Moira MacTaggert has been one of the longstanding support characters of the X-Men for decades, but House and Powers of X and this bold new age of X-Men storytelling at Marvel have transformed her into one of the most fundamentally vital characters in the mutant universe right now. Which means it’s great news that we’re getting a solo series all about her x-ploits.
If you’ve not been following what Jonathan Hickman has been doing with the X-Men in House and Powers — a) stop reading this blog immediately because I’m about to spoil something incredibly cool, and b) what on earth are you doing they’re great go read them — then you might be a little confused as to why the longtime human ally of the X-Men, who’s mostly been dead in recent continuity, suddenly matters so much. Well, long story short…
Moira MacTaggert isn’t a human. She’s a mutant. And yes, she’s been dead, but she’s actually been dead several times over, because Moira’s mutant ability is the power to, upon death, return to her birth with all her memories and knowledge of the life she lived — at this point, lives she lived — intact.
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/10/if-you-like-comics-you-should-read-marvels-house-of-x-and-powers-of-x/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/hiclwrkgd3ktfuskil3a.png” title=”If You Like Comics, You Should Read Marvel’s House Of X And Powers Of X” excerpt=”For the past 11 weeks, I have eagerly awaited Wednesday mornings in a way I haven’t in a very long time. I’m a longtime comic book reader, and since Wednesdays are when new comics come out, I’m always a little excited — but this has been different. There’s something special going on in the world of X-Men comics, and I need to tell you about it.”]
It’s extremely cool because Hickman has used it to essentially interweave all of the prior X-Men continuity into a singular existence that makes it actually matter to the current story being told with these characters.
He’s also used it to make Moira something of a mutant kingmaker, using her current life cycle — her 10th, leading to her going by the pseudonym Moira X, you see what they did there — to break all the rules of everything she has tried before to guide mutantkind to a future that does not end with their tragic extinction, reforging Charles Xavier and Magneto into figures who can lead a united sovereign nation of all mutantkind against the direst threats they could ever face.
So now you kind of see why it’s fascinating news that she’s getting her own comic series, yes?
Hickman himself confirmed the news as part of a reader Q&A session with Adventures in Poor Taste today. Although he offered little in the way of really tangible details about the book, he did acknowledge it would not be one of the series in what is currently being referred to as the “Dawn of X” lineup that he himself will actually write. In fact, a change was made to last week’s Powers of X #6, the final issue of the House/Powers duology, because the unnamed writer Hickman and Marvel had hoped to take on a Moira book actually accepted the offer
“So, yes, there was going to be a thousand-year timeline in the back of Powers of X #6 explaining all the cool things that happened in [Moira’s ninth life]… the reason why this changed in production is because there was a writer we had hoped to get to do our eventual Moira book (that works as a kind of ‘dancing between the raindrops’ of X-Continuity story), and they agreed to do it long before we were expecting them to commit. Which was great news,” Hickman told the site.
“Then I basically told them what I was planning to do and asked if they wanted me to NOT put the timeline in the book (which would lock a lot of plot/story stuff in), and after talking about it, we decided not to stick it in there. But we got the writer we wanted, and that book is going to be amazing.”
Describing the Moira series as a way for this new age of X-Men comes to “dance between the raindrops” of the X-Men’s long and convoluted continuity is fascinating. Especially as, like we said — not only does all of that stuff carry dramatic weight now that it is viewed through the lens of the many lives of Moira MacTaggert, it’s a way to really, really dive deep into the nitty-gritty of X-Men lore. History, present, days of futures past and futures yet to come: it’s all on the table for exploration through Moira’s many eyes.
Suffice to say, like Hickman, we too are very excited. X-cited, even. We’ll bring you more on the currently unannounced Moira series as and when we learn it.
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