Summary
- X-Men's Krakoan Era will come to an end in 2024, potentially changing the entire timeline of the franchise.
- The cover to Rise of the Powers of X shows someone aiming a gun at Moira MacTaggert, seemingly right before she kicked off the franchise's 2019 revamp.
- If Moira dies in that moment, X-Men's past, present, and future will drastically change.
In newly released information for the Fall of the House of X #3 and Rise of the Powers of X #3, X-Men just set up the most consequential death in the franchise's history - but who's holding the gun? As X-Men's Krakoan Era officially ends in 2024, it seems that Marvel's entire timeline will change forever.
Like the two intertwined series that began the Krakoan Era in 2019, Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X will tell a single connected story, with Fall of the House of X depicting the X-Men's final battle against Orchis, and Rise of the Powers of X following a final team of X-Men ten years after their decisive loss in that same battle. Now, Marvel has released cover art and official summaries for each issue:
Fall of the House of X #3 (2024) |
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Release Date: |
March 13, 2024 |
Writer: |
Gerry Duggan |
Artists: |
Lucas Werneck |
Cover Artist: |
Pepe Larraz |
In FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X #3, the end has truly begun! The X-Men have taken all they’re willing to take from Orchis… Now it’s time for them to do the dishing out. Unfortunately, just when it seems like one threat is over…another rises to take its place. The final battle of the Krakoan age rages as two series that are one move toward a crash that will echo across the universe… |
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Rise of the Powers of X #3 (2024) |
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Release Date: |
March 27, 2024 |
Writer: |
Kieron Gillen |
Artists: |
R.B. Silva |
Cover Artist: |
R.B. Silva |
In RISE OF THE POWERS OF X #3, discover that the real end is never beginning! The past, present and future of Krakoa all rests in a trigger finger. The scenario you prayed would never happen plays out as two series that are one move toward a crash that will reverberate outside the universe… |
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While the cover for Fall of the House of X shows Wolverine tackling Orchis' Doctor Stasis, Rise of the Powers of X depicts someone training a gun on Moira MacTaggert. If Moira is killed via time travel - as is implied here - then the X-Men's timeline will be drastically and permanently rewritten.
If Wolverine kills Doctor Stasis, he'll ward off the birth of an anti-mutant god
The X-Men Fight Their Final Battle
Moira X Begins and Ends the Krakoan Era
X-Men's Krakoan era began in 2019's House of X/Powers of X, from Jonathan Hickman, R.B. Silva and Pepe Larraz. The twin series rewrote X-Men history by revealing Moira MacTaggert - an ally of the X-Men and former love of Charles Xavier - was actually a mutant. Moira's power is essentially Marvel's take on Groundhog Day - whenever she dies, she returns to the moment of her birth and lives her life again, free to change the timeline with all her accumulated knowledge. However, Moira had a grim warning for Professor X - in all nine of her previous lives, artificial intelligence had risen up and driven mutantkind extinct.
There's no more coming back for Moira, and it seems that the Krakoan Era may end with her murder.
Mora's reveal inspired Xavier to reach out to his enemies Magneto, Apocalypse, and Mister Sinister, combining their resources to found the mutant nation of Krakoa. The idea was to keep mutants safe and secretly prevent the AI uprising, but things didn't go to plan. Despite the X-Men's best efforts, the super-sentinel Nimrod was created on schedule, and the mutant-hating group Orchis rose to become a major power. Moira shockingly betrayed Xavier to side with the machines, and Orchis' mutant massacre killed off many X-Men and framed the survivors as international terrorists.
In a previous life, Moira was warned by the mutant seer Destiny that she would only live ten or eleven lives, with her robotic rebirth seemingly being number eleven. There's no more coming back for Moira, and it seems that the Krakoan Era may end with her murder. R.B. Silva's cover shows Moira waiting on the park bench where she originally met Xavier and told him the truth of her many lives - if she's killed before that happens, history will change, though so far there's no explanation for why she won't simply return again - just Destiny's prediction.
Wolverine Could Save the Universe
Doctor Stasis Is a Major Threat
However, while Moira's death would change history, Wolverine's mission is just as important. In the recent Sins of Sinister event, fans learned that one of four characters will soon ascend to godhood as a Dominion - a powerful being beyond time and space. As far as fans know, the candidates are Mister Sinister, Doctor Stasis, Orbis Stellaris, or Mother Righteous - the four clones of the original Nathaniel Essex, whose essence has been detected within the Dominion. None of them are good people, but Doctor Stasis would be the worst, as he hates mutants with a burning vengeance. (Mother Righteous can at least be bargained with.)
Taking Doctor Stasis out of the running to become the Dominion would be a major win for mutantkind, and help to give their battle against Orchis meaning, since information for Rise of the Powers of X has already confirmed they lose the larger war. There could still be a mysterious fifth candidate - Charles Xavier may become the Dominion, as he's now got some of Sinister's genetic code - but if Wolverine kills Stasis, he'll essentially ward off the birth of an anti-mutant god.
X-Men Is On Course to Stick the Landing
Marvel Hasn't Forgotten How This Story Started
So far, it's unclear who's holding the gun on Moira, and it could be either the heroes or the villains. Promo art for Rise of the Powers of X shows the final X-Men team is made up of Synch, Shadowkat, Wolverine, Ms. Marvel and Iron Man, but the time-traveling hero Cable is also out there somewhere, and guns are more his arena than anyone else's. However, once the Dominion is created, no amount of time travel can erase it, so it may be that once their plans come to fruition, the AI forces decide to kill the past Moira to close the loop on their victory. In the time-hopping conclusion to the X-Men's five-year-long revamp, anything is still possible.
What's important is that Rise of the Powers of X shows the woman who kicked off the last few years of X-Men stories staring down the barrel of a gun, moments before she actually set her plans into motion. These images from Marvel all but confirm the Krakoan Era will end with time travel, Moira MagTaggert, and a shocking murder, though exactly how X-Men will combine those elements is still to be seen.
Fall of the House of X is coming March 13, 2024, with Rise of the Powers of X following on March 27, both from Marvel Comics.
