Powers of X #3 provides a little more clarity on the different timelines. This issue focuses mainly on the year 100 portion of the ninth life of Moira MacTaggert. We learned in the previous issue that there were four Mutants that were working with Apocalypse on Asteroid K. The reveal on the white pages show us who they are as well as the mutant Chimera that were retrieving the information from the machines. There is also an explanation as to why the ninth life timeline continued at the end of Powers of X #2. There is a lot of information packed into this book that is focusing the picture of Hickman’s X-Men.
Credits and Thoughts
Jonathan Hickman is of course continuing his run at reshaping the X-Men past, present and future. This is a must read for any X-Men fan as it will lay the foundation for X-Men books to come. R.B. Silva continues on the artwork and Marte Gracia on colors. The title of this issue is “This is What You Do”. It comes at the end of the issue with a pretty big reveal. Its fun to speculate on what is coming next and Hickman is doing a good job of answering small questions in every issue. My theories and questions from last issue were answered here, only to open more questions. There is also a secret variant cover in which Cardinal and Rasputin are replaced with Nightcrawler and Illyana. I did not get my hands on that cover. Connect with us if you did and let us know
Powers of X #3 – *SPOILERS*
First, this issue deals entirely with the ninth life of Moira. It leaves me wondering in what life does the 1000 year events come to pass. I have to think that the sixth life since we do not have any information on that timeline. But here, we have Apocalypse and his horsemen in a final mission to stop Nimrod, the machine that has enslaved humans and almost destroyed mutants. We will get to the identity of the horsemen in a minute. But their main purpose here, is to find out the moment Nimrod came online. The apparent plan is to use that information to stop him in the next timeline. It is later revealed that Moira is still alive and in stasis.
The plan is executed and Apocalypse and his mutants go on the offensive against Nimrod. Cardinal, Rasputin and Xorn serve as a distraction to attract the attention of all of the Sentinel forces and Nimrod’s second in command. The mutants are not able to inflict much damage before Cardinal is killed and Xorn is mortally wounded. But it was not the plan to do damage, it was just to get them all together. Rasputin removes the mask from Xorn that is holding back the singularity. Everyone is instantly pulled into the black hole.
The Plan is Executed
Nimrod realizes that the other mutants, Apocalypse, Wolverine, and Cypher are in the sector containing all the old data and machine lore. They retrieve the data crystal before Nimrod shows up but Apocalypse chooses to stay and fight while Wolverine travels through the Krakoa portal back to Asteriod K. It appears that Apocalypse is overtaken by Nimrod but the plan is still in place. Wolverine returns to their base and awakens Moira. He inserted the crystal into what looks like a krakoan plant like deposit in her chest. With all the knowledge of the machine in her mind, she has Wolverine kill her to reset the timeline. Because this is what he does.
The Horsemen of Apocalypse
The first we pretty much knew was Wolverine. He is War in the horsemen and is identified by his birth name of James Howlett on one of Hickman’s supplemental white pages. Death is Xorn, we also pretty much knew he was present. Next, Pestilence was believed to be Magneto. But we learn that North is his name and he is a second generation Chimera created from Lorna Dane and Emma Frost. This makes sense because there is no reason for Magneto to be alive 100 years later. The last horsemen is actually a symbiotic Krakoa/Cypher mutant. This is very different from the predictions I read before this issue on who the plant mutant was.
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