Warning: contains spoilers for A.X.E: Eye of Judgement #1!
The X-Men are the main superhero team of the mutant population of Earth, but they have another defense besides their powers in the form of their new home Krakoa. The island nation, a new home for all mutants in the world, has phenomenal defenses against the humans and aliens that continually threaten mutants. In addition to the many defenses provided by the island’s cotangent of X-Men, the island itself has a very natural defense against climate change.
Krakoa was settled as the X-Men’s new home at the beginning of the famous Dawn of X Krakoa reboot created by writer Johnathan Hickman. The island is home to a number of strange and exotic plants, which are used to create drugs that prolong human life (in exchange for the United Nations to recognize the sovereignty of Krakoa). Additionally, the island is the only place where mutant resurrection can be safely accomplished, thanks to the efforts of five very powerful mutants, Charles Xavier, and Cerebro.
However, in A.X.E: Eye of Judgement #1, written by Kieron Gillen with art by Pasqual Ferry, another defense of Krakoa is revealed: the ability to move through Earth’s oceans. The Machine (which allows Eternals to resurrect when they die) narrates the beginning of yet another seemingly-quiet day on Earth: “The island of Krakoa, the growing world-and-galactic power of the mutants. I admire them a lot. They were smart enough to found their nation in a lovely climate. They’re not even worried about the seas rising, because their island home is sentient and can move.” The Machine is right, and Krakoa does indeed have the perfect defense against man-made climate change.
Krakoa can move (it’s not actually attached to other tectonic plates) and can thus migrate north and south, avoiding the more destructive weather patterns. This removes an island nation’s main weakness: vulnerability to hurricanes and other destructive storms. Additionally, Storm can manipulate the weather anyway, diverting or dissipating storms entirely. Climate change is a major talking point in comics in recent years – even DC’s Superman: Son of Kal-El paints it as Superman’s biggest threat – so it’s interesting that Marvel has granted the X-Men a way to bypass worry entirely.
However, this does not exactly inspire readers. The fact that the X-Men can simply avoid a worldwide problem using a sentient island that only they can control could perhaps lead to even more anti-mutant sentiment than usual. Combined with the recent reveal of the Resurrection Protocols on Krakoa, the X-Men’s ability to sidestep climate change may do more harm for them than good in the long run.
