Alpha Primitives
Alpha Primitives are a species that feature in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
History
It was said that the Kree forebears of the Inhumans knew that the growing numbers of humans on Earth would one day threaten their creations. Thus, they were gifted with the Xerogen Crystals that had the power to devolve mankind which was to be used as a means of protection. The ancestors of the Inhumans were known to had encoded their own pattern on them to create the Xerogen Gas that could devolve exposed humans into Alpha Primitives. (Mighty Avengers v1 #29) It was said that the Alpha Primitives had been slaves of the Inhumans for the last 500 years. (Inhumans Special v1 #1)
Many years ago, an uprising erupted among the Alpha Primitives against the Unspoken who had held the throne as regent until the young Black Bolt came of age. A second rebellion was orchestrated by the Alpha Primitive Elisha who intended to overwrite the DNA of the Inhumans to turn them into humans in an effort to free his people. He was defeated by members of the Royal Family who managed to stop him. (Inhumans: Once and Future Kings v1 #5) According to the Proscribed Volume of the Royal History, the Inhumans were once ruled during a forgotten period by a king known as the Unspoken. He was noted for being much love and respected by his people with even the Alpha Primitives revering him as they tended to Attilan. His reign came to an end when he removed the Slave Engine which saw his cousins in the Royal Family led by Prince Black Bolt revolting against him. Despite his power, he was defeated by the prince who took the crown and took the Unspoken outside the city in order to get him to reveal the location of the Slave Engine. The Unspoken refused and thus was exiled with his name being stricken from history when he was left into the wilderness outside the city. He would had died until the Alpha Primitives found him and as they still respected him they would take him to shelter in order to tend to him in hiding over the many years he remained in hiding. (Mighty Avengers v1 #27)
When the Kree returned to claim the Inhumans, the mother machine that the Alpha Primitives were left aimless when Maximus arrived to hide and urged them to keep quiet in order to prevent their discovery. (Inhumans v3 #1) All of Attilan was later propelled into space after being turned into a space ship where the Alpha Primitives though hidden panicked with Maximus the Mad attempting to calm them. (Inhumans v3 #2) They were later incited by Maximus the Mad against the Kree where they believed him to be the son of the mother machine. Despite the uprising, they were put down by the Kree forces of Ronan the Accuser. (Inhumans v3 #3)
In the aftermath, King Black Bolt improved the working conditions for the Alpha's and had instituted legal reforms to benefit them. (Inhumans Special v1 #1)
Maximus used his psycho-power to stimulate the minds of three leading Alpha Primitives to near human levels and tasked them with rebelling against their masters. He orchestrated the plot that saw these three members of the clone race to enter the Terrigen chambers where they subjected themselves to a higher concentration of the Mist than normally used on Inhumans. This saw them transformed into beings of mental energy that had shed their physical form and appeared a the floating spheres of power that were called the Trikon. In this form, they spurred their fellow Alpha Primitives in rebellion against the Inhumans though the Trikon were defeated when they were forced through a portal into the Negative Zone. (Inhumans Special v1 #1)
Synthetic creation of further Alpha Primitives was banned during Black Bolts reign leading to their population dwindling. (Marvel Knights v4 #19) Royal decree from King Black Bolt held that the Alpha Primitives were not to be used for menial labor but members of the Royal Family attempted to circumvent this ruling. As a result, the Alpha Primitives were secretly used to prepare meals and conduct cleanings as these tasks were deemed beneath the Inhumans. (Black Panther v4 #20)
Several Alpha Primitives were known to had continued to work for the Unspoken where they operated in caves and served him. Their mission was the cultivation of the stolen Xerogen Crystals that the Unspoken sought to bring back to Attilan along with the Slave Engine in order to be accepted by his fellow Inhumans once more. However, Attilan engaged in Agon's Contigency leading to the Shining City to depart for the moon. Afterwards, these Alpha Primitives accompanied their master as he sought salvation in reacquiring the hidden Slave Engine leading to a confrontation with a number of superpowered groups in Tibet. (Mighty Avengers v1 #28) After facing resistance from the Chinese army, the freed Unspoken made use of the Xerogen Gas to turn the humans into new Alpha Primitives. These devolved humans would later be used to fight the Mighty Avengers and the People's Defense Force. During the fight with the superheroes, the Unspoken unleashed the Xerogen Crystals once more in order to transform those vulnerable to it into Alpha Primitives. (Mighty Avengers v1 #29)
On Hala, a group of Alpha-Primitives attacked Ronan the Accuser and his wife Crystal until they were rescued by Quicksilver. (Realm of Kings: Inhumans v1 #2)
Overview
Alpha Primitives were bred to hold clumsy worker bodies to accomplish their tasks. (Inhumans Special v1 #1) Their race were genetically engineered and created through cloning where they were bred to be sexless, docile, and indistinguishable from one another upon reaching maturity. (Marvel Knights v4 #19) Though normally cloned, humans exposed to Xerogen Gas went through a process similar to Terrigenesis known as Xenogenesis. However, where Terrigenesis evolved Inhumans, Xerogenesis actually devolved them into Alpha Primitives. (Mighty Avengers v1 #29)
The normal uniform of an Alpha Primitive included a form of bio-suit. (Mighty Avengers v1 #29)
Alpha Primitives were the lowest caste within Inhuman society whose duties included the managing the sanitation and sewer system. At one point, they were slaves but later given freedom though they continued their near drone-like behavior. (Marvel Knights v4 #19) As slaves, they were not taught to read with anyone attempting to do so committing a serious crime in Attilan. (Inhumans: Once and Future Kings v1 #2) In fact, no Alpha Primitive had been allowed to even wield weapons such as handguns. (Inhumans Special v1 #1)
Members
- Alphan : an Alpha Primitive that accompanied the Inhuman Royal Family after his people were freed from slavery and represented his people when the Inhumans were on the Moon but was killed at the hands of the Brethren Thane Ector. (Avengers v1 #334)
- Trikon : originally, these were three Alpha Primitives were enhanced to near human level where they were spurred into rebelling against the inhumans which saw them immersing themselves in Terrigen that transformed them into a trio of spherical energy beings that took the name of Trikon. (Inhumans Special v1 #1)
- Reyno : a young Alpha Primitive who fell in love with the Inhuman Alecto and left Attilan with her in order to escape the persecution of their union. (Marvel Knights v4 #19)
- RN-62 : one of the Renegade Alphas that worked for Maximus the Mad to overthrow the Inhuman Royal Family and thus worked for Ultron when the robotic villain had secretly come to Attilan. (Avengers v1 #127)
- Elisha : an Alpha Primitive born from the power of the Slave Engine but came to believe that his people were slaves and sought their freedom. He managed to secretly escape to the world outside where he encountered William Bentley and learnt of human society with him gaining two Masters at M.I.T. but vowed to free the rest of his kind. (Inhumans: Once and Future Kings v1 #5)
Notes
- The Alpha Primitives were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where they made their first appearance in Fantastic Four v1 #47 (February 1966).
- According to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe v1 #1 (1983), the Alpha Primitives were sub-human workers created 4,000 years ago when the geneticist Avadar convinced the Council of Genetics to create a new servant race. A prototype was bio-engineered by him and within a decade around 500 were bred to provide all the support functions of the city. They were genetically engineered to be docile with simple thoughts and emotions whilst having a same neuter to prevent them from procreating naturally that meant propagation was achieved only by cloning. Alpha Primitives only needed six hours of sleep with them holding the basic vocabulary of a six year old and had a lifespan of 42 years.
In other media
Television
- In Fantastic Four, the Alpha Primitives and the Inhumans make an appearance in animated series Inhuman Saga story arc that was an adaptation of the comic storyline. When the Inhuman Royal Family returned to Attilan, Black Bolt's mad brother Maximus had taken control of the Great Refugee. Johnny Storm who arrived to meet Crystal accidently met a group of Alpha Primitives behind a prison cell where he managed to throw them off after projecting flames. When Black Bolt was in the city, Maximus ordered the Seeker to unleash the feral Alpha Primitives against the Royal Family. During this confrontation, the creatures nearly overwhelmed Medusa who Maximus desired as his bride and thus trapped them in a chamber with Black Bolt as well as Crystal. The Human Torch broke through the barrier to save Crystal and shot fiery blasts at the Alpha Primitives causing them to flee the battle.
- In Guardians of the Galaxy, the Alpha Primitives made an appearance in the animated series in the episode "Crystal Blue Persuasion". They were a servant caste that served the Inhumans. Long ago, the Inhumans were stricken with the Terrigen plague that slowly killed them whilst the Alpha Primitives were coated with the crystal making them indestructible. As the Inhumans went into stasis, Maximus took control of Attilan as it sought the Kree in space and had the crystalline Alpha Primitives under his command. Maximus offered the Alpha Primitives as indestructible warriors to Ronan the Accuser in exchange for him being made Supreme Leader of the Inhumans. The Guardians of the Galaxy later helped cure the Inhumans of the plague with the Alpha Primitives returning to their prior form.
- In Avengers Assemble, the Alpha Primitives featured in the animated series season 3 episode "Inhumans Among Us". They were said to be creatures bred by the Inhumans as laborers that worked as laboratory assistants to their kind. Typically docile, a number of them had gone into the world where a contaminated Terrigen Mist turned them aggressive where they attacked others until they were stopped by the Avengers along with the Inhuman Royal Family.
- In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a reference was made to the Alpha Primitives in the live-action television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the episode "Emancipation". They were the products of Doctor Holden Radcliffe's experiments to recreate the Inhumans after being directed to do so by Hive. A number of Watchdogs were captured by Hive and forcibly put through the process but it turned them into primitive stunted creatures that obeyed commands of their master who was content with such beings to serve him. In "Absolution", Radcliffe referred to these creatures as being 'Primitives'.
Video games
- In Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, the Alpha Primitives appeared in the setting of the Wii video game. Maximus the Mad was shown to had taken control of them and used them in an attempt to take over Attilan with this being thwarted by the Avengers.
Appearances
- Fantastic Four v1:
- Inhumans v1:
- Inhumans Special v1:
- Marvel Knights v4 #19:
- Mighty Avengers v1 #27:
- Inhumans: Once and Future Kings v1:
External Links
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