Summary

• The Krakoan era not only took X-Men storytelling to new heights, it allowed for some breathtaking artistic accomplishments, including some of the franchise's all-time great comic book covers.
• Artists including Russell Dauterman, R.B. Silva, & Leinil Francis Yu helped to shape the Krakoan era into a truly ascendant period in X-history, in large part thanks to their cover work.
• Cover artists like Dauterman, Rod Reis, and Ivan Shavrin creatively used color, shape, and contrast to extend the stories of the Krakoan era onto their covers, and to capture the essence of their mutant protagonists.

As much as the Krakoan era has been a high point for X-Men stories, it has also given readers plenty of Omega-level art, including some truly stunning covers. Iconic artists and newly introduced talents alike fully embraced the era's creative freedom, resulting in some of the X-franchise's most memorable images.

The Krakoan era unified mutantkind, allowing for new conflicts to arise, as well as fresh takes on old characters, including some of the franchise's most notorious visions. The era takes its name from the mutant island of Krakoa, which in X-lore became a flourishing mutant nationstate. In addition to a shared narrative, X-books of this era have come to be known for a shared aesthetic, with series' logos and trade dresses primarily created by graphic designer Tom Muller. At the same time, different artists across different titles were given great leeway to produce a wide range of brilliant, dynamic covers.

2019's House of X/Powers of X – written by Jonathan Hickman, illustrated by Pepe Larraz & R.B. Silva, colored by Marte Gracia & David Curiel & lettered by Clayton Cowles – inaugurated the Krakoan era. Relaunching the entire line of X-Men comics as part of a cohesive, overarching narrative, the Krakoan era model allowed X-books to consistently reference each other, while still maintaining different styles, tones, and focuses.

15 An Iconic Illustrator Struts His Stuff With Krakoa's Introduction

House of X #1 – Cover By Pepe Larraz & Marte Garcia

As much as the scope and ambition of Jonathan Hickman's story defined the Krakoan era of X-Men storytelling, artist Pepe Larraz's work ushered in its visual style. This began with the very first image of the era, the cover to House of X #1, which featured Xavier confidently emerging through a Krakoan Gate, followed by Magneto, Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Cyclops. The cover's mix of familiar X-iconography and tantalizing new imagery perfectly encapsulated what House of X, and ultimately the Krakoan era as a whole, would offer to X-Men readers.

14 A Gorgeous Character Showcase From A Superstar Artist

Marauders (Vol. 1) #25 – Cover By Russell Dauterman & Matthew Wilson

Russell Dauterman’s character portraits have been revelatory for comics, and this image of an exquisitely rendered Emma Frost is one of his best. His figures are always so clean and precise; which in this case, contrasts perfectly with Emma being bloodied, and set against a deliberately chaotic background. Matthew Wilson also shines here with his use of color, using bright, hot tones to give the cover a visual punch in the face to match Emma’s own pose. Wilson also uses the highlights of bright, blue-white diamond to contrast these tones, a visual signifier for Emma Frost that looks incredible.

13 A Mix Of Classic Sci-Fi & Krakoan Design

New Mutants (2019) #1 – Cover By Rod Reis

Krakoa’s iconography is a major strength of the era, and Rod Reis shows exactly how to use it to its fullest effect by bordering New Mutants #1’s cover with a Krakoan Gate. Reis’ skills are on full display, with his chunky lines intermingling with visual effects both subtle and bold, from Mondo’s muddy shading to the Bill Sienkiewicz-esque fire emanating from Chamber’s maw. Tom Muller’s off-center logo is also perfect for this story. It’s similarly bold and sci-fi, with its bright red and yellow color bringing to mind classic pulp space opera befitting this space-faring adventure.

12 How To Make A Cover Weird In All The Right Ways

X-Men (Vol. 5) #4 – Cover By Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho

The image of Xavier, Magneto and Apocalypse in suits on X-Men #4’s cover is disconcerting, funny and instantly memorable, all in one. It immediately sets the issue apart from usual superhero fare, and also captures the dynamics at play within the issue. The mutants’ dress both aligns and contrasts them with humanity’s own elite, illustrating the inherent tensions of a ‘mutant nation’. As Magneto says in the comic, Krakoa, as an institution, is playing the same economic and political game as humanity, but the mutant nation is just doing it better.

X-Men (2019) #4 – written by Jonathan Hickman, penciled by Leinil Francis Yu, inked by Yu & Gerry Alanguilan, colored by Sunny Gho, and lettered by Clayton Cowles – focused on the new mutant nation's leaders attending the World Economic Forum meeting, held yearly in Davos, Switzerland.

11 A Surprise Encounter With A Horror Icon Stands Heads Above The Rest

X-Men (Vol. 6) #4 – Cover By Pepe Larraz & Marte Garcia

Pepe Larraz provided some of the most incredible visuals of the Krakoan era. His Headless Horseman cover for 2021's X-Men #4, is unquestionably one of the most eye-catching. It featurees the horseman's black steed rearing back on its hind legs, steam billowing from its nostrils, as the Horseman raises his disembodied head aloft toward a patch of blood-red sky. This Horseman cover is an engaging artistic deviation from the usual depiction of the X-Men, though it is stylistically in line with the rest of Larraz's work on the Krakoan X-books, and it ultimately proved to be one of his most satisfying portraits.

10 Color & Contrast Make For An Unforgettable Cover

X-Men Red (Vol. 2) #4 – Cover By Russell Dauterman & Matthew Wilson

The genius of X-Men Red #4’s cover is how it plays with both color and Sunspot’s powers. At first glance, it looks like the lava-esque globules are an extension of Sunspot’s powers, but all this color is actually coming from the the Krakoan resurrection egg. Sunspot’s solid black coloring and white outline creates a stark contrast to these tones, and it’s a testament to Dauterman and Wilson that Sunspot is still the clear focus of the cover. The pièce de resistance here is the series logo, a stencil-esque cutout in the goop that blends trade dress with the cover image itself.

9 A Stunning Visual Display Of Mutant Powers

X-Factor (2020) #5 – Cover By Ivan Shavrin

Here, the black of [Aurora and Northstar's] costumes becomes the backdrop of the starry sky itself, with the concentric waves of light emanating from the twins drawing the reader’s eye to their figures.

Ivan Shavrin’s X-Factor #5 cover captures the wonder of the issue’s emotional climax with an awe-inspiring depiction of mutant abilities. Shavrin recreates the moment in X-Factor #5 the Baubier twins finally reconnect, with Northstar boosting Aurora’s power to create her namesake across the Krakoan sky. Here, the black of the twins’ costumes becomes the backdrop of the starry sky itself, with the concentric waves of light emanating from the twins drawing the reader’s eye to their figures. Meanwhile, that same light bends off planets, making them look almost like bullets hurtling towards the heroes, giving the cover a 3D-effect.

8 The Best Krakoan Era Covers Tell Their Own Stories

Marauders (Vol. 1) #12 – Cover By Russell Dauterman & Matthew Wilson

One of the key strengths of Marauders’ covers is that they often tell the story of the characters’ evolution, and Marauders #12 is a terrific example. The cover mirrors Dauterman’s earlier variant cover for Marauders #1, which featured a straight-haired Kate Pryde before she regained her natural curls. A viewer can pick up so much about Kate’s evolution with just a simple compare and contrast, not to mention that it’s a gorgeous portrait even without this context. Covers should be part of a comics’ storytelling, and Dauterman shows how to do that time and time again on Marauders.

7 Doug Ramsey’s Finest Moment Comes Right Before The Fall

Immortal X-Men #13 – Cover By Mark Brooks

Mark Brooks’ Immortal X-Men #13 for is one of the best images of Doug Ramsey ever, depicting him as positively radiant, surrounded by Krakoan flora. In the issue, the living island Krakoa moves into the season of fallm to symbolize Fall of X, and Brooks’ cover subtly conveys this idea. While it’s still bright, the cover also has brassier, autumnal tones to emphasize the change in Krakoa, especially in the brown outlines of each flower. It’s the use of color as storytelling and theme that elevates this cover above so many others.

6 An Unmatched Mastery Of Visual Design

X-Corp #1 – Cover by David Aja

David Aja proves he’s among the best in the business with a cover that looks like a movie poster and a box of medication at the same time. The negative space of the white border accentuates the rounded corners of what would, on another cover, be the edge of the image. By adding the border, the cover itself looks even more like an in-universe object, only enhanced by its faux labels. Aja's design is also in conversation with Tom Muller, neatly replicating the style of shapes and lines that Muller has used to define the Krakoan aesthetic in his logos.