Beginning with the dual miniseries House of X and Powers of X (by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva, Marte Gracia, Adriano Di Benedetto, and VC's Clayton Cowles) the X-Men have been in a serious state of evolution for three years. With the help of a reimagined Moira MacTagget, the X-Men united the mutant race, made peace with enemies, and established the mutant nation of Krakoa.
As a result, the X-Men franchise has gone through a wild resurgence, taking center stage in the Marvel Universe. But all things must come to an end -- with the direction even outlasting the intentions of the transformation's architect Hickman, who departed the franchise following 2021's Inferno. It looks like the Krakoa era is potentially coming to an end with 2023's Fall of X -- but it's vital the franchise continues to evolve as it has.
With Pride Comes The Fall of X
There are few details known about the event following its announcement at the 2022 New York Comic-Con and there are plenty of event storylines to get through ahead of the possible end of Krakoa, including the Sins of Sinister and Spider-Men/Venom/X-Men crossover Dark Web. The Fall of X could mean any number of things, even beyond the possible collapse of the mutant nation. It might quietly refer to the X-Men's founder Charles Xavier, the last standing of Krakoa's secret architects following Moira's betrayal and Magneto's final demise in A.X.E.: Judgment Day.
Now that confidence in Xavier was shaken across the nation and traitors revealed, Krakoa could finally be at such a low point that forces like Orchis could finally bring it down. But that raises the question, what could possibly come after Krakoa? There's no denying, the X-Men are different now. The Krakoa era has brought a new sense of direction, something Hickman even acknowledged when he left his duties as Showrunner on the franchise. He noted that as the franchise expanded to other creators, the direction "resonated more deeply and worked more like Giant-Size X-Men, where it would represent a paradigm shift in the entire X-Men line for a prolonged period of time."
Their place in-universe within the Marvel Universe is radically different, with many heroes having developed complex feelings about the mutants. Meanwhile, their core team has become somewhat accepted by the public, and their charitable outreach has expanded their influence across the world. Without some kind of full-blown reality warp, it's hard to imagine the X-Men being able to go back into the shadows after they formed their own nation and terraformed Mars in a single night.
The X-Men's New Normal
While Fall of X might be the end of the current incarnation of Krakoa, stories like "The Last Annihilation" teased that the mutant nation would go through multiple "ages" over the years as it remained a focal point of the mutant community. That's a good thing, as it will likely continue the paradigm shift that's come with the X-Men's evolution -- a period of creative invention in the franchise that's spotlighted every corner of a very expansive character base. The X-Men simply can't backtrack from recent events, and Krakoa is just too big of an idea to return to a hidden school in upstate New York. The X-Men are something different now; debating ethics and philosophy and even the occasional scantily-clad vampire slaying with a freedom that it never had in previous decades.
The X-Men franchise can't go back to that status quo, and it shouldn't want to. The Krakoa era has been a period of refinement for one of the genre's biggest franchises, building on the steps from the past two decades that hasn't lost sight of the franchise's focus on teaching, personal growth, and acceptance. This is especially true with the younger generation who've appeared in titles like New Mutants and X-Factor. It's one of the best periods of development the franchise has ever experienced, and even if the current incarnation of Krakoa crumbles (setting off any potential number of catastrophes in the process), it'll be fascinating to see the franchise continue to step forward.