Marvel’s Inferno is revealing Moira MacTaggert’s plan for the X-Men all along

Marvel Comics started with an ending in 2022. With inferno # 4, writer Jonathan Hickman penned his final issue as the “showrunner” of the X-Men franchise, a role he’s played since the blockbuster’s release in 2019 House of X / powers of X.

Hickman’s changes to the facts, tone, and general mood of the X-Men comics were extreme – perhaps only comparable to the work of Len Wein, Chris Claremont, and Dave Cockrum in their 1975 attempt at series of an allegorical story about a teen Great team for a science fiction soap opera. The X-Men haven’t been the same since 2019, and as with any change to a classic superhero formula, it’s been exciting for some and angry for others.

House of X / powers of X (pronounced “Powers of Ten”) changed the X-Men status quo on a planetary scale (literally). But in short, it created a sovereign mutant nation on the living island of Krakoa and a system by which (virtually) any mutant who had ever died or would die could be resuscitated without consequence – a brilliant coup of an idea for a genre in which the resurrection is already tacitly expected.

But there was a pregnant secret at the heart of Krakoa: a mutant named Moira MacTaggert, whose power allows her to relive her own life every time she dies, using everything she has learned to tell the story of her will to subjugate. Their will – after a fateful encounter with the precognitive mutant Destiny – seemed to be to ensure the triumph of the mutant race over their eternal opponents, humans and machines.

But if Moira’s intentions were good, then why did she insist on her allies – Professor X and Magneto – that her existence should be kept a secret? And why did she insist that no precognitive mutants are ever resuscitated? especially not fate? Many readers looked askance at the Krakoi paradigm, noting its isolationism, secrets, and unearthly details. A number of characters synonymous with evolution had formed a society to eliminate the most fundamental consequences of natural selection.

And along with a number of writers and artists under the umbrella of the X-Men, the Hickman era repeatedly put mutants against rapidly evolving enemies: the die-hard mutants of Arakko, the machine intelligence of Orchis, the accelerated civilization of the world, human domination, the Enhance their bodies with mutated meat to gain their powers. If Hickman’s latest issue of X-Men does anything, it shows that all of the uncertainties that readers picked up were created on purpose.

What happened in Inferno # 4?

[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Inferno #4.]

Image: Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti / Marvel Comics

inferno‘s events were triggered by a Chekov pistol Hickman placed on the Krakoan’s mantelpiece at the beginning of his run X-Men: The master mutant manipulator Mystique had orders from Destiny, her beloved and deceased wife, to resuscitate her at all costs. And when Destiny was resurrected, the couple set out to clean the House of Foreboding just as Moira feared.

Mystique has Professor X and Magneto fight and get them out of the way while she and Destiny Moira take on Nimrod and the Omega Sentinel – the bosses of Orchis, a human scientific force who seeks to accelerate the evolution of mutant-hating machine intelligence kidnapped. With her precognitive skills, Destiny can see where Moira is actually going with all of this, and it’s exactly the same as the last time their paths crossed.

The truth is that after too many failed lives, Moira has lost faith in the mutant dream and her powers give her the immense ability to insert her will into the mutants’ story. She forged a plan to spend her final life (i.e. the canonical X-Men timeline) avoiding Destiny and slowly locking mutants up until they had to decide whether to throw themselves in front of humans or machines and mutants for survival should exchange.

Since killing Moira would easily allow her to start over, Destiny and Mystique shot her with a weapon that drained a mutant’s powers. (There is a primacy in the X-Men continuity that makes this less of a non-successor, but we needn’t get into that.) Doug Ramsey and his allies (the technological being Warlock, the Arakkoan warrior at the Blood Moon , and the island of Krakoa itself) made a surprise appearance that changed their plan.

Doug, who goes by the mutant name Cipher, is one of Hickman’s personal favorites, and in his final arc, author gave Doug his place. It turns out that Cipher, Warlock, and Krakoa had their own secret cabal that spied on Moira from the start. Doug forced Mystique and Destiny to spare Moira’s life and let her go free into the world, which she posed as the newest non-mutated X-Men antagonist.

The last balance? Moira is out there, is human, with a plan to develop a mutant cure that will work before the mutants’ powers manifest. Thanks to Emma Frost, the entire government council of Krakoa now knows about Moira’s role in the founding of their country, and they have all been sworn to secrecy. After the resurrection, Professor X and Magneto, though chastened, are still in power. The mutated world goes on.

Would that always happen?

Image: Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti / Marvel Comics

Any story that provokes intense speculation about its outcome and goes on for a long time will ask a fan base: Was it always the end? But Hickman’s X-Men era has a few quirks that particularly fueled those flames.

For one thing, it was unlucky to get published simple before the distribution of American comics was massively disrupted, which led to a month-long publication hiatus at Marvel Comics. On the other hand, it was fortunate to lead to blockbuster sales and a thriving “writer space” of creative talents who delved deep into the possibilities of the new status quo in the area.

Did pandemic reality stop Hickman from telling all the stories he wanted before leaving? Or did the financial success of the books force him to carry on after he was ready to quit? Is this the story he planned from the start?

Like Hickman said in job interviews at the different points yes and no. It’s no secret that the Krakoan-era powerhouse was a close-knit group of writers and artists who built on Hickman’s basic rules – there is even an “X-Slack” – to the point where they do it for a while stayed to stay Playing in this world became attractive. And the author has also spoken openly about the Diamond Comics closure and Marvel’s hiatus required a change in priorities: every book that ended meant that at least two creators became unemployed in a very short time. Keeping his staff at work took precedence over his originally planned timing.

In short, Jonathan Hickman’s stance is that no, inferno isn’t exactly the story he wanted to tell in the beginning, and it’s not exactly told the time he wanted it to be told in the beginning – but it’s the story he wants to tell now, and now is the time that he wants to tell. And what more could we ask for?

What happens next?

Image: Adam Kubert, Frank Martin Jr./Marvel Comics

The Krakoan era will continue with little calm, in what Marvel calls “Destiny of X”. Next week, Marvel Comics launches the setting’s next major miniseries with X Lives / Deaths of Wolverine, a 12-issue series that will be released in two alternating six-issue titles, just like House of X / powers of X led by wolverine and X-force Writer Ben Percy.

After Hickman at the helm of the X-Men flagship follows Kieron Gillen (THE, Eternal), with the series Immortal X-Men, all about the machinations of the ruling council of Krakoa. And in addition to continuing much of the X line, Marvel will also add Legion of X, X-cell, a renumbered Marauders, one Saber tooth Miniseries, and more.

inferno # 4 ended Moira X’s reign in one shot, but the problem is a drumbeat rather than a bang. The rhythm will go on because it’s too compelling not to do it.