Progenitors (Marvel)
The Progenitors are an extraterrestrial species that features in Marvel Comics.
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History
The Progenitors are a highly advanced and ancient civilization that resided in the universe where they lived on the World Farm. Long ago, they arrived on the planet Hala where they discovered the prehistoric Kree in the time before history. These primitives resided on the vast plains of their homeworld when the Progenitors arrived and experimented on the Kree leading to their transformation into a more evolved species. (Royals v1 #9)
Upon discovering the existence of Inhumans, the Progenitors became curious of these creations of their own experiments. Thus, they sought to learn more of them and dispatched the Skyspears to study them. This was because they saw potential within Inhumans for use as raw materials. (Royals v1 #12)
The Progenitors headed towards Earth in order to harvest the Inhumans as raw material as they were considered a worthy race. This led to them assaulting the Inhuman stronghold situated on the Moon. (Inhumans: Judgment Day v1 #1)
Afterwards, the Progenitors returned to Hala that was a ruptured world who were held as sacred ruins and Throneworld of the Kree/Skrull Alliance led by Emperor Hulkling. Arriving on the planet, they began abducting Kree for experimentation with a planetary emergency being declared by the Alliance who called on evacuation. Hulkling and his consort the court wizard Wiccan battled a number of Progenitors on Hala when they received aid from the Guardians of the Galaxy. Together, they managed to defeat the majority of Progenitors with the last one being damaged where it was taken to space by Richard Rider who allowed it to leave with a warning to not harm other sentients as the Guardians would be there to respond. The lone head of the Prongeitor was then sent on a voyage back to its home at the World Farm with this warning. (Guardians of the Galaxy v6 #13)
Later on, Orbis Stellaris came to secretly draw the Progenitors into attacking Planet Arakko that was the terraformed world of Mars. This saw them targeting the Arakkii artist commune in the Morrowlands causing the war-like Mutants to attack the alien invaders. A team of X-Men later arrived at the scene where they were successful in defeating the Progenitors and ending their attack on the planet. (X-Men: Red v2 #2)
Overview
In appearance, the Progenitors resembled bipedal giants that came in a variety of shapes and forms. (Royals v1 #5) Their minds were noted for being alien with criss-crossing synapses, neural pathways of streets and alleys and towers of thoughts. (Royals v1 #10) They could not understand concepts such as revenge, hate or spite. (Royals v1 #12) The Progenitors possessed a collective consciousness. As such, telepathic and empathic attacks were a vulnerability with them as they could not comprehend the minds of races with emotions. (Inhumans: Judgment Day v1 #1) There was believed to be a degree of magic/science combination that operated within a Progenitor as weapons that nullified magic were able to kill them. (Guardians of the Galaxy v6 #13) Certain Progenitors were able to stop starships with but a gesture and crush them with a mere thought. (Royals v1 #9)
There were various classes of Progenitors that included; Harvester, Ordinator, Overlord, Destroyer, Exterminator and others. (Royals v1 #10) Another version included the Commander-class with these various kinds being created from raw material drawn from races that had potential to the Progenitors. (Royals v1 #12) A further model were known as the Experimenter class. Worthy species were seen as raw material that could be used to create new types and classes of Progenitor from the corpses of their targets. This process saw them attempt to absorb the mind of their targets that was added into their collective consciousness. (Inhumans: Judgment Day v1 #1)
They were designated as a Extra-Galactic Type II Worldmind-level civilization that were dedicated to scientific experimentation. (Guardians of the Galaxy v6 #13) They were said to be a civilisation of unethical space scientists that had computer brains. It was said that they built artificial solar systems in the gulfs between galaxies whilst treating worlds as their laboratories. (X-Men: Red v2 #2)
A substance created by their society was Primagen that was described as a perfect catalyst which had the power to give life. (Royals v1 #5) This prima materia was referred to as the gold of the universe and was much more powerful than Terrigen. It was grown in garden-worlds from tree-like constructs with Progenitors tending to them and referring to it as quintessence. (Royals v1 #9) To the Progenitors, Primagen was simply batteries to them that were easily farmed and widely used. (Royals v1 #12) The races of Inhumans had created imperfect attempts at re-creating Primagen leading to the formation of Terrigen, Antigen, Amphogen and others. (Royals v1 #5)
The Progenitors were stated to be a Type-IV civilization. (Royals v1 #12) Their civilization was said to be capable of caging entire solar systems. (Inhumans: Judgment Day v1 #1) They made use of quantum computers that were the size of molecules with ultimate computers being far beyond those of other races. These molecules were built to serve as brains of operations that ran aspects of the World Farm. (Royals v1 #10)
These Skyspears were solid-state quantum computers that operated as diagnostic tools. They controlled the mind of those that approached them in order to read their thoughts whilst boosting their power so that it could fully explore their capabilities. The data was then transmitted back to the Progenitors for them to study the findings. These constructs lacked motive power or any propulsion system with them being literally thrown at their destination. (Royals v1 #8)
They made use of platforms as a means of travel through their facilities with these being communed with by their user and floated to their destination. Progenitors made use of spacecraft capable of interstellar flight with these being disc shaped machines whose outer edges had vast crystals composed of pure Primagen that rotated slowly around the vessel. (Royals v1 #11)
In the outer ring, there resided at least three different garden-worlds that were tended to by Harvester-class Progenitors. (Royals v1 #9) The outer membrane contained whole planets that were moved around. The innermost hub of the World Farm was the center-sun. (Royals v1 #10)
Notes
- Progenitors were created by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez where they made their first appearance in Royals v1 #5 (September, 2017).
- In an interview on Newsrama, Ewing commented: "Put simply - if the Kree experimented on Earth's neanderthals to create Inhumans, the Progenitors are the race that experimented on Hala's neanderthal population, way back in the mists of time, to create the Kree. We actually see that happen in #9 - we see a Progentor land and go to work on the "Kree-Anderthals.” For what purpose? Well, it's not that easy to say - the Progenitors are incredibly alien and hideously advanced, to the extent that their technology is difficult for humans to process. (And if you think I'm kidding, wait until you see the World Farm, the City-Mind and the Primagen Gardens)."
- According to Al Ewing on CBR, "They’re a brand-new alien threat to the Marvel Universe, beautifully designed by Javier Rodriguez, and they are a Type IV Civilization on the Kardashev scale."
Alternate Versions
- In Royals v1 #1 (2017), the Progenitors appeared in the alternate reality of Earth-17619. They were shown to had taken an interest in Earth where they invaded it and decimated it before being driven away. However, they came to harvest Black Bolt and Medusa that was used to create a new Progenitor who accompanied their next attack on the planet.
Appearances
- Royals v1: (2017)
- Inhumans: Judgment Day v1:
- Black Bolt v1:
- Guardians of the Galaxy v6: (2021)
- X-Men: Red v2: (2022)
External Links
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