WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Inferno #3, now on sale
The X-Men have been some of Marvel's most impressive heroes even when the rest of the world doesn't realize it. But in the process of cementing their place in the world with Krakoa, the X-Men may have lost sight of why they became heroes in the first place.
Inferno #3 by Jonathan Hickman, R.B. Silva, Stefano Caselli, Valerio Schiti, Adriano Di Benedetto, David Curiel, and VC's Joe Sabino reveals that the X-Men might be the inevitable future -- and that in the process, it's a genuinely dark fate for the Marvel Universe.
One of the big mysteries of the current era of X-Men stories has been the status of Omega-Sentinel. Formerly an ally to the X-Men, she's turned against the mutant population and allied herself with the forces of Orchis. Inferno #3 reveals this happened because Omega-Sentinel had her body in the present day taken over by a future incarnation of herself, one who witnessed a timeline where the mutants actually ended up being successful in their campaign to grow as a people and a culture. According to Omega-Sentinel, they actually succeeded far too well, more or less dooming humanity (and ending in a war between humans and mutants that the latter clearly won) to irrelevancy as they became the true next stage of evolution.
Notably, all of this is told from one very specific perspective, suggesting this could be a case of an unreliable narrator. But regardless, the portrait she paints of the future isn't exactly a flattering one for the mutant population. The true fate of humanity in this future isn't revealed, but in a timeline where Mutants spread across the cosmos with the help of Planet Arakko, it would makes sense that humanity has more or less been replaced in the grand scheme of things. As they've evolved further, it also only makes sense they would more or less replace technologically minded species with their own mutant technologies. This is a future where Mutants haven't seemingly learned to co-exist with others but merely replace them, meaning Xavier's dream ended up not really coming true.
A future where the X-Men successfully took over might, at least first glance, like a good thing. With the medical and technological advancements spurned on by Krakoa, it's possible humanity wasn't violently replaced so much as just became a part of the overall mutant population. There's even a supposed period where they work together according to Omega-Sentinel's timeline, allied against the Children of the Vault. But various alternate realities have been teased where mutants rising in power came at a violent cost, with the realities of Planet X and the Age of Apocalypse showcasing just how ruthless mutants can be in conquest. Mutants might have become the dominant people in the entire universe, thanks in part to the sheer potential of Omega-Mutants allowing them to further their grasp.
At the foundation of the X-Men, peaceful co-existence was the core mission for the team. Xavier's dream helped lead to the world where Krakoa could not just grow but prosper. And yet, this speaks to the ruthless nature that mutants have increasingly embraced since forming their own nation. Even Xavier himself seems to be under the belief that when mutants win, they can be merciful to the rest of humanity. The X-Men have grown further and further from their original intent, and in this future seen by Omega-Sentinel is proof that even in triumph, the X-Men would lose some of the aspects that made them heroes in the first place in the process.