Krakoa

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Krakoa
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceGiant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975)
Created by
In-story information
SpeciesLiving island
Team affiliationsX-Men
Notable aliasesThe Living Island
The Island That Walks Like a Man
Abilities
  • Energy draining
  • Lifeform creation
  • Outer space survival
  • Telepathic immunity

Krakoa is a fictional living island appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 and was created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. Initially depicted as an antagonist, Krakoa has since grown into a sentient habitat for the mutant nation that shares its name.[1]

Publication history

On its first appearance in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), Krakoa is introduced as the Pacific island setting where a previous team of

Angel—one of the original X-Men they are rescuing—warns them that "the island itself" is the powerful mutant which Cerebro had detected. That is, the entire island of Krakoa had become a single monstrous mutant, similar to the Aspidochelone of legend. (Godzilla and Monster Island are also likely influences, since nuclear testing is blamed for Krakoa's creation.) It needs the mutants in order to leech their life-energy. Both teams escape as Krakoa is ripped from the ocean bed, hurled into space, and apparently dies. While the issue would be celebrated for revitalizing the X-Men, the character / setting of Krakoa was revived only very sporadically until Jonathan Hickman's 2019 X-Men event House of X and Powers of X
. In those miniseries (which established the premise of the X-Men comics going forward), the mutants have established communication with Krakoa and agreed to live on it in a symbiotic relationship, establishing the island as an independent mutant nation-state. The true aims of Krakoa have so far been left ambiguous.

Fictional character biography

Origin

Krakoa was originally depicted as a very small island in the Pacific Ocean that was located close to where some nuclear bombing tests were done.[2] The radiation somehow mutated the island's ecosystem into a hive-mind entity.[3] Sergeant Fury and his commando team were accidental witnesses to the bomb drop which created Krakoa in early 1945, and soon afterwards crashed on and encountered the island's collective intelligence, with whom they arranged a peaceful parting in exchange for keeping its existence a secret.[4][5]

Encounter with the X-Men

However, Krakoa later became hungry for the unique life energy created by

Banshee and Wolverine). The new X-Men team found the original X-Men and by using her powers, Polaris was able to launch Krakoa into outer space.[3]

Found by the Stranger

Krakoa was later apparently found and captured for study by the cosmic entity known as

Quasar visited one of his 'laboratory worlds'.[7] Krakoa was eventually freed along with many other specimens[8] and was last seen orbiting around Earth until the energy wave from M-Day and the Collective awakened Vulcan.[9] It is also revealed that before it was shot into outer space, Krakoa released several spores from itself, which later plagued the X-Men.[10]

House of X and Powers of X

During the "

Blue Area of the Moon, the Green Area on Mars
and beyond the solar system, all the while remaining connected to its hive mind via Gateways, which provided ways to instantly travel from one part of Krakoa to another. The gateways can only be access by mutants but if a mutant brings a human with them voluntarily, that human must ask for permission from Krakoa to use the gateway. The flowers also create No-Place, a habitat that exists outside the collective consciousness of Krakoa and where Moira MacTaggert has been hiding herself. Even Krakoa does not know this place exists. Krakoa is also the only place in the world to have special pills that extend human life by five years, a "universal" antibiotic and a cure for "disease of the mind, in humans".

Additionally, while Krakoa's main body lies in the Pacific Ocean not far from Australia, other small landmass parts of Krakoa are located off the coast of Africa in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, south of the

Canary Island
. This island chain includes the Pointe, Transit and Danger Island which are connected in the same way as the "habitats" to the main body.

The government of Krakoa is headed by the Quiet Council, and an organization called the Great Captains led by Cyclops and consisting of

Bishop and Gorgon. Thanks to telepathic manipulation by Emma Frost, the vast majority of the world recognized Krakoa and established diplomatic/trade ties, with the exceptions of Wakanda, Atlantis, Azania, Canaan, Kenya, Honduras, Brazil, Santo Marco, Terra Verde, Venezuela, Iran, Madripoor, North Korea, Latveria, and Russia, for political and ideological reasons and/or because they belong in the Wakandan Economic Protectorate.[13]

More so, Emma Frost was allowed to carve out a piece of Krakoa so she could be given a private kingdom for herself outside the coast of the bay-area. Likewise, Bar Sinister, though not part of Krakoa, was added to its landmass with Flowers of Krakoa that modify the former secret base of Mister Sinister into a Krakoan Habitat, a diplomatic biome interconnected with the island nation's collective consciousness.

Cypher
also developed their own mutant language – Krakoan – which is psychically implanted when mutants come to the island and created an entire system to manage the traffic of the Krakoan network which is overseen by Sage. Since the island itself is sentient, Black Tom's plant-manipulating abilities gave him a unique bond that connected him to the island and all of its surrounding plant life. The subsequent connection meant an expansion of his field of awareness to include the plankton and kelp in the surrounding sea and the bacteria and spores floating in the air itself. In total, Black Tom's plant-based awareness gives him a 25-mile radius of acute sensitivity to all that enters and exits the island nation.

Krakoa's current achievements come at a steep price. To sustain itself, Krakoa must consume two mutants a year or take in other forms of mutant energy through a more sustainable workaround. Since Krakoa became home base for an ever-growing number of mutants, the island can sustain itself by taking a minimal, theoretically harmless amount of psychic energy from every mutant on its shores. That process is tightly monitored by two mutant "psychic vampires",

Emplate
.

Even with the island's considerable defenses, it seems Krakoa is still vulnerable. The first major attack on Krakoan soil is made by a shadowy anti-mutant group who were able to easily bypass Krakoa's defenses by capturing Domino and faking her bio signature, and while Black Tom's connection to Krakoa and its defense systems proves to be so advanced that Tom becomes alerted to the invasion before even the resident psychics Jean Grey and Charles Xavier himself, the attack nevertheless causes the death of several mutants.[14]

Another attack was made by a small band of eco-terrorists known as Hordeculture, who proved capable of disrupting Krakoa's ecosystem by hacking Krakoa's biology and access its gates, which started taking a toll on the island's residents. Beyond some unusually aggressive wildlife and a minuscule decrease in landmass, Jean Grey, Emma Frost and the other telepaths on the island have already noticed that Krakoa is taking more psychic energy than normal.[15]

Later, another strange and mysterious island with a large volcano suddenly appeared off the coast of Krakoa making the island to change course and head towards it. With Doug Ramsey off-world, communication with Krakoa is difficult, if not impossible, so Cyclops enlisted Cable and Prestige, to investigate the new landmass. On arrival, they discover the large volcano contains glowing rainbow tentacles popping out of it and encounter thick jungle akin to the Savage Land and populated with otherworldly creatures and an equally other-worldy white, childlike being who identifies himself as a "High Summoner of Arakko", nameless beings that are capable of drawing forth extra-dimensional beings between the dimension where the lost land of Arakko is located and the land beyond the wild borders of Otherworld. After a misunderstanding with Cable, Prestige is able to give the High Summoner knowledge of Krakoan, enabling communication. The Summoner explains that Krakoa and this island are in love, implying that the mysterious landmass appears to be a sliver of Arakko. As Krakoa approaches the strange island, the two islands reach out their floral tendrils and merged into a single much larger island which is now divided between the lush of Krakoa and the forbidden alien terrain of the mysterious island which is named Arak Coral. The Volcano of Arak Coral is revealed to contain a portal to the dimension where Arakko is, which is not currently open.[16]

X of Swords

After creating the External Gate to reach the dimension where Arakko is located at the start of the "X of Swords" storyline, Apocalypse sent Summoner with Banshee and Unus the Untouchable to herald his arrival. When Summoner reemerged with a wounded and dying Banshee, he pleaded for help and the issue of the External Gate was brought before the Quiet Council. Although the majority of the Quiet Council voted to destroy the External Gate due to its security risk, they were overruled by Krakoa who demanded that the Gate remain open.

After the Krakoan mutants defeated the Swordbearers of Arakko, Krakoa was final able to reunite with Arakko. However, as it turns out, they have no interest in unification because they have evolved from what they originally were, with their personalities becoming radically different over the incredibly long period of time that they have been apart, even needing Doug to translate for both of them.[17]

Inferno

It was eventually discovered that the true motive for the creation of Krakoa as a nation was not to preserve mutantkind, but instead, was to eliminate it since Moira had lost faith in the mutant dream after too many failed lives, and because her powers gave her an immense ability to inflict her will on mutant history, she hatched a plan to spend her final life avoiding Destiny and slowly boxing mutants in until she could use the mutant cure she had created in one of her past lives which works before mutant powers even manifest. However Moira's plan backfired when Doug Ramsey and his allies (the technological being Warlock, the Arakkoan warrior Bei the Blood Moon and the island of Krakoa itself) made a surprise appearance at No-Place, revealing that he had always been aware of Moira's presence, and knows she was conspiring with Professor X and Magneto. Moira's role in the founding of their country was eventually revealed, thanks to Emma Frost, to the entire Quiet Council of Krakoa and they've all been sworn to secrecy about it.[18]

Fall of X

During the "

MODOK Superior activate a virus that infects Krakoan medicine, using the humans of the Hellfire Gala as a hostage. Just as Krakoa's mutants rallied to attack the villains, Professor X took over their minds and froze them in place. Doctor Stasis then ordered Professor X to make every mutant on Earth walk into a Krakoan portal that would lead them off-world. After Doctor Stasis threatened to kill humans for every mutant Orchis found on Earth, a despondent Professor X obeyed and forced most of the world's mutants to walk into the portals while Mother Righteous is shown trapping Krakoa's Atlantic Island in a protective bubble. Thanks to years of defensive training, only a handful of veteran X-Men were able to resist Professor X's telepathic push. Rogue, who was with the Avengers, returns where she obliterates Moira X's cybernetic body and saves Professor X. As she begins to fly Professor X to safety, he asks her to stop and bring him back to Krakoa. As he sits on the beach of the island, he realizes to his horror that Doctor Stasis lied to him. Professor X had thought the mutants who went through the Krakoan portals were reaching Arakko, the long-lost mutant civilization's new home on Mars, but he can't hear the thoughts of any mutants which means he had sent the world's mutants population to their deaths. Professor X is left alone on the barren shores of Krakoa.[19]

It was soon revealed that those who went through the portals were actually sent to Krakoa's Atlantic Island.[20]

Spawns of Krakoa

There have been several spawns of Krakoa:

Vega Superior

The first known spore was Vega Superior, who took control of an island, later christened Wagner's isle, whose inhabitants began to worship him. When Nightcrawler crashed his plane there, he found Vega-Superior in the caves under the island, who had inherited his father's memories of the X-Men's genetic code, including that of Nightcrawler. He tries to choke Nightcrawler, but the latter manages to escape. He makes versions of the X-Men which Vega-Superior dubs the Vega-Men, out of natural materials, such as a Colossus made of stone, a Wolverine of ice, an Angel made of leaves and vines, a Nightcrawler made of mud and a Cyclops that shoots lava. However, they are much weaker than the original X-Men, and Nightcrawler easily defeats them all. Vega-Superior then chases him into the ocean before realizing he cannot swim.[10]

Krakoa II

Another spore of Krakoa took control of a construction site on a tropical island, and was discovered and defeated by the Young X-Men when they were investigating the disappearance of 56 construction workers.[21]

Krakoa/Brood Hybrid

Another spawn of Krakoa would be fabricated by the anti-mutant tech genius Kaga, creating his own hybrid out of Brood DNA to attack the X-Men at a later date. Eventually, the creature was cut down in the dawn of its conception by Cyclops in one shot.[22]

Krakoa III/X-Men's Krakoa

Later when Wolverine and some of the X-Men splintered away from Cyclops' group, it is discovered that Beast has built the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning on top of a "male" spawn of Krakoa.

Swarm from invading the Jean Grey School.[26] After the Terrigen Mists were released into the Earth's atmosphere and began causing the M-Pox plague which was deadly to mutants worldwide, the X-Mansion was moved to the dimension of Limbo where it acted as X-Haven. Krakoa was not part of the displacement and moved his bio-matter offshore to function as an independent island in the Pacific Ocean.[27] After Kid Omega, whom was his only companion for a time, returned to the Xavier School on Thor's suggestion. Krakoa came back to New York searching for him as the son of the living island missed his friend.[28]

Mister Sinister's Krakoa

During the "Avengers vs. X-Men" storyline, Mister Sinister had also obtained a few Krakoa Spores. Like Maximillian von Frankenstein, He was able to mass-produce the Krakoa consciousness. Mister Sinister even turned one into a mobile castle in his underground city. It was later burned down by the Phoenix Five.[29]

Hellfire Club's Krakoa

Soon afterward, it was revealed that Maximillian von Frankenstein had been able to mass-produce Krakoa's consciousness and created several volcanic Krakoas to act in defense of the Hellfire Academy.[30] They were all killed in battle against the X-Men.[31]

Quiet Council of Krakoa

Quiet Council of Krakoa is a fictional council of

American comic books published by Marvel Comics.[32] It was the twelve-member governing body divided up into four sections of three seats along with an adjunct section:[33]

Reception

  • In 2020,
    CBR.com ranked Krakoa 3rd in their "10 Most Powerful Fictional Nations In the Marvel Universe" list.[34]
  • In 2021, Screen Rant included Krakoa in their "10 Most Important Fictional Marvel Comics Countries" list.[35]

Other versions

In the

Arthur Centino aka Longshot.[36]

In What If?: Deadly Genesis, Vulcan's trip to Krakoa saw him kill the rest of the X-Men by accident before the island itself was jettisoned into deep space. Years later, it is discovered by the Silver Surfer, and analysis of the cavern with Sway's powers reveals what really happened to the original team.

References

  1. ^ House of X #1 (July 2019). Marvel Comics.
  2. ^ Negus, M. N. (April 23, 2022). "Mutant Nations: The Differences Between Arakko and Krakoa". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
  3. ^ a b Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975). Marvel Comics.
  4. ^ Journey into Mystery: The Birth of Krakoa (2018). Marvel Comics.
  5. ^ George Marston: JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY Returns Original NICK FURY Investigating Deep X-MEN Lore. Newsarama, June 19, 2018.
  6. ^ X-Men: Deadly Genesis (2005/2006). Marvel Comics.
  7. ^ Quasar #15. Marvel Comics.
  8. ^ Quasar #16. Marvel Comics.
  9. ^ X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1-6. Marvel Comics.
  10. ^ a b Excalibur #31. Marvel Comics.
  11. ^ Powers of X #4. Marvel Comics.
  12. ^ Journey into Mystery: Birth of Krakoa #1. Marvel Comics.
  13. ^ House of X #1. Marvel Comics.
  14. ^ X-Force #1. Marvel Comics.
  15. ^ X-Men (vol. 5) #3. Marvel Comics.
  16. ^ X-Men (vol. 5) #2. Marvel Comics.
  17. ^ X-Men (vol. 5) #16. Marvel Comics.
  18. ^ Inferno #4. Marvel Comics.
  19. ^ X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023 #1. Marvel Comics.
  20. ^ Immortal X-Men #15. Marvel Comics.
  21. ^ Young X-Men #7. Marvel Comics.
  22. ^ Astonishing X-Men (vol. 3) #33. Marvel Comics.
  23. ^ Wolverine and the X-Men #2. Marvel Comics.
  24. ^ Wolverine and the X-Men #3. Marvel Comics.
  25. ^ Wolverine and the X-Men #7. Marvel Comics.
  26. ^ Wolverine and the X-Men #18. Marvel Comics.
  27. ^ The Mighty Thor (vol. 3) #18. Marvel Comics.
  28. ^ Generation X (vol. 2) #8. Marvel Comics.
  29. ^ The Uncanny X-Men (vol. 2) #14. Marvel Comics.
  30. ^ Wolverine and the X-Men #33. Marvel Comics.
  31. ^ Wolverine and the X-Men #34. Marvel Comics.
  32. ^ "Marvel Comics March 2022 comics revealed". GamesRadar+. December 23, 2021. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  33. ^ Puc, Samantha (September 25, 2019). "This page in POWERS OF X #5 might reveal major spoilers for the upcoming DAWN OF X". Comics Beat. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  34. ^ Brueheim, Jackson (2020-05-17). "The 10 Most Powerful Fictional Nations In the Marvel Universe, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  35. ^ Harn, Darby (2021-04-08). "10 Most Important Fictional Marvel Comics Countries, Including Madripoor". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
  36. ^ Ultimate X-Men #54-55. Marvel Comics.

External links

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