Marvel’s big X-Men event “X of Swords” is now underway – but one of the most pivotal clues to the storyline was actually dropped way earlier and right in plain sight. For clear proof that writer Jonathan Hickman had a grand design for this X-Men reboot all along, look no further than the original “House of X/Power of X” storyline for a big clue about a potentially pivotal figure in the “X of Swords” battle: Moira X. As X-Men fans have noticed, the lifetimes of Moira X included one big event in Moira’s 9th lifetime that connects directly to “X of Swords”: the rescue of Apocalypse’s Original Horsemen!
The Powers of X series in part followed the Ninth lifetime of Moria Mactaggert/Moira X, in which she made a drastic change to her plan to save mutantkind: allying with Apocalypse. That plan saw Moira wake Apocalypse long before Charles Xavier formed the X-Men. Moira and Apocalypse killed both Xavier and Magneto (rather than allying with them like in previous lifetimes); after that, Apocalypse took the first step to forming his own version of the X-Men: rescuing his original horsemen. As the timeline of Moira’s Ninth life notes in Year 24: “Moira and Apocalypse rescue the first Horsemen and return to Earth.” House of X #2 only gave us vague splash pages of that history, but we saw Apocalypse and Moira (as Lady Apocalypse) leading the Original Horseman in the slaughter of Earth’s heroes, before eventually forming their own X-Men to battle Nimrod and the Man-Machine Supremacy.
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Thanks to X of Swords: Creation, we now know that Original Horsemen of Apocalypse and the other half of the living island Krakoa (known as “Arakko”) were lost to the dark side of Otherworld, during an ancient war with demonic invaders. Apocalypse sacrificed his “children” to save the world, and they are none too happy with their “father” for leaving them in the abyss for thousands of years. Now they are battling the X-Men and Krakoa in a tournament of sword fights, with the fate of the world in balance.
This detail Hickman dropped into the “House of X” storyline about Moira’s experience with the Original Horsemen could be a major pivotal detail in how the story plays out. Moira’s time battling with the Original Horsemen, and just knowing them, could help the X-Men in a big way. Moira’s history suggests that she knows about Otherworld, Arakko, and has led a successful expedition there to rescue the Horsemen, who managed to reconcile with Apocalypse.
Could Moira X be the key to Original Horsemen changing sides? Could she know about a key sword to defeating them? We’ll soon find out, as Arakko’s attack on Krakoa’s Cerebo system has alerted Moira X to the threat…
“X of Swords” is now unfolding in Marvel’s X-Men comics.
