Marvel Reveals the Final Fate of Krakoa & X-Men's New Status Quo Before Reboot
The Final issue of this volume of X-Men ties up all the loose ends of the Krakoa era.
Marvel officially brought X-Men's Krakoa Era to an end with the culmination of the "Fall of X" event. However, X-Men #35 is also the milestone issue (Uncanny X-Men #700) that reveals the final fate of Krakoa, and the new status quo that will take the X-Men and their mutant allies into the new era titled "From the Ashes."
In X-Men #35, the X-Men are busy dealing with the aftermath of "Fall of X." Wolverine attacks a government transport holding Charles Xavier, hoping to assassinate the Professor after Xavier mentally coerced nearly all mutants to leave Earth and be stranded in the White Hot Room. Magneto intervenes, and he and Charles talk about the future of the dream. Magneto's death and rebirth has changed his perspective: he no longer believes in mutants living separately, after seeing the cracks in Krakoa. Xavier is resigned to remove himself from the new generation of mutants forging their path, by remaining in government custody.
What Happens to Krakoa?
The Genosha Massacre victims return in X-Men #35 (Uncanny X-Men #700)
- Marvel Comics)The biggest question that a lot of Marvel fans have been lingering on is what will happen to Krakoa (the X-Men's mutant nation built on a living island) as the franchise moves out of that era and "From the Ashes" begins. During fall of X, part of Krakoa was transported to "The White Hot Room," the real outside time/space that is home to the Phoenix Force. Thousands of mutants were trapped there, after mutant power and magic all combined to rebirth the Phoenix, and send a handful of the best mutant warriors back to Earth, to help defeat the X-Men's enemies.
In X-Men #35, the two halves of Krakoa (Pacific and Atlantic) are rejoined when Atlantic Krakoa suddenly materializes next to its Pacific half. It's revealed that the mutants who where left in the White Hot Room experienced 15 years of time compared to weeks on Earth. In that time, in a space where no one feared, hated, or hunted mutants, the Krakoans forged a mutant society and culture that's basically their uptopia. With time, study, and collaboration, Krakoans learned to master power feats, including transporting themselves and their island back to Earth. The Krakoans also perfected the resurrection process and brought back all the "downloads" of dead mutants that were in "the Waiting Room" realm – including all fifteen million mutants that were killed in the Genoshan massacre.
However, the White Hot Room Krakoans (led by "Kafka") reveal that they did not come to stay: mutants who want to leave Earth for mutant paradise are given the chance; mutants resurrected or trapped in the White Hot Room are given the option to return home to Earth. Every mutant makes their choice, rebalancing the population of mutants on Earth once again. Krakoa merges with its other half once again, to return to the White Hot Room where its lifespan and vitality will be greatly extended.
The rest of X-Men #35 gets action-packed and deeply philosophical, as "Evil Mutants" like Exodus and Apocalypse rage against the idea of their mutant nation leaving Earth. The fight with Apocalypse is hard and very bloody, with nearly every X-Men member (Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine, Nightcrawlerm, Storm, Sunfire, Colossus, Rictor, and others...) jumping into the fray to battle En Sabh Nur. Jean Grey finally ends the conflict by showing Apocalypse the psychic vision of Krakoa, and how the mutants there have evolved beyond them. Apocalyse is left to return to Arrako, the savage warrior land for his ancient tribe of mutants.
X-Men: From The Ashes Preivew
The final portion of the issue reveals what "From the Ashes" will bring.
Charles Xavier reveals that he once tricked his "friends" in Marvel's Illuminati into building a loophole into any of their anti-psychic tech used to contain Xavier's powerful mind – and Charles is actually free to psychically roam the other, checking on his X-Men.
That framework leads to a montage of Xavier witnessing mutants trying to re-integrate into human society and facing the same fear and hatred they always have. Xavier takes an active hand in making a would-be mutant-killer black out and wakes up on the ledge of a skyscraper.
After checking in on the rest of the X-Men, Xavier stages a prison break by making himself seem catatonic and taking advantage of being moved between prisons. Prof X. is not out of the game by a long shot.
What Does The End of Krakoa Mean For X-Men?
In the end, Marvel did what many assumed they would do: pick and choose the elements of Krakoa that they want to keep in the main continuity going forward and jettison the rest – while still making sure that story content isn't fully gone, and can be accessed at any time. Krakoa is now a "mutant heaven" of sorts, waiting for the X-Men or any other mutant when life on Earth gets to be too much. The increased pace of time in Krakoa is also creating a new generation (soon generations) of mutants, who don't see eye-to-eye with the X-Men or other mutant leaders (Magneto, Apocalypse). That generation clash will probably come to a head at some point...
For the X-Men: Krakoa is now an instance of when the dream of a separate world just for mutants was real. More importantly, X-Men #35 forces the X-Men to reconcile with the fact that the ideals of their dream for mutantkind were realized – but it was done without their influence, and the mutants that evolved (physically, mentally, spiritually, culturally, and environmentally) have grown beyond them. In short: The X-Men are not yet good enough for that heaven – especially when there's so much work left to do on Earth.
X-Men's entire Krakoa Era Saga is available at Marvel Comics. X-Men comics will relaunch in July under the "From the Ashes" story arc.
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