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The Wellington Comic Lover's Guide to... X-Men: The Krakoa Era

By Gus

Welcome to the Wellington Comic Lover’s Guide, where we take you through the Wellington City Libraries’ collection of a comic book character or series.

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This post is all about Marvel's most recent reboot of their merry band of mutants, the Krakoa Era of the X-Men!

[Video via the Marvel Entertainment Youtube channel]

Who are the X-Men?

In the Marvel Universe, 'mutants' are people born with superhuman powers, granting them anything from control over electromagnetism to teleportation to growing wings. Dubbed 'homo superior', mutants have faced hostile prejudice from ordinary people, due to their abilities, appearance, and the fear that they are 'replacing' humankind in the evolutionary ladder. Factions of mutants have gathered together over the years to protect themselves, the most famous of which is a team lead by educator and mutant telepath Professor Charles Xavier, aka Professor X. Together, they use their extraordinary powers to fight for a world that hates and fears them...they are the X-Men!

What is The Krakoa Era?

In 2019, writer Johnathan Hickman relaunched the X-Men line of comics with the twin series House of X and Powers of X (that's X as in the Roman numeral for the latter, so it's 'powers of ten').

To protect themselves from a future threat to mutantkind, the X-Men and their enemies join together to form a nation for all mutants, run by a government of prominent mutants such as Magento, Professor X, and Apocalypse, and founded on the living island of Krakoa (which first appeared in the landmark issue Giant-Size X-Men #1, the book that similarly reinvigorated the X-Men back in the 1970s).

Newly created mutant technology allows Krakoa's citizenry to be resurrected in the event of death, making all mutants living there functionally immortal. Professor X also brokers deals with the world's governments to provide them with miraculous mutant-derived medicine in exchange for Krakoa's recognition as a sovereign nation and the placement of portal gates around the globe that can teleport mutants to Krakoa's shores.

However, the creation of Krakoa reinvigorates anti-mutant causes, beginning with the Sentinel-building black-ops organisation Orchis. Internally, Krakoa also faces the growing pains of any developing nation, such as creating laws, diplomacy, and national security, as well as the ambitions of its less scrupulous citizens wanting to use Krakoa for their own ends.

The Krakoan era lasted five years and helped revitalize the X-Men franchise with an exciting new status quo, spawning dozens of new comics that celebrated the decades-long history of the series, all created by superstar artists and writers from Marvel Comics.

How do I read The Krakoa Era?

The Krakoa era kicks off with House of X and Powers of X, which are collected together in one volume. After that, you can read the entire era in chronological publishing order with the Dawn/Reign/Trials of X collections, or read the individual team books listed below.

X-Men Krakoa Era Reading Order

Dawn of X

Reign of X

Trials of X

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Main Krakoa Era X-Men series

In the Krakoa era, classic X-Men teams get rebooted and recontextualized to fit the roles needed for their new nation.

X-Men

Handpicked by Cyclops, these X-Men are Krakoa's public-facing super-team that defend mutantkind from a world that hates and fears them. A new team is elected annually and announced at the Hellfire Gala, a yearly ball held on Krakoa's shores.

Krakoa X-Men reading order

X-Force

X-Force is the national security and special operations group for Krakoa, a 'mutant CIA'. Previous X-Force members like Domino, Colossus, and Wolverine return, as well as new members Marvel Girl, Kid Omega, and Beast, who slowly begins to repurpose the team for his own malicious ends.

X-Factor

Even though mutants can now be resurrected in the event of their demise, the circumstances of their deaths still need investigating. That's where Krakoa's detective force X-Factor comes in, made up of an elite team of telepathic and tracking mutants.

Excalibur/Knights of X

Lead by Betsy Braddock (the former Psylocke, now Captain Britain) and Apocalypse, Excalibur deals with the supernatural side of mutantkind and its ties with the magical dimension Otherworld.

New Mutants

The original team of New Mutants, including Sunspot, Cannonball, Cypher, Dani Moonstar, and Magik, team up once more for adventures in Krakoa and beyond.

Krakoa era New Mutants reading order

Marauders

Led by Kitty Pryde, this pirate team of X-Men sail the seven seas to rescue mutants being held against their will in their native countries. Later, the team is retooled as a personal strike force for Emma Frost, the telepathic White Queen.

Fallen Angels and Hellions

These series deal with the mutants who either oppose or have difficulty assimilating into Krakoa's new society, led by frequent X-Men villain turned tenuous ally Mister Sinister.

Way of X and Legion of X

Believing that the blessing of immortality might change mutant nature for the worst, Nightcrawler tries to create a new system of justice and ethics for Krakoa with the help of Professor X's wayward son, the multi-powered mutant Legion.

S.W.O.R.D and X-Men Red

S.W.O.R.D is the former extraterrestrial arm of S.H.I.E.L.D, now rebranded as the Krakoan space program. In the sequel series X-Men Red, the X-Men terraform the planet Mars with the aid of a newly discovered society of mutants from the living island of Arrako.

Immortal X-Men

This series follows the Quiet Council of Krakoa, the island nation's ruling body made up of prominent mutants such as Emma Frost, Apocalypse, Magneto, Jean Grey, Storm and Nightcrawler.

X-Cellent

'The X-Statix', a team of celebrity mutants from the 2000s, get resurrected for the Krakoa era and return to the Hollywood spotlight, struggling to adapt to the 2020s style of fame.

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Krakoa Era Miniseries

Giant-Size X-Men

An anthology series spotlighting specific mutant's early adventures in Krakoa.

Children of the Atom

A group of human high-schoolers try to pass themselves off as the X-Men's sidekicks.

Children of the Vault

A group of human zealots artificially evolved into superhumans opposes Krakoa, offering their technology to the world to advance humankind to their level, whether people want it or not.

X-Terminators

A comedy series that sees Dazzler, Boom Boom, Jubilee, and Wolverine (Laura Kinney, the former X-23) team up to get revenge on Dazzler's vampire ex-boyfriend and his clan of bloodsuckers.

X-Corp

Angel and Monet run the corporate side of Krakoa, applying their business acumen and mutant abilities to both the boardroom and the battlefield.

Bishop: War College

Time-travelling mutant Bishop trains a defense force of young mutants to protect Krakoa.

X-Men '92: House of XCII

This series imagines the Krakoa era if it happened during the time of the 1992 X-Men animated series (recently revived as X-Men '97).

Krakoa Era Events

These series cover the major events in the Krakoa era.

Crossovers

These are the X-Men centric series that tie into the yearly Marvel summer crossover events during the Krakoa era, or crossover with other Marvel characters like the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.

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Character-specific Krakoa Era series

Wolverine

What does mutantkind's fiercest protector do when no mutant can die? Retire quietly? But Logan's newfound peace on Krakoa can't last forever, and soon enough, he's back to doing what he does best.

Deadpool

Everyone's favourite Merc with a Mouth (and mutant on a technicality) joins Krakoa's X-Force, while also auditioning to join a top assassin guild and dealing with an alien life form growing inside him.

Cable

Cable, the time-travelling future son of Cyclops and Phoenix, returns as a fellow defender of Krakoa (albeit reborn as a teenage mutant rather than a grizzled elder veteran) tasked with investigating the disappearance of multiple mutant children.

Sabretooth

Victor Creed is Sabretooth, an animalistic killer mutant and archnemesis of Wolverine. While most mutants are given amnesty for their crimes committed prior to Krakoa's founding, the Quiet Council make an exception for Victor, casting him into 'The Pit of Exile'. Later, Sabretooth bands together with other Exiles to attack Krakoa from within.

More X-Men members

Beloved X-Men writers return to the classic characters for all new miniseries that celebrate the histories of Jean Grey, Storm, Rogue, Gambit and more.