LIMBIC INFUNDIBULA race
Classification: Extratemporal/Extradimensional (Limbo) lifeform
Location/Base of Operations: Limbo
Known Members: None identified (Limbic infundibula may not be sentient
or possess individual names)
Estimated population: Unrevealed
Affiliations: Avengers (Captain America/Steve Rogers, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Thor Odinson, Thunderstrike/Eric Masterson, U.S. Agent/John Walker/Jack Daniels, War Machine/James Rhodes)
Enemies: Alioth
First Appearance: (Mentioned) Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#2 (October,
1993);
(seen) Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#4 (December,
1993)
Powers/Abilities: The Limbic Infundibula are able to fly (swim?) through the transtemporal realm of Limbo, seemingly at will. It has not been revealed if they are able to leave Limbo and enter dimensions in which Time exists.
Nothing else about their life-cycle has been revealed. Not what they do or what they eat or how they reproduce while living in a realm that exists outside of time and within which time does not pass in a linear fashion.
Nothing has been revealed about how sentient the Limbic Infundibula may be but, given their whale-like appearance, they may have been intended to be as intelligent as various Cetacean species. The fact that they rescued six Avengers from Alioth may be a reference to how dolphins sometimes aid human swimmers in need.
Traits: Benevolent
Type: Cetacean-like ("time whale")
Eyes: Two (orange)
Flippers: Two (silver)
Skin color: Grey (with silver flippers, dorsal fins and flukes)
Hair: None
Average length: 50' (estimated)
Type of government: Unrevealed
Level of technology: None
History:
(Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#4 (fb) - BTS) - "More sophisticated" time travelers know that the legendary Limbic Infundibula are the only lifeform known to be native to Limbo.
(Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#2 (fb) - BTS) - When Marcus Immortus was growing up, his mother (Revelation) often told him that Infundibula were going to get him if he didn't finish his supper.
Years later, an adult Marcus battled Terminatrix, a younger version of his mother, after she had traveled to the Odexis Alternate Earth system of A.D. 9999. When she stepped on a razorweed pod and it wrapped around her body, Marcus told her that the weed was going to rip through her armament and that she would beg him to put her out of her agony. However, after Terminatrix had been completely wrapped up by the weed, Marcus admitted that she wasn't going to die and that he had just been having a little fun getting even with "Mum" for all the times that she (her older self) had told him that the Infundibula were going to get him if he didn't finish his supper.
(Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#4 (fb) - BTS) - When Alioth attacked Chronopolis, a vast herd of limbic infundibula began to flee, riding the shockwave front generated by Alioth's attack so as to avoid being consumed by Alioth.
(Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#4) - During their headlong flight, the herd came across six semi-conscious Avengers floating helplessly in Limbo. Three members of the herd chose to brake their headlong flight long enough to gently nudge the six heroes onto their (the Infundibula's) backs before soaring away from Alioth's grasping pseudopods.
Once the Avengers had all regained consciousness, they gathered on the back of one of the infundibula and discussed why the "time whales" had scooped them up and saved them. One of the heroes suggested that they were benevolent beings who had rescued the humans for the same reason that the heroes rescued others in distress. As their discussion turned to other matters, the Avengers were joined by Terminatrix, who explained the threat posed by Alioth, and then by a projection of Revelation, who confirmed what Terminatrix had told them. The Avengers then allowed Terminatrix to teleport them off the back of the infundibula and into the armory in Chronopolis.
The Limbic Infundibula have not been encountered by any human being since then. Presumably they are among those countless beings who have been protected from Alioth ever since Tempus was transformed into a reality-wide time barrier.
Comments: Created by Mark Gruenwald, Mike Gustovich, and Don Hudson, Bud LaRosa and Dell Barras.
While most of the outer surfaces of the bodies of the Limbic Infundibula appear to be covered by grey skin, their flippers, dorsal fins and flukes all look like they are made of shiny silver metal, suggesting that they might be artificial in origin. However, since there is no indication that the infundibula possess any technology, it seems unlikely that those parts of their bodies could actually be artificial implants. So, I guess their oddly metallic appearance is just something that is not unnatural to a lifeform that is native to Limbo.
According to the Omniscient Narrative (written by Mark Gruenwald) in Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#4 (December, 1993), the legendary Limbic Infundibula were "the only known lifeform native to the transtemporal dimension" of Limbo. So, either that Omniscient Narrative was wrong or the Limbo Bugs who appeared in the later Avengers: Forever miniseries are not actually native to Limbo.
I was curious as to where the name "infundibula" originated so I looked the word up online and found that it is the plural form of infundibulum, the Latin word for funnel. Most of the definitions were related to human anatomy in which an infundibulum was a funnel-shaped cavity or organ. An infundibulum is also the funnel-like center of the teeth of equines and other ruminants. Infundibulum is also the name of a genus of sea snails. None of these three definitions seem applicable.
Fortunately, there is a fourth meaning that might be relevant. In the science fiction novel "The Sirens of Titan" by Kurt Vonnegut, a "chrono-synclastic infundibulum" is a kind of wormhole through time and space, defined as "those places...where all the different kinds of truths fit together." Since the Limbic Infundibula travel through Limbo, this might be where Mr. Gruenwald got their name.
A fifth meaning listed by Wikipedia references the Everness series of science fiction novels by Ian McDonald whose protagonist is "a British boy whose understanding of the use of a quantum mechanics and an infundibulum device permits him to travel to parallel worlds under the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics." However, since the first of these novels was written almost 20 years after The Terminatrix Objective was published, it cannot have inspired the name given to these creatures.
I took it to be some play on the anatomy of the brain, specifically the
Limbic system (governing feelings and reactions moreso than formal
thought processes), and then using Limbic as an adjective describing
beings from Limbo. Amongst the structures of the Limbic system is the
hypothalamus (which governs the four Fs: Feed, Fluids, Fatigue, and Sex),
and the pituitary (or hypophysis) is suspended from the hypothalamus by
its infundibulum (or stalk). Infundibula is the plural of infundibulum.
Read more about the limbic system here: https://www.dartmouth.edu/~rswenson/NeuroSci/chapter_9.html
--Snood
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Limbi Infundibula have no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#4, page 4, panel 3 (main image)
page 5, panel 1 (rescuing Avengers)
Appearance:
Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective#4 (December, 1993) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike
Gustovich (penciler), Don Hudson, Bud LaRosa and Dell Barras (inkers), Ralph Macchio
(editor)
Last updated: 10/28/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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