Marauders #7 Review/Spoilers: Welcome to the Future

[Rift]

Lockheed is in Connecticut, watching a battle between Stringfellow, and a priest called Scratch. (Note that there is another Scratch in 616, but he seems to have different powers.) They appear to be in a hospital. Stringfellow is furious that Brimstone Love didn't show up when Stringfellow "offered him [his] future." He tries to make Scratch's bones jelly, but Scratch is immune. He kills Stringfellow. Lockheed notices a rat.

Back on Krakoa, Cerebra is planting a Gate Flower on the New Marauder so Bishop - the Captain Commander - can hop between places. She says that she'll be able to scan the timedrive for the Five, but she's not ready to join the Marauders just yet.

In a town called Captain America, Nebraska. The Marauders are looking for a mutant, who has been engaging with the racist Watchdogs who control the town. The mutant is kicking their asses, but he risks endangering all the stupid civilians in the process. A Watchdog shows up on a dirtbike and attempts to run them over, but Somnus punches him in the face and knocks him off his bike.

Now enter the new mutant: Tulkas, from Orlando's 2099 story! Here, he's called Horsepower. He's an adrenokinetic and drifter who's body burns superadrenaline in many ways. Youth, regeneration, strength. But he still gets it from thrills. He's a social media star for fighting terror cells. He needs the rush, but he does genuinely want to help and is also very sexy.

He's battling the Watchdogs. His rampage is threatening to level the entire town. While it would be pretty funny for some humans to lose their homes, Hellion famously loves Nebraska, so they need to keep this place in check. Psylocke shoots some psychic arrows, tipped with narcoleptic suggestions. Tulkas would be burn through those, but she can at least knock out the Watchdogs.

Somnus keeps them in check with his powers. Aurora is on lightspeed cleanup and medical duty. Tulkas is mad. Fang/Daken engages him in a fight, but his claws break upon contact with Tulkas' hot body. However, he's able to catch one of his broken claws and stab it through the dude's jaw.

Data page time: Doctor Nemesis talks about Cerebra's potential. While she lacks the space of a Cerebro helm, she's a biometric telepath. She can read DNA and manipulate X-Genes. (Maybe there's hope for Armageddon Man yet?) They believe that she can get the DNA and minds from the timedrive. If given an egg, she could implant the DNA and mind in utero, instead of the current two-part process. And while she can only scan and store one person at a time, she might be able to temporarily hold more after eating a boost fruit.

Back to Krakoa. Christian is watering the source of their boost fruits, Smerdyakov, with vodka. Christian is dressed like a slut and, fitting for the new Red Monarch, is wearing all-red. Bishop's gathering a stock of boost fruit for the New Marauder. Cerebra and Bishop muse about being from different futures, and Bishop quips that he, Rachel and Cable placed bets on when apples go extinct. Cerebra has never even heard of an apple, but she already made a bet with Psylocke; Kwannon thinks there's only one mutant on the drive, but Shakti thinks there are three. And thanks to eating the Boost Fruits, she's able to detect and collect them.

Later, the Marauders (minus Cerebra, who didn't want a reminder of popping out of an egg so soon) witness the birth of the first Threshold mutant: Amass! Psylocke casually gloats that she was right about there being only one mutant, not three. But Grave and Theia pop out of the egg, as well! Note that they're all wearing clothes when they're reborn, and that Cerebra won the bet.



Cassandra makes a quip, but Kitty tells her to stay the hell away from them. Katherine Pryde tries to introduce herself to the newcomers, but they find the English language horrible and comment that these people don't have viral translators. Theia wonders, "Is this the past or the future? Have we made it?"

Kitty explains that they died during transit, but they were resurrected and given English plug-ins. Crave wonders what a mutant is, and what a Katherine is. Theia says that she can feel they're compatible with mutants, who are "enriched," like them.

Theia drops some lore: with the Threshold on the verge of extinction, the final three gathered. Theia's mastery of local gravity let her pierce time. Crave is a hedonist who can eat anything to survive. Amass is a provocateur who can combine them into a single being. Together, they made a living time capsule.

So technically, Psylocke and Cerebra were both right: the three became one.

Bishop looks at Nova with disgust and tells her to telepathically send them a report on what has happened, and to do nothing else. The trio are naturally pretty pissed to learn that the Shi'ar are a thriving empire. Tempo is apologetic and tries to relate to the Threshold, saying that she's lost time, herself.

The Marauders telepathically communicate amongst themselves. Aurora wonders if this was all a set-up by Kin Crimson and Nova, and the puzzle box that started this mess could have simply been sent back in time by a chronokinetic, just to trick them. Daken wonders how there could be this entire society in the past, that left no evidence. And how could there be mutants before humans? Bishop drops the Oxygenation Catastrophe as a possible reason, while Psylocke says that the Threshold show no signs of deception - visual, psychic or otherwise. But they do know about Hellion, because his greatness transcends space and time.

The Threshold seem to like Tempo. They explain how they turned a virus into a universal translator, but they never solved death like Krakoans. The Marauders are then shown a flashback of the Threshold's society: everyone is dressed like what the '80's thought the future would be like. They lived in some sort of ultra-modern city with plantlife and an enormous tree or mushroom above them.

Threshold lore: every 20 years, a generation of Threshold are born from the birthing sea, and are raised by everyone. Emboldened by their early victory over the Shi'ar, and comfortable with their strengths, they turned to battling internal threats: hardships with biomachines, disease with smart medicines, discord with viral communications. This lead to reform, with the governance splitting into two houses: Enriched (mutants) and Enshrined (humans.) Except unlike modern society, the minority were cherished and treated well. Every generation had it better than the last, and they even had gay people. This was their Age of Light.

Then came the Unbreathing, an industrial, anaerobic society of monsters. They had been devastated by the "Oxygen War" and were dormant for ages, but resurfaced and started shooting them with guns. They could take away air, suffocating anything that needed oxygen. But they had no choice, since air kills them - it's either they take away the air and kill the Threshold, or die.

The Threshold's fear drove them to creating hybrid bacteria to invade the Unbreathing's cities. But the bacteria became self-aware, possessed the Threshold, and made them kill each other. The few who fought infection were led by Grove. Grove chose the three we see today to timedrive it up and yeet themselves into space.

Theia and Tempo start eye-banging, which is noted by Amass, who jokes that Theia is stealing his girl. (I'm assuming they're a guy, since Aurora said that they never chance with Tempo.)

Theia asks Krakoa for aid, to help save the rest of their people. Kitty accepts the mission. Nova quips again, but Kitty snaps and tells basically tells her to shut the hell up. But Cassandra says that their captain is basically throwing them to the wolves here. After stealing a look at the Threshold's memories, she knows what their enemies would be: the sibling bacteria, Arkeap and Sublime.

Notes:

• Cerebra mentions that in 2099, they heard stories of Krakoa taking in refugees from the future.
• Tulkas, to Fang as the latter hits him: "You talk cute, man bun! Hit cuter!"
• He also calls Daken's attacks "Foreplay."
  
  

• For the record, I think this Tulkas was born in this era, and the one we see in 2099 is him in the future. I say this because this one doesn't seem to be a refugee from the future.
• In a flashback to the Threshold's early life, there's a mutant who looks like a striped Daken. There's also a gay Gentle lookalike.
• Kitty says that Krakoa "doesn't accept no-win scenarios." I still think BobbysWorld might be right about the Threshold, and that quote is foreshadowing.
• I love all the bits of continuity, from small characters, to plotlines and ideas. We need more of this in the MU.
• Tulkas I love you