KRAKOA
KRAKOA
Real Name: Krakoa
Identity/Class: Atomically mutated merged animal/vegetable composite
Occupation: Island
Group Membership: Stranger's prisoners (former?)
Affiliations: Ego-Prime;
Enemies: Quasar, the Stranger, X-Men
Known Relatives: Vega Superior (offspring)
Aliases: The Island That Walks Like A Man
Base of Operations: The Stranger’s planet
(formerly) the South Pacific
First Appearance: Giant-Sized X-Men#1 (May, 1975)
Powers/Abilities:Krakoa is the merged form of all of the life forms, animal and vegetable, from the island of Krakoa. It is sentient, and has the ability to form its shape into that of a gigantic humanoid form. It can control all of the vegetation on its form, using them as weapons or bindings. Krakoa has also displayed the ability to travel through space unaided. It feeds on the energy of mutants.
History:
(Giant-Sized X-Men#1 (fb)) – A nuclear explosion performed on the
island of Krakoa caused all of the organisms on the island to merge
into a single, sentient being.
(Giant-Sized X-Men#1 (fb)) – Detecting a strong and unusual "mutant" presence on the island of Krakoa, Professor X sent the X-Men to investigate. Upon arriving, the mutants were attacked by Krakoa, who captured all but Cyclops, allowing him to escape (in order to draw more mutants on which it could feed--Snood).
(Giant-Sized X-Men#1) – A new team of X-Men, led by Cyclops, arrived on Krakoa, quickly finding their captured comrades. Krakoa then revealed himself and attacked the mutants. Using her magnetic powers, Polaris severed Krakoa’s connection to the planet, causing the island-creature to be disconnected from gravity, sending it hurtling into space.
(Quasar#14 (fb)/[BTS]) – At some point, The Stranger apparently found Krakoa in space and placed him on his world.
(Quasar#14 [BTS]) – When Quasar arrived on the Stranger’s world, he encountered Ego-Prime, who attacked him. Unbeknownst to Quasar, the island they were fighting on was actually Krakoa.
(Quasar#15) – While battling Quasar, Ego-Prime realized that his containment environment’s barrier was down and escaped the planet. Krakoa then arose to attack Quasar, who quickly escaped.
Comments: Created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum
Technically, Krakoa is not a mutant, by Marvel’s definition, but rather, a mutate. I’m guessing he somehow made Cerebro (Professor X’s computer) read his signature as a mutant to lure the team to him.
It is unknown if Krakoa was one of the beings who escaped the Stranger’s world but as he can apparently survive in space, he could very well have.
A few other comments, in need of clarification/confirmation:
According to Loki 120:
I believe that Black Tom's wood growth, and even
Mondo himself may have some connection to Krakoa as well. I believe
that this was hinted at in the Generation X issues. It's been so long
however, I can't remember much about them without going back the
rereading it.
I get the possible Black Tom connection to Krakoa. They both
used a similar way to capture their "foes". Black Tom did it only some
time ago in Uncanny X-Men#411-412 and before in Generation X (see
below), but I didn't see any hints for a real connection between them.
There is even less to talk about stories bringing together Krakoa and
Mondo.
--Markus Raymond
In a storyline running through Generation X#25-27 Black
Tom copied the way Krakoa had the original X-Men bound in Giant-Sized
X-Men#1 by locking fake versions of Generation X in his vines after
hiding in Generation X's training ground, the Biosphere, for the past
few months. While this happened the real Generation X members were by
bio-organic transport transferred (by Black Tom?) to the original
location of Krakoa.
--Changeling
In Generation X#44 the Biosphere disappears into what
Bianca's dwarves refer to as a "space-time flux" that it generated by
itself. The only clue left to its whereabouts was a photo Artie took
that shows an old and decrepit Biosphere in the foreground of a
futuristic city with small speaceships in the sky.
In Generation X#47 Banshee mentions that the Biosphere was originally a
part of Krakoa, and Forge explains that it disappeared as a result of
Krakoa wanting - needing - to be whole again "for some unknown and
possibly dire purpose".
--Eric J. Moreels
Indirectly Krakoa could be counted in to be BTS
from Generation X#1-44 because the Biosphere was originally a part of
Krakoa.
--Markus Raymond
A note from Paul O'Brien:
X-Men: Deadly Genesis#6 is an unusual case, since it reveals that certain portions of Giant-Sized X-Men#1 - notably, anything where Krakoa speaks - didn't "really" happen that way, because Professor X was interfering with the X-Men's perceptions.
As Jason says, some of this may suggest that Cyclops' flashback in GSX#1 is a memory implant, in which case we now know that it didn't happen, and it can be deleted. Other parts of GSX#1, also contradicted, aren't flashbacks; however, they seem to have retroactively become examples of the story showing something from the (inaccurate) perception of the lead characters, in the same way that happens whenever Mastermind shows up.
This is inconsistent with the intellect of the Son of Krakoa.
--Snood
More thoughts on Deadly Genesis by Adam Craik:
While the claim in X-Men: Deadly Genesis that Krakoa was not intelligent is inconsistent with the intellect displayed by its 'son' Vega Superior, there are some possible explanations for this:
And even more by Tim Turner:
My understanding was that Krakoa is a colony lifeform so that it
counts as one organism, and it can defend itself by creating
extensions of its own plant matter that look like large humanoid
spawn. Giant Size X-Men had only one encounter with this type of
spawn, which they assumed was Krakoa itself. The Deadly Genesis team
encounters the other spawns on the island which the all new X-men were
lucky enough not to find (since they found... birds). So while this
single defense the X-men find at the center of the island is real, and
is really controlled by Krakoa, it only has animal level intelligence,
and Xavier made it seem like it was speaking intelligently. When
Krakoa is being launched into the sky, it releases spores, and one
becomes the son of Krakoa which develops higher intelligence. In What
if: Deadly Genesis, there is a hive brain that would have been more
appropriate to think of as Krakoa itself if the X-men encountered it.
An alternate reality Krakoa (Earth-3752) appeared in
Exiles#66-68. His nature, along with that of the other monsters on that
world differed greatly from their origins on Earth-616.
Profile by Madison Carter.
CLARIFICATIONS:
KRAKOA has known connection to:
images:
Giant-Sized X-Men#1, page 29, panel 1 (? - taken from reprint)
Quasar#15, page 4 , panel 2
Appearances:
Giant-Sized X-Men#1 (May, 1975) - Chris Claremont (writer), Len Wein (writer/editor), Dave Cockrum (pencils/(inks), Peter Iro (inks)
Quasar#14-15 (September-October, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Manley (pencils), Dan Panosian (inks), Len Kaminski (editor)
Last updated: 11/16/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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