The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Krakoan Post-Mortem

In the last few years, I dove deeper into X-Men comics than I have maybe ever, thanks to Chris Sheehan's excellent X-Lapsed podcast drawing me in and Marvel Unlimited making all the X-books available at a reasonable price. As the inevitable end of the Krakoan era drew nearer, I started thinking this was an opportunity to offer my opinion more or less contemporarily on a huge chunk of comics all at once.

Now timeliness isn't a big watch word around here, despite my topical coverage of, say, NFL SuperPro and Secret Defenders. But it made sense to share my observations soon after the curtain closed on Krakoa, or at least before many of the “From the Ashes” comics hit shelves. Or at least Marvel Unlimited.

Strike one, two and three.

But this is comics, not baseball, and one last Krakoa-linked title landed on Marvel Unlimited last week – “Invincible Iron Man” #20. Yes, Iron Man fell more or less under the X-umbrella for all 20 issues of its historic fifth or possibly seventh volume, as those scum bums from Orchis co-opted his technology to make even more dangerous and well-branded Sentinels.

That's good enough for me to unveil my highs, lows and HUHs from five years of X-comics that, if nothing else, did something different. For better or worse, the Krakoan initiative started with Jonathan Hickman's “House of X” and “Powers of X” did not feel like business as usual for Marvel's not-so-merry band of mutants.

Good: Hellions, of course

I've written more at length here about my hands-down favorite title of the bunch, which teamed Havok up with a roster of characters I have never wanted to know more about, let alone hoped would show up in any capacity. And yet this is the series I looked forward to on Unlimited, the one I went back to get every physical issue of,* the one I thought most lived up to its mission and potential yet still left me wanting more. It's a good reminder that just because a concept may not appeal to me initially, that doesn't mean it's not worth checking out.

Bad: Inconsistency

When you've got a line encompassing this many titles, of course they're not all going to be home runs. But I'm talking consistency within individual titles. The esteemed Mr. Sheehan said it best when he often remarked that “X-Men,” which seemed like it should have been the flagship series of the Krakoan relaunch, often felt more like filler stories from the old “X-Men Unlimited” quarterly book. Sure, there were some milestone moments like issue 7 (more on that later), but there was little overall direction in a book written by Hickman, the man literally credited as the “Head of X.” He also wrote “New Mutants,” which started out featuring classic members, plus Chamber and Mondo, on an interstellar adventure, until it switched midstream to a more down-to-Earth tale written by Ed Brisson. It would change writers a few more times, never maintaining a voice or direction for long.

Ugly: Death and Resurrection

The revelation of Moira MacTaggart as a timeline-resetting mutant in “House of X” #2 was massive, but an even more shocking moment came in issue 4, when a team of pretty well known X-Men went on a suicide mission to take out the Mother Mold orbiting the sun and, without question, died. Then came the revelation that the mutants of Krakoa had “solved for death,” combining the powers of five mutants and the massive files of Cerebro and Mr. Sinister to create a resurrection process. Death in comics is almost always temporary, and Hickman decided to remove it entirely. In theory, and sometimes in practice, this led to interesting storytelling possibilities. But it also led to deaths devoid of any meaning whatsoever, including shock value. Nightcrawler reliably pushed back on this, lending some terrific depth to the “Way of X” limited series, and the idea of verifying deaths was a solid foundation for the short-lived “X-Factor” book. But then writers started introducing ways to make deaths really count, none more dramatic than Magneto's in “X-Men Red” and none less surprisingly reversed.

Good: Way of X

There were a lot of things in this brave new mutant world that seemed off and just plain wrong. Some were intentionally so, others might have been misfires by the writer or ideas that just didn't take off. “Way of X” had me a little nervous as it seemed to build off of Nightcrawler's off remark in “X-Men” #7 that he was going to start a mutant religion. Isn't the whole idea that mutants aren't fundamentally different from humans? Wouldn't a mutant religion be reductive and less than its worshipers since they are knowingly making it up? But this book constantly poked at and explored the flaws of Krakoa in a way that challenged my thinking, even the one focusing on the law of “Make more mutants,” which I wrongly thought was just going to be about free love and no consequences. Simon Spurrier delivered easily my second-favorite Krakoa chapter here, although its continuation in “Legion of X” maintained the high philosophy material while leaving the heart behind.

Bad: Three's company

I optimistically dismissed it as nonsense or an ill-conceived Easter egg when I heard about people pointing out that in the diagram of the Summer House on the Moon in “X-Men” #1, Jean Grey's room had adjoining doors to the chambers of both Cyclops and Wolverine. I scoffed at the notion that the members of Marvel's – and arguably comicdom's – most famous love triangle were in some sort of open relationship. Then came an issue of “X-Force” where Jean is locking lips with Wolverine and asking if he thinks he doesn't deserve her... while she's also clearly shown in other books as maintaining her relationship with Cyclops. So one of the great unrequited loves in X-history gets requited, not in an alternate timeline, and we're not even going to address it? Don't get me wrong – I don't want to read a story about Cyclops and Wolverine “sharing” Jean or whatever other kind of nonsense way it might be described. But to just throw it in there and not address it isn't clever or edgy or interesting. It's just sloppy on top of being off-putting.

Ugly: X of Swords

I wanted to like the first big crossover of the Krakoan era. The idea of various X-characters getting swords and being chosen for a weird tournament seemed like it could be fun – and practically demanded a Capcom-style fighting game – but it was extremely uneven. The buildup was so serious that when the twists came, like one of the competitions being a spelling bee rather than a sword fight and Magik losing because she spelled her name with a “K,” the swing was too much. Captain Britain (Betsy Braddock) shatters and is apparently dead, and I'm supposed to chuckle that Cypher's marrying a warrior princess and both teams get a point? I felt genuine emotion for a character named Sir Umbrage of the Flaming Nether Regions in Peter David's “Sir Apropos of Nothing” novel, but I couldn't keep up with this.

Good: Star turns for Synch and Firestar

I remembered Synch from “Generation X” and dying unceremoniously with a bunch of other mutants in a story that felt more than a little hostile toward organized religion. But with just about everybody coming back from the dead thanks to the Five, he was a resident of Krakoa and a surprise but logical inclusion in one of Hickman's “X-Men” stories. When Synch became a member of the first official team of X-Men at the first Hellfire Gala, that was even more of a surprise, as was his time-displaced romance with X-23/Wolverine and their growth into anchoring the team in one of their darkest periods. I hope someone else picks his story up sooner than later. Firestar was only briefly an X-Man before Krakoa, although she was my introduction to the team via “Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.” She wasn't an early adopter of Krakoa, which added a layer to her inclusion on the second X-Men squad. She took on an even greater role when the third team was massacred at the Gala and Jean telepathically set her up as a double agent embedded in Orchis. I'm glad to see Gerry Duggan will continue writing her in the upcoming “West Coast Avengers” revival.

Bad: Salom

Maybe I should have included him in the X of Swords entry, but they brought him back after and I dislike him independent of my issues with that story. Sure, I'm not going to be thrilled with a bi- or pansexual character, but at least give him other character traits. I wasn't a fan of Daken before I knew writers would go out of their way to remind the reader, “Hey, he likes dudes, too,” but I got to know and appreciate the character for more than his sexuality. Salom wants to fight and sleep with everyone, including, or especially, Wolverine. And?

Ugly: The Crucible

“Ugly” is its own category to include notable things that don't fall under “good” or “bad,” and the Crucible is probably the best example of it. Introduced in the aforementioned “X-Men” #7, it asks the question I hadn't bothered to: If mutants can now bring back their dead in brand new bodies, with all the same memories, what about those who lost their powers after House of M? Well, we can't just have mutants killing themselves to get their powers back – right! – so instead... we'll have Apocalypse brutally murder them so they can prove how much they want their powers back and die with honor? WHAT?!? Charles Xavier... Scott Summers... Jean Grey... heck, even Wolverine, ARE OK WITH THIS?!?!? It was a visceral, shocking moment that perhaps more than any other showed this new society was something different. It challenged the beliefs and morality of characters we'd long called heroes and raised some difficult, thought-provoking questions. It was not always handled well, like Moonstar's friendly killing-by-combat of Karma to separate her from her brother's spirit** but it often made for compelling reading.

Good: Madelyne Pryor.

Maybe this belongs under the Hellions entry, but Madelyne only briefly appeared in that series, where I actually cared about her for the first time. Aside from not reading a lot with her, I kind of had to push Maddie to the periphery because otherwise I'd have to think about Cyclops just up and leaving her – and his son – when the original Jean Grey was revealed to be alive. Madelyne died a villain and occasionally popped back up as a member of the X-Men rogues gallery instead of as the tragic figure she is. It looked briefly like the writers might do that again once she left Zeb Wells' care, but they zigged in “Dark Web” when Jean Grey defeated her by... acknowledging her pain and sharing her memories of baby Nathan. I mean, it only took the characters in “X-Men '97” a single episode to figure this out, but the point is, these X-Men tried and solved at least one problem without punching it.

Bad: TWO ancient mutant civilizations?

It's long been a pet peeve of mine that every superhero seems to eventually find an earlier version of themselves. Not everything needs a prequel. So I wasn't super excited when one of the revelations of the Krakoa era was that there had already been an island nation of mutants, a long time ago, and they were in another dimension fighting demons or something. I'm still a little unclear on the details. Some of it worked, some of it didn't, but right after these new old mutants were able to return to Earth and then move to Mars as the new Arrako, “Marauders” relaunched and the team immediately investigated the discovery of... a previously unknown society of mutants even older than the Arraki. Even if the ideas were independent of one another, shouldn't someone have thought, “Maybe we don't drop this 'shocking' revelation immediately on top of essentially the same concept?”

Ugly: Kitty Pryde

Characters don't have to be static; growth and change can be good. I'm no Kitty Pryde scholar, but I know she's been trained by Wolverine, ninjas, S.H.I.E.L.D., etc., so it's not out of the question for her to get rough. But in the very first issue of “Marauders,” she's phasing guns into people's bodies. When Orchis massacres the Hellfire Gala, Kitty kills a whole lot of them, brutally. Eventually, she's just going around ending Orchis folks on general principle. And did we ever find out why she couldn't use the Krakoan gates in the beginning?

Good: Magneto’s reconciliation with himself

The announcement of a limited series called “The Resurrection of Magneto” was probably the least surprising reveal in the five years of Krakoa. You knew when he died in “X-Men Red” and they made it very clear he couldn't be resurrected that he would be coming back. The first three issues of that series I couldn't explain to you. But the fourth, when Magneto is back and levitating his three helmets – black, white and that infamous red – along with him as he internally monologues about his place in the world and what his past violence and willingness to use it again says about him? That was good stuff by Al Ewing. When faced with a seemingly impossible choice – stop using his powers and be killed, thereby leaving mutants imprisoned with Orchis, or kill the Orchis soldiers but cause the deaths of those mutants – he confronts the weight of his brutality and the fact that, at least in that situation, there seems to be no alternative and uses violence to save innocents. It wrapped all that Magneto is into one package, made him face it and set him up for a new status quo.

Bad: So much violence.

I lamented inconsistency in some titles earlier. Two that did not suffer from that problem were “X-Force” and “Wolverine,” both written for the entirety of their runs by Benjamin Percy. But man, did they have some gruesome stuff going on. Sometimes it may have been in service of the story; others felt like shock value. And then there was “Sabretooth War,” a 10-part story that proclaims itself as “the most violent Wolverine story ever.” Keep in mind: the final issue of “Old Man Logan” still exists. Sabretooth tormenting Logan on his birthday by ripping Daken to shreds and spelling “Happy birthday” with his body parts is just the start. The finale features Wolverine hacking Sabretooth into pieces with a Muramasa blade (I know Creed is evil but at some point he had to be done and Wolverine just kept right on carving). I'm not sure if it's better or worse knowing that Sabretooth will probably be back from that “final” death within two years.

But that was one book. How about the denouement in “Fall of the House of X” and “Rise of the Powers of X” when all the X-Men were just killing folks left and right? I get it; it's war and Orchis was a bunch of evil fascists. But Emma Frost mowing people down with laser gauntlets given to her by Tony Stark? Nightcrawler – NIGHTCRAWLER – just teleporting Orchis soldiers out into space? How about using his religious beliefs as something other than window dressing? This felt like the X-Men taking pleasure in killing their enemies. A dialogue box in “Fall” #2 that says “The X-Men might have a revolving door on their graves, but they were always handing out second chances to their enemies” occurs as Polaris lets some escape pods leave an Orchis vessel after leading a pack of Brood through the ship to slaughter every Orchis operative who crosses her path, at least the ones Wolverine and Nightcrawler didn't murder first. Again, war is one thing, but aren't the X-Men, at least some of them, supposed to have higher standards?

Ugly: The ending

This started with Hickman, but didn't finish with him. Is that why the wheels fell off at the end? Duggan and Kieron Gillen are talented writers whose work I enjoy more often than not. But the final two limited series, particularly “Fall of the House of X,” at times felt incomplete, both in terms of writing and art. There were details in the “X-Men Forever” limited series that explained what I was reading in the other two series. I almost wonder if I could have followed everything without reading them. “X-Men” Vol. 137 #35, the legacy numbered “Uncanny X-Men” #700 provided a decent wrap-up to the era. But it was a Marvel Unlimited exclusive comic that told us Professor X didn't really nuke an Orchis ship to try to ingratiate himself with the AI overlords. So what seems like the darkest moment in a history of dark moments for Chuck turns out not to have been that at all... something revealed to folks with a Marvel Unlimited subscription and a willingness to dive deep on what seems like tangential content or those who read Internet spoilers with impunity, though a print edition is coming.

Maybe it went on too long, though I supported extending Krakoa in general because it was so different from what had come before. In some cases I've cited here, “different” is clearly not synonymous with “good.”

Overall, I'm glad I stuck it out, if for no other reason than I've never read any comic era that thoroughly. And I'm glad Marvel swung big with the X-Men and explored some new frontiers. I hope what comes next builds on what we love about these characters while still trying new things.

* - I'm only missing #2 thanks to a recent back issue sale.

** - Or something.