X-Men: Marvel Comics Hints At Big Plans For A Very Dangerous Enemy
There are certain parts of the X-Men comics mythos that I believed would never see the big screen or get too much lore pumped in due to certain conflicts of interests – or just being too weird. Three examples of that all come from the same place. Space
No one loves it when the X-Men go to space, more than me. When rumors of them getting kicked off of the planet in favor of the Inhumans popped up – I wasn’t all that annoyed. I was actually looking forward to it. That is until they didn’t end up in space. No. They got sent to Limbo. Literally.
The Shi’ar have gotten plenty of development, but the other two – the Phalanx and the Brood… not so much outside of the occasional “big bad of the month” roles. The Phalanx have been used little more than twice since their 92’ debut and the Brood even less than that. That is, however, until Jonathan Hickman took up residence with the X-Men.
The Phalanx played a small-big part in last summer’s Powers of X – but the Brood have made two appearances in as many months. While they were mentioned in the same Powers of X segment as the Phalanx – they were also inserted into the New Mutants book with mention of the “King Egg.”
Before we get too far into that nasty piece of new lore – why don’t we get reacquainted with what the Brood are. Developed by Chris Claremont and artist David Cockrum, the Brood debuted in Uncanny X-Men #155 in 1982. Essentially, they are hive-based space bugs that have a pension for swarming civilizations.
In terms of appearance and function – they are not very dissimilar from the Xenomorphs from the Alien movie franchise. In my opinion, that was the biggest reason for them never being able to hit the big screen (other than a lack of imagination, I mean). I suppose Disney proved me wrong with the purchase of that particular property’s studio.
A single Brood hive can number in the hundreds of millions, increasing their population by infecting other sentient beings with their larva. I say “other sentient beings” because the Brood themselves – although ravenous and savage – have sporadically displayed signs of intelligence and even speech. Normally from queens, or newly infected victims.
The Brood are primarily an X-Men antagonist but have also been a point of detestation for Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) – another project of Chris Claremont. While I doubt Danvers is going to be involved any time soon, current-day X-Men are waist-deep in the critters.
In New Mutants #1, the team of young mutants were the first to come into contact with the King Egg – an artificially developed Kree weapon created to manipulate the entire Brood race. Unfortunately, the kids didn’t know that and decided to bring it home as a souvenir. Outside of its casing, the egg’s intergalactically detectable pheromones attracted droves of Brood to Krakoa in X-Men #8.
Now a major X-Men problem – Cyclops and several others took possession of the egg and made way for space with several hives in pursuit. The X-Men, alongside Gladiator, his son, and several members of the Imperial Guard battled against hordes of Brood before they suddenly halted their attack.
Broo – a hyper-intelligent, mutated Brood and X-Man – had taken it upon himself to ingest the contents of the King Egg. Doing so gave him control over every Brood in the quadrant. Which was the desired effect the Kree scientists that created it intended for it have.
When the Kree discovered the Brood eight thousand years ago – the egg was their means of turning them in a weapon by gaining control of the hive queens. Currently, there are six-trillion drones and one thousand queens spread across ten thousand worlds. The very amount they predicted necessary to eventually topple their intergalactic rivals – the Shi’ar.
I believe it’s obvious Hickman has big plans for Marvel’s answer to xenomorphs. Chances are, Disney may be using them as well, if the recent uncovering of the Thor: The Dark World connection holds any weight.
Thanks to coronavirus related setbacks and the slow death of the comic book industry as we know it – we’ll have to wait a bit longer than usual to see how this story wraps up. What do you think about Brood? Happy their back? Not so much? Let us know below.
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