Trivia / X-Men: The Krakoan Age

• All-Star Cast: In terms of writers, Hickman has chosen a number of "who's who" in recent years. These include Tini Howard (Hack/Slash Resurrection) on Excalibur, Bryan Hill (Detective Comics (Rebirth)) on Fallen Angels, Gerry Duggan (Deadpool) on Marauders, Ed Brisson (X-Force (2018)) on New Mutants (co-writing with Hickman), and Benjamin Percy (Green Arrow (Rebirth)) on X-Force. Two more up-and-comers Vita Ayala (Livewire) and Leah Williams (Gwenpool Strikes Back) joined in Wave Two.
• Auteur License: Hickman was given the full reins here to turn the X-Men around from an Audience-Alienating Era and make them an A-list brand once again. First, he's considered the architect of the new status quo following House of X/Powers of X and writes not only the flagship ongoing, but also guides the creative teams with his supervision. Speaking of which, all creative teams were handpicked by him rather than being assigned those titles by Marvel, which essentially means everyone is operating under his blessing.
• Creator's Favorite: According to Hickman's Twitter, his top five favorite mutants are Magneto, Emma Frost, Mr. Sinister, Monet, and a tie between Sunspot and Cannonball. When people noted that Sinister isn't a mutant, Hickman said to "watch [him] work". The Mr. Sinister-as-a-mutant shows up in Powers of X #4.
• Follow the Leader: Essentially an X-centric version of DC Rebirth (compared to Marvel: A Fresh Start being about the general Marvel Universe), as it's focused on revitalizing the brand after a sales slump and a long Audience-Alienating Era, and like Rebirth serves as Soft Reboot.
• In Memoriam: Gerry Alanguilan, who inked the first four issues of this run, died in 2019. There is a Memoriam page to him at the end of every subsequent issue.
• Lying Creator: When the Dawn of X initiative was announced, Hickman stated there would be no new X-characters created owing to the wealth of existing characters — especially "junior" characters like the New X-Men — already struggling to find panel time. This promise didn't even last a year before Children of the Atom was announced.
• Post-Release Retitle: Some of the later Reign of X collected editions were renamed to Trial of X, reflecting their focus on The Trial of Magneto.
• Production Nickname: Hickman and EIC C. B. Cebulski describe the series (House of X / Powers of X) via the acronyms of HOX/POX.
• Promoted Fanboy: Hickman stated at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 that the X-Men was always his favorite title at Marvel, and the only one he extensively followed growing up (admitting that as a young comics reader he was more of a DC guy than a Marvel one). He said that he had very little knowledge of the Fantastic Four and The Avengers when he signed on to write those titles as compared to the X-Men (though, fortunately for everyone, Hickman did his homework before writing), with which he is more intimately familiar. This shows in the narrative, which demonstrates said knowledge with obscure characters and elements that other creators would've likely glossed over.
• Schedule Slip:
  • With Giant-Size X-Men, Magneto was originally meant to be the second one-shot released. It was pushed back to late April and instead Nightcrawler will be the second.
  • Hickman's New Mutants issues can suffer this, so solicitations can sometimes be outdated when Marvel swaps out one of his planned issues for one of Ed Brisson's. Hickman acknowledges this in-universe when Sunspot mentions that Hickman was late thus the Earth story got two issues in a row to accommodate.
  • After #9, all X-Men future issues (along with all other Marvel titles) were delayed due to coronavirus. Once issues began being published again in June they had to be staggered and delayed accordingly to ensure that they release in the correct order to lead into the X of Swords event.
• Trolling Creator: One of the portals on Krakoa was labeled "Mars", as a reference to incorrect fan-theories and as Foreshadowing for Mars becoming the first mutant planet. Unfortunately, the joke was botched due to an English-to-Krakoan typo, leading to the portal saying "Galm."
• What Could Have Been:
  • The entire Krakoan age itself is subject to one, as detailed in Hickman's appearance on the Cerebro podcast was in talks to write Legion of Super-Heroes and New Gods for the Distinguished Competition instead of HoX/PoX.
  • According to Hickman, there were plans for Franklin Richards. This is seen with multiple books referencing Franklin's mutation and connection to Krakoa. However, Slott's decision to retcon Franklin into no longer being a mutant meant that these plans were kiboshed.
  • Hickman later revealed that Giant-Size X-Men: Jean Grey and Emma Frost was supposed to end with the revelation that Storm was pregnant, and that Black Panther was the father. This would've set the stage for a long-running plot thread involving the baby (who would've been an in-continuity version of Azzari from the Next Avengers), with a future version of the child ultimately serving to unite Krakoa and Wakanda.
  • When Hickman was still the head X-writer, there had been talks of a book focusing on Moira X, which would be then penned by Al Ewing. Nothing of the sort materialized.
• Word of God: After House of X #2 was released, Hickman went onto Twitter to let people know that there were typos on the chart at the end, that something got messed up on Moira's ten timelines — that Moira's Faking the Dead moment and the Genoshan Genocide were meant to be flipped.

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