A preview for the cover of the Silent Council of Krakoa, standing over the bodies of slaughtered mutants. The cover was drawn by Pepe Larraz and colored by Marte Gracia, and shared by Larraz on his Twitter profile.
The group known as Orchis is the main antagonist of the mutant resurgence depicted in the X-titles starting with Master Mold and Nimrod.
In the cover for X-Men #9, shared to Twitter by Nimrod, the most advanced form of Sentinel and the ultimate mutant hunter; Karima Shapandar, an Omega Sentinel that traveled back in time from an alternate timeline where mutants win their war against humans and machines. Standing in the foreground of the cover are the bloodied and lifeless bodies of mutants.
To see the X-Men's most dangerous enemies standing in the conference room of the Silent Council of Krakoa is surely a great teaser for the contents of the issue. Krakoa is supposed to be a safe haven for all mutantkind, and if Orchis has infiltrated it with ease, as the cover seems to suggest, it means that the war that has been boiling in the pages of House of X, Powers of X, and the recent Inferno has finally erupted. The key to Jonathan Hickman's tenure on the X-books, which will conclude with Inferno, has been Moira MacTaggert and her power to reincarnate after resetting a timeline. This allowed exploring several futures and outcomes of the conflict between mutants, humans, and machines. Looking at the cover above, it seems that the current iteration of the X-Men's future is not a bright one.
Source: Pepe Larraz (PepeLarraz)
