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Topic: Et tu, Moira!? Or...what makes a mutant - SPOILERS Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Marc Baptiste
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 10:42am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

Dear Everybuddy,

I just read an article online that discusses the introduction of Marvel's newest mutant, Moira MacTaggert.  Aside from my great disappointment that a wonderful, NON-mutant supporting character like Moira has been turned into a mutant - I was even more appalled to discover the nature of her mutant ability.  

Apparently, Moira is able to "reincarnate" herself.  When she "dies" - her consciousness travels back in time, where it then inhabits her in-utero body and she is reborn, and get this, WITH all her previous life memories intact.  This makes Moira a kind of "time-traveler" with the ability to "shape the world' to her choosing.  

All this begs the question: when did Lee and Kirby's original vision of what constitutes a Marvel mutant get so perverted??  As I understand it a Marvel Mutant was originally someone born (RARELY) with an X-factor in their genetic makeup to 2 non-mutant human parents.  This X-factor kicks in (USUALLY) around puberty and manifests itself as a SINGLE special ability (e.g., telepathy, telekinesis, sprouting a pair of wings on your back, etc.).  

Now, I have seen some ridiculous, convoluted, mutant abilities introduced in the past couple of decades, but this mutant ability of Moira's takes the cake!  I just can't for the life of me figure out how this is a physically-based genetic mutation.  

I long for the elegant simplicity of the original five: Cyclops, Marvel Girl (the telekinetic), Angel, Iceman and Beast.

Marc
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Brian Miller
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 11:54am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

This is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. 
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Eric Sofer
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 3:02pm | IP Logged | 3 post reply

ITEM: Let us not forget Professor X, a telepath, as one of the original X-Men.

ITEM: IRL, a mutation is a change that a preceding generation had. If it is not anti-life (e.g., having one's skull half formed), it should be then carried on in all succeeding generations, as mutants breed true. (That's vague and non-scientific, I know, but it works for me - a layman.)

ITEM: The original mutants each had one ability... mostly.* They were not anti-survival, certainly, save possibly for Cyclops... but there was always that mystery to why his eyebeams were uncontrollable. That mystery about him worked for me, but Chris Claremont had to solve it... but that's not pertinent here.

*Let's be honest. Iceman had a variety of abilities. He could change his form to ice, he could create cold, and he could form constructs out of ice.

ITEM: I don't see how reincarnation could count as a positive evolutionary trait for ALL of humanity. Obviously, it's only first generation- WHOOPS! Moira had Kevin MacTaggart (Proteus) and he very definitely did not have such an ability. He could probably do everything else, though... another example of this being a very exotic ability.

Marc B. is right - this is downright silly. I'm trying to think of Marvel mutants that had multiple unrelated abilities, and I think we have to get to Nightcrawler before we find one of that nature. (And dang, did Dave Cockrum like him some Nightcrawler.)

I believe that such elements are added by writers to make characters easier to write... but the whole point is that it's supposed to be hard. Hard is what makes it great. If it were easy, everybody could do it. This, I think, is why it's easier to write a Superman story than a Mr. Fantastic story.
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John Byrne
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

How does she get any further forward than the point at which she dies?
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Shane Matlock
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

It does sound like a stupid idea on paper and I'm no fan of retcons or giving the supporting cast powers with the Hulk cast being the most egregious example of every single one eventually having gamma related powers (which Al Ewing is making the most of in Immortal Hulk), but this story worked for me. Moira isn't suddenly flying around. It changes nothing about any of her past stories. It simply adds another layer to it that no one was previously aware of. The issue shows 8 of her 9 previous lives and what she did and how she died, with the, I believe, 6th life being intentionally left out since it reveals something important. The timeline at the end showing the diagram of her previous lives was a nice touch. In one timeline she tries to wipe out the Trask family to keep the Sentinels from being created, but they are created anyway in a different way. The reveal by Destiny when the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants kills her in one of her previous lives where she invents a "cure" for becoming a mutant that she only has so many lives left before she dies prior to her mutant power of reincarnation/time travel manifesting during puberty was a good one and gives more urgency to her finding a way to save mutant kind from its apparently inevitable destruction from the Sentinels. Each life she's lived she has tried something different with every attempt from teaming up with Magneto to one where she aligns with Apocalypse instead of Professor X, ends in utter failure. Her deaths happen at various ages. In one she dies in a plane crash on her way to meet Xavier. It seems like this tenth and possibly last life/attempt is one to get all of the mutants together to stop what will occur in Days of Future Past. 
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James Woodcock
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 6:30pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

So are these alternate timelines or what?
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Shane Matlock
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

I believe that's the case, James. My theory is that the timeline not shown is the one that actually exists in current Marvel continuity, possibly one where Moira had some sort of injury where she couldn't remember her past lives, and that this story is another alternate timeline, four or whatever lives/timelines later. Although I think he's said it isn't, but of course he would say that. Hickman does usually put all the pieces back where they were when he finishes his stories where nothing is lost or broken that came before. I know a lot of people hate his stuff, but his run on FF was the first one I've liked since JB's (although it didn't end all that well) and first Avengers I've really enjoyed since either JB or Roger Stern's. For me, it's Bendis that I feel that way about, ala bringing the classic X-Men into current continuity or, well, anything mainstream superhero he's done. Although nothing could beat the abomination that was Identity Crisis as far as retcons go. All of that said, seeing that Vulcan from the terrible Brubaker run (whose work I've enjoyed on just about everything else he's done, and,well, at least it wasn't Chuck Austen level terrible), does fill me with dread. Really not a fan of that character or that story line and it seems this one is going to be really tied to that, which, ugh. I was hoping that character would be forgotten about and filed away under "bad ideas." Although I guess some folks likely will feel the same way about this Moira one. And I may too if the story goes poorly. It's only three issues in.
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Paul Gibney
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 7:40pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply

Awful. Wouldn’t a powerful telepath like Xavier or Jean have seen
these previous lives she remembers at some point?
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Larry Gil
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 7:58pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

What garbage.
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Rick Whiting
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply

Stupid idea by a writer who writes some of the most boring and unoriginal superhero stories that I have ever read. Hence why I won't be reading his X-Men run.
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Scott Adsit
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Did Wyatt Wingfoot ever acquire powers?
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Michael Roberts
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Posted: 08 August 2019 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

You guys need to chill out. This will all be undone in 10 years when it’s revealed that Moira is not really a mutant, but the product of an experiment by the High Evolutionary combining the nine lives of a hyperevolved cat with the time-looping powers of a hyperevolved groundhog. 
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