Uncanny X-Men 700 / X-Men #35 Review

Background – KRAKOA LIVES! BUT HAS TO GO!

Writing – (Before we get started, unlike most anniversary issues, this issue didn’t have too many dedicated chapters… but separating them into chapters is honestly the easiest and only way to break this down, so I’ve cheated and separated things the best I could.)

Anniversary issue? CHAPTERS! Let’s break them down!

Prologue – We open with a nine panel grid (I thought Tom King was stuck at DC?) This runs through the basic history of Charles Xavier and the X-men, starting with himself, moving onto the school years, then the establishment of Krakoa, its downfall, and ends with his betrayal of the team. We then find Logan as he intercepts Charles’ prison escort and is about to kill him when Magneto intercepts him and flings him away. The prologue ends with Magneto spiriting Xavier away for one more talk.

It’s been interesting to see Logan and Xavier’ s journey together. They started out as student and mentor, even though Logan was a bit old to be a student by that point (mind you this is before he was established as REALLY OLD, but you get the idea.) Then it’s revealed that Charles has been influencing Logan’s mind and has been lying to him since day 1, convincing Logan that it was his choice to join the X-men, when in fact he came to kill Charles and had his mind rewritten. Through all of that, through Schism and the Jean Grey School for Gifted Youngsters, Logan never wavered in his faith when it came to the man and the memory of Charles Xavier and now he is ready to kill him, and on hearsay no less.

The fact that he is stopped by Magneto of all people says a lot. Logan has come to trust and respect Magneto, I daresay almost as much as he respects Scott. His mentor has become his enemy and his enemy has become a friend. Claremont may not have had a hand in this era until his issue (a weird oversight), but his soap opera antics are still very much present.

Chapter 2 – How many conversations? How many times have these two men sat at a table or been separated by a cell and argued for the safety and betterment of mutant and humankind? What I love about this is that it has finally happened: the two of them have adopted each other’s ideals. Erik (or Max if you will) finally is willing to try and unite mutants with the humans. He’s tired of all the violence and is willing to try Charles’s path, which Charles thinks is hilarious. He asks (or demands) that Magento say “Charles Xavier was right”. Charles has decided that some violence is necessary after all. Before the last conversation ends however, Krakoa returns from The White Hot Room, larger and more powerful than ever.

Chapter 3 – Krakoa has returned! The island’s Quiet Council is run by a now grown Kafka. The Krakoa that remained on Earth (a tiny sliver of the true Krakoa) meets the part of the island that has returned. As the rest of the team returns to the island, we are shown a picture of island sex. To be fair, when asked, Cypher says that its not it at all, but let’s be honest here: The island hasn’t seen its other half for 15 years. It’s going to want to “talk.” It’s a weird image knowing the actual context.

Kafka, our friendly little mutant from the white hot room, is now 15 years older (I guess time flows differently within the Phoenix) and comes bearing amazing news: during the 3 or so weeks away from earth, they have managed to resurrect all 15 MILLION mutants that were killed on Genosha. We also learn that while Hope is physically dead, she’s also a part of Krakoa now. Resurrection just kind of… works there (as long as they have “The four”).

But they cannot stay. The Krakoa from the White Hot Room has come to merge with the Earthly Krakoa and leave those who want to stay on Earth with their families. Needless to say, Exodus is not happy with this idea. While Exodus fights the X-men to keep Krakoa in our dimension, Apocalypse shows up. He ends the fight in two blows.

Alright, first things first, the Genoshan resurrection. This plot point is FINALLY retired after 23 years. What long stood as the most tragic moment in human history no longer has to be constantly referenced and used as character motivation for doing acts of violence. While at the time Grant Morrison thought they had a fantastic idea, I’d like to think that they had no idea that what they were making was a giant crutch for writers to hang all character motivation on for more than 2 decades.

Second, with the return of 15 million mutants, it solves Marvel’s mutant population problem. For 19 years, mutants have been scarce. Scarlet Witch uttered 3 words and the mutant population shrunk to the size of a typical manifest of a passenger jet. Marvel has then for years tried to think of new ways to write themselves out of the hole they made and they finally found a way to do it. It’s also VERY smart to not have all of those mutants stick around. A reseeding of a couple thousand mutants seems like a normal addition to Earth.

Chapter 4 – So, it turns out that “our” Krakoa was killing itself over its existence. Keeping the gates open perpetually took hundreds of thousands of years off of its life. But Kafka doesn’t hold it against anyone. After all:

“It’s hard to think of even ten thousand years in the future when you’ve got sentinels, right?”

The new Krakoans have moved on from being seen as gods and just try to function as a unified people. They have moved on from violent ways and to accentuate that point, they want to turn the old Krakoa portion of the island into a museum so the next generations can see what led to their current culture. At this, it becomes apparent to Apocalypse that his teachings have faded into the past. This does not sit well with the former En Sabah Nur and now it’s his turn to break bad.

For 5 long years, there was no Apocalypse. Not really, he went by the letter “A” (almost exactly like Prince did all those years ago.) He was a constant supporter and ally of the mutant race, working together with the X-men for the first time ever.  But that time is over… which I guess is necessary but also very depressing. I can’t say we had a “good guy” Apocalypse for these past 5 years, considering he most assuredly would have broken Krakoa’s “kill no human” rule if he really wanted or needed to, but it’s still sad to see him do this. Even Rictor tries to stop his former mentor.

Apocalypse knows only one way to accomplish his goal of mutant supremacy: violence. He doesn’t think the new Krakoa population is ready for what they will eventually discover, which is his way of saying “Spare the rod, spoil the child.”

In the middle of all this fighting, Doctor Doom randomly shows up! He wants a piece of this new Krakoa and sends one of his Latverian mutants, Volta, to retrieve it. What’s fun about this is while she does succeed, she LIES to Doom. She says that she wasn’t seen, but she was seen by a child who she swears to secrecy. I guess even loyalty to Victor Von Doom does not override one’s loyalty to the mutant race.

Back down on the island, we get a nice sequence of X-Men teams through the ages attacking. First the original team (minus Jean), followed by Sunfire representing the Giant-Sized team from 1975. Colossus joins the fray and for the first time in literal decades makes an impact and uppercuts Apocalypse. It is easy to forget that Colossus is supposedly one of the strongest X-men as he is written time and time again getting wrecked, but every so often he reminds mutants and the readers why his name is Colossus. Mind you, the very next thing that happens is that Apocalypse one shots him and he’s down, but it was still a nice moment.

Apocalypse makes a plea for mutants to join him, and it seems that some mutant’s (mainly the Nasty Boys, Forearm, and a few others) take his words to heart, but all of this is swiftly met with lightning as Storm has entered the fray. Then the most remarkable (please see: sarcasm) thing happens: Deadpool and Wolverine team up to take down Apocalypse. In a nice moment, it’s shown that Wolverine is very reluctant to do this, but he grudgingly accepts that it is back to business as usual. Apocalypse eventually takes them both down and just before he is about to kill (or at least seriously injure) Wolverine, Nightcrawler teleports him out of the battle.

Nightcrawler has never been the most imposing of mutants. Not counting all that mass killing stuff from Fall of X, he’s been a pacifist since his debut almost 50 years ago. His power set lends itself to his gentle nature. Teleporting in general is an extremely useful power outside of battle, but Nightcrawler’s entrance leads into one of my favorite moments of the entire book: he teleports Apocalypse’s eyes out of his head! Holy crap!

The fight is finally brought to an end by Emma and Jean, who show Apocalypse that his way of thinking DID lead to this new peaceful Krakoa. That his methods always were part of the path that led to this new amazing world, but they haven’t had to fight anymore. To quote Jean:

“Fifteen years has passed for Krakoa. They haven’t had to live with a sentinel for a long time. Or Reverend Stryker. Or Orchis.”

Apocalypse agrees that this is true, but he teleports away admitting that while Krakoa may be a paradise he’s dreamed of for mutants, Earth is still not. At least I think that’s what he meant. It’s not made very clear in the text. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Chapter 5 – Kafka offers Nightcrawler refuge on new Krakoa, but he politely declines. He wants to stay and continue the fight for the mutants not yet born on Earth. For one final time we see Cyclops ask Nightcrawler:

“How stands Krakoa?”

The response?

“Ready For the next adventure Scott… wherever it may lead ”

With that, the mutants of Earth watch as Krakoa (both of them now joined) fades away into another dimension. The last we see of it is Krakoa’s face with an X on its forehead act as a mountain to the island.

“So ended the first Krakoan Age.”

Epilogues: There are almost as many epilogues to this issue as there are to the Lord Of The Rings Return of The King, so bear with me here. We are almost done.

Epilogue 1: Apocalypse arrives on Arrako, (which is still around) and meets with one of the mutants there. Apocalypse contemplates retirement and now wants to choose an heir to his name. I’m sure that will go smoothly.

Epilogue 2: Mother Righteous is found by Doctor Stasis and is set free from her cell at a remaining Orchis base. EXCEPT IT’S NOT DR. STASIS! It’s Mystique who gladly runs her through as revenge for making her kill Destiny previously.

Epilogue 3: Starting with a quote from Charles Xavier, which can be summed up as a declaration of his dream and his reason form opening the Xavier Institute, we now find Xavier locked in a cell designed by Reed Richards & Tony Stark that is supposed to keep his mind from ever escaping it’s confines. However, it’s made very clear that Xavier has always been devious and gave Reed and Tony an unconscious and forgotten urge very early on to make a loophole in the construction of the cage. Xavier uses this loophole to save a young mutant from getting stabbed by an anti-mutant member (let’s just say that he belongs to the Anti-Mutant Liberation Front). He almost forces the man to kill himself by walking off a skyscraper but relents at the last second.

I’m not sure the precise moment Charles Xavier was written like a jerk (and I’m not talking about Kitty Pryde’s opinion of him.) I’m sure there were signs seeded into the books long before Onslaught, but ever since then Charles has always been written as a master manipulator. Maybe it could be said that he influenced his Giant-Sized team into coming together (Sunfire does quit like three or four times that issue only to constantly return.) Most people refer to Deadly Genesis as the start of the bastardization of the character, but whatever the moment really was, there is no turning back.

It’s next to impossible to walk Xavier back to his dream of co-existing together in peace. I’m sure they’ll try, but it’s going to ring hollow. Charles Xavier is simply not a good man anymore. He’s willing to do whatever it takes at this point to accomplish his dream.

We then get an intermission of sorts with a story by the one and only Chris Claremont called “Nightcrawler: Getting To Know You.” It’s a cute story featuring Kurt, Mystique, Rogue, and destiny getting some family time in. It’s a cute story, but nothing major happens. If there is one bright spot in the bittersweet ending of Krakoa it’s that this family is finally functioning as a family.

Back to the epilogues!

Epilogue 4: Xavier astrals projects himself out of his cell to witness these events:

• In Merle, Alaska, Scott, Bobby, and Beast find a new headquarters for their new X-Men team.
• In Mexico City Gambit and Rogue take some time to themselves.
• In Chicago we find Kitty Pryde enjoying life as a barista.
• Somewhere in Canada, Logan runs with a. pack of wolves.
• In Manhattan, Kamala blends into the crowds.
• In Malibu Alex Summers is apparently living on the streets.
• Forge is having a breakdown in Montana.
• At the United Nations, Storm is set to address the assembly
• Somewhere, Alison Blaire takes the stage to sing again.
• Jean meets with Xavier one final time at the edge of Shi’ar space. He asks her if what he has done has been right and worth it. After learning she is in the process of saving a solar system, he gets his answer. Xavier then plummets back to earth and apparently dies.

Epilogue 5: This review is now approaching 3000 words and that’s before we talk about the art, so let’s wrap this up. Over in Atlanta Georgia, a Doctor Ellis receives permission to take over the Westchester school. Her goal is to obliterate it and everything it stands for. Our last shot is Charles Xavier in a coma that he’s never going to wake up from. UNTIL HIS EYES OPEN!

The end.

Artwork – The art in this book is, in a word, great! Standout pages include:

1. Colossus’s uppercut to Apocalypse.
2. The X-men assembled to once again fight Apocalypse,
3. Kurt’s de-eyeing of Apocalypse.
4. Finally, the last shot we’ll probably ever see of Krakoa looks amazing. Everything is so vibrant and colorful before we enter back into the maudlin world of Earth.

Final Thoughts – Is this perfect? No. it has some glaring issues, especially with how it just resets the status quo. Even Xavier mentions how it’s like Krakoa never existed. It’s also REALLY LONG.  But for the anniversary issue I guess that’s supposed to be expected. Is this how Hickman dreamed Krakoa would end? Most assuredly not. But as the ending we got, it’s not half bad. It’s time to move on to the next era. Pick this up if you can find it.

Final score: 4 out of 5

Publisher:  Marvel
Writers:  Gerry Duggan, Al Ewing, Kieron Gillen, Chris Claremont
Artists: Joshua Cassara, Phil Noto, Lucas Werneck, Leinil Francis Yu, Walter Simonsn, Mark brooks, Scott Hanna, Jerome Opena, Luciana Vecchio, Stefano Caselli, Sara Pichelli, John Romita Jr., Salvador Larroca
Color Artists: Romulo Fajardo Jr., Phil Noto, David Curiel, Laura Martin, Sonia Oback, Marcio, Menyz, Matt Hollingsworth, Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller, Jay Bowen
Cover Artists: Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia
Genre:  Superhero
Format: Monthly
Release Date: 06/05/2024