Previews for the next wave of X-Men comics have just made the mutant nation of Krakoa creepier than ever before. Jonathan Hickman's relaunch of the X-Men franchise has seen the world's mutants gather on the island of Krakoa, which they claim as a new mutant paradise.
Krakoa hails from 1975's classic Giant-Size X-Men #1, where it was a living island that feasted on mutant energy. Hickman has reinvented it as a living organism, an entity that was torn apart by the Twilight Sword millennia ago, and that has always longed to be whole. Apocalypse has ancient ties to Krakoa, and seems to have returned to the island with dark purposes of his own.
Newsarama has just released a preview for next week's Fallen Angels #1, and it reveals that Krakoa may be a whole lot more sinister than readers had realized. The book stars Kwannon, the psychic assassin who's now taken up the identity of Psylocke, and it opens with her reflecting on the paradisical world she now lives in. Although Kwannon doesn't find it disturbing in the slightest, she notes that "even spilled blood... brings new life."
Psylocke considers this idyllic, but the idea of flora and fauna that feeds off blood is pretty chilling. Notice that the spilled blood feeds a flower, and that then a Krakoan butterfly is drawn to the wound - perhaps sensing more food. This is all the more concerning given X-Force #1 revealed that Krakoa has begun to evolve predators, creatures that prey upon mutants. According to Wolverine, he'd been hunting the creature for several days, and it had left a lot of bones behind. It had presumably also shed a lot of blood, all of which would have fallen on Krakoan soil and led to the creation of new life.
It's also quite suspicious that Psylocke feels that "each breath tastes of jasmine." In Psylocke's native Japan, jasmine is strongly associated with the kind of temples she grew up frequenting. As such, it's hard not to conclude that Krakoa is manipulating the local environment in an attempt to put Psylocke at her ease. It all feels similar to the Venus fly trap, a carnivorous plant that secretes nectar on its leaves. Insects are drawn to the leaves, triggering the trip hairs on the outside of the trap, and it snaps shut to consume its prey. It looks as though Psylocke isn't falling for it - but the rest of the X-Men are.
Source: Newsarama