X-Men: The Best Ideas From The Krakoa Era That Should Be Marvel Canon

X-Men comics are getting a reboot under the logline “From the Ashes,” which is a reference to the end of the previous Krakoa Era of X-Men, which was the X-Men Universe’s status quo for the last five years. There’s been a lot of debate about the Krakoa Era and whether or not its creator, writer Jonathan Hickman, introduced the right kind of concepts into X-Men’s mythos. 

Like it or not, it’s clear that Krakoa has had an indelible impact on X-Men. It’s also important to never forget that the true magic of comics us getting to pick and choose elements of story arcs and eras to carry forward – while others can get left behind, never to be seen again. 

Here are 10 things from X-Men’s Krakoa Era that need to be part of Marvel canon, going forward: 

Mutant Power Circuits

One of the most celebrated changes Hickman and co. made to X-Men lore was to introduce the idea of mutant powers working in concert with one another. Through these ‘circuits’ that combined the powers of different X-Men characters, Krakoa mutants were able to perform feats as great as resurrection after death, or traveling beyond the known universe. 

As X-Men moves ahead into its neXt era, the idea of mutants uniting their powers (not just unifying socio-politically) needs to be kept at the forefront. It renews the potential for even seemingly forgettable or throwaway characters (Goldballs) to really become important or relevant. 

Mutant Industry

The Krakoa Era’s main premise was taking the X-Men from a position of constant weakness (running, hiding, surviving) to a place of sovereign strength. Krakoa’s miracle drugs and floral system of weaponry and technology made it a true world power – with all the complicated socio-political-geographical fallout that comes with it. 

Krakoa is gone, but mutants on Earth still have the blueprint to create and control their own lanes of industry. As “From the Ashes” tries to re-integrate the mutant world into the human world, the business end of things will be interesting to watch. 

Overarching Mission: Fight for the Future

X-Men stories like “Days of Future Past” and “Age of Apocalypse” still resonate with so many fans with good reason – they set dark new stakes for the X-Men and their mission of co-existence, by depicting just how bad a future of intolerance, and hatred, and conflict looks.

The Krakoa Era took the idea of alternate X-Men timelines and cranked it up to 1,000 with he “Lifetimes of Moira X” stories in Powers of X. The Krakoa Era framed the X-Men’s and mutantkind’s overarching mission as the fight for the future against both mankind and machines. 

“From the Ashes” should keep holding onto that ‘fight for the future’ mantra as its thematic core – especially at a time when the fight for the future is so prevalent in society. 

The Moira & Sinister Timelines

The Krakoa Era started when Moira Mactaggert used her tenth lifetime to unite herself, Charles Xavier and Magneto early on, leading them to create a new nation for all mutants. However, the Powers of X series was built on scenes from across all 10 of Moira’s lifetimes, with some of them (The Man-Machine Supremacy) igniting fires in fans’ imaginations. 

The most fun thing about a comic book universe is being able to reach back and pull bits of lore out for new stories. The Moira X timelines – plus the timelines that Mr. Sinister / Nathaniel Essex created using Moira clones  – are story elements that we need to see again or revisit – at some point. They go right in hand with that “Fight for the future” theme, as do so many other famous alt-X timelines. 

Rotating Rosters

There are already exciting new X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, and X-Factor teams on the way with this “From the Ashes” relaunch – but let’s not get too attached to them. One of the most novel ideas of the Krakoa Era was having an X-Men team whose roster changed annually during the “Hellfire Gala” party event. Every new year gave us a new combination of characters, playing out some interesting new X-Men dramas. 

The X-Men Universe is stocked with characters – why not use more of them? Krakoa showed us that having so many characters come through kept things fresh and exciting – why lose out on that now? 

Hellfire Gala

…Going right along with a rotating roster of X-Men, why not keep the Hellfire Gala, as well? The in-universe party created massive pop-culture interest in the real world; celebrities, musicians, athletes, and significant cultural figures all lent their likenesses to comic pages for the event, creating some of the biggest buzz ever seen for an X-Men comic. 

Father [A] (Apocalypse)

The end of Fall of X saw X-Men villain Apocalypse lose his stuff when the younger generation of mutants on Krakoa chose to leave Earth and leave him behind as the ‘father’ of mutantkind. Yes, we can lose the whole “[A]” renaming thing, but Apocalypse was more compelling as a truly misguided would-be savior than he was as the “Survival of the fittest” villain the X-Men sometimes battled. 

Krakoa & Arakko

Even if a lot of fans didn’t care for the Krakoa Era of X-Men, the actual living islands of Krakoa and its partner Arakko – and all the lore that comes with them – kind of have to be permanent fixtures in the X-Men mythos, now. 

We don’t have to get too deep into any aspect of Krakoa’s new status quo as ‘mutant heaven’ and Arakko’s place on Mars (or the ‘hell’ that is Amenth), but they do need to be referenced like they exist, and characters living in both locations need to reappear in new X-Men stories.