BOLAA

Real Name: Bolaa

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (mutant sub-race of the Rigellians)

Occupation: Unrevealed;
    at least formerly an adventurer;
    formerly maintenance work

Group Membership: Rigellian mutant race (Jukka, Gerr, Tryx)

Affiliations: Avalon and the Caretakers of the Rhunians, Balder Odinson, Silas Grant, Kragonn, Tana Nile, Sif, Thor Odinson

Enemies: Dracus, mainstream Rigellians;
    formerly Avalon, Balder Odinson, Silas Grant, Rhunians, Tana Nile, Sif, Thor Odinson

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    last seen in the vicinity of the planet Rhun and its four other "Black Stars" when they were in the Milky Way Galaxy;
    formerly Rigel-3 (aka the Command Planet at the Constellation Rigel)

First Appearance: Thor I#218 (December, 1973)

Powers/Abilities: Like other Rigellian mutants, Bolaa is tall, with a disproportionately large head.

    He appears to have superhuman and strength and durability of an unspecified degree, perhaps lifting 1-30 tons.

    He was notably skilled with a Bolaa, with which he can ensnare the likes of powerful beings such as Balder of Asgard.

    A strike from Thor's mystic hammer, Mjolnir, knocked Bolaa and his allies off their feet, but did not incapacitate them. However, Thor was likely not striking at full force due to unfamiliarity with his opponents' durability.

    Like his allies, Bolaa was willing to fight for his and his allies lives, but he was apparently otherwise a peaceful being. 

    Although resenting being treated as outcasts, the Bolaa and the other Rigellian mutants apparently accepted their fate. 

    Bolaa and his allies were willing to risk their lives to help those allied with them and/or those whose fates they sympathized with, such as other outcasts. 

History:
(Thor I#218 - BTS) - A mutant class of Rigellians were created in their gene vats, the survivors of a doomed experiment of which nothing else has been revealed.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition)#11: Rigellians) - The mutant class were used as workers of unspecified tasks, perhaps maintenance of sewers or other underground repairs out the sight of the mainstream Rigellians. 

(Thor I#220 (fb) - BTS) - As outcasts, the Rigellian mutants learned the art of subterfuge.

(Thor I#218 - BTS) - Apparently without females to carry on their species, Tryx, Bolaa, Gerr, and Jukka considered themselves to be the last of their kind.

(Thor I#218 / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition)#11: Rigellians (see comments) - As the world-destroying Black Stars (led by the Rhunians) approached Rigel-3, the nine billion Rigellians still living on Rigel-3 escaped aboard a fleet of gigantic starships via the plan of the Grand Commissioner. 

(Thor I#218 (fb) - BTS) - Jukka saw the Rigellian fleet's navigation charts. 

(Thor I#218 - BTS) - The Rigellian mutants were left behind to die.

(Thor I#218 - BTS) - Following an instruction of Odin to investigate a threat to Rigel that would next threaten the worlds of men, the Asgardian Starjammer -- carrying the Asgardians Balder, Sif and Thor, the Rigellian Tana Nile, and Blackworld native Silas Grant -- arrived on Rigel-3.

(Thor I#218) - Although Rigel initially seemed vacant, Bolaa, Gerr, Jukka, and Tryx -- sick with fear and afraid to meet death -- leapt to assaulted the new arrivals.

    Although Sif warned her allies of the attack from above, it was too late to spare Balder from Bolaa's bola, which ensnared his ankles, causing him to fall to the ground.

    When the Rigellian mutants continued to fight despite his ordering an end to the conflict, Thor hurled his enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, to strike and knock down at least Tryx, Jukka, and Gerr.

    The Rigellian mutants then gratefully accepted Thor's offer to seek the Colonizers and perhaps learn the meaning of the Black Stars. 

(Thor I#218 (fb) - BTS) - Before departing, the mutants gathered spacesuits.

(Thor I#218 - BTS) - After the Starjammer's departure, the Black Stars arrived and destroyed Rigel-3, shattering it with multi-blasts of cosmic energy. 

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition)#11: Rigellians) - Virtually all of the mutant worker race were left behind and destroyed along with Rigel-3.

(Thor I#218 - BTS) - Guided by Jukka's knowledge of Rigellian navigation charts he had glimpsed, the Starjammer caught up to the Rigellian fleet. 

    When the Colonizer ship nearest them fired on the strange craft approaching (as the Grand Commissioner had ordered that none may impede their journey), Thor flew to the attack, and the Rigellian mutants donned their spacesuits to join him in battle. 

(Thor I#218 - BTS) - Soon after Thor's allies joined the battle, the Grand Commissioner ordered an end to hostilities and invited the Asgardians, Tana Nile, and Silas Grant aboard; however, they insisted that the mutants remain aboard the docked Starjammer.

(Thor I#218 - BTS / Thor: Official Index to the Marvel Universe) - Upon arriving aboard the Rigellian flagship, Thor noted his dislike in forcing his newfound friends to remain behind, and he questioned why they could not join them as free beings among the civil. 

    The Grand Commissioner explained that the mutants could not come aboard because if his people learned of their presence aboard the woefully-overcrowded flagship, they would rebel. Acknowledging that it was a barbaric custom, the Grand Commissioner noted that these were barbaric times and that the danger of a potential riot was inconceivable. 

(Thor I#219 - BTS) - At least three of the Rigellian mutants (and presumably all four of them) were aboard the Starjammer when Thor and the others returned and noted their goal of confronting the masters of the Black Stars.

    As the Starjammer approached the Black Stars, a massive space scoop carrying the Rhunians' reluctant giant Knight/Caretaker Avalon was sent towards them. As Avalon reached for and inadvertently ripped open the bottom of the wooden ship, his arrival was mistaken for an attack, and the Asgardians and the Rigellians mutants assaulted him. 

    Unharmed by their assaults, the giant Avalon cast off his assailants and then welcomed them as friends and offered to show them the nature of the Black Stars. Although Jukka mistrusted Avalon as seeming "too reasonable" given the circumstances, Thor countered that reason was welcome in the current madness. Avalon then led the group to meet the other Caretakers, who revealed themselves to be artificial servants created by their masters.

    Considering that these Caretakers had been cheated of natural life just as they had been cheated by the Colonizers, the Rigellian mutants (notably Jukka and Bolaa) voiced their desire to help fellow outcasts. 

(Thor I#219 - BTS) - Thor and Avalon traveled down one of the scoops coming from the world Rhun, and they learned that the Masters of the Black Stars were immense, 2000' tall beings (the Rhunians).

(Thor I#220) - Thor attempted to face the Rhunians directly, which seemed doomed to failure.

    The Rigellian mutants, however, sneaked out on the space scoop and spied on the immense Rhunians Kragonn and Dracus, although the volume of the giants' raised voices pained them. 

    Nonetheless, they learned that the giants believed the Black Stars to be the only inhabited planets in the universe and thus reasoned that the minute beings they had encountered must be from one of the other four "Black Star" worlds to whom the Rhunians sent power from worlds they destroyed, although they had not contacted those other worlds in 20,000 years. 

(Thor I#220 (fb) - BTS) - Tryx, Jukka, and Bolaa climbed onto Dracus' body and climbed toward his neck, while Gerr accessed Dracus' equipment.

(Thor I#220) - Later, as Dracus spotted the relatively small spot on the ground where the alien "invaders" fought the Rhunians' Protectors (relatively giant to the Asgardians, but still tiny to the Rhunians) and prepared to stomp on them, Tryx, Bolaa, and Jukka combined their efforts and pressed on a nerve in Dracus' neck that temporarily paralyzed him from the neck down and caused him to collapse. 

    Gerr then used the communication equipment to project his image and voice to communicate with Rhunian leader Kragonn, informing him of Dracus' treachery, the existence of other races in the universe (and the inhabited planets they had been destroying) and their suspicion that the other "Black Star" worlds were no longer inhabited. 

    After Kragonn confirmed the mutants' suspicion and found the other worlds dead and barren, the mutants explained their suspicions as based on the lack of communication and the apparent lack of technological development/pursuit from those worlds. 

    No longer needing or wishing to consume other worlds, Kragonn allowed the aliens' tiny ship to depart in peace. Additionally, the Rhunians freed Avalon and the sub-worlders.

Comments: Created by Gerry Conway, John Buscema, and Jim Mooney.

    Bolaa is recognizable by his small sprig of hair on his otherwise bald head, his lack of a beard, his blue shirt, and his bola (when he holds it);
    HOWEVER, in his first two images, he does not a clearly blue tunic (and Gerr has a blue shirt in the image as they leap down at the Asgardians). After his first three panels, he is barely shown at all.
    He is identified by name once in Thor I#219 (in the image on the above left), but that is pretty clearly Jerr (bald head and beard). Jukka calls him Bolaa in the next panel, and he doesn't stand out much, so I would like to think Bolaa was just misdrawn.
    In the images when the three mutants are scaling Dracus' body, Gerr is working on the computer system, so it has to be Bolaa, Jukka, and Tryx. Jukka has the dark hair and orange tunic, and Tryx has the orange hair and green tunic, so the other one (at the top of the above right panel in the brown tunic and brown hair) has to be a misdrawn Bolaa.

    Are they mutants? 

    Generally, in the Marvel Universe, the term mutants (at least prior to the whole retcon of Earth mutants as a separate species) refers to beings whose genes/chromosomes had some variation during gestation and were born and/or developed differently from the race of there parents. 

    To me, they are genetically-engineered variants of the Rigellians. I suppose it is just semantics.

    So, after saving the day against the vastly powerful Rhunians, the Rigellian mutants were not seen nor heard from again. In Thor#221, there's a flashback where Thor's crew has returned to the Rigellians, who note their appreciation, and then Silas decides to stay with Tana Nile with the Rigellians...but the Rigellian mutants were neither seen nor mentioned. 

    Did the Rigellian mutants return to the Rigellians and somehow arrange some sort of peace? Doesn't seem likely, as nothing had changed that time with them all just being crowded on the ships.

    Did the Rigellians mutants stay with Avalon and the others, whom they had previously considered fellow outcasts? That would be very interesting (and would warrant some sort of follow-up), but there's no story information to support (or refute) it.

    Did the Rigellian mutants ask to be dropped off somewhere along the way back to the Rigellian fleet? That would also make sense, but there's no evidence to support (or refute) it.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Tryx should be distinguished from:

• AMERICAN AVENGER (Don Caldwell) - alleged reincarnation of el Gaucho (South American patriot), spent years as an exchange student in Buenos Aires, given costume by grandson of an ally of el Gaucho, defeated Nazi plot in Argentina. Skilled fighter, good horseman, used lasso + bola--USA Comics#5
• CHUNG - agent of Emil Vachon, killed by Misty Knight. Master warrior, used electronic bola--Deadly Hands of Kung Fu#32
  
• other "Bola" characters, groups, items, events, races, or places...or characters that use bolas
  

Thor: Asgard's Avenger (June, 2011) - Jeff Christiansen & Mike O'Sullivan (head writers/coordinators), Stuart Vandal, Markus Raymond, & Mike Fichera (assistant coordinators), Michael Hoskin, Stuart Vandal, Sean McQuaid, Markus Raymond, Kevin Garcia, Ronald Byrd, Paul Fairchild, Rob London, Chris Biggs, Anthony Cotilletta & Gabriel Shechter (writers), James Emmett & Joe Hochstein (editorial assistants), Alex Starbuck & Nelson Ribeiro (assistant editors), Jennifer Grunwald & Mark D. Beazley (editors, special projects), Jeff Youngquist (editor)

First posted: 10/23/2023
Last updated: 10/23/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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