Moira MacTaggert, long-time “ally” of the X-Men and the recent archenemy of mutantkind, is at the center of one of Marvel’s most shocking retcons in history. Moira, who most believed to be a powerless human, was revealed to be a nigh-immortal mutant in Powers of X when Moira unveiled to Charles Xavier that she had actually lived nine lifetimes already, and was ready to live in a world where mutants did not lose.
Moira was integral to the founding of the mutant nation of Krakoa, which has now been destroyed in the X-Men’s Fall of X, gathering Xavier and Magneto to her cause and convincing them to give up their lifetime warring to achieve true mutant peace.
Unfortunately for Krakoa, Moira X was hiding a dark secret. She had always planned on betraying mutantkind, using science to wipe out the X-Gene and eradicating mutants, after deciding throughout her multiple lives that the only way to save the X-Men was to depower them. Moira’s many lives are complex and convoluted, but they play a major role in Rise of the Powers of X and the end of the Krakoan Age, so below are all eleven of Moira X’s lives:
Moira’s First Life
A perfect, pleasant existence
Born to a Scots noble, Lord Kinross, at age 13 Moira contracted an unknown illness, which activated her mutant X-Gene. Moira’s first life was a calm, normal one, spent as a school teacher and mother. Moira ended up marrying high school sweetheart Kenneth Cowan, mothering several children and many grandchildren with the love of her life. Moira lived her first life unaware of her mutant identity, or the cosmic role she would play in her universe, instead peacefully dying in her sleep at the age of 74.
Moira’s Second Life
Searching for her true identity
Much to Moira’s shock, the powerful mutant was reborn in utero with a completely developed brain and memory of her past life. Moira’s mutant ability not only makes her seemingly “immortal,” reincarnating her in a new timeline or reality whenever she dies, but also camouflages her X-Gene from anyone who seeks it. Forced to pretend she did not have her memories, Moira is pushed into academia by her parents, where she eventually hears about Charles Xavier coming out as a mutant. Convinced that he is the answer to her questions and that she is a mutant as well, Moira immediately gets on a plan to visit Xavier, but the plane crashes before reaching the United States and kills her.
Moira’s Third Life
Discovering the cure for the X-Gene
Seeking Xavier out much earlier in life, Moira meets him in her third life while they are studying at Oxford, and they become the foremost researchers of mutant genetics. Unfortunately, Xavier’s pompous arrogance turns Moira away from him and convinced that her X-Gene is a disease she creates the Muir Research Institute. Moira successfully creates a “cure” for the X-Gene, but Mystique’s Brotherhood destroys her facility before Destiny reveals to Moira that she will only live 10, perhaps 11, lives and that if she dies before her power manifests at 13, she won’t reincarnate. Destiny tells Moira she will find her in any life that she attempts to create a cure, and to drive home her point has Pyro burn Moira alive.
Moira’s Fourth Life
Falling in love with Xavier’s Dream
Moira learns from Destiny’s brutal treatment of her, or at least opens her mind to other possibilities in her fourth life. Closely matching Marvel’s current timeline in many ways, Moira manages to look past Xavier’s arrogance and realize his passion and brilliance, falling in love with him. The two get married and open the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters together, forming the X-Men and experiencing many of the same events as the current timeline. Unfortunately for Moira, she learns that Destiny was also right about humanity trying to wipe out mutantkind regardless of what actions they take, with an army of Sentinels arriving at Xavier’s school and slaughtering the love of her life, all their students, and herself.
Moira’s Fifth Life
The founding and death of Faraway
Moira’s tragic death at the hands of the Sentinel radicalized her, making her realize that humanity would always hate and fear mutantkind. Running away from home at age 13, Moira meets Xavier years before they had in the past, and after the young Charles reads her mind and sees how mutants have been lost in many of her past lives, he joins forces with her to prevent such a future. Instead of opening a school, the two decide to open a secluded mutant utopia – similar to Krakoa in many ways – called Faraway, a technologically advanced haven where mutants can live in peace and safety. Sadly, Sentinels a terrifyingly adaptive technology, and a Sentinel army assaults Faraway, putting Moira in a coma, before they return a year later and genocide the entire mutant population, Moira included.
Moira’s Sixth Life
Experiencing ascension through Dominion
One of Moira’s most important lives, the one that Marvel kept secret until the finale of Powers of X, was her sixth life, where she lived 1,000 years into the future by having Wolverine’s blood transfused into her. Living in a sanctuary with Wolverine and other mutants, Moira was held captive by Homo novissima, or “post-humans.” Learning about advanced artificial intelligence, Moira realized that the true threat to the future of mutantkind was not man, but machine. As the world was readying itself to be devoured by the Phalanx, and ascend into a Dominion to live as part of a singular AI entity, Wolverine killed Moira at her request so her life could restart and she could use the powerful knowledge she gained.
Moira’s Seventh Life
Assassinating the Trask lineage
The final radicalization of Moira MacTaggert came in her seventh life, after realizing the horrifying inevitability of the Sentinels. Taking what she learned from her last life, Moira joined the British Air Force instead of Oxford, learning innumerable ways to kill someone, to eradicate the entire Trask family, the original “creators” of the Sentinel program. Moira systematically killed the entire Trask family, starting with the infamous Bolivar, as well as their children. To Moira’s horror, she soon discovered that humanity does not invent advanced AI, they discover it, and that the rise of the Sentinels is baked into the fabric of reality, meaning artificial intelligence will always come after mutantkind, in any reality.
Moira’s Eighth Life
Partnering with Magneto in the House of M
The ninth life of Moira MacTaggert is a fascinating one, a timeline where the House of M occurred at the behest of Moira after she convinced Magneto of mutantkind’s inevitable defeat. Her first seven lives had finally convinced Moira that Xavier’s dream was unrealistic and unattainable, and that mutant peace could only be achieved through mutant domination over humanity and artificial intelligence. With Moira by his side, Magneto took over North America, ruling with an iron fist over humanity for some time. Eventually, the heroes of the world rose against Magneto, defeating and killing the crazed despot in the War of M, leading to Moira’s death and her eighth failure as a defender of mutantkind.
Moira’s Ninth Life
Survival of the Fittest with Apocalypse
While Moira and Magneto’s plan to dominate humanity, and the entire world, failed in her past life, she also learned that force was extremely effective, leading her directly into the arms of Apocalypse. Becoming Apocalypse’s consort, she was empowered and her lifespan lengthened with his Celestial technology, going by the name Mother Akkaba. Besides her sixth life, this life was Moira’s longest, and it saw the first version of Krakoa and Arakko founded, while also introducing iconic characters like Rasputin IV. Moira witnessed the horrors of Mister Sinister’s experimentation, as well as the brutality of Nimrod and Omega Sentinel’s regime before she is shot and nearly killed. After Wolverine uses a techno-organic transfer to give Moira the knowledge of Nimrod’s creation, he kills her, to send her to her tenth life armed with this knowledge.
Moira’s Tenth Life
The Earth-616 we know and love
Moira’s tenth life is her last life as a mutant or a human. This life is the current timeline of Earth-616 that all Marvel readers are familiar with. Even though Moira “died” in this timeline, it is revealed that she and Charles created a replacement for her from Shi’ar golem technology (explaining many of the plot holes from this massive retcon). Moira helps found Krakoa with Charles and Magneto, while forcing them to comply with her request to not resurrect any precognitives, afraid of what Destiny would see her doing. Eventually, in the Inferno event, it is revealed that Moira had always planned on betraying mutantkind, before Mystique and Destiny depower Moira using a gun created by Forge before Cypher saves her and lets her escape.
Moira’s Eleventh Life
Evolving into an android monstrosity
Moira is on the run from Krakoa as a traitor during X Lives/X Deaths of Wolverine, and she is eventually killed by Omega Wolverine, dying while cursing Xavier and the mutants she feels betrayed her. Luckily for Moira, she had a backup plan for this “final” death, using biotechnology created by Arnab Chakladar to create a digital copy of Moira’s consciousness. Moira was reborn, for her villainous eleventh life, as a fully merged human-machine entity, a murderous android with the sole desire of destroying mutantkind. Teaming up with Orchis, Moira has remained an archenemy to the X-Men throughout Judgment Day, assaults on the 2nd and 3rd Hellfire Gala, and many more plots to destroy the mutants of Krakoa.
All of Moira’s lives have led up to Rise of the Powers of X, where Xavier traveled back in time to the beginning of Moira’s tenth life, planning on killing her before she manifested her power and retconning away the Krakoan Era. Instead of killing Moira, he instead sent her a psychic message or push, although what he told her is yet to be revealed. Moira has lived more lives than any other living being on Earth-616, and her traumatic and tragic lives have taught her to be selfish, heartless, and conniving. Hopefully, Moira will realize the errors of her ways in the final hour and will sacrifice herself to stop Enigma from destroying mutantkind and humanity.
