The individual on the last page of the issue kind of looks like a female version of Warlock... and that's real 'old skool' X-Men stuff. But, umm, extraterrestrial intelligent war machines that can assume humanoid form (or not). Though I thought they were only 'father'/'son' varieties?

I'm probably waaay wrong, but Whedon's professed fave period of X-Men coincides with the intro of Warlock, so it's a weak 'maybe'. The attractive thing about the Warlock race is the 'child' must kill the 'parent' (or be killed) as a rite of passage. Think that would appeal to Whedon as a foundation?