ClanDestine

The ClanDestine
Cover to ClanDestine (vol. 1) #1 (October 1994). Art by Alan Davis.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	(vol. 1) Ongoing series (vol. 2) Limited series
Publication date	(vol. 1) Oct. 1994 - Sep. 1995 (vol. 2) April 2008
Number of issues	(vol. 1): 12 (vol. 2): 5
Main character(s)	Adam Destine Walter Destine (Wallop) Kay Cera (Cuckoo) Samantha Hasard (Argent) Dominic (Hex) Newton William Chance (Cap'n Oz) Rory Destine (Crimson Crusader) Pandora Destine (Imp) Albert Gracie Gamble Victor Destine Florence Maurice Fortuit
Creative team
Creator(s)	Alan Davis
Collected editions
Clandestine Classic Premiere	ISBN 0-7851-2742-9
ClanDestine: Blood Relative Premiere	ISBN 0-7851-2740-2

The ClanDestine (also known simply as ClanDestine^[1]) is a comic book series about the Destines, a secret family of long-lived superhuman beings, published in the United States by Marvel Comics. It was created by artist/writer Alan Davis, and first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #158 (July 1994).^[2]

Production

Creator Alan Davis explained that he likes the superhero genre in general, and the group book dynamic in particular, and was drawn to the opportunity to create a group of new characters unencumbered by a long and complex continuity, though he set it in the Marvel Universe in order to use characters like the Silver Surfer and MODOK in cameo roles. Since the range of superhuman abilities is limited, and good gimmicks rare and short-lived, Davis observed that the greatest opportunity for originality is in character development and interaction. Davis chose to make the group a family because the familial bond is not one of choice, and can be either rewarding or painful. Davis was also interested in superhumans who used their powers to enhance their lives, but did not necessarily feel either any heroic obligations or megalomaniacal greed. Although he made the Destines an extended family in order to make up new family members as he went along, the core of the group would be Rory, Pandora, Samantha, Walter, Kay and Dominic.^[3] Although the family's full membership remains unrevealed for this reason, Walter has stated that there are "many" that eleven-year-old twins Rory and Pandora have not met.^[4]

History

Adam of Ravenscroft was born in the village of Ravenscroft^[5] in the heart of England^[6] in the summer of 1168 A.D., when Saxon England was ruled by Norman conquerors. Adam's youth was unremarkable, and he grew content without ambition. When he was sixteen, however, he was accidentally impaled on a scythe, but he miraculously recovered after a dream about a strange, inhuman woman. He was renamed Adam of Destine by the town, who felt the young man was destined for greatness. In 1189, Adam joined the Third Crusade. During the battles, Adam was never once injured and he believed that the "angel" he dreamt about protected him. By 1191 he was a seasoned veteran of battles at Acre, Arsuf and Jaffa. He became overconfident and reckless, and was captured by a warlord called Al Kadhdhaab. Kadhdhaab claimed that he needed Adam's help to defeat the wizard Sujanaa Min Raghbah. Centuries prior, Sujanaa captured a large gem with mystical powers that fulfilled his wishes. In a vision Sujanaa had seen that Adam was destined to kill him, and Kadhdhaab also knows this through a written prophecy. Adam traveled to Sujanaa's palace, but was captured by him. The wizard ranted that his gem loved Adam, and would not allow Sujanaa to hurt him. Adam managed to distract the wizard by telling him that Sujanaa had wasted his life, using all his power merely to protect his power. The wizard realized that he had become trapped by his own desire for power and during a moment of doubt, Adam was freed and killed the wizard. Adam then felt that there was something alive within the gem and tried to destroy its prison, but Kadhdhaab appeared and shot him in the back with a crossbow. Kadhdhaab tried to take the power of the gem for himself, but Adam managed to destroy the gem with his last strength. Elalyth,^[7] the female being within, called a Djinn,^[8] appeared and destroyed Kadhdhaab. She then restored Adam, making him immortal and invulnerable, and the two became lovers.^[9]

Relative strangers

A 1963 photo, showing (clockwise beginning with upper right:) Will, Walter, Florence, Adam, a pre-teen Samantha, Newton, Dominic, Kay, Maurice, and Vincent (in the only image of him shown to date). From The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #2. Art by Alan Davis.

Over the next few centuries Adam and Elalyth had many children, all of whom inherited superhuman abilities and were extremely long-lived. As civilization advanced, and the advent of modern technology made it more difficult for members of the family to disappear or pass themselves off as their own descendants, one of Adam's children, Newton, set up the Relative Stranger Protocol.^[10] The protocol would create new identities for the long-lived family members whenever they required it and would protect the family should one of them be uncovered. In the late 20th century, after Adam's son Vincent destroyed the family manor,^[5] Adam killed him,^[11] because Adam felt he had become "evil".^[12] The family fell apart after that. Dominic, who saw Adam's actions as unforgivable, became a hermit, living in solitude on a small island.^[11] Elalyth returned to her mystical home of Yden,^[7] and Adam, who saw his slaying of Vincent as a betrayal of her love,^[13] left Earth, traveling through outer space in a vehicle created by Newton. The newly born twins, Rory and Pandora, were left with Walter Destine, who posed as their uncle and guardian, and Florence, who posed as their grandmother.^[4]

Imp and the Crimson Crusader

Rory and Pandora's powers activated far earlier than those of their siblings, because they were twins. The children, believing they were mutants, decided to become superheroes. As the Crimson Crusader and Imp, they set out to battle crime. One evening they found two groups, creature Lenz and his "children", and Dr. Hywel Griffin and his Omegans, fighting each other over a device called the Gryphon. Not knowing which side to help, the children grabbed the device, known as the Gryphon, and left the scene, intending to return the device once they found out who the rightful owner was.

The Gryphon turned out to be a device called the Genetic Realignment Yield Polarity Harmonizing Orientation Net, a device that could genetically remodel a fully developed organism, irrespective of age or genetic composition. Lenz, a former human scientist mutated into a monstrous new form by Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), hoped to use the Gryphon to stabilize his "children", who usually died within several days. Griffin was an albino who hoped to cure himself with the Gryphon. Both parties tried to track down the Destine twins. During the twins' attempt to flee, Pandora had lost her cape, which had the name of their sister, Kay Cera, in it, who had designed it. Lenz sent his children out to kill Kay and they found the history of the ClanDestine in Kay's notebook. Kay herself survived by transferring her mind to a cat. Lenz creatures attacked the various members of the ClanDestine, killing Florence and Maurice. Most of the other family members united and tracked down Griffin, whom they thought responsible for the deaths of Flo and Maurice. Lenz appeared and kidnapped Rory, but they were all saved by Adam, who had felt the death of his children and returned to Earth. Adam defeated Lenz, but let him go when he realized that Lenz was not evil, just trying to let his species survive.

When the Destines returned home, Adam agreed to respect Walter's status as the twins' guardian, as Adam felt he relinquished that right when left Earth in grief eleven years previously. Walter wanted the children to return to school and live normal lives, even threatening to split them up after got into trouble at school. The children fled to New York to become full-time superheroes,^[14] but Spider-Man convinced them to return home.^[15] Dominic and Adam convinced Walter to allow the twins to go out at night on "crime patrol" confronting only petty crime, with the adults taking turns chaperoning them.^[16]

Dream sequence

Series creator Alan Davis left the series after issue #8. The series continued for four more issues under the creative team of writer Glenn Dakin and artists Pino Rinaldi and Bryan Hitch. In these four issues, Adam tries to return the Gryphon to Griffen, and Lenz, now allied with MODAM, tries to steal it again. MODAM is more interested in the Destine family, however, and kidnaps Cuckoo, leaving a girl named Myror in her place. Myror has the ability to reflect to people what they wanted to see. Wanting Cuckoo to return home with them, the Clan saw Myror as Cuckoo. Myror eventually tells the Destines that she wanted to help them defeat MODAM, who had used her as a slave for years. Back in the A.I.M. base, MODAM tries to switch minds with Cuckoo to get a beautiful, human body for herself.

Meanwhile, Rory was manipulated by the spirit of Vincent into resurrecting him. Vincent joined Rory and Pandora into saving the Clan from MODAM and A.I.M. Vincent used his powers to torment all non-Clan members with personal demons, including William and Myrror. Vincent then tells the others that with Adam's absence, he now has to take over the leadership of the family.^[17]

X-Men and The ClanDestine

In the 1996 two-issue miniseries X-Men and the ClanDestine, the events of the last four issues were retconned by Davis in a discussion between the twins in which Rory tells Pandora, "I had a weird nightmare...The family were all acting out of character. William came back from Australia and told us Kay wasn't our sister... Then Vincent came back to life." The series featured the first appearance of family member Gracie, who had been mentioned before. Years previously, Gracie and Cuckoo had banished a demon called Synraith from Earth many years ago with the help of a younger and less experienced Charles Xavier. In the miniseries, the Synraith returns and tries eliminate the three who stopped him. The X-Men and the Destines team up to stop the demon and save their family members.

ClanDestine Volume 2

ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #1 (April 2008). Art by Alan Davis.

A five-issue ClanDestine miniseries debuted on February 5, 2008, written and illustrated by Alan Davis. In this series, Dr. Griffin and the Omegans again attack the Destines. In the course of the story, what happened to Thaddeus in 1374 is revealed. Newton builds a device to help Dominic ameliorate the effects of his powerful senses. Dominic also travels through time and space, and encounters the superhero group Excalibur, in the middle of the "Cross-Time Caper" storyline that ran in their series in 1989-1990.^[18] The story also guest stars the Inhumans. Walter struggles with his fears of becoming like Vincent. By the end of the story, Adam reduces Griffin to an infant, and tells the Omegans never to threaten his family again, before journeying to Yden to be with Elalyth, the mother of his children, with whom he is reunited. Dominic decides to relocate to the idyllic Etherea. In the closing panels of the story, a pool of energy emerges from the grounds of the Ravenscroft, and flies into Vincent's grave, causing the gravestone to crack.

Cast

There is a core group of family members, but Alan Davis has stated there are an unknown number of other family members who usually keep to themselves. All of the Destines, especially Adam, have a mental link to their family, allowing them to sometimes feel when other family members are in danger.

Living members

(In approximate order of age)

Adam Destine

Adam was born Adam of Ravenscroft in 1168. While fighting in the Third Crusade, he rescued a Djinn named Elalyth that he first saw in a vision when he was sixteen. She made him immortal and invulnerable, and bore him numerous children. In 1374, Adam and his son Thaddeus were escorting his other son Albert to the Shalu Monastery in Shigatse, Tibet, when they were attacked by the Geong Si, an army of zombies controlled by the Inhuman Tral. During the battle, Thaddeus was knocked off a cliff, and the otherwise pacifistic Albert, in his grief, lashed out at their attackers, discovering that his healing ability could be manifested as a weapon, and killed them all, much to his subsequent regret. Other Inhumans then appeared, explaining that Tral was a criminal who escaped their hidden city.^[19] Adam traveled to Russia in 1612 to help establish the Romanov Dynasty. While horseback riding through the Sayan Mountains in 1615 en route to Japan to aid Albert and Grace, he encountered a trio of armored insectoid extraterrestrials attempting to construct a teleportational portal through which to bring an army to claim the Earth. The aliens attacked Adam, but none of their weapons could harm him, and believing that his invulnerability represented the entire human race, they departed, fearing they could not conquer Earth.^[16]

Adam is immune to any injury, and cannot be harmed by any weapon or attack,^[12][16] including psychic attack.^[12] Attempts by his daughter Kay to read his mind, in fact, result in pain for her, because of the "clairvoyant insight" given by his age.^[6] He almost never feels pain. The only exception is when he senses when one of his children has died, or when his precognitive abilities lead him to believe that one of his children's death is imminent.^[6] He does not require nourishment, can survive in the vacuum of outer space,^[11] and does not need to sleep.^[14] While he is visible in the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum perceivable to humans, he is invisible to scans using higher wavelengths.^[19] Because Adam's abilities are magical in origin, he appears to the Silver Surfer's cosmic senses to be human, without any biological or mechanical enhancements that the Surfer can perceive.^[11] At some point in his travels, he met Logan, who would later become the X-Man Wolverine.^[20] Having watched his children grow old and die, he came to see his long existence as a curse, and finds that because of his invulnerability, his senses are numbed, and he feels neither pleasure nor pain. Adam even asked the Silver Surfer if he knew how he could die.^[11][13] Dominic has observed that Adam no longer exhibits the basic responses of survival instinct, such as scanning his surroundings or flinching in anticipation of danger, never twitching nor fidgeting because he never tires. Adam concedes that this gives only a vague awareness of what he touches. Dominic feels that what is worse is Adam's emotional detachment, his lack of expression, and aloofness, as if he is bored with human existence, and feels Adam is not applying the great intellect he accumulated over eight centuries to himself.^[15] Adam felt that Elalyth never forgave him for killing Vincent, but Albert did not believe this, pointing out that he still had her protection of immortality, though Adam feared that this was so that he could live a life tortured by guilt. He was reunited with Elalyth in ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #5.

Elalyth

A green-skinned being called a Djinn, similar to a genie,^[8] that met Adam in the 12th century, after she first appeared to him in a dream. She gave him the gift of immortality. After Adam killed Vincent, she left him, and returned to the mystical realm of Yden. Aside from flashbacks, Elalyth did not appear, nor was her name revealed, until ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #5, in which she was reunited with Adam, who went to live with her in Yden. A sketch of Adam and the core Destine characters on the first page of the sketchbook section in the 1994 ClanDestine Preview issue bears the caption, "She left and he got custody of the kids".^[3]

Jasmine Destine

Also known as Kay Cera, also known as Cuckoo The first born of Adam and Elalyth's children,^[14] Jasmine is an 800-year-old^[5] telepath who has the ability to transfer her consciousness to mortally wounded host bodies when the one she inhabits is destroyed, and having her brother Albert heal the body's injuries, for which she is known as Cuckoo.^[13] In 1519 she was in the newly-discovered Mexico, exploring the territory with Hernán Cortés's conquistadores while inhabiting the body of a Spanish nobleman, with her sister Grace posing as her valet. At this point Cuckoo had begun to study magic, and learned to channel eldritch forces to enhance her powers. When the conquistadores attacked the Aztecs, Grace, whose emerging psychic gifts were too immature to use as weapons, fled with Cuckoo and some of the Aztecs that they had befriended, but the two were separated.^[20] In 1526 she was in Peru, and at some point during or prior to this, learned a Mayan dialect.^[5] In the 1860s, she inhabited the body of Natsume Masako, the wife of Prince Sakai Masaaki.^[21] During this time, she was attacked by the vampire Marietta Borgezia, and reacted by killing Borgezia's spirit with her own consciousness, which resulted in the vampire becoming Jasmine's new host. As all the vampyr created by Borgezia were freed of their blood thirst with her death, they gratefully came to regard Jasmine as family, even as she would later move onto other host bodies.^[7] Her next known incarnation was among her most recent, when she inhabited the body of a Native American woman, and helped Grace and a young Professor Xavier battle a demon called the Synraith. In recent years she has lived as fashion designer Kay Cera, creator of the Kay Cera label.^[12] She owns homes in Geneva, New York City, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro.^[22] When Adam killed Vincent, she was in her forty-third host body.^[5] She has switched bodies three times during Dominic's lifetime, and Samantha was a child when she acquired the last one prior to her current body,^[23] which formerly belonged to Barcelona prostitute^[11] Pepa Perez.^[6] When healing this current body, Albert, appalled at the questionable ethics of Cuckoo's use of others' bodies, informed her that this would be the last time he would do this.^[13]

Cuckoo can read the minds of others, project telepathic illusions,^[11] project her astral body, bring the astral bodies of other people to her location,^[13] and when mortally wounded, transfer her mind to the bodies of other humans and even animals in order to prolong her life.^[11] She can also put someone into a coma in order to protect them from psychic attack, or use that person as a conduit through which she can psychically attack someone else. She is unable to read the minds of Lenz's creatures (though she was able to sense enough of their minds to be frightened of them^[13]), nor is she any match for Lenz himself.^[12] She is also unable to read her father's mind, as it causes her great pain,^[6] and is not as powerful a telepath as Charles Xavier, who easily repelled her unwanted telepathic advances.^[20] Jasmine can also project telekinetic blasts.^[7] She noticed that she lost a degree of control since transferring to her current host.^[5] Her psychic powers always experience "glitches" when she settles into a new host body, especially when the death of the previous one is particularly violent.^[22]

She is a hedonist, and will use her powers for her own benefit, casually reading or manipulating the minds of others without their permission, out of curiosity, personal gain or anger, much to the disapproval of others.^[24] Walter does not approve of how she endulges the twin's superhero fantasies, or how she visits only when her lifestyle permits it, buying the twins' affections with gifts.^[5][12][14] Unlike Dominic, Kay supports Adam's killing of Vincent, saying that he was a "bad seed".^[6]

Alan Davis designed her out of his love of drawing "impossibly beautiful" women. He originally called her Mosaic (describing her fractured psyche), but DC had just published a book with "Mosaic" in the title, so her codename was to be Kimera, but Namorita's name was changed to Kymera just before the series was published, forcing Davis to again change her name. He describes her as "Confident. Non-conformist. Practical but stylish."^[25] Cuckoo's current body is sometimes depicted as a Caucasian, and other times with brown skin of varying darkness.^[26]

Albert Destine

A monk in the Seventh Moon temple in Nepal,^[4] who has the ability to heal others. Albert suffered terribly when he attempted to use his powers to stem the Black Death that had swept through Europe, though the details of this part of his life have not been specified. In the winter of 1374, he was being escorted to the Shalu Monastery in Shigatse, Tibet by Adam and his brother Thaddeus, and when Thaddeus was knocked over a cliff by an army of zombies led by the Inhuman Tral, the normally pacifistic Albert lashed out, discovering his healing ability could be used as a weapon, and killed Tral, much to his subsequent regret.^[19] In 1615 Albert and Grace were in Japan protecting the Shogun Tokugawa during a coup.^[16] On many occasions he has healed a mortally wounded human body that Cuckoo acquired as a host. After healing the fatal stab wounds incurred by her current host, he informed her that this would be the very last time he would do so, vowing that when she lost this host, she would die.^[13] Like Kay, Gracie and Nathaniel, he is a practitioner of the mystic arts, but has never been adept as they in using them.^[22] Among his mystical abilities is the ability to teleport people across large distances. The range of this power is unknown, but he once transported his father from the United Kingdom to Nepal,^[19][22] and then from Nepal to Iran.^[7]

Grace "Gracie" Destine

Born in 1503, Grace is an archeologist with strong telepathic and telekinetic powers. In 1519, when she and Cuckoo (inhabiting the body of a Spanish nobleman) were in the newly-discovered Mexico, exploring the territory with Hernán Cortés's conquistadores, sixteen-year-old Grace, who easily passed for a boy, posed as his valet. When the conquistadores attacked the Aztecs, Grace, whose emerging psychic gifts were too immature to use as weapons, left with Cuckoo and some of the Aztecs that they had befriended, but the two were separated. Grace followed Cuckoo's example, and learned to channel eldritch forces to enhance her powers. In doing this, she accidentally unleashed a demon called the Synraith. She managed to seal the dimensional rift from which it came, but as it now knew where our dimension was, it would eventually return.^[20] In 1615 Grace and Albert were in Japan protecting the Shogun Tokugawa during a coup.^[16] She later fought the Synraith a second time centuries later with Cuckoo (now in the body of a Native American woman) and a younger Charles Xavier. They finally managed to destroy the creature during their third encounter with it, with the help of Adam and the X-Men.^[20]

Newton Destine

A superhuman genius whose talents include mechanical engineering, chemistry, medicine and surgery.^[20] He built the ClanDestine's advanced technology and set up the Relative Strangers Protocol. He vanished to Etherea, an alternate Earth in another dimension, during Rory and Pandora's infancy, but teleports back to Earth whenever Dominic calls him, using a special signal watch. While Warlord of the planet Ethera, he had another body engineered on Narcissus 4, one that is taller and far more muscular, and therefore more suited to the lifestyle of a leader, and when using this body, he keeps his original body in suspended animation.^[11][19] He prefers his original, more meek body for intellectual pursuits.^[12] In addition to teleportational devices, he has also built sophisticated powered armor suits and weapons. Newton wears a device called a "psi-shield" to prevent Kay from probing his mind. Time moves faster on Etherea than on Earth. Three Etherean days are equivalent to nine Earth hours, which often allows Newton to respond to the signal watch and build devices apparently quickly.^[19]

Walter Destine (Wallop)

Walter is a writer of romance novels under the pseudonym Sabrina Bentley, who has the ability to transform into a large, hulking blue creature with immense strength and invulnerability. He maintains his personality and intelligence in this state. When pushing his ability to transform larger and larger, his hair becomes aflame,^[4][14][20] and he is prone to losing his temper, and going berserk. He can also inadvertently transform if he loses his temper or if it is triggered by psychic attack.^[27] Transforming back to human form takes a long time,^[12] and is often not complete, as sometimes his ears or feet will remain in their monstrous state.^[5]

Walter is at least 200 years old, and has experienced conflict in numerous wars. He was in Shanghai during the Opium War, in Balaclava during the Crimean War, in Delhi during the Sepoy Mutiny, in Passiondale during World War I, and in El Alamein during World War II,^[28] during which he served with military intelligence. In 1944 his station was attacked by the Nazis with a large robotic war machine. The war machine was confronted by the Invaders (Captain America, the Submariner and the Human Torch), but rendered them unconscious. Walter then transformed and destroyed the robot before fleeing from Allied soldiers, who happened on the scene and thought him in league with the Nazis.^[16] As part of the Relative Stranger Protocol, he is known today to outsiders as the son of the Walter Destine who served in WWII. He is the guardian of Rory and Pandora, who were led to believe for years that he was their uncle. They gave him the codename "Wallop", though he refuses to accept this name.^[13] He is generally strict, and resents the appearance of the other siblings in the children's lives when it suits them,^[6] especially Kay, who he feels tries to buy the twins' affections with gifts when her hedonistic lifestyle allows. Alan Davis tried to design a costume for Wallop, but felt they all looked silly in some of his more extreme incarnations.^[3]

William "Oz" Chance

An actor who plays the role of Cap'n Oz in action movies. He has peak human strength and acrobatic agility. He first appeared in The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #2.

Dominic Destine (Hex)

As a child, Dominic, who has bright red hair and pale green skin, felt neglected by Adam, whom he saw as aloof. After developing his super senses in adulthood, he became an illusionist and escapologist named Hex. His costume is the one he used as a performer. Prior to Vincent's death, during one performance in New York City's Greenwich Village, an encounter with a Chinese puzzle box caused him to fall into an occult dimensional realm, from which he was rescued by Doctor Strange.^[16] After Adam killed Vincent, and because Walter allowed him to, Dominic, who harbored resentment towards them for many years, retreated to a remote island for eleven years, in part because his enhanced senses are overwhelmed in more urban areas.^[11] Although Dominic moved to the Destine family estate following Adam's return to Earth, he refused a reconciliation with Adam, saying that he will never forgive him for killing Vincent.^[14] He went to live on Etherea with Newton at the end of ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #5.

Walter describes Dominic as quite brilliant, with a capacity for flawless deductive reasoning. This, and his enhanced senses, make him the ultimate sleuth. He is an expert hand-to-hand fighter with a slim, athletic build, and his knowledge of pressure points and nerve clusters^[11] makes him one of the few people who can hurt or subdue Walter in his transformed state.^[5][11][14] His sense of hearing allows him to hear through concrete and steel walls. His sense of smell is so acute that he can detect the scent of someone who has handled an object that he examines.^[11] He can also identify the specific food ingredients that someone has handled, even after they have washed their hands, and can smell the traces of other people that person has been near.^[6] When scouting the Griffin Technologies Complex from a nearby hill, he was able to ascertain that the complex included a large underground structure three levels deeps, which housed a lot of machinery, but no life forms, though it is unclear which senses he utilized to discern this. His sense of taste is so acute that a small bite of chocolate intoxicated him into unconsciousness,^[13] in part because of eleven years of eating only seafood.^[12] His eyesight allows him to see wavelengths of the EM spectrum outside the normal human range.^[5] He can also perceive the aura surrounding Samantha that she can tap into to utilize her armor.^[6] His senses can be occluded if they are overloaded by infra-red, microwave and sonic emissions from hi-tech security systems,^[13] and being scanned by high-frequency wavelengths can cause him great pain.^[19] When living at the Destine estate, he usually spent his time in an anechoic chamber that his brother Newton built below the manor, which remained after the manor was destroyed.^[14] Newton also built an isolation shell generator for Dominic to wear on his wrist, which creates anti-stimulation aura, as a sort of portable anechoic chamber.^[19] Alan Davis describes him as "Aggressive. Volatile. A hunter." His original design was that of an animalistic wild man with a costume with animal skin patterns. In his sketchbook, he called the character "Vex", rather than "Hex".^[3]

Rik Destine

Nothing is known of Rik other than his name, and the fact that he is alive, as Kay mentions in ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #3.

Samantha "Sam" Destine (Argent)

An artist who has the power to generate and shape a metallic ectoplasmic^{[disambiguation needed ][5]} armor and weapons around her. The design of the armor is an unconscious expression of her artistic mind, as it reacts to her thoughts. The shape and hardness of her metal forms are varied, as she can also generate a set of wings like a hang glider.^[11][11][13] The armor's beauty and strength can make flesh seem repulsive to her, and as a result, she has grown apart from ordinary people. The armor acts as a second skin, with a sense of touch similar to her own flesh.^[11] She is the youngest of the known Destine adults. She was born in the early 1950s, and was about the twins' current age in 1963.^[11] She graduated from college in 1972, and as part of the Relative Stranger Protocol, goes by the name Samantha Hassard of Perpignan, France.^[6] Alan Davis, who describes her as "aloof, brooding [and] exotic", explained that he originally designed Argent in 1991 for a series that he and Paul Neary tried to develop. Davis made her armor constantly changing, in order to alleviate the tedium of drawing its detail with accurate continuity.^[3]

Rory (The Crimson Crusader) and Pandora (Imp) Destine

Whereas Adam's other children manifested their abilities in adulthood,^[14] 11-year-old twins^[29] Rory and Pandora manifested their abilities six months prior to The ClanDestine (Vol.1) #1 because as twins, their powers stimulate each other when in close proximity,^[5] and only manifest themselves as such. The exact maximum distance they can be separated and still use their powers is unknown, but they can be separated by a number of rooms and corridors and still use them.^[12]

Rory has the ability to manipulate gravity. This allows him to fly, to make objects extremely heavy, or light enough to float or throw them, to create forcefields that can protect him from bullets, and to crush small objects. He can crush a live grenade whose pin has been pulled, and keep it from harming others when it explodes.^[4][15] Since he is a child, the full potential of his powers is unknown. He can, for example, lift up Dominic and a transformed Walter,^[11] but when Walter lost control of his transformations and turned into a much larger incarnation of himself during the X-Men encounter, Rory could only lift him up slightly by his feet.^[20] Rory fights crime under the superhero codename the "Crimson Crusader", and loves following all the superhero clichés.

Pandora has the ability to manipulate light. She can project beams of light powerful enough to pulverize boulders^[11] or focus them to create laser beams that can instantly cut through objects.^[15] She can bend light around her and other objects in order to make them invisible.^[28] Although she joins Rory on his superhero jaunts, she is not as obsessed with being a superhero as Rory is.

Members of unknown status

Thaddeus Destine

Thaddeus was a warrior born with the ability to adopt the aspect of any beast. He was a highly skilled fighter with great strength and speed. In the winter of 1374, he was knocked off a snow cliff in Tibet by the Inhuman, Tral, while he and Adam escorted Albert to a monastery. While Albert believed him to have died at the time, whether he actually died remains unconfirmed.^[30] In his only appearance to date, Thaddeus' face and body were covered with striped fur, like that of a tiger, but it is unknown whether this was a permanent state or an adaptation that manifested itself when he used his abilities.^[19]

Nathaniel Destine

All that is known about Nathaniel is that like Kay, Gracie and Albert, he is a practitioner of the mystic arts, but according to Albert, is far more adept with them than Albert.^[22]

Deceased members

Vincent Destine

Vincent destroyed the Destine family Manor,^[5] and Adam was forced to kill him because, as Adam says, he was "evil".^[11][12] Dominic holds this against Adam, but Walter and Kay support Adam's actions, arguing that it had to be done. A 1963 photograph of the family depicts Vincent as a young man with brown hair and slight chin hair wearing teashade sunglasses.^[11] His powers have not been revealed, nor the exact circumstances under which Adam killed him.

Florence "Flo" Destine

Flo pretended to be Rory and Pandora's grandmother. She was killed by Lenz's creatures. With her dying breath, she told Walter to inform the twins of the truth about the family.^[4]

Maurice Fortuit

A red-haired man, the full nature of his powers has not been revealed, but he was able to generate some type of energy around his hands. He was killed by Lenz's creatures at his mountain top chalet in the Swiss Alps near St. Moritz. Albert saw Maurice as an alive, passionate fighter, and a good man, but lamented that his temper would be the death of him.^[4]

Garth, Sherlock and Lance Destine

All that is known about them are their headstones on the Destine property.^[23]

Adam's parents

Their gravestones are seen in the family graveyard.^[23] Kay met them in 1209 on the family property, when it was a Saxon village.^[5]

Collected editions

The series have been collected into two trade paperback volumes:

• ClanDestine Classic Premiere (collects ClanDestine (vol. 1) #1-8, Marvel Comics Presents #158 and X-Men & ClanDestine #1-2, hardcover, 312 pages, February 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2742-9)

• ClanDestine: Blood Relative (collects ClanDestine (vol. 2) #1-5, 120 pages, hardcover, October 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2740-2, softcover, September 2009, ISBN 0-7851-2741-0)

References

1. ^ The 1994 Volume 1 series and the 1996 X-Men crossover miniseries included the word "The" in the title. The 2008 Volume 2 miniseries did not.
2. ^ Marvel Comics Presents #158 at the Grand Comics Database
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} ClanDestine Preview; Volume 1, #1; October 1994.
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Alan Davis. The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #1; October 1994
5. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n} Alan Davis. X-Men and The ClanDestine #1; October 1996
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Alan Davis. ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #1; April 2008
7. ^ ^{a b c d e} Alan Davis. ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #4
8. ^ ^{a b} The classification of the Djinn appears to be unclear. The word "Djinn" is derived from the Arabic for "genie", and Pandora referred to her mother as a "genie" in The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #5 and X-Men and the The ClanDestine #1, but in ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #2, when Pandora again referred to her as such, Adam responded, "No, a Djinn--or at least that was the legend."
9. ^ The bestowal of immortality upon Adam by his beloved is mentioned in The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #3. His detailed origin is recounted in The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #5, Pages 6-20.
10. ^ The plan was called the Relative Strangers Protocol in The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #2, but the Relative Stranger Protocol in #5.
11. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u} Alan Davis. The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #2; November 1994
12. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Alan Davis. The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #4; January 1995
13. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Alan Davis. The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #3; December 1994
14. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Alan Davis. The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #6; March 1995
15. ^ ^{a b c d} Alan Davis. The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #7; April 2008
16. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Alan Davis. The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #8; May 1995
17. ^ Dakin, Glenn; The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #9-12
18. ^ Excalibur (Vol. 1) #12 at the Grand Comics Database
19. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Alan Davis. ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #2; May 2008
20. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Alan Davis. X-Men and The ClanDestine #2; November 1996
21. ^ Natsume Masako and Sakai Masaaki are both the names of performers on the Japanese TV show, Monkey.
22. ^ ^{a b c d e} Alan Davis. ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #3; June 2008
23. ^ ^{a b c} Alan Davis. The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #5; February 1995
24. ^ Examples include The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #3, Page 1, The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #6, Page 12, X-Men and The ClanDestine #1, Page16, X-Men and The ClanDestine #2, Page 12, and ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #1, Pages 21-22.
25. ^ Although a sketch page on Alan Davis's website spells her would-be name as Kymera, the original sketch page published in The ClanDestine Preview in 1994 spelled it as Kimera.
26. ^ Examples include: Her current host is depicted as Caucasian from its first appearances in The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #2 and 3, but is colored light brown near the end of the latter issue. She is consistently depicted as Caucasian throughout most of X-Men and The ClanDestine #1, but suddenly appears with moderately brown skin on Page 34, and with dark brown skin throughout issue #2. In ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #1, she has brown skin on Page 7, is Caucasian in the mugshot on Page 9, and then has brown skin in the next panel.
27. ^ X-Men and The ClanDestine #1; Page 16.
28. ^ ^{a b} Alan Davis. ClanDestine (Vol. 2) #5.
29. ^ The twins' age is derived from the fact that Adam left Earth for 11 years, according to The ClanDestine (Vol. 1) #2, and Kay said he hadn't seen them since they were infants when he reunited with them at the end of #4.
30. ^ Thaddeus' status is listed here as unknown because despite his great fall in ClanDestine Volume 2, #2, his image is still shown on the title page of every issue of that series, despite the fact that a black box with a red "X" on it is displayed for Vincent. This is likely to due Vincent being deceased, and not because his appearance is unknown, as a photo of him appeared in Volume 1, #2. The lack of such a box for Thaddeus may indicate that he survived the fall, and will again appear.

External links

• ClanDestine at Marvel.com
• Clan Destine at the Comic Book DB

Reviews

• Green, Kelvin; Review of ClanDestine #1 at comicsbulletin.com; February 5, 2008
• Tate, Ray; Review of ClanDestine #1 at comicsbulletin.com; February 12, 2008
• Tate, Ray; Review of ClanDestine #2 at comicsbulletin.com; March 11, 2008
• Bari, Steven M.; Review of ClanDestine #3 at comicsbulletin.com; April 1, 2008
• Tate, Ray; Review of ClanDestine #3 at comicsbulletin.com; April 4, 2008
• Tate, Ray; Review of ClanDestine #4 at comicsbulletin.com; May 17, 2008
• Tate, Ray; Review of ClanDestine #5 at comicsbulletin.com; June 13, 2008
• Callahan, Timothy; Review for ClanDestine #5 at Comic Book Resources; June 13, 2008