| Moira MacTaggert | |
|---|---|
 Moira MacTaggert, as she appeared on the variant cover ofHouse of X #1 (July 2019). Art byMark Brooks. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | TheUncanny X-Men #96 (December 1975) |
| Created by | Chris Claremont (writer) Dave Cockrum (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Moira Kinross MacTaggert |
| Species | Human Human/Sentinel cyborg (formerly) Depoweredhuman mutant (formerly)[1] |
| Team affiliations | Muir Island X-Men Excalibur X-Men |
| Abilities |
|
Dr. Moira MacTaggert, more recently known asMoira X, is a fictional character appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. She first appeared inThe Uncanny X-Men #96 (Dec. 1975) and was created by writerChris Claremont and artistDave Cockrum.[2] She works as a geneticist and is an expert inmutant affairs. She is most commonly in association with theX-Men and has been a member of theMuir Island X-Men team andExcalibur.
For the first 44 years of publication, Moira was traditionally depicted in comic books as a supporting character to the X-Men and a humanlove interest for central characterProfessor Xavier. In 2019, as part of Marvel'sHouse of X andPowers of X relaunch ofX-Men comics by writerJonathan Hickman, Moira's backstory wasfundamentally changed, revealing she had been a mutant all along, with a rare power that let her redo her life every time she died. The story set the stage for a major status quo change forX-Men comics, including the formation of the mutantnation state ofKrakoa. Later still, Moira betrays the mutant cause and becomes an antagonist to the X-Men.
Moira MacTaggert has appeared inX-Men: The Last Stand, portrayed byOlivia Williams, as well asX-Men: First Class andX-Men: Apocalypse, portrayed byRose Byrne.
Moira MacTaggert was created byChris Claremont andDave Cockrum, and first appeared inUncanny X-Men #96 (December 1975).[3] Moira was one of the major supporting characters in Claremont's Uncanny X-Men run. She worked as a geneticist and was an expert in mutant affairs. She was romantically involved withProfessor X. She would eventually found a foundation center onMuir Island centered on mutant research.[4]
Moira MacTaggert received an entry in theOfficial Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #4.
Grant Morrison wanted to use Moira on their run onNew X-Men as the team scientist,[citation needed] but she was killed prior to the start of the series causing them to use Beast (Henry "Hank" McCoy) instead.
Moira was one of the feature characters in the 2011 two-issue limited seriesChaos War: X-Men.[5]
She is one of the main characters inHouse of X and Powers of X, written byJonathan Hickman.House of X #2retconned established continuity, revealing her to be a mutant with the ability to reincarnate within her own timeline; on her death, she is returned to the moment she is conceived with full knowledge of her previous lives. Her knowledge of potential futures, when divulged to Professor X and Magneto, leads to the formation of the nation-state of Krakoa and the new status quo for the X-Men books followingHouse of X andPowers of X.[1]
BornMoira Kinross toScottish parents, Moira MacTaggert was one of the world's leading authorities ongenetic mutation, earning her aNobel Prize for her work. She was the longest running human associate of the X-Men and wasProfessor Charles Xavier's colleague, confidante, and also once his fiancée, having met and fallen in love with him while they were postgraduates atOxford University.[6] She ended their engagement for unknown reasons and returned to Scotland. She was married to her old flame, the late politician Joseph MacTaggert which caused delays with her former engagement to Xavier: Joe had proved to be an abusive husband; Moira separated from him after he beat her into a week long coma and, as it is implied, raped her, leaving her pregnant. She kept her son's existence a secret, and when Joe refused her a divorce, she allowed people to believe she was widowed.
She eventually created a Mutant Research Centre onMuir Island, off the coast ofScotland. Moira was forced to contain and imprison her son Kevin, later calledProteus, when he developed reality warping abilities and severe psychosis. One of Moira's goals was to understand human/mutant genetics to cure her son.
Moira's connection to the X-Men began long before the team formed. The silent partner in the founding ofXavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and co-creator ofCerebro, Moira assisted Xavier in helping the youngJean Grey recover after the traumatic triggering of her mutant abilities.
Moira was a kind woman who took to helping humans and mutants alike. She rescued a young Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane) from an angry mob, and adopted the girl. She even attempted to treat Xavier's son, a mutant known asLegion who suffered fromdissociative identity disorder. When a confused, traumatizedCable first arrived from the future, he washed up in Scotland unable to speak English, and it was Moira who stood up for him against an angry mob. Taking him back to Muir Island, he scanned her mind and learned English in the process, as well as the truth about her son, and promised to keep her secrets. She taught him literature and the customs of the time and introduced him to Xavier. They became close friends ever since, being the first kind person Cable met in the present timeline, her later death devastating him enough to leave the X-Men. WhenMagneto was reduced to infancy, he was entrusted to Moira's care on Muir Island, where she altered his genetic code in an attempt to keep him from reverting to villainy.
Moira appeared at Xavier's call to act as "housekeeper" for the team while they were on missions (a position that required her to demonstrate her proficiency with anM16 rifle against a demon within hours of her arrival). Though each of the X-Men formed some sort of relationship with the "Widow" MacTaggert, Moira and Sean Cassidy (Banshee) hit it off immediately, forming an on-and-off relationship. Proteus' escape and eventual destruction at the hands ofColossus and the X-Men left Moira in a position of ethical compromise again: though Banshee stopped her from cloning her son, she saved his genetic structure on disk to allow herself the future option of bringing him back.[7][8]
After finding out that her foster daughter, Rahne, was a mutant, Moira was the catalyst for change. She talked a discouraged Xavier into opening his school to the next generation ofNew Mutants, with Rahne becoming an initial member. She was also an integral part of the support for the X-Men and the New Mutants, providing medical aid including cloning Xavier after theBrood attacks, transferring his mind into a new body and restoring his ability to walk after a Brood embryo nearly killed him.
With the apparent death of the X-Men, Moira and Banshee formed an alternate team based from Muir, and carried on as the leader of the team without him when his duties with the X-Men called him away.[9] Her behavior became unpredictable, her temper impressive, and her decisions harsh and unforgiving as she displayed behavior that made all who knew her suspicious. On Muir, she began to pit her charges against each other in an arena in merciless battles, supposedly allowing her the opportunity to study mutants in action.
Moira and her islanders were involved in the return of Proteus due to the influence ofAdvanced Idea Mechanics. This was a four-part story in 1991, that ran through that year's annuals for the New Warriors, X-Men, New Mutants, and X-Factor. TheShadow King, the corrupting entity behind the island, allowed the Islanders to act heroically in defense of innocent lives.
Eventually, the entire population of Muir Island was identified as being possessed by and mentally corrupted by Shadow King, pitting the Islanders against the combined forces of the X-Men andX-Factor before Xavier freed them from his control.[10]
Moira's alteration of Magneto did not go unnoticed indefinitely. Enraged when he discovered Moira had tampered with hisfree will, Magneto took Moira captive and forced her to perform the procedure on half of the X-Men, turning them against their teammates.[11] While Moira's alterations worked, it was revealed that, due to mutants' powers requiring their body chemistry to operate in a specific manner, use of a mutant's powers would cause them to automatically resist the 'programming' and reverse the effects of the procedure, so anything Magneto had done was of his own free will. While hostage on Asteroid M, Moira witnessedFabian Cortez draining Magneto of his powers and manipulating him into placing him as his right hand. Though Cortez fled, it was an observation that would eventually put Moira back in the hands of the Acolytes. Back on Earth, Moira was unable to accept her betrayal of her surrogate family and her own infallibility, and fled the X-Mansion, with Banshee in pursuit.[12]
When a mysterious virus began attacking the genetically engineeredmutate population ofGenosha, Moira volunteered her services as a geneticist and was forced to watch as the former slaves were decimated by disease. Returning to the X-Mansion, Moira foundIllyana Rasputin suffering from the same illness, later identified as theLegacy Virus. Moving back to Muir Island after the girl's death, Moira became the key figure in working for a cure to the disease (during this time, she also worked on curing Wolfsbane's artificial bond withHavok).
The European superhero teamExcalibur took up residence on Muir Island after assisting Moira.[13] She had been attacked by agents ofMister Sinister who was seeking the genetic information on her son. Moira became an official member of the group, acting as their medic, team mother, and morale officer. An information leak revealed her to be the only human infected by the Legacy Virus—a bizarre turn of events possibly caused by her long exposure to the infected on Genosha, her autopsy of Illyana, or some susceptibility because she gave birth to a mutant.[14] Despite these events, she maintained a strong outlook on life, helping to maintain discipline, reduce tension, and increase the team's effectiveness throughout Europe. She convinced the team to stay behind whenOnslaught emerged, telling them they might be needed if other heroes fell.[15]
Conferring with the X-Men'sBeast did not result in appreciable progress. Locking herself in quarantine in a final attempt to cure the virus without endangering any of her teammates, Moira found her attempts foiled by her foster daughter,Wolfsbane, andDouglock. Wolfsbane originally leapt through the closing doors of the laboratory as the quarantine took effect. She soon found herself a willing assistant to her foster mother's work. Douglock later caused much unintentional damage, his judgement clouded by personal feelings for Wolfsbane.[13][16][17] Moira takes time off from her research to attend the bachelorette party and the wedding for her friends Meggan and Brian Braddock.[18]
Moira did eventually find a cure for the disease, when the terroristMystique manipulated her research to force the virus to target only humans. Mystique, partly assisted bySabretooth, then destroyed Muir Island, de-powered Wolfsbane with the power nullifier once developed by Forge, and brutally injured Moira.[19][20]Bishop,Wolverine, andRogue attempted to save Moira's life. Despite Rogue's powers temporarily granting her medical knowledge, she was unable to do so. Moira clung to life long enough to mentally transfer the information to Xavier in one final embrace between the former lovers. Xavier nearly went with her into death, but Jean Grey and Cable intervened on the astral plane, talking him down. She appeared to have died in the X-Men's jet, far above the Atlantic Ocean, and was later buried in Scotland.[21] A psychic representation of Moira was seen as an active portion of Xavier's consciousness as he worked on rebuilding Genosha though "she" claimed she was just a manifestation of his imaginations.[22]
Moira is next seen in the afterlife, in which she,Mockingbird,Gwen Stacy, andDead Girl assistDoctor Strange in battling a being known as the Pitiful One. Moira finds herself more interested in the book club she formed with Mockingbird and Gwen Stacy than in battling evil.[23]
After the events of M-Day and upon the reawakening of Vulcan, significant portions of Moira's history with Xavier and the original X-Men are called into light. During the early years of Xavier's Academy, Moira founded and ran a secondary facility not far from the Xavier School, in which she had her own students—youths whom she took out of bad situations and adopted as her wards, training them in their abilities without the highly militant regimen of Charles' X-Men.
WhenKrakoa captured the original X-Men, it was Moira's students whom Charles went to first—not the second team of Wolverine,Storm, Banshee, Colossus,Nightcrawler,Thunderbird andSunfire as it was originally believed—putting them through the psionic equivalent ofboot camp and allowing them to believe they were being trained over months as X-Men. Charles took them from Moira's care immediately.
Moira's students—Vulcan (Gabriel Summers, thelost brother of X-MenCyclops andHavok),Petra,Darwin, andSway—were apparently all killed, and Xavier suppressed even the memory of them from his own students to keep them from going back to save them. Only Moira's project tapes—one made directly after the event before Xavier could suppress the memories—and an abandoned research center remain as clues.[24]
During the "Chaos War" storyline, Moira MacTaggert is brought back from the afterlife, alongside the fallen X-Men membersThunderbird, Banshee, three clones ofJamie Madrox, and Sophie and Esme Cuckoo of theStepford Cuckoos, after what happened to the death realms.[25] After escaping from theApache god Carrion Crow, the group discovers that Moira has been possessed byDestiny's ghost.[26]
In 2019'sHouse of X, it is revealed that Moira is actually a mutant with the power of reincarnation, starting her life again in the womb after each death, possessing full memories of her prior lives. She is also revealed to be alive, having replaced herself with aShi'ar golem that went on to die at the hands of the Brotherhood. It can be assumed that the golem contracted the Legacy Virus, was seen in the afterlife following her death, and brought back to life during the Chaos War. Moira is revealed to be living her tenth life.
Moira is a mutant who can reincarnate, which allows her to manipulate the course of history by changing her own actions and thereby affecting people and circumstances that result from her presence. Her lifetimes have armed her with significant experience, including expertise in the fields of anthropology and genetics, firearms mastery, and leading various mutant survival movements until their eventual downfall.[27]
Telepathic intrusions on her mind will only see the memories of her current lifetime, however, telepaths can see all her lives' memories as long as she allows it.[27]
In the 1995-1996 "Age of Apocalypse" storyline, Moira is married toBolivar Trask and head of the London-based Human High Council. As resistance to Apocalypse's reign, Moira and her husband designed theSentinels and armed the human resistance with an impressive weapons array. Their main focus was a plan to destroy Apocalypse's forces in their North American positions, even though this would mean the deaths of many innocent civilians that had not yet escaped the country. The tyrant however, backfires by activating his Sea Walls, slaughtering the council and those within the Sea Walls’ reach.
Reichsminister of Genetics Moira MacTaggert, who hails from a reality in which Earth is dominated by Nazis,[29] is featured inExcalibur #10 and 11 when she is brought intoEarth-616 by the actions of a confusedWidget. Making the trip with her is her personal bodyguard, aNaziCallisto and Moira's personal train, powered by an alternateLockheed. It was also hinted that this Moira was behind the Super Team Lightning Force (a Nazi version of Excalibur). Moira's violent actions ultimately result in Excalibur team being sent on a long and arduous cross-dimensional trip.
In theHouse of M reality, Moira MacTaggert was declared a criminal for attempting to cure her sonKevin of the mutant gene and his psychosis. KingMagneto's mutant supremacy saw this as an act against mutantkind, andSentinels were dispatched to destroy Muir Island and capture Moira. Though Moira escaped, Kevin was also freed, sending him on a gruesome killing spree that was attributed to Moira as failed experiments, as she chases him across the globe. When the reality-hoppingExiles caught Proteus's attention, Moira emerged from hiding to warn them about her son, who was intrigued by their presence and desired to ruin the realities they attempted to fix. When he attacks the team, Moira shot him, exposing him to the metal that was his deadly allergy and only weakness, forcing him to find a new body. Unsurprisingly, he chose to possess his mother, and rather than allow her son to possess her and use her against them, Moira commits suicide.[30]
On the world of the Sons of Iron and Daughters of the Dragon, theNew Exiles face a squad of alternate 'core X-Men' who are loyal to Lilandra. These X-Men include an alternate version of Moira MacTaggert who is not married on this world or is going by her maiden name, Kinross. Moira's codename is Hypernova and her powers are energy blasts. It is not known whether she is a mutant on this world or has gained powers through another method.[31]
In theUltimate Marvel continuity, Moira MacTaggert is the ex-wife ofCharles Xavier, and their son David MacTaggert isProteus. This version of Moira needs two crutches in order to move around. Moira runs a school/hospital for sick mutants, and assists in the Xavier Institute from behind the scenes. She does this even though Charles left her to joinMagneto's dream of a mutant society, abandoning her to raise their mentally ill child on her own. When Proteus escapes and beginsbody hopping, Moira calls in theX-Men for assistance. After murdering hundreds, Proteus is seemingly crushed to death under a car.[32]
Later, the X-Men learn that Moira has been funding her hospital by producing and selling "Banshee", a lethal and addictive Mutant Growth Hormone[33] which amplifies mutant powers, made from the genetic material ofWolverine. When Wolverine attempts to destroy her Banshee supply, Moira attacks him with the previously unknown mutant ability to emit a deafening sonic cry. Wolverine quickly defeats Moira and leaves her to die in the exploding hospital, but she is later shown to have somehow survived whenQuicksilver finds her emerging from the smoldering ruins. Her ensuing conversation with him implies that she is now in league with Quicksilver.