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Inferno #4 is out; and, as promised, we’ve got a bonus interview with Jonathan Hickman–unedited this time, so please forgive the audio–going into the gory details of the miniseries and its finale! (Again, spoiler warning–we can’t emphasize this enough–we spoil Inferno, including its ending, real hard. Listen at your own risk.)
So, if they would’ve just kept mystique dead none of this would’ve happened?
Great Episode!
Thank you both so much.
Ooh, some interesing bits here thanks!
I thought that the obvious out for not resurrecting Moira was that she can’t have a Cerebro backup. Since part of her mutation is that she doesn’t register as a mutant on any detection system, Cerebro can’t detect her to do a backup for her.
Though I do like the idea that yes, it can probably be done with all the smart mutants around, but there are possibly issues with that, especially due to the fact her powers involve the manipulation of time so bringing her back might cause some sort of automatic reset anyway.
As you might imagine, I am beyond delighted with Doug getting his shining moment in the issue after #3’s terrific reveal about his long term planning with his friends (Even if events like the Giant Sized specials, and X of Swords did reveal Warlock’s presence when I suspect that was not supposed to happen at all until Inferno)
I thought that would be hard to top, but facing down two of THE most murderous mutants definitely counts, and bringing along one hell of a posse as backup, because he’s optimistic, but not naive!
The mention of what Rogue’s role would be makes a LOT more sense to me than what we saw (Hope, who synchs up with nearby powers, somehow not noticing that “Xavier” suddenly wasn’t telepathic seemed off, and it makes you wonder whose power she WAS replicating to make the psyche transfer.)
I agree that the New Mutants and GenX kids NOT being the X-Men by this point is irritating more than anything., so was smiling a lot through this interview,
I think it would be really cool if the Marvel Universe could start actually moving forward. We’ve gotten all the stories you can possibly tell with the same X-Men from 1963 until now. Actually allowing the characters to grow and age would open up so many new story opportunities that aren’t possible when your characters never age. It would be really awesome to see the main X-Men being led by Cannonball, Synch or even Surge. To see what the Dream looks like after the first generation laid down the groundwork. Thematically, the X-Men have always been stuck in the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s. It would be fascinating to see that play 50 years later with a new generation who are actually adults and have found their own spin on the Dream.
She already was replicating Xavier’s power. Proteus uses a xavier husk with all his telepathy.
Was Moira truly undetectable as a mutant? Or was she just scanned by technology built by herself and Xavier? I’m guessing someone has read back through all the Moira appearances to check for inconsistencies. I think the greater concern would be that if she wants her existence kept secret then having a backup of everything she knows wouldn’t be prudent. Although having a backup of Xavier, Magneto, and now Emma causes similar problems. I wonder what kind of security they have on those backups, it seems like any telepath with a cerebro helmet can access them. And would they even try to make a backup for her if the belief is her death would reset the timeline.
As I understood it, Cerebro can only detect mutants with an active “X” gene. Since Moira’s doesn’t activate until she dies she wouldn’t be detectable. What I am curious about is the possible 11th life. That seems to be an odd thing to tease just to ignore it. I’m wondering if that is going to be something further explored during Destiny of X?
Her X-gene activates when she hits puberty (Which is why, as I recall it, Destiny tells her that if Moira died before she hit puberty, she won’t reset the timeline and things would just continue on without her). Her power triggers when she dies, but she’s X-gene active before then.
Even without an X-gene, the Waiting Room Wanda created in Trial of X should make a backup at the time of her death.
Which is an interesting contradiction in and of itself since, at the moment of death, Moira resets the timeline, so the Waiting Room option doesn’t mean anything because she wouldn’t be around to use it… or she might, but the timeline would now be gone and… I think sort of paradox makes my head hurt to think about (and I survived Moffatt plots in Doctor Who! 🙂 )
Yeah, I took it that one of Moira’s powers is that she’s not detectable (according to HoX 2): the thing you only notice if you’re looking for a gap.
That being said, I feel like the other potential dangling thing for writers to pick up on is if any of Moira’s kids in timeline 1 got the X-gene, if it’s linked to hers, and if they’ve followed her in some way…
@ Devin
I’m sure it is a dangling plot thread for other writers now but it sounded like Hickman had something specific in mind. Especially since Destiny told Moira that she would only have ten lives, or 11 if she made the right decisions. But that 11th life would be the final one. Which either means she dies before puberty or becomes depowered before she dies for the final time. Maybe X Lives/X Deaths will answer that question.
@Citizen X:
Paul O’Brien at House to Astonish did a complete readthrough of Moira’s earlier appearances to see how they would look from the perspective of the Hickman retcon. I don’t recall if he discusses this specific issue, but he may. The heading that he gives those posts is The Complete Moira, if anyone wants to have a look.
Just guessing, but the 11th life idea always seemed to me like a dangling plot thread intended to be left for the use of future writers.
I would have liked to see what happened to Moira while she had the Legacy Virus.
Someone on another site was kind enough to remind me that Storm lost and regained her powers, there’s no reason to think Moira wouldn’t be aware of that. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her.
I think what’s helpful is that it was a machine created by Forge, took over a year, and was in another dimension he was magically placed in.
GRANTED, that doesn’t mean it can’t be recreated, but it at least provides enough narrative slight of hand for why it isn’t lying around.
Thanks, I’ll definitely be checking it out.
So I checked out The Complete Moira and it’s quite a read. The main things that struck me was it reminded me of her almost maternal relationship with Douglock, which is interesting in light of her knowledge of where humanity is headed. It also adds new meaning to the scene where Doug saves her bacon. Even then, I realized that Inferno didn’t end with Moira becoming human, but Homo Novissimo. And Doug is something more, through his symbiotic relationship with Warlock. What do they call the combination of mutant and machine?
I’ve always thought there was potential for a really interesting Nimrod solo series, which would hearken back to his original characterization. A violent robot learning to be ethical due to living with a family. A cross between The Good Place and The Punisher.
This assumes that the neutralizer removed her power.
But this left so many questions like: What about the effects Moira had on the Marvel as whole while she had the Legacy virus? Why did Moira get a Shi’ar Golem? How has she been manipulating events towards Krakoa? How were The Five specifically chosen? Does Emma see how much of hypocrite she is?