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

Marvel Comics launched 2022 without an ending. With Inferno #4, writer Jonathan Hickman has penned his final issue as “showrunner” of the X-Men line, a role he’s played since 2019’s release of the blockbuster House of X/Powers of X.

Hickman’s changes to the facts, tone, and just general vibe of X-Men comics were extreme — perhaps comparable only to the work of Len Wein, Chris Claremont, and Dave Cockrum in their 1975 push to change the series from an allegorical story about a teen superteam to a sci-fi soap opera. Since 2019, the X-Men are not the same. It was both exciting and frustrating for some, as is with any change to a traditional superhero formula.

House of X/Powers of X (pronounced “Powers of Ten”) altered the X-Men status quo with planet-sized scope (literally). But in a nutshell, it created a sovereign Mutant nation on the living island of Krakoa, and a system through which (virtually) any mutant who had ever died or would die could be resurrected without consequence — a brilliant coup of an idea for a genre in which resurrection is already tacitly expected.

But at the heart of Krakoa was a pregnant secret: a mutant named Moira MacTaggert, whose power allows her to relive her own life every time she dies, and use everything she’s learned to bend history to her will. Her will — after a fateful encounter with the precognitive mutant Destiny — appeared to be to ensure the triumph of the mutant race over its eternal adversaries, humans and machines.

But if Moira’s intentions were good, why did she insist to her allies — Professor X and Magneto — that her existence should remain secret? Why did she insist on the resurrecting of precognitive mutants? ParticularlyBut Destiny is not the answer A lot of people looked at the Krakoan model with suspicion, noting its isolatedness, secrets and other unearthly aspects. One group of people synonymous with evolution founded a society aimed at removing natural selection’s most fundamental consequence.

Along with a host of artists and writers under the X-Men banner, Hickman era consistently set Mutants up against rapidly evolving enemies: The hardened mutants in Arakko; the Orchis computer intelligence; the sped-up civilisation of the World; human supremacists that augment their bodies using mutant flesh to increase their power. If Hickman’s final X-Men issue accomplishes anything, it shows that all the uncertainty readers have picked up on was created on purpose.

What was the story of Inferno #4?

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

Image: Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti/Marvel Comics

Inferno’s events were instigated by a Chekov’s gun Hickman placed on the Krakoan mantlepiece early in his run on X-MenDestiny, Destiny’s loved and deceased wife, gave Mystique orders to become a master manipulator of mutants. She wanted her resurrected at all cost. After Destiny had been resurrected the couple began cleaning the precognitive home exactly as Moira had feared.

Mystique tricked Professor X and Magneto into battling Nimrod and the Omega Sentinel — the final bosses of Orchis, a human scientific force intent on accelerating the development of mutant-hating machine intelligence — to their deaths, getting them out of the way while she and Destiny kidnapped Moira. With her precognitive abilities, 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.

Moira, who had too many unsuccessful lives and lost faith in mutant dreams, has her power to destroy mutant history. Her final life plan was to avoid Destiny, box mutants into boxes until they could choose whether to kowtow or to machines. This would be the trade in mutantdom to survive.

Since killing Moira would simply allow her to start all over again, Destiny and Mystique shot her with a gun that removes a mutant’s powers. (There’s some precedence in X-Men continuity that makes this less of a non sequitur, but we don’t have to get into it.) Doug Ramsey, his allies, including the technological being Warlock and Bei the Blood Moon (Arakkoan warrior), and Krakoa themselves, made an unexpected appearance and changed their plans.

Doug, who goes by the mutant name Cipher, is one of Hickman’s personal favorite characters, and in his final arc, the writer has given Doug his due. As it turns out, Cipher and Warlock had their own secret group, which was spying on Moira right from the beginning. Doug forced Mystique and Destiny to spare Moira’s life and let her walk free into the world, setting her up as the newest non-mutant X-Men antagonist.

What is the final count? Moira has been revealed, and is now human. She plans to make a mutation that will work before the mutant powers ever manifest. Thanks to Emma Frost, the entire ruling council of Krakoa now knows about Moira’s role in the founding of their country, and they’ve all been sworn to secrecy about it. Despite their chastisement, Magneto (Professor X) and Magneto are still at power after the resurrection. The mutant world continues.

This was always what would happen.

Image: Jonathan Hickman, Valerio Schiti/Marvel Comics

A story that generates intense speculation and lasts for an extended period of time will make fans wonder: Was this the end it always meant to be? But Hickman’s era of X-Men has some quirks that have particularly fanned those flames.

One, the unfortunate thing was that it was published JustBefore major disruptions in American comics distribution, which led to a lengthy publishing stoppage at Marvel Comics. For another, it had the fortune to lead to blockbuster sales, and a thriving “writers room” of creative talent digging deep into the possibilities of the setting’s new status quo.

Hickman was unable to tell the full story that he wanted before the pandemic? Did the financial success of his books make it necessary for him to continue even though he wanted to give up? This is the ending he envisioned from the start?

Hickman stated that yes and no, in interview at different points during the process. It’s no secret that the powerhouse of the Krakoan era has been a tightly knit group of writers and artists who built out from the ground rules Hickman established — there is even an “X-Slack” — to the point where sticking around for a while to play in that world became appealing. And the writer has also spoken candidly about how the Diamond Comics shutdown and Marvel’s pause demanded a change in priorities: Any book that ended meant at least two creators out of a job in a very scarce time. He had to make sure his fellow collaborators were still working. This was more important than his original plan.

In a nutshell: Jonathan Hickman’s stance is that no, Inferno isn’t exactly the story he intended to tell in the beginning, and it isn’t being told exactly when he wanted to at the start — but it is the story he wants to tell now, and now is the time he wants to tell it. What more can we ask for?

Next, what’s the next step?

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

The Krakoan era will continue with little rest, in a phase Marvel is calling “Destiny of X.” Next week, Marvel Comics will kick off the setting’s next big miniseries with X Lives/Deaths of Wolverine, a 12-issue series published as two alternating six-issue titles, just like House of X/Powers of XThe initiative was spearheaded by WolverineAnd X-Force writer Ben Percy.

Hickman was followed at the helm of the X-Men flagship by fellow galaxy brain writer Kieron Gilen.DIE, EternalWith the series The Immortal X Men, all about the machinations of Krakoa’s ruling council. Marvel will not only continue the X line, but also provide additional information. Legion of X, X-CellentYou can find out more at http://www.amazon.com/?p=238. renumbered Marauders, a SabretoothMiniseries and many more.

Inferno#4 brought an end to Moira X’s reign. But the issue is much more of a beat than a bang. The rhythm will go on, because it’s too captivating not to.