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Jan 28

X Deaths of Wolverine #1 annotations

Posted on Friday, January 28, 2022 by Paul in x-axis

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE #1
by Benjamin Percy, Federico Vicentini, Dijjo Lima & Frank Martin

X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE. This is the companion miniseries to X Lives of Wolverine, which started last week. The structure is obviously intended to echo House of X and Powers of X, the two parallel miniseries that launched the Krakoan era. As with that series, the first book is the relatively straightforward one, while this one seems to have a wider agenda. It also makes it rather clearer why these books were promoted as major stories for the line, something which wasn’t exactly apparent from Lives #1.

COVER / PAGE 1. A techno-organic version of Wolverine. We’ll see him later in the issue.

PAGES 2-6. Moira MacTaggert flees to Scotland.

This is a direct continuation from page 41 of Inferno #4, where Cypher and (very reluctantly) Mystique and Destiny depowered Moira, gave her the techno-organic arm we see here, and allowed her to flee Krakoa through the gate. Moira’s opening narration is just recapping the premise of her role in Hickman’s stories: she lived multiple past lives, she told Xavier and Magneto what she’d learned, and they were keeping her hidden beneath Krakoa until she was discovered and driven into exile.

Moira promptly steals a truck and uses it to destroy the gate she came through, so that Mystique can’t follow her quite that easily.

PAGE 7. Recap and credits. The description of Moira as “pursui[ng] a better world for mutantkind” is a bit dubious, given that Inferno #4 suggests she was working towards a mutant cure (and potentially using Krakoan drugs as a vehicle to secretly administer it). Still, this book seems to want Moira to be a sympathetic character, so we’re tacking back in the other direction.

The Deaths credits page is black (compared to Lives‘s white), and has just one set of linked hexagons – this one shows Moira, Mystique, Black Tom and one redacted figure, all with “X” after their names. In Lives, the “X” seemed to indicate the present day versions of characters.

The Krakoan reads “X DEATHS”, with “X LIVES” greyed out next to it.

PAGES 8-9. Moira arrives at the Kinross Estate, and discovers that she’s got cancer.

This is the family home, which has apparently gone into ruin in her absence. It’s not clear exactly why that should be the case, since (per Hickman retcon) Moira faked her own death – you’d have thought that she would have had a will or something. But if she didn’t, then yes, it’s conceivable that the estate could be left in limbo for years if there were no obvious heirs, and that the building could be left to fall into disrepair like this.

It seems a bit coincidental that Moira suddenly develops an illness now – that might suggest it’s either something that her powers were shielding her from, or a side effect of the device that removed her powers, or something to do with the techno-organic arm. On the other hand, we’re told later on that the cancer has already spread to Stage IV, which it surely couldn’t do in a matter of days… so maybe it is just a coincidence.

PAGE 10. Destiny tells us a little fable, the basic point being that Moira can’t run from her fate, because her attempts to do so are already factored in to the predictions.

PAGE 11. Black Tom in the Green Lagoon bar.

Black Tom has a sudden strange feeling and stumbles out to investigate. The minor characters in this scene:

  • The barman is the Blob, as usual.
  • Bling! is on the far left of panel 2, talking to the Multiple Man.
  • Colossus is on the other side of Black Tom, with his back to us.
  • Nightcrawler is teleporting away in panel 5.
  • The woman with the two-colour hair in the final panel is probably Rogue, though it might be Tempus.

PAGES 12-13. Black Tom sees something emerge from Krakoa.

The idea that Krakoa is always changing is something that gets played up much more in Benjamin Percy’s stories than in anyone else’s, but it’s come up periodically ever since X-Force #1. This thing, however, looks like it might be a tumour similar to the one that we saw Krakoa expel in X-Force #15 – as Black Tom observes on page 21.

PAGES 14-20. Moira consults Jane Foster and Mystique attacks.

Jane Foster is currently Valkyrie, though the recent Mighty Valkyries series didn’t last long. Her own cancer was a central storyline during her time as Thor. I’m pretty sure Moira has no history with her, but as a superhero-community doctor, she can at least be relied upon not to freak out at the cybernetic arm. Jane does know of Moira’s association with the X-Men, but that was effectively a matter of public record.

Petals. Moira is asking for Krakoan drugs, and Jane takes the opportunity to remind us that Krakoan medicine isn’t widely enough available to do anything awkward like render Marvel Universe healthcare unrecognisable. In any event, as Jane points out, none of the Krakoan drugs claim to cure cancer. According to House of X #1, there are three of them: “L”, which extends the life of a human by five years; “I”, which is a universal antibiotic; and “M”, which cures psychiatric illnesses. Presumably, Moira is asking for “L” and thinks that it can extend life even in the face of cancer.

PAGES 21-22. The thing in the tumour kills Black Tom.

It’s the techno-organic Wolverine from the cover. Of note, the variant cover gallery at the end of this issue includes a design sheet for this character, billed as “Omega Design Spoiler”. The word “Omega” might suggest a connection of some sort with the Omega Sentinels, who were posthuman.

PAGES 23-24. The X-Desk react to Mystique’s attack on Moira.

This is the first time we’ve seen the X-Desk, but Delores Ramirez has appeared plenty of times before. When first introduced in Marauders she was a largely ignored CIA agent who was quite sympathetic to the mutants; in Percy’s stories, mostly in Wolverine, she’s more of a hardnosed professional, but still seems honest. We last saw her in Wolverine #18, where she was shot by a sniper working for Legacy House, but apparently she got better quickly.

PAGES 25-26. Moira flees to New Jersey and changes her look.

Do I need to point out the obvious plot problem? By all means, Moira should change her hair and make-up if she’s on the run. But the techno-organic arm is still going to be a giveaway. Shouldn’t gloves be more of a priority?

PAGE 27. Wolverine II enters Moira’s old home.

He seems to be looking for her scent. You’d have thought he’d know it already, but it’s been a few years, I guess. Or maybe this isn’t even a future version of Wolverine.

PAGES 28-32. Paranoid Moira tries to avoid the CIA.

All pretty straightforward. During this, though, Moira stumbles into an Epiphany Platforms store. This bunch are new, but they’re basically set up as Apple, diversifying into tech implants.

PAGE 33. Data page on Epiphany’s CEO Arnab Chakladar, who we saw in an advert in the last scene. He’s a new character. There’s nothing in this record to suggest that he’s anything other than a regular tech CEO, but we’re told that he’s interested in artificial intelligence, and we know the Krakoans – based on Moira’s intelligence – are very, very paranoid about artificial intelligence and machines.

PAGES 34-36. Wolverine II briefly passes through the Cradle, but doesn’t explain himself.

Professor X and Jean Grey are with the “real” Wolverine, helping him to mentally travel back in time, as seen in X Lives of Wolverine. Techno-Wolverine apparently allows Jean to see him, but declines to explain himself to her. He has no obvious reason to be there at all, which might suggest he’s simply unable to resist the temptation to drop on Jean.

PAGE 37. Trailers. The small print in the bottom left (which was there in X Lives too) seems to confirm that X Lives of Wolverine is intended to be read as Ten Lives of Wolverine, while X Deaths is the letter X. Again, this mirrors the two Hickman series from the outset, which were meant to be pronounced House of X and Powers of Ten.

The Krakoan reads NEXT: LIVING IN THE PAST.

 

Bring on the comments

  1. Douglas says:

    Delores Ramirez may not have recovered all that quickly: it’s possible that Wolverine #17-18 are meant to take place after this (and after Marauders #27, where she’s still working for the C.I.A. too and Feilong’s Martian outpost is open)!

  2. Chris V says:

    In House of X #6, Xavier states that Krakoan drug I can cure several types of cancer. So, perhaps Moira was looking for that drug.

    It’s hilarious that “Inferno” has apparently been ret-conned already.
    I read the preview page where Moira sounded like a damsel-in-distress crying because her “strong men” Xavier and Magneto promised to protect her this time.
    Uhh…maybe you shouldn’t have been plotting to wipe out all future generations of mutants?

  3. GN says:

    I think I sort of see where Percy is going with this ‘Moira has cancer’ plotline. There’s some kind of a metaphor at work here. Moira has been living in a No-Place – a Krakoan tumor – until Inferno and now that she’s left Krakoa, an actual tumor manifests itself in her body.

    I also have a theory on how it might be resolved:

    In Wolverine 1, Percy established that Logan is of super-rare blood type E+ (Endless), which facilitates his healing factor. When his blood is transfused into other organisms, the compatibility deteriorates and the healing factor is suppressed.

    In Powers of X 6, Hickman established (through the Librarian) that Moira and Logan share a blood-type and that periodic blood transfusions from Logan allowed Moira VI to live for thousands of years in Life 6.

    So we might end up in a situation where Logan donates some blood to Moira X and since their blood-types match, the healing factor remains in her body long-term, killing the cancer cells.

    This is then the start of a new bond between Moira and Logan in Life 10. Her last resort when all else fails. ‘This is what you do’, after all.

    Or maybe not. She might die and be resurrected as a mutant in Arbor Magna. Let’s see what happens.

  4. Rareblight says:

    @Chris V:

    Since Drug I is an universal “antibiotic” that adapts and kills any kind of infection, probably Drug I cures the cancers originating from viral infections. Remember they also declined Deadpool when he asked drugs for his cancer, too. However, Jeff Bannister also mentioned something as “antibody petals” that were given to his daughter who is suffering from cancer, although latter could be an editorial mistake.

    My speculation regarding the issue: I believe the Omega Wolverine is somehow from Life-10A, with some mutant-friendly Technarch assimilating Wolverine, and sending Wolverine to Life-10B (like Karima did), possibly to save Moira, because in Life-10A, they know that what Moira has built actually works if mutants had not fought among themselves.

    Also, I am completely shocked how Moira survived that fall without any broken bones! I was expecting Mr. Horse to catch Moira, when she fell like that I was like WTF, she could have actually died from the fall!

  5. Dave says:

    Is the biggest retcon here the fact that Moira appears again already? Inferno read like she wouldn’t be seen again for some time (and like Mystique would have to spend time trying to locate her). It reminded me of Magneto appearing again straight after Planet X.

  6. Rob says:

    Will you be covering Devil’s Reign: X-Men?

  7. Paul says:

    No. I’m sticking to the core books. (I’m not doing X-Men Unlimited either.)

  8. Moira discovers she has something wrong with her in Scotland. She is on the run, doesn’t want to be tracked. So… she flies to New York??

  9. Ceries says:

    The difference between Duggan and Percy’s versions of Ramirez-in Duggan’s version she’s a Krakoa apologist with a crush on Storm, in Percy’s version she’s a professional doing her basically immoral job-is kind of a microcosm of the different worlds the X-men writers seem to live in when it comes to Krakoa. In Duggan’s, this sympathetic character must sympathize with the unmitigated good that is Krakoa, in Percy’s, Krakoa is one nation among many and has no moral superiority.

  10. Chris V says:

    Rareblight-Xavier also states in the same speech that drug I can cure ALS, Alzheimer’s and multiple other diseases.
    So, either Krakoan medical knowledge is far beyond what exists in our world, or this “universal antibiotic” should be considered similar to magic.

  11. Rareblight says:

    @Chris V – I thought those neurodegenerative diseases are covered by Drug M, but I need to re-read the issue where Xavier mentions that.

  12. Chris V says:

    I thought just mental illness caused by chemical imbalances were covered by drug M. I’m unsure that drug M’s benefits were ever truly explained in detail. I thought it might have been a drug to make humans less aggressive, to pacify them. I’m not sure that was the intent though, just one of my speculations.

    Maybe I’m misremembering it.
    Xavier just randomly lists “common maladies” that the drugs will cure, and includes most cancers alongside influenza, Alzheimer’s, and ALS on his list. It could be clumsy writing on Hickman’s part.

  13. Aro says:

    I still don’t understand what the motivation is with this version of Moira, or why Mystique and Destiny want to kill her.

    We know that they killed her in Life 3 because they found that she was plotting to cure the mutants. But in Life 10, they just seem to guess/assume that she is plotting against mutants again, which she concedes, but doesn’t say HOW.

    In this comments section, we’ve speculated that Moira is planning to cure the mutants through the medicines, but that’s not even really hinted at in the comics.

    I’m glad that the Moira plot is being picked up on here, but it was so underdeveloped in Inferno… They’re not ever going to explain this, are they? Moira is just going to be on the run because Mystique and Destiny are her mortal enemies and that’s how it works.

  14. Chris V says:

    Destiny figured out that Moira was plotting against mutants.
    She was disoriented when she was resurrected and had trouble seeing the future because of Omega Sentinel travelling back in time and splitting the timeline.
    After Emma shared what Xavier and Magneto told her about Moira, it cleared up Destiny’s consciousness. She was able to sense Moira again and saw that Moira was plotting to cure mutants again.
    So, Mystique and Destiny went after Moira.

    Now, that’s been dropped.
    I don’t think any explanations are forthcoming. Hickman is gone and based on Paul’s review of this issue, Moira was no longer ever plotting against the mutants.

  15. Dave says:

    It’s almost like Moira admitting that in one single panel in 4 double-size issues was woefully inadequate. But hey, gotta spend time shuffling those council seats.

  16. Chris V says:

    I sort of wonder if Hickman didn’t intend to actually reveal Moira as a traitour. He got to the end of the story and remembered that there was no reason for the Moira and Destiny antagonism during Life Ten, so he threw in some lines about Moira really planning to cure mutants. Because that reveal really doesn’t fit with anything else in “Inferno”.

    Maybe Percy is working from an earlier script too, which explains why Moira betraying mutants is apparently being ignored now.
    “Inferno” #4 was scheduled to ship in December.
    This issue is shipping on time, I believe.
    So, the writers would be scripting the comics roughly at the same time.
    Hickman would have had to let Percy know ahead of time what plots he’d need to follow after “Inferno”.
    Hickman realized he had messed up his ending for “Inferno” by not explaining why Moira wanted Destiny to stay dead. He made a quick change to #4’s script. Percy’s script for X Deaths #1 was already finished and Percy wasn’t told about Hickman’s last minute change to his script.
    Marvel editorial in 2021 being Marvel editorial in 2021 didn’t manage to catch the contradictions.

  17. Uncanny X-Ben says:

    I decided not to get either of these so I appreciate the recaps and analysis.

  18. Mathias X says:

    I kinda wish we got to see the Valkyrie/Mystique fight, would be neat to see how Mystique survived.

    The Moira/Mystique antagonism doesn’t bother me, really. Moira labored to keep Destiny dead, and Mystique took that personally. Mystique also sees that Moira’s ability to reset the timeline was a threat, and she wanted to depower and kill her to remove that. Moira’s depowered, but she’s not dead Mystique tells Moira that if Moira believed in mutants/wanted to help mutants, she’d want to be murdered by Mystique.

    So for Mystique, the fact that this secret architect, who deliberately tried to keep Destiny dead, doesn’t want to be murdered is proof that she should be murdered, because she may still have other secret architecting to do.

  19. Chris V says:

    Mathias-That is perfectly fine rationale for Mystique.
    What was the motivation for Moira to want Destiny to stay dead in the first place, if she wasn’t afraid of Destiny foreseeing her plan?

  20. Aro says:

    Both Mathias X and Chris V’s explanations are plausible, but are dramatically different:

    -If Mystique wants Moira dead mostly as revenge for keeping Destiny from being resurrected, this paints Moira in a more sympathetic light. This is a fairly conventional take on their established hero/villain roles.

    -If Destiny wants Moira eliminated because she could see that Moira was plotting to betray and cure the mutants, this puts Moira firmly in an antagonist role. This fits with the more morally-complex mutant nationalist stories Hickman was setting up.

    Both be happening simultaneously, certainly, but the ‘cure’ plot is so acutely underdeveloped that it feels narratively insincere. The weird thing is that the story mostly works without it, if Mystique just wants revenge for being denied Destiny for so long. The ‘cure’ plot could also easily be wrapped up with just a caption or word balloon in there about how Moira can’t do anything without her lab or notebooks. Then Cypher or whomever can at least believe that Moira has been foiled, rather than depowered and set out to continue her work on the cure…

    I do like the idea that Mystique can’t kill Moira because if they killed her as a mutant it would reset everything, but once they depower her, she becomes a human and it’s illegal to kill her. However, that doesn’t seem to concern Mystique in this issue. (It would be kind of hilarious if the X Deaths ends with Mystique caught and thrown into the Pit, which would then contain all the supporting villains of the first X-Men film, plus Nanny and Orphanmaker).

    I wonder if they ever floated a resolution for this story where Moira is found to be plotting to cure the mutants, and instead of de-powered is then sent into the Pit for violating the “Make More Mutants” law. That seems like the narratively most obvious end, as it would have been a pay-off for that goofy third law, and preserve the horror of both Moira’s ticking time bomb powers, and the Pit as a kind of eternal damnation.

  21. ASV says:

    The whole hospital sequence makes so little sense I feel like I must be missing something.

    * Upon noticing that she’s coughing up blood, Moira – presumably without money or a passport – travels from Scotland to New York

    * She is a UK citizen, but rather than visiting the NHS she goes to an American hospital where she presumably has no connections (and if she does have, they’ll probably wonder why she’s not dead) to receive on-demand examination for symptoms that turn out to be stage IV cancer, without insurance

    * Her attending doctor just happens to be a superhero, but a superhero who was not around the last time Moira was known to be alive – nevertheless, they interact like they know each other but don’t address Moira’s techno-organic arm

    * When Jane Foster re-enters the room as Valkyrie, she bids Moira “Go!” as in “out the window,” even though as far as she knows Moira is a normal human with a weird arm

    * Of course Moira is a normal human, and basically was one with regard to windows even with her powers, but she is somehow able to jump from at least six floors up, land on a van, and walk away without injury

    There has to be a missing piece here, right?

  22. Chris V says:

    ASV-That sounds like exceptionally bad writing.

    I’m not going to make an excuse for most of it, but my theory is the inverse of GN’s theory (written above). Moira is going to align herself with post-humanity since she feels Krakoa has betrayed her. She will become Krakoa’s greatest enemy. The window scene is setting up the fact that Moira is already involved with the post-human condition.
    She’ll find a way to cure her cancer using technology instead of Krakoan drugs and encourage humanity to learn to say no to drugs and learn to love the machines.

  23. Aro says:

    I think we’re supposed to assume that Moira and Jane must know each other, or at least know of each other. In the issue we see Moira trying to stay off the grid, and it’s likely that the NHS thinks that she is dead, so using the health system would raise some questions. How she managed to travel to New York without a valid passport is something I don’t think we’re meant to think about too closely!

    Woe to any X-Men readers who don’t know the backstory of Jane Foster/Valkyrie though, since it’s not even glossed.

    Of course it’s very silly that she’s able to jump out of the window like she’s a superhero. The art is nice at least. I am wondering why Moira decided to model her undercover look on Boom Boom of all people though …

  24. Ceries says:

    My theory on Valkyrie is that this is just a normal day for her. Some famous dead scientist X-men ally shows up half-machine, asks for a cancer scan, then Mystique shows up to try to kill her? This is like the background level of noise in Jane Foster’s life. She doesn’t question, she might mention it to the X-men at some point. Maybe she knew throwing Moira out the window would save her because of her death senses or something.

    I also think that there’s no way Mystique won that fight, she probably had to make a break for it.

  25. The Other Michael says:

    And what’s also weird is that right now, Jane Foster isn’t exactly attending to live patients, last I checked. She was assigned to the hospital morgue because her Valkyrie duties interfered with her consistency and reliability as a doctor…

  26. Aro says:

    One of her colleagues (actually Mystique in disguise I think) does mention that Jane is needed back in the morgue, so it seems that she’s making a special exception to see Moira, not like Moira just showed up to make an appointment.

    I like this kind of cross-over between heroes, it’s part of what makes a shared superhero universe fun. I do miss the caption boxes that would have spelled out the guest character’s backstory in (with lots of adjectives) in the old days though …

  27. Bengt says:

    Why is it illegal (by Krakoan lawas) to kill Moira? A depowered mutant is not a human (which these books insists is a completely different species), and they are generally treated as mutants with a disability.

  28. Chris V says:

    I believe it’s based on resurrection.
    Moira can’t be resurrected because she would never have shown up on Cerebro (Hickman pointed out she was completely undetectable as a mutant). So, for all intents and purposes, she is now a human.

  29. Luis Dantas says:

    Maybe it is just me and my aversion to Wolverine stories, but this gives me an Onslaught sort of vibe.

    Lots of running around, people worrying about presumably Very Significant Happenings, and characters ending up saying the plot aloud for no one in particular because readers must learn of it _somehow_, and it sure won’t be from the events actually depicted and their logical consequences.

    This has all the marks of a story that fails to say anything but was nonetheless placed to be Very Important somehow.

    Feels like the two series are a placeholder to keep the line on a sort of holding pattern for just over two months while a new direction is actually chosen. Hopefully making a few sales along the way while at it.

  30. Uncanny X-Ben says:

    It would actually be interesting to see Jane Foster interact with the X-Men.

    She can see people’s impending deaths, so I wonder what she’ll see looking at a mutant.

    Maybe during AXE.

  31. wwk5d says:

    “or why Mystique and Destiny want to kill her.”

    Or why they didn’t just kill her when they captured he and Xavier back in Days of Future, Past? Though I guess we can fanwank that Kate-in-Kitty’s body temporal something threw of her reading Moira.

    “What was the motivation for Moira to want Destiny to stay dead in the first place, if she wasn’t afraid of Destiny foreseeing her plan?”

    Didn’t she originally say no pre-cogs at all on Krakoa? Was there a reason for that that got changed to Destiny only, or was her saying no pre-cogs at all just way to try and convince people she wasn’t prejudiced against Destiny solely?

    “She can see people’s impending deaths, so I wonder what she’ll see looking at a mutant.”

    Maybe similar to what Dani would see when she was a Valkyrie?

  32. Luis Dantas says:

    Is Dani no longer a Valkyrie?

    In any case, I believe that the question is how the existence of the ressurrection protocols affects a Valkyrie’s perception of a mutant that is about to die.

    Maybe a worthy mutant is carried to Valhalla as presumably happens routinely with worthy humans (Brunnhilde did that at least once in the original Defenders run, somewhere in the #130s or #140s) and then the mutant’s soul is somehow claimed back during ressurrection. Or maybe the Valkyries somehow predict the ressurrection and decide not to have the trouble… but then what happens to that mutant’s soul?

    Or maybe there is a whole section of Valhalla where worthy mutants have their eternal rest even while their living duplicates are in Krakoa. That could lead to interesting if perhaps difficult scenes as Jane Foster and other Valkyries realize that many mutants are somehow both living and dead…

  33. Uncanny X-Ben says:

    In King in Black: Return of the Valkyries, Dani isn’t a Valkyrie anymore.

    I was thinking Dr. Stasis is going to be a double of someone, finally bringing up the problem of two versions of the same character existing because of resurrection.

    But with Hickman gone, the line seems to be set on “Krakoa is great and all this stuff just works, don’t think about it.”

  34. Chris V says:

    wwk5d-That was never properly addressed.
    Moira said “no precogs”, but that may have been so she didn’t have to tell Xavier and Magneto about her back-story with Mystique and Destiny.
    Regardless, there would still be a need to include a reason as to why Moira doesn’t want any precogs existing on Krakoa. Presumably, due to her hiding something.

  35. Chris V says:

    wwk5d-Also, Omega Sentinel travelling back in time changed the timeline. At the point of “Days of Future Past”, the timeline was still moving towards Krakoa succeeding and mutants becoming the dominant species. It wasn’t until Omega Sentinel returned to the past to change events that the timeline split. So, if Destiny killed Moira during “Days of Future Past”, it would have meant that Krakoa was never created, which would have hurt the mutant cause. Moira needed to live long enough to establish Krakoa.

  36. Chris V says:

    Luis-Hickman’s definition of a soul is the same as the mind (as opposed to the brain). When Cerebro records a mutant’s mind, that is the soul of the mutant being imprinted by Cerebro on the logic diamonds.
    We saw this during the Trial of Magneto mini-series with the Scarlet Witch. Her soul had been splintered because the earlier part of Scarlet Witch’s existence had been recorded by Cerebro, but Xavier eventually stopped recording her mind, which led to the later part of Scarlet Witch’s existence being left as her soul in the afterlife.

    Of course, this completely ignores things like Nightcrawler dying and his soul going to Heaven. Hickman seems to have ret-conned this incident from happening though. When Nightcrawler is on the Forge with Wolverine, he is discussing death with Logan. It sounds as if Nightcrawler is making the claim that neither person has ever died.

  37. Dave says:

    The first line of the recap: “In pursuit of a better world for mutantkind, Moira MacTaggert deceived them all”. So, she WAS on the mutant side, but…was lying? What? This is the central issue of both Inferno and this issue, and nobody seems to know what the actual take on it is supposed to be.

  38. Mike Loughlin says:

    Dave, my take was that Moira was on the mutants’ side in her own mind. By curing mutants, she would prevent them from being wiped out by humans or AI (bypassing “we always lose”). None of the other mutants knew of that plan, they thought Krakoa was the first step to a new age of mutant ascendancy.

    As for the “no precogs” rule: maybe they couldn’t see Moira’s plans directly, but they would be able to see the aftermath (“whoa, someone cures mutants in 2 years?!”) and alert the rest of Krakoa. Moira wouldn’t want to deal with the headaches that would create.

    Mystique wants to kill Moira for revenge, maybe, but maybe to prevent her from regaining her powers (which happened to Storm after being shot by the same gun) or to prevent her from working with another faction to depower mutants.

    I don’t remember details from previous issues as well as some other commenters here, and I haven’t reread back issues in a while. I don’t know if there are plot points that contradict anything I laid out above. The comics aren’t giving clear answers, though, so this is just me trying to fill in gaps.

  39. Chris V says:

    Mike-No, what you wrote makes sense and goes with what Hickman put on the page and what I’ve been saying.
    I’m just not sure if they are trying to ret-con the fact that Moira wanted to betray the mutants in X Deaths. I’m not reading this series, so I don’t really know.

    The only discrepancy between what you wrote and plot details from “Inferno” is that we know in Moira’s alternate Life Ten (before Omega Sentinel travelled back in time) Krakoa did achieve mutant ascendancy.

  40. neutrino says:

    I was wondering in the Marauders if Delores Ramirez was working with Hommes Verendi to pass on the information about about Verendi’s attempt to taint the medicine so Ramirez could ingratiate herself with the mutants.

    Moira’s plan seems to have been to prevent baseline humans from producing anymore mutants, which would have turned the mutants into an isolated population like the Inhumans or the Eternals (after the resurrection protocols), so the human majority would no longer fear being replaced. If it did involve tampering with medicine, it probably was altered.

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