Our bombastic story starts off in a small town in
Germany, where a blue, agile mutant named Kurt Wagner is being chased by an
angry mob. Kurt realizes they intend to kill him and fights back before
eventually getting overwhelmed. Just before the mob can kill him, Kurt is saved
by Professor Charles Xavier, who invites Kurt back to his school, both to
realize his potential and for a specific mission. Professor Xavier then travels
the world recruiting other mutants for his cause. He finds Wolverine in Canada,
who happily leaves with the Professor after thinking he’ll have more freedom
than with Department H. Professor Xavier then locates and recruits Banshee, an
old, redeemed enemy of the X-Men. He then travels to a small area in Kenya,
where he finds a woman named Ororo Munroe, revered a goddess for her ability to
control the weather, and implores her to use her wondrous gifts for the
betterment of the whole world.
In Japan, Professor Xavier calls upon another former
acquaintance of the X-Men, Sunfire. In Russia, he finds a large young man named
Piotr Rasputin, just after Piotr used his ability to turn into organic steel to
save his sister Illyana from a runaway tractor. Though Piotr is reluctant to
leave his home, he departs with Xavier for the greater good. Finally, Xavier
locates John Proudstar in Arizona, a young Native American with a chip on his
shoulder, and convinces him to join his cause as well. With this new team
assembled back at his school, with new costumes to boot, Professor Xavier
psychically teaches the whole team English before turning things over to
Cyclops. Cyclops reveals that he and the original team of X-Men, which included
Jean Grey, Iceman, Angel, Havok, and Polaris, were sent to locate a new mutant
that Cerebro had discovered on the island of Krakoa. While there, the whole
team suddenly vanished and Cyclops found himself on his way back home, unsure
of what exactly happened.
Cyclops then reveals that this new team’s mission is
to fly to Krakoa to rescue the old team from whatever may have befallen them.
Sunfire refuses to help fellow mutants that he doesn’t even like and the rest
leave without him. While on the way to Krakoa, Sunfire reappears, having
decided to help after all. When they reach Krakoa, the X-Men split into pairs,
in order to investigate the island from all directions. Storm and Colossus
search from the north, Wolverine and Banshee from the east, Nightcrawler and
Sunfire from the south, and finally Cyclops and Thunderbird from the west.
After Cyclops and Thunderbird land, they discover that the Blackbird jet has disappeared,
and a strange temple has sprung up in the center of the island. The four pairs
each make their way to the temple, with each encountering their own obstacles
along the way. They all meet in the center and break down the door to the
temple, wherein they find the original X-Men team tangled up in strange vines
that seem to be feeding on them!
They free the original team and Angel reveals the
shocking truth, that Krakoa IS the new mutant! The result of atomic testing,
the consciousnesses of every living organism on the island got fused together
into the central consciousness of Krakoa! Turns out, Krakoa let Cyclops go to
gather more mutants for him to feed on, while psychically influencing Xavier to
seek them out. The X-Men fight back against Krakoa but find their attacks
largely ineffective until Professor Xavier joins the battle from afar, psychically
attacking Krakoa while concocting a plan to stop him. The other X-Men keep
Krakoa busy while Storm charges up Polaris with electrical energy,
supercharging her magnetic powers. This culminates in a magnetic blast straight
down to the center of the earth, causing gravity to fail for Krakoa, sending
him shooting off into space! The X-Men escape in an ice dome courtesy of
Iceman, before finding their Blackbird jet so that they can return home. On the
way home, Angel ponders the final note of the issue, which is, “What are we
going to do with thirteen X-Men?”