X-Men: Before The Fall — Heralds of Apocalypse #1 cover Krakoa’s imperial era finally starts to crack under immense pressure in X-Men: Before The Fall — Heralds of Apocalypse #1.

As the title alludes, Before The Fall — Heralds of Apocalypse is the first of several upcoming one-shots meant to set up “Fall of X,” the latest phase of the Krakoa saga following the events of Sins of Sinister from earlier this year. The scope of this new chapter isn’t yet known or if it’ll actually be the end of the Krakoa saga (I’m guessing it isn’t; they’d explicitly tell us if it was) but regardless, it certainly seems like our merry mutants will be going through it for the rest of the year. The question is this: will they be able to pick themselves back up after the fall?

In this installment, we finally catch up with Apocalypse after his exile in X of Swords and Krakoa’s reunification with its deadlier sibling, Arakko. If you guessed things between Apocalypse and his formerly-estranged wife Genesis went swimmingly upon his return, you would unfortunately be wrong; they’re still at each other’s throats. (Figuratively and literally, as we see in this issue.) With mutantkind at a crossroads in their looming struggle, so are these quarreling lovers, and they must find a way to live with one another… or potentially die trying.

As written by Al Ewing, Before The Fall — Heralds of Apocalypse is equal parts epic in tone but otherwise small in scale. The bulk of the issue is essentially one long fight scene with bits of conversation and exposition seeded throughout, but Ewing knows what he’s doing. He makes it an enthralling read with such high stakes on the line for both, while the extended art team (Luca Pizzari, Stefano Landini, Raphael Pimento, Ceci de la Cruz) sells his script with gorgeously rendered art. YMMV whether or not this issue is an “essential” read (prelude-y interludes like these vary on that scale) but for those looking to reunite with an old friend (foe?) before shit goes down for the X-Men, you’ll probably want to sit down with this one.