X-Men Krakoa Era Reading Guide Part 2
Welcome to part 2 of Graphic Policy‘s (mostly) comprehensive reading guide for the X-Men’s Krakoan Era, if you missed part 1 here’s the link. Last time we covered House of X, Powers of X, Dawn of X, and finally X of Swords. This time we’re covering Reign of X, The Hellfire Gala, The Trial Of Magneto, and last but not least Johnathan Hickman’s Krakoan Swansong Inferno.
Now I’m going to repeat myself a bit 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!
REIGN OF X PART 1
“You are children running a child government.”
X Of Swords may be over but what is to become of Arakko and it’s people? Reign of X deals with the fallout of X Of Swords and continues us on the trajectory started by HOXPOX. Al Ewing joins the Krakoan era with S.W.O.R.D and Vita Ayala takes over New Mutants and turns it into one of the best books in the line. Meanwhile Si Spurrier digs into the social questions at the heart of Krakoa’s laws in Way Of X and Tini Howard starts to explore the intricacies of Mutant capitalism in X-Corp.
Welcome to The Reign Of X.
Reading order:
- X-Men #16-20
- Marauders #16-20
- Excalibur #16-20
- New Mutants #14-18
- X-Force #15-19
- Wolverine #8-12
- Cable #7-10
- Hellions #7-11
- X-Factor #5-9
- S.W.O.R.D #1-5*
- Way of X #1-2
- X-Corp #1
- Children of the Atom #1-5
*S.W.O.R.D #2-4 tie into the King in Black event they work pretty well as a stand alone story and don’t require you to read the larger event. All you need to know is that the Symbiote God, Knull has taken over earth and sword is attempting to fight back against him.
THE HELLFIRE GALA
“This is one of those ‘where were you at when’ moments… and it would be a shame if being closed minded made you miss it.”
It’s a mutant bash! The Mutants throw their first annual Hellfire Gala where the X-Men vote will take place and where the Mutants intend to unveil a planet-sized new project. It’s also the second event of the Krakoan era albeit a smaller in scope then X Of Swords, taking place over a single night we get a multitude of perspectives of the Hellfire Gala.
Reading order:
- Marauders #21
- X-Force #20
- Hellions #12
- Excalibur #21
- Children of the Atom #6
- X-Men #21
- Planet-Size X-Men #1
- New Mutants #19
- X-Corp #2
- Wolverine #13
- S.W.O.R.D #6
- Way of X #3
- X-Factor #10
REIGN OF X PART 2
“How are the mutants resurrecting their dead?”
The X-Men are back! The team that is. After Hickman got away with 21 issues of X-Men without a X-Men team Gerry Duggan steps into the role as the writer of the flagship. The X-Men reenter the world of man as they plant their headquarters within the heart of New York. It’s a exciting new time and a exciting new team. Elsewhere S.W.O.R.D deals with the new Mutant planet of Arrako and it’s impact on Sol and beyond. While the rest of the titles keep on chugging.
Reading order:
- Cable #11-12
- Way of X #4-5
- X-Men: The Onslaught Revelation #1
- S.W.O.R.D #7*
- Cable: Reloaded*
- Hellions #13-18
- X-Corp #3-5
- X-Men #1-5
- Marauders #22 -27
- Excalibur #22-26
- New Mutants #20-23
- Weapon Plus: World War IV #1
- X-Force #21-24
- Wolverine #14-19
- X-Force #25-26
*Both Sword #7 and Cable: Reloaded are part of The Last Annihilation event which is some Guardians of the Galaxy thing that you don’t really need to read. The issues mostly stand on their own.
THE TRIAL OF MAGNETO
“Once upon a time… there was a witch”
The Scarlet Witch found dead! After the events of the Hellfire Gala we find ourselves in a full on murder mystery as X-Factor tries to piece together what happened to Wanda Maximoff. The chief suspect in the case? Her own father Magneto! Let the The Trial of Magneto commence!
Reading order:
- X-Men: The Trial of Magneto #1-5
- New Mutants #24*
*While not part of The Trial Of Magneto, New Mutants #24 directly relates to the fallout of the event.
INFERNO
“Someone remembers. It’s why they keep coming.”
The end of a era! Hickman makes his leave from the X-line with Inferno. In many ways this is the conclusion of many of the threads started by HOXPOX. Will Krakoa be able to survive the inferno!? After Inferno we wrap up the Reign Of X and set the stage for Destiny Of X.
Reading order:
- Inferno #1-4
- X-Men #6-9
- Devil’s Reign: X-Men #1-3*
- Secret X-Men #1
- Marvel’s Voices: Pride 2021 #1**
- Marauders Annual #1
*Part of the larger Devil’s Reign event, Devil’s Reign: X-Men is a pretty stand alone story focusing on Emma Frost and Elektra. All you really need to know about the larger event is that Wilson Fisk has become the mayor of new york.
**The reason why I list Marvel’s Voices: Pride 2021 #1 on here is that it contains the story “Man of his dreams” which introduces the character of Sommnus who will become a important part of Steve Orlando‘s run on Marauders. The book also has cute X-Men stories like “Early Thaw” and “The Grey Ladies” but those aren’t directly important to the larger story of Krakoa.
And so we come to a close on the second part of our (mostly) comprehensive Krakoa Era reading guide. Join us next time when we explore the Destiny Of X and beyond!
5. OMAC (8 issues, last in April 2012): OMAC wasn’t brilliant and it was, of course, little more than a tribute to Jack Kirby that hadn’t really been developed into anything of its own yet, but it had a lot of potential. Keith Giffen gave us art that was as true to Kirby as if Jack had done it himself. Dan DiDio was starting to establish an original character in Kevin Kho (the only Cambodian-American character in comics I know of) and there were a lot of Brother Eye stories to be told. Many crappier titles survived into the Second Wave of the New 52, hopefully we’ll see more from Kho, OMAC and Brother Eye again soon.
4. Heroes for Hire (12 issues, last in November 2011): Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning showed us with this series that there are no small characters, just small stories and small writers. Misty Knight and Paladin were turned into compelling and entertaining characters in a way they rarely have been in the past. The first issue of this series, with its shout-out to The Warriors, remains one of the best first issues of any series I’ve ever read. Luckily we got to see the story continued in Spider Island and Villains for Hire, but with the team having no current home, I worry that we won’t be seeing them as much.
3. 28 Days Later (24 issues, last in June 2011): In the days when zombie comics are rightfully dominated by The Walking Dead and wrongfully imitated by dozens of inferior titles, 28 Days Later was one of the few non-Robert Kirkman series that actually added something to the genre. Every issue started with a brilliant cover (most of the recent ones by Sean Phillips), continued with solid interior art by Alejandro Aragon and top-notch storytelling by Michael Alan Nelson. Following in the footsteps of the first movie, the series was always compelling and gave us a look at the aftermath of the British zombie outbreak that broke new ground in a well-worn genre. The comic did the same.
2. SWORD (5 issues, last in March 2010): SWORD is exactly what I’m looking for when I pick up comics. It was one of the smartest comics on the shelf, fast-paced, funny, filled with references and jokes that you don’t need to know, but if you do they add layers to the story, action-packed, and consistently awesome. It featured a strong female lead who could’ve developed into one of Marvel’s better characters and introduced us to one of the more intriguing characters to come along in years in the Unit. Luckily, we’re still seeing flashes of these characters and SWORD in X-Men comics, but it’s sad, that from what I understand, the comic was never really given a chance. Keiron Gillen gets most of the credit for how great this comic was.
1. Secret Warriors (28 issues, last in September 2011): Secret Warriors beats out SWORD, to me, because, while SWORD is exactly what I come to comics to find, Secret Warriors consistently surprised me. It was way better than I expected and it brought to my attention things I wouldn’t have otherwise read or thought about. It also had better art than SWORD. Another series with consistently brilliant covers and superior art by the likes of Allesandro Viti and Stefano Caselli (among others), the comic clearly had its own visual style and it was better than most of what was on the market. On top of that, the writing was even better. Originally a Brian Michael Bendis project and later taken over by Jonathan Hickman, the comic delved into the espionage side of the Marvel Universe, particularly the ongoing tale of Nick Fury, better than it has been done in decades. I’m not even that big a fan of Fury and the espionage stuff. Well, I wasn’t until this series. The only thing that still touches on this stuff in a good way are the ongoing Captain America and Secret Avengers titles, but neither of them is as consistently good (and shocking) as Secret Warriors was.