Set in the shared Marvel Universe, the series introduces the secretive Destine family, British superhumans who have remained hidden for centuries (Despite the pun in the title, the family are only rarely referred to as a clan and the 'ClanDestine' name is barely used in this series to describe them in-universe).
Unfortunately, nobody has explained any of this to the two youngest members of the family, teenage twins Rory and Pandora. They're still considered too young to deal with such secrets.
So when their powers manifest far earlier than expected, the twins assume that they're mutants born into a mundane family and act accordingly - they hide their abilities from their relatives, don brightly coloured costumes and fight crime as England's newest superheroes.
When their family find out about this, they're not happy about the twins endangering themselves, or about the risk to the wider family's secrecy. On the other hand, when Rory and Pandora find out the truth about the rest of the family... well, they have some questions of their own.
But by that point all of them have bigger problems, as a band of monstrous creatures seems to be trying to kill the whole family.
Alan Davis left after issue #8, at which point Glenn Dakin joined as its new writer and Pino Rinaldi took over art (with Bryan Hitch drawing one issue). The series was swiftly cancelled, though, ending with #12.
The Destine family were revisited in a limited series the following year - X-Men & ClanDestine - which saw Alan Davis return to story and art. The opening of that series also dismissed Glenn Dakin's stories as nothing more than Rory's confused dreams, removing them from continuity.
ClanDestine (1994) provides examples of:
The Alan Davis stories
- And You Thought It Was a Game: Lenz's hybrids make several attempts to kill Will while he's filming Cap'n Oz in Australia. He initially defeats them easily and, when they collapse into goo, he assumes they're a prank played by the special effects team.
- Arc Villain: Lenz and his hybrids are the antagonists for the first arc of the series.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Albert heals Cuckoo's new body, he asks if she could have helped its original owner to survive. Did she even try to help them? Her answer is silence.
- Astral Projection: Not only is Cuckoo capable of this, but she can pull Albert's own astral form halfway around the world to heal her.
- Bad Boss: In the first issue's prologue, M.O.D.O.K. kills his own minions in the hope that he'll kill or injure Lenz at the same time.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Alpha's Omegans each have a large yellow Omega symbol (Ω) on their black uniform.
- Captain Geographic: Exaggerated and played for laughs. Will's current acting role in Australia is the fictional superhero Cap'n Oz, who's accompanied by his sexy sidekick Taz.
- Cartwright Curse: Discussed. Walter's well aware that any man who settles down with Vanessa, the heroine of his romance novels, will come to a bad end. The publishers always want another sequel and the sequels rely on Vanessa being single and finding love.
- Cast from Hit Points: All of Lenz's surviving hybrids contribute their life force to fuel Lenz's ultimate psychic attack on Adam. They die. It still has absolutely no effect.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: In the first issue Pandora complains that Rory's treating her like a superhero sidekick, not an equal partner. Rory ignores the Rainbow Quartet gang to argue about this, even when they shoot him in the face.
- Chekhov's Gun: When Rory and Pandora argue early in the first issue, Rory comments on Pandora losing her "Imp” cape in a previous battle. Pandora retorts that the costume was only for fancy dress, made long before they knew they had powers, and she hates it anyway. Lenz now has the cape, and a label in it leads back to the twins' older sister Cuckoo, whose fashion house made the costumes. And then he follows the trail back to the family and starts killing Destines.
- Complete Immortality: Adam seems to be blessed, or cursed, with this. He doesn't age, he's physically indestructible, and he seems to be immune to mental attacks as well.
- Dateless Grave: Justified. The family's graveyard doesn't have surnames or dates on the gravestones, as they're Long-Lived and have been concealing their true nature for centuries.
- Death Seeker: Adam lost the will to live after killing his son Vincent. At the start of the series he's alone in space, looking for a way to die.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Rory tends to deliberately annoy Walter by calling him Wally, and also decides that his superhero codename should be Wallop. Walter is not impressed.
- Expo Label: A very mundane example. When we see Walter's office, his coffee mug simply has MUG printed on the side.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Downplayed, but once the family's told about Florence and Maurice's murders, they rarely get mentioned again.
- Cuckoo and Adam do mention them a couple of times, but apart from a tearful trip to her grave just after the first arc ends, Rory, Pandora and Walter, who shared a house with Florence, say nothing more about their fallen sister.
- Walter mentions Maurice in passing in the final Davis issue, during one of the historical flashbacks.
- Fun with Acronyms: The Gryphon, the MacGuffin that drives the plot of the first arc, is actually the Genetic Realignment Yield Polarity Harmonizing Orientation Net.
- Grand Theft Me: Cuckoo's psychic powers let her jump to a new body when her current one dies.
- Healing Hands: Not only can Albert heal people, but he can do it via his own Astral Projection when he's not physically there.
- The Juggernaut: Adam Destine isn't just invulnerable, he's unstoppable. When he starts walking towards Lenz at the end of the first arc, he doesn’t even break his stride when Lenz and the hybrids attack.
- Long-Lived: Adam's children. Exactly how fast they age seems to vary, but all of them seem to live longer than humans.
- Malicious Misnaming: At various points Rory deliberately annoys Walter by calling him Wally. Walter hates it, especially after Dom also decides it's funny.
- Meaningful Rename: Many of the Destine family have chosen surnames that maintain the same theme of destiny or fate, often in other languages.
- Maurice uses the surname Fortuit, a French word for "by chance" or "by fortune".
- Sam uses the surname Hasard, a French word meaning chance.
- Will simply uses Chance as his surname.
- Cuckoo takes a more playful approach and calls herself Kay Cera, a reference to the saying “Que Sera Sera“ (“What will be, will be").
- Memorial Statue: The family graveyard includes a six-armed, three-faced statue at Vincent's grave. The other siblings buried there have normal gravestones.
- Mugging the Monster: When Lenz's hybrids raid the Destine's Ravenscroft house, they assume Walter's human and tell him he'll die for interfering. He transforms, responds with a Badass Boast and then treats them to a short but lethal Curb-Stomp Battle.
- Mutants: Subverted. Rory and Pandora are kids growing up in the Marvel Universe who unexpectedly manifest powers in their early teens. Naturally, they assume that they must be mutants (whereas they're actually Half-Human Hybrids).
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Rory and Pandora's heroics accidentally alert Lenz to the family's existence, directly leading to the deaths of Maurice and Florence.
- Played for laughs in the last issue of the Davis run. Walter, Adam and Dom decide to follow the twins' example and fly over the city, looking for crimes to stop. They don't find any, but the police later complain that they weren't able to respond to a crime spree because they were swamped with calls about strange flying men.
- Plot-Triggering Death: Vincent's death at Adam's hands, years before the story starts. It drove a wedge between Dom and Walter, sent Adam into self-imposed exile and loosened the connections between the family. All of which made affected the twins' upbringing and made the Destines easier targets for Lenz.
- No-Sell: Two examples act as loose Book Ends for the first arc.
- In the first issue's prologue, M.O.D.O.K. blasts Lenz with maximum power, with no effect. He admits defeat, blows up the whole base, and runs.
- At the end of the arc the situation's reversed - Lenz throws everything he has, both physical and telepathic, at Adam. As do his hybrids. With absolutely no effect.
- Offing the Offspring: Adam killed his son Vincent. The rest of the family can't agree whether or not it was justified, and Adam himself has subsequently become a Death Seeker.
- Pen Name: Walter writes the "Vanessa" romance novels under the pen name of Sabrina Bentley.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Florence, the twins' grandmother (actually their sister), is killed in the first issue. Like Maurice, she rapidly becomes a Forgotten Fallen Friend once the shock fades.
- Sensory Overload: A recurring problem for Dominic, who has the full set of Super-Senses. As well as light and noise, chocolate is a particular problem for him.
- Show Within a Show: Cap'n Oz, in which Will Chance is playing the Australian superhero. The dialogue is full of exaggerated Australian slang, national stereotypes and Stylistic Suck.
- Superheroes Wear Capes: Played with.
- Imp and the Crimson Crusader started their superhero careers in caped costumes which were designed as fancy dress. Imp's already lost her cape before she appears in the first issue - and doesn't miss it.
- Dom‘s Hex costume includes an ornate cape - but it was designed for his stage magician days, not for a superhero career.
- Cuckoo gets a cape because her new body needed a new outfit and she likes the idea of playing along with the twins' superhero theme.
- Three Lines, Some Waiting: Will spends the entire series in Australia, filming Cap'n Oz. When Lenz's hybrids menace him in the first arc, he assumes they're a special effects prank and remains oblivious to everything that's going on. His only interaction with the other Destines is when Cuckoo's astral form visits just after the first arc ends - which provides Will (and the readers) with an Infodump explaining everything that's already happened.
- Title Drop: The only times the family are actually referred to as the ClanDestine are when Will's thinking to himself and when Rory's daydreaming at school, picturing them as a traditional superhero team.
- Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed, but Cuckoo is an Anti-Hero at best. She has no moral issues with using telepathic powers to rewrite human memories and clearly enjoys taking murderous revenge on some of the villains.
The Glenn Dakin stories
