Runner Up: House of X #2 – Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia and Clayton Cowles
I have never been more interested in Moira MacTaggert than I am right now.
I’ve always seen Moira as just another supporter of mutants that tragically had their life ended because of The Brotherhood’s evil schemes. I loved that she supported Charles dreams and wanted to help mutants, but never actually knew that she herself was a mutant. She’s always had something of a tumultuous history and this issue of House of X expands on that in the most amazing way and shows how important she truly has been in the advancement of the lives of mutant kind this entire time.
In her first life, Moira MacTaggert lived a fairly normal existence. She went to school, married, had kids and died at the rope old age of 78. Soon after, she woke in her mother’s womb, capable of remembering everything that she had done in the past life. It was strange and she couldn’t let on what she knew, but she knew that she was special somehow. It wasn’t until she saw Charles Xavier on the news that it all clicked for her. When he said the word mutant, everything changed for her. She went to try and meet him, only for her plane to crash, ending that life.
In her third life, she dedicated herself to biology and sought out a cure for the X-Gene, achieving as much only for it to go horribly wrong when Mystique and Destiny, a character who died in Fall of the Mutants (1988) and was last seen in Necrosha (2010), appear and murder all of her fellow scientists. Destiny tells Moira that she knows what her abilities are and that if she continues down a path that could lead to the extinction of mutants, Destiny will always be there to stop her. She tells her that the only path to stop this cycle of reincarnation is to do whatever she can to help mutant kind.
As a reminder, Destiny has Pyro slowly burn Moira alive so that she never forgets what it will be like to die at her hands.
From here, Moira becomes a radical, leading lives that take her away from Xavier’s dream and push her further into darkness. Everything becomes a lesson in repeating the past, however. At first she lives the normal life and history that we already know. Forming a school for gifted youth, the schism between Magneto and Charles, The X-Men and eventually Charles’ and mutantkind’s death at the hands of Sentinels.
In the life after that, she shows Charles her past lives and turns him into a radical, managing to take over America before Sentinels kill them again. The next sees her kill the Trask family line, only for someone else to design Sentinels instead. She aligns with Magneto or Apocalypse in different lives, all reaching similar or even worse endings.
Eventually, she realizes that there’s only one path that she hasn’t truly tried: Embracing the dream and making it real. This is the House of X timeline.
We’ve seen Moira passively protect mutants, but never engaged with Charles in a way that could truly help him. With knowledge of past events, the two can find a path forward that would not only save mutants, but propel their evolution farther. I believe that’s why Charles has sought to UNITE everyone. Apocalypse, Magneto, Mystique, Mister Sinister, all of mutantkind under one banner to make the lives of all better. It’s certainly a dream, but Moira MacTaggert is the linchpin that makes that dream a reality.
She’s always been one of the X-Men’s smartest and loyal friends. With her help, her genius behind Charles’ vision there’s no way that the House of X can fall. It’s very telling that every path that utilizes violence or tries to eradicate one side has always lead to ruin. It’s even more telling that even the peaceful path requires some bit of strong arming, but if that’s what it takes to get humans to stop killing mutants, then it really doesn’t matter. Charles will have peace between the two sides and Moira is more than willing to embrace this beautiful new path.
Ty Talks Comics 