Marvel just brought back the one mutant who could change the entire trajectory of the X-Men Universe! Such are the stakes established in this week’s X-Men comic book release, X-Men: Inferno #1. That comic steps back for a timely survey of the rebooted X-Men story concept from Jonathan Hickman, which started back in 2019’s House of X / Powers of X event series. The X-Men’s mutant nation of Krakao has become a mutant homeland akin to paradise for many – but secrets that have been buried (or sidelined by the creative team) are finally rearing their ugly heads in Inferno…
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Warning – X-Men: Inferno #1 SPOILERS Follow!
Krakoa’s two iconic leaders – Professor Xavier and Magneto – have been keeping the biggest secret of this new age of mutant unity and prosperity under wraps all along: Moira X. House of X revealed that Moira Mactaggert is actually an Omega-level mutant with a one-of-a-kind gift: reincarnation. The Moira of the current Marvel Universe is actually on her tenth lifetime ( or ‘Life X’), which may be the end of her run.
There was a one mutant who seemed able to be aware of and comprehend the scope of what Moira’s mutant power meant: Irene Adler, aka the mutant precognitive known as Destiny!
House of X’s now-classic “Uncanny Lives of Moira X” chapter introduced us to Moira’s secret mutant power – with a sampling of the many lives she lived, and how they ended. Moira’s third life came to a particularly violent end: in that life, Moira discovered the “cure” for the mutant X-Gene, which she planned to share with the whole world, as benevolent means of ending the suffering of mutants cursed by the powers.
However, before Moira could debut her mutant cure, her lab was attacked by Mystique, Destiny, and their Freedom Force group. Destiny gave Moira lengthy criticism about what the genecist was doing with her gift – and the naivete of believing that her “cure” wouldn’t become a doomsday device used to eradicate mutants. Destiny warned that if Moira ever tried to move against mutants again – in whatever life – Destiny would be the natural counterbalance, able to see the future Moira would create and stop it at all costs.
Well, as the “Dawn of X” era on Krakoa has played out, Prof. X, Magneto, and Moira have all conspired to keep Destiny dead and gone – despite the mutants of Krakoa having beaten death through their resurrection protocols that can bring any mutant back form the dead. In Inferno #1 Moira tries to make that absence permanent, by tasking Xavier and Magneto to destroy all traces of Destiny’s “backup” lives in order to truly kill her for good, and thereby cement the Moira-Xavier-Magneto alliance.
However, Inferno’s first chapter ends with a major twist: when Krakoa’s Quite Council government convenes to fill it’s two empty seasts, Mystique reveals her surprise candidate: Destiny!
How Destiny was brought back remains to be seen (though it’s been implied in other books that Sinister and Mystique conspired to resurrect her). But now that she’s back, it seems the central power behind Krakoa may now be destabilized – and the truth of Moira’s role in the mutant nation could soon bring down the entire culture.
X-Men: Inferno #1 is now on sale.
