Clan Destine

Encyclopedia : C : CL : CLA : Clan Destine

Clan Destine is a comic book series about a family of superhuman beings, published by Marvel Comics. They were created by artist/writer Alan Davis and first appeared in Clan Destine #1 (October, 1994)

Contents

1 History
2 The family
3 Bibliography
4 Notes

History

In 1168 A.D., a man named Adam was born in the village Ravenscroft. Adam had a near-fatal accident when he was sixteen, 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. Adam joined the Third Crusade. During the battles, Adam was never once injured and he believed that the "angel" he dreamt about protected him. He became overconfident and was captured by a warlord called Al Kadhdhaab. When he awoke, Kadhdhaab claimed that he needed Adam's help to defeat the wizard Sujanaa. Sujanaa had a large gem with mystical powers that fulfilled his wishes. In a vision Sujanaa had seen that Adam was destined to kill him and somehow Kadhdhaab had seen this as well. Adam entered Sujanaa's palace and attacked Sujanaa but was easily overcome by the wizard's power. 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: all his power was only being used to protect his power. The wizard realised 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 stabbed him in the back. Kadhdhaab tried to take the power of the gem for himself, but Adam managed to destroy the gem with his last strength. A female genie appeared from the gem and destroyed Kadhdhaab. She then restored Adam, making him immortal and invulnerable and the two became lovers.

Over the next few centuries Adam and the genie had several children. Nearly all of them inherited superhuman powers from their parents and their immortality. One of Adam's children, Newton, set up the Relative Strangers Protocols. The protocols would create new identities for the immortal family members whenever they required it and would protect the family should one of them be uncovered. In the late 20th century, Adam killed Vincent, one of his sons, who had been abusing his powers. The family fell apart after that, several of the family members disagreeing with Adam's decision and Adam left Earth 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.

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 fighting each other over a special device: the creature Lenz and his "children" and Dr. Hywel Griffin and his Omegans. 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 that could change the genetic sequence of living creatures. Lenz, a former human scientist turned into a new species 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 Clan Destine in Kay's notebook. Kay herself survived by transferring her mind to a cat. Lentz creatures attacked the various members of the Clan Destine, 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 in time by Adam who had felt the death of his children and returned to Earth. Adam defeated Lenz, but let him go when he realised that Lenz was not evil, just trying to let his species survive.

The Clan Destine returned home and Walter wanted the children to return to school and live normal lives, even threatening to split them up after they caused trouble. The children fled to New York to become fulltime superheroes, but Spider-Man convinced them to return home. In return Adam and Walter, following Dominic's advice, would pose as superheroes to help and watch Rory and Pandora during their missions.

When Adam tried to return the Gryphon to Griffen, Lenz, now allied with MODAM, tried to steal it again. MODAM was more interested in the Clan Destine though and kidnapped Cuckoo, leaving a girl named Myror in her place. Myror had the ability to reflect to people what they wanted to see. Wanting Cuckoo to return home with them, the Clan saw Myror as Cuckoo. When she recovered, Myror told the Clan 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 tried 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 Clan Destine.

In X-Men and the Clan Destine, published a year later, the events of the last four issues were retconned by Davis in a discussion between the twins where Rory tells his sister, "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 introduces Gracie, another member of the Clan Destine, who had been mentioned before. Gracie and Cuckoo banished a demon from Earth many years ago with the help of Charles Xavier. The demon returns and tries eliminate the three who stopped him. The X-Men and the Clan Destine team up to stop the demon and save their family members.

The family

All of the Clan Destine are the children of Adam Destine and the female genie. 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 (ordered by age)

Adam Destine, born Adam of Ravenscroft, was made immortal and invulnerable by his lover, a female genie.
Kay Cera, a telepath who has lived as a fashion designer in recent years. Kay is known as Cuckoo for her ability to transfer her mind to new host bodies. She can project her astral body and even bring the astral bodies of others to her location. Kay is the first born child of Adam. She is a hedonist and will use her powers for her own benefit.
Gracie, an archeologist with strong telepathic and telekinetic powers. Unlike most other members of the Clan Destine, Gracie ages, but slower than a normal human. She appears as an elderly woman.
Albert, a monk in the Seventh Moon temple in Nepal. He has the ability to heal others, though he has claimed that some diseases are beyond his ability. Like Gracie, Albert ages, but slower than a normal human.
Newton, a superhuman genius who built the Clan Destine's advanced technology and set up the Relative Strangers protocols. Newton usually lives on another planet, but teleports back to Earth whenever Dominic calls him, using a special signal watch. On the planet Ethera, Newton received a second body. He can switch between both bodies at will. The second body is very large and strong (but Newton lacks any fighting skills).
Walter, a writer of romance novels under the pseudonym "Sabrina Bentley". He can turn into a large, blue monster with superhuman strength and endurance. Changing back to his human form takes a lot of time though, but after the events in X-Men and the Clan Destine #2 he has learned to speed up the process. Walter doesn't want to be a superhero and just wants to write. The children Rory and Pandora have given him the codename "Wallop". Walter generally is very strict and disapproves of Kay's hedonist lifestyle. He is the twins' guardian and tries to raise them with discipline.
Vincent, killed by Adam for unknown crimes.
William "Oz" Chance, an actor who plays the role of Cap'n Oz in action movies. He has peak human strength and agility.
Dominic, a former theatrical performer. He lived on a remote island for eleven years, because his enhanced senses are overwhelmed in more urban areas. When living at the Destine manor, he usually spends his time in a sensory deprevation tank. His enhanced senses combined with his high intelligence makes him an exceptional detective. He also is very agile and his senses allow him to detect weak spots on his opponents. His costume and codename "Hex" are based on the character he played on stage.
Samantha, an artist who has the power to generate and shape a metal armour and weapons around her. As an artist, her armour is always different.
Rory, twin-brother of Pandora, Rory has the ability to manipulate gravity. Rory is a superhero under the codename the "Crimson Crusader" and loves following all the superhero cliches. His powers only work when Pandora is nearby.
Pandora, twin-sister of Rory, Pandora has the ability to manipulate light. Pandora is not as obsessed with being a superhero as Rory is, but enjoys using her powers. As their powers only work when they are close to each other, Pandora agreed to become the superhero Imp.

Deceased members

Florence, unlike most Destines, Flo wasn't immortal and pretended to be Rory and Pandora's grandmother. She was killed by Lentz's creatures.
Maurice, appeared to possess superhuman strength and generated some type of energy around his hands. He was killed by Lentz's creatures.
Garth, only his gravestone is seen in the Destine graveyard.
Sherlock, only his gravestone is seen in the Destine graveyard.
Vance, only his gravestone is seen in the Destine graveyard.

Bibliography

Clan Destine #1-12
X-Men and the Clan Destine #1-2

Notes

Cuckoo was initially called Kymaera, but Namorita's name was changed to Kymaera just before the series was published, forcing Alan Davis to change her name.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.