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X-Men: Krakoan Era (Anthology Trades)
Trials of X, Vol. 7
Heads will roll in the Trials of X! It’s Halloween, and the X-Men have to face a horror born of a neighboring town in Westchester: the Headless Horseman?! And that’s not the only terror targeting them! On Krakoa, where the dead walk among the living and the unforgiveable has been forgiven, the New Mutants must battle an old foe: the psychic entity known as the Shadow King! Amahl Farouk executes his master plan — but is he the one in control? Meanwhile, Maverick returns for a team-up with Wolverine! But when C.I.A. agent Jeff Bannister uncovers a secret surveillance device aimed at Krakoa, Logan faces a life-or-death protection mission on the run — with nowhere safe to hide!
COLLECTING: X-Men (2021) 4, New Mutants (2019) 22-23, Wolverine (2020) 17-18
COLLECTING: X-Men (2021) 4, New Mutants (2019) 22-23, Wolverine (2020) 17-18
144 pages, Paperback
Published March 28, 2023
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66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 21, 2023
new mutants putting in all the legwork.
January 27, 2025
That Wolverine story was surprisingly good.
Hate how Gerry Duggan is doing quiet quitting before even trying to write something.
Hate how Gerry Duggan is doing quiet quitting before even trying to write something.
February 6, 2024
The Krakoan age of X-men started in 2019 (almost five years ago) . At that point, I wasn’t making enough money to pick up comics on a weekly basis. I would wait for the trade, and fortunately, the Austin library would eventually get whatever trade I wanted.
Do you all use Hoopla? It is a website connected to my library that has an amazing amount of movies, books, comic book trades, etc. Your library might not have Hoopla, specifically, but I bet they have an equivalent of it.
With Hoopla, I have been able to read thousands of dollars worth of comic book trades. For the past year, I have been playing catch up with the Krakoan era X-men books, bringing us up to Trials of X, Volume 7.
Let me give you some context. Since I was the perfect age for the golden days of Fox kids cartoons, my two favorite Big Two superhero franchises are Batman and The X-men. This won’t get me any points with the X-men fans that believe that the X-men begin and end with Chris Claremont’s run, but here are my three favorite X-men eras:
Grant Morrison’s New X-men
Mark Millar’s run on Ultimate X-men
Hickman’s Krakoa era
In those three runs, the soap opera character driven stories are still there, but they take a back seat to the amazing ideas that the writers are able to dream up.
In each of these eras, the writers took the main characters, took the idea of mutants and tried to push them as far as they could go. How far could you go with an entire race of random super powered beings, working together? The Karakoan era might be the peak example of this. When a mutant dies, they are brought back to life through the resurrection protocols. Mutant plants have dominated the pharmaceutical market, in the form of life extending, disease ending drugs. . Mutant villains and heroes are working together to build a utopian society.
In 2023, Krakoa fell. Mutants can’t have good things.
In TRIALS OF X, VOL. 7, we haven’t reached the fall yet. We get a single issue of Gerry Duggan’s X-men run, where Nightmare attempts to torment the dreams of the X-men living in New York. We get two issues of the New Mutants, where two different generations of X-men confront the Shadow King. Finally, there are two issues of Wolverine, where Benjamin Percy focuses a lot on Wolverine supporting characters - the mutant mercenary known as Maverick and CIA agent Jeff Bannister.
The artwork in the Nightmare story is top notch, as well as it should be for the flagship X-men title. Unfortunately the story feels brief and somewhat inconsequential. Spoilers- Jean Grey confronts Nightmare and gives him the equivalent of a spanking on the astral plane.
I would be lying if I said I was reading the New Mutants story just to get through it. There is interesting subject matter to mine, especially showing the differences between the New Mutants team featuring Karma, Warpath, Wolfsbane, etc and the youngest group of mutants featuring X-23’s clone, Anole, “Water boy” (?) and more. The Shadow King was the main villain of the very first X-men comic I ever read, Uncanny X-men # 279 (1991) and he even gets a shot at redemption on the island of Krakoa. Are the two generations of New Mutants able to sway his mutant host over to the side of good? You will have to read this trade to find out!
Finally, we reach Benjamin Percy’s two issues of Wolverine that are at the end of this trade. Benjamin Percy has earned his way to my top ten current comic book writers list with his work on Wolverine and X-Force. Besides Jason Aaron, I can’t think of another writer who has been able to capture Logan’s voice so perfectly. The strength of his Wolverine book does lie on Logan’s shoulders alone. Benjamin Percy has surrounded him with supporting characters that you want to read more about, every time they are off panel.
I was just the right age when Maverick first showed up in the X-men book. He was about as one note and uninteresting a 90s mutant mercenary could get. In this book, he is scary, and I felt legitimate fear when he was around CIA agent Jeff Bannister and his daughter. Wolverine is barely in his own comic, for these two issues, but Percy still has us locked in for what will happen next with his supporting cast.
The good thing about these special trades, that collect multiple issues from various Krakoan era X-men books, is that even if you get two issues of a book that is subpar, it is held up by the other quality books that are packed inside.
Do you all use Hoopla? It is a website connected to my library that has an amazing amount of movies, books, comic book trades, etc. Your library might not have Hoopla, specifically, but I bet they have an equivalent of it.
With Hoopla, I have been able to read thousands of dollars worth of comic book trades. For the past year, I have been playing catch up with the Krakoan era X-men books, bringing us up to Trials of X, Volume 7.
Let me give you some context. Since I was the perfect age for the golden days of Fox kids cartoons, my two favorite Big Two superhero franchises are Batman and The X-men. This won’t get me any points with the X-men fans that believe that the X-men begin and end with Chris Claremont’s run, but here are my three favorite X-men eras:
Grant Morrison’s New X-men
Mark Millar’s run on Ultimate X-men
Hickman’s Krakoa era
In those three runs, the soap opera character driven stories are still there, but they take a back seat to the amazing ideas that the writers are able to dream up.
In each of these eras, the writers took the main characters, took the idea of mutants and tried to push them as far as they could go. How far could you go with an entire race of random super powered beings, working together? The Karakoan era might be the peak example of this. When a mutant dies, they are brought back to life through the resurrection protocols. Mutant plants have dominated the pharmaceutical market, in the form of life extending, disease ending drugs. . Mutant villains and heroes are working together to build a utopian society.
In 2023, Krakoa fell. Mutants can’t have good things.
In TRIALS OF X, VOL. 7, we haven’t reached the fall yet. We get a single issue of Gerry Duggan’s X-men run, where Nightmare attempts to torment the dreams of the X-men living in New York. We get two issues of the New Mutants, where two different generations of X-men confront the Shadow King. Finally, there are two issues of Wolverine, where Benjamin Percy focuses a lot on Wolverine supporting characters - the mutant mercenary known as Maverick and CIA agent Jeff Bannister.
The artwork in the Nightmare story is top notch, as well as it should be for the flagship X-men title. Unfortunately the story feels brief and somewhat inconsequential. Spoilers- Jean Grey confronts Nightmare and gives him the equivalent of a spanking on the astral plane.
I would be lying if I said I was reading the New Mutants story just to get through it. There is interesting subject matter to mine, especially showing the differences between the New Mutants team featuring Karma, Warpath, Wolfsbane, etc and the youngest group of mutants featuring X-23’s clone, Anole, “Water boy” (?) and more. The Shadow King was the main villain of the very first X-men comic I ever read, Uncanny X-men # 279 (1991) and he even gets a shot at redemption on the island of Krakoa. Are the two generations of New Mutants able to sway his mutant host over to the side of good? You will have to read this trade to find out!
Finally, we reach Benjamin Percy’s two issues of Wolverine that are at the end of this trade. Benjamin Percy has earned his way to my top ten current comic book writers list with his work on Wolverine and X-Force. Besides Jason Aaron, I can’t think of another writer who has been able to capture Logan’s voice so perfectly. The strength of his Wolverine book does lie on Logan’s shoulders alone. Benjamin Percy has surrounded him with supporting characters that you want to read more about, every time they are off panel.
I was just the right age when Maverick first showed up in the X-men book. He was about as one note and uninteresting a 90s mutant mercenary could get. In this book, he is scary, and I felt legitimate fear when he was around CIA agent Jeff Bannister and his daughter. Wolverine is barely in his own comic, for these two issues, but Percy still has us locked in for what will happen next with his supporting cast.
The good thing about these special trades, that collect multiple issues from various Krakoan era X-men books, is that even if you get two issues of a book that is subpar, it is held up by the other quality books that are packed inside.
May 23, 2023
So many of these X-books start with a really cool first issue that either ties up a bunch of storylines, or else introduces an entirely new thread in the Krakoan part of the Marvel univere only to end up getting bogged down in the more mediocre issues of less interesting stories, that it's refreshing that this one starts off with an absolute turd and builds to a decent, if not excellent climax.
X-Men #4 may be the worst issue of the Krakoan era. It's about Nightmare, a villain who gives ... nightmares to the X-Men. Guys, they are So Full Of Angst. While visually striking, there is no point to this issue. The crisp dialog from the last few issues is gone, the pacing is stupid, the characters don't develop so much as collapse in on theit tritest, most familiar tropes. It is a stinker of a book that only gets one star because the art was three or four stars. And it pulled the book up to a one star.
One star.
New Mutants # 22 & #23. I've been down on Vita Ayala's New Mutants since it started. While I appreciate the various artists making nodds to the Sinkiewicz-era of New Mutants, the story about the Shadow King has been an absolute mess. Much like most of Alaya's Children of the Atom by Vita Ayala, Vol. 1 was a mess. Bad pacing, very poor dialog bouncing from over-exposition to flat one-liners. But then near the end of the run, something clicked, and there was one issue that I really liked, and it gave me hope. And in this volume, New Mutants finally clicks, and I have hope again. Both of these issues, focused on the younger New Mutants rescuing the senior members of the team fro The Shadow King, are pretty good. I'm not really a fan of making Shadow King's origin tied into possible abuse as a child because Ugh, yea, I've read that story before time and again, and it was better almost each time. But, overall, this worked. And while some of that is Ayala being clearer with their story without over-telegraphing of it, a LOT of the heavy lifting is the art. It's gorgeous, atypical if not ground breaking, and just exactly what this story needed.
Four stars.
Wolverine #17 & 18. This was ok. So much time has passed (reading this in the Reign Of X/Trials of X books) since the last Wolverine issue involving the former(?) police officer that it took me a while to piece things back together. But it's an interesting story. The Maverick character's motivations are muddy, and he doesn't seem that interesting. But that has been true since he was introduced in the early 90s.
Three stars.
X-Men #4 may be the worst issue of the Krakoan era. It's about Nightmare, a villain who gives ... nightmares to the X-Men. Guys, they are So Full Of Angst. While visually striking, there is no point to this issue. The crisp dialog from the last few issues is gone, the pacing is stupid, the characters don't develop so much as collapse in on theit tritest, most familiar tropes. It is a stinker of a book that only gets one star because the art was three or four stars. And it pulled the book up to a one star.
One star.
New Mutants # 22 & #23. I've been down on Vita Ayala's New Mutants since it started. While I appreciate the various artists making nodds to the Sinkiewicz-era of New Mutants, the story about the Shadow King has been an absolute mess. Much like most of Alaya's Children of the Atom by Vita Ayala, Vol. 1 was a mess. Bad pacing, very poor dialog bouncing from over-exposition to flat one-liners. But then near the end of the run, something clicked, and there was one issue that I really liked, and it gave me hope. And in this volume, New Mutants finally clicks, and I have hope again. Both of these issues, focused on the younger New Mutants rescuing the senior members of the team fro The Shadow King, are pretty good. I'm not really a fan of making Shadow King's origin tied into possible abuse as a child because Ugh, yea, I've read that story before time and again, and it was better almost each time. But, overall, this worked. And while some of that is Ayala being clearer with their story without over-telegraphing of it, a LOT of the heavy lifting is the art. It's gorgeous, atypical if not ground breaking, and just exactly what this story needed.
Four stars.
Wolverine #17 & 18. This was ok. So much time has passed (reading this in the Reign Of X/Trials of X books) since the last Wolverine issue involving the former(?) police officer that it took me a while to piece things back together. But it's an interesting story. The Maverick character's motivations are muddy, and he doesn't seem that interesting. But that has been true since he was introduced in the early 90s.
Three stars.
January 2, 2024
Of course, my first completed book for the year is a comic, but this is one heck of a title to start things with.
For recent volumes of Trials of X, I can't say that the New Mutants issues have been all that gripping. But this volume helps re-frame everything to make a lot more sense. I appreciate how this truly is a comic about the younger mutants and not just the original New Mutants (who are now generally older). There's an inherent thread of hope and innocence that comes with viewing the world from younger eyes and I like how that was needed in order to get through Shadow King.
The Wolverine comics are pretty much just X-Force comics at this point and how he manages his side "cases" alongside larger X-Force operations in that title is anyone's guess, but we'll just roll with it. The current arc is rather intriguing but the "ending" for now felt a little rushed. But hey, Maverick!
For recent volumes of Trials of X, I can't say that the New Mutants issues have been all that gripping. But this volume helps re-frame everything to make a lot more sense. I appreciate how this truly is a comic about the younger mutants and not just the original New Mutants (who are now generally older). There's an inherent thread of hope and innocence that comes with viewing the world from younger eyes and I like how that was needed in order to get through Shadow King.
The Wolverine comics are pretty much just X-Force comics at this point and how he manages his side "cases" alongside larger X-Force operations in that title is anyone's guess, but we'll just roll with it. The current arc is rather intriguing but the "ending" for now felt a little rushed. But hey, Maverick!
September 9, 2024
Collection:
X-Men #4
New Mutants #22-23
Wolverine #17-18
X-Men #4
Great art and nice short story, but I'll guess they only did this one to sort out the time pacing with other Marvel events, i.e... Doctor Strange's death.
New Mutants #22-23
Finally, this story comes to a wrap (it has been going on for far too long with a lot of branches of contact that never connected). Only wish Farouk had a better presentation as a character, including a better back story (from someone who never heard about them). Loved the forms the Lost Club took while in Farouk's astral plane. I hope they can keep them.
Wolverine #17-18
Maverick is kind of an asshole and he should keep company to Sabretooth.
X-Men #4
New Mutants #22-23
Wolverine #17-18
X-Men #4
Great art and nice short story, but I'll guess they only did this one to sort out the time pacing with other Marvel events, i.e... Doctor Strange's death.
New Mutants #22-23
Finally, this story comes to a wrap (it has been going on for far too long with a lot of branches of contact that never connected). Only wish Farouk had a better presentation as a character, including a better back story (from someone who never heard about them). Loved the forms the Lost Club took while in Farouk's astral plane. I hope they can keep them.
Wolverine #17-18
Maverick is kind of an asshole and he should keep company to Sabretooth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 27, 2023
All five issues here are fine, but none of them are great. The Jean Grey focused X-Men issue that opens the collection is yet another iteration of how perfect Jean is, and the millionth iteration needs something new to be compelling. The best thing I can say about the New Mutants issues are that it finally means the end of the Shadow King arc, probably. The two Wolverine issues are, like everything else, fine. It feels like The Collector is meant to be a recurring villain, and I just can't muster up much enthusiasm for that.
August 18, 2025
X-Men: I feel like I never see Nightmare go up against anyone competent for more than a single issue. Same here, goofy to think he can fight the X-Men.
New-Mutants: 1000% love them asking Gabby for some "snikt family" backup. This arc with the shadow king was in general one of the highlights of Trials of X for me.
Wolverine: This was also a solid conclusion of an arc. Interested to see where the CIA stuff is going.
New-Mutants: 1000% love them asking Gabby for some "snikt family" backup. This arc with the shadow king was in general one of the highlights of Trials of X for me.
Wolverine: This was also a solid conclusion of an arc. Interested to see where the CIA stuff is going.
April 25, 2023
The weakest volume in some time, a really strong Jean Grey story is followed by a weak pair of New Mutants and Wolverine stories, with especially rushed art on the latter. Everything felt over the top and cartoony in those issues.
May 31, 2024
This volume had some enjoyable notes over the last. Fun to see Nightmare handled by unlikely foes. Wolverine and Maverick double cross like episodes of Miami Vice. The downside is New Mutants: horrendous art. Couldn't care less about the shadow king, but like The Lost Club.
January 24, 2023
X-Men (2021) 4 - 3/5
New Mutants (2019) 22-23 - 3.5/5 (I don't really care for the plot here much but the art is fantastic)
Wolverine (2020) 17-18 - 5/5
New Mutants (2019) 22-23 - 3.5/5 (I don't really care for the plot here much but the art is fantastic)
Wolverine (2020) 17-18 - 5/5
July 26, 2023
3.75
I liked the Wolverine story. The New Mutants were trippy.
I liked the Wolverine story. The New Mutants were trippy.
March 5, 2024
Very enjoyable
This is a much better volume than previous ones. All very enjoyable stories. I liked the change around shadow king. Wolverine storyline was good fast paced story.
This is a much better volume than previous ones. All very enjoyable stories. I liked the change around shadow king. Wolverine storyline was good fast paced story.
June 28, 2024
Love Wolverine's, X-Force and the New Mutants storylines!
TW for violence, blood, mind control, guns, murder, mentions of cancer.
TW for violence, blood, mind control, guns, murder, mentions of cancer.
February 16, 2025
Still bothers me that, suddenly, Maverick has "no moral compass" and never had one either, but I guess I should be glad he's making appearances at all.
March 29, 2025
i love love love love LOVE the art in new mutants so much. also jeff bannister is such a fun side character i think him and logan should raise his daughter together <3
June 2, 2023
Yet another review that I wrote that has disappeared.
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