Beware of unmarked spoilers. As this page covers the Krakoan Age as a whole, spoilers here may include any of the X-Men family of books, as well as crossovers and other linked Marvel comics. If you're not entirely up to date on reading them... you have been warned.
The New Mutants will be looking for Cannonball who has gone MIA with Smasher
The team is said to be looking for one of their members and Sam isn't present, despite being one of Hickman's favourites. That and he married Smasher and had a child with her in Hickman's Avengers run and was living with her for a time on the Shiar homeworld. Given the chaos the Shiar are frequently in, such as with Thanos' resurrection, it's likely he accompanied her on a mission and went missing.Xavier will become the Big Bad of Hickman's entire run
Everything about Xavier, from the way he's growing artificial mutants, to the way he says "To me, my X-Men.", to the fact that his helmet looks similar to that of the Maker, to how his quote "Humans of the planet Earth. While you slept, the world changed." ominously opens the series, and just the fact that Krakoa's nature gives off rather nationalistic and xenophobic vibes, does not bode well with some readers... and that's likely the point. Magneto, who is fully cooperating with Xavier, outright ends the issue saying "You have new gods now." to the ambassadors. It's most likely not just Magneto speaking for himself, but on the behalf of Xavier. After all these years, after so many tragedies, so many genocides, Xavier may have had enough. He's uniting mutantkind to reign supreme over humanity, which is why every mutant from heroes to villains to neutrals, have rallied behind him. Hickman, being the long-term writer that he is, most likely is planning a large-scale Crisis Crossover like that of Secret Wars with Xavier as the Big Bad. Beforehand, it'll be some time, and we can expect multiple Bat Family Crossovers similar to Infinity and Time Runs Out to build up to it.- Jossed: Immediately before Fall of X, the Immortal X-Men series reveals that Xavier is a broken man. He still dreams of coexistence and sees mutants as essentially human, but Moira's visions of destroyed timelines shattered his idealism. She convinced him that the only way to avoid mutantkind's extermination was to ally with extremists such as Magneto and Apocalypse, accepting an isolationist, nationalist view of Krakoa. He's despairing because, despite compromising on his most strongly held beliefs, it still didn't work.
"Xavier" is actually The Maker in disguise
To expand upon the above WMG. Between having a giant, oddly-shaped helmet that covers the exact same portions of his face and oddly-shaped head, betraying Xavier's dream of integrating Mutants with the rest of society in favor of isolationism, and being focused on a perfect vision for the future where Mutants rule over normal humans to change the world forever, the character shown has much more in common with the evil version of Reed Richards from the Ultimate Marvel Universe than the heroic figure leading the X-Men.- Jossed. The run makes it absolutely clear that it's Xavier.
Brian Braddock will be Killed Off for Real
Currently, we know that Betsy Braddock will abandon the Psylocke codename and become Captain Britain, while Kwannon takes on the discarded Psylocke identity. While she was Captain Britain before, it was very briefly before she was reverted, and even then, she didn't actually inherit his powers from the Amulet of Right. For this, however, Cebulski compared Betsy's transition to Captain Britain as comparable to Carol Danvers becoming Captain Marvel — a very big deal. Notably, the presentation displays Brian as a member of Hickman's run, but the Dawn of X lineup shows not a single trace of him. At the same time, it's explicitly confirmed that Betsy holds the Amulet of Right, the artifact that makes someone Captain Britain and is fighting to protect Avalon just as Brian would. Thing is, each Captain Britain is unique in their universe, and Kelsey Leigh had to give up being Captain Britain when Brian returned to Earth from Otherworld. It's possible they could have both be Captain Britain, as with Peter/Miles being Spider-Man or Clint/Kate being Hawkeye, but it sounds doubtful. These are the great exceptions, not the rule, and Brian has fans but isn't exactly iconic while being primarily known for being Betsy's brother than his own merits. We all know what that means. The fact that Cebulski compared the transition to Captain Marvel sounds all too familiar, and makes it sound likely that Betsy will become Captain Britain in her brother's memory. Brian Braddock will die in the line of duty, and thus setting the stage for Betsy to take on the identity of her brother and continue onward as the new Captain Britain.- Jossed, at least for now. Early pages show that he's still alive as of the first issue of Excalibur.
The schedule confusion is Confusion Fu to keep us on our toes
The end pages of Giant-Size X-Men Jean Grey & Emma Frost announces that "next" is Nightcrawler, but the calendars announce that next up is Magneto. This isn't the first time something like this has happened, and it is done on purpose to keep readers guessing. Surely they didn't mess it up by accident? X-Factor will return
Ensemble Dark Horse title that's been out of the limelight for a while. Membership may include Multiple Man, Strong Guy, Siryn, Longshot, and Penance.- Confirmed: However, the lineup is Northstar, Polaris, Daken, Prodigy, Eye-Boy, and Prestige. Multiple Man and Penance are confirmed to be in other titles.
Spider-Man will be a Guest-Star Party Member later
Both for the Watsonian reason that Spider-Man and the mutants get along well as underdogs (with Spidey even being a teacher at Jean Grey's school once), and the Doylist fact that putting them together makes for good sales. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch will be mutants again
Considering a certain buyout finish Fox off, and thus the motivation for the retcon has no meaning, making them mutants and Magneto's kids again only makes sense.- So far, this seems to be Jossed: House of X #4 calls her "the pretender Wanda Maximoff", implying that her past as was-thought-a-mutant-but-isn't-one is still in tact, at least in-universe. Whether it will be addressed and re-retconned is another question.
- Scarlet Witch is getting some parts of the story and Magneto is saying "Screw that, I still think of you as my daughter" in the Hellfire Gala. Something similar happened with Falcon's retcon of being a pimp with everyone saying screw that before it was reveal that the pimp background never happened so it seems they may do a similar approach but we'll see.
Squirrel Girl will also be a mutant again
For the same reasons as Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. Wave 2 will include an Academy X title
Specifically focused on the adventures of the students at the academy and shine more light on lesser-knowns. Dawn of X writers speculation
Who else do you think will join the Dawn of X initiative? Bolded refers to confirmed writers.- Jonathan Hickman
- Tini Howard
- Bryan Hill
- Gerry Duggan
- Ed Brisson
- Benjamin Percy
- Vita Ayala
- Leah Williams
- Zeb Wells
- Al Ewing
- Donny Cates
- Saladin Ahmed
- Simon Oliver
- Julie and Shawna Benson
- Christopher Cantwell
- Zac Thompson and Lonnie Nadler
- Ryan Cady
- Seanan McGuire
- Ethan Sacks
- Jeff Loveness
- Karla Pacheco
- Chip Zdarsky
The cast of Children of the Atom are actually Chimeras
The big twist of either the first issue or the first arc will be that they are Chimeras of Angel, Gambit, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Jean Grey (and possibly other characters) with fake implanted memories that make them think they are normal mutant teens.- Jossed. The team found a cache of technology that mimics mutant powers. The only mutant is the Gambit-inspired character, named Gimmick, who is a metamorph.
The identity of the [REDACTED] artist for Jonathan Hickman's new series
While what little we can see behind the [REDACTED] sticker shows an "A," it's possible it's possible that it could just be a misdirection. Possible artists could be:- Arthur Adams, who would follow both the slightly visable "A" and the rough spacing if they went with his nickname, Art Adams.
- John Romita Jr. Marvel made a big deal about his return to the company and given the fanfare it wouldn't be surprising if the return of one of Marvel's most well-known and beloved artists coincided with him getting a chance to draw for one of Marvel's most well-known and beloved teams.
- it says Artist TBD. Russell Dauterman, Sara Pichelli, or someone that was recently let go from DC are my picks
The name and concept of Hickman's new Series
While it could be an original title, there are a litany of X-Titles to choose from, including:- Exiles: The series will start in parallel to The Trial of Magneto and will cover a team of mutant criminals led by Magneto who go to the diffrent realities of Moira's past to try and work out a solution to an impending doom.
- Generation X: Continuing on from the X-Men title as Hickman wrote it, Generation X would continue the development of Mutant culture on Krakoa as well as the rising tensions that come from it.
- Moira X: The promised Moira book never came out during phase 2 and the initial roll-out of phase 3 like it was expected to, so it's possible that the book will instead be released now.
- All Jossed, the new series is the next proper event in the line and is called Inferno.
The wider 'Krakoan Age' arc is going to be an Arthurian rise and fall
It’s all going to spiral into a dark age that breaks the nation, reverts Arakko to a lifeless Mars, sends the mutants back into the world of humans and sets them to in-fighting again. In the end, Krakoa-the-nation will tear itself apart, with the Great Circle of Arakko adding fuel to the fire. Krakoa will be the golden age that couldn’t last because the people running it were flawed and - dare we say it - human. The Human VS. Mutant conflict: Grant Morrison's view against Jonathan Hickman's.
- Morrison's New X-Men (2001-2004):
In NXM #114, Xavier comments that a new mutant generation is being born, and they will need teachers who can guide them - "They will need us." With this, Morrison was working within the old paradigm of Xavier's dream and the mutant school.
- Hickman's House of X and Powers of X (2019):
Meanwhile, in House of X, human scientist, Dr. Alia Gregor, calculated that the Genoshan massacre (NXM #115-116) gave some respite for mankind, but a recent reemergence in the mutant genome altered the prognostic to maybe 20 years at the most for mutants to replace mankind.
In POX #6, during Moira's sixth life, 1,000 years in the future, the Librarian, an example of post-human named Homo novissima, gives her an exposition dump: mutants are "a ... naturally ocurring ... evolutionary response" to the environment; humans, however, can influence the environment and improve themselves by means of biology, technology and genetic engineering; the mutant-hunting and -killing machines (Sentinels and Nimrods) "bought [mankind] time".
In HOX #1, Magneto tells some human ambassadors that "Mutants are the evolutionary inheritors of this world - all of it."
tl;dr: Jonathan Hickman approached the human/mutant dilemma by placing a greater emphasis on biological/evolutionary aspects: two species fighting for dominance over limited resources in a limited space.
The seasonal motif of the Krakoan Age - a fifth and final part to the Saga?
A triple whammy:1. The Seasons Motif:
- The Krakoan Age begins with "Dawn of X": 'dawn' represents a beginning, a fresh start, and can be associated with spring (notice the abundant floral motifs of Krakoa, and of their main enemy ORCHIS, from the namesake flower).
- Then, it segues into the Reign of X: the title could double as a homophonic pun ('reign'/'rain'), as in, summer rain. Also, the Inferno mini-series closing up this phase, 'inferno' being a synonym for fire - another connection to the 'summer' motif.
- We have "Destiny of X" as an intermediate phase.
- The fourth phase is the "Fall of X", a title that is also a pun: 'fall' as in the crumbling of previous structures, the ousting of governments, etc., but also relating to the fall season, autumn.
- Can we expect a final arc for the Krakoan Age, based on 'winter'?
2. The seasonal motif can also be a nod to the 4 seasons of the Quiet Council, divided into four quadrants according to the four seasons of nature.3. Following Hickman's obsession with numbers 10 (X) and 5 for this era, a fifth concluding arc would hark back to the very beginning.
- Four seasons, four Sinisters. Fall of the House of X adds an unexpected fifth, and there's a surprise fifth Sinister (Enigma) as well...
Who is the Dominion?
It could be one of the Sinisters. But what if it's Moira?- Jossed. Not Moira, but not one of the four Sinister, either. It is a fifth Sinister, called Enigma, with a crown motif.
