Consortium soldier
ERGON race
Classification: Extraterrestrial humanoids
Location/Base of Operations: Ergonar, second planet from the sun in the M Canum Venaticorum (Earth designation) star system of the Milky Way galaxy
Habitat: 50% water in the form of ice, the rest of the planet is
mountainous
Gravity: 200% Earth
Atmosphere: 90% oxygen, 10% methane
Known Members: Captain Glaktu,
Consortium soldier, queen (name unrevealed),
Sklarr (deceased)
Estimated population: 2.4 billion
Affiliations: The Consortium (unconfirmed), Squirrel Girl (Doreen Green)
Enemies: Impossible Man, "Silver Surfer";
formerly Ba-Bani, Mephitisoids, Phaznozzes
First Appearance: Thor I#259 (May, 1977)
Powers/Abilities: Superhuman strength, evolved in part to combat their homeworld's heavy gravity
Cultural Traits: Highly competitive, merciless, adventurous. Many Ergons place a high value on their family's honor
Type: Humanoid
Eyes: Two
Fingers: Four (plus opposable thumb)
Toes: Five
Skin color: Red
Hair: Black
Average height: 6' 2"
Type of government: Variety of governments planetwide, primarily military dictatorships but with at least one monarchy
Level of technology: Intermediate level interstellar capacity and energy weapons. Technology is otherwise comparable to that of Earth
History:
(Thor I#259 (fb) - BTS) - Under circumstances which have never been revealed,
a brutish male Ergon named Sklarr became involved with the crew of the pirate starship Bird
of Prey. Sklarr's fighting skills enabled him to become captain of the starship.
(Thor I#259 (fb)) - Captain Sklarr was in command of the Bird of Prey when his crew found the Grey Gargoyle floating in space and brought him aboard. Sklarr confronted the new prisoner and declared that he was now their slave but the Grey Gargoyle defiantly challenged Sklarr to prove that he was the superior. In the ensuing battle, Sklarr proved himself the better fighter but the Earth criminal managed to touch his cheek, turn his body to stone, and then shatter Sklarr's petrified form to pieces. The Grey Gargoyle then took Sklarr's place as the new captain of the pirate starship.
(Silver Surfer III#33 (fb) - BTS) - The Poppupian known as the Impossible Man came to the planet Ergonar and became part of a "minor misunderstanding" involving their queen. Sentenced to be executed, the Impossible Man fled the planet, and an Ergonian fleet under the command of Captain Glaktu was sent after him.
(Silver Surfer III#33) - The Ergonian fleet caught up to the Impossible Man but found him in the company of a silvery humanoid on a surfboard. The fleet demanded that the alien surrender the Impossible Man to them and gave the alien ten seconds to comply. The alien identified himself as the Silver Surfer and stated that the Impossible Man was under his protection. Although concerned that this Galactian herald could prove troublesome, Captain Glaktu identified himself and stated that they wanted the Poppupian because he was to be executed. When the Silver Surfer refused to allow that, Captain Glaktu (to the dismay of his bridge crew) ordered the fleet to open fire. They complied, and the Impossible Man avoided their fire but the Silver Surfer stood his ground and, once the firing had stopped, was seen to be unharmed (except for some carbon scoring) but with an angry expression on his face. Fingering his collar, Captain Glaktu barely had time to say "Oops..." before the Silver Surfer began to attack the fleet, using his powers to disarm the ships without any loss of life.
When the Impossible Man decided to help "Surfy" by turning into a green and purple version of Rocket Raccoon, his entry into the battle distracted the Silver Surfer enough to allow the Ergonian fleet to blast him again. Angered that his buddy had been shot, the Impossible Man turned into a green and purple version of Dark Phoenix and briefly fooled an Ergonian bridge officer until Captain Glaktu LOUDLY pointed out that it was the Poppupian and ordered him blasted out of the sky. The Impossible Man managed to avoid any of the blasts while the Silver Surfer quickly disabled all of the ships to prevent them from harming either their target or one another.
With the fleet disabled and his crew putting out fires on the flagship's bridge, Captain Glaktu was contacted by the Silver Surfer who extended his most heartfelt apologies to Glaktu and his monarch for any damage he may have caused the Ergonian vessels and asked the captain for peace. Sitting in his command chair with his head in his hands, Captain Glaktu asked what choice did he have. Then, with tears welling in his eyes, Glaktu revealed that the Silver Surfer, by disabling his fleet, had brought shame and dishonor to Glaktu and his family for generations hence and that he would return home in disgrace. The Surfer then offered to help by going personally to the monarch and apologizing for the Poppupian. The Surfer also gave his word that the Impossible Man would never visit Ergonar again.
After the fleet had begun its voyage home, the Surfer argued with the Impossible Man about how dangerous and irresponsible his child-like behavior was, and then departed for Ergonar. Left alone, the sulking Impossible Man mused aloud about where he should go next and was considering Earth when an Ergonian officer surprised him with a drawn energy pistol and reminded him that there was no one to protect him any longer. As the terrified Impy fled (in the form of a green chicken) the Ergon revealed himself to actually be the Surfer, who had used his energy powers to project a hologram of an armed Ergon around himself as a practical joke in order to show Impy what it felt like. The Impossible Man promised to avoid causing harm in the future and the Surfer departed, pleased that he had managed to teach his "no longer impossible friend" a lesson.
However, the Impossible Man had had his fingers crossed behind his back when he made the promise and once the Surfer was far enough away Impy blew him a raspberry.
(Alpha Flight I#98) - The home office vessel of the intergalactic business conglomerate known as the Consortium arrived in the skies over the Canadian city of Toronto, Ontario in pursuit of J'ridia Starduster (Her) who had crashlanded in a downtown shopping center. Ground forces that were later sent after J'ridia included (at least) one male Ergon but all were defeated by Alpha Flight.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Unbeatable Squirrel Girl II#29 (fb) - BTS) - The Ergon were blackmailed by a fake Silver Surfer and his two fellow space-hunks. The Ergon complied with their demands.
(Unbeatable Squirrel Girl II#29) - The Ergon joined a fleet of 76 extraterrestrial races to get revenge on the Silver Surfer.
(Unbeatable Squirrel Girl II#30) - After it became clear that the Silver Surfer that screwed them over was actually not the real Silver Surfer, the alliances between the 76 races crumbled and their grievances with other were reignited.
Squirrel Girl worked out a plan to fix the problems between the many races, including the problems the Ergon had with the Ba-Bani, Mephitisoids and Phaznozzes.
Comments: Sklarr created by Len Wein, John Buscema and Tony
DeZuniga.
Ergon race created/named by the staff of the original Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe (led by Head Writer Mark Gruenwald).
The Ergon race received quarter-page profiles in both the original and deluxe editions of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.
Although he only appeared in a six-panel flashback sequence, Captain Sklarr is the only member of the crew of the pirate starship Bird of Prey whose alien race was named and given a profile in the Official Handbooks. So far, none of the other star-pirates, all of whom looked like humanoids with the heads of Earth animals, have had their races named or profiled.
In the real world, "M Canum Venaticorum" is the name of a nebula, not a star system.
In at least one panel, one of the Consortium soldiers in Alpha Flight I#98 appears to be an Ergon. The red-skinned humanoid only appears in two panels and has no dialogue so this identification isn't conclusive but I included him just to be thorough.
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Ergon race has no known connections to
Captain Glaktu has no known connections to
Captain Glaktu was an Ergon who was in command of a small fleet of starships that were part of his planet's military force. When the Poppupian known as the Impossible Man came to the planet Ergonar and became part of a "minor misunderstanding" involving their queen, he was sentenced to be executed but fled, and Captain Glaktu's fleet was sent after him.
When the fleet finally caught up to the Impossible Man and surrounded him, they found him in the company of a silvery humanoid on a surfboard. Captain Glaktu addressed the duo, telling the humanoid to surrender the Impossible Man or die. When that didn't work, Glaktu gave him a further ten seconds to surrender the creature. This prompted the humanoid to reply, identifying himself as the Silver Surfer, a former herald of Galactus, a statement which caused Glaktu to fear that he could be trouble. When the Surfer stated that the Impossible Man was under his protection and asked them to state their grievance, Captain Glaktu identified himself, stated that they had no quarrel with the Galactian herald, and revealed that they wanted the Poppupian because he was to be executed. When the Surfer refused to allow that, Glaktu stated that that was regrettable but that the Surfer had left him no alternative and ordered his crew to open fire.
Captain Glaktu's order was carried out, but the combined firepower of the fleet missed the Impossible Man (who had turned into a rocket and zoomed out of the way) and instead hit the Silver Surfer who, once the firing had stopped, was seen to be unharmed (except for some carbon scoring) but with an angry expression on his face. Fingering his collar, a heavily-perspiring Captain Glaktu barely had time to say "Oops..." before the Silver Surfer began to attack the fleet, using his powers to disarm the ships without any loss of life.
At one point during the battle, the Impossible Man was angered that the Ergonian fleet had managed to blast the Surfer again so he turned into a green and purple version of Dark Phoenix and threatened the fleet. An Ergonian bridge officer was briefly fooled by this tactic until Captain Glaktu LOUDLY pointed out that it was the Poppupian and ordered him blasted out of the sky. The Impossible Man managed to avoid any of the blasts and the Silver Surfer soon disabled the fleet and its weapons.
With his fleet disabled and his crew putting out fires on the flagship's bridge, Captain Glaktu was contacted by the Silver Surfer who extended his most heartfelt apologies to Glaktu and his monarch for any damage he may have caused the Ergonian vessels and asked the captain for peace. Sitting in his command chair with his head in his hands, Captain Glaktu asked what choice did he have. Then, with tears welling in his eyes, Glaktu revealed that the Silver Surfer's actions had brought shame and dishonor to Glaktu and his family for generations hence and that he would return home in disgrace. The Surfer then offered to help by going personally to the monarch and apologizing for the Poppupian. The Surfer also gave his word that the Impossible Man would never visit Ergonar again.
After the fleet had begun its voyage home, the Surfer stated that he would now journey to Ergonar to try to make amends for the damage that the Impossible Man had wrought that day and hoped that he would be able to save Captain Glaktu's life for his failure.
It has not been revealed if the Silver Surfer's intervention was enough to save Captain Glaktu's life. On the other hand, since Glaktu only stated that he would be returning home in disgrace, it's not entirely certain that his life was actually at risk because of his failure.
--Silver Surfer III#33
The Consortium is an intergalactic business conglomerate with financial interests on thousands of planets that uses citizens of member planets as foot soldiers.
After the being known as J'ridia Starduster (Her) interfered with their ally's operations on the planet U'Sr'pria, a Consortium mothership pursued Her until she crash-landed on Earth in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. When members of Alpha Flight responded to the crash and refused to turn Her over to the Consortium forces who had followed Her, those forces attacked and Alpha Flight fought back. Once the Consortium home office vessel (mothership) arrived, they sent in ground forces to continue the attack. Those ground troops included some Glx, some Mandos, some Yirbek, an Aakon, a Xantha and at least one red-skinned humanoid who might have been an Ergon. All members of this group of troops were defeated by Sasquatch, Northstar and Diamond Lil.
The Consortium was later defeated when their mothership was teleported to another dimensional plane so that Galactus could feed upon the miniaturized planet that was its energy source. It has not been established if all of the surviving ground troops had returned to the mothership prior to its teleportation or what happened to them if they hadn't.
Note: The fact that one (apparent) Ergon was one of the Consortium soldiers could mean that Ergonar was one of the thousands on planets on which the Consortium had financial interests. Or it could mean that this particular Ergon was just a mercenary who happened to have been hired by them. Without more data, there's no way to know.
I found the image to the left pretty unconvincing as an Ergon, but the one on the right looks solidly like an Ergon to me.
I'm
not sure the characters from panels 2-3 are even the same guy...the guy
from panel 2 doesn't seem to have black or any hair and has much more
brutish features...he's even a slightly different color. I think the
guy on the left looks more like a Roclite or something.
--Snood
--Alpha Flight I#98
A female monarch from the planet Ergonar who interacted with the Impossible Man when he visited her world. As the result of "a minor misunderstanding" involving the queen, the Ergons sentenced the Poppupian to be executed but he left Ergonar before the sentence could be carried out. A space fleet commanded by Captain Glaktu was sent to find the Poppupian and execute him.
The nature of this "minor misunderstanding" between the Ergon queen and the Impossible Man has never been revealed but it presumably was something which the Ergons felt had brought dishonor on their queen or their people (or both). It was also not revealed whether or not the queen had any involvement in sentencing the Poppupian to death.
Very little has been revealed about this Ergonian queen whose name was not even mentioned by either the Impossible Man or Captain Glaktu. Given that there are a variety of types of government on the Ergon homeworld it may be presumed that the planet is divided into a number of nation-states of which (at least) one is governed by a monarchy. However, it's also possible that the queen is a symbolic representative of the entire Ergon race even if she does not directly rule much (if any) of the planet.
Note: This subprofile's image is not that of the queen herself but of the Impossible Man when he assumed her likeness while talking to the Silver Surfer. The real queen would have the same red skin and black hair as other Ergons.
--Silver Surfer III#33 (fb) - BTS
Sklarr was a brutish male Ergon who, under circumstances which have never been revealed, somehow became captain of the pirate starship Bird of Prey.
It was while the Bird of Prey was under his command that they came upon the Earth criminal known as the Grey Gargoyle who had been accidentally rocketed into space as he was being defeated by Captain America and Spider-Man. Sklarr had their find taken aboard and brought before him, and declared that from that day forward the "stone one" was their slave. However, the Grey Gargoyle immediately defied him, stating that he only served his superiors, and challenged Sklarr to prove himself.
Sklarr was unable to refuse the challenge without shaming himself before his crew but he wasn't worried. As their battle began, Sklarr stated that he could end it swiftly but he wanted to make his foe suffer some first, and he soon demonstrated that his fighting skills were superior. However, as Sklarr's staff was about to smash into his opponent's head, the Grey Gargoyle managed to brush Sklarr's cheek with his hand, instantly turning him into unmoving stone which the Gargoyle shattered into pieces only seconds later.
With Sklarr dead, defeated in fair combat, the Grey Gargoyle immediately claimed his rank as captain and the pirates, cowed by his demonstration of his touch of stone, quickly agreed to follow him.
--Thor I#259 (fb)
images: (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15, page 40, panel 4 (main image)
Silver Surfer III#33, page 8 (Ergon fleet)
page 13, panel 4 (Captain Glaktu)
Alpha Flight I#98, page 15, panel 2-3 (Consortium soldier)
Silver Surfer III#33, page 9, panel 2 (Impossible Man as the queen)
Thor I#259, page 4, panel 5 (Captain Sklarr)
page 5, panel 4 (shattered Sklarr)
Appearances:
Thor I#259 (May, 1977) - Len Wein (writer/editor), John Buscema & Tony DeZuniga
(illustrators)
Silver Surfer III#33 (January, 1990) - Jim Valentino (wrote it without a care), Ron Lim
(artist extraordinaire), Tom Christopher (inker beyond compare), Craig Anderson (edited it
in his underwear)
Alpha Flight I#98 (July, 1991) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Michael Bair (penciler), Chris
Ivy (inker), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl II#29-30 (April-May, 2018) - Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Wil Moss (editor)
First Posted: 11/20/2016
Last updated: 02/06/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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