Inferno 1 *Spoilers *

[JB]

Two more days until part 2. I love that we received no preview.

Will Destiny shante and stay? Is that even Destiny?
How will Moira X react?
Will Nimrod the Thiccer do more squats?

[Devaishwarya]

Boop! Two more days!

Yupp.
I quite enjoy that we don't have pages and pages of speculation based off of three pages of art and dialogue...the calm before the storm, as it were.
And I can suggest exactly where Nim the Thicc should do his squats.

[JB]

Boop! Two more days!

Yupp.
I quite enjoy that we don't have pages and pages of speculation based off of three pages of art and dialogue...the calm before the storm, as it were.
And I can suggest exactly where Nim the Thicc should do his squats.

LOL. You're an icon.

[alanyoung909]

Since my last Inferno predictions/analysis post went rather well, I thought I’d try my hand at another one.
I had much lesser material to speculate over this time (only the X-Men Monday teases; no trailers or unlettered previews), so this post will be shorter than the previous one.

This issue should have around 40 pages of art with 4 or 5 data pages in addition to that.
We start off with:

DATA PAGE:
An opening quote to start off the issue. Most likely candidates: Moira X, Mystique, Destiny, Professor X, Magneto, Nimrod.

Scene A: MYSTIQUE AND THE ORACLE
There is a preview image of Mystique in the Oracle and another preview image of Mystique in a modern building.
A reprint of X-Men 20 Page 1 where Mystique is staring at the Destiny mask in her home on Krakoa. The point of this is to reestablish Mystique’s central conflict: Professor X and Magneto’s repeated refusal to resurrect her wife on Moira’s orders.
We might get a reprint of that X-Men 6 scene with Mystique and Destiny at a beach just to hammer in the 'When those days come, remember these words... then burn that place to the ground' quote a bit more.
We might also get a flashback of how Mystique managed to resurrect ‘Destiny’ in time for the Quiet Council meeting.

RECAP AND CREDITS
INFERNO, ISSUE 2

Scene B: A RECKONING IN THE QUIET COUNCIL
There is a preview image of Destiny sitting on the Quiet Council.
A continuation of the Inferno 1 cliffhanger where ‘Destiny’ showed up at the Quiet Council meeting and Mystique proposed a vote to elect her as a member of the Council.
I think that there are two distinct possibilities here: either (a) this really is a resurrected Destiny, or (b) this is a Mystique clone that is masquerading as a resurrected Destiny (I’m assuming here that the Destiny mask can block telepathic probing to maintain the deception).
Either way, I believe that Mystique disguised herself as Magneto to go pick up the Cerebro helmet from Island M and then used that helmet to disguise herself as Professor X to pick up the DNA samples (either hers or Destiny’s, depending on which theory you believe) from Mr Sinister.

I’m not sure how the vote itself will go but the choice with the most dramatic potential will be for ‘Destiny’ to actually join the Council. This gives Mystique actual leverage in the plot and ensures that Charles and Erik can’t just get rid of Destiny (Quiet Council members get automatic resurrection). This also creates a parallel between Destiny / Quiet Council and Idyll / Great Ring which I like for symmetry reasons.
Also, this is something that just occurred to me: if this actually Destiny, shouldn’t she already know how the vote will go?

Scene C: A RECKONING IN MOIRA’S NO-PLACE
There is a preview image of Professor X wearing / taking off the Cerebro helmet.
Moira learns about the resurrection of Destiny (and her election to the Quiet Council if that happens) from Charles and Erik. Expect a lot of anger on all three sides.
We might learn a bit more about the Books of Destiny (and why Moira has them) in this scene.

Scene D: PROFESSOR X AND COLOSSUS
Benjamin Percy has been hinting very strongly that the Professor X – Colossus scene at the end of X-Force 24 is a tie-in to Inferno 2.
I see two possibilities here:
a) Professor X has come to suspect that Colossus is affiliated with Mikhail Rasputin and/or XENO and has come to bring him in for questioning.
b) Professor X is unaware of Colossus’s ties to XENO and has come to offer Colossus a position of power in Krakoa. If you recall, the Inferno teasers indicated that Colossus, Psylocke and Bishop were ‘allies who cannot be trusted’, presumably because of their ties to outside parties. Bishop and Psylocke have now been made the Captain Commander and a Great Captain of Krakoa respectively, which leaves Colossus. If we go down this route, I think he will be either made leader or a co-leader of X-Force with Beast.

Scene E: EXODUS
There is a preview image of Exodus sitting in front of a fire.
A scene where Exodus is proselytizing his ideas to the Krakoan youth in the Carousel.
Back in 2019, Hickman claimed that there was a reason for putting Exodus on the Quiet Council that ‘will be revealed in 2020’. This never happened so I thought the plans fell through but maybe he’ll reveal it in Inferno instead.
The ending of Onslaught Revelation strongly implied that Exodus will be booted from this job in the near future and replaced with Cortez and Lost, who will feed the children positive foundational myths instead.

Scene F: ORCHIS PREPARES FOR WAR
There is a preview image of Nimrod and Dr Devo in the Orchis Forge and another preview image of Dr Smyth and a scientist in the Orchis Node 4.
A follow-up to the scene in the Inferno 1 where Orchis discovered that there is a building in Paris with two Krakoan gates on different floors.

To recap, there are three Orchis groups of relevance to this series:
I. The Central Column (Nimrod, Dr Killian Devo, Dr Alia Gregor and the Omega Sentinel) in the Orchis Forge, Sol
II. Dr Smyth and Dr Jones (the apes with PhDs) with some Orchis scientists in Orchis Node 4, Terra Verde
III. Gateway E710 observation team in Paris, France

In issue 1, Group III reported the double gateway to Group II.
In this issue, I expect that Group II will report their findings to Group I and that Group III will do some investigating in Paris.
We might get a reveal of what Orchis intends to do with the adamantium from the Wolverine corpses and a reveal of who the second assassin sent by Krakoa to the Forge was (their name and fate was redacted in the data page last issue).

Sage learnt about Orchis’s interest in Paris last issue via Tommy so she might send X-Force to Paris to investigate.

Scene G: EMMA AND THE KARA KUTUCA
I know people think that Emma’s role in this series is to overthrow Professor X and Magneto and take over Krakoa, but I suspect that that is just misdirection.
I think her real role in this story is to get the Kara Kutuca into the plot.

Hickman introduced the Kara Kutuca back in X-Men 21 as some object held in a box owned by a secret, vaguely Middle Eastern society with no name.
Emma invited some ambassadors over from this society during the Gala and tried to obtain the Kara Kutuca from them. Sinister Secret 52 implies that she will keep trying until she gets hold of it.
This was such an odd thing to introduce this late into the game that I am convinced that it will feature somehow in Inferno.
‘Kara Kutuca’ roughly translates into ‘Black Box’ in Turkish so maybe this object has the power to view previous timelines or something similar to that.
After all, something has to happen to reveal Moira to the general populace of Krakoa by Inferno 4.

Scene H: CYPHER, WARLOCK AND KRAKOA: PART 2
As I’ve mentioned earlier in this and other threads, I believe that the Cypher, Warlock, Krakoa (and Bei) scene is leading up to a reveal that Krakoa’s nervous system has been infected with the transmode virus, which is listening in to the goings-on at Krakoa (which is strongly hinted at in Sinister Secret 54).
I don’t think that the actual reveal will be in this issue (the best time for this reveal would be around the same time that Moira is revealed to Krakoa) but there might be a scene in this issue that continues the scene from issue 1, building towards the reveal.

[Mercury]

I’m halfway through #2. It’s good. Real good.

[Rnap22]

I’m halfway through #2. It good. Real good.

Yes.. lots happened. Great issue.

[Mercury]

Yes.. lots happened. Great issue.

Like, I can’t imagine what’s going to happen in the next two issues.

[ericng]

I’m halfway through #2. It’s good. Real good.

Could you do a spoilers thread for #2? I haven't got mine yet.

[Mercury]

It’s too early. 10am is when we’re allowed.

[alanyoung909]

I’m halfway through #2. It’s good. Real good.

That's good to hear.
I won't be able to read the issue for some time, so don't put any spoilers, but did I manage to get some stuff right in my speculation post?

[CoCoBandz]

Finished #2

What a read that was.

Ending was underwhelming though to say the least when taking everything else about you know who into account.

[DarkMagnus]

Spoilers please for DM