Krakoa may have simply begun its run as the catalyst for a new team of X-Men, but the mutant island has since evolved to become the basis for two generations of the X-Men comic book pathos, in 1975's Giant-Size X-Men and the more recent House of X. Krakoa has played a key part in the current X-Men reboot from Jonathan Hickman, but what was it like before it?
Legendary writer Len Wein (Batman, The Incredible Hulk) and admired artist Dave Cockrum's (The Avengers, Ms. Marvel) Giant-Size X-Men #1 was not only a milestone in that introduced a strange new antagonist for the X-Men team but Krakoa brought upon a new era for the merry mutants, the "All New All Different X-Men".
Prior to Krakoa's introduction, the X-Men title consisted of members Cyclops, Marvel Girl a.k.a. Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, Angel, Havok, and Polaris the daughter of Magneto. Following Krakoa's capture of the original X-Men team members, Professor X called for reinforcements to Krakoa in the form of new international mutants Storm, Colossus, Thunderbird, Nightcrawler, Banshee, Sunfire, and Wolverine. However, Professor X and Cyclops' deterrent would be exactly what the mutant had planned for.
Krakoa initially gained its additional strength by draining the life energies of the original X-Men, who were unaware that the mutant they had been sent to find was the island itself. However, the X-Men's energies were not keeping the island at bay. Krakoa required other mutants to sustain themselves completely. After a prolonged battle with two eras of X-Men, Storm and Polaris seemingly vanquished Krakoa by sending the mutant island into space. Through a series of later retcons, Marvel would reveal that Krakoa had not been sent out to perish in space as originally perceived but instead retrieved by cosmic entity The Stranger. Krakoa was revived as a central figure in the grand scheme of writer Jonathan Hickman (Fantastic Four, Secret Wars)'s House of X, which served as a modern relaunch of the X-Men comic title, having been bogged down by retcons and timeline mishaps. No longer simply a hostile monster, Krakoa would be repurposed by Hickman as the republic home nation for Earth's mutants.
Krakoa, "The Island That Walks Like a Man", began as an ordinary island that would eventually succumb to a massive amount of radiation acquired from atomic testing. The effects of the radiation had given the island its own life essence while every living creature on the land merged as one, thus creating Krakoa. Following 2019's relaunch, it was revealed that Krakoa had once been apart of a larger sentient island entity called Okkara before being split apart along with its twin Arakko.
The X-Men's encounter with Krakoa in both the 1970s and 2019 represented a major shift in the X-Men title. Krakoa was essentially serving the same role it played initially in that the island was bringing forth a new generation of X-Men members for a new generation of readers. However, whereas Krakoa was once on the side of evil the island is now an ally, serving as the linchpin that would unite not only the X-Men but a large portion of the Earth's mutant population.