Decimation

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Decimation is the late 2005 Marvel Comics storyline spinning out of the House of M limited series, that focuses on the ramifications of the Scarlet Witch's stripping nearly all of the mutant population of their powers, reducing a society of millions to one of scant hundreds.

This event, which occurred on November 2 according to X-Men (vol. 2) #191, is known as "M-Day" in the Marvel Universe.

Overview

"Decimation" began with the self-titled one-shot Decimation: House of M: The Day After, and heralded the relaunch of the Excalibur team in New Excalibur, focusing on Pete Wisdom looking for Captain Britain to head up a new British super team, as well as the relaunch of X-Factor from the MadroX miniseries. It also includes several mini-series - Son of M starring a depowered Quicksilver, Generation M focusing on other depowered characters, Sentinel Squad O*N*E showing the latest iteration of the mutant-hunting Sentinels |Sentinels to be robots piloted by humans, X-Men: Deadly Genesis, and X-Men: The 198 - and continues throughout the Marvel Universe, particularly in the X-Men-related titles. One consequence is an upswing of anti-mutant sentiment, especially among certain religious groups, who consider M-Day to be God's judgment against mutant kind.

It has been confirmed by various sources that there are considerably more than 198 mutants remaining - the number has been referred to as "symbolic" rather than actual, and in The 198 Files is said to be the earliest confirmed number. Numbers for pre-Decimation mutants vary from "over a million" (House of M #8) to 14 million (New X-Men #115, where it is said that the 16 million mutants who died on Genosha was around "over half" of the estimated global mutant population of 30 million mutants), giving a population, if the commonly-used 90% depowered figure is true, of between one hundred thousand and one and a half million. Based on the mathematical comparisons of the oft-repeated 198 and several million, Marvel has recently reevaluated the 90% figure into "Over 99%". This is shown in Civil War: Battle Damage Report when Iron Man comments on the Post-CW world. The figure may be reevaluated again depending on events taking place in the upcoming Endangered Species and Messiah Complex storylines.

Both Hank Pym and Beast note shortly after the event that it is impossible for the energy that certain mutants controlled to simply have vanished, and that it must have been "sent" somewhere. As would later be revealed in New Avengers, most of this energy became a sentient entity called "The Collective", who has since come into violent conflict with the Avengers. In addition, a portion of the energy revived the body of Gabriel Summers, who had been trapped in space for many years following the defeat of Krakoa.

Consequences, repercussions

• The Xavier Institute is no longer just a school for mutants, but a haven for all remaining mutants. This changed after the Civil War as they were all set free by the US president.
• Sentinel Squad O*N*E: In the aftermath of the House of M, resulting in the depowering of 90% of the world's mutant population, the Office of National Emergency (aka O*N*E), a splinter from the Department of Homeland Security, had Sentinels instituted at the X-Mansion to protect the mutants in case any enemies used this low point as an opportunity to attack them at their weakest, and also to stop the mutants in the event of a revolution. The Squad was later destroyed in the events of Messiah Complex.
• Children of the Vault: The reduction of mutants also accidentally awakens The Children of the Vault. (In the pages of X-Men)
• Exodus reforms the Acolytes with Frenzy, Random, Tempo and Carmella Unuscione
• Apocalypse: Due to the events of M-Day, Apocalypse was revived by Cable to force the remaining mutants to band together to expel the threat, as a way to bring the mutant community together after M-Day. (In the pages of X-Men and Cable and Deadpool)

He turned Sunfire, Gambit, Polaris and Gazer into his Horsemen. Gazer was killed by Ozymandias, however, resulting in Polaris and Sunfire regaining powers and Gambit being turned black and having a lethal gas power. The latter two then joined Sinister's forces as did Exodus's forces after discovering that no new mutant had appeared since M-Day.

• The flying energy: It reawakened Vulcan who was a member of a secret team of X-Men sent to help Scott's team on Krakoa and left to die there. He returned from his space exile to begin a vendetta against Xavier and then the Shi'ar Empire (In the pages of Deadly Genesis and Uncanny X-Men).

The rest of the energy ended up forming The Collective by merging with a mutant postal worker, Michael Pointer who then apparently killed the then members of Alpha Flight and went on to Genosha, repowering Magneto, who recognizes the intelligence controlling it as "Xorn who explains his action by the fact that the mutants needed him as a leader. The New Avengers arrive and blast the Collective into the sun. Magneto is then taken away in an helicopter which blows up right after it takes off (In the pages of New Avengers)

• William Stryker: Deeming the sudden massive reduction in number of the mutant population a sign of God, saying "He made the first step and now we have to take the next", basically rallying for genocide on TV. (In the pages of New X-Men)
• Onslaught: Onslaught Reborn will see Onslaught return; as the mutant energies of both Professor X and Magneto meet once again, they reform the monster. (This takes place before the Civil War event).
• Both Professor X and Reaper have been healed by the event. The former can now walk again and the latter is no longer brain dead.
• After the Civil War, X-Factor Investigations will be dealing with a siege in Mutant Town when a group of depowered mutants, calling themselves X-Cell become terrorists thinking the Government is responsible for their depowerment. The members are Elijah Cross, Callisto, Blob, Marrow, Fatale, Reaper, and Abyss.
• Wolverine discovers a half-way home for depowered mutants who are fearing for their lives. Both Jubilee and Maverick are there.
• Dr. Kavita Rao's work is ruined, as there's no more need for a mutant cure and all of her mutant DNA samples were turned to dust on M-Day.
• As a side effect, no new mutants are born. This leads into the Endangered Species storyline, and later, the Messiah Complex.
• Several de-powered mutants seek to return to heroing, and are recruited into the post-Civil War New Warriors.
• Quicksilver ends up in the care of the Inhumans where he starts the Silent War by stealing the crystals of the Terrigen Mists. He then attempts to repower mutants, resulting in many of their injuries and some deaths. See "Son of M"
• Several characters returned from the dead, including Magik.
• The Russian black ops group, the Red Room, had lost all their mutant operatives' powers, resulting in them being ordered to patriotically kill themselves. This made the Red Room suspicious as to why their operatives lost their powers and the X-Men were left unscathed, leading them to think that the latter was somewhat responsible and captured Colossus, Wolverine and Nightcrawler for interrogation.