MOIRA X

 

MOIRA X

Real Name: Moira Ann Kinross MacTaggert

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #96, December 1975

Powers: Moira MacTaggert possesses the mutant power of reincarnation. Upon her physical death, the sum total of knowledge and life experiences Moira has undergone is transmitted backwards in time, entering her still developing mind in the womb. She then relives the same period of time repeatedly from birth until the next time she dies by natural causes or other means. Moira reportedly has an eidetic memory, perfect recall of everything she has ever learned or experienced across ten lifetimes of activity. Through trial and error, Moira determined that her life would instinctively play out the same way unless she intentionally acted differently, causing new events to unfold.

It’s been presumed that Moira's power doesn’t create new timelines with each iteration, but rather annihilates the old timeline in place of the next one. However, this would mean that the progression of all of time and space is suspended indefinitely until Moira becomes immortal or her power is blocked somehow, which seems counter-intuitive. Furthermore, it has been speculated that Moira's x-gene still activates at puberty like a normal mutant. And so, while she always is born with her prior knowledge, the ability to cast her knowledge back in time does not activate until she's thirteen. Consequently, it’s presumed if Moira died in her lifetime before puberty, she would presumably die permanently.

Some form of secondary mutation linked to Moira's mutant power is a form of passive invisibility that conceals her mutation from others. Telepaths can scan Moira's mind without noticing her true nature, and Moira may even be able to actively block telepathic intrusion from someone who knows what she is. Similarly, during her third life, the precognitive mutant named Destiny confessed that Moira was difficult to read or predict at first, although after she learned Moira was a mutant her senses seemed to recalibrate, allowing her to perceive even reincarnated lives that Moira had not reached yet (although, given the circumstances, Destiny could have been lying). Finally, it seems implicit that mutant-detection technology like Cerebro has also proven incapable of detecting Moira.

Dr. Moira MacTaggert is of genius-level intelligence and was a Nobel Prize-winning geneticist. She earned a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Oxford and is one of the world's leading geneticists, with special expertise in the study of superhumanly powerful mutants. Her 10 lifetimes (over 1,000 years) 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.