Warning! Spoilers for Marauders #7 ahead!A recent galaxy-spanning adventure by Kitty Pryde and her Marauders has upended everything readers thought they knew about Marvel history, X-Men and mutantkind, and may provide a glimpse into Krakoa’s future downfall.
Krakoa has already altered (or “retconned”) some facts about the Marvel Universe’s history, from the existence of a prehistoric mutant civilization in the now-destroyed land of Okkara to Apocalypse having heroic motivations for his many atrocities over the years. While some readers might prefer a stricter adherence to established continuity, it’s undeniable that these new ideas have provided a number of unique and well-regarded storylines, like the Martian Arakki civilization currently explored in a number of titles. But a recent storyline has provided readers with a brand-new bombshell that dwarfs the changes so far – and it bodes ill for Krakoa’s long-term survival.
In Marauders by Steve Orlando and Eleonora Carlini, the eponymous team travels through time and space, teaming up with old foes like Cassandra Nova, and new allies like the time-displaced Cerebra in order to resolve a mystery of a supposed ancient mutant civilization. After a number of tribulations, the team prevails, and the remaining members of the ancient mutant civilization known as Threshold are reborn in Krakoa. They share their story in Marauders #7, and the present-day mutants should start seeing red flags as their story parallels Krakoa’s current struggles. Threshold was a powerful mutant civilization, well ahead of its time, that utilized mutant gifts in much the same way that Krakoa does. They were peaceful and benevolent, but that didn’t stop outsiders from hating them and ultimately managing to obliterate them.
Threshold Provides A Preview For the Fall of X
In a major change to the history of the Marvel Universe, Thresholders met and defeated the Shi’Ar, growing “comfortable in their own strength” before being faced with the Unbreathing, an anaerobic underwater species that could not physically coexist with the oxygen-rich environment the mammalian Thresholders needed. In the war against the Unbreathing, the Thresholders developed powerful biological weapons – weapons that ended up destroying their civilization. Readers of Jonathan Hickman’s House of X/Powers of X and Inferno will likely see parallels to some of Moira’s other timelines, as well as the current and upcoming threats faced by Threshold. Krakoa too defeated a malevolent force from beyond (the demons of Amenth in the X of Swords event), which brought about the “Reign of X” that has seen Krakoa at its strongest. However, like Threshold, Krakoa faces a threat that sees mutantkind as an evolutionary obstacle to its own survival – the human supremacists at ORCHIS. And Krakoa too has been allowing Mr. Sinister a fairly free hand in conducting experiments and developing biological weapons for the benefit of mutantkind. Powers of X showed that Sinister will create chimeras, which in at least one timeline end up betraying mutantkind and wiping out Krakoa… like the Thresholders’ own weapons did to them.
Recent announcements of the upcoming event Fall of X seem to confirm this theory, that the pieces are slowly falling into place that will leave Krakoa weakened or gone by the end of it. Several time travelers, like Cable and Cerebra, have commented that this is a golden age of mutantkind, but a golden age that ends. Marauders seems to be telling a surprisingly fatalistic story: that mutantkind, no matter how much it rises above, will ultimately find itself facing the same archetypal threats, and be destroyed from within. The Marauders may have saved the last Thresholders from Shi’Ar space, but their story should serve as a warning to Krakoa that imminent doom is always a risk for the X-Men and mutants as a whole.
