Marvel teased next year’s big Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X event miniseries this week with covers of each’s issue #3, on sale in March. While the Fall #3 cover shows Logan about to pop a claw right in Dr. Stasis’ forehead clover, the cover to Rise #3 shows a gloved hand pointing a weapon — maybe Forge’s old de-powering gun, maybe a cartoon laser gun, maybe a futuristic staple gun — at the version of Moira MacTaggert we saw whispering telepathic secrets to Charles Xavier on a park bench in Powers of X #1 to set him on a path to forming the X-Men and eventually founding the sovereign nation of Krakoa.
But whose shadowy hand is being so lovingly rendered by R.B. Silva? Well, we got to talking in the ol’ CXF Slack, and we have some theories, presented in an order from least absurd to most:
Mystique: Is that a white glove? A purple glove? A blue glove? It’s hard to tell with the coloring, but let’s say it’s white. Could that be the gloved hand of Raven Darkholme, making good on her lives-old threat to make Moira pay for attempting to thwart mutantkind? The Krakoa era reunited Mystique and her wife, Destiny, but it’s been far from a happily ever after for them. Taking Moira out early could save a lot of that pain. Mystique also has been dealing with major physical and mental trauma since her fall off the cliff at the Hellfire Gala, which has made her extra murder-y. At the same time, if Raven’s is the bullet that saves mutantkind, she’d be a hero to her people, a role she’s never sought but many fans would argue she deserves, and a cherry on top of her retconned parentage of Nightcrawler in X-Men Blue Origins.
Moira MacTaggert: Let’s face it, Moira really shit the bed this time around. She’s become nothing more than an evil robot lady, hoping that will help her become part of the machine empire and ascend to Dominion, because if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. If Nimrod and Orchis drop her like a hot bag of garbage for any reason, there’s nothing left to do but put an end to the whole thing. And what better way to do that than by traveling back in time and eliminating yourself right at the point that set you on this path in your current life?
A Sinister-possessed Xavier: Sinister has already confessed to using Charles as his plaything while he sleeps, assassinating anyone who dares step foot on Krakoa. What’s to stop him from driving his hacked telepath through time to hit the Moira reset button once again? Plus, Charles would know to find her on that bench at that exact point in time.
A pissed-off Magneto: The master of magnetism specifically asked NOT to be resurrected. And yet, there’s a miniseries coming called The Resurrection of Magneto that will run concurrently to Rise and Fall. If I were Magneto, and I was resurrected against my wishes, and I had seen what had become of the admittedly flawed nation I had helped build, I’d take the first Doctor Doom time platform back to Year One and point a gun at Moira, too. Heck, I’d press the button on the Uranos Trigger and yell, “Sic ‘em, boy!”
The Sinister Dominion: We know A Sinister has ascended to godhood, but we don’t know which one (except we think it’s not our Sinister). Is it Stasis? Mother Righteous? Orbis Stellaris? Either way, what better way to assure no competition than to take out the woman who could undo all that? Although, if you’re a god that exists outside of time and space, is that even a concern? Mmmm, best not to think too hard on this one.
Destiny: Sure, of the two of them, it’s more likely that Mystique would be the one to travel back in time to violently assault someone, but why let Raven have all the fun? Again, Destiny’s post-resurrection life has been far from wine and roses. She’s been separated from her wife, robbed of her ability to glimpse the future by the White Hot Room and possibly killed by Mother Righteous. That’s enough to make any woman want to do a time-travel murder.
Synch: Everett Thomas leads the X-Men now. More than any other mutant, except maybe his partner, Talon, he is tasked with safeguarding Xavier’s dream. How best to do that? Eliminate any potential threats to that dream. Moira is a threat.
Doug Ramsey: Orchis hurt Doug’s technoorganic lifemate, Warlock. Orchis hurt Doug’s organic lifemate, Krakoa. And who knows where the hell Bei the Blood Moon went. Doug’s been in the pit for a spell, but maybe it was just to keep him safe until he could fulfill this one all-important mission and Jonathan Hickman’s intentions for Doug as one of the true heroes of the Krakoan age.
Bishop and/or Cable: When you need a time-travel murder done right, who better to turn to than someone who will confront their victim man to man, and quite literally face to face? All either of these guys do is time travel to take out threats to the people they care about. What’s to stop them from continuing their team-up in Children of the Vault to take out another of the great threats to mutantkind? And in Bishop’s case, at least this time it’s not a baby!
Fantomex: Speaking of people with white gloves and no qualms about murder, we haven’t seen ol’ Fantomex in a while, not since he decided to stick around The World and protect it from evil at the end of Giant-Size X-Men. He’d be a good choice for this particular black op. Not to mention there might be some residual Charles Xavier in there from when Chuck rode Jean-Philippe back to life before Krakoa. Imagine a matryoshka doll of Sinister inside Xavier inside Fantomex!
Pete Wisdom: He’s hated Moira for years. He’s hated her coffee even more. And since he helped take out Coven Akkaba in Betsy Braddock: Captain Britain, he’s got nothing else going on. Why take on this deadly mission? “It needed doing.”
Banshee: Moira killed him and wore his skin. ‘Nuff said.
Baby Havok: Remember poring over that initial Mark Brooks promotional poster for House of X and Powers of X? Trying to figure out why certain characters were on the poster, wondering who Cardinal and Rasputin IV were because we hadn’t met them yet? Remember wondering why the hell an X-Baby looking version of Havok was there? There’ve been no X-Babies in the Krakoan age. X-Factor went to Mojoworld once, and it had become a streamer’s nightmare, with nary an X-Baby in sight. Sure, Havok’s been around and up to his usual disaster-himbo shenanigans, and you could argue he’s stunted emotionally, but still, not the same thing. Maybe that X-Baby Havok is still out there, mad he didn’t get any shine in the past five years, and he’s out for vengeance against a certain timeline-resetting mutant. I bet he’s not acting alone, though. You know who else went unappreciated from that poster? Bill the Lobster from Fallen Angels. Maybe the whole thing is Bill’s idea, but X-Baby Havok is the triggerman because, you know, lobsters don’t have opposable thumbs.
The carnival folk in the background of that initial POX scene: According to Powers of X #1, Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggert met on a bench amid a carnival in the park. It was a whimsical scene dominated by colorful circus folk. And you know what circuses mean in comics? Crime. What’s to stop one of those performers from sticking up Moira, Victorian highwayman style? Nothing. Nothing at all.
Zebediah Killgrave, the Purple Man: Like we said in the beginning, that glove looks kinda purple. Maybe we’ve got David Tennant on the brain because we’ve been watching those Doctor Who specials on Disney+, but there is precedent for Killgrave getting involved in mutant business. His daughter Persuasion is a mutant and a former member of the mutant-heavy Alpha Flight. AND he was a villain in the final season of the X-Men animated series in the ‘90s. Don’t rule him out.
Jonathan Hickman: “Look, shit’s gotten out of hand since I left,” the former Head of X said in this personal headcanon we just made up. “I never meant for Moira to become … this. Before I devote myself fully to cleaning up the Ultimate Universe, let me tie up this one loose end … [cocks gun, puts on sunglasses] … personally.”
Tom Brevoort: On the other hand, what better way to put a final nail in the coffin of the previous regime and set the expectation that you’re going to do things differently than to kill off the linchpin of the previous era of stories? If new X-Men office editor Tommy the Hat wanted to come in with a heavy hand balled up in an iron fist, that’d be one way to do it.
Maggie Simpson: I mean, she shot Mr. Burns. And Disney owns The Simpsons. It ain’t that crazy, when you think about it.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts WMQ&A: The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
