didn’t\u00a0<\/em>have until 2008 was girls (not at Moira’s age, anyway). \u00a0Oh well. \u00a0Interestingly, none of the later Moiras go to Edinburgh Academy, even the ones who stick on the path of going to Oxford.<\/p>\nThere’s a suggestion here that Moira was steered towards academia because she was mistaken for a prodigy, but her extra lifetime alone wouldn’t make her a scientific genius, so I think we’re supposed to take it that the aptitude is still genuine. \u00a0This Moira is the first to go to Oxford University (an established part of her backstory), and there’s a passing mention of her meeting “some interesting people” there – apparently not including Charles Xavier<\/strong>, whom she only barely remembers later. \u00a0Moira is finally inspired to pay attention to mutant affairs when Xavier\u00a0comes out as a mutant on TV – she immediately tries to join the plot, but dies in a plane crash before managing to do so.<\/p>\nXavier’s televised announcement is a direct repeat of the equivalent scene in\u00a0New X-Men<\/em> #116, complete with the same dialogue (except for the opening words about shadows and angels).\u00a0\u00a0 That raises a couple of points. \u00a0First, in\u00a0that issue, it’s actually Cassandra Nova in Xavier’s body, not the real Xavier. \u00a0Since the dialogue is word-for-word identical, that presumably applies here too. \u00a0Second, it seems that X-Men history has played out in a broadly recognisable fashion up to the start of the Grant Morrison run without Moira having to get involved at all. \u00a0Aside from making clear that Moira didn’t bring the X-Men into being – Xavier would have done it anyway – this also seems to fit with the theme that the more active a role Moira takes in a timeline, the worse things seem to go.<\/p>\nThe timeline has this Moira founding the Muir Research Institute at the age of 31. \u00a0Considering how much we’ve heard about Muir over the years in connection with Moira, it gets remarkably little play in this issue.<\/p>\n
PAGES 10-15:<\/strong> The life of Moira III<\/strong>. \u00a0Again, she goes to Oxford, but takes against Xavier. \u00a0Instead, she finds a cure for being a mutant… and promptly gets herself killed again, since\u00a0the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants<\/strong> show up on her doorstep. \u00a0The team shown on panel are\u00a0Mystique, Destiny, Pyro<\/strong> and\u00a0Avalanche<\/strong> – they’d normally include\u00a0Blob<\/strong>, but while he’s on the cover, he doesn’t seem to be in the scene. \u00a0For some reason Pyro calls Destiny “mother”, which isn’t usual for him.<\/p>\nThis scene is used to carefully spell out some particularly tricky parts of the plot. \u00a0Destiny’s precognitive powers don’t quite work normally on Moira – she can’t see Moira directly, but she can see the ripple effects. \u00a0This is why Destiny can’t see Moira – she’s always physically blind, but normally it’s academic because her powers let her “see” a millisecond ahead. \u00a0Destiny’s powers apparently tell her that the whole cure thing won’t work out well, so she and Mystique want to force Moira onto a different path the next time round, ideally by terrorising her about the consequences if she gets things wrong.<\/p>\n
Destiny was always a character prone to long-term and elliptical schemes, and there’s reason to think she has more in mind here than just stopping the cure. \u00a0Destiny claims that Moira can in fact be killed for good, as long as it happens in the first 13 years of her life, before her mutant powers activate. \u00a0(Her power, it seems, is the ability to send herself back in time at death – it’s the sending body that needs powers, not the receiving one.) \u00a0Presumably, then, Moira can also be killed for good if you turn her powers off. \u00a0And this Moira has just developed a cure to do exactly that, which it seems she might even be planning to take of her own accord. \u00a0So if Mystique and Destiny wanted to kill Moira for real, they could just… give her the cure. \u00a0Instead they seem to take a conscious decision to send her back for a do-over.<\/p>\n
There are two other important plot points here. \u00a0First, even though Destiny can’t see Moira directly, she\u00a0claims<\/em> that she can see Moira’s future lives in some sense, and knows that there will only be ten – or “eleven if you make the right choice at the end.” \u00a0(Again, note that this implies that Moira can in fact die at the\u00a0end<\/em> of a life.) \u00a0Moira’s tenth life, of course, is the one we’re currently on.<\/p>\nSecond, Destiny claims that now that she’s confronted Moira, all future versions of Moira’s life will include a version of Destiny who already knows to look out for her. \u00a0This is typically headache-inducing time travel stuff, but the idea seems to be that Destiny already exists, and already has powers, at the point where Moira is conceived. \u00a0Therefore Moira will be faced with a pre-existing version of Destiny who can see the future in its current form, i.e. including the scene we’re now watching. \u00a0It’s kind of head-spinning and paradoxy but you get the general idea. \u00a0But note the implications if Destiny is right. \u00a0Destiny herself died in\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #255 way back in 1989 (and on Muir Isle, of all places). \u00a0But there was nothing to stop her leaving instructions for someone else – and the obvious candidate would be her life-long partner Mystique. \u00a0Not only has Mystique appeared in every issue of this series to date, she was also responsible for killing Moira in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #108.<\/p>\nThe infographic describes Moira III as dying in a laboratory fire, which seems an unduly coy way of saying “murdered by Pyro”.<\/p>\n
PAGES 16-17.<\/strong> \u00a0The life of\u00a0Moira IV.<\/strong> \u00a0This version also goes to Oxford, and becomes the first to fall in love with Charles Xavier. \u00a0In this timeline, she seems to be a straightforward ally of the X-Men, and lives through a basically recognisable version of X-Men history that duly end with everyone being wiped out by the Sentinels<\/strong>. \u00a0The Sentinels are, of course, a big deal over in\u00a0Powers of X<\/em>, not to mention being the traditional apocalyptic end point for the X-Men, so it’s hardly surprising that Moira keeps running into them from here on. \u00a0Moiras II and III die before getting a chance to meet the Sentinels, while Moira I lived to a happy old age, so if there were Sentinels in that timeline, they evidently didn’t bring about an apocalypse.<\/p>\nX-Men history is represented by three panels, which the narrator describes as “the gifted years” (the Silver Age), “the time of hate and fear” (an early Claremont line-up) and “the lost decade” (represented by\u00a0Avengers vs X-Men<\/em>). \u00a0That last term is curious – and note that the infographic on the present day timeline allows a curiously short two years for the entire period from New X-Men<\/em> #114 to the present day. \u00a0Is something screwy here?<\/p>\nPAGE 18.<\/strong> \u00a0The life of\u00a0Moira V.<\/strong> \u00a0She meets Xavier early (note her position in the opening panel mirrors the repeated Oxford pub sequence anyway), they build a radicalised mutant city (Faraway), and the Sentinels come anyway.<\/p>\nPAGE 19-20.<\/strong> \u00a0The life of\u00a0Moira VII<\/strong> – not VI, who gets skipped. \u00a0Moira VI is also missing from the closing timeline graphic, so there’s clearly a plot there. \u00a0This Moira tries to avert the Sentinels by murdering everyone in the Trask family who might build them – only to find that the Sentinels just emerge spontaneously anyway when AI is discovered. \u00a0They even look the same. \u00a0So apparently we’re doing runaway AI and the singularity and all that.<\/p>\nMoira is shown killing four Trask family members. \u00a0Bolivar Trask<\/strong> created the Sentinels in their debut way way back in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #14. \u00a0Donald Trask<\/strong> seems to be the bit-part character from\u00a0New X-Men<\/em> #114-115 who wasn’t even a villain; his DNA was just by Cassandra Nova in order to control the Wild Sentinels. \u00a0Simon Trask<\/strong> was Bolivar’s brother, and the founder of the mid-90s extremist sect Humanity’s Last Stand. \u00a0Gwyneth Trask<\/strong> appears to be new. \u00a0The timeline graphic calls the Sentinel nest a “wild Master Mold facility”, which seems to be calling back to the “Wild Sentinels” concept from\u00a0New X-Men<\/em>.<\/p>\nAccording to the timeline, Moira VII joined “the BAF”, presumably the British Armed Forces, and “disappeared” seven years before she started killing Trasks.<\/p>\n
PAGES 21-22.<\/strong> \u00a0The life of\u00a0Moira VIII<\/strong>, who decides to take her chances with supervillain-mode\u00a0Magneto<\/strong>. \u00a0Telling Magneto about her past-life experiences just leads him to attempt a missile strike on the White House, and predictably he gets squashed by the 80s superheroes. \u00a0Magneto’s ornate island base seems to be modelled on the one he was living in circa\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #150.<\/p>\nThe timeline graphic\u00a0vastly\u00a0<\/em>expands on what’s shown here. \u00a0It shows that Magneto conquered America and duly ran it for six years, before being killed in the “War of M”. \u00a0During his reign, Moira formed something called “the House of M”, which we’ll no doubt learn about in due course. \u00a0This Moira is captured in Magneto’s defeat, and dies trying to escape.<\/p>\nPAGES 23-24.<\/strong> \u00a0The life of\u00a0Moira IX<\/strong>, who is desperate enough to try her luck with\u00a0Apocalypse<\/strong>. \u00a0Her choices aren’t getting any better. \u00a0War ensues. \u00a0This version of Moira seems to be Apocalypse’s partner and wears a version of his costume, complete with blue skin – it seems likely that she’s been given powers. \u00a0Apocalypse has a couple of Egyptian-themed henchmen behind him, one of whom makes the front cover, so might be more important than he first appears. \u00a0The Egyptian imagery has been associated with Apocalypse for decades by this point. \u00a0Apocalypse and Moira are shown fighting together against Nimrod and the Sentinels, so we’re back to the same destination.<\/p>\nThe timeline expands on this a lot. \u00a0Apocalypse kills both Xavier and Magneto in this timeline, and then he and Moira leave Earth to recruit their first Horseman off-world. \u00a0Apocalypse founds a version of the X-Men, presumably inspired by Moira. \u00a0Most important of all, Moira IX’s timeline has no defined end point, but stretches off indefinitely into the future.<\/p>\n
PAGES 25-27.<\/strong> \u00a0The gestation of\u00a0Moira X<\/strong> – the current Moira – and a repeat of the scene from\u00a0Powers of X\u00a0<\/em>#1 where she meets Xavier. \u00a0Now we know what Xavier saw in her mind. The narrator says that Moira X “decided she and Charles Xavier would break all the rules”; Cypher said something rather similar in the previous issue in reference to the new Krakoa-based direction (“The Professor has changed all the old rules”).<\/p>\nThe timeline has quite a lot on the life of Moira X. \u00a0It acknowledges her marriage to Joseph MacTaggert in year 25 – he was eventually killed by Proteus. \u00a0There’s a curious entry which says that Moira and Xavier recruited Magneto in year 43, with a schism in year 47. \u00a0This presumably has something to do with Magneto joining the X-Men during the Claremont run and going back to villainy in 1991 with\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #1, though it’s not obvious where Moira’s recruitment fits into that.<\/p>\nJonathan Hickman has confirmed that the text for years 49 and 50 has been swapped by mistake. \u00a0Year 50, “Genocide at Genosha”, is clearly\u00a0New X-Men<\/em> #114 – as noted above, this allows only a vanishingly short time for everything since then, which surely has to mean something. \u00a0Year 49, “Moira fakes death (Shi’ar golem)”, refers to her death in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #108. \u00a0Note that Hickman is clear here that we are\u00a0not<\/em> living in a reboot timeline following Moira’s death in that issue; we’re still in the established X-Men continuity. \u00a0This isn’t the first mention we’ve had of the Shi’ar, either, though they’ve been on the fringes thus far.<\/p>\nGoing back over hundreds of issues for dialogue that doesn’t fit with Hickman’s retcon would be a tiresome exercise – though for what it’s worth, I don’t believe there are any stories out there where Moira and Destiny appear together. \u00a0Moira’s death in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #108 is worth a look, though. \u00a0It was part of the “Dream’s End” crossover, which ran through\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #388,\u00a0Cable<\/em> #87,\u00a0Bishop: The Last X-Man<\/em> #16 and\u00a0X-Men<\/em> #108. \u00a0Since it was one of the last storylines before the Morrison\/Casey reboot, it doesn’t get much talked about; its main plot purpose was to set up the cure of the Legacy Virus as a deck-clearing exercise.<\/p>\nSo far as Moira is concerned, “Dream’s End” involved Mystique inventing a variant Legacy Virus which only attacked humans. \u00a0The Brotherhood attack Muir Isle and blow up the Research Centre, presumably in order to stop Moira from revealing how to cure their Virus. \u00a0The X-Men find Moira dying in the wreckage, and she explains \u00a0that she’s worked out the cure to both versions of the Legacy Virus. \u00a0In an, er, interesting piece of plotting, the X-Men decide that the best way to deal with a dying genius with essential information is to fly her across the Atlantic to the X-Men Mansion, rather than (say) taking her to a Scottish hospital. \u00a0Even though Rogue is right there, and offers to use her powers to absorb the memories, Moira insists that Rogue’s powers are too unstable (this was indeed a subplot at the time). \u00a0Instead – and this is the bit that doesn’t seem to lend itself to the “golem” explanation – Xavier and Jean use Cerebro to make contact with Moira on the plane, Xavier retrieves the data about the cure, and he and Jean watch Moira’s astral form depart for the afterlife. \u00a0It’s… not an easy death scene to explain away. \u00a0We’ll see where Hickman is heading with that.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, the Brotherhood members who attack Muir Isle in “Dream’s End” are the unusual trio of Mystique, Toad and Sabretooth – the same three who raided Damage Control in\u00a0House of X<\/em> #1.<\/p>\nPAGE 28.<\/strong> \u00a0Closing quote from “Moira X”, which could mean anything, really.<\/p>\nPAGES 29-31.<\/strong>\u00a0 The timeline, but we’ve covered that.<\/p>\nPAGES 32-34:<\/strong> The trailer pages read: “NEXT – HELLO OLD FRIEND”, and “THEN – THIS IS WHAT YOU DO”.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So this is the huge high-concept retcon. \u00a0Spoilers ahead, as if that wasn’t obvious. \u00a0(Again, I’m using the page numbers in the digital edition.) COVER (PAGE 1):\u00a0There’s quite a lot going on in this set of triangles.. \u00a0There are six different versions of Moira in the centre, each presumably representing a different one of her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hoxpox","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4672"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4753,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions\/4753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}