Warning: Spoilers for Marauders #4 ahead!
With Marauders #4 finally revealing the dark secret behind Marvel's billions of years old mutant ancestors, it has become clear that the first-ever X-Men team was actually formed millennia ago. With the introduction of Threshold, a thriving mutant society that existed on Earth before humanity ever formed, Marvel has introduced a whole new cast of potential mutant characters to explore, including Threshold's official X-Men team.
Mutants have always been assumed to be an evolutionary offset of humanity, hence why they have been called Homo superior in Marvel stories for decades, but the reveal of Threshold has completely retconned that history, changing everything fans know about the history of mutants at Marvel. The reveal of Threshold also unveils a dark secret from ancient Shi'ar history, namely the fact that the Shi'ar wiped out all of the ancient mutants of Threshold out of fear and humiliation, altering the long history between the Shi'ar Empire and mutantkind ever further.
In Jason Aaron's recent run on Avengers it was established that there were mutants a million years ago, during the height of the 1,000,000 BC Avengers team, which already retcons the long-established Marvel fact that Selene was the oldest mutant born on Earth. The reveal of Threshold is a truly shocking revelation, one that will reverberate across Marvel history for years to come, but it is also encouraging to know that there have always been mutants, and where there are mutants there is always an X-Men team. Marauders #4,= by Steven Orlando, Eleanora Carlini, and Matt Milla, finally shows a glimpse at what the society of Threshold looked like, a clearly advanced and evolved civilization, and one with an organized and powerful army that easily fended off a contingent of ancient Shi'ar raiders. The Shi'ar lost once in an attack on Threshold and came back with much more fire power, so "...Threshold answered with five heroes," a team of mutants who were clearly chosen to represent the people of Threshold in battle against their Shi'ar foes.
The designs of the five mutants forming Threshold's ancient X-Men team are all unique and awesome, including one with a head that is a bush (potentially an ancient ancestor of the living island Krakoa?), and a slug-like mutant. The ancient X-Men all have matching attire, gorgeous all-black outfits with glowing purple accents, and are clearly incredibly powerful, seeing as they absolutely slaughtered the Shi'ar attackers, including the Shi'ar's "doomsday weapon," a being known as Obliterator. The Shi'ar retreated, and for years became stronger and more evolved, but by the time they returned to Earth the society of Threshold had mysteriously disappeared, with mutants not reappearing until the Phoenix Force's influence in 1,000,000 BC and then again with the coming of Okarra, the birth place of Apocalypse and the Arakki mutants. With Marauders #4 ending in a time travel back into the past, it seems that an upcoming issue will have Kate Pryde's team of mutant rescuers exploring Threshold themselves, and hopefully becoming better acquainted with the epic ancient X-Men team.
It is obvious that the mutants of Earth have never known peace, and just as Charles Xavier formed the X-Men to defend the planet and mutantkind from threats, so to did the leaders of Threshold form the very first team of X-Men, a team that readers will hopefully get more stories about in the near future.
Marauders #4 is in stores now!