YAGO YAGO
Real Name: Yago
Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Reality-56862) extraterrestrial (Grampus) advanced technology-user
Occupation: Pirate
Group Membership: Leader of an unidentified group of space pirates
Affiliations: His crewmen
Enemies: Captain Boyce, Reg Carlton, Hamilton Forrest, Patrol Station Galaxy, the rest of the crew of the Sparrow, Universe Insurance;
an unidentified number of ships he and his crew plundered and murdered
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Last seen on a space ship en route to Earth;
formerly mobile aboard the Scorpion ship and based on the planet Grampus, Grampus star system, presumably the Milky Way Galaxy
First Appearance: Astonishing#52 (August, 1956)
Powers/Abilities: Like his crewmen, Yago was presumably resistant to the cold and vacuum of space.
He may have needed a helmet for
being in space, but he was active without one while being next to an
open cargo door.
He also was not incapacitated by the knockout gas his transport device released into the Sparrow apparently just seconds after the gas' release
He flew aboard the Scorpion and sometimes used its gas/transport device as part of a way to dupe and incapacitate ships they were attacking.
Yago had no problem destroying ships and killing apparently innocent crews.
History:
(Astonishing#52 (fb) - BTS) -
Circa 2301 A.D., based on his native planet Grampus, Yago led a band of space pirates aboard the Scorpion
to raid a number of cargo ships.
Although having radioed Universe
Insurance of the impending attacks, none of the other cargo ships
returned, as Yago and his crew apparently destroyed them. Many if not
all such cargo ships were insured by Universe Insurance, which had to
pay out on claims for the lost cargo.
(Astonishing#52 - BTS) -
Eventually Universe Insurance vice-president Hamilton Forrest felt
that if they had to pay another such claim that they would go out of
business, and so he sent investigator Reg Carlton to accompany the
rocket ship Sparrow as it delivered a shipment of uranium worth $500
million to Jupiter.
Aboard the Sparrow, Carlton showed
Captain Boyce how he had brought advanced image and sound recorder
equipment, hoping to gain evidence of the pirates in action.
Considering that the pirates had not left any survivors, Boyce hoped
they did not encounter the pirates. 
(Astonishing#52) - As the Sparrow entered the territory of the star Grampus, they were approached by the Scorpion (although they did not know this, as the ship's name was written on its opposite side...), whose crew sent a radio message, noting that they had a sick man aboard their ship and did not have enough fuel to get to Jupiter. Following the "Space Code," they agreed to take the person to Jupiter, and so the two ships flew abreast, and a tether line was extended between them, upon which a small carrier allegedly containing the passenger was transferred; however, Yago was within the carrier, which also contained a gas that could incapacitate the crew of the ship onto which it was loaded.
(Astonishing#52 - BTS) -
Presumably suspecting treachery, Carlton donned a space suit and hid
out in a room with the other space suits.
(Astonishing#52) - One the carrier device was aboard the Sparrow, it released its gas, incapacitating the entire crew as Yago mockingly called out, "Thank you, my Earth friends. 500 million thanks!" At least four members of Yago's crew, wearing space helmets, then used the tether to board the Sparrow, after which Yago informed them of the valuable cargo -- the uranium, which had been kept on the Captain's wrist -- and told them to look around for more cargo. Searching the ship, they found only seemingly empty space suits, after which Yago programmed the Sparrow's robot controls to set a course for the ship to crash into Earth's moon, which would leave nothing to identify it or its crew.
Yago and his crew left, turning
their ship to proudly show its name as they headed back to Grampus.
Meanwhile, Carlton came out of hiding and made a distress call that was
picked up by Patrol Station Galaxy, who gave him instructions on how to
stop the Sparrow while they dispatched a patrol ship that tracked its
radio beam.
(Astonishing#52 - BTS) - The
patrol ship arrived and the crew awakened, after which Carlton showed
them video footage of Yago, after which both the patrol ship and the
Sparrow flew to Grampus. 
The space patrol rounded up all of
the adults people of Grampus, but found them all to be identical to
them. Claiming to know how to locate Yago, Carlton returned to the
Sparrow and then came back with what he claimed was a radiation counter
that they could use to locate the uranium that Yago would have had on
him.
(Astonishing#52) - As Carlton
walked through the crowd with his ticking device, Yago panicked and
started running away, and the space patrol then caught him. After Yago
had been imprisoned on the patrol's ship upon which he was to be taken
to Earth to be imprisoned, Carlton (who also boarded the patrol's ship
to return to Earth) revealed that he had not actually had a radiation
counter but had just used his audio recording device to record and
project the ticking of his watch.
The space patrol took Yago
Comments: Created by Carl Wessler and Lou Morales.
The location of Grampus and some
other features of his race, etc. are discussed in the comments of the
Grampus profile.
Not the safest thing to carry
uranium around your wrist, but maybe it was contained in something
truly radiation-proof and Carlton was completely bluffing him.
If the space pirates were only hitting cargo ships
that approached the Grampus star system, it would seem likely that
Grampus would have been identified as a likely source of the piracy
early on, so presumably Yago's pirates were active throughout various
star systems and possibly even other galaxies.
The people of Grampus seemed to have little technology beyond that which Yago and his men possessed. It may be that only Yago and his pirates had a rocket ship, and they may or may not have constructed it vs.purchasing it, stealing it, or recovering and repairing it after it crashed on Grampus.
As Yago and his crew were criminals but there was
nothing to support similar behavior in the rest of the people of
Grampus, I chose to profile Yago separately.
Reg Carlton, Universe Insurance, the Sparrow, Captain Boyce, Hamilton Forrest, and Patrol Station Galaxy could all have profiles (or the others could be sub-profiles under Carlton). However, they're not associated with Yago beyond the one encounter and they really don't belong as sub-profiles here. If someone else wants to do a profile on Reg Carlton, feel free, but please don't add him or the others as sub-profiles here.
Thanks to Loki for supplying the story pages for me.
If they become available digitally-remastered, we can replace them with
high-resolution versions.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Yago should be distinguished from:
 
At least four other resident of Grampus served under Yago in the
Scorpion ship, acting as space pirates, looting cargo ships and then
apparently destroying their ships and killing their crews. When not on
a mission, they were apparently lived back on Grampus. The thefts eventually led Universe Insurance investigator Reg Carlton to accompany the Sparrow ship's mission. When the crew looted the Sparrow, Carlton hid out safely and then led the a space patrol from Patrol Station Galaxy to Grampus to capture Yago and take him back to Earth for imprisonment. --Astonishing#52 Note: Oddly, neither the space patrol nor Carlton seem to care about finding the rest of Yago's crew and bringing them to justice as well, but it may just be that this was not shown due to limitations of the four page story. |
  The Scorpion was a rocket ship used by Yago and his crew of space pirates to loot multiple cargo ships.The Scorpion could apparently travel to other star systems (see comments), which would indicate faster-than-light travel and/or ability to access space warps, etc. Yago's pirates used a device that sent a cable/tether
from the Scorpion to other ships to facilitate transport of objects or
beings, as well as a cannister the both carried an occupant and
released a knockout gas that swiftly incapacitated the crew of a small
cargo ship. A space suit and/or helmet could provide protection from
this gas, as did the interior of the cannister. They presumably had some translation technology to facilitate communication with ships from other worlds...it may be that there was some sort of universal translator technology that was readily available in this future reality. --Astonishing#52Note: The text confirms that the name on the side of the ship says "Scorpion," but the image is too low-resolution to show that. Kind of silly for a pirate ship to have its name written in giant letters on its side when they are trying to dupe ships into believing they are benevolent. It's a little unclear, but the Sparrow was the blue ship. You could see it clearly when it departed for Jupiter. When the two ships first approached each other, speech balloons from Boyce and Carlton clearly came from the blue ship. In the tiny image, the Scorpion looks blue, but when you enlarge, it is mostly green, with a little blue at the top. |
 A box, it carried a single passenger within it, and it also contained a gas in a separate compartment that could incapacitate the crew of
the ship onto which it was loaded.It had an extension on its lid that attached to a tether cable to facilitate transport between two nearby spaceships. (Astonishing#52) - Claiming to have a sick person in need of transport, Yago's crew convinced the crew of the Sparrow to transport the sick person. The two ships flew abreast, and a tether line was extended between them, upon which a small carrier allegedly containing the passenger was transferred; however, Yago was within the transport box. (Astonishing#52 - BTS) -
Presumably suspecting treachery, Reg Carlton donned a space suit and hid
out in a room with the other space suits. (Astonishing#52) - One
the carrier device was aboard the Sparrow, it released its gas,
incapacitating the entire crew (but sparing Carlton) Note: The device was only shown in action and not identified...I'm not happy with the name I picked, but it is both a gas weapon and a transport device... |
Appearances:
Astonishing#52 (August, 1956) - Carl Wessler (writer), Lou Morales (artist)
First posted: 11/25/2023
Last updated: 11/25/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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