Dead X-Men #2 - Review/Spoilers

[JB]

We open on an alternate reality's Island M. Over the water not far away a rift in reality is cut open. A team of mutants are relaxing on the island shore (Tower, Quill, Stinger, Mentallo, and Toad) when Tower notices the rift opening. He's about to ask the others if they see it too when Evil Moira from last issue emerges from the rift at incredible speed and kills him. She basically decimates the team with her crazy weapon and as he's dying she tells Toad that she's planning to take another crack at life by starting over and carving everything away until "it all comes up Moira." As she returns to the rift, narration tells us this is Moira's 8th life.

Now we get the preview pages with the X-Men on Atlantic Krakoa in the WHR talking with Waterfall Rachel. Prodigy tells Rachel that she has to send them back. Rachel says there is no "back" because they completed their mission and the Moira Engine timelines they were jumping to are dead ends. Prodigy says he didn't mean back to those timelines but rather back to Moira's past lives. Rachel says those are defunct timelines, that even Xavier only knows what Moira was willing to share about them. Rachel doesn't know if it's possible to reach them. Prodigy says they can't leave any options on the table. He asks what if he absorbs the knowledge of someone in a past life where they stopped a Dominion? "What if the key to all of this is out there and we don't even know we're missing it?"

The team discusses it, Sam and Frenzy are unsure and Dazzler agrees with Prodigy. Rachel, unsure as well, says that the mental map Prodigy recovered from Evil Moira is enough for Xavier to make his trip but otherwise her mind was warped. Rachel doesn't think she can target specific lives, she'd be flinging them almost at random. Ali says they're X-Men and this is what they signed up for. Frenzy says if these intrusions are riskier that they might attract the Dominion's attention. David says they don't know if Enigma can even access these past lives, that this might be the only move they can make without Enigma seeing them. Sam puts his hand on David's shoulder and says he's still hurting from the last jump. The rock in his chest... David says he can't feel the rock and even if he could they don't have time to spare. We see Rachel in No-Place X stumble as it's being attacked again. She says it's now or never and asks one more time if they're really doing this. They agree and off they go.

They emerge from a portal in Washington DC which is in total chaos as Ultrons, regular and Sentinel size, are attacking any and everything. Frenzy notes that Prodigy must be in agony being around all these minds but though he doesn't know why he feels fine and his powers are completely under control. It's possible the shard in his chest is alleviating the symptoms of his unlocked powers. Jubilee is like that's reassuring and super ominous at the same time. They're almost crushed by the foot of an Ultrontinel but Frenzy and Sam work together to take it out. Prodigy absorbed so much from Evil Moira that he's not sure what timeline they're in so he runs towards a newsstand. He reads that Simon Trask was killed and immediately knows where/when they are.



Someone in their head repeats "Pull Us Out Now!" but it's not Rachel. Jubilee says she recognizes the voice and leads them to some rubble and debris which Frenzy clears out. They find this reality's Emma, bloodied and holding one of her students who is unconscious (or dead). Emma starts to collapse and Jubilee breaks her fall, holding her. She asks Emma what happened who is starting to turn diamond for the first time. She's weak and doesn't recognize them. Prodigy says the only impressions he's picking up from her are of the Mass Academy so I guess she never knew the X-Men in this reality. Jubilee tends to her and asks her what they're up against. Dazzler is concerned they're already changing too much of the timeline by intervening. Emma says she'll show them what has happened.



Basically the murder of Gyrich by Evil Moira set off the Ultron attack. The X-Men recognize her from Emma's telepathic projection but don't understand how she got to this timeline. Frenzy asks Prodigy to scan his mind to see if this happened before in any of Moira's lives and he sadly says no, that Evil Moira just changed everything and he feels it's all their fault for changing the path to begin with. Jubilee cries as Emma dies in her arms.

Essentially Evil Moira is now causing major destruction and although this timeline is close to dying Sam says all these people around them were never meant to die by an Ultron attack. Prodigy, looking very concerned, says there's no precedent for what happens if these timelines, Moira's past lives, change. The ramifications could be unimaginably horrible. Frenzy recounts that Evil Moira, in the brief movie Emma showed them, mentioned her first life and says they need to think about the harm that she can do if she goes all the way back to the beginning. She says if they're at all responsible for Evil Moira tearing her way through reality, there's only one thing they can do.

[JB]

Dang it! Mods, kindly correct the title of the thread to Dead X-Men please.

Thank you!!

[Kingdom X]

I love this team so I’m having a great time even if their goal keeps changing haha.

[MythicalChicken]

I love this team so I’m having a great time even if their goal keeps changing haha.

I was in realtime reaction to the plot development. "Oh cool visit Moira's other lives" The book responds. "Oh wait those timelines don't actually exist any more" The book answers. "How does Terminator Moira factor in?" The book answers LOL

So customer service related! This was good fun, and I also appreciated Ali's responses and how far she's come since first being basically forced to join the x-men. I don't know if it was intended or not, but it was a nice touch.

[Kingdom X]

I was in realtime reaction to the plot development. "Oh cool visit Moira's other lives" The book responds. "Oh wait those timelines don't actually exist any more" The book answers. "How does Terminator Moira factor in?" The book answers LOL

So customer service related! This was good fun, and I also appreciated Ali's responses and how far she's come since first being basically forced to join the x-men. I don't know if it was intended or not, but it was a nice touch.

Foxe tries to be pretty intentional with continuity so hopefully it was. I loved the bits with Jubilee and Emma as a Gen X callback.

[JB]

Foxe is doing a great job depicting the uncertainty such a rapidly changing mission would have on the team. They talk things through and all make good points. Although they know they have to try not to intervene too much they're human and I thought it was beautiful how Jubilee cared for alt reality Emma. Her crying when Emma died in her arms felt very real.

This Moira is actually a scary villain. Her weapon is nasty and what she did to that team in the beginning was brutal.

[Fokken]

I adore this team so much. My heart absolutely SOARS watching this multigenerational group work so hard and so fast -- and good gravy the drop kick to my heart with Jubes and Emm.
Those kinds of interactions are subtle but powerful.
Jubilee doesn't need to say "Emma I care about you because we were once part of Generation X together" etc etc. Jubilee's always been a marshmallow with a brightly colored hard candy shell.
Its one of those heart felt IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW moments and I love that. Its not heavy handed. Its meaningful, deliberate, and poignant characterization. Well done, Foxe!

[Johnrevenge]

I really hope that Foxe keeps writing X-books after this event, because he is one of the current great writers of X-books (the other being Al Ewing). It would be a crime if he doesn't have a book after Fall of X.

[CGAR]

Question: Did Gillens Moira Engine retcon that the past lives stay around and branch off after Moira starts over or was that Hickman?

Or is it this mini that is doing that retcon?

[DurararaFTW]

Question: Did Gillens Moira Engine retcon that the past lives stay around and branch off after Moira starts over or was that Hickman?

Or is it this mini that is doing that retcon?

Moira's 9 past lives staying around is definitely a retcon this book made.

[NewMutant]

First issue was stronger but this was still fun. It's going to be a chaotic series but I'll enjoy the ride.

[dragon1440]

Moira's 9 past lives staying around is definitely a retcon this book made.

So alternate reality that branched off before morias lives ended and reset. Thus the original is still gone, but this is a whole new one that split off of the dead one? Talk about circling back around to first.

[DurararaFTW]

So alternate reality that branched off before morias lives ended and reset. Thus the original is still gone, but this is a whole new one that split off of the dead one? Talk about circling back around to first.

Well the implication seems to be that this Moira from Moira Engine II.4 showing up to kill Henry Gyrich is what created an alternate reality. So it's possible that the Dead X-Men can still only visit branches but herself is still able to go back to what would have been the original timelines. They still exist.

[cranger]

These Moira lives still have end points so they are not the traditional alternate realities. Even the changes being made here are supposed to be to the actual Moira iteration since they think it will impact their (the 616) timeline.

However you want to look at it, though, just do not think to hard about it because Marvel does not care about how none of it makes sense, they just want time travel stories to be able to happen that can actually change time and have implications other than creating an al reality.

[JB]

And in the book itself Rachel says those timelines should be defunct and she doesn't really know where/when she's sending the team. My brain can barely understand time travel stuff so I'm just strapped in for the ride.