HOUSE OF X [02] : The Uncanny Life of Moira X *Spoilers*

[JKtheMac]

Oh, I'm not saying it was the most emotional comic ever. Not by any stretch. But I do think there was emotion involved. This was indeed a very compressed explanation of her many lives, so there's a lot that was left out. I also imagine that given her experiences, emotion may be harder for her? She seems to view the whole thing very clinically...which makes sense given her scientific background.

My point was more that I think this issue was devoted to the exposition, to the establishment of the new status quo for her, there is enough there to expect that we'll get more emotional angles on this as the story progresses.

The most common criticism of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August which this is probably based upon, was that it is rather detached. It may come with the territory.

[JKtheMac]

Nope! Not gonna either.

This is where someone says "You have to read it or you can't talk about it," and I say "I can pick up what I need to know from previews, images, interviews, etc," then someone says that's not enough cause you need to see how it plays out, then I say the things I look at give enough of a glimpse, and cycle back around. It's an argument I've had when people tried to get me to buy and play 3rd Birthday, Final Fantasy 13, Resident Evil 6, etc. If I did read it, all that would happen is I read it, my expectations are reaffirmed, I say so, and what I say gets dismissed anyway cause "You already made up your mind before you read it." Makes more sense for me to save my money for things I want, like fanart of Lorna to fill the void Marvel won't fill.

No, this is where everyone thinks your opinion doesn’t really have anything to say to THEM. Which is why they say all the rest and are mostly correct. Shared experience is pretty much what this kind of discussion is based upon.

[Slicknickshady]

I love Rose Byrne, and I don't blame her at all, but I couldn't disagree more.

To me, she never got a chance to play Moira MacTaggert, she played some American CIA Agent using her name as an alias. Honestly, for anyone who feels the change in this issue ruined the character, that's nothing compared to the FOX film version of her, who made her Moira in name only.



I've considered this too! There are ways this works, and they've even maybe hinted at it?

One: It is established that Moira and Apocalypse founded the X-Men in TL 9.
Two: Magneto died in the Apocalypse Moira timeline, BUT "Magneto" could be "Not Magneto" in PoX #1, and instead be a Chimera with his look. Perhaps a Polaris Chimera.

Maybe Moira, who's 9th life doesn't end any time soon based on the TL in the back, lives through to the War era in PoX, and that's how Moira X knows about the Tower and Rasputin and Cardinal when she first meet's our Xavier.

That’s fair! But I truly believe she would rock the drama stuff. The Kevin Mctaggert rape and Proteus. Her failed marriage and son was hinted at in Apocalypse! I know what Kimberg was trying to do with Dark Phoenix and I really enjoyed it but I’m thinking maybe if they did the Proteus storyline it would have been better received.

Of course some will be happy Fox didn’t attempt that so the MCU can now. Point is i have a huge crush on Rose still. She just turned 40 so I don’t think she’s too old but my guess is she’ll be 45 by the time anything X Men happens in the MCU and Feige will want someone in her 20s.

Yes, full recasting is probably necessary but Rose Byrne is brilliant and she was wasted on those films’ Moira — comics’ Moira, especially now, is the kind of showcase I fear Byrne will never get! c’est la vie

Well said!

I’ll say the only fox cast I’m sad to see go will be Sophie Turner, The New Mutants Full Cast, Lana Condor, and Rose. And the only one that was even in Dark Phoenix was Sophie.

[Havok83]

That’s fair! But I truly believe she would rock the drama stuff. The Kevin Mctaggert rape and Proteus. Her failed marriage and son was hinted at in Apocalypse! I know what Kimberg was trying to do with Dark Phoenix and I really enjoyed it but I’m thinking maybe if they did the Proteus storyline it would have been better received.

Of course some will be happy Fox didn’t attempt that so the MCU can now. Point is i have a huge crush on Rose still. She just turned 40 so I don’t think she’s too old but my guess is she’ll be 45 by the time anything X Men happens in the MCU and Feige will want someone in her 20s.

We need to get a Moira X Disney+ series. Each season finale would result in her dying but we dont know how. They can keep the concept fresh by having her do radically different things in each life, which would constitute a new season

[ISnowNothin]

Things were always muddy, there were references pre-flashpoint, editors saying things pre flashpoint happened but different.

Batman in particular was difficult. Snyder wanted free reign to reboot, and Morrison wanted to keep Batman, Inc. going and they weren't willing to tell either of them "no," so they tried to cram what Morrison called a 15 year span into what Snyder and Didio insisted was 5 years, and somehow it was supposed to work?

New 52/Post-Flashpoint was as messed from the start as any of them.

I'm with you, I'm glad Marvel doesn't do it this way. We can't have an ongoing continuity AND reboots and have it all make sense, and they won't let the characters really age.
It's not a perfect system, it's not logical or consistent at all. It's the same as the Simpsons, really, and that's fine. Time passes, sometimes, but characters don't age, but some do, and if you look at it closely it falls apart, but it doesn't have to be consistent because it's all totally arbitrary and made-up anyway.

If we can handle that Kennedy both was and wasn't the President when Scott joined the X-Men, they we can accept it makes no sense.

[RD155]

So HOX and POX aren’t happening in the same timelines ? I thought it was pretty much set that both were happening in Timeline X. Now I’m reading some theories stating that POX is a different time line all together....

[ISnowNothin]

So HOX and POX aren’t happening in the same timelines ? I thought it was pretty much set that both were happening in Timeline X. Now I’m reading some theories stating that POX is a different time line all together....

I'm thinking it's possible PoX is a previous TL, either 6 or 9, because the others have her dying too early.

It would be a twist, but it's one that seems to work and would make sense to me.

[MentalManipulator]

OH MY GOD. For the first time they were not joking the X-Men as we know it will never be the same again.

What a brave, bold and creative move. This retcon is really intelligent and creative. I adore this new layer for the X-mythos and for the Xavier and Moira relationship in general.

Destiny was so BOSS in this! She fits perfectly with this story.

Very excited for the followup.

Also the art was gorgeous as the precedent issue.

5 stars!!!

ps: what about the sixth life though?

[pandafarmer]

So HOX and POX aren’t happening in the same timelines ? I thought it was pretty much set that both were happening in Timeline X. Now I’m reading some theories stating that POX is a different time line all together....

Supposedly, yes it's the same timeline. However:

- Life #6 is unknown and we could be seeing snippets from that along the way
- The future shown in HOX may be Life 9, 10, or even 11
- Is the entire run of the X-Men happening in Life 10 or even 11? Are there bits that could be from others? Did certain events happen multiple times in Moira's lives (like AvsX)?
- There are still 9 books left that could throw everything we're comfortable with now completely out of the window.

[RD155]

I'm thinking it's possible PoX is a previous TL, either 6 or 9, because the others have her dying too early.

It would be a twist, but it's one that seems to work and would make sense to me.

I don’t know. I figured it just seemed natural with how the story progressed in POX1 for it to all be happening in the same timeline. Now this theory about POX future being a different timeline has my head exploding even more. Lol. I got to say though the absence of timeline 6 is driving me absolutely crazy.

[ISnowNothin]

Supposedly, yes it's the same timeline. However:

- Life #6 is unknown and we could be seeing snippets from that along the way
- The future shown in HOX may be Life 9, 10, or even 11
- Is the entire run of the X-Men happening in Life 10 or even 11? Are there bits that could be from others? Did certain events happen multiple times in Moira's lives (like AvsX)?
- There are still 9 books left that could throw everything we're comfortable with now completely out of the window.

Some of this we already know. We know that things happened in multiple timelines, like AVX, because the lifetime we're shown with AVX in this issue also has Xavier and Moira married and her never having had Proteus in the chart at the end. We know that AVX happened in the main marvel timeline as well, where Proteus did exist.

We know that HoX and the main marvel universe are Moira X, definitively. That isn't even sort of into question. They're the only timelines we see with Moira ever BECOMING Moira MacTaggert, she doesn't marry Joe in any of the others.

The quotes in the Krakoan text in HoX are from "Moira X," and also attributed to "Moira MacTaggert." They aren't in Timeline 6, because she isn't identified as "Moira VI."

There's a lot of stuff to absorb, but some of it isn't as ambiguous as others.

[JKtheMac]

So HOX and POX aren’t happening in the same timelines ? I thought it was pretty much set that both were happening in Timeline X. Now I’m reading some theories stating that POX is a different time line all together....

You may be seeing theories but they are clearly not correct.

[ISnowNothin]

You may be seeing theories but they are clearly not correct.

You're probably right, but Moira saw this future by timline X, as shown with the opening scene in PoX. So she had to have lived through something similar in 6 or 9.

[loke13]

I don't think of this as ambitious. I think of it as a lot of stuff *gestures everywhere* paired with hype. None of this has really surprised me. This is the way it's always been done. Right now, it's a blend of time travel, Dark Phoenix (not in power but in base concept), and Genosha/Utopia. The franchise's most popular stories condensed into one. What would surprise me is far more abstract and simple.

Well I disagree the fact that's he's managing to create and hit these old story beats while giving the series a feeling of forward momentum that it hasn't had since E for Extinction. I don't want simple from a Hickman X-Men book. I want complex, convoluted, sci fi elements, big ideas, fantastic dialogue, and memorable quotes. I like the fact that HoX/PoX doesn't hold your hand and just really throws the reader into into the deep end of the X-Men mythos and expects you to swim.

[cranger]

You may be seeing theories but they are clearly not correct.

I would say that is pretty bold to call theories you have not actually seen "clearly" not correct, except that I firmly believe that every theory so far is "clearly" not correct.