Powers of X #6 *spoilers*

[Arsenal]

if humans ultimately keep beating mutants ..... instead of making Krakoa's and Utopia's wouldn't a simple solution be to just leave Earth? surely there's a planet out there they could claim. just say **** it and leave. maybe keep a krakoa gateway open for any new mutants pop up?

Unless they can convince & collect every single mutant that ever existed on Earth (because folks tend to bounce back from the dirt nap quite a bit) while simultaneously creating a way to prevent any more mutants from ever being created or born on Earth again, than the issue won’t be truly resolved. If both those conditions can’t be meet, it makes no sense to establish a safe haven for mutants that’s largely inaccessible for those who need it most.

[Jness]

God i hate it when this comes up, like it was just all the Avengers fault that mess happened. It takes two to tango you know? And the X-men weren't exactly saints in that either.
And before someone tries to throw me under the bus I didn't exactly enjoy seeing Cap act like Stark in CW, Stark thinking he could kill the Phoenix or Thor beating a kid just as I didn't enjoy seeing Hawkeye be set on fire, Wakanda drwon, Danger torturing POW's, Magik sending them to a piece of Limbo or those poor whales getting mix matched by her brother and so forth...seriously when are people going to let that horrible event die?

Maybe when it’s no longer canon?

[Jness]

That the threat is not in fact just humanity. Or just the machines. That one leads to the other, leads to the fusion that is post-humanity. Man x machine hybridization, engineered evolution. That both man and machine, and the cycle they enable are the threat to mutants.

In her next life, she immediately sets out to annihilate the Trasks. Cut off the Sentinels at the knees. Prevent the technological leap. Sentinels keep mutants in check long enough for humanity to develop Nimrod. Nimrod keeps them in check long enough to perfect post-humanity. Any of the three means the end of mutants. So she tries to take the machine out of the equation. No Sentinels, and maybe mutant society takes off fast enough to keep ahead. To push humans to extinction naturally and take their place as the successor species.

It doesn't work. The technology is always developed, by someone, somewhere. The cycle continues.

So tries to start, and win the war early, with Magneto. Before the tech is in place to establish post-humanity. Before Nimrod. It doesn't work. So she tries to eliminate humanity altogether, with Apocalypse. No humans, no man x machine hybridization. No post-humanity. It doesn't work. The machines advance too fast, humanity can't be overwhelmed.

Life Ten. Krakoa. The carrot of medicines that can cure disease. Heal the sick and the mentally ill. Stall human research and technological advancement. Make them dependent on mutants for their very health and future. With the Mother Mold destroyed, Nimrod doesn't come into existence. Mutants have bought themselves time.

This is what has changed: mutants now understand that they have been wrong about the very nature of their struggle. They are NOT the inheritors of the Earth, the next stage of humanity. They are the natural development that simply cannot compete with the technological, the random and varied mutation that cannot hold a candle to developed, planned and engineered augmentation. Magneto thought the world was theirs by right, that time was on mutants' side. Xavier thought mankind could be taught to peacefully go into that good night, smiling their way into extinction knowing how awesome their mutant successors are. That time is on the mutants' side.

But time is not on their side. Time is their enemy. Each day that passes is one step closer to an engineered humanity that no longer needs mutant development to accelerate their evolution.

The brilliant thing about this: in HoX 1, we saw
A) man and machine working together (Karima and the Doctor)
B) that humanity estimated that they had maybe 20 years left, but they were wrong - it’s the *mutants* that are on borrowed time

Remember when people were all “Hydra and Shield are unified against the mutants? What?”

Is that any different than the 12 person council with people like Sinister on it? A colony with every mutant regardless of their previous allegiance or horrific acts? The mutants have activated their *own* “Orchis”.

[Jness]

Isn't Moira doing what Destiny wanted?

-Pav, who thinks "no pre-cogs" is kinda wackadoo...

Are we sure Moira *is* doing what Destiny wanted?

[WebSlingWonder]

That the threat is not in fact just humanity. Or just the machines. That one leads to the other, leads to the fusion that is post-humanity. Man x machine hybridization, engineered evolution. That both man and machine, and the cycle they enable are the threat to mutants.

In her next life, she immediately sets out to annihilate the Trasks. Cut off the Sentinels at the knees. Prevent the technological leap. Sentinels keep mutants in check long enough for humanity to develop Nimrod. Nimrod keeps them in check long enough to perfect post-humanity. Any of the three means the end of mutants. So she tries to take the machine out of the equation. No Sentinels, and maybe mutant society takes off fast enough to keep ahead. To push humans to extinction naturally and take their place as the successor species.

It doesn't work. The technology is always developed, by someone, somewhere. The cycle continues.

So tries to start, and win the war early, with Magneto. Before the tech is in place to establish post-humanity. Before Nimrod. It doesn't work. So she tries to eliminate humanity altogether, with Apocalypse. No humans, no man x machine hybridization. No post-humanity. It doesn't work. The machines advance too fast, humanity can't be overwhelmed.

Life Ten. Krakoa. The carrot of medicines that can cure disease. Heal the sick and the mentally ill. Stall human research and technological advancement. Make them dependent on mutants for their very health and future. With the Mother Mold destroyed, Nimrod doesn't come into existence. Mutants have bought themselves time.

This is what has changed: mutants now understand that they have been wrong about the very nature of their struggle. They are NOT the inheritors of the Earth, the next stage of humanity. They are the natural development that simply cannot compete with the technological, the random and varied mutation that cannot hold a candle to developed, planned and engineered augmentation. Magneto thought the world was theirs by right, that time was on mutants' side. Xavier thought mankind could be taught to peacefully go into that good night, smiling their way into extinction knowing how awesome their mutant successors are. That time is on the mutants' side.

But time is not on their side. Time is their enemy. Each day that passes is one step closer to an engineered humanity that no longer needs mutant development to accelerate their evolution.

Thank you so much for this summary! I understand it a lot more now. This story is incredible and I can't wait to see the whole thing!

[Wolverine12]

I thought this was an outstanding finale to a superb story. It left me wanting more and thank God that it's coming. One thing I did find odd, why wouldn't they (X, Moira and Mags) not want a pre-cog? If they really want to guide mutants to the future, which I do believe is the end game, I think a pre-cogs advice would be welcomed. Obviously those 3 are hiding something, I think Logan knows based on how he's talked to X in previous issues, but what would they have to hide if the end game is mutants flourishing? Also Logan 86'ing the Librarian and his next few lines were so over the top bad ass I just loved it. I can't wait for what comes next.

[Kurolegacy]

I thought this was an outstanding finale to a superb story. It left me wanting more and thank God that it's coming. One thing I did find odd, why wouldn't they (X, Moira and Mags) not want a pre-cog? If they really want to guide mutants to the future, which I do believe is the end game, I think a pre-cogs advice would be welcomed. Obviously those 3 are hiding something, I think Logan knows based on how he's talked to X in previous issues, but what would they have to hide if the end game is mutants flourishing? Also Logan 86'ing the Librarian and his next few lines were so over the top bad ass I just loved it. I can't wait for what comes next.

From what I can gather, they don't ant any precogs on Krakoa because the whole thing is based on a lie that mutantkind are the ones to inherit the Earth. As such, they want to keep the wool over everyone's eyes for as long as possible. A precog would throw a major wrench in their plans as they would know right away how it all ends and would spread that information causing the whole thing to fall apart.

[Wolverine12]

From what I can gather, they don't ant any precogs on Krakoa because the whole thing is based on a lie that mutantkind are the ones to inherit the Earth. As such, they want to keep the wool over everyone's eyes for as long as possible. A precog would throw a major wrench in their plans as they would know right away how it all ends and would spread that information causing the whole thing to fall apart.

But this is the fresh start... We don't know if the mutants lose this time because this is the newest life.

[Electricmastro]

than the issue won’t be truly resolved.

Well it seems like it's harder to find a realistic resolution to the problem when said problem unrealistically keeps growing and contorting in all sorts of directions, don't ya think?

[GrandEleven]

Well this was an unexpected end, IMO. There were a couple new bits of information ... but for the most part the "arms race" was pretty much guessed. My biggest disappointment was the conclusion was all about life 6. We were told early Moira would only live "10 maybe 11 lives in total". I would have been much more pleased if things ended at life 10 ... so that when the new books kicked off we knew Moira was in uncharted territory.

Also, how did Moira live so long? In her first life they said she lived a perfectly normal life with a regular time span. By the end of life 6 ... she lives "centuries" in a zoo. I guess we could say the Novissima deliberately extended her life because of her importance ... but what about Logan? That part seemed odd to me.

Anyway, a solid run, though the ending was predictable. I feel I need a few more issues to play a few more events out. Not often I complain about an event being too short, but there you go.

[Hulkout42]

From what I can gather, they don't ant any precogs on Krakoa because the whole thing is based on a lie that mutantkind are the ones to inherit the Earth. As such, they want to keep the wool over everyone's eyes for as long as possible. A precog would throw a major wrench in their plans as they would know right away how it all ends and would spread that information causing the whole thing to fall apart.

Then it is inevatable that they will fail again because i think what is being set up here is quite simply this...the ones who will cause they failure of life ten is the mutants themselves.
Think about for a moment:

Moira's actions and how they effectively changed Charles to the point where he isn't the same man we knew, because we all thought he killed the dream that so many hear call unrealistic but what really happened is she broke him and killed it herself. Factor in Magneto who will do whatever it takes for them to win no mater how horrendous it will be and this time Charles will support it. And let's factor in that neither of them are following her script anymore, they won't kill her because it would ruin what they have built here but do you really think that she is calling the shots anymore?

Here is another thing to take into account on why this will fail, they promised Mystique they would bring back Destiny (the one woman who can bring this house of cards they built between themselves and who openly declared that she would be ready to stop Moira if she didn't play by the rules). Now as we all know from Death of Wolverine, she will stop at nothing to get her back if given the chance and as shown she will set the world on fire if that doesn't happen. So what do you she think is going to do when she finally finds out that they have no intention of bringing back the woman she loved more than life itself? Answer is if she can't get Irene back than she will do EVERYTHING in her power to destroy their dream because if she can't be happy then no one can.

Another problem on why this fails, Xavier and Magneto went off the script and brought in Sinister who has already made a chimera and if you think about it can also pull the rug from under them anytime he wants because he could very well have built in a killswitch and they would never know until it was too late. And who is to say he doesn't know about Moira?

Sabertooth, we all knew he was made into a scapegoat and let's face facts, he is going to get out and make good on his threat...for all we know Raven will set him loose to get to the bottom of Irene's fate. In the process of sowing chaos, Creed may reveal something they was supposed to stay secret or maybe he will get lucky and kill one or all the five.

Finally, i think i can safely say that Destiny will return to life and the secret of Homos Novissima coming gets out but what happens then? My guess is War, plain and simple if humanity is allowed to become Post Humanity well then a lot of itchy trigger fingers will go off on their own crusade to protect mutants by any and all means and humans are validated in their hatred of mutants and here comes armageddon right on time.

Let's not kid ourselves here, the seeds of failure have been planted and I for one don't think it will be humanity this time that causes the downfall. And when the dust settles i think can safely say that Moira will look upon the aftermath and weep at what she has wrought. And maybe it will be Logan again or maybe Irene will appear one last time and tell her she as a choice to make...keep going or reset to 11th.
Now if this pisses you off well there is nothing i can do about that, i mean i could wrong for all i know but let's delude ourselves in thinking the status quo will remain ok? We all know that something is coming down the line. This isn't negativity talking or us still clinging to the notion that nothing changed in Marvel and mutants are getting the shaft again, it's logic and reason speaking because everything changed the moment Moira came back on the scene and alter the very nature of the X-men.

We are now spectators to Hickman's machinations, puppets dancing to his tune and we like it because deep down we all want to see what will be the end game. Is the Dream truly dead? Mutants still lose? Mutants win at all costs? Will Moira reset one final time? I don't know, but i am willing to go on this trip to find out.

[ZeroBG82]

Rereading this again, for like the third or fourth time tonight. There is just so much to chew on.

There's a really interesting dynamic to the sequence with Logan and the Librarian. The Librarian is about to ascend. To give up his physical form, and become part of the Phalanx, then the Dominion, and become, in his words "a piece of god." Post-humanity has reached an evolutionary dead end. They have reached the point at which both tech and biology simply can't advance any farther on their own. They require outside intervention to progress. And the Librarian isn't sure how he feels about that. He questions the reality of life after ascension, of the authenticity of existence in that form. He challenges Logan and Moira to convince him to try a different way. He literally asks them to give him a reason to kill Moira and reset the timeline to take a different path. He lays out the totality of what has brought them to this place. The singularity, and the rise of artificial intelligence, man-machine hybridization. How technology kept humanity in the fight long enough to simply make mutants moot via engineered evolution.

But he seems to be sincere in his request. I honestly believe him when he says he's considering using Moira to reset things, to take a different path. And as I reread the scene, I realize that he's asking to see proof that mutants can out evolve post-humanity. That the limits of tech and biology can be exceeded not by augmentation and calculation but by nature. That the evolutionary dead end which humanity has reached can, in fact, be surpassed. And he's asking the mutants, who have proven to actually be an evolutionary dead end themselves. Which may finally be the ultimate lesson that Moira X has learned.

Look at what Moira does with her lives. She's tried to reject mutant life, she's tried each of the major mutant ideologies (coexistence, conquest, annihilation), she's attempted to prevent the machines from ever being created in the first place. She has attempted everything, save for one path. She hasn't tried to EVOLVE mutants.

House of X is an evolutionary act, as much as it's a revolutionary one. Moira isn't just changing what it means to be a mutant in the Marvel U, she's changing the vary nature of mutants. And it's more than just the unity of purpose, the alliance of once disparate elements. The resurrection process has fundamentally altered what mutants are. Humans respond to mutants with increasingly advanced tech and weapons. Mutants have always responded with more X genes. In the case of Sinister's chimeras, literally. The X gene, however, has proven to be unworthy when compared to the capability of post humanity and their augmented, technological evolution. But this Krakoa is a new kind of response. The interaction between the resurrection team, that feeling of coming together, of being almost inseparable as they continue to perform their task? That's new. That's an evolution, something previously unrecorded. And it isn't augmented. It doesn't require outside intervention, or an investment of research or resources. It is naturally occurring. Mutants have moved beyond their previous limits. If you can't eliminate the threat, if you can't defeat the threat as you are, become something that can.

Nimrod is prevented at the cost of an entire team of X-men's lives. A total loss, a truly grievous price to pay. Before. But the new mutant does not fear death. For this new kind of mutation, stopping the development of Nimrod cost them NOTHING. The X-men have leveled up, and it's a whole new game.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

Also, how did Moira live so long? In her first life they said she lived a perfectly normal life with a regular time span. By the end of life 6 ... she lives "centuries" in a zoo.

Transfusions. The librarian said she had the same blood type as Logan. Regular injections of his blood allowed her to share Wolverine''s longevity.

[ComeOnBunny]

Not bringing back Destiny or precogs is stupid. Without a precog they are going into the future blind when they don't have to.

[DurararaFTW]

To be fair, even when Destiny is alive and happy, Mystique is still Mystique. They screwed themselves the moment they gave a chronic betrayer a position of authority. What they promised her or whether they can or are willing to deliver on those promises is secondary at best. Destiny might see the future and be willing to play ball with Moira anyway, won't matter, disaster is inevitable. Which is exactly why they can't have pre-cogs.