NYCC 23: The House of X falls, as the Krakoan era come to a close with four new series’

At long last, the Krakoan age of Marvel’s mutants has ended, and there’s gonna be a heck of a lot of fallout to come.

Weren’t they all dead pretty recently?

One of the biggest complaints that we had about Marvel’s X-Men line, since the beginning of the whole “Krakoan” saga anyway, was the loss of stakes. If you don’t know, using several super-powerful mutants and the titular living island, Professor X was able to revive any and all mutants who died. That’s something that happened quite often in the pages of the X-books too, and it basically took any and all stakes away from stories that were already well known for bringing ‘dead’ characters back.

But as you can see from the headline, that’s mostly about to be in the past. The world has turned on the sovereign mutant nation that a (seemingly way out of character) Charles Xavier built, and it’s all crashing down around the X-Men’s ears. For some, that’s meant retreating to the edges of society, and for others a trip to the grave.

For one last time though, there will be a few resurrections, starting with a limited series called Dead X-Men. That’ll be served up by writer Steve Foxe and a list of artists that includes Vincenzo Carratù, Bernard Chang, and Jonas Scharf, and it’s just what it sounds like. In the book, four kinda/sorta mystery mutants return to the land of the living, and are sent on a trip through time to prevent the fall of Krakoa.

In this four-issue limited series, Foxe, currently exploring the twisted nature of mutantkind in Dark X-Men, will team up with a host of acclaimed artists including Vincenzo Carratù, Bernard Chang, and Jonas Scharf. The saga will revisit the key moments in realities’ past that paved the way to Krakoa as a team of fallen mutants are sent through history by Professor X on a desperate mission to reverse Krakoa’s fate! It’s an impossible quest that calls for an impossible team but who are the chosen heroes for this sacred mutant mission? Who are the DEAD X-MEN?!

DEATH WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING! When the world turned against Krakoa, these five mutants lost their lives…but their mission as X-Men is just getting started. To preserve Xavier’s dream, they must accomplish the impossible – or die again trying!

Marvel Comics press release

Much, much more

While Dead X-Men was the last book to be revealed at the Con, there are a ton more coming. Marvel’s NYCC announcements included Fall of the House of X, Rise of the Powers of X, and… The Resurrection of Magneto.

Let’s cross our fingers that this is the last revival for a while.

• Krakoa has just begun to fight in FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X #1! Mutantkind has never had a greater fall. From the highs of Krakoa – their own glorious nation, a place where they were safe and happy – to the lowest of lows. Outlawed, hunted, killed, most of their kind missing or dead, and now, one their greatest leaders, Cyclops, is on trial facing a death penalty. Ready or not, the time has come for the X-Men to make their final stand against the forces that have struck them low. The day is now. The place is here. The tale of the house Xavier built will long be told…and few will forget this darkest chapter.
• And the fight for Krakoa has been lost in RISE OF THE POWERS OF X #1! Ten years ago, the mutants returned from their exile to try and reclaim the Earth from the forces of Orchis. They failed.  Now, within the victorious Orchis with their gauntlet choking the world, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel put their plan within a plan into action. They are to summon their binary god to consume everything in their accession. All that stands between them is the X-Men. What can they do? They’re the X-Men. They’ll find a way. That’s their power. So begins a story beyond time and space, with the rise of powers beyond our petty human intelligence.
• It’s a tale of Lifedeath in RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #1! On Krakoa, resurrection from the dead was as easy as completing a circuit – but Krakoa fell. The time of easy miracles is over, and only the hard roads are left. Now it falls to Storm – as the epic conclusion to the Krakoan age looms – to bring their oldest enemy home to fight against the FALL OF THE HOUSE OF X…but after all he did, and all that was done to him, can Magneto bear to return?

Marvel Comics press release

Stay tuned, because the ride if just beginning for this new X-Men era. It all starts in January 2024.