WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Juggernaut #5, by Fabian Nicieza, Ron Garney, Matt Milla and VC's Joe Sabino, on sale now.
Mutants have proven to be one of the most enduring and potentially powerful figures in the Marvel Universe. Some in their number -- Omega-Level Mutants -- are even capable of shaping and shifting entire worlds to their whims. Now, it looks like another young Marvel powerhouse is a mutant -- and she's even more impressive than initially expected.
D-Cel just embraced the fact that she's a mutant -- and along the way, discovered a new element of her powers that theoretically makes her a potential counter to some of Krakoa's most powerful telepaths.
During dinner before they assault the for-profit superpowered prison known as the Dungeon, Miranda Manuel -- aka D-Cel -- explains her history to Cain Marko -- aka the Juggernaut -- and why she's clung so tightly to the idea that she's not a mutant: while riding in the car with her parents, Miranda's powers first activated. This understandably distracted her family -- keeping her father's attention off of the truck driver who was barreling towards them. Miranda spent months in the hospital, but the flare-up of her powers kept her alive. Her parents, tragically, did not survive the accident. This is what led Miranda to convince herself that it was some other source that had resulted in her powers. If the powers are just her natural mutation, then she feels she'd have to take responsibility for the deaths of her parents.
However, Juggernaut firmly believes that she's a mutant. To prove this, he once again turns to his step-brother and former enemy, Charles Xavier. But it turns out that Juggernaut can't even trust Xavier to discover if she has a mutation or not on his own. It turns out that D-Cel's deceleration field is so powerful, it can actually keep telepaths like Xavier -- and even Cerebro -- out of her mind. This effectively gives D-Cel a natural defense against psychic attacks, which is an incredibly useful power to have when threats like the Shadow King exist. D-Cel's unique powers -- to disrupt and dilute kinetic motion, more or less slowing things down to a crawl -- have proven powerful enough to help the Juggernaut take down the Hulk, who has proven able to withstand the fury of an entire Avengers roster all on his own.
Her mutant status also gives her an easy out when she and Juggernaut face detention at the Dungeon. Krakoa's unique status as an asylum for all mutants lets her cite her mutation in front of the Dungeon's Warden, allowing her to escape being detained. D-Cel is then taken into Krakoa, with Xavier, Black Tom, and what appears to be Manifold greeting her at one of the Krakoa Gates. The welcoming attitude -- along with Armin Zola's earlier assessments of her -- suggests that D-Cel's powers truly are a mutation, which could give the X-Men a ridiculously powerful new ally. This additional power could make D-Cel uniquely gifted in dealing with telepaths on Krakoa, including ones like the Shadow King who might otherwise see potential in her power-set.
With the resurrection protocols helping restore the countless mutants lost over the years to life, the future of mutant-kind is bright. If new powerhouses like D-Cel can refine how they utilize their powers and realize their full potential, then there might be few powers in the Marvel Universe that could bar the progress of the mutants. If D-Cel can further realize her true potential, there's no telling what she could accomplish.