"Do Not Play So Lightly With Your Souls, Friends."

[numeronone]

""

― The Epic of Gilgamesh






MEANWHILE: Phastos, the forger, is summoned for his expertise by Ajak and Makkari, the two slightly beleagured High Priests.




MEANWHILE: the other Eternals are still slumming it with their Deviant cousins.



MEANWHILE:



The Machine rejects Druig's ploy.

Comments

[dan_ingram]

...hating this Moira plotline more every appearance

[lordultimus]

Christ, NuMoira gets worse and worse.

[nyadnar17]

What the fuck is even the point of NuMoira?

Like who is this character for?

[superboyprime]

Four pages are already posted from the Hellfire Gala issue: https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/9710251.html

[numeronone]

But it's over 50 pages long, so there's more leeway, surely?

[superboyprime]

I agree there should be, but according to mod rules, no, it’s four pages until the next issue’s out or a month’s passed.

[numeronone]

Enh, fine. I'm not a huge fan of the Moira plotline either.

[icon_uk]

superboyprime is correct, the four page rule applies to any new comic regardless of size (unless the 1/3 rule makes it even shorter)

[numeronone]

Can you ask them why they blocked me? I'm genuinely confused

[gnarll]

They've forgotten everything about Moria and Proteus relationship, haven't they?

[akodo_rokku]

Nope, they had her shit on that directly and personally.

[scorntx]

Well, there's a monkey paw moment if there ever was one.

[mastermahan]

Reasons I hate the Moira plotline.

1) The X-Men's most prominent human ally has now gone full genocide, as though mutants needed to be even more segregated.

2) NuMoira shares no traits with her previous incarnations beyond an occasional accent. This is just Bastion 2.0 wearing Moira's skin.

3) NuMoira is a flat character whose only motivation is "be evil". She plans to kill MJ because she's evil. She taunts her son because she's evil. She's boring.

[akodo_rokku]

I am vaguely curious what Hickman's original plans for her were before he wandered off. Clearly nobody had any idea what to do with her after Inferno, so she just became a cartoon.

[numeronone]

I almost wonder if he knew what he was doing. The setup from HoXPoX, to me, seems much more like she’s been established as someone who is morally grey, while Charles is the one dressed up like the Maker and being cagey and semi-manipulative.

But it is kind of hilarious that the setup of “This is a war between Mutants and Machines, the big bad is Nimrod and the Omega Sentinel” has been utterly abandoned in favour of Orchis being the new, improved Friends of Humanity. I assume Nimrod and Omega are locked in a cupboard somewhere, performing some…er…mindless repetitive tasks while Moira and Sinistasis cackle.

[nyadnar17]

Which sucks because "AI hate and fear humanity and mutants as much as mutants do them" is interesting and actually has history in the Marvel universe.

[mindsweeper]

I always thought Moira was simply a plot device to launch HOX/POX and be a reset waiting in the wings, if necessary. This was surely not the plan, but ... Percy.

I think it's also a sign of how weak the new villains are. None of them are compelling, whether it's Xeno, Orchis, Hordeculture, Mikhail Rasputin, Merlyn, etc. They're all so bland, so they need to try a new villainous Sinister, a new villainous Moira, Eternals, etc. to get someone to stick as an antagonist.

[giraffesforever]

It's a good point on the problem of current antagonists. When you turn all of your classic foes into team members, who's left to fight? I still have some hope for the setup of Orchis as parallel to the QC, where both sides have several factions with their own agendas and priorities. It would require patient writing, but I could imagine an excellent long-running plot that spans the entire Krakoan status quo of schemes, counter-schemes, betrayals, and shifting alliances before eventual resolution.

Your other examples are spot on though. In some cases I feel like Hickman was just intentionally leaving writing prompts for future authors. Did he actually have a plan for Mikhail's antagonism? Xeno's identity? Vulcan's alien tampering? The Brood? Apocalypse's return? Warlock being a secret?

[numeronone]

His X-Men run does leave a lot to be desired. "Unstructured" barely covers it.

[giraffesforever]

I've actually really enjoyed it (with the exception of a couple books), and am mostly just sorry that whatever plans there were may not get followed through.

The multitude of open-ended plot points is a risky creative decision, but I'm willing to bet some of them eventually turn into good stories while others will be disappointing.

[mastermahan]

Xeno, Orchis, Hordeculture, Mikhail Rasputin, Merlyn, etc.

I found Orchis interesting. Omega Sentinel survived a future genocide, and machines who are afraid of being exterminated by mutants is an interesting inversion. Dr. Devo is a friendly guy who's had his memories altered. Nimrod was a human who lost of his humanity saving his wife. They came across as less hateful and more just ignorant and scared.

But they're gone for some reason. Now it's just another Sinister, Moirabot, some Chinese billionaire, and an inexplicable MODOK, and they're the sort of mustache twirling villains who display Nightcrawler's rotting corpse like a trophy. (Also Brand is there and is great, but she's clearly playing her own game).

As for the rest, though... for sure. XENO are yet another racist human group and we STILL haven't gotten a name or face for their leader. Hordeculture are comedy old ladies. Mikhail Rasputin is apparently powered by hoary Russian cliches, which is why his main weapons are matryoshka doll people and an alcoholic novelist. Merlyn isn't a person so much as a device to make Excalibur's villainous behavior seem less reprehensible.

[cainofdreaming]

I'm still guessing that, if he was supposed to be a previously established character, Xeno's boss is Malcolm Colcord.

[shakalooloo]

She should have remained hidden for at least twelve months before re-surfacing. Having her come back almost imemdiately after leaving lessens the impact immensely. Let the readers almost forget about her, perhaps occasionally wondering 'whatever happened to Moira?' before her big return. At least that way there'd be some impact, rather than a resigned irritation at a constant annoyance.

[donnblake]

"What you seek you shall never find. For when the Gods made man, they let death be his lot, Eternal life they withheld. Let your every day be full of joy, love the child that holds your hand. Let your wife delight in your embrace. For these alone are the concerns of man.

Or, I mean, that's all true for humanity in general. You, Gilgamesh, specifically, are actually a member of a human subspecies created by giant space gods, and you're super immortal. Like, you're going to be here forever. Weird that you went on this whole epic quest for immortality, come to think of it. Probably you have some sort of amnesia or something?"

[numeronone]

"All I know is I put the leaf of immortality down next to this snake then went to get a drink from the river."

"Maybe that's a clue! What river was it?"

"Not sure. Long time ago. 'Leffy' or something."

[thezmage]

It's a little funny that all of the comments here are talking about pages that have been clipped from the post.

[numeronone]

scans-daily posting ismy BURDEN.

[mastermahan]

Huh, so putting all of mutantkind on one island would have meant disaster if it wasn't for some helpful divine intervention.

Gee, what a surprise.

[numeronone]

MOIRA: "You, er, fellow Mutants enjoy yourselves for the next two hours. And be sure not to leave the island, uh, for at least two hours. I'm going out to pick up some smokes ... uh, really good smokes. Two hours. (OK, Druig, let's blow this joint!)"