“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.” ― Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Hickman's unified field theory of the mutant mythos continues...
RE: Nimbus/Nibiru - this is derived from a real-world astronomical hypothesis that there is an additional gas giant in our solar system orbiting way, way out past Pluto. You can find the details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_Nine.
RE: Technarch/Phalanx - this is an even deeper cut than people realize. Hickman isn't just harkening back to the Phalanx Covenant crossover; he's also referring back to Louise Simonson's short-lived Warlock series from the late 90s that explained the relationship between the Phalanx and Warlock's race, the Technarch. Simonson's version was that the Phalanx were the Technarch's food. Hickman has added an additional level to that: the "Phalanx" we've seen before are basically the real Phalanx's TO-infected garbage, and the Technarch exist to consume that garbage. The real Phalanx are the beings who show up at the end of this issue's Year 1000 segment ready to assimilate the blue people.
RE: Island M - presumably, this scene is set shortly before Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #147-150. The X-Men battled Magneto, and he fled the island in #150. Scott and Lee Forrester washed up there a few issues before. The X-Men used it as a secondary base for a few issues before returning to Westchester.
Though Claremont never explicitly spelled it all out at the time, the island was an abandoned Atlantean city that Magneto raised to the surface using his powers. The city included a temple structure that contained portals to Limbo--this is where Belasco lured Illyana to him, leading to her becoming Magik.
I love how Nimrod just vaporized the dude, picked up his skull and continued the conversation like nothing happened.
Reading List (Super behind but reading them nonetheless):
DC: Currently figuring that out
Marvel: Read above
Image: Killadelphia, Nightmare Blog
Other: The Antagonist, Something is Killing the Children, Avatar: TLAB
Manga: My Hero Academia, MHA: Vigilanties, Soul Eater: the Perfect Edition, Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, Witch Hat Atelier, Kaiju No. 8
My decades-long angst will be sated when it's revealed next week that the basis for Nimrod the Lesser's AI is in fact Sharon Kelly, the bloodstained bride.
Time to pull out my phalanx omnibus!!!
Xavier learning about Moira's past lives in Oxford before he founded the school doesn't make sense at all. He then has petty fights with Joe MacTaggert, goes to the Korean War, then wanders around Israel and Tibet?
I think we should ignore the Year One designation entirely.
This is not at all what Hickman is intending, but we fans have been fixing X-Men writers' mistakes for decades. I propose: Charles and Moira met in Oxford as before, and Charles didn't learn Moira's secret. Charles learned it circa UXM 150, then we immediately have Moira and Charles recruiting Magneto around UXM150. Magneto later writes Moira's story off as a lie circa 1991's Mutant Genesis after the revelation she altered his DNA, making him lose trust in her.
Moira "dies" in 2000's Dream's End crossover, and Xavier is genuinely fooled. When he realizes that the universe didn't reset upon Moira's death, he doubts her story and thinks maybe it was some delusion of hers.
Xavier is shot in the head by Bishop in 2008's Messiah Complex crossover. Afterwards he is walking around and amnesiac for quite a while. This is when the believed dead Moira approaches him in the fair scene, and why he doesn't remember her. Then he reads her mind and remembers her, later gets his memories back, dies in the Phoenix 5 incident, is resurrected in Astonishing, and here we are.
Yeah it's not at all what Hickman intends, but until he says otherwise about that fair scene, it works.
Last edited by Yistaan; 08-14-2019 at 01:09 PM.
Magneto's Bermuda Triangle Island: origin unknown. Not Atlantean, thought to be millions of years old, attributed to "Ancient Ones" who might be on the level with ancient gods. These were incredibly cruel and evil beings. We do not know when Magneto discovered it or raised it to the surface. In the original 616 continuity, Magneto concurrently had Asteroid M-2 in orbit as well as this island by the time of UNCANNY X-MEN #148. When he almost killed Kitty Pryde, he fled to his asteroid base and abandoned the island. When Warlock demolished Asteroid M 2, Magneto fell to the ocean and was rescued by Lee Forrester and they began a love affair on the island, and he began to change his views, and that's when Xavier summoned him to help with the Beyonder (leading into Secret Wars).
But none of that matters! I prefer to think 616 exists somewhere, but what POWERS OF X #2 shows is a whole new X-Men story. It's Year 1. The first year, some 10 to 12 years ago, according to JDW. The meeting in this issue is NOT from just before UXM #148, but from a time just before Magneto attacks Cape Citadel. I don't understand all the facshing concerning this. First year, 10 to 12 years ago Marvel Time. This meeting takes place several years after Moira first introduces herself and info-dumps her entire life history into Xavier's mind. Magneto hasn't started his war with the X-Men yet. Moira wants to get to Magneto before the war begins. In this timeline/Moira life there is no Cape Citadel, no Brotherhood of "Evil" mutants, no being kidnapped by the Stranger, no creation of Mutant Alpha and no Magneto reduced to a baby. By Year 10, they are still allies, which is current Marvel time, so the schism is yet to come.
Dave Cockrum created the island, spent untold hours designing every square inch of it and said, he and Chris didn't really have a set origin for it, but it was from a civilization older and more powerful than Atlantis.
I really hate any retcons to the entire history of the X-Men, but the fact is, we have no idea when Magneto discovered his ancient island and if they're going to wipe out the entire history of Magneto's insanity, his Silver Age fights, his battles with the X-Men kids, then I think saying he was living on this island when Moira and Xavier find him is pretty cool. Magneto put on the helmet and cape maybe 12 to 15 years ago Marvel Time, but he spent years building bases, traveling, gathering the Brotherhood members, casing Cape Citadel, preparing for WAR. So Xavier and Moira have got to him at a time just before he gathers the Brotherhood, but he's made up his mind that mutants can never co-exist peacefully with non-mutant humans.
Nice catch on the Nimbus/Nibiru thing. It's a fairly firm theory now--they've mathematically proven there is a 9th planet out there, and it's probably a gas giant. I find the prospect terrifying, re the movie MELANCHOLIA.
I find the Phalanx stuff fascinating as it illuminates X-Men history and continuity, but I don't like the Year 1000 sci-fi techno babble very much, and I still don't like being locked in to this future for the Marvel Universe.
I personally think the regular 616 timeline exists either as one of Moira's lives or outside her first 10 lives, but I have no theories, no idea how it's all going to come together.
Last edited by Rivka; 08-14-2019 at 04:02 PM.
That all makes sense but like you mentioned Im pretty sure Hickman is intending for us to believe that fair scene is the very first time Xavier and Miora ever meet. I do think that because of the sketchy and often times flat out convoluted inconsistent history of the X-men, us fans are just going to have to except that certain aspects of this story won’t tie In perfectly with what’s come before and just enjoy the ride.
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Who is this plant X-Men? I believe his the founder of Krakoa among Xavier and Moira. Anyone thinking the same?