Cotati (comics)

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Cotati
Cotati from the 1984 OHOTMU. Art by John Byrne.
Publisher Marvel Comics First appearance Created by

The Cotati are a fictional alien race in the Marvel Universe. They are a highly intelligent species of telepaths who are sessile in adulthood and resemble large plants or trees.

The Cotati originated on Hala, the same planet as the warlike humanoid Kree race. The aggressive Kree believed themselves to be superior to all other species, and attempted to exterminate the peaceful Cotati. Approximately one hundred thousand Earth years ago, Hala was visited by the Skrull empire (at that time, the Skrulls were a benevolent race). The Skrulls tried to put an end to the conflict; Since both parties claimed to be more "advanced" than the other, they would both be given the opportunity to prove their superiority. Representatives of the Kree and Cotati were taken to a neutral location; the Earth's Moon. There, they were given one local year to come up with a viable habitat on the moon's surface.

The Kree built a mighty city, with magnificent (by Kree standards) architecture, artificial gravity, and a bubble of self-replenishing air, identical to that of the planet (Earth) that this moon orbitted. However, the Skrulls gave the prize to the Cotati, who had created a self-sustaining ecology for the area, without which the grandiose Kree city would be useless for habitation. Enraged, the Kree ambushed the Skrull starship that had brought them there, slaughtered the Skrulls and Cotati, and returned to Hala, now in possession of tremendously advanced technology, which they would use to arm for war.

While the fascistic Kree battled the Skrulls for millennia, radically warping a once-benevolent society into an ultra-militaristic state, on their own homeworld they also committed a near-total act of genocide against the Cotati. Only with the assistance of a small number of Kree who were members of a secretive pacifist sect did any Cotati survive at all, disguised as ornamental plants.

Some Cotati were eventually smuggled out of the Kree empire, to settle on out-of-the-way planets. Those few on Earth have played a role in the lives of various superheroes, including the Avengers and the Silver Surfer.

The artificial environment created for the competition between the Kree and the Cotati still stands; today it is known as the Blue Area of the Moon, and is the location of Uatu the Watcher; it was for several years also the location af the Inhumans' city of Attilan. The Blue Area is also the site of the first recorded "death" of the Phoenix during the now-classic Dark Phoenix Saga.