WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Captain Marvel #24 by Kelly Thompson, Lee Garbett, Tamra Bonvillian, and Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
In Captain Marvel #24, Carol Danvers is transported to the future world of Captain Marvel: The End where she meets Fantomex 5. She’d been on a date with War Machine, when they stumbled upon an alien spaceship. She tells Spider-woman, Hazmat, and War Machine to cover her as she approaches the ship, but they’re ambushed by what looks like black tree roots. When she turns to check on them, the ship knocks her into a future world.
The first person she sees (and blasts) is Fantomex 5. It’s not clear whether or not this new Fantomex is the same as the one from the present, still alive in 2052. The original character first appeared in Grant Morrison and Igor Kordey's New X-Men in 2002. He’s a product of the Weapon Plus program, an antecedent of the Weapon X program that gave Wolverine his adamantium bones. Fantomex was built to hunt mutants and raised inside “The World,” a pocket dimension where he wasn’t allowed to have a family. He eventually went against his programming, and instead of fighting the X-Men he joined them.
Fantomex's abilities are a little difficult to classify. Officially, he has the power of “misdirection,” but it looks closer to something that Mastermind could do more than anything else. His body is a mix of mutant and sentinel so it functions very differently than any human’s. His nervous system isn’t in his body, but in a ship that eventually gained sentience called E.V.A. When Fantomex’s body died, E.V.A. split him into three distinct bodies, which he can switch between at will.
All of this makes it very difficult to determine whether Fantomex 5 from Carol's future is the same one that exists in her past. Because he’s changed bodies at least once, it seems like he’d be able to do it again. It is entirely possible that the "5" indicates that this is his fifth body or perhaps his fifth clone. Further complicating the matter is the fact that his iconic suit almost completely covers him head to toe and would therefore hide any differences or signs of aging. His white and black ensemble covers so much that a completely separate person or body could wear it as long as they had a similar build and it would be hard to tell the difference.
The only clue given in the issue as to the identity of Fantomex comes in his name. When Captain Marvel first encounters him, Sora, the daughter of Kwannon and Forge, refers to him as "John." That could be a variation of the name already revealed for Fantomex, Jean-Phillipe, or it could be the name of his son.
It’s worth noting that Thompson introduces this possibly-new, possibly-original Fantomex 5 when he’s with Sora. Fantomex and Psylocke had a long, tumultuous relationship while Psylocke was living inside Kwannon’s body. Fanotmex 5 and Sora might just be on patrol together, but the way she threatens Carol when it seems the hero has injured Fantomex suggests something more, and implies that he may be in a relationship with the daughter of someone he was previously involved with.
Whether they’re romantically involved or not, Sora and Fantomex take Captain Marvel back to their group, a team of aged yet familiar characters—Emma Frost who is perpetually in her diamond form, a gray-haired Spider-Woman, and a grown Gerry Drew—as well as the children of heroes—War Machine’s daughter and Katie Barton, an archer who must be in some way related to Clint Barton, Hawkeye. They’re fighting against an interdimensional creature who commands the forces of Limbo called “Ove,” who they suspect has either imprisoned Magik or is the mutant gone bad. The issue ends with one more classic Marvel Hero, Luke Cage, showing up to their compound to deliver a message from the mysterious Ove, an omen that does not bear well for Captain Marvel, Fantomex, and the other survivors.