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MacTaggart, Moira
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Real Name: Dr. Moira Kinross MacTaggart
Occupation: Geneticist
Identity: Publicly known
Legal Status: Citizen of the United Kingdom with no criminal record
Other Aliases: None
Place of Birth: Kinross estate, Scotland
Marital Status: Widowed
Known Relatives: Lord Kinross (father), Joseph MacTaggart (husband, deceased), Kevin (Proteus, son, apparently deceased)
Group Affiliation: X-Men
Base of Operations: Mutant Research Center Muir Island, Scotland
First Appearance: X-MEN #96
Final Appearance:

History: Dr. Moira MacTaggart is the daughter of the powerful Scots nobleman Lord Kinross. She proved to be a brilliant student of the biological sciences and selected genetics as her specialty. Moira married Joseph MacTaggart, a Royal Marine Commando with political ambitions. But this marriage proved to be a disastrous one.

As a college, student she met Charles Xavier who was working toward a doctorate at Oxford University. The two fell in love with each other immediately and their romance lasted for years. Eventually they became engaged to be married, pending the annulment of her own marriage to Joseph MacTaggart. But then Xavier was drafted into the military. She promised to wait until he was released from military service. However, while he was recovering in a hospital from battlefield injuries, Xavier received a letter from Moira breaking off their engagement with out explanation and stating that she was returning, home to Scotland.

Joseph MacTaggart had proved to be a brutal husband, and finally, while they were in New York City, he beat and sexually assaulted her, causing her to be hospitalized for a week and leaving her pregnant. From then on Moira lived apart from her husband, although he refused to grant her a divorce, and she kept the fact that he had a son secret from him for twenty years.

Moira MacTaggart led a brilliant career as one of the world's leading geneticists, earning a Nobel Prize for her work. She founded a Mutant Research Center on Muir Island off the coast of Scotland. Eventually she renewed contact with Xavier during a period he spent in England working on a degree in psychiatry. Xavier and MacTaggart discussed the possibility of establishing a school for training, superhuman mutants in the use of their powers. Eventually, MacTaggart became Xavier's "silent partner" in founding this school, which trained the team of mutant adventurers known as the X-Men.

When Moira's son began to manifest destructive mutant powers, she attempted to cure him, but her efforts were in vain, and she was forced to keep him imprisoned at her Mutant Research Center. It was there, too, that she treated the mutant known as Legion, Xavier's illegitimate son by a former lover, Gabrielle Haller. (Xavier himself remained unaware of Legion's existence for years.) Moira took as her ward the orphaned Scots girl Rahne Sinclair, who would herself demonstrate mutant powers in years to come. Xavier would sometimes turn over captured dangerous mutants to Moira for study.

Moira MacTaggart finally made her presence known to the X-Men when she arrived at their doorstep claiming to be their new housekeeper. The X-Men soon learned her true profession and visited her Muir Isle research center. Moira fell in love with Sean Cassidy, the X-Man known as the Banshee, and their relationship persisted on.

Moira's son, Kevin, who was code-named "Mutant X" but called himself Proteus, escaped from confinement at Muir Isle and began using his powers to possess the bodies of others and drain their life energies and to warp people's perceptions of reality to terrorize the Scots countryside. The X-Men attempted to stop Proteus, and Moira warned Joseph MacTaggart about him. (At this point it had been twenty years since she had left him.) Proteus took possession of his father's body, ravaging it, and attempted to kill his mother. Instead, however, Proteus was himself apparently destroyed by the X-Man Colossus. Joseph MacTaggart died as a result of being possessed by Proteus.

Sometime afterward, Moira discovered that Rahne Sinclair had the mutant ability to transform herself into wolf-like form. Dr. MacTaggart brought Sinclair to Xavier and persuaded him to establish a new team of superhuman mutant trainees who became known as the New Mutants.

Shortly before the last time Xavier left Earth for the Shi'ar Galaxy, MacTaggart and Gabrielle Haller finally revealed to him that Legion was his son.

Moira MacTaggart continued to operate her Muir Isle research center and has proved to be a valuable ally to mutants who have trained under Xavier's guidance.

With the first human to contract the Legacy Virus, Moira was one of many frantically working on a cure, even to the point of self-quarantining herself at one stage. Moira also assisted Charles and the Beast in analyzing the Skrull Wolverine impostor.

Moira died as a result of internal injuries caused by the destruction of the Muir Isle facility by Mystique and the Brotherhood of Mutants. Just prior, Moira had discovered the cure to the new strain of the Legacy Virus that Mystique had created; one that only infected humans. Moira clung on to life long enough to survive a trans-Atlantic flight to transfer that information to Charles, then died in his arms.

Height: 5 ft. 7 in.
Weight: 135 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown

Strength Level: Moira MacTaggart possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: None

Other Abilities: Dr. Moira MacTaggart was one of the worlds leading geneticists and possessed special expertise in the study of superhumanly powerful mutants.