ClanDestine is a short-lived Marvel Comics series, mostly written and illustrated by Alan Davis.
The series focuses on the Destine family, children of the immortal Adam Destine and the genie Elalyth. Their children all have superpowers — some more useful than others — and are extremely long-lived, if not immortal. The story kicks off with two revelations: one, a mysterious enemy is sending dissolvable minions to try to kill the Destines. Two, the youngest members of the family — twelve-year-old twins Rory and Pandora — have developed powers ahead of schedule, and started superhero careers without telling their guardians.
The original series was cancelled after twelve issues (only eight of which remain in continuity). It was succeeded by a five-issue miniseries.
Comics
- ClanDestine (1994) #1-12
- X-Men & ClanDestine (1996) #1-2
- ClanDestine (2008) #1-5
- The 'Vincent' trilogy (2012): Fantastic Four annual #33, Daredevil annual #1 & Wolverine annual #1
A version of the ClanDestine made their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Ms. Marvel, although the characters and backgrounds are very different to the original comics.
ClanDestine provides examples of:
- All Just a Dream: Alan Davis retconned the issues he didn't write as being a dream of Rory's.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Dominic has light green skin (taking after the clan's mother, the genie Elalyth); Walter's transformed state is light blue.
- Armed with Canon: When Alan Davis returned to the characters he explained that the last four issues of the 1994 series were All Just a Dream of Rory's, so nothing significant had happened since Davis left the series.
- Astral Projection: Both Kay and Albert can do this. Interestingly, Kay's astral form from the original series resembles none of her recent host bodies, so it may resemble her own original body. (In the recent miniseries, it resembles her current form.) And when she uses her telepathy under particular stress, a long line of astral faces appear around her, showing her past "lives".
- Battle Cry: The (alas) long-dead Sir Thaddeus Destine is first seen in battle, shouting "Denique Caelum!" Translation A footnote on the page identifies this as a battle cry used by The Knights Templar.
- Benevolent Genie: The clan's mother, according to Adam.
- Big Brother Instinct: Newton for Dominic; everyone for the twins, particularly Walter.
- Body Surf: Oldest daughter Jasmine/Kay/Cuckoo, a powerful psychic. Whenever her current host body is killed, she takes over the body of someone who just died, then talks her brother Albert into healing the cause of death.
- Burning with Anger: When Walter transforms out of rage, his hair bursts into flame. If he does so under more controlled circumstances, it just turns bright red.
- Combo Platter Powers: Kay (telepathy and telekinesis), Gracie (same), and Albert (healing, teleportation of others, possibly telepathy as well). In addition to their innate talents, all three are powerful sorcerers.
- Complete Immortality: Adam, courtesy of his wife's powers. He does not age, cannot be injured, and went over a decade without having to eat, drink, or breathe. Also, his hair did not grow during that period and it is the same length in all flashbacks and family portraits, so it may be that he cannot physically change even in the most inconsequential ways.
- Cool Old Lady: Professor Gracie Gamble, aka Gracie Destine, four-hundred-year-old archaeologist, psychic, sorcerer and demon hunter (well, one particular demon).
- Clothing Damage: Samantha and Walter whenever they use their powers; Adam almost as frequently.
- Depending on the Artist: The art is very consistent, since all the stuff that's stayed in continuity was drawn by the same guy. However, the coloring is all over the place. Kay's current host body is usually slightly darker skinned than the other characters, but somehow in the X-Men crossover she's white the first issue, black in the second. Domenic is supposed to have green skin (dialogue confirms this) but is occaisionally shown with pale blue, deathly white, or normal skin. His eyes may be red, gold, or blank white. Walter, when transformed, may or may not have Red Eyes, Take Warning in addition to Glowing Eyes of Doom.
- Distressed Damsel/Distressed Dude: Most of the Destines are kidnapped or otherwise taken captive at one point or another and have to be rescued by their family members.
- Don't Split Us Up: At one point in the first series, Walter threatens to separate the twins until they're adults (so that they wouldn't be able to use their Wonder Twin Powers and act as superheroes). They respond by running away to New York City.
- Due to the Dead: One issue shows Adam and the twins visiting the family graveyard to pay their respects. Notably, family Black Sheep Vincent is buried there (and has an extremely weird statue to mark his grave).
- The Dutiful Son: Walter is by far the most staid and responsible of the family.
- Eldritch Abomination: Synraith the Cosmic Demon. Old foe of Gracie's.
- Exposition of Immortality: a group of villains figure out that Adam Destine is immortal based on finding portraits of him, all at the same apparent age, spanning several hundred years.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Walter forbids the twins to be superheroes, without much success.
- First-Name Basis: With the exception of Albert, Thaddeus and the twins, the Destines tend to call their father by his first name (although, apparently not their mother).
- Flaming Hair: Walter while Hulking Out. The hair is a good signifier for whether he transformed voluntarily (hair turns red but stays hair) or did so as a result of rage (hair bursts into flame).
- Full-Frontal Assault: Walter fights while naked on some occasions, one of which is a flashback. Some of these times he could simply be Going Commando or as a result of him not wearing his Magic super stretchy Underwear
- Half-Human Hybrid: All the Destine siblings are half-genie.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: Walter's first transformation leaves him naked in front of his family. And he covers himself with one hand and later a bed sheet.
- Happily Married: Adam and Elalyth, for around 800 years. Adam being forced to kill their son Vincent does cause them to separate for a while, although they eventually get back together.
- Healing Hands: Albert, although he doesn't have to touch someone to heal them- he's first introduced patching his sister up after her "resurrection", despite the fact that they're across the world from each other.
- The Hedonist: Kay basically lives to have as much fun as possible, and as many different experiences as she can. It's implied that part of the reason she's like this is that if she gets invested in individual friends or loved ones, it hurts her too much when she has to give up that "life" and find a new host body... although she undoubtedly just likes to party, too.
- Interspecies Romance: Adam (human) and Elalyth (djinn).
- Invisibility: In the sequel miniseries, the twins figure out how to pull of the "bending light" variant by working together.
- Light 'em Up: Youngest daughter Pandora, who controls all forms of radiant energy.
- Living Forever Is Awesome: Kay's attitude, through and through. Even though she's had some painful experiences because of her long life, she's reacted to them by becoming more and more The Hedonist, rather than becoming dissatisfied with the idea of living forever.
- Magic Pants: Adam. Whenever he gets into a fight, his clothes will inevitably be shredded, but he will always retain his pants.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: At least eighteen, but probably quite a few more than that.
- Moustache de Plume: Inverted. Walter writes romance novels under the pen name "Sabrina Bentley." According to him, they're quite successful.
- My Grandson, Myself: A major component of the Relative Stranger Protocol. Many of the older Destines have posed as their own children over the years in order to retain their possessions (Kay) or to live in the same place and take up the same profession as much as possible (Walter seems to have posed as a long line of British military men). A villain in the second series discovers that suspiciously many Destines "were born" and "died" in out of the way places with a convenient lack of any documentation for such things.
- No-Sell: Adam can shrug off almost literally any attack sent at him, thanks to his wife granting him Complete Immortality. This is how he defeats Lenz; by letting Lenz blast him continuously until he runs out of energy.
- Offing the Offspring: Adam was forced to kill his son Vincent. Despite the fact that Vincent was evil, this still grieved Adam deeply, as well driving a wedge between several members of the family, including his wife Elalyth. She and Adam ended up separating for the first time in centuries, and Adam left Earth entirely for around 15 years.
- Older Than They Look: Samantha was born in 1951 by
Word of God (this appears not to have been changed by the Sliding Timescale) and looks around twenty. Dominic looks around the same age as her, but is at least ten years older and possibly quite a bit more. The older siblings and Adam all fall into Really 700 Years Old, and the twins... actually look about their real age. - Puberty Superpower: The twins and Gracie. However, Walter first manifested his as a grown man of over a hundred years, so this isn't a constant for the Destines.
- Promotion to Parent: Walter and Florence for the twins; Newton for Domenic. Possibly also Kay for Gracie.
- Psychic Block Defense: William can prevent Kay from reading his mind or telepathically transmitting information to him (although he still sees her Astral Projection). Newton has also built a device with the same effect.
- Punny Name: Clan Destine is a pun on the word "clandestine" (secret), as well as referring to the Destine clan ("family").
- Really 700 Years Old: Adam, Kay, and Albert are all around eight hundred years old. Gracie is a "mere" four hundred years old. Florence probably counted for this trope as well.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Elalyth seems to be a subversion. Depending On The Colorist, Walter (transformed state only) and occasionally Dominic also have red eyes. Walter's transformations tend to coincide with Unstoppable Rage, so he plays the trope straight. On the other hand, Dominic is either a subversion or a coloring error, being somewhat irritable but not terribly dangerous (unless provoked).
- Red Is Heroic: Rory and Pandora. Several other Destines have red hair- the most consistent would be Domenic and Maurice- but the twins are the most conventionally heroic. (By Word of God, Adam is supposed to be a redhead too, but the colorists almost always give him blond hair instead.)
- Sibling Yin-Yang:
- Kay and Walter. Kay is hedonistic, Walter is responsible; Kay has lived dozens of lives in different bodies and different countries, while up until fairly recently Walter seems to have remained in England, in the military, posing as his own son over and over again. Kay encourages the twins' superhero aspirations while Walter vehemently disapproves, and so on. Even their powers are completely different — Psychic Powers versus Hulking Out. Subverted in that their father attributes their near-constant fighting to their similarities. And when you think about it, they do share rather a lot: stubbornness, temper, pride, willingness to condone Shooting The Dog...
- The sequel miniseries also has a flashback to Boisterous Bruiser Thaddeus and Actual Pacifist Albert, who seem to get on a lot better.
- Super Family Team: Rory, Pandora, Walter, Kay, Samantha, Dominic, and Adam form one, although in the absence of an emergency, "patrols" consist of the twins and one or two adults along to chaperon them.
- Supernaturally Young Parent: Adam, who hasn't aged since his early twenties. As a result, several of his children look old enough to be his grandparents.
- Super-Senses: Dominic, even moreso than Daredevil. Unfortunately, they're so intense that they frequently overwhelm him to the point where he can't function.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: Gracie successfully passed as a boy when she joined Cortez's expedition to America in the early 16th century. It helped that she was also there acting as a page to Cuckoo, who was wearing a male Spanish noble's body at the time.
- Take That!: The first few pages of the X-Men crossover mini quickly and brutally renders the non-Alan Davis issues of the original series All Just a Dream.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Florence and Maurice in the first series; Thaddeus in the recent mini.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Adam and Samantha to Kay (different occasions) for her complete lack of Mind over Manners. Also, Domenic frequently calls Adam out for killing Vincent.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Adam at the beginning of the first series. He gets over it pretty quickly, particularly after reconciling with Elalyth.
- Wonder Twin Powers: Rory and Pandora. Their powers developed early because they're twins... but they only have powers when in close proximity to each other.
