Welcome to part 3 of Graphic Policy‘s (mostly) comprehensive reading guide for the X-Men’s Krakoan Era, if you missed part 1 here’s the link and here’s the link to part 2. Last time we covered Reign of X, The Hellfire Gala, The Trial Of Magneto, and Inferno. This time we’re covering X Lives/X Deaths Of Wolverine, Destiny Of X, A.X.E.: Judgment Day, Dark Web and finally Sins Of Sinister.

Now I’m going to repeat myself a bit (again) and talk again about the Marvel Unlimited App. Marvel Unlimited is a subscription service that gives you access to virtually the entire back catalog of Marvel Comics with new comics added around three months after publication. like I said last time, Marvel Unlimited was an invaluable resource for me while reading through the Krakoan Era of X-Men and I can’t recommend it enough.

Without further ado let’s read some comics!

X LIVES/X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE

“Time’s sideways and time’s forwards. Time’s backwards and upside down.”

X Lives Of Wolverine is a time hopping odyssey through the messy and often contradictory history of Wolverine. Meanwhile X Deaths Of Wolverine follows the recently depowered Moira MacTaggert as she goes on the run from Krakoa and a mysterious techno-organic Wolverine!

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DESTINY OF X

“I think we need to be on the same side”

Coming off the heels of X Lives/X Deaths the line relaunches with several new titles such as the political thriller Immortal X-Men by Kieron Gillen, X-Men Red a exploration of Arrako by Al Ewing, the sequel to Way Of X, Legion Of X, the surprising critique of carceral system Sabertooth by Victor LaValle, The new iteration of Marauders by Steve Orlando, and the penultimate installment in Tini Howard’s Betsy Braddock saga Knights Of X. All of these stand alongside the continuing titles X-Force and Wolverine by Benjamin Percy, and the flagship of the line Gerry Duggan’s X-Men.

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*Marvel’s Voices Infinity Comic is our first Infinity Comic, a type of scrolling comic hosted on marvel unlimited (see told you it was important). It’s not mandatory and pretty skippable but it’s good and sets up a romantic love interest for Iceman that you’ll see in the future. Another Infinity comic is X-Men Unlimited which largely offers slice of life stories on Krakoa, it only really becomes plot relevant during the Fall Of X.

A.X.E.: JUDGEMENT DAY

“You have 24 hours to justify yourselves”

Two tribes go to war! It’s X-Men vs Eternals with the Avengers caught in-between. The threads from Gillen’s Eternals run and Immortal X-Men collide in this giant-sized event! A.X.E: Judgment Day is perhaps the largest event in this series of reading guides. We’re keeping our reading guide for this event to the main stuff which luckily is mostly X-Men.

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*While not a part of A.X.E.: Judgment Day proper these issues comprise Kieron Gillen’s run on Eternals. It’s essential to understanding Judgment Day which is in all honesty the second part of the Gillen Eternals’s run.

DESTINY OF X PART 2

“Governments ask you to build terrible things. It’s up to the scientists to weigh what’s worse… having that new toy… or not having it”

After the massive event that was A.X.E: Judgment Day we return to our regularly scheduled programming. Here both Steve Orlando’s Marauders and Vita Ayala’s New Mutants. On the flip side we get the Gleefully Transgressive mini-series X-Terminators by Leah Williams, a Firestar centric story in X-Men Annual by Steve Orlando, and what’s in my opinion the best arc of Gerry Duggan’s X-Men.

Reading order:

DARK WEB

“A nothing person! In a nowhere place!”

Another event! Dark Web is primarily a crossover between Zeb Well’s Amazing Spider-Man and X-Men. There are a few other titles involved in the event but were keeping it strictly need to know and X-centric. Spider-Man’s clone Ben Reilly has turned evil and has teamed up with the X-Men’s resident evil clone Madelyne Pryor! Together they conspire to takeover New York and take back what was stolen from them!

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DESTINY OF X PART 3

“Survival of the fittest.”

This one is a real grab bag of stuff. In X-Men the titular team is off fighting the brood, Deadpool by Alyssia Wong is a not so subtle love story, Victor LaValle explores the history of medical malpractice of minorities in Sabertooth and the Exiles of all places, Charlie Jane Anders introduces a new young mutant Escapade, Tini Howard wraps up her Betsy Braddock saga in Betsy Braddock: Captain Britan, and finally something sinister is brewing.

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*Like the year before it, Marvel’s Voices: Pride 2022 #1 introduces a brand new character who will be relevant for a at the time upcoming book, in this case the only story you need to worry about is “Permanent Sleepover”.

SINS OF SINISTER

“To me, my me’s”

Mr. Sinister wins! Split between three time periods, year 10, year 100, and year 1,000 (à la HOXPOX), this alternate future event (à la Age Of Apocalypse) welcomes us to a entire universe cursed by the Sins Of Sinister! Immoral X-Men, Storm & the Brotherhood of Mutants, and Nightcrawlers each are essentially continuations of Immortal X-Men, X-Men Red, and Legion of X respectively. Sins of Sinister is a interesting event that puts a spin on a X-Men classic, the dark future!

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And so we come to a close on the third part of our (mostly) comprehensive Krakoa Era reading guide. Before I said to come back and join us next time for the next installment but at the time of writing the next chapter in the Krakoan era, Fall Of X is still coming out. However once it’s all said and done we’ll come back to finish this series of reading guides off.