MENTUS

mentus-pm-ohotmudementus-pm-rom20-fullishReal Name: Unrevealed (he was an aspect of the Prime Director, whose true name remains unrevealed)

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Galadorian) personality fragment merged with Spaceknight armor;
    active circa the late 1700s through the modern era (see comments)

Occupation: Former covert ruler of Galador (controlled Terminator who ruled as Prime Director while impersonating Rom)

Group Membership: Spaceknights (not an actual team member)

Affiliations: Various Dire Wraiths (including a Wraith high lord);
    formerly enslaved Terminator;
    the Galadorian people and the Angel Elite unwittingly served him

Enemies: Angel Elite, Prime Director of Galador, Spaceknights (notably Astra, Hammerhand, Javelin/Darin, Rainbow, Rom, Screamer, Starshine/Landra, Terminator)

Known Relatives: Prime Director (psychic progenitor)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    formerly the Hall of Science in Galador's capital city;
    formerly a cavern in a hidden corner of Galador, third from the sun in the Taloman system, Milky Way Galaxy

First Appearance: (Behind-the scenes; unidentified) Rom#19 (June, 1981);
    (seen and identified) Rom#20 (July, 1981)



mentus-pm-rom20-full-distant Powers/Abilities: Mentus possessed a variety of psychic powers.mentus-pm-rom20-face

   Mentus could mentally control at least one individual at a time, although those with strong beliefs and discipline, such as a Spaceknight, may have be able to resist his mental influence when sufficiently motivated. He could also weaken the will of another being at the same time he controlled his first subject.

    Mentus could reshape Galadorian Spaceknight armor, re-forging Terminator's armor into a mirror duplicate of Rom's, and also apparently duplicating Rom's powers (and even his powerful neutralizer weapon). He could transform Wraith witches against their will, such as into the forms other Spaceknights. 

    Mentus could project his thoughts and/or a psychic projection of himself across interstellar distances or even across dimensions (such as into Limbo). He could remotely activate and utilize alien technology (such as a Dire Wraith star disc).

    Mentus also designed a lock that could only be opened by his thoughts.

    He was likely composed of an electrically maintained flexible metallic armor, Plandanium, which included fluid “motors” that gave him strength +/- a heavily armored cybernetic exoskeleton.
    However, he did not demonstrate any superhuman strength or other non-psychic powers.

    Mentus had the means to develop planet-moving technology that allowed him to move the planet Galador out of its orbit and solar system without the Galadorians' awareness. 

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 7')
Weight: Unrevealed (and impossible to estimate, given his construction was unrevealed)
Eyes: Glowing yellow
Hair: None
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History:
(Rom#25 (fb)) <Circa 200 years ago (see comments)> - After dispatching the Spaceknights across space to eradicate Wraithkind, the Prime Director began to feel guilty that the pride of Galador's youth had sacrificed their humanity. 

    Wishing to share the burden, he devised a new suit of Spaceknight armor and attempted to animate it with the force of his will (as opposed to with his body's tissues); his hope was that he was creating a means where no Galadorian would ever again have to give up his or her humanity to become a Spaceknight.mentus-pm-rom25-evilprojection

mentus-pm-rom25-created    However, it was the dark/evil side of the Prime Director's persona that was projected into the Spaceknight; no longer bound by the restraints of conscience, this evil being became Mentus. 

(Rom#20/2 - BTS) - On Galador, the Prime Director presided over the trial of Terminator, whom Starshine accused of having murdered the king of Thuvria. Given the choice of his own fate, Terminator chose death, and the Prime Director used the golden globe of power to seemingly incinerate Terminator.

(Rom#20/2) - Unbeknownst to the Prime Director or any of the spaceknights, Mentus instead transported Terminator into his base within a cavern in a hidden corner of Galador. Mentus noted that Terminator would be useful to him, and when Terminator angrily charged him, Mentus rendered him unconscious simply by touching his head. As his consciousness faded, Terminator felt his brain patterns fleeing into a far corner of his mind -- leaving his cyborg brain a slate wiped clean, ready to receive Mentus' instruction.

(Rom#21/2 - BTS) - Under Mentus' control, Terminator assaulted Galador's Hall of Science, defeating or slaying the Angel Elite who sought to bar his path and traveling into its inner chamber to destroy the Spaceknights' organic remains.

(Rom#22/2 - BTS) - Resisting Mentus' control, Terminator refused to destroy the other Spaceknights' remains. Instead, Terminator stole Rom's remains and fled into the subterranean sewers.

(Rom#22/2) - Mentus teleported Terminator back to his base was surprised to find that Terminator had brought Rom's remains and had refused to destroy the other Spaceknights' remains. Realizing he did not have complete control of Terminator, Mentus appreciated that there were limits to his power but also considered that attempting total destruction of the Spaceknights may have been a mistake.

    Mentus started to question why Terminator had brought him Rom's remains but then considered that he thought he knew and stated that he was beginning to form a plan of how he might use the frozen humanity to give Terminator life in exchange for what he had lost, and that Terminator could grant him mastery over Galador.

    Mentus began formulating a plan with what to do with Rom's remains.

(Rom#25 (fb)) - Mentus poisoned the Prime Director such that he appeared to have died. The Galadorians greatly grieved his loss. Mentus took the Prime Director's body and kept it in stasis.

.

mentus-pm-rom25-termtorom(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS) - Mentus grafted Rom's organic remains into Terminator's armor, which he reforged into a mirror image duplicate of Rom.

    This action helped make Terminator want to serve Mentus as it granted him his desired humanity.

    When Terminator, as Rom, seemingly returned from space to announce that the Wraith war had been won, the people welcomed "Rom" home and made him their new Prime Director.

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS) - When other Spaceknights -- including Astra, Hammerhand, Javelin, Rainbow, Screamer and Starshine -- returned to Galador, they were met by fellow Spaceknight Terminator posing as Rom. They were presented to an adoring public as a conquering hero before being incapacitated (before they could reveal that the Wraith war still raged) and frozen in stasis by the Terminator.

    The Prime Director and the Spaceknights were contained within different sections of the same building. Mentus fitted the chamber containing the Spaceknights with a lock that only his thoughts could open.

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS / Rom#27 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Mentus developed the technology to somehow move Galador (and its entire star system; see note in the planet-moving technology sub-profile) through space toward the Dark Nebula, home system of the Dire Wraiths. Mentus planned to offer Galador to the Wraiths in exchange for Wraithkind's subservience to him. He reasoned that the Wraiths would gladly do so as anyone evil enough to deliver unto them their most hated enemies deserved to rule them as well (see comments).

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS) <In recent years> - Appreciating that Rom may present a greater threat when returning, Mentus made contact with Dire Wraiths from whom he learned that Rom had taken up residency on Earth (to eradicate the Wraith infestation therein). Mentus then began making plans to lure Rom back to Galador while he could control the timing and circumstances of such a return.

.

(Rom#19 (fb) - BTS) - Mentus arranged for Dire Wraiths in Limbo to show Rom images of Galador lying in ruins, its people gone and its suns snuffed out.

(Rom#19 - BTS) - Dire Wraiths showed such illusions to Rom, telling him that while he had been on Earth, the Dire Wraiths had conquered Galador.

mentus-pm-rom20-uppermentus-pm-rom20-stardisc

(Rom#20) - Mentus utilized a Dire Wraith star disc to project his image to Earth and communicate with a group of Wraiths exiled there. Although the Wraith leader recognized his armor as Galadorian, Mentus offered his assistance in destroying Galador and convincing Rom to leave Earth to return to Galador; he also advised the Wraith that if he wished his aid in achieving his ends, he should not press too far into the secrets of his origin. After the Wraith leader accepted his offer, Mentus transformed a pair of Wrath witches to match the forms of the Spaceknights Starshine and Terminator with the goal of strengthening Rom's desire to return to Galador.

(Rom#20 (fb) - BTS) - The transformed Wraith witches were armed with opti-energizers to allow them to simulate Starshine and Terminator's eyebeams.

(Rom#20 - BTS) - Although Rom ultimately discovered the treachery and banished the Wraith witches to limbo, Rom's desire to return to Galador was indeed strengthened by his interactions with the false Starshine and Terminator, although he resolved that he would not leave Clairton until he had found a replacement to protect the town from the Wraiths.

(Rom#20) - Mentus confirmed to the Wraith high lord that he had sacrificed the pair of witches but had succeeded in his goal of driving Rom to Galador, where he would encounter his (Mentus') true form, while Earth would remain defenseless against Wraithkind.

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Mentus summoned a number of Dire Wraiths to Galador, although he kept them hidden within the Hall of Science.

(Rom#21-22 - BTS) - Rom encountered Torpedo, with whom he was comfortable leaving in charge of protecting Clairton, West Virginia while he left Earth to investigate Galador.

(Rom#23 - BTS) - Reed Richards lent Rom the Skrull-designed saucer the Fantastic Four had obtained from the Xanthan Kurrgo to travel to Galador.

(Rom#24 - BTS) - After Rom arrived at Galador's original location only to find that the planet had been moved, Xandar's Protector (Thoran Rul) transported Rom to Galador.



mentus-pm-rom25-cloaked(Rom#25 - BTS) - Rom arrived on Galador and was surprised by the subserviant people before he was assaulted and subdued by Terminator (in Rom's form and possessing the Prime Director's Golden Globe of Power and bolts of the Living Lightning) and the Angel Elite.

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS) - The Angel Elite brought Rom into the Hall of Science, and then Rom was apparently transported to a dungeon in another location (see comments) where an unidentified Galadorian (or perhaps multiple people?) contained him within a tightly-conforming stasis tank.

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS) - Mentus assured his Wraith allies that Rom had been destroyed.

(Rom#25) - Initially hooded, Mentus accompanied Terminator to confront Rom, using his psychic powers to weaken his resolve while attempting to make Rom question if he (Rom) was not the impostor. When Rom resisted, Mentus praised his willpower before pulling back his cloak and revealing how he had transformed Terminator into a mirror image of Rom.

    When Rom repeatedly questioned Mentus' nature, Mentus revealed his origins and machinations. Rom appealed to Terminator's nature as a Spaceknight to not allow Mentus' to succeed in his goals, but Terminator replied that he must as Mentus had made him human.

(Rom#25 - BTS) - As Rom lamented his own lost humanity and was unable to move within the stasis fluid (although he could still speak), the Prime Director revealed his presence and similar entrapment, urging Rom to have courage because Mentus fed on despair. Realizing he could still summon his neutralizer from subspace without moving, Rom did so, shattering his tightly fitting containment tank; as the fluids ran off of him, Rom gained his mobility and then used his neutralizer to shatter the Prime Director's stasis tank. The Prime Director subsequently showed Rom the chamber containing the Spaceknights, after which Rom shattered the locked door and then used his neutralizer to thaw the frozen Spaceknights within. Rom then led the Spaceknights against the Prime Director's evil. The Prime Director then departed the chamber, planning to engage Mentus directly (and apparently predicting that Mentus would flee to his planet-moving technology).

(Rom#25) - Harmelessly subduing the Angel Elite guarding the Hall of Science, Rom and the other Spaceknights entered the Hall and confronted Mentus, Terminator and Mentus' Wraith allies. The Wraiths were furious to learn Rom had not been destroyed. Athough Mentus advised them that Rom had only been imprisoned but that he would be destroyed now, the Wraiths decided that Mentus could not be trusted, and so they adopted the forms of "some of the most loathsomely lethal creatures in their own dreaded Dark Nebula" to deal with the Spaceknights themselves.mentus-pm-rom25-dead

    Instructing Terminator to fight beside the Wraiths and to delay the Spaceknights, Mentus fled, intending to hasten Galador's approach to the Dark Nebula.

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS) - The Prime Director confronted Mentus within the chamber containing Mentus' planet-moving technology, reclaiming his lost humanity and reincorporating into himself both his good and evil sides of his persona. Per the Prime Director,Mentus proved unequal to the struggle and was absorbed by the Prime Director.

    However, the task took so much of the Prime Director's strength of will that his frail physical form could no longer contain him, and he transcended into a psychic/energy manifestation.

(Rom#25 - BTS) - Appealed to by Starshine, Terminator threw off Mentus' control (perhaps this was facilitated by the Prime Director's engaging Mentus at the same time) and joined the other Spaceknights against the Wraiths, whom they swiftly dispatched.

(Rom#25) - The Spaceknights then flew to the chamber housing Mentus' planet-moving technology, only to find the Prime Director and Mentus on the floor, locked in death.

(Rom#25 - BTS) - The Prime Director's id energy form then spoke to the Spaceknights, revealing the resolution of his encounter with Mentus but noting that he could not remain among them for long as he already felt himself being drawn to become part of some greater cosmic intellect. Regardless, he informed them that he had sensed a grave danger to Galador as it was approached by Galactus.

(Rom#26 - BTS) - The Prime Director's id energy self confronted Galactus, hoping to drive him off or otherwise convince him to spare Galador. However, Galactus bombarded the Prime Director's id energy self, tearing it apart before Galactus absorbed his energies, ending his existence.

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and Joe Sinnott.

    Presumably the Prime Director did not create his Spaceknight armor to be as sinister looking as Mentus turned out to be? I would think Mentus transformed it thusly.

"200 years ago"

    The flashback in Rom#1 took place "200 years ago," which would have been around 1780 A.D. when the story was published in 1979.

    The sliding timescale moves that date way forward, and it would be around 9 years before the stories currently being published in the Marvel Universe (so like 2015 at the time this profile was written in 2024 A.D.).

    However, I would think that the date of initial Galador-Dire Wraith conflict should stay fixed in time in the late 18th century A.D. rather than being moved forward into the 1800s.

    Or should it? Significant amounts of time have passed that having it stay fixed in time would make the initial conflict between the Wraiths and Galadorians 250 years ago, rather than 200 years ago...

    Additionally, it seems odd to me that the flashbacks with Terminator's trial and his stealing of Rom's remains were still 200 years ago and that it took 200 years for Mentus to start his plot against Rom?

    And, it didn't occur to anyone that Terminator stole Rom's remains and then Rom suddenly showed up while the Terminator was never seen again? Maybe Mentus waited some time before having the Terminator return as Rom and/or maybe Mentus used his powers to prevent anyone from suspecting anything?

    Why didn't Mentus kill the Prime Director? Perhaps he feared that he would cease without the consciousness from which he was derived?

    After Terminator subdued Rom, he instructed the Angel Elite to take Rom into the Hall of Science. The next panel showed Rom suspended in the tightly-conforming stasis tank in the same room in which he found the Prime Director to be present. After breaking free, they left walked to the sealed chamber that seemed to be contiguous with the room they were in. Entering that room, they freed the other Spaceknights, with whom Rom departed to challenge Mentus' evil. To do so, they flew to...the Hall of Science, and the Angel Elite believed they were impostors as the "real Rom" (Terminator) had not left that building?
    I'm not sure what happened here, but it seems to me that Rom was taken into the Hall of Science and by the Angel Elite and then taken to a containment facility elsewhere by parties unrevealed, as it would have been very problematic if the Angel Elite had seen the real Prime Director kept their in stasis.
   
    When Mentus was detailing his history, it initially seemed like he was showing Rom in the Prime Director in stasis, but as Rom was shocked to see the Prime Director with him a few panels later, the previous image has to be part of the flashback.   

    I'm not sure that the Prime Director's reasoning that the Dire Wraiths would happily serve him was very solid, but than again he was just evil and crazy.

    Mentus and the Prime Director are pictured in Rom#48 when Rom tells Brandy (now Starshine) that Galador was not as perfect as he may have presented it to be. No new data was provided.

Some comments courtesy of Donald Campbell

First, until I read your profiles, I had never realized that Rom must have been transported to another location after Rom/Terminator had ordered the Angels to take the "foolish imposter" into the Hall of Science. However, it makes sense because that's the only way in which Rom could have been taken into that building but later return with a flight of Spaceknights to attack it from the outside. It also makes sense that Mentus would have a secret lair elsewhere since the Hall of Science seems to have been at least a semi-public area, one to which a lot more Galadorians had access and could potentially witness his covert activities.
    Also, a caption in Rom#25 does specifically state that Rom and the Prime Director were imprisoned "in a dungeon on the paradise-planet Galador," which would seem to confirm that it was not within the Hall of Science (unless it was a secret dungeon within that building).

Second, I disagree with your opinion that Mentus, while revealing his origin and  history to Rom, didn't actually show him the Prime Director imprisoned in a nearby stasis-tube. While I agree that the scene is a bit awkwardly written and the artwork is bit off since the position of the Prime Director relative to Rom seems to shift between the two significant panels (ie., from being across the room to being nearly beside him), I think that the reason why the brooding Rom appeared to be surprised by the fact that he was "not alone in captivity" had more to do with his belief that the Prime Director was able to speak. I think it was meant to convey the idea that Rom had believed that the captive Prime Director was somehow insensate after being held captive for so long and that was why it was a surprise when he was able to speak to Rom.
--I can see how it could be interpretted either way--Snood

Third, how complicit was the scientist who informed the false Rom that "the subject" was now in total stasis? Did he truly believe (like the rest of the Galadorians) that Rom was just an imposter? The fact that the supposedly-dead Prime Director was imprisoned in the same room would suggest that he must have known something odd was going on, but Mentus didn't make reference to having any servants other than Terminator/Rom. Perhaps Mentus just used his mental powers to control the scientist's mind enough to prevent him from seeing what was right in front of him?
--Yeah, I considered a sub-profile on that guy, but then I  wasn't sure what we actually knew, and then I guess I just got distracted and forgot about him--Snood

Fourth, whatever Mentus did to Terminator was not permanent since Terminator mentioned that Mentus had always been there to command him and to dispel the doubts than haunted his memory-circuits. Was this because Terminator's mind only existed as "brain-patterns" on the "memory-circuits" of his Spaceknight armor? Would Mentus have been able to exert more permanent control over a mind that existed within an organic brain?

Fifth, given that the Spaceknight armor inhabited by Mentus was meant to be animated by force of will instead of living cells, I would assume that that meant that the internal structure of this "new suit of Spaceknight armor" was significantly different from all other Spaceknight armors, one that included some circuitry (or batteries or something) to contain the energy of the "force of will" or mind that was projected into it.

Sixth, I had also wondered why Mentus hadn't simply killed the Prime Director for real when he could have easily done so, and I came to the conclusion that it was a combination of two reasons. First, as you mentioned, since Mentus was the result of a new and untested technology, one which had already malfunctioned, he couldn't know for certain that he would survive if his original organic self, the being from whose consciousness he was derived, were to die. However, I also believe that it was as the Prime Director stated, that Mentus fed on despair. Perhaps, as the evil side of the Prime Director's persona, Mentus needed to absorb negative emotions (like despair) in order to sustain itself? Or maybe Mentus just derived some sadistic pleasure in keeping "the ancient fool" alive so that he would be forced to witness how wrong his attempt at doing good had gone?
--Could be, for sure...or perhaps he was just a typical victim and enjoyed having his enemy at his mercy and never thought to kill him and end his threat--Snood

Seventh, I really wish that Bill Mantlo had given the Prime Director a real name. It's tiring having to type out "Prime Director" every time I want to refer to that character.
--Yes, I almost made that comment, too...I considered even suggesting something using some combination of the letters from  "William  Timothy Mantlo," but then decided I'd rather just see him independently identified at some point.--Snood

Eighth, the fact that Javelin had heard of Terrax indicates that he had returned to Galador fairly recently (i.e., after Fantastic Four I#211, published only two years earlier). This implies that either Mentus hadn't started to move Galador (and its suns) through space until after Javelin had returned to the planet or that he had started before Javelin returned but that Galador had still been close enough to its original location for Javelin to find it.

Ninth, Mentus does specifically mention that it was by using "a science developed by (him) over the past 200 years" that had enabled him to "(begin) – unnoticed – to move Galador through space." While I agree that the timing of that move relative to when Mentus starting plotting against Rom is rather convenient plot-wise, it does make sense that it would take a fair amount of time to develop the technology needed to move an entire star system, especially if the population of its inhabited planet had to somehow be kept unaware of what was happening.

Tenth, Mentus made contact with the Dire Wraiths on Earth and arranged for them to manipulate Rom into returning to Galador because he was afraid that his plans would be disrupted if Rom returned on his own, at a time of his own choosing. However, as it turned out, if Mentus hadn't interfered, Rom would have remained on Earth and thus would never have been in a position to prevent Mentus from delivering Galador to the Dire Wraiths in the first place. Mentus really should have read the Evil Overlord list because he definitely shot himself in the (metaphorical) foot with his scheming against Rom.

On last thing: Decades ago, I somehow came to believe that the OHotMU had stated that Galadorians had lifespans that exceeded two centuries. Ever since then, I have believed that that false data was inspired by the fact that the already-elderly Prime Director was able to survive almost 200 years in captivity and that the human cells contained within the Spaceknights would also survive and be in a state which would enable them to be reunited with rest of their bodies that were cryogenically preserved back on Galador, and I had planned on mentioning that "false fact" in these comments. However, when I checked the quarter-page profile on the Galadorians from OHotMU II#15 while writing these comments, I was totally surprised to find that there is NO MENTION of their race having an extended lifespan. While I'm (reasonably) sure that I must have read it somewhere, it has left me left wondering how and why I ever got that idea in the first place. Weird. Another mini-Mandela effect.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Mentus should be distinguished from:

planet-moving technology

mentus-pm-rom25-planet-tech

      Despite the name, the technology apparently moved not just a planet but its entire star system, inclulding the star(s) and the other planetary bodies.

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS / Rom#27 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Mentus developed the technology to somehow move Galador (and its entire solar system) through space toward the Dark Nebula, home system of the Dire Wraiths. Mentus planned to offer Galador to the Wraiths in exchange for Wraithkind's subservience to him. 

(Rom#25) - Confronted by the Spaceknights, Mentus fled, intending to hasten Galador's approach to the Dark Nebula.

(Rom#25 (fb) - BTS) - The Prime Director confronted Mentus within the chamber containing Mentus' planet-moving technology, reclaiming his lost humanity and reabsorbing Mentus' essence into himself. The Prime Director's frail physical body perished, but he survived as a being of id energy.

(Rom#25) - The Spaceknights then flew to the chamber housing Mentus' planet-moving technology, only to find the Prime Director and Mentus on the floor, locked in death, while the Prime Director's id energy self floated above them.

--Rom#25

Note: This was accomplished without those present on Galador realizing anything was happening, meaning they did not have any gravitational, heat, etc. issues from moving away from their sun, through and out of their solar system, and across empty space or perhaps through a space warp, hyperspace, etc...

     It reminds me of the Rigellian Space-Lock technology. Perhaps Mentus used his powers to scan and replicate this or similar equipment?

Further discussion courtesy of Donald Campbell:

    In issue #27, Rom thinks about how, "huge, galaxy-moving engines had been set in place by the evil Mentus to drive the star system containing Galador towards the Dark Nebula!"
It has always been my belief that the reason why Mentus was able to set Galador in motion without anyone on the planet realizing that anything odd was going on was because...
those galaxy-moving engines were moving the ENTIRE star system, including both of the suns and all of the rest of the planetary system.

    Admittedly, I'm not sure how that would work. My best guess would be that Mentus was able to great a truly GIGANTIC stasis field, one that encompassed the entire star system. Then, once everything within the field was frozen in time, he was able to rotate the stasis field so that the star system would be moving in the correct direction once the stasis field was dropped. Of course, this assumes that a moving object's velocity is also frozen from by the stasis effect and can easily be redirected by reorienting the stasis field. Like, if a thrown baseball were frozen in a stasis field and that field was then rotated 180 degrees around before being discontinued, then the unfrozen baseball would flying back towards the person who threw it at the same speed that it was travelling when it was frozen in stasis. Or maybe not. I'm a science fiction fan but I'm not entirely sure how stasis fields work.

    Also, as mentioned above, Galador had "twin suns" (according to the Omniscient Narrative on page 1 of Rom#26). Although they were never seen, I'm assuming that they were a close binary pair and that Galador was in a circumbinary orbit around both of them.

    Plus, I'm pretty sure that it was only Galador that Galactus instantaneously "relocated in space" at the end of Rom#27 because, you know, moving an entire star system, would presumably to require the expenditure of a LOT more energy than just moving a planet, something that would be on the mind of a hungry World-Devourer after the last planet he tried to eat had fed on him instead.

    Rom#26 does note that Galactus' worldship had entered the Golden Galaxy and positioned itself in orbit around Galador itself. The Golden Galaxy is a misnomer, as it typically refers to Galador's solar system (or perhaps a local group of star systems) rather than a whole galaxy, as Galador is (or, at least it originally was) located within the Milky Way Galaxy.
    Additionally, a Galadorian woman notes the immense ship to be eclipsing Galador's twin suns, implying that the suns were indeed transported with Galador.
    --Snood

Donald again:
    At the end of Rom#23, Rom met with the Fantastic Four in the hopes that they could provide him with some means to return to Galador in less than the 200 years it took for him to reach Earth. The FF agreed to let him use the "Skrull saucer" that they had captured years ago and Reed programmed its guidance system using the coordinates for Galador that Rom retrieved from his memory circuits.

    However, in Rom#24, when the saucer emerged from hyperspace, Rom found that there was no sign of the "twin suns of the Golden Galaxy around which orbits Galador." Rom was soon challenged by Nova and some Syfon Warriors because he had entered Xandarian space, and was in "the Andromeda Galaxy, the home system of Xandar."

    Later, after helping repel a Skrull invasion force, Rom was told by the Protector (formerly the Prime Thoran) that, according to the Living Computers of Xandar, Galador still existed, but it had been moved, as had "the entire Golden Galaxy." The Protector then used his powers to send Rom traveling through space at many times the speed of light within what appeared to be a shaft of light.

    In Rom#25, Rom appeared on the surface of Galador as his molecules reassembled at the end of his journey.

    The implication of this storyline is that, 200 Earth-years earlier, Galador had existed at the location in space now occupied by Xandar.

    This is one of the most RIDICULOUS ideas I've ever heard. While it's true that EVERYTHING in space is in motion relative to everything else, there's simply no way that one star system (or "galaxy") could replace another without EVERYBODY (or, at least, every astronomer) in those star systems knowing that it was going to happen long before it happened. In human terms, stars move through space at great speeds, but space is VAST and so it still takes a VERY LONG time for them to get anywhere.

    For example, the star Gliese 710 is heading straight towards the Solar System at a speed of 32,000 mph. Since it's now about 64 light-years away, it will only take it about 1.35 million years to reach us.

    Of course, faster stars do exist in the real world and some of them have been detected moving at speeds of over 5 million miles per hour. However, even at that speed, a star that was as close as Alpha Centauri would still take over 500 years to reach Earth, giving astronomers on Earth plenty of time to see it coming.

    The only explanation that makes any sense is that, although Rom believed that the coordinates for Galador that he had retrieved from his memory circuits were correct, they were actually wrong, suggesting that something may have scrambled those circuits in the 200 years since he had left Galador. I mean, even if we just look at his time on Earth, the Spaceknight's cyborg armor had been disrupted by advanced Dire Wraith weapons several times, and it had also been disrupted by Hellhounds, overloaded by energy from the Jack of Hearts (resulting in temporary amnesia) and phased through by Sprite (Kitty Pryde). Maybe all those disruptions cause some of the stored data to become corrupted, so that the stored coordinates for Xandar were misidentified as being the coordinates for Galador? You'd have to ask someone who knows something about how computers work to advise you as to whether or not that would be possible.

    Also, I'd always had a vague feeling that the idea that Galador orbited twin suns was not just mentioned in Rom#27, so it came as a pleasant surprise to find another reference to them in an Omniscient Narrative in Rom#24.

    Additionally, Galador (and the Golden "Galaxy") was identified as being in the Milky Way Galaxy in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, so it shouldn't be in Xandar's system, which is in the Andromeda Galaxy
--Snood

images: (without ads)
Rom#20, pg. 7, panel 1 (accessing star disc);
          panel 5 (mostly full);
          panel 6 (upper);
       pg. 7, panel 1 (Full, distant)
          panel 2 (face, detail);
    #25, pg. 7, panel 2 (cloaked, with Terminator in Rom's form);
          panel 6 (morphing Terminator into Rom's form);
       pg. 8, panel 4 (Prime Director projecting evil side);
          panel 5 (Prime Director shocked at Mentus' development);
       pg. 21, panel 1 (planet-moving machinery);
          panel 2 (Prime Director and Mentus' corpses);
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition)#12: Spaceknights entry (face)

Appearances:
Rom#19 (June, 1981) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (artist), Al Milgrom (editor)
Rom#20 (July, 1981; both stories) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Joe Sinnott (inker), Jo Duffy (editor)
Rom#21/2-22/2 (August-September, 1981) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Joe Sinnott (inker), Al Milgrom (editor)
Rom#25 (December, 1981) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (penciler), Joe Sinnott (inker), Al Milgrom (editor)
Rom#26 (January, 1982) - "Boisterous" Bill Mantlo (writer; peerless proser), "Our Pal" Sal Buscema (powerful penciler), "Joltin'" Joe Sinnott (inker; incredible embellisher), Al Milgrom (editor)

First posted: 09/01/2024
Last updated: 09/05/2024

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and � 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

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