And Thus Ended The First Krakoan Age: Reflecting On X-Men’s End Of An Era

While you slept, the world changed.

With those words, one of the biggest phenomena in superhero comics began, and frankly, changed the face of comics for several years. House of X/Powers of X was an instant phenomenon, a series that took the concepts and characters of the X-Men and evolved them to their natural conclusion.

Earlier in the week, we saw Scott Redmond’s thoughts, and I definitely agree with most, if not all of what he said. I just wanted to take a second to talk about what Krakoa meant for me.

Five years ago, life seemed simpler. Yes, we were dealing with the return of fascism in the real world, but generally, we got superhero comics, we argued about them online, then we sat back for the requisite six pages of punching. Then, House of X #1 hit.

I’m a stickler when I’m rating comics. I actually prefer not to do ratings at all, because of how the bell curve creeps upwards in comics reviews (you can’t tell me honestly the majority of cape comics deserve a 9/10). I found myself sleepless for other reasons the night House of X hit. I ended up buying the issue digitally at 3AM, and reading it.

Instantly I could not wait to talk about it. It was one of the extremely rare 10/10 comics for me. Jonathan Hickman and Pepe Larraz had created something absolutely breathtaking, and it reshaped my fandom almost instantly.

And from there, for a brief moment, the comics community was united. House and Powers were a fire unlike anything the comics industry had seen since Spring 2001 (aka the two to three month span that saw the launch of New X-Men and JMS’s Amazing Spider-Man). Every week, the story unfolded breathlessly. The complicated overlapping timelines. The reveal of Moira X. The assault on Mother Mold. The reveal of the Five.

All of it was fresh, new but fit perfectly with 50 plus years of X-Men history.

What followed was one of the best periods of fandom I’ve been a part of. Personally, I was included in an initiative that became a second part of my writing hobby. The group quickly bonded, and we helped each other survive a global pandemic that hit only a few months later.

The stories of the first year were exciting, with each series giving readers a home. I latched onto X-Men and X-Force, but others found home in Excalibur or Marauders. Regardless, even with its missteps (Fallen Angels), it gave us something that felt like home in the midst of an unprecedented time. We were stuck inside, we were keeping our loved ones at arm’s length, we were using new terms like anti-maskers and bubbles… The utopia that was Krakoa gave us an escape.

Now, it wasn’t all perfect. Some of the longest lived series floundered more than once. Others didn’t know how to exit gracefully. The beloved Head of X left, and in the wake of his exit the diversity he brought to the table with him trickled away. And in the last eighteen months the line floundered creatively, with only a few stories sticking out for good reasons, and way too many sticking out for negatives.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. I covered the good, and I covered the bad. I read most of it, and for all the warts, I’m going to miss it.

And until the next Krakoan age starts, we are mutant. 

To me, my X-Men.