ALTER EGO

Real Name: Alter Ego

Identity/Class: Allegedly an artificially created sentient planet (at least temporarily relegated to satellite/moon)

Occupation: Currently a satellite of Ego;
    former captive

Group Membership: Coupled with Ego

Affiliations: Ego, Thor, Zephyr

Enemies: Formerly the Collector, Ego, Thor, and Zephyr

Known Relatives: Stranger ("father"), Ego (brother)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Mobile within Ego's orbit;
    formerly mobile in Earth's solar system;
    formerly within a pocket dimension in the Collector's dodecahedron tesseract

First Appearance: Astonishing Thor#2 (March, 2011)

Powers/Abilities: Alter Ego is a "living moon" (formerly a "living planet") with complete control of its entire mass down to the molecular level. Its planetary gravity can wreak havoc on other planets it approaches.

    In its planetary form, it could generate a virtual continent of volcanoes, which could serve as a global scale propulsion engine, though it could not fly as quickly as Thor. It could project massive storms of rock, sufficient to bury Thor, and could form giant mouths to contain and swallow others. Its face contains a massive maw that can bite into other planetary objects. It can communicate telepathically, though it appears to be able to generate and understand auditory language as well (presumably aided by its telepathy). Alter Ego's atmosphere contained a breathable environment able to sustain humanoid beings; it can be manipulated to generate various types of weather, such as wind and lightning. It can consume the energies of beings it traps within its own body. Per threats made to Ego, it can be ASSumed that Alter Ego can generate blasts of cosmic energy, likely fired from its "eyes."

    Alter Ego may be able to reshape its substance into tentacles or humanoid "anti-body" minions, and to assume the appearance of other worlds.

Diameter: (Based on presumptive duplication of Ego) Approximately 4165 miles; as a moon orbiting Ego, he was much smaller, but whether he was 1-20% of his original size is unclear.
Mass: (Based on presumptive duplication of Ego) Approximately 3.82 x 1020 tons; as a moon orbiting Ego, he was much smaller, but whether he was 1-20% of his original size is unclear.
Eyes: None (two ocular structures exist on his surface, mimicking a human face; they are yellow or glowing white in color)
Hair: None

History:
(Astonishing Thor#3 (fb) - BTS) - Guided by intellectual curiosity and appetite for accomplishment, the Stranger decided to create a living, sentient planets. With the enormity of the undertaking beyond even his independent means, the Stranger applied to the Collector (Taneleer Tivan) for the loan of certain instruments and formulae only his Tivan's possession.

(Astonishing Thor#3 (fb) - BTS) - The Collector agreed, with the stipulation that the Stranger should create not one, but two living planets, and provide the second one to the Collector for his museum. The Stranger accepted the offer, intrigued by the idea of the two living planets eventually meeting after one had enjoyed complete freedom and autonomy while the other had known nothing by utter isolation. He wished to learn whether freedom or captivity bred the stronger will, certain they would fight and that one would destroy the other.

(Astonishing Thor#3 (fb)) - The Stranger created the two worlds and gave the free planet some of his own character and force of will, and therefore named his Ego; the Stranger also gifted Ego with the means to move unaided across the void of space, as well as the ability to access the byways of hyperspace.

(Astonishing Thor#3 (fb) - BTS) - The other planet was named Alter Ego, and the Collector placed it within a dodecahedron tesseract.

(Astonishing Thor#3 (fb) - BTS) - In recent years, the Stranger sought out Ego and informed him of the existence and captivity of his twin, Alter Ego. The Stranger supplied Ego with a psychic link to allow him to find Alter Ego, and Ego set off in jubilation to discover his kindred spirit and end his ages of cosmic loneliness.

(Astonishing Thor#1 - BTS) - Drawn to seek out Alter Ego, Ego approached Earth, leading to environmental devastation that led Thor to investigate and encounter both Ego (as it approached the planet Uranus) and the Stranger. That latter revealed himself to be Ego's creator as he dispatched Thor from Ego's surface and into space.

(Astonishing Thor#2) - Catching up to Ego and charting his trajectory via his mystic hammer, Mjolnir, Thor arrived at Ego's destination first, one of the museums of the Collector (Taneleer Tivan). After a failed effort to claim Thor for his collection, the Collector showed Thor to his gallery of dodecahedra tesseracts, each containing a pocket universe. He opened a portal to view one containing Alter Ego, who he revealed to have been created at the same time as Ego, who was now on his way to join his "brother," of whom he had recently learned. When Thor sought to shatter the tesseract, the Collector warned that if the dodecahedron was shattered, the pocket universe would burst forth to share space with their universe, destroying them all. The Collector's ally Zephyr then summoned a burst of wind that forced Thor into the tesseract with Alter Ego, who awakened upon sensing the godly life force upon which he might feed.

(Astonishing Thor#3) - Alter Ego moved to consume Thor, who struck back with a lightning bolt before fleeing. Alter Ego shifted his energies toward heaving aloft an entire continent of massive volcanoes to serve as a global-scale propulsion engine, but Thor outdistanced him, fleeing at superior speed. Though Alter Ego could only order Thor to come back, within the pocket universe with no other safe harbor, Alter Ego told Thor he could not escape. Using Mjolnir's dimension-warping powers, Thor exited the tesseract, and the Stranger guided Thor back to reality, thanking Thor for revealing which tesseract contained Alter Ego.

(Astonishing Thor#3 (fb)) <either before or after Thor's encounter with Alter Ego> - The Stranger granted Alter Ego a psychic link to Ego to allow him to find his long-lost sibling, and Alter Ego was furious, insisting that Alter Ego should remain alone.

(Astonishing Thor#3 - BTS) - The Stranger revealed Ego and Alter Ego's origins, and explained how and why he had provoked Ego and Alter Ego to seek out each other. Thor refused to allow either of the two sentient entities to kill the other. He further considered that the Stranger had arranged the confrontation to occur at a time when the Collector's museum had brought Alter Ego into Earth's vicinity, potentially with the goal of seeing Earth destroyed in the conflict.

(Astonishing Thor#3) - As the two living planets approached each other, Ego looked forward to meeting his brother, while Alter Ego swore to kill the pretender.

(Astonishing Thor#4) - Preoccupied by his psychic link to Ego and his obsession to kill Ego, Alter Ego ignored Thor as he tried to communicate with the recently freed living planet. Thor flew down to Alter Ego's surface, where he calmed the raging weather, and in doing so alerted Alter Ego to his presence; in response, Alter Ego struck back with a storm of rocks erupting from his surface that eventually engulfed and overwhelmed Thor. Zephyr, a former lover of Thor, freed Thor, but then Alter Ego opened a gigantic mouth on its surface that swallowed them both. Thor surrounded them both with a pocket of wind to protect them, but they remained trapped. Thor then blasted tunnels through the rock in which they were trapped, with the plan of locating and then delivering a blast of godly force into his core, which would render Alter Ego comatose; when Ego arrived, Thor intended to do the same to Ego. Thor and Zephyr made haste, as Alter Ego was feeding off of their divine energies. Finding a pit into the core, they leapt into it, and Thor instructed Zephyr to prepare a wind to carry them back up the shaft to escape the aftershock of his blast. However, Alter Ego sensed their approach and struck at them with a blast of blinding radiation before Thor was close enough to unleash his blast.

 

 

(Astonishing Thor#5) - Alter Ego subjected Thor and Zephyr's minds to an hallucination that they were a normal couple enjoying a relaxing picnic and a romantic interlude on Earth, keeping them occupied as it continued to consume their energies. However, Thor began to remember his past and encouraged the romance with Zephyr, as experience in the past had shown that when they united they unleashed a violent, potentially world-shattering lightning blast. After the blast was unleashed, Alter Ego spat out Zephyr; she was pleased to see the Collector nearby and entreated him to recapture the stunned Alter Ego in his tesseract. Instead, the Collector, who had realized Zephyr had used her seduction ruby to make him love her, cast Zephyr into another dodecahedron, one containing a black hole/singularity. While he could indeed have easily recaptured Alter Ego, the Collector no longer desired to keep it, as it would remind the Collector of his shame with Zephyr. As he departed, the Collector wished Alter Ego to enjoy his freedom, assuming, of course, he survived the imminent encounter with his twin, Ego.
    Ego was pleased the finally approach Alter Ego, but Alter Ego awakened upon sensing him and, demanding he must remain unique, bit a chunk out of Ego's face. Forced to the defense, Ego fought back, their struggle causing geological upheavals on Earth. Meanwhile, while protecting Earth from the immense fragments of the living planets broken off in their battle, Thor was able to speak directly into Alter Ego's mind via the small share of Thor's life force that Alter Ego had consumed. Thor convinced Alter Ego (who appeared in the form of a homeless man in the park) that despite the similarities, he was still unique, that he would someday not wish to be alone, and that he should give the universe a chance to surprise and delight him (revealing to Alter Ego his own self more than solitude ever could) before setting himself on a course with death. Coming to his senses, Alter Ego told Ego, "Brother...I've been a fool," Already enraged, however, Ego cast aside further discussion, vowed to finish their struggle, and unleashed an energy blast that shattered Alter Ego.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Thor criticized Ego, Ego was overcome with grief at what he had done and hoped his brother still lived, and Zephyr -- who had past through the black hole to emerge on the other side of the universe 600 years ago and had many adventures -- revealed that Alter Ego had survived, augmented by consumption of godly life forces. She then offered to stay with Ego and heal both his form and his tormented soul, while she helped re-form Alter Ego as a moon orbiting Ego until he eventually rose anew.
    The Stranger was ultimately pleased with the resolution, despite Thor's interference, as the experimented had surprising ended in formation of a family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments: Created by Rob Rodi and Mike Choi.

I just keep wanting to call this guy Counter Ego...

    And, yet another origin for Ego? What is this, the 4th? Wonder if it will stick.
The Stranger does note, "despite the many origin stories to the contrary -- some of which I fostered -- it was I who created Ego."

    Sorry about the staple marks in the main image scan.

    Perhaps the Stranger also created the Living Asteroids [ Amazing Adult Fantasy # 10( 3/62 ) 3rd story "No Sign Of Life"--at least 8 LIVING ASTEROIDS --- Official index To The Marvel Universe # 14( 4/10 )]? 
Either this Atlas Age living planet is Ego or Alter-Ego or there is another living planet out there that the Stranger created [ Marvel Tales # 151( 10/56 ) "It's Alive"  http://www.comics.org/issue/13125
--John Holstein

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

images: (without ads)
Astonishing Thor#2, pg. 18-19 (main)
        #5, pg. 12-13 (vs. Ego)
            pg. 17, panel 2 (human form)
            pg. 23 (moon)

Appearances:
Astonishing Thor#1 (January, 2011) - Rob Rodi (script), Mike Choi (pencils), Charlie Beckerman (assistant editor), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Astonishing Thor#2 (March, 2011) - Rob Rodi (script), Mike Choi (pencils), Charlie Beckerman (assistant editor), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Astonishing Thor#3 (April, 2011) - Rob Rodi (script), Mike Choi (pencils), Charlie Beckerman (assistant editor), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Astonishing Thor#4 (July, 2011) - Rob Rodi (script), Mike Choi (pencils), Charlie Beckerman (assistant editor), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Astonishing Thor#5 (September, 2011) - Rob Rodi (script), Mike Choi (pencils), Charlie Beckerman (assistant editor), Ralph Macchio (editor)

Last updated: 03/16/14

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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