We’ve almost reached the end of the beginning of the Hickman era. It’s an exciting time, full of twists, resurrections, revelations, and retcons. The big one, of course, came back in House of X #2, with the revelation of Moira MacTaggert’s true status as a reincarnating mutant. As part of that issue, we learned that Moira had never truly died of the legacy virus, instead faking her death with a “Shi’ar Golem”.

This, among other details from the series, throws a particular series into question: Chaos War: X-Men. This two-issue series was released in 2011 as part of the Chaos War event, which saw a number of resurrections, most temporary. In the X-Men tie in, John Proudstar, Banshee, Moira, three Madrox dupes, Sophie Cuckoo, and Esme Cuckoo found themselves resurrected in the ruins of the X-Mansion, and fought to stop the Carrion Crow from destroying the elemental spirits of life.

This is operating off the presumption that Life 10 is the Earth-616 we know.

Do Shi’ar Golems Dream of Mutant Sheep?



Let’s start with the big one: Moira MacTaggert comes back to life in Chaos War: X-Men #1, before dying again in #2, this time at the hands of the Carrion Crow.

We now know that Moira never died. Her death was faked, credited to a “Shi’ar golem”.

The complication is obvious. The implications, unclear. The simplest explanation is that Shi’ar golems have souls. This is not entirely unprecedented – Chaos War elsewhere confirmed that the Vision has a soul, and could be brought back from the afterlife in the same fashion as any flesh and blood creature. We don’t know how Shi’ar golems are made, what they’re fashioned from, how Moira got one. But it would seem that they must be more advanced than simple automatons.

This is mere inference, not certainty. It could be that there’s a more complicated, less intuitive explanation to be had.

Moira also gets possessed by the soul of Destiny, described as a “merging of souls”, for what it’s worth. This isn’t really a troublesome point, but it does read differently given the scene between the two of them in House of X #2.

Prime Memories



The second question is this: Golem-Moira clearly has Moira X’s memories. But would she have had all of them? What makes this question relevant is that Esme Cuckoo decides to merge the “prime memories” of all present, rather than waste time on introductions.

There’s no implication, of course, that any of the others learned anything dramatic from Golem-Moira’s memories. As we see in the House and Powers of X series, Professor X is fully capable of seeing the memory of all of Moira X’s lives. Was Golem-Moira, then, an incomplete copy, possessing only the memories of Life 10? Or does Moira, and thus Golem-Moira, have a stronger control of what can be read from her mind than has been let on?

Golem-Moira says at one point “Charles and I worked together for what seemed like a lifetime”. Reads in a new light now, potentially.

Cerebro Response Time



If you ignore the Madrox dupes, the only character from this series yet to return to life is John Proudstar. In House of X #5, we learn that Cerebro has been storing the minds of all mutants on a regular basis for as long as it’s been active. The Proudstar is one of those mutants is certain, and his return seems inevitable. The question, though, is when Cerebro’s last backup of John is from.

We know neither how long it takes Cerebro to find a new mutant mind, nor how long the process of backing it up takes. Would John Proudstar’s stay on Earth in Chaos War: X-Men has been long enough to be detected and backed up by Cerebro? Or would Cerebro’s last backup of John be from the time of his first death?

When John Proudstar is resurrected, will he remember the last words he shared with Sophie Cuckoo?

(This is to say nothing of the question raised by Banshee and the two Cuckoos themselves; each came back to life in a way before the Krakoa era. Do they remember Chaos War? We’ve no clear idea either way. Banshee hasn’t really been seen in a state of clear mind since his resurrection. The Cuckoos seemed back to feuding in their X-23 appearances, but now seem to have returned to the understanding they reached in Chaos War.)