State Of The X-Line: Paradise Is Only For The Exiled

As an era ends, Krakoa, the mutant island nation and community, is now gone. Except, it’s not actually really gone.

Even though a new era is beginning that declares that Krakoa is over and gone, through a bunch of comic book shenanigans (I love comic books), the nation is still around. Just not on the Earthly plane where any of the ‘important’ mutants will get to live upon the island that was their sanctuary. Except, wait, that’s also not fully true at the moment.

Comic books, sometimes there is just so much wackiness it’s mind-boggling.

I’ll try to lay this out as simple as possible. Over the last few years there were two branches of Krakoa, the main island located in the Pacific Ocean and a smaller version that was the secondary site in the Atlantic. When the bigots of Orchis came for Krakoa during their annual Hellfire Gala (Met Gala but even more dressed up), the Atlantic Island was stolen by Mother Righteous (a Sinister clone of sorts). She stashed the island within the White Hot Room (an afterlife of sorts where the Phoenix is born and reborn).

Okay gotta take a breath.

Long story short (too late), the Atlantic Krakoa was ditched in the WHR when the “important” mutants escaped to go fight and defeat Orchis. A giant chunk of mutants (those of the background, former generations, and needed off the game board) were left behind on that island. The Pacific island was dying, the tree “brain” on the run, but seemingly is thriving again (by the end of Fall Of The House Of X #5). Doesn’t matter because the From The Ashes relaunch will see mutants back in the US and other countries full of increased bigotry, so the Pacific Krakoa is sure to be wiped out or taken out of play somehow in the final chapter of the era.

“Well, Scott, you and others that loved the Krakoa era should at least be happy that a Krakoa still exists and is thriving.”

Yes, and no. More majorly no than yes.

My reason stems from the fact that mutants, a stand in for marginalized groups, only get to keep their happiness in a way that has them exiled. Thus the title of this piece. Paradise is only for the exiled, those left behind in an afterlife void dimension. Yes, this leaves Krakoa on the table in a sense so that someone can pick it up one day, but the chances are slim that this ever happens.

Why Krakoa was rushed to an end (we all knew it was going to end at some point) was so that Marvel can rush the X-Men back to a more ‘recognizable’ status quo. Similar to X-Men ’97 and the films that are on the way, because the only thing the comics division likes more than fresh new #1 issues over and over again is some one-sided synergy. Where the media takes from the comics to create things, but otherwise ignores the comics. While the comics are doing a “look at me!” dance adapting things from the other media, that won’t make new non-readers leap from films to comics.

Tons of the mutants seen in the shot of the abandoned Krakoans were also mutants of color, and those with physical mutations. Because the new era (as most of them are) will be headlined by the mostly white heterosexual cisgender pretty cast of a CW drama series. All the main X-Men toys that even non-comic readers recognize and can at least maybe tell you something about them (probably name and power).

Instead of mutants, the marginalized, getting any sort of happiness they are thrust back into a world that hates and fears them even more. Because the lot in life of these characters is to be under the feet of the bigots, fighting to prove they deserve to exist. Those left on Krakoa are spared that, but only get paradise because they have been cast aside, forgotten, and sacrificed. Bigots won’t let them have peace and paradise on the world they belong, where they were born, so that has to come from elsewhere.

Good on the creative teams of the Krakoan era to find a way to save some of Krakoa. At the same time, the way it was done makes me sigh so much. It plays into the all too real ideas that those who are different don’t belong, and will be left alone as long as they “leave” where the bigots don’t want them. Not that I’m saying the creators intended that in any way, because they didn’t. It’s just not something that likely came into their heads, with most of the room being cisgender white men.

Those are the types that don’t always see the potential deeper meanings or messages in even simple, because they don’t have to. Not like the rest of us who have to look deeper and read into things more and harder. Everything around us is a potential cluster mine of a mess, full of messages that are against us or remind us that the world is against us or of struggles we deal with far too often.

At the end of the day, it’s just a comic book.

Things happen, characters are written off, entire swaths of story have been sealed away. It’s always more important that we see more representation behind the pages (especially in writers where the diversity is severely lacking) than what happens on the page. Yet, what happens on the page does matter.

Especially when discussing a line that likes to lean heavily on the idea that it’s a “metaphor” for what marginalized groups are going through.

A line being built on the ashes of marginalized success, where the bigots got their way, isn’t really doing that metaphor or anyone justice.

The marginalized can have paradise, but only at the whim of those above them, and with a steep cost.

At least, we’ll always have Krakoa.

Kind of. Not really.