So you want to read the Krakoa Era of X-Men? Well, you’ve come to the right place! We here at Graphic Policy are going to be publishing a series of (mostly) comprehensive reading guides for the Krakoan Era. We’re starting with House of X, Powers of X, Dawn of X, and finally X of Swords.

Now before we dig into the reading guide let me preface this all by saying that we’re gonna be covering a lot of comics, several hundred in fact! Of course, if you were to buy each comic individually or in trade paperback we are talking hundreds of dollars! For this reason, I want to point you in the direction of what I think is a helpful resource, 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. 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!

HOUSE OF X & POWERS OF X

“While you slept, the world changed”

For years the X line languished in mediocrity and was sidelined within the larger Marvel universe for complicated film rights reasons. However, once the acquisition of Fox by Disney became a sure thing and thus the return of the film rights of the X-Men to Marvel a ball was set into motion. Then came the 2019 soft reboot House of X and Powers of X (commonly abbreviated as HOXPOX) written by Johnathan Hickman with art by Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva. Hickman and co would establish a bold new vision for the X-line and the world of the X-Men. We saw the birth of a mutant island nation, we got glimpses into possible futures, and we got a radical new take on a classic X-Men ally Moira MacTaggert which would flip the very Marvel Universe on its head.

Welcome to a new dawn, Welcome to Krakoa!

Reading order:

DAWN OF X

“It was Worth it because now you have Krakoa, and Krakoa is all you will ever need.”

After HOXPOX establishes the new mutant island nation of Krakoa the X Line relaunches with a swath of new titles starting with Johnathan Hickman’s X-Men #1. Hickman often gets a lot of credit for creating Krakoa and rightfully so but it’s not only his creative vision. One of the innovations behind the scenes was the fact that this era of titles was more collaborative than any era proceeding it. With writers in constant communication with each other, the titles intertwine and enrich each other in a unrepresented way.

Reading order:

*The first arc of New Mutants is written by Johnathan Hickman before the series is handed off to Ed Brisson. Confusingly the first six issues alternate between the two arcs and the two writers, so we separated them out into distinct individual arcs for easier reading.
**Both X-Men #10-11 and Empyre: X-Men #1-4 are part of the larger Empyre event but both are only tangentially related. All that you need to know is that the alien Cotati are invading the planet earth and it’s moon.

X OF SWORDS

“You asked me if there was anything I regret… This. This I regret“

The first crossover of the Krakoan Era, X of Swords is a franchise-wide event spearheaded by Johnathan Hickman and Excalibur scribe Tini Howard building off the plots they’ve been building up throughout the Dawn of X . X of Swords sees the Swordbearers of Krakoa face off against their Arakki counterparts in the Omniveral Majestrix, Saturnyne’s tournament of swords. X of Swords fundamentally shakes the firmament of the X-Men universe in exciting new ways. 

Reading order:

And so we come to a close on the first part of our (mostly) comprehensive Krakoa Era reading guide. I’ve left out the critically panned series Fallen Angels which has little barring on anything else going on in Krakoa and is easily forgotten. Join us next time when we explore the Reign of X and beyond!