HOUSE OF X [02] : The Uncanny Life of Moira X *Spoilers*

[lordozone]

My problem with stories like groundhog days, edge of tomorrow, HOX #2 etc... is that once the "hero" reboot, an entire universe disappear. It terrifies me.

[Rivka]

Well, her power is reincarnation, it's bolded in the comics.
Which means, she's living a life again, not rewinding time.
Again while talking with Moira destiny talks about "this version of you" implying than it's more a case of traveling through alternate timelines where each moira is different rather than just going back to Year 1.
I also think everything we've seen is from Moira X's timeline.

I am not happy with this comic book, but this is a fascinating topic.

So look at GROUNDHOG DAY and RUSSIAN DOLL. When Bill Murray gets killed, he wakes up again with the alarm going off, the radio coming on playing "I Got You Babe" and it's Groundhog Day. It's the same day, all over again. He relives that day over and over until his lesson is learned.

When Nadia in RUSSIAN DOLL gets killed, there she is again at that sink, washing her hands in that goofy bathroom at her birthday party. And again. And again. But later, the mirror over the sink disappears. The bathroom changes when she wakes up there. The people at the party change, the rooms change. Each time she gets killed, she wakes up in the same place but there eventually are slight differences. Are each of Nadia's "death" cycles new timelines? Or is she reliving the same life over and over and each time she makes a bad choice (i.e., selfish and unloving) the repeat life is altered in a negative way. When she finally learns her lesson, she meets herself at a moment just before the cycles started, and the two versions of her merge, like her own timeline has stopped looping, circled back to the original point of departure, and she moves forward again.

So, is this version of Moira creating new timelines every time she cycles back into the womb (equivalent of Bill Murray's bed, the clock, the radio and "You Got Me Babe" and Nadia's bathroom sink and mirror), or is she living her life again? In the fantasies GROUNDHOG DAY and RUSSIAN DOLL, it was a kind of magical thing, with no thought about what the other people experience each repeat life; are they also being dragged back to the reset point each time? They do not remain static every cycle, though--the protagonists affect them and change them and their own trajectories (like Nadia saves her mentor/therapist from being blown up in a gas explosion).

Are the others Moira X interacts with in each repeat-cycle even real? Do they reset also when she does? The reset point is not just the womb, but her mother getting pregnant. Thus the reset point is the moment her father and mother have sex and her mother gets pregnant. Up until that point, her parents have one life, the one timeline, a particular sex act--then the reset. Does time branch at this point; are there 10 different pregnancies with 10 different influences on the embryo and fetus? Are there 10 different Moira mothers? Or is it the same mother experiencing the same pregnancy and Moira is starting the same timeline over again.

I thought the Marvel Universe rule was, every time you do a time loop, you start a new timeline anyway.

[ISnowNothin]

No it doesn’t. The ones where she lives for a very long while, 9 and 10 don’t end in rounded ends. That’s a full-stop.

Yeah, I have to agree. Genocide at Faraway would be ambiguous if the timeline didn't definitively end there, but it does. There is no indication that she lived past it, with the visual language they're using to communicate her lives, they've clearly shown us Moira dies right there.

[Clessx3]

Where is it written exactly that she restarts the universe? I understood that she creates new timelines.

I believe it is more like she gets "inserted" in a different timeline everytime she resurrects. Also it is very unlikely that this 10th life is 616 universe. 616 is most likely 6th life or 11th life.

[ISnowNothin]

I believe it is more like she gets "inserted" in a different timeline everytime she resurrects. Also it is very unlikely that this 10th life is 616 universe. 616 is most likely 6th life or 11th life.

I think that's the reverse of what we're being presented. We KNOW HoX is the 10th life, its in all the text repeatedly (It's written by Moira X, not Moira VI, or XI), and we have every indication that main series of X-books in the 616 will continue on from this storyline after HoX and PoX.

It's possible it's timeline XI, I don't think VI is a possibility on the 616 timeline, and I think X is far more likely than either.

They keep telling us over and over again they're not resetting X-Men continuity, and I think the twists that are forthcoming, including those about VI, will be big, but they aren't what anyone has guessed yet, because none of it really holds up to scrutiny or makes any sense.

[Clessx3]

I think that's the reverse of what we're being presented. We KNOW HoX is the 10th life, its in all the text repeatedly (It's written by Moira X, not Moira VI, or XI), and we have every indication that main series of X-books in the 616 will continue on from this storyline after HoX and PoX.

It's possible it's timeline XI, I don't think VI is a possibility on the 616 timeline, and I think X is far more likely than either.

They keep telling us over and over again they're not resetting X-Men continuity, and I think the twists that are forthcoming, including those about VI, will be big, but they aren't what anyone has guessed yet, because none of it really holds up to scrutiny or makes any sense.

Yes HoX is the 10th life, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be 616 universe. Maybe in the next issues something in that 10th life reality will affect 616 and get the main universe involved. There would be no reset since HoX is happening in an alternate universe.

[spirit2011]

I believe it is more like she gets "inserted" in a different timeline everytime she resurrects. Also it is very unlikely that this 10th life is 616 universe. 616 is most likely 6th life or 11th life.

Just for the fact of reset she changes the timeline because she already know what will happen and possibly change things in her favor

[Tycon]

What’s happening in HOXPOX is supposed to be repositioning the X-Men and mutants in general in an all new way. How would most of the events in this book taking place in another universe serve that purpose? I’m 87% sure that we don’t know about Moira’s Sixth Life because something very important happened during it that needs to be revealed later down the line.

[jwatson]

I'm going on record as saying Moira didn't die in Life 5. I'm going to save this post and see what happens by the end. Cause it just doesn't make sense. All of the time lines that she died for a fact in says Moira Died. Why would the one before Life 6, the life we have no info on, the life where we jumped from the sentinels heading to genosha in artwork to Life 7 doesn't just copy paste that she died like in every other timeline that ended with a dot. So we are to assume all the ones that ended in a dot means she died, but they chose to leave out that she specifically died in one time line. doesn't make sense.

[TOTALITY]

What’s happening in HOXPOX is supposed to be repositioning the X-Men and mutants in general in an all new way. How would most of the events in this book taking place in another universe serve that purpose? I’m 87% sure that we don’t know about Moira’s Sixth Life because something very important happened during it that needs to be revealed later down the line.

My suspicion is that her sixth life began maybe with the same goals we witnessed in the seventh life (assassinating the Trasks), but was derailed when she was assaulted by Joseph MacTaggert, and she gave birth to Proteus. And they aren’t telling us that yet because they aren’t ready to make clear that intentionally repeating the Proteus conception (and also Xavier intentionally conceiving Legion, I suspect) is a primary component of their rule-breaking 10th-life gambit.

edit — wait if I’m right that’s going to be EXTREMELY problematic and controversial, right? Not just for the obvious “Moira and Xavier become eugenicists” element, but the intentionally being assaulted. Either they have a very sensitive, delicate way to address that or I’m dead wrong. Hopefully nothing in between.

[Lucyinthesky]

I thought the Marvel Universe rule was, every time you do a time loop, you start a new timeline anyway.

I believe that´s still their rule, Moira died in one of her lives killed by a sentinel this could be the Days of Future Past timeline. Maybe Moira travels different timelines at the same start point everytime she dies and keeps her memories and she´s looking to find one version of her life when mutants don´t die or get into a eternal war with humanity, similar to Dr Strange looking into different timelines to find the one in which they defeat Thanos. Who knows, maybe Destiny lied and Moira can live more than 11 lifes if she finds the means to develop her habilities.

I loved to see Destiny and Moira on this issue and the implications of Moira´s new power, a little sad because I liked badass human Moira a lot but I am willing to see where all this goes when the series is done. It makes interesting implications on why Moira decided to tinker with Magneto´s DNA, she could feel a sense of urgency in her 10 life.

[ISnowNothin]

Yes HoX is the 10th life, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be 616 universe. Maybe in the next issues something in that 10th life reality will affect 616 and get the main universe involved. There would be no reset since HoX is happening in an alternate universe.

And they've said from the beginning, and still maintain, that HoX is not an alternate reality story.

[GeneTitan]

I had to read this issue several times to soak it all in:

1. I originally thought Life 4 was the life we read about b/c it had the Phoenix 5. HOWEVER, it wasn't because Moira married Xavier.
2. This lead me to believe the X-Men never experienced any of the events we know about in the current 10th Life of HOX.
3. But, because of the events in the 10th life timeline it can be assumed that the 10th life is what we know PLUS HOX.
4. But, I'm still confused b/c...
a. How is Xavier walking?
b. Why is Jean wearing that early costume?
5. I originally thought the 10th Life/HOX was Moira's restart and points "a" and "b" above implied that the events in HOX happen earlier in the timeline before Xavier and Jean are disabled and host the Phoenix force, respectively.

Also,
6. What's up with the arrows in timelines 5, 9 and 10? I assume the arrows in 10 at age 52 show us that this is the time line that is currently happening. But, the arrows at year 42 in timeline 9 imply that the Apocalypse War is still raging.

7. That still leaves the arrows in timeline 5 from ages 43-44. Moira is in a coma for the time. Does this imply that Faraway is still there existing in the limbo between the Sentinel attack and the genocide at Faraway?

These arrows are there for a reason. Why do I feel like I'm studying for a test I'm super excited to take? Hickman re-ignited my passion for the X-Men. It has always been there, but it has been embers for the last few years. It's ablaze now.

[houndsofluv]

My suspicion is that her sixth life began maybe with the same goals we witnessed in the seventh life (assassinating the Trasks), but was derailed when she was assaulted by Joseph MacTaggert, and she gave birth to Proteus. And they aren’t telling us that yet because they aren’t ready to make clear that intentionally repeating the Proteus conception (and also Xavier intentionally conceiving Legion, I suspect) is a primary component of their rule-breaking 10th-life gambit.

edit — wait if I’m right that’s going to be EXTREMELY problematic and controversial, right? Not just for the obvious “Moira and Xavier become eugenicists” element, but the intentionally being assaulted. Either they have a very sensitive, delicate way to address that or I’m dead wrong. Hopefully nothing in between.

I think you’re on to something. Her sixth life probably has something to do with proteus or sinister and the eugenics/omega element.i don’t see a “look they’re eugenicists” moment as being crazy controversial because Xavier’s been retconned into a questionable dude so many times now, but regarding her assault and the birth of proteus...I don’t know how they can swing that without it seeming insensitive as hell . Guess we’ll see

[houndsofluv]

And they've said from the beginning, and still maintain, that HoX is not an alternate reality story.

What’s happening in HOXPOX is supposed to be repositioning the X-Men and mutants in general in an all new way. How would most of the events in this book taking place in another universe serve that purpose? I’m 87% sure that we don’t know about Moira’s Sixth Life because something very important happened during it that needs to be revealed later down the line.

Exactly thank you...Moira X is *almost* undeniably 616 just from reading the text alone and if we look at what the creators themselves have been telling us this whole time there’s no question. This has been a ted talk