED #3
Written by AL EWING
Art by STEFANO CASELLI
Cover by RUSSELL DAUTERMAN
Tarn the Uncaring waged war and torture on Arakko for centuries. He’s the most hated being on Mars…and he sits on their ruling council. Abigail Brand has a plan to remedy that — and reap the rewards. So does Roberto Da Costa. But only one of them can win…and Tarn’s going to make at least one mutant pay the price for it!

Look for Marvel Comics' full May 2022 solicitations later in February here at Newsarama.

Keep track of May 2022's and all the new X-Men comics, graphic novels, and collections coming in the near future.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)

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