Summary
Contains spoilers for X-Men (2021) #35/Uncanny X-Men #700!These days, it’s almost impossible to imagine the end of a big franchise, but one of the foundingX-Menhas presented an argument for how and why the franchise would end, and it’s a bittersweet one. In stories built on suffering and struggle, the only ending is to resolve that suffering. Endings are always bittersweet, but sometimes the best outcome is simply moving on.
InX-Men (2021)#35,Jean Grey states that the best future for mutantkind is one where the X-Men aren’t needed anymore.
X-Men (2021)#35 is alternatively numbered asUncanny X-Men#700, returning to legacy numbering for this issue.
In the issue, the residents of Pacific Krakoa return from exile inthe White Hot Room, the spiritual home of mutantkind, revealing that 15 years have passed for them. Without human bigotry, they’ve built a sustainable paradise, and opt to return to that life. However,they’re opposed by Apocalypse, who sees their pacifism as proof they need his leadership.Jean counters Apocalypse, explaining that the Krakoans have found their better world, one where his leadership, and X-Men, aren’t needed.
A Happy Ending for the X-Men is Still an Ending
What Jean is saying is what someone like Professor X would have argued in the past:in a perfect world, there’s no need for the X-Men. This is how, in such a world, theX-Menfranchise would end. It’s not a world that anyone can live in, because bigotry can’t be excised without continual active effort, but it’s an ideal. The new Krakoans have reached their promised land and have found it plentiful. Perhaps one day the fallen human world will get close to this ideal, but it would mean the end of the X-Men.
The success of Pacific Krakoa, and Jean’s musings, also stands in contrast to the idea suggested byHouse of X/Powers of X, which kickstarted the Krakoan era. That story presented the idea thatmutantsalwaysfail in every future. Krakoa stood in opposition to that idea, and writer Jonathan Hickman left it open whether the Krakoan experimentcouldwork. Hickman’s version was designednotto work, with cracks in the foundation from the original sins of its founders.ButX-Men#35suggests that, with perfect circumstances, paradise is, in fact, achievable.
The Nature of theX-MenFranchise Means It Can Never End
This moment is also fascinating on a metatexual level. All storytelling is built on conflict, but theX-Menfranchise in particular is built on conflict rooted in bigotry. Without anti-mutant sentiment, there’s little separating the X-Men from other superheroes, soX-Menstories need bigotry to survive. Metatextually, the X-Men will never win, because Marvel will never stop publishingX-Menstories.At its core,X-Men#35 is a metatextual conversation about the value of Krakoa, but one that struggles with the fact that, in an ongoing comic, aperfectKrakoa can’t be built.
What the Krakoan Era posits, however, is that said bigotry shouldn’t mean that the X-Men canneverbe happy. That something beautiful, and fragile, and necessarily messy like Krakoa can, and should, be built in opposition to hate, if only for a day. Pacific Krakoa is the dream of Krakoa made manifest, an almost religious ideal that, appropriately, lives on in the spiritual mutant birthplace. A world where theX-Menaren’t needed is, for a franchise built on bigotry, only a dream, but it’s not a dream if it’s real.
X-Men
The X-Men franchise, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, centers on mutants with extraordinary abilities. Led by the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier, they battle discrimination and villainous mutants threatening humanity. The series explores themes of diversity and acceptance through a blend of action, drama, and complex characters, spanning comics, animated series, and blockbuster films.
