Well, this is one thing exciting enough to get me to post on here again. Jonathan Hickman’s revolutionary new X-Men relaunch has been divisive over the last few months, to say the least. Some people are angry about their favorite characters undergoing such drastic changes and acting so strangely, some are so 4D hyper-woke that they think that the cult-like and occasionally objectively and shockingly immoral actions taken by this new iteration of the X-Men are just a byproduct of an oppressed people embracing their culture, and some people are just plain confused by it all.
Others though, have been paying attention to the details and seeing what’s really going on behind the curtain here, which is only the beginning of a masterfully crafted time/space/dimension-spanning epic that stands to have disastrous consequences for not just the entire mutant race, but possibly the entire Marvel existence.
In this second of two posts, I’ll be analyzing the hints throughout the ENTIRE series of House of X/Powers of X. It is a very lengthy post that covers everything remotely informative and/or suspicious in detail.
If you’d rather just read a shorter explanation of what’s really going on Krakoa and what the future might bring for the X-Men check out the other article: What’s really going on in this new era of X-Men and what may come next
So let’s take a look at the fascinating trail of facts that leads to the real answers that so many people seem to be missing.
Major spoilers ahead for all of House of X and Powers of X obviously. I’m also going to be assuming that anyone reading this has read the whole thing already and so I’ll be jumping back and forth across the timeline (which I can’t really help given all the connections that are hinted at earlier on, but not expanded on until much later).
House of X #1
The first issue starts with some strong craziness right out of the gate, giving us an out of context flash of an unknown time and place where an extremely creepy looking Xavier welcomes what look to be a bunch of famous X-Men being birthed out of some weird pods. We find out later that this is a glimpse of things to come and it’s pretty much exactly what it looks like, but we’ll get back to that later.
For now it’s just important to note that this is the image they used to set the tone of all that was to come, and it’s very clearly one that was meant to breed suspicion and uncomfortability. Especially since Xavier’s new look and body language seemed to be so oddly similar to The Maker:
An evil alternate reality version of Mr. Fantastic, who has a history of questionable scientific experiments regarding genetics, and who was also created by Hickman back when he briefly wrote Ultimate Comics – The Ultimates (and who ended up being stranded in the mainstream Marvel universe after Secret Wars (2015), another Hickman story.
We know now that this is not the case, but he had to have been trying to make the reader suspicious of that being the case. Just the first of many misdirects.
Next we learn a bit about Xavier’s apparent mental offer to the world, an offer that we don’t actually see until later. The gist of it though is that Xavier is offering some crazy new miracle drugs to any government that will support his proposal of sovereignty over a new nation of mutants (Krakoa).
Of note here is a description of the miracle drugs being offered, which seem almost too good to believe, and oddly enough haven’t really been mentioned much since:
If you’re going in suspicious already, of course you’re going to wonder what the catch of these drugs must be, and so far we still haven’t seen that there are any outright negative side effects to them…BUT…after the revelations of the final issue it now dawns on me that this is also a key part of the plan. Initially, longer life and the cure to all physical and mental diseases would seem to be only a benefit to humanity, but this is only true in the short term. As with many aspects of this story we have to think bigger, look at the long term effects, and keep in mind a concept that will be returned to many times here, buying time.
Keeping normal humans alive and healthy for longer than usual DOES have a big benefit for someone looking to make the mutant species ascend and keep the newly-revealed post-human race of the future from happening any time soon, because if they keep current state humans perpetually alive they are then depriving them of their ability to evolve. Humankind will live longer, but they won’t grow, and they won’t have as much reason to lash out at mutants and enhance themselves further. This is all about buying time for the mutant race to expand.
We’re also shown some details of the systems of Krakoa, a nation built almost entirely around strange new organic technology. Looking back on these details, it all seems designed with security against humanity and machinekind in mind. Organic matter can’t be absorbed normally by machine intelligences like the Phalanx. Their teleport system can only be operated by mutants. Everything runs based on a newly created mutant language that no human or machine knows. This is firmly a mutants-only zone, which is fine and understandable given the history of mutants being killed by humans and machines, but as we’ll see later, things start going much further than simply having a fun utopia to party in:
Early on it could be dismissed as paranoia that it seemed so strange that Wolverine is rolling around laughing with children in a field and Xavier is having one of his many awkward mental exchanges. The fact that this doesn’t seem to be anywhere near Jean’s first time visiting Krakoa makes it all the more strange that Xavier would have to be reminding her that they’re all safe there like that. This could be one of many examples of mind-tampering on Xavier’s part, but we don’t know for sure yet.
Next we learn of the existence of Orchis, a new anti-mutant organization:
Interesting facts about Orchis:
- They didn’t activate and accelerate their doomsday plan until Xavier revealed Krakoa to the world. We later learn that Xavier learned through Moira that this was the time frame for the creation of Nimrod, and so his revelation was also meant to draw Orchis out only to strike them down.
- Orchis contains a small percentage of Nazi-affiliated terrorist group Hydra in their ranks. Something the X-Men make sure to mention later, while specifically namedropping Operation Paperclip in the process (the codename for the United States’ recruitment of former Nazi scientists after World War 2). An interesting detail to note since the mutants would later welcome former mutant concentration camp leader Mr. Sinister into their ranks just to make use of his scientific ability.
- Orchis’ super-sentinel space platform, The Forge, was built on the remains of Sol’s Hammer, a massive solar-powered planet-killer device created by the one and only Tony Stark during the events leading up to Hickman’s Secret Wars.
Next we see a mutant strike team breaking into a Damage Control facility to steal some data. We learn that they were looking for the plans for Sol’s Hammer, which is how they have the schematics for The Forge later, but we’re also shown a chart of other schematics contained in that same location:
The implication was that they stole data purely for the Sol’s Hammer schematics, but we don’t know for sure that they didn’t take everything else here too.
Sol’s Anvil and the Antiproton Sling are both world-killer weapons last seen in Hickman’s Avengers and Fantastic Four runs.
The Bridge is a portal to other dimensions last seen in the same Fantastic Four run and the Multversal Beacon was another device from that same Avengers run that allowed people to be tracked across dimensions.
From solicits of some of the upcoming new titles in the Dawn of X line we know that the various teams of X-Men are going to be doing some travelling to other planets AND other dimensions.
It’s quite possible that they needed these designs to build their own bio-organic versions of the tech in order to expand their plans, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
A few probably very relevant quotes from Magneto. It’s all about controlling perception and misdirection. We’re definitely not gathering weapons and making plans for expansion, we just want to be left alone to our society! Even the humans suspicions that the mutants just want to take over is still thinking too small to see what they’re really building. It’s just another front and another example of buying time. Even Magneto probably believes what he’s saying is true though. Strongholds are his thing after all.
Again, this could be attributed to misguided suspicion in the early days, but now that we know more of the real plan, it’s interesting to look back on moments like this.
Let’s keep in mind though that there’s a lot of moments like this where they talk down to humans for their violent and treacherous ways and then go on to commit the exact same sins as the story progresses.
Anyway, part of the previously mentioned strike team is captured (Sabretooth) by the Fantastic Four and Cyclops suddenly shows up to try to pick him up:
Cyclops, like most of the X-Men we see in this series acts pretty strangely through this whole encounter. He’s much friendlier and more formal than we usually hear him sounding. In fact, he sounds an AWFUL lot like Xavier. He decides to let them keep Sabretooth, but then makes a pretty passive-aggressive invitation for their son Franklin (a very powerful mutant) to come join his “family” on Krakoa.
Interestingly enough, on the next page we see a known chart of omega level mutants and their allegiances.
We later learn that Moira/Xavier are collecting omega mutants, specifically ones with reality altering powers. We haven’t learned why yet, but notice that Franklin Richards is marked in red as having human alliance.
Pretty strange of them to be keeping a scorecard of who has control of the most reality-altering mutants, isn’t it?
Legion’s absence is also strange, but not entirely unexpected. Adding his fractured and ridiculously powerful mind to Cerebro would probably be extremely bad news for the archive of mutant minds.
Ah. I just realized why they must be doing this. Moira’s endgame is to create a new Dominion to replace the current one, and the only known fears of a Dominion are listed as cosmic level threats like Galactus and Phoenix. What is Phoenix, but a high level reality-alterer? This gathering of reality-altering mutants is all about building a defense against Phoenix (and possibly Franklin Richards as well since he has often been tied/compared to Galactus before).
The issue ends with a rather ominous quote from Magneto:
One that everyone seems to have been conveniently forgetting about and glossing over ever since. “We are your new gods” sure doesn’t fit with the message that they just want peace and to be left alone, which they and many morally confused readers are trying so hard to push…
Powers of X #1
Another seemingly innocuous comment from Magneto, at least at the time. Now that we know that Moira has been messing with his mind and implanting the idea of stronghold in it, this statement was apparently quite literal.
In Moira’s 9th life, we see one of the mutants of the future undergoing what is described as mind wiping before death, brought on by a mnemonic trigger. If these words sound familiar it’s because they’re ones that were shared by Moira and Xavier in a previous life. The last line in particular is word for word what Xavier is seen quoting later in the 10th life. The 9th life was when Moira teamed up with Apocalypse instead though, with no Xavier in sight, so presumably she chose these words as the trigger. Xavier repeating them later would seem to be another footprint of her control over him.
The first appearance of Cylobel. It’s possible that she was always just a throwaway character like the other chimera mutants, but the whole black brain telepath thing still seems significant somehow. Especially when we see her get stuck in a stasis tube by Nimrod near the end of life 9, but then see her body in the same stasis tube 900 years in the future, but in life 6. This exact same version of this exact same black brain telepath was created in both lives and seemed to have some significance to Nimrod and the machines. I feel like this is something that will come up again someday, but can’t prove it.
[Today we learned that Hickman intended for there to be more to this Cylobel/black brain telepaths subplot, but it ended up getting cut. Maybe it’ll come up again in the newly announced Moira X series?]
Another info dump given, regarding Sinister and the chimera mutants. It seems that Moira and Apocalypse tried using Sinister’s science to create a hybrid mutant army for themselves in the 9th life, but at some point Sinister betrayed them.
Actually it looks like he betrayed them right around the time he was asked to start creating chimeras with omega-level powers:
Most likely more ones with reality-altering powers for Moira. Something about that didn’t work for him though and he sabotaged the omega chimeras and defected to the machines.
Here we see the first suggestion that Sinister is operating under his own separate agenda in all of this. More on that later though…
Nimrod putting Cylobel in that stasis tank. Throughout this whole exchange over several pages he sounds oddly childlike and mentally unbalanced, and actually sounds strangely similar to the way Sinister is depicted whenever he shows up.
More importantly, we see him talking about his plans to create a mutant mind archive. This scene is from the 9th life, but we’re told that he tried to do this in the 6th life as well. What is his fascination with creating an enormous archive of mutant minds? Was he trying to create his own mass machine intelligence as well? Did he even realize this was what he was doing? We learn later that it’s his tech from his experiments with this that inspired the modern day Cerebro. Is this just because Moira passed this information on after learning of it in a previous life or is there another connection here?
I’m still not entirely convinced that Nimrod has been removed from the equation like everyone thinks, but again, more on that later…
In the future world of life 9 we see that Krakoa is still a thing. In fact, we weren’t originally told about the multiple lives of Moira or that this was life 9 until later, so it didn’t seem strange at the time that Krakoa was here too. Now that we know though, it seems that the modern day isn’t the first time Moira’s introduced the concept of the bio-organic technology of Krakoa. We also later learn that the guy pictured on the right there is actually the sentience of Krakoa driving the corpse of the mutant Cypher, who also helped establish the systems of modern day Krakoa.
As we see later though, simply having Krakoa on their side isn’t enough to make them win in the long term.
Another little info drop. This time about the Shi’ar in life 9’s future. Apparently most of the surviving mutants have been relocated there to be used for crossbreeding with the Imperial Guard to create more advanced super soldiers. This hasn’t come up again in either series, but it’s surely going to be important later as we see Corsair on the cover of the upcoming X-Men #1, know that the New Mutants are going to be traveling to space for some reason in their new series, and there was that strange classified alternate cover for Powers of X #6 that showed Sunspot sitting on the Shi‘ar throne. It seems that the Shi’ar are going to play a part in the plan much earlier this time around, but it’s hard to say exactly what that will involve. Just another way to increase the numbers on the mutant population or will this be meant to hopefully produce more omega mutants? We’ll see.
Here we see the further future for the first time, which we later learn is life 6. That is a helmet that looks an awfully lot like Cerebro, which Nimrod goes on to explain was a design of his, used for maintaining a mutant mind archive.
Later we’re told that this technology uses “Shi’ar logic diamonds” and that these are the same things Sinister uses (presumably being the diamonds on his heads). Hmm. More connections between Nimrod and Sinister, as well as establishing a possible weak spot in Cerebro for Sinister and/or Nimrod to exploit in the future.
House of X #2
Here we first learn of Moira’s powers and most of her previous lives. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that one of her earliest reactions upon discovering she was a mutant and first meeting Xavier was to create a cure to get rid of mutants. Just like I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she only started fighting for the mutant cause in her next lives because she was threatened into doing so. This is also a weirdly singularity-like way to describe her:
We see that Moira changes her tactics to trying to accomplish Xavier’s dream in different ways in lives 4 and 5, but both eventually end with mutants being wiped out by machines.
Life 6 is skipped over for now and we jump right to life 7 where she has turned her focus to eradicating machine life so that Nimrod and others like him never get a chance to rise, but fails at that too. Seemingly out of desperation she then tries the ways of Magneto and Apocalypse in lives 8 and 9.
We assumed at the time that this change in course was a reaction to the Sentinels destroying all the mutants in lives 4 and 5, but later learn that it must have been a reaction to what we later find out happened in life 6. There we learn about the rise of the race of post-humans and how Sentinels and Nimrod were never really intended to wipe out mutants, just to buy time for post-humanity to rise.
Her actions seemed like they were just taking a different approach to mutant survival, but now were almost certainly really just about pushing back the rise of post-humanity so that she could avoid being noticed by the Dominion. Buying time again.
We’re also told that artificial intelligence is inevitable. Again, it can only be delayed, not stopped.
It’s also compared to the discovery of fire, and I think this is another offhand reference to fire of the gods, which is another theme that pops up a lot in the series. I suppose in this context artificial intelligence where there was none before is the version of fire of the gods granted by the Dominion.
Powers of X #2
This whole exchange is really weird. The way Xavier and Magneto phrase things and the fact that they’re having to put this much effort into convincing Cyclops to go blow up some sentinels just feels very off. Just another of many examples of the core X-Men behaving very strangely, especially when Xavier is around.
Still expecting this to turn out to be Xavier giving them mental pushes.
Apocalypse (in the future of life 9) making some ominously relevant comments about information, which seem to mirror Moira’s plans and actions in many ways:
Also another reference to fire of the gods.
Ironically, it seems that Moira hasn’t given him all the information either, or he’d know the answer to this question:
Interesting that she never tells anyone about the post-human race. Is this because it would provoke too many questions that might lead to discussing the Dominion or is it just that it would potentially cause sympathy in the mutants if they learned that under her direction they’re essentially trying to keep a whole new evolved race down out of fear of extinction just like the humans try to do to them?
Powers of X #3
Singularities, in the sense of both the cosmic phenomena and technological advancement, are another recurring theme throughout the story. Here is the first direct reference to something literally existing within physical singularities. Something that we later learn is the beginning stage of the final form of mass machine intelligence overseeing existence.
House of X #3
Yet another very strange conversation between Xavier/Magneto and Cyclops. It makes a bit more sense now knowing the context, that Cyclops is aware that he and his team are about to embark on a suicide mission and end up being “resurrected” as clones later, but it still seems so strange. From what we learn of how this “resurrection” process works later, there is no direct transference of minds taking place, the new bodies are simply filled with copies of minds, so the originals are still dying. I just find it very hard to believe that any of the X-Men would go along with going off to die so they can be replaced by a clone.
House of X #4
It’s been striking many people, myself included, as strange that Jean Grey is suddenly wearing such an old costume and seems to be acting so out of character and seemingly inexperienced/weakened, even going so far as to go by the codename of Marvel Girl again, and I just realized why this must be happening. This is a copy of a young Jean, from back before she ever encountered the Phoenix! This isn’t just any old costume, it’s the version she used to wear right before she first became (or was replaced by) Phoenix. It makes perfect sense. Of course Moira/Xavier wouldn’t want to keep a later version of her that had any trace of Phoenix taint in it, because the Phoenix is one of the primary enemies of a Dominion.
Oh shit. Is THIS why everyone is acting so out of character and so weirdly trusting of everything Xavier says despite the last decade or so of revelations that had completely destroyed everyone’s faith in him? Has everyone been copied from older backups, from back before Deadly Genesis and all the other big secrets that resulted in Xavier being kicked out of his own school? It would certainly explain interactions like this:
Which is a strange conversation for the modern versions of both these characters to be having, but suddenly makes a lot of sense if these are a younger Wolverine and Nightcrawler that haven’t lived through multiple adventures in the afterlife.
It’s also a very strange conversation for people who know they’re going to be “resurrected” to have. They sure sound like they think they’re about to die permanently. It’s possible that Wolverine’s worry about the afterlife here is related to his knowing that he’s a copy though, instead of being related to his character like we were probably supposed to assume at this point.
And another big reference to “fire of the gods”:
Fire of the gods always seems to be reference in regards to information and intelligence in this story. Mother Mold’s little analogy here also seems to mirror what Moira is planning to do to the current Dominion.
Powers of X #4
Odd that Sinister’s goal has always been creating an archive of all the biological essences on Earth, which later became a goal of archiving all the biological essences of mutants. It’s basically the exact inverse of what Moira/Xavier are doing with all of the mutant’s minds. Yes, this is related to the resurrection process, but we pretty much know by now that Sinister is only playing along with all this while he pursues whatever his true agenda is. I wonder if he isn’t building his own form of a mass being, one based on biology instead of intelligence. He could very well end up being an unexpected third faction in the greater game here.
Xavier assumes that he has Sinister under his thumb from the beginning, but we know that Sinister performed a similar betrayal against a similar Krakoan society in life 9, and that the Sinister Secrets in this same issue hint at him not really being under Xavier’s control and still working towards his own agenda. We also learn later that Xavier and Magneto came to visit Sinister this day against Moira’s advice.
I don’t know why it would matter in the long run even if this version had been under Xavier’s control, because Sinister has multiple bodies and minds, so controlling a single one doesn’t really accomplish much. We don’t really know if we’ve even ever actually seen the real Sinister (or if there even is one).
Anyway, the version “controlled” here is implied to be the version that the X-Men would later meet for the first time in the Inferno event, where it would seem that he wasn’t under anyone’s control at all since he went way beyond collecting mutant DNA and had created a clone of Jean Grey just so he could breed her with Cyclops and see what kind of powerful mutant would pop out. This clone also ended up being influenced and tainted by the Phoenix…hmm. Who knows what he was really trying to accomplish with Madelyne Pryor? I’m pretty sure we’re going to find out at some point though…
Not going to get into all the Sinister Secrets since many of them seem like complete red herrings, but one thing I just noticed is that this list is marked with the Krakoan letter S. Why does this apparent gossip column for Sinisters have Krakoan language on it? How would he know that unless he already has someone inside Krakoa before he was even invited there? Hmm…
We also learn a bit about the origins of Krakoa:
Apparently Apocalypse had a big fight with some demons back in the day, which resulted in Arakko, the other half of Krakoa, being sealed away being sealed away in the realm where the demons came from, along with Apocalypse’s original four horsemen.
It’s been hinted at, in this issue and in a little mini story in Marvel Comics #1000, that these original horsemen are going to be returning soon, so apparently the X-Men are going to have to deal with this and possibly whatever demons were ravaging Arakko soon.
On the subject of the demons, people have been guessing that this silhouetted demon was Surtur, due to the reference of a twilight sword, though I’m not really sold on that. I find it hard to believe that this is supposed to be a specific reference to Surtur and his famous sword Twilight and then they just got the silhouettes for both completely wrong by accident? No, not buying that. There’s actually something really familiar about that demon silhouette, but I just can’t seem to place it.
From a diagram of the systems of Krakoa. We still haven’t seen this rumored “skunkworks”. We haven’t seen Forge at all either, aside from the single flashback scene where Xavier asks him to build the modern Cerebro. Is he still stashed away down there building things in isolation?
And here, the first hints at the Dominion behind the scenes, and the revelation that one can only become a part of it if they’re a machine, BUT this can be bypassed by uploading biological minds into machines and then introducing them into a greater machine intelligence like the Phalanx or above.
House of X #5
Here we had the first confirmation that many, if not all, the X-Men now running around are actually clones. Again, the fact that Cyclops has to ask if the mission succeeded reminds us of the fact that these aren’t actually resurrections. These are copies from before they died.
The bit about part of him dying each time one of them does makes me wonder if data degradation will come up in all this. We saw that Nimrod’s version of this tech in the future degraded over a long enough time, but will excessive “resurrecting” also lead to degradation in the backups?
Oh, nothing to see here. Just an extended sequence of the new clones being paraded out naked in front of everyone to be worshipped in a totally non-cultish way! I can’t even imagine the mental gymnastics you have to perform to think that every single person on this island has just entirely abandoned their previous cultures and morals to become chanting cult drones because “they’re just a liberated people celebrating their culture”. Because that’s how culture works, right? Every single person in a country all act as one and obey the leader’s word as if they were a literal god, right?
This is also fine. Definitely nothing ominous and completely unlike Xavier here.
From the info page regarding the resurrection process. Sure, I believe you. This is either a lie or something they’re going to try out soon, else why mention it at all?
Here we see that the current plan estimates that it will take under 10 years to bring the mutant population back up to the 10 million+ range. We learn soon that it takes 10 million+ minds condensed into a single machine intelligence to form a Titan, an advanced stage machine intelligence that implodes into a black hole and is the first step on the path to becoming Dominion.
Also of note, the current mutant population is 100,000+, which is the range required for forming a Worldmind intelligence, which is what post-humans used to draw the attention of the Phalanx in the future of life 6. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Phalanx’s attention is drawn to Earth soon. I wonder what exactly the Krakoan defense for that is. Perhaps the team of technopaths and the involvement of Cypher in creating the Krakoan systems/language is already defense against that for now?
Powers of X #5
It had been mentioned before that extra backups were being made of the mutant minds, but here we learn that there are a total of 5 Cerebro units, all being filled with the same growing number of minds.
It seems that the one for “unforeseen complications” is located in Moira’s no-place hiding spot.
Cerebro is built using Shi’ar logic diamonds, which are also apparently the same diamonds Sinister uses, and frankly are probably the same diamonds on his forehead housing the intelligence of each iteration. Yet another Sinister connection and another possible implication that Sinister isn’t at all what anyone thinks he is, if he’s really just the diamonds that are driving his meat bodies around.
Again, why mention this unless there’s something to it? There are several mutants that could fit this description of being able to overcome damage, whether this means mental or physical damage.
Also, what the fuck, Xavier has overwritten his own mind with previous versions twice already? So why would he do this? Well, there are two reasons I can think of.
One is that Xavier has died and/or had his body massively altered a few times in the past. He was infected by the Brood a long time ago, transformed into a Brood queen, and had to have his mind transferred out of that body and into a new Shi’ar clone one. He also recently came back to life after dying in Avengers vs. X-Men by transferring his psychic essence into the body of Fantomex. So it’s possible that this refers to him having to restore himself using a previous backup when his body was destroyed or altered beyond usability, but this doesn’t seem quite right because why would he not just use an updated version of himself?
No, the more likely answer is that there have been times where he needed to forget what he knew about Moira and all the possible futures. Either to avoid other telepaths like The Shadow King learning about it at certain encounters of theirs, or because he had to be stopped from knowing in order to let certain events like the extermination of Genosha take place.
Even Namor isn’t falling for this shit, and you’ll notice Xavier doesn’t correct him.
This is hands-down one of the most important scenes in the whole series. The first outright explanation of how Titans are formed and some ominous hints about Dominion. We’re told that large enough condensed collections of minds eventually become so dense that they form a black hole and become a Titan intelligence, which is just a part of an even greater intelligence.
Even more, we’re told that the rough number of minds needed to form a Titan is 10 million+. What machines do you know that are currently in the process of being filled with 10 million+ minds?
It doesn’t end there though. The highest form is a Dominion, which is made up of 10 or more Titans. We still don’t know what exactly they even do, or why they do it, we’re just told multiple times that they are comparable to a God with a capital G. Their only fears are also apparently Galactus and the Phoenix.
But wait, there are also Strongholds. Strongholds typically form from 5 or less Titans. That’s FIVE condensed machine intelligences made up of TEN MILLION+ minds. Not only that, but the sole purpose of a Stronghold seems to be destroy other Strongholds in order to become a Dominion or replace the currently ruling Dominion.
We’re also told that these higher level intelligences operate and co-operate across time, space, and dimension.
House of X #6
Here in the moments before Xavier finally puts on the new Cerebro and sends his telepathic message to the world, they very deliberately avoid showing his full face in each panel. Seems an awfully odd and specific choice after showing his full face in all the other flashback scenes. That they would still do this even this late in the game when they’ve fully confirmed that it’s still Xavier under the helmet sure seems to suggest that there’s still something to hide under there.
So…I guess now they’re just going to be dumping mutant criminals into a pit of eternal torture? No one finds that at all strange because it’s just Sabretooth and they’re all having a big party later so everything’s clearly fine…
This is pretty severe even for someone as bad as Sabretooth though. Not just death, but ETERNAL TORTURE. Also weird that their excuse for not killing him is that it’d just automatically bring him back in the resurrection protocol. Why is that a problem? Just remove him from the system and delete his mind from Cerebro. Except you need every mutant mind you can get in there, no matter what the cost…
Powers of X #6
Here we finally learn more details about ascension. In this version, the Phalanx go out and absorb a fitting large machine intelligence and then bring it back to a black hole to dump its contents into the local Dominion.
And there it is. Moira, in life 6, learns about the existence of Dominion and that if it learns of her existence it’ll most likely use its influence to destroy her permanently.
We also learn about the new offshoot race of post-humanity and how they rose to dominance in life 6.
We also learn that lesser machines like Sentinels and Nimrod were never really meant to wipe out mutants, they were just there to buy time for humanity to bring technological evolution upon themselves, which in the long run means that if they get their way they’ll not only continue to ascend and make up more and more of the Dominion, but potentially inform them of Moira which would finally mean the end of her.
And finally we see what really happened when Moira shared her mind with Xavier in life 10. It had a lot more of an effect on his mind than they originally let on, and she very openly admits that she’s going to destroy him so that he does what she wants. Here she’s talking about him almost like he’s not even there.
Here we see that Moira is only showing Xavier what she wants him to see of her lives. What exactly is she omitting and why?
Also more confirmation that she’s been actively altering his mind. Whether this is by literal manipulation of his brain or purely by psychological means isn’t 100% clear, but she’s definitely intentionally shaping his mind to her own benefit.
We saw in an earlier issue that Moira used the same technique of sharing her mind, through Xavier, to recruit Magneto.
More importantly here though: “I have successfully imprinted the idea of STRONGHOLD in his mind.”
At first I thought this was just referring to Magneto’s penchant for fortress-type bases like his island and Asteroid M, but I forgot that this word has another very specific meaning…
Confirmation that Xavier/Magneto meeting with Sinister was not actually part of her plan. This also confirms that they aren’t entirely under her control though, and still retain some level of autonomy. Sinister also seems to be ahead of the game this time around somehow. I still have this suspicious feeling that he’s related to the machines somehow…
Here we learn the specifics of Moira faking her death back in the day. While we were told that the resurrection protocols typically confirm deaths before resurrection to avoid making multiple copies of the same person, apparently replicas can be made to bypass this. So it is in fact possible to create copies of people while the originals are still hidden away somewhere…
Yes, I too think that Emma is up to something. I feel like she’s suspicious about Xavier’s behavior, but trying her best to hide it. We know from solicits that her chosen Red King is actually Kitty Pryde. A seemingly very strange choice for Emma to make here. I think she is probably choosing her not only because she knows that she’s someone with a strong conscience that will keep her in check, but because she knows that she’s prone to serious questioning and investigating and hopes that bringing her in will prompt her to look into this situation a little more deeply. Her powers would also be ideal for infiltrating the supposedly inaccessible hiding spot of Moira.
Precogs are all banned because they’ll see what’s coming? Moira tries to play it off as just not wanting anyone to know that their chances are bad because they’ve always lost in her other lives, but come on. Mutants’ chances have always been bad. They already know the odds are against them. No, I don’t buy that at all. No, this is about her encounter with Destiny, that made sure to let her know that precogs were a personal threat to her, and about keeping anyone from learning what she’s really up to here.
And that’s finally the end of this analysis. I may have missed one or two little things and I certainly glossed over some of the more obvious bits that don’t really need explanation, because otherwise this would be even more ridiculously long and you might as well just be reading the actual comic.
What does it all mean though? Well, for that you’ll have to look to the other post where I only talk about what Moira’s plans are and my predictions for the general future of this era of X-Men: What’s really going on in this new era of X-Men and what may come next
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