CHANDRA
Real Name: Chandra
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Centaurian) humanoid technology-user
Occupation: Slave of the Space Parasite, Resistance fighter
former crewman on a starship
Group Membership: Captives of the Space Parasite
Affiliations: Paibok the Power Skrull, Terrax the Tamer, the Delinquent, native population of "New Xeron"
Enemies: Randau the Space Parasite
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: New Xeron;
formerly mobile through space on a starship
First Appearance: Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus #1 (April, 2007)
Powers/Abilities: Chandra possessed the normal physical abilities of a female Centaurian of her age who had engaged in regular (and possibly intensive) exercise.
Chandra was also an empath who possessed the mental ability to sense the emotions of other beings. She was able to determine that Terrax, contrary to how he presented himself to the world, was actually experiencing high levels of pain, despair, helplessness and shame as a result of having been enslaved by Annihilus.
Chandra was one of the Centaurians who believed that such mental abilities were gifts from their gods.
Chandra may have had some skill at archery, and may also have received some survival training (at least enough to make herself a bra and bikini out of hides). On the other hand, Chandra may have been brought up as a member of a tribe of hunters on her homeworld.
History:
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1 (fb) - BTS) - Over time, some members of
the Centaurian species developed certain mental abilities (like empathy). Those Centaurians
who were religious by nature came to believe that their gods had gifted their people with
these mental abilities.
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1 (fb) - BTS) - In recent years, a young female Centaurian named Chandra who possessed empathic powers joined the crew of an alien starship. It was probably during this time that Chandra first heard about the Heralds of Galactus and the Power Cosmic that each wielded.
At some point, the starship carrying Chandra came too close to the planet of "New Xeron" and its conqueror, Randau the Space Parasite, used his Solar Scepter to shoot down the ship and add its crew to his collection of slaves.
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1/1 (fb) - BTS) - Chandra joined a group of offworlders who wished to rise up against Randau and destroy him, but they lacked the power needed to accomplish that feat and so they bided their time.
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1/1) <Annihilation Day, plus 222> - With the death of Annihilus, the parasites which had forced those who had been infested by them to obey his will stopped functioning, freeing all the positive-matter beings who had been enslaved by them. Aboard the Annihilation Wave battle Cruiser Ch'trrr, Terrax the Tamer reacted explosively, using his cosmic power to destroy the ship and its crew. Terrax and his fellow ex-slaves Paibok the Power Skrull and the Elan known as the Delinquent survived the blast but found themselves riding a section of the destroyed ship as it hurtled to a crash landing on a nearby planet.
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1/1 (fb) - BTS) - On New Xeron, Chandra witnessed the crash and pulled all three from the burning wreckage.
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1/1) - Once all three had regained consciousness, Chandra explained the situation on New Xeron, and how Randau the Space Parasite, a being who fed on the life energy of living beings to make himself stronger, had conquered the planet, enslaved the natives and abducted and enslaved the crews of any starship which strayed too near to the planet. Chandra showed Paibok and Terrax her group of offworlders who sought to destroy Randau but lacked the power to do so, and asked them to use their great power against the Space Parasite. After a brief discussion, Terrax and Paibok agreed to aid the rebellion, and instructed Chandra to have her army rest for an attack which they would launch on the following day.
That night, Chandra approached Terrax and asked the "mighty one" if he did not sleep. Terrax replied that he had no need of sleep since his energies were replenished by the cosmos itself. Terrax then suggested that Chandra should rest since she was the sole member of her "army" that would be needed to guide them to Randau. Chandra revealed that her people's gods had gifted her with the ability to sense the emotions of others and she tried to comfort Terrax about the despair, helplessness and shame that he felt over his recent enslavement. Terrax reacted badly to her efforts and used his control over earth to form a giant hand which grabbed her and began crushing her. Only the fact that Chandra was able to gasp out that it wasn't his fault stopped Terrax from crushing her into paste. Instead, Terrax left Chandra kneeling on the ground as he stalked away, declaring that "Tomorrow...this planet will run red with blood."
The next day, the resistance army attacked Randau, starting with Terrax easily destroying his palace. Unfortunately, the next attacks were far less successful as Randau proved to be strong enough to withstand them and even became far stronger by absorbing their energies. As Randau was about to slay Terrax, Chandra and her army attacked, with Chandra shooting arrows at him and defiantly shouting that he would never enslave others ever again. For her efforts, Randau used his Solar Scepter to vaporize Chandra and some of her fellow attackers. However, this brief distraction had given Terrax a chance to recognize his error in assaulting Randau with energy so he shut off the power to his Cosmic Axe and instead used it to simply cleave Randau's body in half from the head down.
In the aftermath, Terrax celebrated his victory over Randau and the ebbing of the pain the memory of his enslavement had been causing him. Unfortunately, Terrax then learned that the planet's inhabitants had become used to being slaves of a master who had provided for them and protected them from invaders and now wished his slayers to rule them in Randau's stead. Enraged that they preferred to be slaves, Terrax stated that the bones of the "one on this misbegotten planet who was worthy of life" now littered the dust, that the rest were as much parasites as their fallen king and that "parasites must be exterminated!" With these words, Terrax used his Cosmic Axe to slice the entire planet in half. The only known survivors were Terrax, Paibok and the Delinquent.
Comments: Created by Christos N. Gage, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Stefano Landini.
Chandra is only the second member of the Centaurian race from Reality-616 to have been depicted in any Marvel Comics story, with the first being Samaya. However, Chandra also has the distinction of being the first female Centaurian to EVER be depicted as having human-like breasts...even though the first Guardians of the Galaxy series established that the Centaurian species resembled marsupials (in that the females carried their young in pouches on their chests) and thus none of them should have such breasts. As it turns out, female Centaurians introduced in later stories also have such breasts. So far, no "official" explanation has been provided for this difference.
Chandra is also special in that she is the first (and, so far, only) Centaurian who has ever mentioned her people's "gods." In ALL other stories which feature Centaurians, only ONE god, Anthos, is ever mentioned. Of course, all of those other Centaurians were from the 30th and 31st Centuries of Reality-691, so it could be that the religious beliefs of the Centaurian people changed over time. Or maybe the religions of the Centaurians in those two timelines just developed along different paths, with one leading to monotheism and the other to polytheism.
It's also interesting to note that Chandra, who possessed abilities which she believed were gifts to her people from their gods, first appeared in a story published in 2007, three years before Fantastic Four I#577 revealed that the Centaurians were one of a number of alien races who were long ago experimented upon by the Kree and that these Centaurian Inhumans had developed powers as a result. Given that the Kree are (mostly) a blue-skinned race, could it be that the scientists who had experimented upon the ancient Centaurians were later mythologized into those gift-giving "gods" by the normal (i.e., non-Inhuman) Centaurians? If so, then that could mean that Centaurians with powers possessed those abilities because, although they were not Inhumans themselves, they had inherited some Inhuman DNA from some of their ancestors? I wonder if writer Jonathan Hickman was aware of Chandra and Photon when he decided to make the Centaurians part of his Universal Inhumans storyline.
In stories featuring the original Guardians of the Galaxy, the Centaurians from the 30th Century were depicted as being "primitives" whose level of technology was that of the bow and arrow. It was further implied (but not stated outright) that the Centaurians had never met alien beings before the Terrans arrived in 2940 A.D. With that in mind, one would expect that the Centaurians who lived a thousand years earlier would be at the same low technological level and be unaware of aliens. Instead, the Centaurians from the present-day mainstream timeline seem to be well aware of the existence of aliens and (at least some) have a knowledge of advanced technology. Centaurian observers were present on Chandilar when the Shi'ar held the Trial of Jean Grey, Chandra was part of the crew of a starship, and Samaya was a centurion in the interstellar Nova Corps. Again, there has so far been no "official" explanation for this discrepancy but I'd very much like to see whatever is finally made canon.
Although I've stated in this profile that Chandra was part of the crew of an alien starship, that's not something which is ever actually stated in the story. In fact, it's just as possible that Chandra was serving aboard a Centaurian starship. However, given the uncertainty concerning how technologically advanced Chandra's people are supposed to be, I've chosen to hedge my bets by not assuming that they have their own starships.
Chandra's story certainly is a tragic one. A kind person who was willing to risk her life by pulling strangers from burning wreckage, Chandra's empathic abilities drove her to try to ease any emotional pain when she sensed it in others. Chandra also wanted to defeat Randau so that the beings he had enslaved could be freed. To that end, she chose Terrax the Tamer to be the champion and when Randau was about to kill him, Chandra saved his life by distracting Randau with an attack which cost her her life. Unfortunately, once Terrax had killed Randau, he came to view Chandra as the only person on the planet who had been worthy of life and, with her now dead, he viewed her fellow slaves as parasites who deserved to be exterminated and and destroyed the planet, killing all who lived there. So, Chandra's goal of freeing the slaves from Randau was accomplished but she lost her life in the process and the person she had chosen to champion her cause then killed all the people she had been trying to save. It's hard not to think that maybe she and all the people on New Xeron wouldn't have been better off if, instead of recruiting the three aliens she had saved, she had just encouraged them to leave the planet instead. Sure, natives would have continued to die as sacrifices but maybe the next powerful aliens to come across the enslaved planet wouldn't have been so judgmental. Life as one of Randau's slaves may have been hard but "while there's life there's hope" of freedom. Death, however, is final.
Considering the fate of New Xeron, who would you say is the greater villain, Randau or Terrax? The Space Parasite killed "millions upon millions" of the natives when he conquered their planet and shot down passing alien starships just so he could add the surviving crewmembers to his collection of slaves. On the other hand, the Tamer had conquered his own homeworld and later, after becoming a Herald of Galactus, led his master to numerous inhabited planets for him to feed upon. However, destroying a planet and its millions of inhabitants because ONE person asked a question that he found offensive would seem to put Terrax over the top on the villainy scale.
In one respect, Chandra appeared to be somewhat hypocritcal. On the one hand, she considered the natives to be "weak of will" because, after "millions upon millions" of them had been killed by Randau, the survivors felt that it was futile to resist him and thus chose to not defy him further. On the other hand, she had no problem with the fact that she and the other offworlders, realizing that they lacked the power to succeed, chose to do nothing instead of rising up and perishing in a rebellion that was doomed to failure. Given that both groups were essentially pragmatic in their choices, it's hard to see how she could justify her low opinion of the natives.
Terrax's genocidal rage at the New Xeronites who preferred to be slaves was also rather hypocritical. Terrax has a long history of using his powers to impose his will on others, beginning with his fellow Landlaks. In short, he's been enslaving anyone who was weaker than him for his whole life. So now he's found a whole planet of people who WANT to be his slaves and he becomes so angry that he wipes out the whole planet, killing them all? I realize that he is meant to be suffering from some PTSD due to his own recent enslavement and thus rejects the idea that, as Paibok put it, "a beast of burden who has only known the yoke comes to find it a comfort," but murdering millions of sentients because of it is NOT a productive therapy. And there's also the fact that he later went home to Birj and took over - - by slaughtering the Science Council and the Royal Family - - whose heads he then had mounted in his great hall. I guess he got over his angst about enslaving people.
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Chandra has no known connections to
All of the offworlders on New Xeron had been crewmembers aboard alien starships which had come too close to the planet, enabling Randau to shoot them down with his Solar Scepter weapon. Once these ships crashed on New Xeron, Randau added the survivors from their crews to his collection.
Unlike the planet's native population, who were "weak of will" and felt that it was futile to resist their conqueror, the offworlders (including Chandra) wished to rise up and destroy Randau. However, knowing that they lacked the power needed to succeed, they chose instead to bide their time and wait for an opportunity to present itself.
When Terrax the Tamer and his two companions crashlanded on New Xeron and Chandra was able to enlist their help, she offered them the services of their army but Terrax dismissed them as being "useless, except as cannon fodder." Terrax then told Chandra to instruct her forces to rest as they would attack on the next day. However, that night Terrax told Chandra that she was the sole member of her "army" whom they needed -- to guide them to Randau.
The next day, the rebel army was close behind Terrax, Paibok and the Delinquent when they confronted Randau after Terrax had brought his palace down around him. Unfortunately, Randau's energy-absorbing ability enabled him to not only withstand their attacks but grow stronger from them. As Randau was about to slay Terrax, Chandra and at least three others from the army attacked him. Unharmed but distracted, the Space Parasite fired a blast from his Solar Scepter to vaporize Chandra and at least one of her fellow attackers. However, this brief respite had given Terrax a chance to recognize his error in assaulting Randau with energy so he shut off the power to his Cosmic Axe and instead used it to simply cleave Randau's body in half from the head down.
With Randau's death, the ordeal of the people of New Xeron had ended. Sadly, a yellow-skinned onlooker asked how were they to live without Randau, who had provided for them and protected them from invaders. When he asked the aliens if they would rule in place of Randau, Terrax realized that they preferred to be slaves and, enraged, stated that the bones of the only "one on this misbegotten planet who was worthy of life" now littered the dust, that the rest were as much parasites as their fallen king and that "parasites must be exterminated!" With these words, Terrax used his Cosmic Axe to slice the entire planet in half, killing everyone except himself, Paibok and the Delinquent.
Note: The exact number of offworlders who were present on New Xeron was never established but no more than twenty were ever seen at once. Also, aside from Chandra and (at least) three other Centaurians, none of the aliens are familiar to me.
--Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1
A race of sentient green-skinned two-armed bipeds who evolved on a brownish-yellow planet that appeared to be mostly desert. The name by which these beings knew themselves has never been revealed. Offworlders who visited the planet referred to this race only as "the natives."
"Some time" before the Annihilation War began, the Xeronian mutate known as Randau the Space Parasite arrived on their planet. Using his ability to absorb the life energy of living beings, Randau fed upon the native population, killing "millions upon millions" of them, and thus became incredibly powerful. Unable to resist Randau, the natives were swiftly conquered, and their new ruler renamed the planet "New Xeron" after his homeworld.
As long as they did not defy him, Randau allowed his new subjects to live so that he could feed off them endlessly in the form of a sacrifce which he demanded every third moon, one whom he drained of life entirely. In return, Randau provided for his subjects by protecting them from invaders. Having no real choice, most came to consider the situation "acceptable."
When the offworlder rebels attacked, with Terrax using his power over earth and stone to engulf the palace of Randau in Randau City, any natives who were in service in the palace were killed. The Space Parasite himself was soon killed by the alien Terrax.
The rest of the natives were all killed when Terrax, angered that the surviving aliens wanted him to rule them as their new master, declared that they were all parasites who deserved to be exterminated and used his Power Cosmic, focused through his axe, to cleave the planet in two, reducing it to chunks of rock floating in space.
Note: Although I've described the natives as "green-skinned two-armed bipeds" (like the one in the image to the right), the story itself does not actually identify that individual as being one of the natives. In could be that the being in that image was one of the offworlders who had been enslaved by Randau. In that case, the yellow-skinned two-armed biped whose request that the three aliens rule them in Randau's stead triggered Terrax's genocidal outburst could have been a native. Unfortunately, the story does not provide any definite answers so only the writer and artists know for sure.
--Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1
This planet, whose original name has never been revealed, was located in a solar system somewhere within the Milky Way galaxy. It was the homeworld of a race of sentient bipeds whose name for themselves has also never been revealed.
When Randau the Space Parasite conquered this planet he renamed it "New Xeron" after his homeworld. Randau ruled his new world from the palace of Randau which was located in a settlement which he had renamed "Randau City."
The palace of Randau was destroyed when Terrax, an ally of the offworlder rebels, used his power to engulf the palace in a huge wave of earth and stone from the walls of the canyon within which the palace had been located. Since at least some of the city's building seemed to have been carved out of those walls, some of Terrax's rocky wave may have been been part of the city.
Although Randau survived this first attack and it initially seemed that his energy-absorbing ability was going to enable him to easily destroy his enemies and use their energy to begin to expand his empire, the Space Parasite was quickly defeated once Terrax shut off the energy to his axe and used it to cleave Randau in twain.
Unfortunately for the planet and its inhabitants, some of the surviving members of the rebel army (or maybe they were natives) made the mistake of asking Terrax to rule them in Randau's place. Angered that anyone would prefer to be a slave, Terrax declared that they were all parasites who deserved to be exterminated and used his Power Cosmic, focused through his axe, on the planet, reducing it to chunks of rock floating in space.
In the aftermath, only Terrax, Paibok and the Deliquent survived.
--Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1
images: (without ads)
Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1, page 6, panel 2 (main image)
page 5, panel 3 (head shot)
page11, panel 3 (being crushed by Terrax)
page 18, panel 3 (defying Randau)
page 18, panel 4 (death)
page 20, panel 1 (bones littering the dust)
page 8, panel 2 (fellow slaves)
page 20, panel 3 (doomed slaves)
page 12, panel 2 (native?)
page 4, panel 3 (New Xeron)
page 21 (New Xeron dies)
Only Appearance:
Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus #1 (April, 2007) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Giuseppe
Camuncoli (penciler), Stefano Landini (inker) and Andy Schmidt (editor).
Last updated: 09/08/15
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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