Marvel Officially Ends The X-Men's Divisive "Krakoa Era"
Marvel officially brings the Krakoa Era of the X-Men to an end in the finale of the "Fall of X" event.
Marvel has officially brought X-Men's "Krakoa Era" to an end, after five years of some of the most re-inventive and divisive X-Men storytelling, following the 2019 "House of X/Powers of X" reboot event. And in its final story arc, "Fall of X," the Krakoa Era came to a close in about as epic a way as is possible for Marvel Comics.
Fall of X's culminating chapters were told in the two series Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X. Rise of the Powers of X #5 marks the conclusion of Fall of X's storyline and the end of the Krakoa Era as a whole.
X-Men: How The Krakoa Era Ends, Explained
Rise of the Powers of X #5
- Marvel Comics)Rise of the Powers of X #5 brought two cosmic powers into conflict, with the fate of reality at stake: Jean Grey, Hope Summers, and the mutants stranded in a realm outside of space and time (the "White Hot Room") successfully re-birthed the Phoenix Force – which turned out to also be the original birth of the cosmic entity. After being re-connected to the Phoenix, Jean Grey was locked into a cat-and-mouse game of cosmic chase against Nathaniel Essex, the scientist who created Mister Sinister and three other clones. Essex hijacked Moira Mactaggert's mutant gift (dying and being reborn over and over, with full memory of the lifetimes she lived) to accumulate the shared knowledge of his clones' lives, transforming Essex into a god-like being called "The Enigma," an interstellar intelligence that exists outside space/time.
Fall of X saw the X-Men battling on two fronts: a war against anti-mutant organization Orchis on Earth and in orbit, while also battling the omnipotent threat of Enigma, who sought to play god with the timeline, guaranteeing his ascension and survival by taking away the one threat to a dominion's existence: Jean Grey's Phoenix powers. In Rise of the Powers of X #5, Enigma darts across time, trying to tweak little events that can stop Jean from becoming the Phoenix, or reconnecting with its power, while Jean pursues, correcting each deviation that Enigma makes. Finally, Jean uses the Phoenix to become a cosmic avatar for all mutants, who collectively stab Enigma through the head with a flaming set of Wolverine-Phoenix claws. Enigma doesn't die, though: he's trapped in a perpetual final moment, forever in the throes of dying, unable to escape back to the safety of the realm outside time/space.
Rise of the Powers of X #5
- Marvel Comics)
Rise of the Powers of X #5
- Marvel Comics)
Rise of the Powers of X #5
- Marvel Comics)Enigma is defeated, while Orchis and the Sentinel threat of Nimrod and Omega Sentinal were ended in Fall of the House of X #5. In the aftermath, Charles Xavier submits himself to be arrested for his crimes, while the X-Men get set to embark on a whole new era.
The Krakoa Era began in HoX/PoX by revealing that Moira Mactaggert is in fact an omega-level mutant. We learned that Moira has reset the Marvel Universe timeline in an attempt to prevent a man-mutant-machine war across no less than ten lifetimes.
Rise of the Powers of X #5
- Marvel Comics)The new "Phoenix Timeline" is announced by a final epilogue scene in Rise of the Powers of X #5, which sees an adolescent Moira Mactaggert awaiting that fateful moment when her mutant power kicks in again – only to find that it doesn't happen. Moira declares "I'm free. It's over," as she happily dances across a field.
What Does The Ending of Fall of X Mean?
In terms of comic book storylines, Marvel will relaunch the X-Men franchise under the new "From the Ashes" tagline in the summer of 2024. That will see the X-Teams and specific characters (like Wolverine) trying to move forward in a world where Krakoa is gone, and most mutants are still living on Mars, or are stranded in another dimension.
MORE: Full List of New X-Men Comics Coming in 2024
Behind the scenes, Immortal X-Men and Rise of the Powers of X writer Kieron Gillen just put a definitive period ending on the Krakoa Era, by negating the biggest thing that defined it: the many realities of Moira X's lives. Moira is back to being an unremarkable side character, and the entire wild re-imagining of the X-Men that Jonathan Hickman started now exists in a bubble, to be revisited and mined by later generations of X-Men writers that will follow.
The House of X – Fall of X era of X-Men is available to read at Marvel.
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