Destiny's civilian identity is Irene Adler, a blind mutant with precognitive abilities that allow her to accurately predict future events.

Initially, Destiny was depicted as an adversary of the X-Men and member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, led by her wife Mystique, the two having raised Rogue together.

In this era, it was confirmed that Destiny was the Irene Adler featured in Sherlock Holmes stories (created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), her rivalry with Moira MacTaggert was established, and it was revealed she plays a pivotal role in the history and future of mutantkind.

Destiny also received attention for the revelation of her status as Nightcrawler's mother, which was praised for adhering to Claremont's original design for the characters.

[2][3] However, at that time, the Comics Code Authority and Marvel policy prohibited the explicit portrayal of gay or bisexual characters.

Although she was more accurate in predicting near-future events concerning her present environment, when her mutant powers of precognition initially emerged in adolescence, she worked tirelessly for thirteen months to record prophecies concerning the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

In the late 19th century, Mystique was working as a consulting detective when Destiny sought her help in understanding the precognitive visions recorded in her diaries.

Their abilities would easily allow them to achieve personal success but to shape the future was stated to be "next to impossible" as it would require "social engineering."

[22] Eventually, the members of Mystique's Brotherhood went to work for the United States government as Freedom Force in exchange for a pardon and protection from anti-mutant sentiment.

[26] While on a mission with Freedom Force to Muir Island to stop the Reavers, Destiny was killed by Legion, who was being influenced at the time by the Shadow King.

[28] Shortly before her death, Destiny predicted that Mystique would become romantically involved with Forge,[27] and although the pair loathed each other at the time, they did develop a brief relationship while both were members of X-Factor.

Although he was comatose, his mind was still active and in his dreamscape, and he had regular encounters with an aspect of Destiny who gave cryptic clues about a possible way to help his father's dream come true.

[30] She also prompted Legion to awake from his coma and to deliver a message to Mystique as well as requested for David to stop blaming himself for her death as his guilt had already set in motion events that will change reality itself.

Years after her death it was revealed that when Destiny's mutant power first manifested she filled several diaries called "The Books of Truth" with prophecies of the future that, when in the wrong hands, posed the greatest threat to humanity ever known.

[38][b] A team of X-Men, fearing that absolute knowledge of the future would lead their mentor to a temptation the world could not afford, exiled themselves from their home and teammates in order to hunt down the remaining Books of Truth, in the hope that they can locate the prophecies before Xavier or someone worse does.

[47] After the "House of M" event, the diaries were sought out again by Mister Sinister, who believed that a specific book contained information on the fate of mutant-kind in the wake of Decimation.

[51] After telling Selene what she wants to hear, Destiny is taken back to her cell, where she telepathically contacts Blindfold by accident when she was trying to reach her foster daughter Rogue.

Destiny then takes a moment to share a final good-bye with Rogue, before eventually leaving in order to supposedly die at the end of the storyline.

[54] During the Chaos War, Moira MacTaggart, Thunderbird, Banshee, Esme and Sophie of the Stepford Cuckoos, and Multiple Man's fallen clones are resurrected and appear on the former grounds of the X-Men school.

There, Moira finds one of Destiny's diaries which contains a passage depicting the events of the war and apparently the key to defeating Amatsu-Mikaboshi.

[56] During the "Dawn of X" storyline, Destiny and the Brotherhood confront Moira on the latter's third life while she was developing a cure for mutation, destroying her lab and murdering her colleagues.

She instructs Pyro to give Moira a slow and painful death so that the latter woman will remember the cost of her current transgression on her next life.

[58] Moira is against Destiny's return or for that matter the presence of any precognitive on Krakoa as she seeks to prevent mutant-kind's doomed fate from being foreseen.

[59] During the "Reign of X" storyline, it is revealed that Moira was apparently able to copy the diaries burnt by Gambit, because at least 9 volumes were seen in her possession at No-Space Zone, a few visibly numbered (vol.

[60] Moira demands Professor X and Magneto to remove Mystique from the Quiet Council and erase Destiny's genetic and psychological data to prevent her resurrection.

They retrieve Moira and take her back to her No-Space, severing her arm to leave her tracker behind to mislead Professor X and Magneto, and directing Nimrod and Omega Sentinel towards the two men by faking an Orchis distress message.

Years later, after having adopted Anna Marie, she and Mystique reunited, and to become a family for the girl, they asked Professor X to remove most of their memories of what happened in Bavaria.

[73] James Whitbrook of Gizmodo also praised the storyline for making "one of the greatest, often unspoken queer loves of X-Men comics [...] to be woven back through history as it [was] always intended to be".