History
Origin
Krakoa was originally believed to have a very small island in the Pacific Ocean that was located close to where some nuclear bombing tests were done. It was thought radiation somehow turned the island's ecosystem into a hive-mind entity.
True Origin
When Cypher communed with Krakoa at Professor X's urging, Krakoa related a story of it's past. Long ago, it was part of a greater land called Okkara, but it was attacked by an enemy wielding a twilight sword. Okkara was split into two creatures, Krakoa and Arakko. Apocalypse arrived with his First Horsemen and sealed away the enemy. However, both Arakko and the Horsemen had to be sealed away with them, leaving Krakoa feeling mournful and lonely. [1]
X-Men tragedies
Original X-Men
The X-Men (then consisting of Cyclops, Angel, Havok, Iceman, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey) and Polaris) came to the island after Cerebro detected an unknown mutant there, and were captured by Krakoa, who used them as food sources.[2]
Moira's X-Men
Another team of young mutants, composed of Petra, Darwin, Sway and the third Summers brother Kid Vulcan, from a parallel X-Mansion led by Moira McTaggart, were sent to help the original X-Men. They managed to save Cyclops and returned him to Professor X. However Krakoa killed Petra and Sway and left Darwin and Kid Vulcan almost dead. Xavier had erased all records of the real events in Cyclops' mind, and altered the mutants' minds to cast the illusion of a speaking, sentient Krakoa.[3]
Third team
Professor X decided to recruit international mutants to save his X-Men, namely Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Sunfire, Thunderbird, Banshee and Wolverine, and sent them to Krakoa. Cyclops' group of mutants paired off and after each pair encounter and defeated various aspects of the island, the new X-Men team found the original X-Men, who were weakened from being fed upon by Krakoa for so long. At this point, it was revealed that the island was itself the mutant they had originally detected and Krakoa battled the new and old X-Men by forming a giant humanoid body out of its terrain. With a combination of psi interference by Professor X and energy blasts from Cyclops and Havok, Storm was able to supercharge Polaris' magnetic powers with bolts of lightning. Polaris interacted with the Earth's core and created a magnetic pulse so strong that she was able to launch Krakoa into outer space. The X-Men - then counting thirteen members - were saved.[2]
He was captured by the enigmatic alien, the Stranger, and were imprisoned in the Stranger's Labworld for the alien to study him. He remained their until freed by Overmind.[4]
Legacy
A portion of Krakoa's bio-mass was used for construction of the bio-sphere at the Massachusetts Academy, nicknamed the "Danger Grotto" by Generation X.
A "son of Krakoa", the result of a spore that was released from Krakoa as it was shot into space, later appeared. Nightcrawler eventually defeated this "Vega-Superior" by tricking him into drowning himself.[5]
The Young X-Men encountered another "Krakoa" when 56 construction workers disappeared from a construction site on a tropical island. It is unclear what the relation between this Krakoa and the original is, if any.[6]
Rebirth
After apparently abandoning his dream for peaceful coexistence, X ultimately repurposed Krakoa into a sovereign nation state for mutants. Now donning a portable Cerebro, X seemingly recruited and experimented on Krakoa with the help of Cypher. Both expanding Krakoa's consciousness and cultivating its biome to include exotic flowers that can be used for various purposes, as such becoming the primary economic resource of the mutant nation.
These Flowers of Krakoa could grow Habitats, self-sufficient offshoots of Krakoa that served as embassies around the solar system, while remaining connected to its hive mind via Gateways, which provided ways to instantly travel from one part of Krakoa to another.
In addition X bought world leading pharmaceutical companies with his vast wealth to produce three new super drugs from Krakoan flowers, offering them to every country that formally recognized Krakoa as a nation. These drugs -- dubbed I, L, and M -- operate as a adaptive antibiotic, extend the human lifespan by five years, and prevent human "diseases of the mind" respectively, allegedly hereby solving the devastating health problems in humans.[7]
Powers and Abilities
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Powers
Krakoa possesses an instinct-based hivemind comprised of the lifeforms that formed it. It can create moving, semi-humanoid and animal forms of various sizes out of its component earth. Its largest humanoid form possessed superhuman strength (lifting approximately 100 tons). It feeds on mutant energy, and drains that energy quickly, often rendering mutants powerless, and though it often traps beings using tentacle-like vegetation growth, it can feed off this energy as long as the being remains on the island. Krakoa can block the powers of telepaths trying to communicate with those on the island, and it can survive unaided in space.
Weaknesses
Magnetic pulses supercharged with bolts of lightning; winter
Notes
- The 2006 X-Men: Deadly Genesis Vol 1 storyline features a major retcon in which it is revealed that many of the elements in Giant-Size X-Men #1 were in fact deceptions and delusions created by Professor X to hide the major part of the story. Relevant to Krakoa:
- The creature was apparently non-sentient and instances where it appeared to speak were telepathically faked by Xavier.
- Krakoa also did not deliberately free Cyclops to seek out further mutants for it -- Cyclops escaped due to the intervention of Xavier's second team, which was edited out of Scott's memory.[8]
- Although not Xavier's doing, Deadly Genesis showed Krakoa was left orbiting around Earth for years until the energy wave from M-Day and the Collective awakened Vulcan. However, Krakoa was previously found and captured for study by the cosmic entity known as The Stranger, as seen when Quasar visited one of his 'laboratory worlds' in Quasar #15.
Links and References
- 23 Appearances of Krakoa (Earth-616)
- 3 Minor Appearances of Krakoa (Earth-616)
- Media Krakoa (Earth-616) was Mentioned in
- 14 Images featuring Krakoa (Earth-616)
- Quotations by or about Krakoa (Earth-616)
- Character Gallery: Krakoa (Earth-616)
- Krakoa (Earth-616) at Wikipedia.org
Discover and Discuss
- Search this site for: Krakoa · Krakoa (Earth-616)
Footnotes
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