Ascension Looms in “Powers of X” #2

Writer: Jonathan Hickman / Artist: R.B. Silva  / Marvel “Both of our dreams are fleeting and too small for the coming days . . . ” Sit back, relax, and set out a glass of your favorite drink of choice.  Whatever it is, you might even to want to prep two glasses.  “Powers of X” #2, as written by shogun pensmith Jonathan Hickman, reads like a masterclass on how to craft a multilinear narrative that spans centuries without sacrificing the ideological and emotional core that has sustained X-Men lore through the changing of many hands over the decades.  Whereas many lesser writers who shall remain nameless merely focused on the shallow superhero theatrics and vain melodrama of a overflowing mutant cast, Hickman tethers his story to the inevitable conflict of evolution amongst humans, mutants, and machines. Survival is a thousand year war, one that requires enemies to become allies in the face of inevitable annihilation. The second issue of Powers of X picks up shortly after the end of House of X #2 where Moira Mactaggert reveals to Professor X that she is in fact a mutant. What’s her power, you may ask? Well, the ability to reincarnate herself up to eleven times with the knowledge of all her proceeding lives.  Conceptually and historically, this was as huge announcement, albeit a little illogical, even for comics. (From a Buddhistic standpoint, if one reincarnates,  time itself should keep moving forward; it doesn’t restart and place one in their mother’s womb again. If that is th…