Phalanx (comics)
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The Phalanx are a cybernetic fictional species in the Marvel Comics universe. They have come in conflict with the X-Men and related groups on several occasions. They form a hive mind, linking each member by a telepathy-like system.
Likely inspired by the Borg (with which they share many similarities), the Phalanx were created by writer Scott Lobdell and given definitive design by artist Joe Madureira. They owe much in concept and appearance to the original Technarchy (by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz). Although appearing in prototype variations in earlier issues, the Phalanx first appeared in their full form in Uncanny X-Men #312 (May 1994).
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[edit] Origins
Phalanx are formed when organic lifeforms are infected with the Technarchy's techno-organic transmode virus. They pass through a lifecycle attempting to infect others before reaching critical mass. At that time, by hard-wired instruction, they build a "Babel Spire" to contact the Technarchy. The Technarchy, however, consider Phalanx to be abominations. They invariably destroy the Phalanx "nest", usually by converting the entire planet into techno-organic matter and draining its energy.
[edit] Earth Phalanx
The Phalanx on Earth were initially formed by a group of human mutant-haters who voluntarily infected themselves with the transmode virus, taken from the ashes of Warlock, a renegade Technarch who had joined the New Mutants, in an attempt to turn themselves into "living Sentinels". Stephen Lang, the man who had used the Sentinels against the X-Men many years before, was recruited from a mental hospital to become an "interface" - not actually infected with the transmode virus himself, he was intended as a buffer to keep the Phalanx "on track" for their intended purpose. He was assisted by Cameron Hodge, a traitorous former friend of Archangel who had obtained immortality from the demon N'astirh, who did infect himself, and who had been the one to kill Warlock some years before in a prior attempt to infect himself with the virus.
Initially, the aim of these Phalanx was to simply assimilate mutants into their collective. When this proved impossible, as mutants possessed a resistance to the virus, they organized an attack on the X-Mansion, kidnapping most of the X-Men and replacing them with Phalanx members in disguise, in an attempt to use the X-Men's knowledge base on the mutant genome to solve the problem. Banshee, absent during the kidnapping, returned and, after discovering the infestation, recruited Sabretooth from a cell in the complex, who then aided Banshee in saving Emma Frost and Jubilee from the beings. Banshee, after discovering that the Phalanx had accessed the location of several young mutants for use in further study, then destroyed the knowledge base in an attempt to prevent the Phalanx accessing any further information.
While Banshee and his group scrambled to save the young mutants, he sent messages to Wolverine and Cable on the location of the X-Men, and who in turn recruited Cyclops and Jean Grey to aid them in recovering the X-Men; and to Professor X, Excalibur, X-Factor and X-Force on the location of a third, unknown, group of Phalanx.
Banshee's group saved all the new mutants but one - Blink, who sacrificed herself to save the others. The rest of these young mutants went on to become the core of Generation X, tutored by Banshee and Frost. Meanwhile, the other mutant teams found a group of Phalanx attempting to follow their genetic instruction to construct a Babel Spire to contact the Technarchy. Douglock, a resurrected Warlock with Cypher's memories, managed to destroy the spire, while Cyclops' group assaulted the core Phalanx base on Mount Everest, where the X-Men were held, with the covert aid of Lang, who realised the Phalanx had grown beyond his ability to manipulate and were threatening the general human population, destroyed their smaller nests around the world as a result - rescued the X-Men before they destroyed the Everest nest.
[edit] Other Phalanx
Another group of Phalanx later decimated the Shi'ar throneworld in the absence of the Imperial Guard, before Beast devised a way to discorporate many of them. The rest of this group later conquered another planet, but were destroyed by the Magus after the construction of a Babel Spire.
[edit] Human experimentation
Given the powerful nature of the Phalanx, different individuals and governments attempted to experiment with the alien race.
- British intelligence group Black Air acquired several Phalanx specimens, and determined how to control them. They used at least one Phalanx (which had a Brood as its template) as a guardian "warliquid" at their London headquarters, the Blackwall, and controlled the kidnapped Douglock as part of one of their plots.
- Another such attempt was conducted by the Japanese government on a young boy who had technokinesis—the manipulation of and communication with technological devices. The government scientists purposefully implanted the young boy with the Techno-Organic Virus to see what would happen and the T-O virus had an interesting reaction with the young boy. Both the boy and the part of the Phalanx became transformed into a new being calling himself Paradigm, who not only had the Phalanx's penchant for shapeshifting but was able to control the minds of people that he covered with his techno-matter. Somehow Paradigm found himself allied with King Bedlam's group of Hellions only with the purpose of discovering himself. After the Hellions were defeated by X-Force, Paradigm disappeared into comic Limbo and has not been seen since.
- After a battle with the Silver Surfer, Cable was partially lobotomized in order to save his life from the angry herald of Galactus. Now trying to save him, Deadpool tracked down the Fixer to save Cable. Fixer was somehow in possession of a Phalanx fetus, which Deadpool surgically grafted onto his body. After a brief scuffle for control, Cable's mind overwhelmed that of the fetal alien and made it subservient to him so that it would not try to "assimilate" him into the collective.
[edit] Alternate reality version
In the Exiles series, the dimension-hopping team visited a world infested by a mutated version of the Phalanx. On this world, Cypher fell ill with the Legacy Virus and in an act of desperation Warlock infected him with the transmode virus to try and save his life. Unfortunately the two diseases combined and mutated into something far worse. Within the year, almost all of the world's population were transformed into Phalanx drones, calling themselves the Vi-Locks. The group was led by Forge whose innate understanding of machinery made him a prime candidate for leadership. In the course of the team's mission, Blink was infected and slowly started succumbing to the virus. On a whim, Morph was able to contact the Asgardians whose divine blood was able to heal the victims after they received a transfusion.
[edit] Attributes
Unlike the savagely individualistic Technarchy, Phalanx form an insect-like hive mind. While each member retains his/her/its memories from prior to assimilation and a degree of their personality, generally each member cannot perform actions against the wishes of the group mind without first being severed from the collective consciousness, as Douglock was.
Phalanx, like the Technarchy, can infect other organisms with the transmode virus with any physical contact - the only known exception being Earth mutants, who possess a degree of immunity to the transmode virus. This seems to be a limitation of the Phalanx which their Technarchy progenitors do not have, as Warlock had no problems infecting his future teammate Magik (accidentally) when they first met and repeatedly infecting Cypher to form the Douglock entity on multiple occasions.
Any organism infected by the Phalanx is automatically inducted into the group mind.
Phalanx also possess the Technarchs' abilities to shapeshift and teleport, but, unlike the Technarchs, cannot grow in size and mass without absorbing external matter. Over time, they can adapt to attack from inherent biological powers, but only to the specific frequencies/levels/etc already used against them.
[edit] Bibliography
- Phalanx Covenant
- Uncanny X-Men #343-344
- Warlock (M-Tech) #7
[edit] Appearances In other media
The Phalanx was the major villain in the Sega Genesis video game X-Men 2: Clone Wars.
They also appeared in the opening two-parter of the final season of the X-Men animated series.
