Powers of X 02: We are together now, you and I *spoilers*

[stillanerd]

After reading and reviewing Powers of X #2, I also agree that House of X, so far, is the better of the two series. I also agree that, when it comes to the characters, they definitely feel more distant and cold. (Not Nimrod, though. He's a hoot.) That said, we're also past the worldbuilding parts and definitely moving into the main plots. And there's no question that the X-Men haven't been this interesting in a long time.

Stillanerd Reads: Powers of X #2

[Devaishwarya]

I think it's possible that we're in life 10, but that the scenes being shown in POX are actually from a previous life.

I agree.
I thought that this was obvious. Clearly it's not.

[Bruce Wayne]

I think in the very first issues of PoX,one of the datapages indicates the 100 years in the future segments are happening in the timeline where she joined Apocalypse.

[cranger]

There’s nothing that would preclude such a twist; I just don’t think Hickman is telling a story where *all* of the action will ultimately just be the memory of one character. I think all of those past lives were introduced to impact the prime timeline, not as a place to which Hickman can retroactively relegate any/all of these storylines. Like, is there some story potential you see in such a twist? Something about the idea of HOX/POX’s “present” being the familiar timeline that you think needs to be fixed? Or do you just favor a general “anything is possible and thus anything could be a lie” outlook? Genuinely curious; sorry if you’ve already explained. It’s hard to keep up with who favors which theories and why.

Yes. That is, I think Hickman has been intentionally leading about certain things while being intentionally lacking in the same certain things. I think we are going to continue to have layers removed each issue that changes how we interpret that past issues (that sounds familiar for some reason). So I am open to almost anything, but something like life 10 or 11 is not even that big of a stretch, it is already given to us.

I get that no one wants this to basically turn into an alternate reality story but I think it will turn out that all of the action we see will matter, that the end result of life 10 leads to life 11, what we know, and that the X-Men will still be in a similar position, with the potential of the two futures still being very relevant since the whole series is about explaining how things will happen the same way unless Moira did something to create a divergence, and then wondering now just exactly how it diverges in this continuity.

[Wiccan]

I agree.
I thought that this was obvious. Clearly it's not.

My impression is that so far the main assumption is that the scenes we're seeing here are in the current life/timeline? But I feel like stuff like Magneto knowing about all of Moira's lifes and acting accordingly brings up too many problems.

[Devaishwarya]

My impression is that so far the main assumption is that the scenes we're seeing here are in the current life/timeline? But I feel like stuff like Magneto knowing about all of Moira's lifes and acting accordingly brings up too many problems.

Given the overall state of X-Continuity, it would be nonsensical 1. To expect everything to line up neatly (some things never will) and 2. For HiX-Man to make everything line up neatly, when he himself acknowledges that X-Continuity is damaged.
Speculation is all well and good but...
You just have to take what's on the page, add a dash of common sense and a generous pinch of suspended disbelief.

[Geogeo999]

I think in the very first issues of PoX,one of the datapages indicates the 100 years in the future segments are happening in the timeline where she joined Apocalypse.

This is all coming from the code on the Surviving Mutants info page in PoX 1... where the coding is

[M_X_files]........[0]
[ML_09.........(Apoc_build)][X]

Is there any other indication that our Year 100 story is Life 9? I admit it's a convincing morsel, but what messes it up is there's absolutely no indication in what we've read/seen of Life 9 that Krakoa existed in this form.

In PoX Year 100, Krakoa is definitely a thing. Apocalypse and Moira are seen in Life 9 in their sort of HQ and it's not Krakoa. It's stone and fire and skulls. Krakoa is not apocalypse's M.O. Not at all. Doesn't fit. Xavier's dead in Life 9 and so is Magneto when Moira is still very young. Also if there's a Magneto chimera as this old green magneto dude but Magneto was killed by Apocalypse in Life 9... where'd they get the DNA for that. Life 9 would have to be Moira goes and finds sinister at age 13 and gets him on the road to chimerism.

In fact, if Moira wakes Apocalypse at age 18 and they kill Xavier when she's 19, then half the characters we see in these chimeras probably would barely exist or would have died way before they started making them... If you look at life 4... the original five xmen are formed in Moira's 35th year. Meaning I think Moira would have woken apocalypse and killed xavier before most of those 5 were even born. Life 9 should not resemble any sort of world we are familiar with. I'm not seeing anything outside of one line of code making much sense with this theory. I think if Life 9 is X^2... that just makes this whole thing so complicated. The easiest most streamlined way to tell this already super complicated narrative would be for all of HoX and Pox be the normal X timeline and for all of it to exist within Moira's Xth life. Y'all may be right. But I am unconvinced and I think it would make for a worse story.

[TOTALITY]

My impression is that so far the main assumption is that the scenes we're seeing here are in the current life/timeline? But I feel like stuff like Magneto knowing about all of Moira's lifes and acting accordingly brings up too many problems.

My reading is that he has known Moira’s message and NOT acted accordingly just as much as he has. (Same with Xavier.) Kind of like me doing things I enjoy like drinking artificially sweetened beverages even though I know they supposedly raise the risk of cancer, but you know, stuff like taking over the world and waging war on the humans, because he’s Magneto! The importance of Moira’s knowledge I think will be not just in how much it has and will change things, but in how much it hasn’t and may never.

[Devaishwarya]

Also consider, those three aren't the only ones making choices and decisions that affect everyone/thing else.
Even Destiny with her precognition cannot/does not willfully attempt to change the course of the future.

[stillanerd]

I think in the very first issues of PoX,one of the datapages indicates the 100 years in the future segments are happening in the timeline where she joined Apocalypse.

That was my thinking as well the moment we saw that the "Old Man" Wolverine talked about was, in fact, Apocalypse. It certainly would be a decent twist on Hickman part to make us think everything we're reading is happening along the same timeline when, in fact, we're reading different timelines from Moira's various lives.

This is all coming from the code on the Surviving Mutants info page in PoX 1... where the coding is

[M_X_files]........[0]
[ML_09.........(Apoc_build)][X]

Oh that's clever! Now I definitely have to reread Hickman's data pages.

Is there any other indication that our Year 100 story is Life 9? I admit it's a convincing morsel, but what messes it up is there's absolutely no indication in what we've read/seen of Life 9 that Krakoa existed in this form.

In PoX Year 100, Krakoa is definitely a thing. Apocalypse and Moira are seen in Life 9 in their sort of HQ and it's not Krakoa. It's stone and fire and skulls. Krakoa is not apocalypse's M.O. Not at all. Doesn't fit. Xavier's dead in Life 9 and so is Magneto when Moira is still very young. Also if there's a Magneto chimera as this old green magneto dude but Magneto was killed by Apocalypse in Life 9... where'd they get the DNA for that. Life 9 would have to be Moira goes and finds sinister at age 13 and gets him on the road to chimerism.

In fact, if Moira wakes Apocalypse at age 18 and they kill Xavier when she's 19, then half the characters we see in these chimeras probably would barely exist or would have died way before they started making them... If you look at life 4... the original five xmen are formed in Moira's 35th year. Meaning I think Moira would have woken apocalypse and killed xavier before most of those 5 were even born. Life 9 should not resemble any sort of world we are familiar with. I'm not seeing anything outside of one line of code making much sense with this theory. I think if Life 9 is X^2... that just makes this whole thing so complicated. The easiest most streamlined way to tell this already super complicated narrative would be for all of HoX and Pox be the normal X timeline and for all of it to exist within Moira's Xth life. Y'all may be right. But I am unconvinced and I think it would make for a worse story.

Lots of good points here. Moreover, as we saw during his Avengers run, Hickman doesn't usually go for alternate futures. Instead, it's heavily implied that the future of the Marvel Universe in which he depicts is what will ultimately happen. The real mystery comes from how the events of the present will lead towards that eventuality.

[spirit2011]

This is all coming from the code on the Surviving Mutants info page in PoX 1... where the coding is

[M_X_files]........[0]
[ML_09.........(Apoc_build)][X]

Is there any other indication that our Year 100 story is Life 9? I admit it's a convincing morsel, but what messes it up is there's absolutely no indication in what we've read/seen of Life 9 that Krakoa existed in this form.

In PoX Year 100, Krakoa is definitely a thing. Apocalypse and Moira are seen in Life 9 in their sort of HQ and it's not Krakoa. It's stone and fire and skulls. Krakoa is not apocalypse's M.O. Not at all. Doesn't fit. Xavier's dead in Life 9 and so is Magneto when Moira is still very young. Also if there's a Magneto chimera as this old green magneto dude but Magneto was killed by Apocalypse in Life 9... where'd they get the DNA for that. Life 9 would have to be Moira goes and finds sinister at age 13 and gets him on the road to chimerism.

In fact, if Moira wakes Apocalypse at age 18 and they kill Xavier when she's 19, then half the characters we see in these chimeras probably would barely exist or would have died way before they started making them... If you look at life 4... the original five xmen are formed in Moira's 35th year. Meaning I think Moira would have woken apocalypse and killed xavier before most of those 5 were even born. Life 9 should not resemble any sort of world we are familiar with. I'm not seeing anything outside of one line of code making much sense with this theory. I think if Life 9 is X^2... that just makes this whole thing so complicated. The easiest most streamlined way to tell this already super complicated narrative would be for all of HoX and Pox be the normal X timeline and for all of it to exist within Moira's Xth life. Y'all may be right. But I am unconvinced and I think it would make for a worse story.

I saw the same thing on the twitter. But I really think everything is pointing out to House of X being the 10th live and POX being the consequence of that live choice made by moira.

on 9th live moira and apocalypse fighting the 3 head nimrod doesn't mean is the same timeline as POX, remember that Xavier is trying to avoid Nimrod, so Moira probably fought him on a previous life.

also the 9 can be the 10th life, if it starting counting from 0 like binary systems do

[JKtheMac]

It's not confirmed.
But think about Times Run Out. It all happened in reality 616, but it was irrelevant after Secret Wars.
Hickman said he likes to play his game but he puts the pieces back to their places in the end.

Please no. I thought your lot had died out. Hickman didn’t reset Time Runs Out! He just had Wakanda resurrected.

[Tazirai]

POX is the High Concept of HOX. It's not going to give away all the answers right away.

HOX = Final Fantasy 7, quick easy to understand and familiar, yet new.
POX = Final Fantasy 6, Kefka kills the Gods, and Destroys the world, but starts off as a clown. How did he get to that point? That's POX.

[Triniking1234]

Please no. I thought your lot had died out. Hickman didn’t reset Time Runs Out! He just had Wakanda resurrected.

Obviously Alonoso snapped those ANAD books that mention the Incursions out of existence before he left.

[RamaBird]

So, on Comixology's best seller list, POX#2 is #1, HOX#2 is #2 on it's second week out, POX #1 is #10 on its third week, and HOX #1 is in the top 25 on its fourth week. Some issues don't even make it to top 25 on week 1, and most that do are out of it by the second week, so the XMEN is dominating digital sales way better than physical sales as of now (its dominating those too though).