Krakoa
When I was a kid, I used to read X-Men. This was a long time ago, mind you. Jim Lee era, if I’m not mistaken. As you do, I left super-hero comics behind at some point and moved on. I always had fondness for the Mutants though.
When Crisis Protocol came out, I was extremely hyped to start collecting an X-men Crew. And also a brotherhood crew, but that group is still mostly unpainted.
Notice how my color scheme is the classic blue and yellow. That’s what I grew up with. This is the X-men what many people my age remember. This is not necessarily how they look now.
Please ignore Storm’s missing an arm in the picture above. It was lost in transport and I never found it so unfortunately she is armless for the time being. It’s not as easy to source spare bits for Atomic Games miniatures as it is for GW ones. But that’s neither here nor there.
Recently, I was talking about the X-men with someone and they said a phrase I have not heard before: Krakoan Era. I considered myself an X-men fan so there being an era that I have never heard about was intriguing. Especially since, from how it sounded it was:
- fairly recent
- game changing
- just concluded
I figured this was as good of a time to jump back into Marvel comic books as any. It would be an interesting journey to see how this recent era stacks up to my nostalgic childhood memories, as well as bring myself up to speed with X-men lore as the MCU is gearing up to bring the mutants into the fold.
Little did I know this would send me tumbling down a comic book rabbit hole. After all, you can’t just read one Marvel comic book. Once you start, you are in for a long ride.
Krakoa Reading Guide
When I started researching Krakoan Era, my aim was to figure out how to read through it whilst buying the least amount of comic books possible. I was hoping that I could get away with 2-3 collected volumes, maybe 5 at most. I was wrong.
That said, I found a very useful guide written by Dave Buesing from Comic Book Herald. It outlines the ten essential collected books that encompass the entirety of the Krakoan age. An essential 10 books sounded great to me so I dove in.
I quickly realized that these few books were not enough. Every time I moved to the next one, I felt I have missed a huge swath of story and had to hunt down additional issues to fill in the gaps.
Eventually I ended up with a file, where I was keeping track of what I read, and what I still need to read, and the chronology of it all. When you are reading comic books in real time you tend not to get lost, since everything ties into everything else across many different X titles. If you are like me, trying to catch up on a decade of stories without actually reading every single issue that was ever published in the exact chronological order it was released, Marvel does not make it easy.
This is my attempt to create a comprehensive reading guide for the era that:
- follows my journey with the series
- focuses mostly on collected volumes
The Krakoan age is usually divided into shorter eras known as:
- Dawn of X
- Reign of X
- Destiny of X
- Fall of X
These names are cannon and are used by Marvel for marketing purposes, but they also neatly delineate the various phases of the Krakoan timeline. Each era is neatly bookended by a Hellfire Gala event which always results in some big reveal that changes the status quo. As I was reading along, this was the most logical way to break things down and keep myself organized.
This is my reading Krakoa reading guide. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
House of X / Powers of X
The best place to start this journey is of course the beginning. The book that started it all:
House of X starts with the line “While you were sleeping, the world has changed” and boy does it deliver.
Jonathan Hickman boostraps the new era of X-men by completely shaking up the status quo.
He gives mutants their own nation state. But this is not Genosha. It is Krakoa, a sentient, motile island capable of producing advanced bio-technology. A mutant itself, it feeds by draining life force from other mutants. But the more mutants live on the island, the less it has to drain from each one, and the bigger it can grow. But that’s not all.
He gives mutants an ace in the hole: game furture outcomes Groundhog Day style. Moria McTaggert is an immortal mutant that re-lives her life over and over again. Each time she dies, she goes all the way back to the day of her birth carrying all the memories of her previous lives with her. But that’s not all.
On Krakoa, mutants quickly learn to work together, combining their powers to achieve things that were previously thought impossible. This collectivist way of working allows them to develop new technology beyond anything that has been seen before. By combining powers of five mutants, the Krakoan nation develops a way to resurrect the dead making all mutankind virtually immortal. But that’s not all.
You get the drift. The amount of world building and lore dumped in this initial book is impressive. I could not contain my excitement when reading it. I was pumped for more. I can only imagine the hype this book generated when it was first released.
Dawn of X
I am inclined to agree with Dave Buesing that the best place to go after House of X / Powers of X is the Dawn of X is to read the first 3 volumes of the Dawn of X series.
Dawn of X Volumes
These 3 books are a mixed bag but they set up a lot of things that get paid off later. I recommend plowing through them, even if you don’t particularly enjoy some of the parts.
The gimmick of these books is that they collect all the various X series issues that were released in that time period. Because it is early on in the series, most of these end up being essential.
It also gives you access to the first issues of the series I kinda skip over in this list (such as Marauders, Fallen Angels, Excalibur, New Mutants and etc).
Hickman Omnibus
The Omnibus has some overlap with the Dawn of X series above, but both are worth getting.
The Omnibus is essential reading that sets up and shapes the early days of the Krakoan era. It shows how mutants interact with the outside world, and how they deal with the various threats that arise.
All of the issues collected here are written by Hickman, who later departed from the X-men franchise. Seeing how Krakoa is his brain child, it’s worth reading all of these to get the sense of his vision for this era.
X-Force
Benjamin Percy’s X-Force is the Krakoa’s Black Ops team. They do morally ambiguous things to keep their island nation safe. Or so they tell themselves. I wouldn’t say this series is essential, but it’s good to see how this whole thing starts.
Note, there is a bit of overlap between the Omnibus and the Dawn of X series here.
Volume 2 is especially good to read, as there are X-Factor issues in the first Hellfire Gala collection and they reference the Terra Verde story arc from this volume.
4X
Another optional reading here, but it is a single collected volume and a nice cross-over with Fantastic Four written by Chip Zdarsky.
This short series deals with clash between the Krakoans and the Fantastic Four over the fate of Franklin Richards (a powerful mutant child of Reed and Sue Richards). Not essential, but it touches upon how Krakoa is perceived by the outside world, and how it interacts with other super-hero teams.
X of Swords
Krakoan era’s first big crossover event. To be honest, it is not one one my favorites.
This collection can be a bit of of a slog. It deals with magic, wizards, and Excalibur type stuff. It’s not necessarily my cup of tea. But it ends up being essential as it sets up many things referenced later. It gives context for Apocalypse’s future absence, explains the origins of Arakko and lays groundwork for pretty much everything in X-Men Red later on.
It also establishes that the resurrection protocols are not perfect and dying outside of normal universe can cause problems.
Reign of X
The second era of the Krakoan age is known as Reign of X. While the Dawn of X was setting things up, Reign of X is where we see things start to pay off.
Hellions
What if Mr Sinister had his own Suicide Squad? This is essentially the premise of Zeb Wells’ Hellions.
Krakoa is open to all mutants, but some mutants are miscreants not fit for life in an utopia. What should be done with them? The answer is: you put them to work. And who else ought to lead such a team, if not Krakoa’s greatest sociopath.
S.W.O.R.D.
Krakoan nation has ambitions that go beyond just Earth. They want to be a player on a galactic scale. Al Ewing’s S.W.O.R.D. series tackles exactly that.
The S.W.O.R.D. series shows mutants operating on interstellar scale, interacting with the galactic empires and setting sights on expansion beyond Earth.
X-Men by Gerry Duggan
If you are interested what is happening in the real world (not on Krakoa, or in outer space) then Duggan’s run of X-Men will answer that question:
This series continues throughout the entire Krakoan age, but Volume 1 is set firmly in the Reign of X era. It follows the X-men team based out of New York City dealing with various threats to humanity. It also sets up one of the primary antagonists for the entire age: the mysterious Dr Stasis.
Hellfire Gala 2021
A big party thrown by Emma Frost that turns into an annual tradition. The mutants invite humans to a big party that is a way for them to showcase their power and status.
This volume collects all the issues that were released during the Hellfire Gala event giving you a chance to check up on some of the teams I have not mentioned in a while (such as the New Mutants or Marauders).
It also ends in a shocking reveal showcasing the true power of the mutant circuits. An event so grand, that all the nations of the world are shaken by it.
Post Helfire Gala
There are couple of things worth reading after the Hellfire gala event.
S.W.O.R.D. Vol 2
The S.W.O.R.D. series continues with the second volume picking up after the gala event, and the big reveal.
Now that mutants are an interplanetary species, and the galactic capitol of Earth is on planet Arakko, the S.W.O.R.D. space station and it’s team are doubly important.
Trial of Magneto
Another short and self contained series that sets up something very big.
What at first looks like the beginning of Magneto’s downfall becomes a redemption story for another character, and has immensely huge implications for the Krakoan resurrection protocols.
Inferno
The Reign of X era ends with Jonathan Hickman’s Inferno event that rips apart the Krakoan nation and sets up the next era.
Up until now, the Krakoan immortality was open to everyone, except precogs. The island’s leadership secretly conspired to prevent any mutants with precognitive powers to be returned back to life. All on the request from Moria McTaggert (their secret ace in the hole). Not everyone is happy about this, especially not Mystique who has been fruitlessly trying to get her wife returned back to life. She vows to burn it all down and she almost succeeds.
Destiny of X
After the evens of Inferno, Krakoa enters a new era, with new leadership. McTaggert is out, Destiny sits on the Council. It is a new age for the mutants for better or for worse.
Post Inferno
The X Lives & X Deaths of Wolverine follows the events of Inferno and sets up a lot of stuff for the new era.
Sabertooth
If you were wondering what the hell happened to Sabertooth after he was “exiled” there is a miniseries that explains it all:
Not an essential reading, and you can safely skip it, but it does explain how the Exile works. This is referenced and re-explained later in the Immortal X-Men volumes, but the lore is established here.
Origin of Stasis
Dugan’s series sometimes meanders and goes off on tangents, especially in the early issues, but it does establish a powerful new antagonist who becomes prominent later.
The second volume ties into the fallout from the Inferno events and is worth reading for context.
Immortal X-Men
Kieron Gillen takes over from Hickman as one of the main driving forces for the Krakoan era:
The Immortal X-Men is an essential reading. The series continues until the end of Krakoa, but Volume 1 is firmly set in the Destiny of X era and sets things up for the next Hellfire Gala and the big crossover event afterwards.
Hellfire Gala 2022
All Hellfire Gala events tend to shake things up and 2022 is no exception.
Up until now, the Krakoan resurrection protocols were a secret known only to mutants. The Gala coincides with the information about them leaking to the public, causing a huge backlash. Mutants must scramble to figure out how to recover from this PR disaster.
Krakoan Police?
Krakoa has 3 laws and one punishment for breaking any of them. But what of lesser crimes? How does the island utopia police it’s people and keep them safe?
The Legion of X series tackles this topic and follows Nightcrawler who assembles a team to deal with policing the island. It also shows how the Krakoan nation extends into the astral plane thanks to a mental construct that exists solely in the mind of Legion. Not absolutely essential, but an interesting read.
X-Men Red
Al Ewig’s X-Men Red is an excellent companion to the Immortal X-Men series, focusing on the events happening on the red planet.
Ewig beautifully fleshes out the Arakko society and introduces us to the new mutants that inhabit it. It explores their society, customs and their implications. It contrasts the immortals of Krakoa with the mutants of Arakko who are “not afraid of a life that ends”.
It is also an essential reading that sets things up for the big crossover events that book end the Destiny of X era.
Judgment Day
Judgment Day is the big Marvel crossover event that features the X-Men, the Avengers and the Eternals.
The premise of the crossover is simple: what if the Eternals decided that mutants are divergent, and moved to exterminate them? How would the mutantkind react? Who would the Avengers ally with? What if the crazy gambit to thwart the Eternals backfired, making the situation worse?
This event absolutely wrecks Arrako, and ends in permanent death of a powerful Omega level mutant.
Sins of Sinister
As if the Judgment Day was not enough, another big event looms on the horizon: Sins of Sinister.
I highly reccomend reading the second volumes of Immortal X-Men and X-Men red which deal with the fallout of Judgment Day and set things up for Mr Sinister’s great betrayal.
Once you are up to speed, you can jump into the main event:
Sins of Sinister is huge in terms of scope, as well as the implications for the Krakoan era. In the lead-up to it, it is reavealed that:
- Sinister has been tampering with the genetic samples used in the resurrection protocols
- He has cloned Moria McTaggert and has been using her power to repeatedly “reset” the timeline to his advantage
Fortunately for everyone, The Five (mutants responsible for resurrection) have been so good at their job, that they have been unconsciously purging Sinister’s genetic tampering when resurrecting mutants. Sinister repeatedly users his Moria Machine to set up a situation where the key members of The Five die alongside prominent mutant leaders, and less skilled back-ups are used to run the resurrection.
This results in his genetic tampering surviving the process, and allows him to take over and exert his control over the newly resurrected leaders.
What follows is a thousand year reign of Sinister. An alternate future more messed up than the Age of Apocalypse. All in a vain attempt to asscend, and attain singularity. Sinister fails, and the timeline is reset, but not without permanently shaking things up.
Fall of X
The Fall of X is the final era of the Krakoan age. This is the time everything crashes down, and the mutant experiment in statehood comes to an abrupt end.
The Beginning of the End
The age of Sinister is over. The timeline was reset. But the resurrection protocols have forever been tarnished. Can they ever be trusted again? If Sinister installed one backdoor in the resurrection protocols, how do we know he did not install two or three?
At this point I recommend reading all the Volume 3 books from the series mentioned above as they all deal with the fallout of the Sins of Sinster event.
Not only do the mutants have to struggle with the uncertainty, a fateful decision is made to reveal the truth about Sinister universe to the public, creating even bigger backlash against the mutants.
Hellfire Gala 2023
This is where everything goes wrong.
Orchis, a human supremacist organization hits the gala. Most of mutantkind gets erased from existence. Krakoan gates are sealed and the survivors have to go into hiding. Mutants are exiled from Earth and those who refuse to leave are rounded up and imprisoned in concentration camps. The dream of the mutant nation is over.
Post Hellfire Gala
At this point the reading order gets a bit tricky. A lot of the collected volumes chronologically overlap with the final book of the Krakoan Age (Fall of the House of X / Rise of the Powers of X). So, you must go issue by issue and jump around between different books if you want to go in chronological order.
Or you can go through one book at a time. As long as you read all of these, they all fill the gaps for each other.
- X-Men by Gerry Dugan Vol 4
- X-Men by Gerry Dugan Vol 5
- Immortal X-Men Vol 4
- X-Men Red Vol 4
- Immortal X-Men Vol 5
There are also couple of side stories that are not essential but I found interesting. Feel free to skip any of these if the synopsis does not strike your fancy.
Ressurrection of Magneto
If you are interested in how Magneto comes back from the dead, this is where you find out:
The book is a bit of a slog. Most of the book happens in the astral plane, and features Storm and Magneto reflecting on their lives, their allegiances and their duties.
The Dark X-Men
A side story featuring Havok, Madelyne Pryor and mutant refugees holed up in the Ambassy to Hell.
Mostly skippable, but an amusing story about being married to a literal queen of underworld.
The Dead X-Men
This is the story of a team of dead mutants sent into the fractured past to locate a timeline where Moria McTaggert’s powers have not manifested yet so that she can be assassinated.
The actual culmination of this storyline is told in the next volume, but this is where you can see the mutants go through the motions, exploring various failed timelines.
I ended up reading it, thinking it would be essential, but it turned out it was shippable. You don’t need to know what happens to this team. You just need to know they succeed in their mission.
The End
The last book of the Krakoan era.
As mentioned above, this collection chronologically overlaps with the last volumes of Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red and Dugan’s run. I ended up reading it one issue at a time, jumping between all these books. This is where reading individual issues rather than collected volumes would be more optimal.
The book wraps up all the Krakoan era and provides an ultimate conclusion to the story. The dream of a mutant nation on Earth is dead, but it lives on in the White Hot Room.
Final Thoughts
Reading the Krakoan era comics has been a wild ride. I did not think that I could get lost in the comic book world the same way I did when I was a kid, but I did. Hickman pulled me in from page one and I was sent tumbling down the rabbit hole.
This experience was equal parts exhilarating and frustrating. It revealed just how hard it is to casually read Marvel comics. You can’t just dip in for a few issues and dip out. Sometimes you need a spreadsheet to keep track of timelines.
Random Musings
One thing that occurred to me, is that in this almost decade long era, no one has designed a flag for Krakoa. After all, Krakoa existed as a sovereign nation state and nation states have flags. It’s just strange we have never saw one depicted on the pages. I’m sure the design would lead to insufferable vexillological discourse but it would have been interesting. Hell, it would have been merchandising slam dunk. People would absolutely rock Krakoan flag bumper stickers.
From the Ashes
I started reading the run that immediately follows the Krakoan era, known as “From the Ashes”. I was intrigued where Marvel is going to take the various X-Men teams after Krakoa. Unfortunately, the answer is, nowhere near as interesting or engaging.
To me Krakoa was a breath of fresh air, as well as a dip to the crazy, interconnected Marvel continuity I remembered from the days of my childhood.
Going from: “when you slept, the world has changed” to “we just want to be good neigbors” is a bit of a let down. I understand why the new series is going this way, but I’m not sure if I’m into it. So far it has failed to grab me the way Hickman’s opening book did.
The new series is big enough departure, stylistically, thematically and narratively that it feels like it’s own thing. This is a good thing, but the side effect is that I don’t feel compelled to continue reading. It’s disappointing, but on the other hand I’m also kinda glad that Krakoa had a definite start and an end. I feel like I got a complete story and I can now move on.
I will revisit the new series at some point and see if it got any better.
Engagement Bait
Did I miss anything? What would you put on this list that I skipped? What would you remove?
How much money have I spent on all these comics? Oh wait, maybe don’t answer that. I prefer not to know. Feel free to yell at me for not signing up for Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or some other subscription service.