X-Men: One Year Later, It’s Clear the Krakoa Era Was Way Better Than “From the Ashes”

The X-Men rode high as the most popular team in comics until about the mid ’00s, when Marvel started to concentrate more on the other books in their line rather than just the X-Men books. However, the fans never let Marvel completely marginalize the X-Men, no matter how many unfortunate decisions Marvel made with the property. There was a time when there was only a 198 mutants left. After that, there was a time when mutants couldn’t even live on Earth because the Terrigen Mists in the atmosphere gave mutants a disease called M-Pox. Marvel did everything they could to make sure people wouldn’t want to read X-Men comics, but the fans never stopped. Then Disney bought 20th Century Fox and everything changed.

Marvel put writer Jonathan Hickman on the X-Men books and fans got the Krakoa Era, five years of X-Men stories that were vastly different from what had come before. Mutants had their own nation and there was an energy to the line that couldn’t be denied. The X-Men were the highest selling books again, but that would end once Hickman left. The Krakoa Era always had an endpoint, but Marvel went nuclear. Nearly everything about the Krakoa Era is gone, replaced by books that feel very familiar. “From the Ashes” was a “new” status quo that was actually anything but. “From the Ashes” was a hit at first, but barely a year later things aren’t nearly as good. “From the Ashes” failed the X-Men and the Krakoa Era was much better.

The Power of Krakoa

The latest X-Men crossover has come and gone, landing with a thud. “X-Manhunt” is a wildly anemic story; while there are some great issues — Uncanny X-Men #11 and X-Factor #8 are great, but mostly because they concentrated more on their own story than the blah that was “X-Manhunt” — it’s just not a must-read story. Compare that to the first Krakoa Era crossover, “X of Swords.” Now, “X of Swords” was easily the worst Krakoa event, but that’s not a judgment of quality, it just wasn’t as good as what came later. However, the excitement around the story was palpable and there are actually plenty of fans out there who love the rather unconventional story. Fans looked forward to it. No one looked forward to “X-Manhunt;” no one was chomping at the bit for the first major crossover of “From the Ashes” because no one cares about it.

Krakoa was revolutionary. Marvel definitely played into nostalgia a bit with the Krakoa Era, using the titles of classic X-Men books like Fallen Angels and X-Terminators, but everything else about the Krakoa Era was fresh. It wasn’t the first time that the X-Men had lived on an island away from everyone else — the Utopia Era had saw the team living on an island — but it went in completely new directions. The Krakoa Era built an entire government, and the drama involved in that was part of the fun. Krakoan resurrection allowed long-dead mutant favorites to come back. It made characters like Destiny and Mister Sinister truly important for the first time in years. On top of that, there were just plain old good stories. Hickman’s X-Men, Wells’s Hellions, Gillen’s Immortal X-Men, Ewing’s SWORD/X-Men Red, anything written by Si Spurrier, most of Duggan’s Marauders (it fell off really hard at the end), Ayala’s New Mutants, even Percy’s Wolverine and X-Force (yes, I will die on that hill) were all the best X-Men books in years. In fact, most of the books in the Krakoa Era were good. Sure, all of them aren’t equal — X-Corp was terrible — but even the books that weren’t as popular, like the Captain Britain books, had a hardcore base of fans.

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X-Men fans are devoted to the franchise, which is why so many of them were so energized by the Krakoa Era. Speaking as an X-fan of over 30 years, I have followed the franchise through thick and thin. I have read basically every type of X-Men story imaginable, and the Krakoa Era gave fans like me something that I hadn’t gotten in a long time: new types of stories. The X-Men hadn’t felt this energized in years, since Morrison’s New X-Men, and it was nice to have mutants ascendant again. An argument made for “From the Ashes” is that it’s much more new reader-friendly; it’s a “classic” status quo that anyone who’s watched X-Men ’97 can read with little trouble. However, there’s really no reason for new readers to read any of the books. None of the book’s have anything really interesting to offer, just more of the same.

Krakoa always had something interesting to offer. There was always the feeling that the creators were trying hard to give readers something new, taking characters in new directions. The Krakoa Era swung big and it definitely missed big several times, but at least it was unique. No status quo is perfect; even the best creators can create stories that don’t appeal to fans. However, it was nice to see something so bold in the X-Men books, after years of status quos that just kept knocking the X-Men down. That boldness was the key to the Krakoa Era’s success.

“From the Ashes” Can’t Match the Novelty of the Krakoa Era

The end of the Krakoa Era was something of a fiasco. Marvel decided to cut the planned story down by six months in order to get to the new relaunch, all to get that reboot sales bump. Krakoa’s ending was nowhere as beloved as its beginning, but at least it gave readers novelty. “From the Ashes” often feels like it’s allergic to the new ideas; Brevoort is definitely out of touch with the fans.

“From the Ashes” definitely has books that are definitely worth readers’ while; Uncanny X-Men and Storm are two of the best non-Ultimate books that Marvel is putting out. The rest of the line can’t compare to Krakoa, though. It was such a breath of fresh air and that air has been replaced by the same recycled air that has been around since the ’90s. The Krakoa Era wasn’t banger after banger, but it was able to do something that the X-Men books haven’t done in a long time — make the X-Men the most talked about superhero books on the stands. “From the Ashes” has already cooled off and it will never regain its heat, while Krakoa will have stories that go down in history as the best X-Men stories of all time”.

Want to talk more about the X-Men, the Krakoa Era, and “From the Ashes”? Join me at @crustyoldfan.bsky.social.