Originally Posted by
zinderel
During the pandemic, I went back and re-read HoX/PoX, because I am loving what Hickman is doing, and want to keep it fresh in my mind for when comics come back properly.
While reading ‘The Uncanny Life of Moira X’, something struck me.
We see all of Moira’s lives (well, most of them) play out in much the same way. She meets Charles (or another mover and shaker in the mutant race), Charles forms the X-Men, mutantkind falls. But there are two lives where that DOESN’T happen. Life 1, where she lives out her days, unaware of mutants even being a thing. She marries, has kids, lives a GOOD, uncomplicated life and dies of old age. And Life 2, where she dies young in a plane crash.
That didn’t stand out as significant to me, at first, but this time...if mutant-human relationships are ALWAYS meant to worsen and lead to wars of genetic supremacy...how did she live out that first life with NO clue? If mutants were battling giant robots in the heart of New York City on the reg, it would be TALKED about. Even if she somehow avoided ever watching the news or reading a newspaper in her entire long life, SOMEONE would have said SOMETHING about it within earshot...right? And if they had, you would think the narration would note that, considering how important that conflict is to the heart of HoX/PoX...
Overheard in line at a grocery store: “Did you hear? Those mutant weirdos tried to blow up Madison Square Gardens! It’s TRUE! I saw it on CNN!”
Or at the bank: “You know, my granddaughter is one of those...’mutants’...that’ve been in the paper? She’s one of the good ones, though...she makes plants grow!”
It seems impossible to me that Moira grew to old age and died without ever hearing of the existence of evil mutants or giant mutant-killing robots. And in her second life, she dies too young to know how mutant-human Relations went. So...what if she DID grow old without hearing about evil mutants or giant robots or genocidal purges...because things never escalate to that point unless she interferes? What if, by involving herself directly in mutant-human affairs, SHE is the reason mutantkind always falls? What if it’s her meddling - her surety that SHE knows what’s best because SHE has so much more life experience than anyone else - that causes Everything to fall apart?
And what if she realizes that, just before the end...and she’s reborn that *possible* 11th time Irene mentioned, and stays out of things (maybe even takes a whole...BUTTERFLY EFFECT solution to the problem...), leading to a better timeline for both humans and mutants? What if that is the end result, the way to move the X-Men - as a franchise - forward and not allow wiggle room for going back to the same old genocide cycle as before?
“Moira never got involved in this timeline, so mutants aren’t hated and feared on a global scale, and never have been. There are pockets of humanity - small, but loud, sometimes well-funded - who are racist jerks, sure, but people don’t kill their own children for being mutants anymore. They never did in this timeline. Tell a better story.”
Apologies if this has been brought up. I’ve been away a while.