HoX PoX ToX: Annotating House Of X #2

Moira MacTaggert was a long time human ally of the X-Men. House Of X #2 posits the question, what if she was a mutant? In an Anatomy Lesson like study, Johnathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Gracia explore the ten lives of Moira X. Seeing her as an innocent by-standard, an ally to the X-Men, a mass murderer, and everything in between.

Chris Eddleman: After the rollercoaster that was last issue, surely we’re ready to get back to some nice safe X-Men Comics. Except that this is one of those issues that is highlighted red in the reading order so we know things are absolutely going to get real. I’m ready to learn more about the Curious Case of Moira X as it was alluded to. In case you weren’t aware, that seems to be a reference to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a short story by Fitzgerald about a backwards aging person [Ed. note:also a movie about what not to do with CGI]. Alright Rob, let’s see what we got.

Robert Secundus: Chris, thank you for that catch! That’s been eating away at me, real tip-of-the-tongue-syndrome ever since we first saw that phrase, and I think they would have taken away my Modernist Card if HoXPoXToX hadn’t mentioned it!

Page 2

CE: A quote from Apocalypse rather than Moira? A strange beginning, that I will for sure reference later.

RS: And Apocalypse gets his own symbol, as did Xavier and Sinister. It’s curious that Moira’s symbol is the only one to use Krakoan lettering. Code mentions Apocalypse and Horsemen, but more intriguing at the bottom is APOCALYPSE FOREVER, given how the final infographic of this issue depicts that timeline…

Page 3

CE: Wow, just this first page alone already shows us that things are very different. While in Earth-616, Moira MacTaggert is dead, killed by Mystique and crew, it was definitely not this way. We’re in new territory. Also, this is the end of Timeline #1, which becomes important later.

RS: Panels 1 and 2– featuring a deadly fever that miraculously disappears– seem to depict the manifestation of her mutation, which always occurs, we’re later informed, when she’s 13.

Page 4

CE: A fourth wall break along with the narrator is kind of a wild choice but, considering the personal nature of Moira’s comment about remembering being in the womb, sounds best coming from her. This could be talking to us, the audience, or our other theory- to the Librarian from PoX #1 in the form of recorded data. The fact that these data pages seem like computer entries point to that, possibly. This is also where we definitely hear the big retcon- Moira MacTaggert is a mutant.

Page 5

CE: We barely need to say it but, the Krakoan here is House of X. Welcome back.

RS: The title of this issue is “The Uncanny Life of Moira X,” a reference, once again, to a work of literature that reflects on the issue’s structure: Странная жизнь Ивана Осокина or The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin. P. D. Ouspensky’s novel takes Nietzche’s concept of the Eternal Recurrence literally. Basically, Nietzsche asks people to think of their entire lives as Groundhog Days, and to be content with eternally following the same cycle, unchanging. In the novel, a Magician makes the eponymous character conscious of such a cycle; the novel follows the poor soul trying and failing to change things. We see the same in this issue, with Moira unable to avoid a few specific outcomes and, apparently, the broader outcome of a dystopic future. This story does seem to deviate from the novel in two ways: we’re told that Moira’s recurrences are not eternal, that she is limited to X of them, and we don’t see any Magician making this possible (though a Magician did feature in the Moira scene last issue– Rapustin….) [Ed. note:those tarot cards feel more and more important]

CE: I like them using Uncanny, because of course, we still have to be X-Men.

RS: Now, we should quickly note that Claire North’s The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August has a similar plot, and Hickman’s praised that novel before Still, the issue is “The Uncanny Life of Moira X,” not “The First Ten Lives of Moira MacTaggert.”

Page 6

CE: This prose piece, along with the accompanying code, definitely lends to the theory I’ve seen that all these designed pieces are from the far future Library that we saw last issue. I definitely think that it could be the case the more I see these data pages.

RS: I’m increasingly convinced that these are from that Library, but what strikes me here is that none of the previous pages have quite sounded like this. This is the first time a page is written to sound like prose narrative. It’s not just a record, it’s written to be a story to be told to someone. 

Page 7 

CE: We are given the now retconned in reasons that Moira decided to become a biologist/psychologist- to understand her own condition. This has an interesting effect on her character, I think. A bit less altruism, perhaps. But, it’s hard to blame her.

RS: My question on these pages concerns the way moira is described: “Moira L 2A” and “Moira L 2B.” I understand A and B– it mentions divergence– but why L? Her Maiden name is Kinross. If L is designating a number, it should be either 12 or 50. Also– “diverge” is an interesting word to use here, because that’s how Marvel often describes time travel and its effect on timelines. Do all of these timelines carry on, do they all diverge and continue to exist?

CE: I think this code is a bit more simple: Moira_L_TwoA referring to Moira Life #2, with the A and B just being sequential parts in the entry.

Page 8

RS: So if we apply our theory about the infographic pages to what we see here (and on page 4)– that the story being told is coming directly from Moira’s lips– that would imply that the Moira we see here has some connection to the Library, or else the Library has some kind of access to her in the past. 

CE: The effect that Moira is talking about- The Observer Effect- is a theory of quantum physics, that by observing a phenomenon, you are thus influencing it. This was famously seen in the double-slit experiment conducted by the Weizmann Institute, in which they observed that even a mechanical detector could influence the behavior of a beam of electrons. When being watched, it forces them to behave more like particles than waves. This gets kind of complex and outside the scope of our annotations but it really only works in the real world in a quantum physics setting. Granted, you could maybe argue reliving your life in time travel form gets kinda hinky. 

RS: If the idea sounds confusing, or counter-intuitive, think about how you observe things: light. And think about the fact that light isn’t just a passive thing– you can only see something because light is interacting with it. 

Page 9

CE: This is where we start to get really into the Groundhog Day stuff. We’ll reference this later but, Timeline #2 is finished here, rather anticlimactically.

RS: This is an alternate version of a scene from New X-Men #116. At that time Cassandra Nova, Xavier’s evil psychic twin that he tried to kill in the womb, was piloting Xavier’s body and outed Xavier as a mutant. [Ed. note:It actually all kinda worked out OK]

Page 10

CE: Great page mirroring between this and Moira from Page 8, where once she seemed somewhat interested, now she is bitter at this god-complex man. 

RS: If you missed his tweets, Pepe Larraz called attention to a couple of details in the background here: a Groundhog Day poster and an Escher poster featuring a Möbius strip. A Möbius strip is a band twisted so that one could walk in one direction on it and, without ever leaving the band or changing direction, completely walk down both sides. [Ed. note: I wish the West Texas Highway was a Möbius strip]

CE: The mutant cure as a concept has been used a few times, famously in X-Men: The Last Stand (everyone’s [Ed. note:no one’s] favorite X-Men movie) but, in the 616 it originated in the first issue of Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run. Another sign that #3 is not our timeline. The creator of the Hope Serum, as it was called in that run, was Dr. Kavita Rao.

RS: I wonder if that means, like Sentinels and Dark Futures, that the mutant cure is one of the Inevitables of all X-timelines.

CE: I think so Rob. It’s the sampler platter of X-Dystopia. [Ed. note:which is half off on weekdays when you order between 4-6PM]

Page 11

CE: Very cool to see Destiny again, who has been dead for a very very long time (killed by a Shadow King affected Legion back in the Uncanny X-Men #255). Her and Mystique’s relationship (read: lovers) is one of my favorites.

RS: She most recently appeared (though as a Cross-time alternate reality version of the character) in a Claremont-penned story in Marvel Comics Presents Vol 3 #5, where she called herself Nightcrawler’s mom. Claremont originally wanted Destiny and Mystique to be Nightcrawler’s biological parents. Claremont is presumably not a fan of The Draco. [Ed. note:who would be?]

CE: Also important to note, after Moira returned from the dead temporarily in Chaos War, she was possessed by the spirit of Destiny. That likely means nothing but, I like bringing up this connection.

RS: A quick note too about Destiny and Moira. As noted by @aliastager, “Moira” is an Anglicization of the Greek μοῖρα, typically translated as “destiny.” The  Μοῖραι were the Fates. All readers are almost certainly familiar with the Fates; if you’ve ever seen three old ladies spinning lifelines in pop culture, that’s them.  [Ed. note:They are in the Disney Hercules with the one eyeball they share between the three of them]

Page 12

RS: Fortunate for those unfamiliar with the character, Destiny explains her own deal here. I wonder– given that Hickman’s already talked about The Observer Effect, are we supposed to apply that to Destiny too? Does her vision of the future already change it, causing the timeline to split? If so, would that mean there are two sets of Moiras, one set that we see here foreseen by Destiny, and another unseen?

CE: Multiverse theory WITH this mutation is too much to think about.

Page 13

CE: Destiny is very correct here about the misuse of the serum, as this seems to happen literally every time a mutant cure is mentioned.  

A paraphrase of a phrase often used in association with evolution (and sometimes business), “Adapt or Die.” This being X-Men, evolution references of course abound.

RS: This might be a good place to mention Pepe Larraz’s Destiny design. Which he tweeted was inspired by Brâncusi’s “Muses”. Brâncusi was a modernist sculptor; you’ve probably seen before his Bird in Space, which is a famous example of abstract sculpture.  [Ed. note:I legit don’t get abstract art]

Page 14

CE: This page lays out a little bit more of the rules of Moira’s mutant power- that we’ll keep track of- Moira gets 10 lives (and maybe 11 if she makes the proper choice, which I presume is the paragon option) and if she dies before her mutant powers manifest (which is typically in teenage years) she is dead forever. This reminds me a bit of Edge of Tomorrow [Ed. note:Live. Die. Repeat] in which the main character had basically endless lives in time loop until he either beat the big bad or got a blood transfusion.

RS: if anyone reading this hasn’t seen Edge of Tomorrow stop and go watch it before we continue! It made zero dollars and it was incredible.  [Ed. note:It was fine]

Larraz also called attention to this page Throughout this issue, when Moira is aligned with Charles Xavier, she’s drawn looking to the right. When she’s composing the mutant cure, she’s drawn looking to the left. Throughout her conversation with destiny thus far, she’s still been looking to the left, but on this page the camera shifts as she first looks ahead and then to the right, signalling that already here Destiny and Mystique have begun to convince her, even while she’s still arguing with them. This really subtle decision by Larraz demonstrates how powerful simple artistic choices can be; something as subtle as the position of the camera can communicate something about a character’s interiority without ever the need for thoughtballoons or narrative boxes. And even if you didn’t notice this, even if you didn’t see Larraz’s tweets, because the pattern had already been established in the art, you probably picked up on it subconsciously; this scene was probably weightier for you than it would have been had Larraz not elected to enact this sort of plan.

Page 15

CE: In case we need a reminder that these are the EVIL mutants. Woof what a gruesome scene. End of Timeline #3.

RS: Pyro is one of those villains that when he shows up, seems like a d-list, a jobber– but man does this seen make him utterly chilling, utterly terrifying. 

CE: A cultlike dedication. This portrayal of Destiny makes her seem both charismatic and utterly ruthless. I love it. [Ed. note:He also calls Destiny “mother” which she wasn’t? Keep an eye open for this.]

Page 16

When two aggressive species share the same environment, evolution demands either adaptation or dominance.

Moira IV

CE: This sentence was placed very early in the marketing for HoXPoX, even before we knew it was HoXPoX. It’s definitely written for maximum drama, but it’s not quite how evolution works. [Ed. note:pedant ]The term we use to define how a species responds to and influences its environment is called a niche. If two species occupy the exact same niche, this is a huge problem (detailed in a term called the competitive exclusion principle). Now, one species can simply outcompete another, leading to the others elimination from the environment, which I suppose is the dominance in this case. Alternatively, a species can adapt to have a more distinct niche, which I suppose would be the adaptation. This quote seems to really want us to think about INTERSPECIES COMBAT but, that is actually pretty rare in these cases. It’s honestly better resource-wise for a species to just be better at competing. 

CE: More mirroring here in the middle, with Moira being VERY interested in Charles.

RS: Something I really like about this page and the issue going forward: the shifting panel layout. Just as we’re told that this timeline begins with urgency, the panels begin shifting down. As our horizontal becomes increasingly our vertical, we move increasingly quickly down each page, until we get to a page like 20, where we move down in seconds. 

Page 17

CE: As I read this the first time, I wondered if somehow this was supposed to be the main timeline- but obviously not. We’re dealing with Moira X (read: ten). These eras are of course, in panel order: The Original Five, The All-New All-Different Era, The Phoenix Five, and the awful death of all the X-Men, which seems very Days of Future Past. This is the end of Timeline #4.

RS: I was thinking the same, and I think that was a very calculated swerve. We think “oh, ok, Timeline #4 is the one we know”– and then when that’s shut down, and we get a series of increasingly alien timelines, we think “oh, ok, all of this is prelude, and the LAST one will be the one we know.” 

CE: Rob, do you know what is referenced in the Phoenix Five panel with the phrase “The Lost Decade?”

RS: I had two thoughts here; either this is the timespan when Xavier is dead, or this is the time when (according to Cyclops recently, upon his resurrection) that the X-Men lost their way. 

CE: It might be a tremendous dunk as well. [Ed. note:TBF Hickman was literally a writer on AvX, so self-dunk maybe?]

Page 18

CE: Moira travelling to America at age 13, and it apparently being almost a full decade before she was supposed to meet him does not jive with our timeline (later on) in which she mostly seems to meet him at age 17. Strange kind of discrepancy. Also, later on in the timeline graph this sort of walled city seems to be called Faraway. Strange that this seems not unlike the Krakoa we saw in issue 1, but without the carrot of human pharmaceuticals.

RS: It is 10 years before she married Xavier in the previous timeline, for whatever that’s worth.

Page 19

CE: The Trasks listed in this gruesome page are:

• Bolivar, the inventor of the Sentinels, who in the 616 died in an explosion trying to rid of the world of his work
• Donald, presumable Donald III, who is Bolivar’s nephew, and in the 616 was tricked by Cassandra Nova into giving up his DNA so she could control the Wild Sentinels. She then offed him.
• Gwyneth, who is completely new.
• Simon, Bolivar’s brother who decided Sentinels were gauche. In the 616, he started a hate group called Humanity’s Last Stand.
• Larry is completely absent. He is the son of Bolivar and ALSO a mutant. Perhaps Moira took Destiny’s warning very seriously.

RS: I mentioned the layouts of these pages before, but man, this one, where the gutters also loot like bullet lines? Incredible.

We’ve skipped over Timeline #6 here, which is also missing from the final graphic. Note that the gradient at the end of the issue would have Timeline 6 colored the same shade of red as HoX #2 in the reading order.

CE: Yet another Chekhov’s Gun. We basically have an armory at this point. [Ed. note:reaching Claremontian levels of loose threads]

Page 20

RS: I don’t recognize the sentinel in the third panel. Chris, do you recognize this, or is this supposed to be What-Sentinels-Look-Like-Removed-From-Trask-Aesthetics?

CE: I think this is a created fully by machines Sentinel which means COMPLETELY TERRIFYING. 

RS: Oh no! So, since mutants and machines are strongly paralleled here; I wonder if, especially the latter two timelines of PoX #1, the central conflict is not going to concern the classic Human/Mutant conflict emphasized in HoX #1, but mutants confronting a future in which they are not the most advanced, dominant species, but the children of man, the machines are?

Page 21

RS: Hey, it’s Octopusheim! Everyone’s favorite evil villain lair! This is a weird island that Magneto often occupies which is drenched, as you can see, in ancient eldritch imagery. It’s mostly served as a romantic getaway for the Loves of Lee Forester; she and Cyclops shipwrecked there way back in Uncanny X-Men #148, and 51 issues later she shacked up with Magneto [Ed. note:she also hooked up with Cable on a boat around there. Lee is the greatest]. It pops up at weird moments throughout X-history; Belasco kidnapped Ilyana from there in Uncanny X-Men #160. Wolverine: First Class #12 revealed that the island was the ancient prison of Quoggoth, the eldritch creation of Marvel’s best known Lovecraftian horror, SHUMA GORATH [Ed. note:who is technically a Conan the Barbarian character]. Also, we should note that Larraz’s composition here is an homage to the cover of The Adventures of Tintin: The Black Island. [Ed. note: They go to Moira’s home of Scotland in that one]

CE: I’m pretty thrilled that out of all of Magneto’s silly bases- volcano, asteroid, etc.,that we got the mollusk themed one in this issue.

Page 22

RS: Our narrator really sounds like she’s going full supervillain here– but she might not be expressing her own present day opinions, just indulging in a little colored narration, dipping into the mindset of Moira VIII. 

CE: Magneto and stealing weaponry is kind of a classic trope, so it’s interesting to see it here. Very Cape Citadel, the first X-Men story.

Page 23

RS: Of all them, this timeline seems like the one besides the tenth we’re sure to see more of going forward: this issue begins with an Apocalypse quote and Apocalypse code, this issue does not show us this Moira’s death, and the final infographic of this issue could imply that Moira IX has not yet died. Chris, a question: traditionally, how closely does Apocalypse’s philosophy of “survival of the fittest” match up to actual Darwinian principles?

CE: “Fit” in evolutionary terms just means able to produce offspring that can also produce offspring. Considering Apocalypse usually means the absolute strongest survive, they don’t align well. [Ed. note:However they have recently resolved this in Age Of X-Man by making Apocalypse super horny]

Page 24

RS: It’s everyone’s favorite cuddly genocidal weapon of destruction, Nimrod! [Ed. note:MY SON] It’s unclear if he actually dies in this timeline, but boy howdy, he certainly won’t feel good in the morning!

CE: He’s toast.

Page 25

CE: The “And Then…” seems extra ominous. Also it will be interesting to see what this very enterprising fetus considers to be breaking all the rules, considering terrorism, assassination, and likely genocide were all within bounds.

Pages 26-27 

RS: Here Hickman’s playing with the Kuleshov Effect again. The previous page ends with a panel saying “in Moira’s tenth life, she decided she and Charles Xavier would break all the rules.” In this panel we see That Scene from Pox #1 again– implying that that scene, and PoX #1, and HoX #1, as the immediately following scene in PoX #1 continued on from HoX #1– implying that all of that is part of Moira’s Xth life. But that’s all it is– an implication. This conversation could take place in a completely different timeline. Alternatively, the entire issue could be what Moira X telepathically says to Charles after she asks him to read her mind.

RS: We didn’t catch this before, but thanks to Chris’ friend Mark Turetsky, we caught that the recurring line in this scene, “It’s not a dream if it’s real,” is paraphrasing the novel Altneuland, by Theodore Herzl: “The dream is not that far from action as most tend to think. All people’s actions were once a dream and all peoples actions will someday be a dream.” Altneuland is a 1902 Zionist utopian novel which depicts a theoretical Jewish New Society constructed on Herzl’s ideals. A lot of people (including us) talked about the Jewish dimension of HoX #1, and how the issue called attention to broad parallels between Israel and Krakoa by setting the issue in Jerusalem. 

If this paraphrase was intentional, then the actual parallels we’re supposed to draw, the components of the mutant metaphor, might not be between Krakoa and 20th Century Israel, but between Krakoa and the idea of Israel. Just a couple of other details of the novel that might seem relevant: the main characters leave the world behind to live on a tropical island after complaining about how evil all humans are, then after a massive timeskip return to a utopian setting. Also, there’s a pale lady in the first chapter, for whatever that’s worth.

CE: A cryptic pale lady? [Ed. note:like Black Swan, or Wolf, or that creepy lady from Black Monday Murders…]

RS: Well… she doesn’t get much dialogue? So in that extremely loose sense? 

Page 28

RS: I’m not sure what to make of this final quote– but it  sounds to me like a rearticulation of the experience of Eternal Recurrence. 

CE: This is what she said to Charles in her mind- I’m sure of it.

Pages 29-31

RS: Whoo boy, we’ve got a doozy of a graphic here. The most important detail is, again, that timeline 6 is missing, and it would be stark red on the gradient. As far as design choices go, it’s not clear why the lines shift into circles/ partial-circles in the middle. Most obviously it’s to emphasize the importance of Moira’s mutation; it also could emphasize the nature of that mutation, the Eternal Recurrence. It’s unclear why the first, and only the first, features a complete circle in the center. The particular arcs of each timeline are also odd; some move widdershins (2, 4, 5, 7, 9, and the absent space for 6) and others turnwise (3, 8, 10). 

CE: It’s odd to me to establish that in Life #5 Moira is put into a coma and then later killed by Sentinels. I have a nagging feeling about it but, it could just be for gruesome flavor. Also in Life #10, we get the pivotal “gives birth to Proteus,” which establishes Life #10 as the most likely candidate of our 616 timeline. 

RS: Which also places the Proteus saga in an entirely new light. Aspects of that story are a bit, well, problematic, so it will be interesting to see how this new version of Moira works in that story!

CE: We didn’t get to see the end of Life #9, and this timeline reflects that, as the Apocalypse Timeline extends off into eternity. Positive that’ll come up again. Also the timing of Life #10 seems very off to me. Last issue we established the House of X as X¹, timing-wise. Even with rounding within the exponent, let’s say that can be up to 30 years. Moira meeting Xavier at 17, and the House of X being established when she’s 52 doesn’t seem to gel with that. It honestly might be nothing. [Ed. note:Time=illusion]

Also the schism between Magneto/Xavier/Moira is possibly the one from Mutant Genesis and would thus place everything from 90s onward in a five year chunk. I could live with that.

RS: The most striking thing to me here is the escape-via-”golem.” We’ve mentioned the possibilities of golems or golem-like things before playing a role in this series, given so many characters’ hidden foreheads. Remember last time, in HoXPoXToX #2, we pointed out the weird existence of a “Moira_X_Theta”, and also, thanks to Friend of the ToX Nir Revel’s discoveries, found that the theta’s antecedent, an x in a circle, was connected to death/rebirth, and that as a numeral, the theta is used for the number 9.

CE: In comic book continuity, this likely refers to her death back in  X-Men #108, which I suppose now was faked!  She is also no longer the first human to contract the Legacy Virus. [Ed. note:Also daddy Hicks messed up the order of Moira’s death and Genosha]

RS: Mystique’s involvement in Moira’s faux-death is interesting given Destiny’s ultimatum; unfortunately, because Destiny was dead at the time, we can’t say for certain that she was acting under Destiny’s orders, we can’t confirm that that means Moira X is working to oppose mutants. 

Page 33

CE: The Krakoan here reads- NEXT: Hello Old Friend. No surprises here. This is the preview for Powers of X #2. 

Page 34

CE: The Krakoan here reads- THEN: This is what you do. This is the first time we’ve seen a “Y!” Also, given the reading order, this is a preview for Powers of X #3. 

RS: Again “os orbi” (Operating System: World?) appears– but on the final page becomes “os apoc,” which is, like a great deal of this issue, ominous. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

CE: Holy wow, I know we keep saying that each issue of this is amazing, but this issue really ratcheted up on the quality. Rob, this could be recency bias but this might be one of the finest superhero single issues I’ve ever read. While you obviously couldn’t read it by itself, it completely accomplishes what it sets out to do from jump. The team of Hickman, Larraz, Gracia, and Muller bring together an incredibly retcon issue that fills out yet another corner of the new X-Men paradigm. This makes me recontextualize decades worth of comics and I’m sure we’re only getting started digging into how Moira’s shift will affect the X-Men. This is another issue I definitely needed multiple passes on and I can’t wait to devour more information and story.

RS: I really love it when superhero comics take some other genre and put their own spin on them. In this case, this was a really fantastic, novel take on the niche genre of the Groundhog Day, that used that genre to explore the extremely complicated world of the X-Men from a lot of angles. When Superhero Stuff is combined with another genre well, it elevates both of the genres in play, and that was really the case here. That said, we’re now three issues in which each have lead to far more questions than answers. WILL HoXPoX BE ABLE TO GIVE SATISFYING CONCLUSIONS TO THOSE ANSWERS? I mean, yes, probably yes, we’ve all read stories by everyone involved in these comics before, they do good work, so yeah, it’ll be great.