WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X Deaths of Wolverine #4, now on sale from Marvel Comics.
Thanks to the advancements of Krakoa, the X-Men have never been in a more stable position than they are in the present day. However, the mutants have discovered that there are still dark possibilities awaiting them in the future.
X Deaths of Wolverine #4 (by Benjamin Percy, Federico Vicentini, Dijjo Lima, and VC's Cory Petit) highlights one such future, and it shares a common theme with an iconic storyline seen years ago on X-Men: The Animated Series.
X Deaths of Wolverine has been gradually revealing a dark potential future for mutants. While the time-displaced Omega Sentinel has been fighting alongside Orchis to prevent a future in which the mutants became the dominant race in the galaxy, Moira MacTaggert's heel turn against Krakoa might be the key to a dark day where the mutants fall. In that timeline, Wolverine witnessed the fall of Krakoa at the hands of a massive Sentinel assault led by Nimrod. However, an unlikely mutant managed to survive the destruction: the X-Men's resident ally and inventor, Forge.
Forge's survival seems to be paramount to the potential fate of the mutants. It's his final invention that gives Logan the ability to travel through the timestream in an effort to stop their future from ever happening. Notably, Forge is clearly older here than in recent stories, sporting grey hair but still capable of creating the necessary tools for survival. It appears that in this future Forge was one of the last surviving X-Men, a trend that has been present in other stories, even those appearing in other media.
There is a long-running tendency for Forge to be one of the last surviving X-Men in dark futures. Due to his powers making him invaluable on the sidelines yet vulnerable in the battlefield, it makes perfect sense for Forge to avoid the front lines of battle. This has occurred in other comic book storylines as well, including the twisted worlds of Marvel Zombies and Marvel Zombies Resurrection, as well as in the timeline of Old Man Logan. One of Forge's most memorable appearances as a final survivor, however, was actually in X-Men: The Animated Series.
In the two-part episode "Days of Future Past," Forge was one of Wolverine's final allies, working to send him back in time to change the past. However, when Wolverine was incapacitated, Forge sent Bishop back in time instead. Subsequent visits to this timeline would return to Forge, often alongside Wolverine's skeleton. Seeing Logan and Forge together again as two of the last surviving X-Men harkens back to their animated team-up. It's a fun little connection between the modern era of X-Men and the heyday of the show's animated adaptation that helped to increase the popularity of the mutant heroes. This also seems to once again confirm that Forge is really destined to be one of the last mutants standing.