Acanti

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Acanti
Acanti3.jpg
The Acanti as depicted in Uncanny X-Men #166 (November 1982). Art by Paul Smith (penciller), Bob Wiacek (inker), and Lynn Varley (colorist).
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance Uncanny X-Men #156 (April 1982)
Created by Chris Claremont (writer)
Dave Cockrum (artist)

The Acanti are a race of fictional whale-like aliens appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They have appeared in Uncanny X-Men within the Marvel Comics universe. They were created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Dave Cockrum. [1] Many of them were enslaved by the Brood empire.

Contents

Physical characteristics

The Acanti are colossal whale-like creatures with several pairs of fins and widely spaced eyes. An adult Acanti can grow to several miles in length, and even an infant is large enough to swallow a spaceship. [2] They communicate through psionic sounds referred to as songs and can fly faster than the speed of light without assistance. [3] [4] [5]

Fictional race biography

The Acanti are an ancient species which peacefully wanders through space, benevolent and compassionate by nature. The Acanti are led by one individual known as the Prophet-Singer. The Prophet-Singer is the repository of the Acanti's racial Soul, a collective semi-mystical force that links and motivates the Acanti species. As death approaches, the Acanti typically hurl themselves into stars. The Prophet-Singer of each generation also does so, releasing the Soul to join the body of the next Prophet-Singer. [6] [4]

Upon migrating to the Milky Way galaxy, the Brood begin to enslave the Acanti to take advantage of their natural ability to travel at speeds exceeding light. [3] The Brood infect individual Acanti with the Slaver Virus, a disease which destroys the higher cognitive functions of their minds, enabling them to be easily controlled and converted into living starships. The Brood succeed in enslaving the Acanti Prophet-Singer, and when he eventually dies and crashes on a planet, its body is reconstructed as a "throne city" that the Brood establish as the center of their empire. Thus, the Soul remains trapped in the skull of the dead Prophet-Singer. [7] [6] [4] [1]

One day, the X-Men are abducted and infected by the Brood and brought to their homeworld. Carol Danvers (formerly Ms. Marvel) becomes linked with a white hole and transforms into Binary. The process makes her temporarily insane, and she blasts out of Lilandra Neramani's yacht, causing an explosive decompression that sucks Storm into space. Storm is found by the newborn Prophet-Singer, whose mother was enslaved by the Brood. Storm starts transforming into a Brood as the egg begins to hatch. The Prophet-Singer saves Storm (who destroys the egg and critically wounds herself). [7] Other Acanti merge Storm's consciousness with that of the Prophet-Singer while Storm's body heals in a cocoon within him. [1]

The Acanti save Storm, entering into a symbiotic relationship in which they heal Storm's body, purging it of the Brood embryo, and Storm's experienced mind provides a source of focus and strength for the baby Prophet-Singer. The Acanti then swallows Lilandra's yacht, masking it from Brood sensors while the crew effect repairs. [7]

The Chitauri used the Acanti and the Starsharks to create the Chitauri Leviathans, which serve a similar purpose as living ships. [8]

In other media

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Gullapalli, Vishal (October 30, 2021). "56 Marvel comic book references in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy". Polygon . Retrieved May 24, 2025. The monster that the Guardians are attempting to locate in the Quarantine Zone turns out to be an Acanti, one of a species of giant space whales that the parasitic Brood infested and turned into spaceships. The X-Man Storm once merged with an Acanti to expel a Brood egg from her body. The Acanti were created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum in 1982's Uncanny X-Men #156.
  2. ↑ Uncanny X-Men #156 (April 1982)
  3. 1 2 Belt, Robyn (July 28, 2020). "A Complete Guide to Marvel's Galactic Empires". Marvel. Retrieved January 12, 2025. Massive space whales. The Acanti have the equivalent cognitive function of an Earth whale, although their physiology is highly evolved. In addition to being able to travel at the speed of light, they have a unique form of communication that uses psionic sound. The Brood, a little further down our list, have often used the Acanti as vessels, taking over their massive bodies as parasites.
  4. 1 2 3 Asher-Perrin, Emmet; Templeton, Molly (December 16, 2022). "Avatar 2 Joins a Long, Storied History of Space Whales". Reactor. Retrieved January 12, 2025. The Acanti are Marvel Comics' answer to the space whale, one of the oldest beings in the universe, and among the first to develop sentience. They are peaceful, and this leads to their enslavement by the Brood, who see them as a means to faster-than-light travel (because they have the biological ability to do that, of course). The X-Men eventually show up to aid them, helping their Prophet-Singer cross over properly by releasing its soul; Acanti typically do this by hurling their bodies into stars when they are close to death, and the Prophet-Singer was prevented from doing this by the Brood. Following this, the Acanti are capable of freeing themselves from enslavement. The gargantuan mounts used by the Chitauri army in The Avengers are actually a species bred from a combination of Acanti and Starshark genetics.
  5. ↑ Waid, Mark; Rodriguez, Javier (July 13, 2021). History of the Marvel Universe. Marvel. ISBN   9781302928292.
  6. 1 2 Uncanny X-Men #166 (February 1983)
  7. 1 2 3 Uncanny X-Men #165 (January 1983)
  8. ↑ Thanos (vol. 2) #13 (January 2018)
  9. ↑ Kendall, Gene (April 7, 2018). "Which Classic Foes Couldn't Appear on X-Men: The Animated Series - And Why?". CBR . Retrieved May 24, 2025. Any fan familiar with the comics recognized the villains as the Brood. Not only do they have identical motivations, they even enslave the Acanti space-whale created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum.
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