Krakoa Taught Me, Sometimes Violence Is The Answer (Not Ready)

” …Look what it all became. Good ‘n all, but look at what all remains”

When Jonathan Hickman introduced the X-Men’s Krakoa era in 2019, I swear, you could damn near hear Black X-Men fans shouting a collective, “Let’s fucking gooooooo!” in unison across the fandom. The Marvel universe went to sleep and woke up to see they had new gods now. The mutants of earth stood in unison on the living island of Krakoa as Xavier told humans, “Hey, we’re going to give yall these miracle drugs that will extend your life, cure diseases, and get your mind right. All we ask in turn is you recognize game that we a whole nation now. So you mind your business and we’ll be chilling over here minding our own. Cool?” This simple act and ask set in motion five years of political espionage, mess, and drama the likes of which we have never seen in X-Men lore before… and it was fucking glorious.

Yall had to be there. If you weren’t go back and read it because otherwise, you will never understand just how good X-Men fans were eating. Not just X-Men fans but Black X-Men fans, fam. Seeing our faves defy the status quo of having to deal with being treated like they were less than. Instead, mutants now had gates across the world that would take them to this mutant paradise. Then come to find out, Apocalypse had a whole family of Black and Black coded mutants known as the Arakki of Arakko. These were real rough and tumble mutants that are an older nation than Krakoa. Arakko is most def the hood and Krakoa is the suburbs. So to keep the peace, the mutants of earth terraformed mars and renamed it arakko so the Arakki people could live there. Yall don’t fucking hear me. Mutants said Mars is ours now and had the Black and Black coded mutants of Arakko come thru.

Now, that’s just one dope thing. There’s were so many more! The way death was no longer an issue due to the powers of 5 (the five) mutant’s ability to bring mutants back to life when they worked in unison. The practice of the crucible where depowered mutants fought and died to be reborn with their powers returned. How mutants tried to break away from human norms and ideas in order to build their own practices and traditions. Krakoa really marked an era where we get to see what mutants can be, achieve, and do when they aren’t to busy dying as a lesson of oppression.

That being said, we’re now a week removed from X-Men #35 (2024) which marks not only the 700th issue of the X-Men series but also the end of the Krakoa era. Although the mutants celebrate a victory in the resurrection of all those lost from Genosha now exist in the Krakoa of the White Hot Room (yes, it’s as confusing as it sounds) at the end of the day, the status quo won. The X-Men are back to existing in a world that fears and hates them. We’ll be different combinations of the teams and individual mutants scattered across the world. We’re in the ‘From The Ashes’ era now. *very hard sigh* It’s back to the regularly scheduled program for our faves. The most we can hope for is that Krakoa’s ramifications aren’t wiped away and please god please let’s not see Arakko forgotten about. As with any concept, there are moments where Krakoa fell short of the radical envisioning a lot of us fan (especially Black and POC fans). However, the thing that sticks out to me the most from Krakoa was the mutants coming together collectively to not ask for forgiveness or permission by creating their own seat at the table across from humanity.

Krakoa had many cracks and flaws, which is fine, it would have been nice if those cracked formed years later down the line instead of from jump.

Kitty killing, idie killing, gorgon and scott killing,

From The Logo With It