She's also been dead since 2001. That hasn't helped, either.

 

Some interesting things I picked up on, and a few theories.

Spoiler

Destiny's assessment of Moira's life is that A) if she dies before she turns 13 she'll die permanently and B) She will only live 10-11 lives (I don't know much about Destiny's powers but I find it interesting that she can be that precise but stop just short of being exact). Taking this together, it means that Moira potentially could have died before 13 in this tenth life (but didn't), and that she is certain to die before 13 in the eleventh. What's noteworthy though is that nothing especially different happens to her life before her mutation arises, at least according to the timeline at the end. Anything different that could happen has to be the result of her actions. So that being said:

Theory 1 - Life 10 is the 616 Marvel Continuity, and everything we've ever seen of Charles and Moira has been a long, patient game of chess manipulating the course of mutant history towards the House of X. This is certainly what the book presents to the reader currently, but I doubt it stays that way. It would basically make Xavier a bigger villain than Magneto could ever hope to be, toying with the lives of thousands of people. He'd never be a heroic figure again. In fact, making House of X about the "real" X-Men harms all the characters. House of X clearly holds some deep dark Probably-Brainwashing Secret underneath its candy coating, but if it doesn't, well, how do these characters go back to the way they were before? Even if there's a well written explanation for why characters like Kitty and Kurt would go all in on a spooky micronation whose main exports are drugs and threatening sentiment, all that accomplishes is making the X-Men more aloof than even the Kirby-Era Inhumans were. It would be like a whole book full of Namors.

1a. If Life 10 is 616, then if/when Moira dies her eleventh life will be some sort of epilogue to the series the way that King Thor is an epilogue to Aaron's Thor.
1b. Life 10 is 616 but Life 11 leads to the Powers of X series.


I'm personally fond of Theory 2 - House of X is Life 10, but the 616 Universe is Life 11. The House of X has disastrous consequences, but through some shenanigans some of the memories/ repercussions wind up in the normal books (like how the O5 got the memories of their time displaced younger selves last year). This allows Hickman lots of creative freedom without actually retconning anything. It also means that somehow they were able to change Moira's fate and she is living into adulthood in her eleventh life.

A few mysteries to chew on raised by this issue;

Spoiler

1. What was Moira's sixth life? The transition is so seamless between 5 and 7 (killed by Trasks, exterminates the Trasks) that it's easy to miss until you get to the timeline at the end.
2. What was the fate of Moira in her ninth life, the one where she became Apocalypse's horseman? The line continues from the beginning of the "Apocalypse War" off the edge of the page like the tenth timeline, but where that one continues into the spot this issue occupies on the read order, that one just... disappears. Apocalypse has a featured quote in this issue, and the terms "horseman" and "Apoc_forever" appear on the page.
3. Moira's founding of the Muir Research Foundation is the first time such a thing has occurred since her third life. She created it in this life to help her son Proteus, an Omega Level reality warper...
4. Why are House #2, #5, and Powers #6 highlighted in red? Is that where the story of Moira will continue?

 

Which we now know, wasn’t actually her.

Which does raise the question where she’s been since then?

 

Oh wow, I unstoppable wasp is coming back in the form of a novel. Yayyyyyy......

 

Read Absolute Carnage issue 1, and I’m not disappointed. So excited for this event.

 

$7.99? Jesus, I knew individual comics were going up in price, but that is ridiculous. That's a third of what the trade will cost.

 

Yeah, It's a unfortunate trend. IDW had some of their Transformers annuals for that 7.99 cover price.

 

Fantastic Four 11 and 12 were really good. I love the kids having to take the driving test for the flying cars, and the way Franklin stops the microverse invasion is great. And having just read the first 30 issues, the beginning of Ben and Alicia's relationship is fresh in my mind (and I have no clue what happened in the 600+ issues in between), but apparently they just got married and have gone off on their honeymoon, only for the Puppet Master to send the Hulk to kill the Thing... right when he's about to turn human for a few weeks. I enjoyed both issues, so I'm on board for now.

The dual numbering system is a bit silly though. They're essentially admitting it's not issue 12, it's issue 657, so why not just give it that number? But no, they have to have their cake and eat it too, so it's issue 12, legacy issue 657.

 

How come Fantastic Four is only on issue 657 when it started before Spider-Man, which is in the 800s?

 

FF has gone on hiatus at least twice, most notably for the last couple years during Ike Perlmutter’s pissing match with Fox. I'd have to check, but I also suspect that ASM has been released bi-weekly sometimes.

 

Pretty sure Amazing Spider-Man was 3 times a month when Brand new day came out. Plus, it has been published bi-monthly a few times like in the McFarlane era.

 

Ah, that makes sense.

 

So finally caught up with House of X and Powers of X, while it's too early in the story to say it's going to be one of the best X-stories of all time - I like that Hickman has come up with something different and yet engaging, and admittedly way more layered than any X-Men comic in years. The last time I felt like this reading the X-Men was Grant Morrison's run, so kudos to Hickman and Marvel because it seems a ton of readers are back in the saddle for this X-Men run.

 

I don't dislike what I'm reading so far, but I can hardly call it the best any kind of story yet because there aren't really any characters. Like sure, Xavier is in it, but we're intentionally left in the dark about what his deal is, and lots of recognizable faces are there to serve as eerily familiar mouthpieces for all these alien concepts, but that's all they are so far. In a series so dependent on character interactions, it's bizarre to see a story completely devoid of them. But then, that's probably the point...

 

Hickman tends to deliver character via group mechanics. I’ve read a lot of his stuff and I rarely think of his stories in terms of individuals but rather as group interactions.

He’s been accused of writing cold stories, but I don’t think I’ve ever got as weepy reading a story as I did with his Fantastic Four. His other stuff all has moments of fist pumping awesomeness.

 

On another note, I got caught up on the last 18 or so issues of Venom after reading Absolute Carnage #1.

I mainly was interested in the big retcon to All-Black the Necrosword. It's done well enough, tying not just the mythology of Venom and Thor together but much more closely tying the history of Gorr and Thor together.

Spoiler

Thor's slaying of Grendel on Earth caused Knull to fall, and Gorr to find his weapon, and thus for Thor's path to cross the nascent God-Butcher's later on.

I do think it changes a small part Gorr's origins for the worse though. In the God Bomb arc, the way I read it anyway, Gorr's Gods neglected his planet because they were fighting amongst each other. That petty, irresponsible action is the sort of thing that supports antagonists like Gorr and the Mangog who believe the Gods to be unworthy of mankind's attention. Retconning that the Gods couldn't attend to their world because they were being invaded makes them much more sympathetic, and makes the story of Gorr a bit less tragic.

I've encountered Ryan Stegman's art in the Charles Soule Inhuman book (he took over as the permanent artist after Joe Mad inevitably delayed the book like 6 months). I like him, but his kinetic art definitely fits Spidey books better. He draws Venom in the classic McFarlane style, less tongue more teeth. And the colors he employs here are tremendous - the panels in issues two and three where the Symbiote Dragon is obscured in smoke are fantastic.

 

Yeah Hickman really has a tendency to write his characters with a little bit of detachment, and yes some of his stories tend to read better in a sitting because of his pace. That said the guy can write great character moments and action pieces but it’s all about waiting for the right moment, which admittedly he usually times to great effect. His opening arc to FF, Solve Everything had a great mix of that, and got me hooked on his FF run.

 

It’s a good bit of continuity work for sure.

I’ve equally seen people like and hate Cates’ run on Venom. Primarily the introduction of Knull into so many aspects of the Marvel universe and the retcons it’s brought with it. Comparing it to fan fiction.

But all the comments I’ve seen on Absolute Carnage’s first issue have been positive. Saying how it perfectly captures the horror aspect.

 

I admit, I wasn't too fond of the entire Symbiote God retcon thing either - but Cates has made it work so far. As for Absolute Carnage, yeah, Cates has really done a great job with the horror aspect, and Stegman's art really sells it. Carnage hasn't felt this scary/threatening in a long time.

 

So, I’m about to start reading Ed Brubaker’s run on Captain America.

Anything I should know before I start?