Kieron Gillen may just be the greatest writer for Charles Xavier, and the X-Men, ever and it is all simply because he understands how selfish and ironically pragmatic Xavier is in order to fulfill his dreams. Rise of the Powers of X #3 displays this perfectly as he continues the plan he set into mission on the final page of issue #1: killing Moira McTaggert before her powers manifest in life 10.
I didn’t review issue 2, but that issue pretty much shows Xavier and his team in No-Place X attempting to put this mission into motion and why the Dead X-Men are needed. Rachel and Xavier need to know the exact point Moira’s powers manifest, but they need a biological Moira in a timeline where she doesn’t go evil in order to have untainted data, essentially. We also find out that the Doug Ramsey who is here is actually a Sinister, a big reveal, but the how of it doesn’t get revealed until X-Men: Forever #1. The issue ends with Rachel’s X-Men team getting the data Xavier needs as they proceed with the plan. In the end, Enigma meets with Evil Moira in this timeline and wants to have a chat, which brings us to issue 3.
As I said before, there isn’t a writer better than Kieron Gillen when it comes to Charles Xavier out there and it stuns me every time because I really dislike him as a character, but Gillen just makes him so compelling and enjoyable to read, it’s kind of sick. As Charles meets young Moira you do see the remnants of the optimistic Charles that has been present over the years, he even tells Moira that the man he was before Krakoa wouldn’t have been driven to kill a child, but the man he is now, the man who’s been convinced to compromise and had been betrayed, the man who lost his best friend, unfortunately, has been driven to do something this heinous. He’s even convinced that the dream of Krakoa is not a dream anymore now that it’s real, so he thinks that it’s better Krakoa never existed in the first place. Once again, Xavier thinks to go the easy route, to exclude his people and students from actually fighting for their chance. For a guy who’s always been hellbent on a dream, choosing the better way should always be the first option, and yet he always goes for what’s easier. He’d rather martyr himself and become a villain than give agency to those who deserve it.
There’s a very powerful moment that happens just before Xavier attempts to kill Moira, after Rasputin IV and Rachel find out about Doug’s true identity and what Xavier is actually planning to do. Rachel interrupts Xavier to talk about the dream of Krakoa and what it means to her and her X-Men, that there’s still so much potential now that they have their own nation. We don’t actually see what is said though, instead we see Xavier begin to cry. This was an amazing moment and perfectly timed, as this comes just a week or so after the announcement of the next era of X-Men comics. It’s easy to infer what they said and honestly you can put any number of responses here from real-life fans of this era of X-Men because it IS heartbreaking to destroy the beautiful foundation that was the Krakoa era. This era had a lot of potential, some of it unrealized, but I feel like Destiny of X and Fall of X truly showcased how amazing this new frontier for the X-Men really is.
Xavier relays what Rachel’s team says to young Moira in hopes that she ends up thinking of someone other than herself, as they move on to the next plan: resurrecting the Phoenix. This was something that has been teased several times since Destiny’s big vision of all the sprawling timelines along with Omega Sentinel’s timeline, the rise of the “Child of the Sun” armed with the Phoenix blade. I am hoping and praying it’s as badass as it seems, if we even get there because as soon as Rachel mentions the plan, he shoots and kills her. I don’t know of any teacher/father figure/mentor that has hated their kids this much. Xavier spent like 10 pages in this issue contemplating killing Moira, but it took him a split second to decide on shooting Rachel. The man is a villain and I will not be convinced otherwise.
The rest of this issue is the conversation between Moira and the Enigma Dominion as we get some more characterization and insight on this Dominion. This conversation is great because while I loved the idea of having Sinister be the big bad, I was a bit hesitant at first. It seemed like this Dominion was different from what Hickman had originally laid out back in House of X/Powers of X. Rest assured, Enigma is very much a traditional Dominion, they don’t even feel like Nathaniel Essex, nor do they feel human in any way. They truly feel like a god, just a god hungry for intelligence, similar to Galactus. Enigma explains Orchis and the A.I.’s plans for victory and how this stemmed from Omega Sentinel’s arrival. We learn that the Trickster Titan that sent Omega Sentinel to this timeline was indeed Enigma posing as a Titan, which I was also glad was explained. Yes, it’s a retcon, however this is a great use of retconning and makes the idea of sending Omega Sentinel back feel even more calculated and “sinister” than it originally was. We also learn of Enigma’s plan to devour all intelligences, but they need Moira at their right-hand because as they are, Enigma is locked to the current timeline they exist in, but with Moira they will have access to all of her previous timelines. This would give Enigma access to even more intelligence to devour and integrate into their system, and with the offer of ascending her to a fully independent Titan, how could Moira not accept?
This issue makes me desperately wish Fall of the House of X was even close to being this good. It doesn’t feel great that the finale of the Krakoan era is led by two main books and only one of them feels exciting to read every month. Rise of the Powers of X has something meaningful being said in every single issue while also bringing exciting action. Kieron Gillen has already cemented himself in X-History as one of the best X-Men writers ever, but along with R.B. Silva, whose contributions to X-Men as a whole can’t really be overstated, this series really is the icing on the cake for both of them. This issue shows that greatness, and I have no doubt that this series alone will be a huge reason as to why the Fall of X and the end of Krakoa doesn’t feel as depressing as it should. I can’t deny reading a great series.