Venturite race (extraterrestrial; Tales of Suspense story)

VENTURITE race

Classification: Semi-humanoid extraterrestrial race

Location/Base of Operations: Parthea, Eferuge star system, Milky Way galaxy (see comments);
formerly Venturus (destroyed), second from the sun in the Eferuge star system, Milky Way galaxy
the bright light in the top right of each image was an approaching asteroid, seen only in the last few weeks of Venturus' existence

Known Members: Lokar, others unidentified;
population 5000 (see comments)

Affiliations: Partheans

Enemies: Formerly targeted the Partheans for conquest

First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#53 (May, 1964)

Powers/Abilities: None revealed - if the structures on their skin were scales, they may have had some reptilian qualities.
They had highly advanced weaponry (with which they felt a planetary conquest was assured), including gamma anti-matter guns, tanks, and a fleet of spaceships, though they apparently lacked warp drive capacity.

Traits: The Venturites were formerly a bellicose race, but became submissive upon traveling to Parthea as refugees. Prior to their transport to Parthea, they were ruled by a worldwide dictatorship under Lokar; it is unrevealed whether they were absorbed into Parthean society or whether they were kept as a separate people, and whether Lokar retained any power amongst his own people

Type: Bilaterally symmetric semi-humanoid bipeds
Eyes: Two (on head; they apparently have a white sclera with a dark/black central region, which is either a pupil surrounded by a white/colorless iris, or perhaps their iris is black; or some other alien configuration)
Fingers: Four (including opposing thumb)
Toes: Four (as revealed in their OHotMU entry; the pictured Prosilican clearly has 5 toes)
Skin color: Green (with apparent scales (or bumps) on their posterior aspect (they can be seen on the top and back of the head and arms)); they also have facial hair, such as eyebrows, and some have beards)
Average height: No scale of reference is seen. Perhaps approximately 5'10"? (Lokar is larger than average)

History:

(Tales of Suspense I#53 (fb) - BTS) - Supremely superstitious, Lokar conquered every continent on his planet, Venturus, via a policy of following omens and portents to avoid offending the fates that governed their lives. He avoided (and had laws against) anything he thought might cause misfortune, such as unlucky numbers (like 13) or whistling indoors.

(Tales of Suspense I#53) - Lokar hungered for battle and sought to conquer another planet, he targeted the only inhabited planet his people knew of, Parthea. Despite his counselor's advice that the cosmic climate was good for interplanetary travel and that the Partheans were weak and would fall before their armed might, Lokar refused to act until he was sure the fates were on their side. Seeing an enormous blaze of light in the sky (which soon vanished behind a cosmic dust cloud), Lokar was certain this was the omen he had sought and ordered all military forces to prepare for the invasion.
Assured of their victory, the Venturites prepared their powerful tanks and gamma anti-matter guns and loaded them into their spaceships.

However, the flash of light soon reappeared, and Venturite astronomers soon realized it was actually a falling star of incredible magnitude, which would strike Venturus in about a week's time. Advised that their entire planet would be destroyed, Lokar elected to cancel the invasion, choosing to save his people instead. He removed all of the weaponry from the ships so they could fit in the maximum amount of Venturites. The asteroid (see comments) crashed into and shattered Venturus shortly after the last ship left its atmosphere.
Lokar realized his people's only hope was to travel to Parthea and beg for their charity, despondent over how just a few weeks ago, he had planned to invader, conquer, and subjugate the Partheans.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#7: Prosilicans entry (see comments) - BTS) - The Venturites became refugees on Parthea.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and George Roussos.

In the original Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#7, there's an entry in the Appendix to Alien Races on the Prosilicans...except the profile has nothing to do with the Prosilicans beyond the title and the image. Since that time and up until about 2 weeks before I wrote this profile, I never knew what was going on with that entry. Turns out whoever wrote the profile summarized "The Omen," which was the story of Lokar and the people of Venturus, an unrelated story appearing later in the same issue of Tales of Suspense.

Only their planet, Venturus, is identified, not their race...so I don't know if they're the Venturites, Venturans, Venturuans, Venturians, Venturoids, etc. For the purpose of this profile, I went with Venturites.

The OHotMU confirmed the falling star that struck Venturus to be an immense rogue asteroid.

The OHotMU further listed the Venturite population as 5000. This is presumably following the exodus from Venturus, and we're not sure how much of the population escaped Venturus, how long the trip to Parthea took, how many Venturites survived the journey, and what their fate was upon arriving on Parthea. It's also not clear how far in the past the story might have taken.

Lokar refers to Parthea as "the only other inhabited world in our galaxy" (at the end of the story, he refers to Parthea as "the only other planet in our star cluster which is capable of supporting life"; "star cluster" may be considerably smaller than the galaxy reference). Given how planets in the Marvel Universe are pretty likely to host other races, it seems unlikely that there aren't any other inhabited planets in the whole galaxy, though given the number of galaxies in the universe, it's certainly possible. Despite the confusion noted above, the Prosilicans' profile in OHotMU all of the text in the entry deals with the Venturites (just mistakenly calling them Prosilicans a couple times). That entry notes that Venturus was in the Milky Way galaxy, which is highly inhabited in the Marvel Universe, and that Parthea was Venturus' "sister planet." They further note that the Venturites' ships lacked warp drive. So we could surmise that:

Lokar meant solar system, rather than galaxy
Lokar meant galaxy, but his people's technology only allowed them to view as far as Parthea, so they were not aware of the scope of the galaxy
The story took place so far in the distant past that Parthea was indeed the only other inhabited planet in the Milky Way galaxy at the time of the story
The OHotMU was in error, and Venturus and Parthea were in some other galaxy, in which they were the only inhabited planets.
I'd pick 1 or 2 as most likely, IMO, particularly given the "sister planet" reference and the lack of warp drive.

Given that all of the Venturites clearly pictured were masculine in appearance, one might speculate about their nature of reproduction, but in the shadow as they board ships to Parthea, a figure with a more feminine hairstyle and apparent breasts is seen.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Venturites have no known connections to

VENTURA, SHARON - see Ms. MARVEL--Thing I#27
VENTURA, senora - employed Tatiana Caban at the restaurant Panaderia Ventura--NYX#4
VENTURE, GINA - daughter of Steve, taken to safety after her father was killed by Payback--Punisher War Journal#51
VENTURE, STEVE - father of Gina, former head of a construction racket in New York, had Eddie Dyson’s family killed, killed by Payback--[Punisher War Journal#48, (named) #49], 51 (51d)
VENTURE 2099 ( ) - bounty hunter--Spider-Man 2099#2
VENTURE EXECUTIVES for GALACTIC SECURITY - hired Monark Starstalker and Paradox to retrieve technonecrotic virus-aka VEGS*--Wolverine: Best There Is#9 (2011)

Lokar has no known connections to:

LO-KARR of Earth-6175 - @ 1971, robot created by unidentified scientist, posed as extraterrestrial, threatened world conquering to unite humanity, dismantled after purpose served--Journey into Mystery I#75/1

Lokar

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#7: Prosilicans entry (see comments) - BTS) - The Venturites became refugees on Parthea.

--Tales of Suspense I#53

Venturite ships

(Tales of Suspense I#53) - Assured of their victory in a planned assault on the planet Parthea, the Venturites prepared their powerful tanks and gamma anti-matter guns and loaded them into their spaceships.

Lokar realized his people's only hope was to travel to Parthea and beg for their charity, despondent over how just a few weeks ago, he had planned to invader, conquer, and subjugate the Partheans.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#7: Prosilicans entry (see comments) - BTS) - The Venturites fleet arrived on Parthea.

--Tales of Suspense I#53

Parthea

Location/Base of Operations: Parthea, Eferuge star system, Milky Way galaxy

Little is known of the Partheans, except that the Venturites believed them the only other people in their sector of space, and also considered them weak and easily conquered.

(Tales of Suspense I#53) - Venturus' leader/warlord, Lokar, hungered for battle and sought to conquer another planet, he targeted the only inhabited planet his people knew of, Parthea. Despite his counselor's advice that the cosmic climate was good for interplanetary travel and that the Partheans were weak and would fall before their armed might, Lokar refused to act until he was sure the fates were on their side. Seeing an enormous blaze of light in the sky (which soon vanished behind a cosmic dust cloud), Lokar was certain this was the omen he had sought and ordered all military forces to prepare for the invasion.

However, the Venturite astronomers soon realized it was actually a falling star of incredible magnitude, which would strike Venturus in about a week's time. Advised that their entire planet would be destroyed, Lokar elected to cancel the invasion, choosing to save his people instead. He removed all of the weaponry from the ships so they could fit in the maximum amount of Venturites. The asteroid (see comments) crashed into and shattered Venturus shortly after the last ship left its atmosphere.
Lokar realized his people's only hope was to travel to Parthea and beg for their charity, despondent over how just a few weeks ago, he had planned to invader, conquer, and subjugate the Partheans.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#7: Prosilicans entry (see comments) - BTS) - The Venturites became refugees on Parthea.

--Tales of Suspense I#53 (mentioned only)

images: (without ads)
Tales of Suspense I#53, pg. 1- Lokar in dramatic profile
            pg. 2, panel 1 (guards);
                panel 2 (art);
                panel 3 (civilian and...someone wearing a symbolic costume of some sort);
                panel 4 (Lokar-head & torso with advisor);
            pg. 3, panel 1 (Venturus' skyline + asteroid);
                panel 2 (Venturus' local space + asteroid);
                panel 5 (tanks with gamma anti-matter guns);
            pg. 4, panel 1 & 2 (ships on ground);
                panel 5 (Lokar full body);
            pg. 5, panel 1 (peoples' exodus-apparent female in shadowed profile);
                panel 2 (Venturus destroyed);
                panel 5 (final fleet)

Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#53 (May, 1964) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Larry Lieber (penciler), George Roussos (inker)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#7 (July, 1983) - Mark Gruenwald (editor/head writer), Michael Carlin (associate editor), Peter Sanderson, Mark Lerer, & Tom DeFalco

Last updated: 12/30/12

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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