{"id":4978,"date":"2020-02-08T21:01:09","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T21:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4978"},"modified":"2020-02-08T22:31:06","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T22:31:06","slug":"the-complete-moira-part-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4978","title":{"rendered":"The Complete Moira, Part 6"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For previous chapters, see Part 1<\/a>, Part 2<\/a>, Part 3<\/a>, Part 4<\/a> and Part 5<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time round, we’ll cover Moira’s early 90s, where she… well, gets passed around various books for a while, then lands in a title that barely has a regular writer. Despite that, these issues set the course for Moira’s remaining stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #1-3<\/a> by Chris Claremont, Jim Lee & Scott Williams (“Rubicon”, “Firestorm” and “Fallout”, October to December 1991).<\/strong> The last Chris Claremont story (for now, at least). Magneto’s manipulative new aide Fabian Cortez provokes him into taking up villainy again, and tells him that he has been subjected to genetic engineering. Magneto works out that it must be something Moira did to him during the period when he had been turned into an infant, and he was under her care. So he abducts Moira (and Professor X) to Asteroid M in order to yell at her. Moira confirms that her tests suggested that his body couldn’t handle the energy being processed by his powers, and so she modified his DNA to remove the instability, hoping that the same process could be used to cure Proteus. Magneto is outraged by what he sees as an interference in his free will. The rest of the story sees Magneto force Moira to use the same process to alter the personalities of half the X-Men so that the team can kick off their new series by fighting one another – but it turns out that the process quickly wears off when mutants use their powers. Magneto ends up sending the X-Men and Moira home, and seemingly dies aboard his exploding satellite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Frankly, this story is a mess. The idea of Moira using scientific means to alter peoples’ personalities comes from X-Men<\/em> #104, the first appearance of Muir Isle. So does Moira’s hope that the process could be applied to Proteus. But the idea hadn’t been mentioned since. The plot logic is wonky too – even in comic book logic, there’s a huge gap from “removing an instability in Magneto’s powers” to “mind-controlling the X-Men to join the Acolytes”, but apparently the same procedure can do both. What’s more, the plot wants us to believe that the process doesn’t work on mutants because “the structures of mind and body have to be aligned a certain specific way for those powers to operate”, so that every time they use their powers, their minds revert to normal. How on earth that’s meant to work for Beast or Psylocke, I have no idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moira is already in tears about the whole thing before <\/em>Magneto confronts her over it, for no apparent reason. Nor it is clear if she already knew that the process didn’t work. The plot works better if she didn’t – otherwise she’s artificially holding back information to let the plot work – but Magneto was a villain for 50 issues or so after being reverted to adulthood, so how could she ever have thought that it had worked?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At any rate, Moira goes into a histrionic emotional tailspin over all this (even by the standards of a histrionic era), presumably because she’s confronted with something she now recognises as ethically unacceptable, or at least hopelessly counterproductive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(There’s also a line of dialogue where Moira offers to let Charles read her mind and he says he’s never done that and never will – which obviously doesn’t quite fit with House of X<\/em>. But Moira did refuse to let him read her mind after their first contact, so they could be referring to that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moira has a diary entry in Powers of X <\/em>#6 about losing Magneto: “We have lost Magneto. I had hoped – given the opportunity – to help make him a better man. Instead all we have made is an enemy.” Presumably that refers to the story above. If so, the emphasis shifts to Moira being upset about her alliance falling apart – but that actually works better as an explanation for her reaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #4<\/a> by Jim Lee, John Byrne & Scott Williams (“The Resurrection and the Flesh”, January 1992).<\/strong> A melodramatically miserable Moira decides to leave the X-Men and spend some time alone, leaving poor Sean behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s some botched plotting here. The idea seems to have been for Moira to go off on her own, and Sean to go after her. But in fact Moira shows up at Muir Isle almost immediately, and remains in regular contact with the X-Men… while poor Sean just vanishes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Factor<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #75<\/a> by Peter David, Larry Stroman & Al Milgrom (“The Nasty Boys”, February 1992).<\/strong> X-Factor need to know the plot of Fallen Angels<\/em>, so Moira helpfully recaps it for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #14-15<\/a>, Uncanny X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #295-296<\/a>, X-Force<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #17<\/a><\/strong> & X-Factor<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #86<\/a> by various creators (November 1992 to January 1993).<\/strong> These are all chapters of the “X-Cutioner’s Song” crossover. When Stryfe shoots Professor X and infects him with a techno-organic virus, Moira gets to spend several issues discussing treatment options with Beast over a videolink. For what it’s worth, this story has Moira’s first on-page interaction with Apocalypse (who eventually cures the Professor). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moira doesn’t appear in Uncanny X-Men<\/em> vol 1 #297 (the epilogue issue) but several of her medical diagnoses are reported to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Factor<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #88-90<\/a> by Peter David, Scott Lobdell, Joe Quesada & Al Milgrom (“Random<\/strong> Violence”, “Dark Homecoming” and “A Green and Tender Place”, March to May 1993).<\/strong> After the X-Men toppled the Genoshan government (in “X-Tinction Agenda”), the formerly-enslaved mutates have started dying of a mystery affliction. Moira travels to Genosha to help investigate. This is an abortive storyline, introduced at the very end of the Peter David run and swiftly folded into the Legacy Virus plot (but we’ll get to that).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Factor visit the island, including Moira’s ward Rahne. Rahne’s current subplot involves her becoming uncharacteristically obsessed with men, and she asks Moira for advice about these irrational urges. Moira runs some tests and blames it on a combination of (a) the mating instincts of Rahne’s wolf form, and (b) a master-slave relationship with Havok that was imprinted on her during her brief period as a mutate. Understandably, Rahne finds this extremely distressing news and demands to be cured, but Moira is far more concerned about the bigger problem of curing the mutates. She’s played here as remarkably dispassionate, and frankly dismissive about Rahne’s plea for emotional support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is arguably the single most Hickmanesque depiction of Moira prior to House of X<\/em>. If you’re looking for support for the view that Moira’s relationship with Rahne is a very low priority for her, and gets shouldered aside by other concerns very easily, then there’s plenty of ammunition here – and Rahne herself seems to be coming round to that view by the end of these issues. (JM DeMatteis will try to tie up this loose end in issue #102, when Moira apologises to Rahne.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncanny X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #300<\/a> by Scott Lobdell, John Romita Jr & Dan Green (“Legacies”, May 1993).<\/strong> Fabian Cortez has Moira kidnapped so that her mind-control procedure can be used to enlist new converts to the Acolytes. Yes, this is the mind-control procedure from X-Men <\/em>vol 2 #1-3. The one that we already established doesn’t work. Cortez claims (without explanation) that it didn’t work on the X-Men because of their strength of will, but it should be just fine with the routine Acolytes. That doesn’t fit with the earlier story at all, so either he’s wasting his time or it’s a retcon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, the X-Men rescue Moira. Later, back at the Mansion, Moira and Charles Xavier compare notes on the Genoshan mutates and other victims that Charles has found, and identify the cause as Stryfe’s Legacy Virus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this point on, Moira will be searching for a cure for the Legacy Virus – yes, right up to her death in 2001, eight years later. During that time, she will make pretty much no progress whatsoever, until right at the end when it’s finally time to get the Legacy Virus off the board. The simple reason is that the Legacy Virus isn’t a story – it’s just part of the 90s status quo. Unfortunately for Moira, a large part of her role from here on is to pop up periodically and try to make it look like it’s going somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncanny X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #301<\/a> by Scott Lobdell, John Romita Jr & Dan Green (“Dominion!”, June 1993).<\/strong> Moira and Charles discuss Illyana Rasputin’s infection with the Legacy Virus. Charles is in denial about it, and Moira is trying to get him to see sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncanny X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #303<\/a> by Scott Lobdell, Richard Bennett & Dan Green (“Going Through the Motions”, August 1993).<\/strong> Illyana Rasputin dies from the Legacy Virus, despite the best efforts of Moira and others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #24<\/a> by Fabian Nicieza & Andy Kubert (“Digging Deeper, Between Hope and Sorrow”, September 1993).<\/strong> Sean Cassidy returns to the Mansion, having apparently wasted several months looking for Moira (who has been in contact with the X-Men and X-Factor all along). Sean ventures the opinion that Moira was upset by the Magneto incident because she doesn’t like being reminded of her own fallibility, which is fairly in line with Hickman. Moira talks about her feelings of survivor’s guilt, which was originally a Proteus reference, but works very well with Hickman too. Anyway, Moira and Sean are seemingly back together again. But their relationship never really picks up again on panel in any significant way, and fades out again when Sean moves to Massachusetts to join the cast of Generation X <\/em>(after the Phalanx Covenant crossover, which we’ll get to below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men Unlimited<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #2<\/a> by Fabian Nicieza, Jan Duursema and various (“Point Blank”, September 1993).<\/strong> Moira agrees to help Gabrielle Haller find ways to “neutralise” Magneto. She gives Haller biological data on Magneto, which Mossad uses to create special armour that can be used to sneak up on him. The story involves the wearer of the armour deciding not to go through with it; for some reason the armour itself never comes up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #25<\/a> and Wolverine<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #75<\/a> by various creators (“Fatal Attractions”, October & November 1993).<\/strong> This is the crossover where Magneto tears out Wolverine’s adamantium. Moira appears to offer her scientific thoughts on it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excalibur<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #71<\/a> by Scott Lobdell and various artists (“Fatal Attractions”, November 1993).<\/strong> Officially, this is also part of the same crossover, but in fact it’s only tenuously related. A bit of context here: Alan Davis’s run on Excalibur<\/em> ended with issue #67; it’s followed by a year with no stable creative team, mostly working from plots by Scott Lobdell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At any rate, this issue shows Muir Isle operating a secure psychiatric ward – apparently legally, since in this and following issues we see visiting medics from the mainland, and Muir is openly dealing with the likes of Rory Campbell, who comes from a mainstream university. Issue #102 will later claim that there are 11 prisoners on the island, but for some reason stories focus entirely on Spoor, a Z-list member of the Acolytes. Moira also stresses here that she’s now treating the patients with conventional therapy (presumably with the aid of the visiting medics, unless she’s picked up some psychiatric qualifications somewhere).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magneto’s EMP pulse from X-Men<\/em> #25 has knocked out the security systems, so Moira enlists Psylocke to round up the criminals. Then she helps in a scheme to try and win Colossus back after his defection to the Acolytes, which results in Moira sorting out his head injury, but him going back to the Acolytes anyway. At the end, Excalibur – at this point reduced to a rump of Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and Phoenix, plus a sick Meggan – agree to remain on Muir Isle, and Moira joins their supporting cast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men Annual<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #2<\/a> by Fabian Nicieza, Aron Wiesenfeld & various inkers (“A Bluer Slice of Heaven”, 1993).<\/strong> Moira is still studying the Legacy Virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uncanny X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #308<\/a> by Scott Lobdell, John Romita Jr & Dan Green (“Mixed Blessings”, January 1994).<\/strong> A number of supporting characters show up for Thanksgiving at the X-Men Mansion, including Moira and Sean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #28<\/a> by Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert & Matt Ryan (“Devil in the House”, January<\/strong> 1994).<\/strong> Since she’s in town, Moira offers some thoughts on how to treat the captive Sabretooth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excalibur<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #72-74<\/a> by Richard Ashford and various artists (“Ooohhh… Siena!”, “Memories are Made of This” and “In the Name<\/strong> of Love”, December 1993 to February 1994).<\/strong> Moira has got used to living alone, and is adjusting to having Excalibur around. Rory Campbell of Strathclyde University<\/a> joins the supporting cast, as he arrives on the island to help treat the patients. Rory’s storyline will involve him discovering that he’s Ahab (the evil hound-master cyborg from Rachel Summers’ timeline), and trying to change his fate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siena Blaze of the Upstarts attacks Muir Isle with, confusingly, two completely unrelated agendas. First, the Upstarts’ Gamesmaster will give her points for killing Moira (interestingly, the omniscient Gamesmaster describes her as a “potential mutant”, ostensibly on the basis of her being Proteus’ mother). Second, Mr Sinister wants her to steal the record of Proteus’ DNA that she kept back in Classic X-Men<\/em> #36. Moira gets to bravely confront Siena and hold her at bay until Excalibur drive her off. Also in these issues, Meggan emerges from her coma and Moira gets to deliver some exposition about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cable<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #9<\/a> by Fabian Nicieza, MC Wyman & Jason Gorder (“The Killing Field: In Humanity”, March 1994).<\/strong> Cable visits Muir Isle to talk with Rachel Summers about family stuff, and Moira takes the opportunity to run some tests on him. Moira discovers that Cable’s bionic parts are techno-organic (later contradicted in Cable<\/em> #-1, but we covered that in part 1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Men<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #30<\/a> by Fabian Nicieza, Andy Kubert & Matt Ryan (“The Ties That Bind”, March 1994).<\/strong> Moira cameos as one of the guests at Scott and Jean’s wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Factor<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #101-102<\/a> by J M DeMatteis, Jan Duursema & Al Milgrom (“Afterlives” and “The Polaris Plot!”, April and May 1994).<\/strong> Moira attends the funeral of Jamie Madrox. Moira laments to Charles that she spent so little time in touch with someone she now claims to have thought of as a son – which seems very over the top in terms of how their relationship was shown. Of course, unlike Rahne, Jamie was an adult by the time Moira met him. Still, this apparently prompts Moira to smooth things over with Rahne, so they have a heart-to-heart and reconcile after their fight in issue #90. They declare their love for each other and then Moira, being Moira, leaves to go straight back to Muir Island. She is, after all, very busy on the Legacy Virus – and in fairness, Rahne will come to stay very soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excalibur<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #75<\/a> by Scott Lobdell, Ken Lashley & Randy Elliott (“Hello, I Must Be Going!”, March 1994).<\/strong> Back on Muir Isle, Moira offers her scientific thoughts on how Meggan’s powers work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolverine<\/a><\/em> vol 2 #81-82<\/a> by Larry Hama, Adam Kubert, Mike Sellers & Mark Farmer (“Storm Warning!”, May 1994).<\/strong> Moira plays her usual scientist role, while Excalibur subdue a drugged-up Wolverine and capture Cyber. Later, she offers some exposition about Wolverine’s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excalibur<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #79-80<\/a> by Scott Lobdell, Chris Cooper and various artists (“The Douglock Chronicles, parts 2 and 3”, July & August 1994).<\/strong> While Excalibur are off in the main plot (and we’ll talk about Douglock next time), Moira and Charles keep on researching the Legacy Virus. Moira tells him not to give up hope and then reveals that the Legacy Virus has spread to a human subject – specifically, her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This storyline is… a problem for the Hickman retcon, since Xavier’s reaction to all this really makes no sense if he knows Moira is a mutant. In fairness, Hickman’s retcon does <\/em>make sense of the oddity of Moira being the only non-mutant to be infected by the virus, which was never adequately explained. But there’s no getting round it: Xavier’s reaction in these issues, with nobody else in the room, is very hard to reconcile with HoXPoX<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excalibur<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #81<\/a> by Scott Lobdell, Chris Cooper and various artists (“Beginnings, Middles & Endings”, September 1994).<\/strong> Charles and Moira go on holiday to France and reminisce about visiting the country as students. You might think that taking a plague carrier from an isolated lab to a capital city was a bad idea, but you’re not a Excellent Scientist like Charles and Moira, so hush. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an issue of Charles trying to cheer Moira up and rekindling their romantic relationship with a bit of flirting. It’s also the issue where Moira claims that she called off their relationship because she was scared by the intensity of his dream, and it has some rather dated and random stuff about Moira lacking confidence in her own attractiveness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

X-Factor<\/a><\/strong><\/em> vol 1 #106<\/a> and <\/strong>X-Force <\/a><\/strong><\/em>vol 1 #38<\/a> by various creators (“The Phalanx Covenant: Life Signs, Parts 1 and 2”, September 1994).<\/strong> The Phalanx attack Muir isle, but Professor X, Excalibur and Moira escape and call for help. Moira helps locate the Phalanx and then takes a back seat. (As such, she skips the Excalibur<\/em> issue of the crossover, even though it’s her home book.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excalibur Annual<\/em> #2 by Richard Ashford and others (“The Interpretation of Dreams”, 1994).<\/strong> Psylocke and Britanic – which is what Brian Braddock was calling himself at that point – try to wake Jamie Braddock from his coma. Moira offers exposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excalibur<\/a><\/em> vol 1 #83-85<\/a> by Warren Ellis, Terry Dodson & WC Carani (“The Soulsword Trilogy”, November 1994 to January 1995).<\/strong> Behold, the light at the end of the tunnel. This is from an idea by Scott Lobdell, so not quite the start of the Ellis run proper… but in effect, this is where Moira falls into the hands of a regular writer again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story isn’t about Moira, and her role is largely to advance the plot – aside from a weird scene which reveals that she still keeps Joe MacTaggert’s clothes in her wardrobe. That somewhat fits with the “survivor’s guilt” interpretation of Moira, but mainly feels as though Ellis wasn’t aware of the details of their history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next time, Ellis’s Excalibur.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For previous chapters, see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5. This time round, we’ll cover Moira’s early 90s, where she… well, gets passed around various books for a while, then lands in a title that barely has a regular writer. Despite that, these issues set the course for Moira’s remaining […]<\/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":[32,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moira","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978","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=4978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5086,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4978\/revisions\/5086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}