MOIRA X

Publication Date: 14th Aug 2023
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Alternate Versions

ALTERNATE VERSIONS

The timeline for Moira X’s Future is already in flux. Originally, it seemed that Krakoa was successful. Inferno (2nd series) #3 showed that mutants overcame man and machine, re-forged the Blade of the Phoenix and challenged the Dominions themselves. A trickster Titan projected the consciousness of an Omega Sentinel back in time, however, and so Moira X’s timeline was altered. This led to a new sequence of events causing the origin of Nimrod and Moira’s de-powering and exile from Krakoa. X Deaths of Wolverine #3-4 showed the eventual fall of Krakoa as Moira turned against her former allies, directing Nimrod and the Sentinels on how to bring down the nation she helped found. Roughly one thousand years in the future, Moira had bonded to Phalanx techno-organic matter to become a deadly threat. She dealt a lethal blow to Wolverine, the last mutant, before preparing herself and post-humanity to bond with the Dominion in place of man, mutant or machine. (The Fall of Krakoa seen in this timeline is already different from the Fall of X which occurred in the present, showing the Omega Wolverine's future has diverged from our own.)


In the original Days of Future Past story, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants reportedly killed Moira and Charles Xavier along with Senator Kelly during their attack on Washington. (As if often the case now, explanations for how Moira's power failed or did not exist in this future are left to the imagination.)


Moira MacTaggert of the House of M was still a Nobel Prize winning geneticist dedicated to helping her son Kevin live with his mutation. Moira planned to neutralize the X-gene which was causing Kevin’s desiccation, though, which was a capital crime under Magneto’s rule. The House of M’s Sentinels attacked Muir Island, turning Moira into a fugitive and setting Kevin loose. Dubbed Mutant X by the media, Kevin’s trail of discarded host bodies led to him being labeled as a serial killer. Moira crossed paths with the dimension-hopping Exiles in New York. Their member Beak was captured by Kevin, who took the name Proteus as he became curious about moving on to new realities. Moira and the Exiles tried to kill or contain Proteus, but Kevin attempted to possess his mother, and Moira committed suicide rather than allow herself to be taken over.


In the Age of Apocalypse, North America was conquered by the mutants, driving any humans who could escape to Europe. Moira Trask and her husband Bolivar led the Human High Council in London, along with Mariko Yashida, Brian Braddock and Emma Frost. Their Sentinels defended their borders and harassed the armed sea walls around Apocalypse’s domain. The Council’s plans were put into motion once Apocalypse’s treacherous Horseman Sinister sent his couriers, Jean Grey and Weapon X, to make contact with them. They confirmed Apocalypse’s overtures of peace were a ruse while he consolidated power. All-out war was launched, leading to the final conflict between man and mutant.

Interestingly enough, the X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic showcased a reality where this Moira's mutant power DID trigger, causing her to relive a different version of the Age of Apocalypse. Remorseful over her anti-mutant activities in the previous timeline, this Moira helped to assemble and lead the X-Men with Magneto in Charles' absence. However, Alpha the Ultimate reduced Erik to a child, and so Moira became the new Magneto with a suit able to harness the infant's Omega-class potential for her to wield artificially. An encounter with the Xavier of Earth-616 gave her hope that the mutants of her reality would rise up against Apocalypse. 


In X-Men Forever, the mutant race faced a crisis called "burnout", cellular degeneration caused by the human body trying to mainline such incredible forces as the X-gene called to bear. Moira MacTaggert served in her traditional support role to the X-Men in this divergent timeline, working with Xavier and Hank McCoy to arrest and cure "burnout" much as she did with the Legacy Virus in the main timeline. She also served as a standard medic for the team, and was once kidnapped by Masque and the Morlocks to work on a "burnout" cure for them alone.


The Ultimate Moira MacTaggert and Charles Xavier had a similar history. Here, they met at Glasgow instead of Oxford, and actually went through with their marriage, having a son named David Xavier. Moira even built the original Cerebro but, when Xavier met Magneto, his dream of mutant co-existence consumed him and their marriage fell apart. Moira remained Charles’ professional collaborator, running Muir Island as a secondary research site to the Xavier Mansion. Muir tended to the care of younger mutants and those whose mutations weren’t as flashy and publicly appealing as the X-Men. Inevitably, David developed into this reality’s Proteus and the X-Men were called in to deal with him, leading to his death. Under unrevealed circumstances, Moira began mass-producing and selling the addictive, power-boosting drug known as Banshee in order to supplement the costs of maintaining her facility. By using the drug on herself, Moira gained a sonic scream. She fled from Xavier and the X-Men after being found out and seemed to be in league with Quicksilver and the Brotherhood, but this wasn’t followed up on.


In the Mutant X universe, Magneto and Charles Xavier formed the X-Men together. After an encounter with the Shadow King, Xavier was consumed by darkness and left the X-Men in Magneto’s care. Magnus fell in love with Moira MacTaggert, who helped the X-Men heal and recover from their battle with the Shadow King. During a battle with the Juggernaut, Xavier returned and struck out at his stepbrother, but the psychic blast passed through Juggernaut and killed Moira instead.


In What If..? (2nd series) #9, events spun off from Moira’s brief encounter with Rahne Sinclair in Classic X-Men #2. She received word from Hank McCoy that Charles Xavier was inconsolably morose after the death of his students, the X-Men. Moira brought Rahne to Westchester where she learned the original X-Men and the all-new, all-different team had both died in the final battle with Krakoa, leaving Xavier wallowing in grief. Count Nefaria attacked NORAD as he did in the original timeline, leading Beast to assemble his own new team of X-Men, including Wolfsbane, Namorita, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Theresa Rourke as Banshee and James Proudstar as Thunderbird. This version of Moira only works if numerous retcons are ignored, particularly Deadly Genesis, as she presents herself as completely unfamiliar with the concept of the X-Men and out of touch with Xavier since their failed engagement.


In What If..? (2nd series) #110, Professor Xavier had failed to recruit Colossus for his X-Men, leading to a different outcome to Moira and the X-Men’s first encounter with Proteus. Without the metal-skinned Russian, Kevin survived long enough to possess the Phoenix, making him an even greater threat. Colossus and the Soviet Super-Soldiers were deployed to Edinburgh, but Piotr blamed Xavier for the death of his sister Illyana in an accident and refused to work with them. Eventually, Xavier coaxed Proteus into leaving Phoenix to possess him, at which point Colossus sacrificed an arm to kill Kevin in the body of the man he hated.


On Earth-597, the Third Reich conquered the United Kingdom during World War II. Modern England lived under the domination of the Nazi regime. Reichminister Moira MacTaggert was the head of genetics reserch for the Fuhrer, keeping the bloodlines "pure."

The curious creature known as Widget created an inter-dimensional portal which caused the two trains carrying Moira and her bodyguard Callisto in Earth-597 and Earth-616 to switch places, creating a cross-dimensional political incident. Earth-616's Excalibur had to contend with Earth-597's Lightning Force when they came to collect their citizens. Reichminister MacTaggert was vile and underhanded -- the nuclear grenade she left behind during the exchange sent Excalibur adrift during the Cross-Time Caper.


Mister Sinister commodified Moira's mutant power by growing clones for his own use. This Moira Engine created "save points" for Essex to reset the timeline when convenient for him. By killing a clone in his laboratory, its knowledge would be transmitted back in time to the point of the clone's creation in a digital file. This allowed him to avoid consequences and predict future events to some degree of accuracy, although other precogs like Destiny could throw a spanner in the works.

In Sins of Sinister, Essex finally corrupted the resurrection process on Krakoa to install a piece of himself into every mutant who returned. Moira X and Orchis crumbled beneath the underhanded and aggressive tactics of the Sinister-corrupted Quiet Council. The Sinisters "headshot" Krakoa to render the island brain-dead, then blamed the attack on Orchis to gather the aid of the Avengers and other nations bringing them down. Moira escaped, but spent the next thousand years surviving in hiding on a world used up and abandoned by the mutants of the Red Diamond. The original Sinister had lost control of his creations, but also misplaced the Moira Engine thanks to Destiny's intervention. Once her wife Raven died, however, Destiny put Sinister on the path to resetting the timeline.

When Sinister found the original Moira on the discarded Earth, he used her brainwave patterns to locate the Moira Engine in the distant Storm System ruled by Ororo's Brotherhood. A divergent clone of Essex named Mother Righteous had a plan to corrupt the Moira Engine with a magical virus which would reset the timeline but send the data to Righteous instead of Sinister. Moira X added the virus to the engine without Sinister's knowledge, and further had the joy of watching Sinister try and fail to achieve Dominion status. With over four trillion Sinister-coded mutants in the galaxy by this point, Essex harvested their minds to ascend beyond time and space, only to discover a Sinister Dominion already existed, and rejected him. Moira X killed her own clones in the Moira Engine, sending a message back in time that mocked the present Sinister for his failure before eradicating his engine in the present day as well.


In New Exiles #14-17, the cruel Empress Lilandra came to Earth hunting her sister and rival, Nerimani. For some reason, the Shi'ar Death Commandos in this reality were recognizable X-Men and their allies using the Commandos aliases and powers. This Moira Kinross, aka Hypernova, had the power to fire concussive beams of force.


In the reality from Exiles (2nd series) #1-3, Xavier and Magneto remained allies during the rise of mutantkind. As a result, all mutants came together under the banner of the X-Men. However, Magneto fell in love with Xavier's wife, Moira. In a key battle with the Sentinels, Magneto allowed Xavier to be killed and forged a relationship with Moira in her grief. They later became emperor and empress of the mutant nation of Genosha, until the Exiles revealed Magneto's treachery.