Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Dead X-Men #4! It’s no secret that the Juggernaut is an immensely powerful character in X-Men canon, as he’s not only unstoppable, but his connection to different sources of magic elevates him to a level rivaling a literal god. However, there’s arguably never been an exhibition of his power as impressive as the one that was just featured in the latest X-Men adventure, as the Juggernaut destroyed one of the most – if not the most – powerful weapons in the Marvel Universe.
In Dead X-Men #4 by Steve Foxe, David Baldeón, Bernard Chang, and Vincenzo Carratú, members of the X-Men (who mysteriously came back to life in the White Hot Room after Nimrod killed them during the Hellfire Gala Massacre) are in an alternate universe battling a variant of Moira MacTaggert. Like the Moira of the X-Men’s home reality, this one is also profoundly dangerous, and is made even more so following the assembly of perhaps the most powerful weapon in the multiverse: Weapon M.
Weapon M is used to traverse the many realities that were created by Moira’s reincarnation powers through Sinister’s Moira Engine. That means this Moira (who’s known as Cyborg Moira) not only has the power to travel a multiverse of her own making, but to wreak havoc on established timelines by altering them. Plus, Weapon M itself doubles as a whip/ax made from carbonadium, adamantium, vibranium, mysterium, and every other indestructible material found in the Marvel Universe. However, even this weapon, made from the strongest substances known, couldn’t withstand the might of the Juggernaut.
As previously mentioned, Weapon M gave Moira MacTaggert – who has devolved into a dangerous villain in more recent X-Men lore – the power to travel to the other realities created by her mutant power of reincarnation. With this ability, Moira could have changed the course of multiple timelines, which could send ripples across the entire multiverse that could result in untold damage done to the very fabric of reality itself, within every conceivable universe.
With Weapon M, Cyborg Moira’s first stop would have been to her own childhood in an alternate timeline, which is the same point in time where Charles Xavier is traveling to kill Moira as a child. Xavier is trying to undo the entire Krakoan era (which Moira was responsible for) in order to prevent Sinister from ascending into the Dominion (which is essentially a multiversal god). If Cyborg Moira traveled to that point and killed Charles with Weapon M, then there’d be no one to stop Dominion Sinister, and every reality would be lost.
Of course, the X-Men have their own objections to Xavier’s actions, but they do need him alive to stop Dominion Sinister and save the larger multiverse – and the only way to do that from where they’re standing is by stopping Cyborg Moira and destroying Weapon M. That’s why the fact that Juggernaut destroyed Weapon M was so significant, not just because it proved how powerful he was (indeed, Weapon M was supposed to be indestructible), but because he gave the X-Men the fighting chance they needed to save the multiverse.
It’s interesting that the Juggernaut jumps in to save the day at the end of the Dead X-Men miniseries, not so much because of what he did, but who he did it for. The members of the Dead X-Men were recently voted as the main X-Men roster during 2023’s Hellfire Gala literal moments before they were slaughtered by Nimrod. The only newly-elected X-Men member who wasn’t killed by Nimrod was Juggernaut, making him the sole surviving member of his new team.
At the start of Dead X-Men, the Juggernaut of Earth-616 was not included, as he’s fighting Orchis alongside the mutant resistance. The Juggernaut didn’t make an appearance in Dead X-Men until the team traveled to Cyborg Moira’s timeline, where an alternate version of the Juggernaut also resided, and was a member of the Starjammers.
During the Hellfire Gala, the Juggernaut was powerless to protect his fellow X-Men, and he even failed to avenge them, as Nimrod beat him to a bloody pulp before throwing him in a prison cell. In Dead X-Men, however, the Juggernaut (albeit a different one) was able to save the exact same team he failed to before. While the Juggernaut who destroyed Weapon M wasn’t aware of it, he redeemed the Juggernaut’s inability to save his team from a seemingly unbeatable villain.
When Juggernaut was cast into the Crimson Cosmos in the early days of his Marvel Comics publication history, he was able to learn the ways of sorcery to an impressive degree. The Juggernaut was strong enough to battle Nightmare within the villain’s own reality, purely utilizing the magic he learned. In fact, it was during this battle that Nightmare told Juggernaut that the spells he knew were strong enough to make him the god of a “lesser cosmos” (which he said as an insult, but saying someone has the potential to be a god of any cosmos seems like a compliment).
Then, when the Juggernaut sided with Nightmare and turned on Doctor Strange (as the Juggernaut merely happened upon their ongoing conflict), his power was enough to challenge the Sorcerer Supreme himself, if only for a short time. This storyline confirms that the Juggernaut isn’t just an unstoppable brute as many fans might assume, but a being of shockingly immense power, who proved that his power was literally god-tier by channeling the magical energy supposedly equal to that of a literal god.
By destroying Weapon M, Juggernaut did something arguably even more impressive than battling Nightmare and Doctor Strange with powerful magic, as he helped protect the multiverse, saved the X-Men he once failed, and – just in terms of physical strength – broke a weapon that was supposed to be unbreakable, thereby cementing Juggernaut’s status as a god-tier powerhouse.
Dead X-Men #4 by Marvel Comics is available now.