Rise of the Powers of X #5: "Now and Forever"

[alliterator]

"Moira is quite big in this story because the end of the X-Men Krakoan era had to come back to her. It had to come back to Xavier as well. Because we basically started with those two people on a bench. For all the big ideas Jonathan Hickman started, it was a very powerful, personal story about these people trapped and wanting to be free. That's the thing that Moira gave everyone; a chance to try things a different way. Of course, in the end, Moira is not reliable or good, but she had a point."
-- Kieron Gillen


Moira finally asks Charles what his plan was with defecting to Orchis. He tells her.

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

So, will they put Xavier and Jean into the Pit? Since by removing Moira's powers they made less mutants.

[alliterator]

I think the laws of Krakoa have been thrown out the window by now.

Also, she's not a mutant in a different timeline, so it doesn't really matter.

[cainofdreaming]

Oh, like any of that would matter if they were some inconvenient little people.

[deh_tommy]

I doubt it, even with all the angst about chucking Magneto over killing Wanda they were always kind of “rules for thee but not for me” about them. Heck, everybody would have to go into the Pit given all the killing of non-mutants that went on.

[shakalooloo]

I always assumed that the reason Hickman depowered Moira at the end of his run was to show that she was done with, to allow future writers to move on without her shackled about their necks. And yet everyone went straight back to using her, poor lass.

[aperturedreams]

Actually, Hickman had in the earliest issues Destiny say she'd maybe have 11 lives if she makes the right choice in the end, so it seems pretty clear he had her headed to this ending

[icon_uk]

Well, that might be true, though Hickman has apparently stated (during his appearance on the Cerebro podcast on Apocalypse), that Moira was never intended to be the big bad guy of the Krakoan era, he had someone else in mind but Marvel editorial went in another direction.

He won't say who it was, presumably out of professional courtesy, but I have to say that even I think it was probably intended to be Doug.

[aperturedreams]

Yeah, that makes sense. Doug would have been interesting...

[alliterator]

Early on he wanted someone else to be the Big Bad, but when editorial said no, he quickly shifted to Moira being a bad guy. I mean, the entire Inferno book was about how Moira's backup plan was to depower everyone. She was clearly meant to be the antagonist by that point.

The rest of her arc -- becoming a robot and afterwards -- wasn't written by Hickman, but it was discussed with him. I think they said he was in the room as they talked about the next two years of stories after Inferno.

[shakalooloo]

Sure, but either Moira made the wrong choice, or Destiny lied.

[alliterator]

I mean, Moira made the right choice in this issue and got her eleventh life.

[blues32]

Twelfth. Being Robo-Moira was her eleventh life.

[shakalooloo]

Yes, but my (completely speculative with no evidence) argument is that that isn't what Hickman intended.

[aperturedreams]

Didn't she make the right choice? This would be life 11, wouldn't it?

[draganoche]

The predicted 11th life would be the robot since Destiny's vision has been limited by the moria engine and Enigma.

But this is thematically Moria's true l1th life.

[aperturedreams]

Could be, though personally I don't think the robot counts, seeing as it was really just a continuation of her life, not a different timeline

[bewareofgeek]

So, does this mean Moira has no powers in the current timeline, or is she dead in this one and depowered in another?

And if the former, how did Krakoa even HAPPEN?

Time travel stories hurt my head.

[alliterator]

This is a different timeline set up by the Phoenix. The 616 timeline is where Robot Moira died.

[icon_uk]

I suspect the latter. She's been killed in this time, and now and has a final chance at a normal life in another one, her "reward" for helping stop Enigma.

[deh_tommy]

How come the Beyonders had to destroy all of time and space just to stop the Enigma during Secret Wars if the X-Men were more than capable of handling it?

[bruinsfan]

The X-Men's solution involves monkeying around with the past, something the Beyonders aren't able to do for whatever reason?

[mindsweeper]

The X-Men have the power of friendship, which is more powerful than all the Beyonders combined.

[cainofdreaming]

And why did they care, since there are several other dominions already? The various Phalanx ones for a start.

[alliterator]

Enigma is more dangerous than the other Dominions. The other Dominions, in fact, don't really care about interacting with the multiverse, they reside in Overspace. Not Enigma.

[deh_tommy]

Because the other Dominions are mostly content to just kind of chill and exist in their little space beyond space. The Enigma threatened to eat everything, including the other Dominions.

[dan_ingram]

"Of course, in the end, Moira is not reliable or good, but she had a point."

Oh, the rage that simple sentence brings me.

[justsotired]

To quote Marge Simpson:

"It's an ending, that's enough."

[alliterator]

It might shock you to realize this, but I didn't post these pages because I disliked this issue. In fact, I posted them because I really, really enjoyed it.

[cainofdreaming]

I doubt anyone who has followed the Krakoa era posts thought otherwise.

[alliterator]

Yes, I was being sarcastic. If you want, I can be more blunt: if you want to make a snide comment about a story I enjoyed on my own post, please refrain. If you can't refrain from doing so, I will delete your comment.

"This sucks" is not meaningful commentary. Quoting the Simpsons to complain about how much you think a story sucks is also not meaningful commentary.

[giraffesforever]

I'm delighted that Moira was given, and took, the opportunity to do something redemptive. Not completely, obviously, but I'm very glad to see her step off the vicious mustache-twirling path.

I'm also very happy to see that Chuck gave her the choice and didn't force her. Or kill her. That he trusted someone else to do the thing rather than declare that he alone could do it.

I would love to know what Moira does with that last life.

[alliterator]

Someone I know suggested that she will become a schoolteacher and have children, like she did with her first life.