SIRIAN race
Classification: Extraterrestrial humanoids
Location/Base of Operations: Sirius III, third planet from the sun
in the star system known on Earth as Sirius in the Milky Way galaxy;
Also colonized planet Sirius IV
Habitat: Unrevealed (but presumably Earth-like)
Gravity: Unrevealed (but probably similar to Earth)
Atmosphere: Unrevealed (but presumably similar to Earth)
Known Members: (Sirius III)
Ixar
Estimated population: 1
(Sirius IV colony) None named
Estimated population: 75 million
Affiliations: (Ixar)
Ultroids
(Sirius IV) None
Enemies: (Ixar and the people of Sirius III) The "human" inhabitants
of a nearby star system (which has never been identified), the Avengers from Earth
(Sirius IV) The Quists,
especially Agent One
and the computer
Dominus
First Appearance: (Sirian race) X-Men I#21 (June, 1966)
(Ixar) Avengers I#36 (January, 1967)
Powers/Abilities: None known (but Ultrana has claimed that Ixar's "human" race was "infinitely more intelligent" than humans from Earth).
Cultural Traits: Ixar was a deceptive, ruthless and power-hungry individual who thought nothing of killing others if doing so would benefit him. It is not known how widespread these traits were among the rest of his race.
Type: Humanoid
Eyes: Two
Fingers: Four (plus opposable thumb)
Toes: Five
Skin color: Pink
Hair: Various
Average height: 5' 9"
Type of government: (Sirius III) Dictatorship
(Sirius IV) Unrevealed, currently controlled by alien conquerors
Level of technology: (Sirius III) Superior to Earth, with faster than
light travel and advanced robotics (Ultroids)
(Sirius IV) Unrevealed but presumably equally as advanced as Sirius III,
currently reduced to physical labor under the control of alien conquerors
History:
(Quasar#14 (fb) - BTS) - The star system known on Earth as Sirius has ten
planets, ninety-seven moons, two belts of asteroids and a cloud of comets. Sentient life has
evolved on three of those planets.
(Quasar#14 (fb) - BTS) - Long ago, a Watcher set up his base on the largest moon of the fourth planet from the sun.
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15: Sirians entry) - The Sirians originated on Sirius III. After achieving spaceflight, they established a colony on Sirius IV.
(Avengers I#36-37 (fb) - BTS) - Centuries (or millennia) ago, the humans from the star-sun Sirius became embroiled in a war with a powerful alien race whose identity has never been revealed. These alien enemies were also "human" and they either lived in another galaxy or in a nearby star system (see comments).
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15: Sirians entry) - The Sirians of Sirius III were involved in the war but, for reasons which have never been revealed, the Sirians from the colony world were not.
(Avengers I#37 (fb) - BTS) - A thermonuclear war of cosmic proportions was waged between the Sirians of Sirius III and their alien enemy. It lasted for "millennia" and generations of Sirians lived and died fighting this war. Eventually, both worlds had used up their supplies of fissionable material and were thus reduced to carrying on the deadly power struggle with more basic weapons.
Later, both sides developed artificial beings (Ultroids) to serve as soldiers since living beings could not hope to survive such pitched, prolonged combat. Over time, all humans on both worlds perished except for the two leaders, Ixar and his alien enemy, each of whom commanded armies composed entirely of Ultroids.
(Avengers I#37 (fb) - BTS) - Eventually, the Ultroids of Ixar's enemy managed to penetrate the palace of Ixar (on Sirius III) and, in a climatic battle, were barely driven out. Ixar himself may (or may not) have been severely injured in the attack. Whether he was injured or not, Ixar was motivated to come up with a bold new plan for continuing the war. He and his Ultroids began to search the galaxy, intent on finding a race of humans who possessed superhuman abilities which he could siphon into his Ultroids.
(X-Men I#21 (fb)/Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15: Sirians entry) - Decades ago, the Arcane (Quist) known as Agent One arrived on "a planet of the star Sirius" which was actually the colony world of Sirius IV. Following his race's usual plan for conquest, Agent One secretly established a headquarters on the target planet. Once all the preparations were complete, the highly advanced computer complex known as Dominus and the Ultra-Robots needed to operate it were teleported to the planet. Later, after the final adjustments had been made, Dominus blanketed Sirius IV with rays designed to take away the independent will of everyone on the planet. As a result, the people of this once "great and advanced civilization" were transformed into "mere automatons!"
With this "once-mighty race now reduced to servile slavery," Agent One was sent to the next target planet, Earth in the Sol system, where he took the alias "Lucifer"; but his initial attempt was opposed by the mutant telepath Charles Xavier and the conquest was delayed for a decade.
(Avengers I#37 (fb) - BTS) - After many (Earth) years of searching, Ixar and his forces discovered the planet Earth. Their scanner-beams focused first on the mutant twins known as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, and the aliens soon learned that they were part of a group of "super-heroes" called the Avengers.
(Avengers I#37 (fb) - BTS) - As part of his plan to capture the Avengers, Ixar himself infiltrated the Balkan village of Transia by taking the place of its Burgomeister, Hans Geldof, who was subsequently killed. Ixar also set up a deception involving a giant computer which would supposedly contain Ixar's life force while the fake Burgomeister would be held captive by it. When Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch returned to their native village, "Mr. Burgomeister" befriended the twins, supposedly to repay them for that infamous day, years earlier, when the villagers had denounced the two of them as demons.
(Avengers I#36 (fb)) - Weeks later, when the twins were saying their farewells to "Mr. Burgomeister" as they prepared to depart for the nearest airport, Ixar's flying saucer descended from the sky. Once they saw that the saucer had landed near the village, the twins donned their costumes and went to investigate.
(Avengers I#36 (fb) - BTS) - Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch were both taken by force by the Ultroids and imprisoned within transferral capsules.
(Avengers I#37 (fb) - BTS) - Ixar and his forces learned about the Avengers and their capabilities by probing the minds of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Some of this data was used to construct prison cylinders which were specifically designed for each of them.
(Avengers I#37 (fb) - BTS) - As Ixar's flying saucer engulfed the entire village, the residents all fled from their homes and hid.
(Avengers I#36 (fb) - BTS) - Ixar's flying saucer then created an enormous shell over the village which made the ship invisible from above and also erected a force field around the village. Ixar used the Ultroids to build a huge underground complex in the caverns beneath the village.
(Avengers I#36 (fb) - BTS) - As part of his plan, Ixar created a female Ultroid named Ultrana who was able to change her appearance so as to become a duplicate of the Scarlet Witch.
(Avengers I#36) - Posing as the Scarlet Witch, Ultrana journeyed to Avengers Mansion in New York City where she told the Avengers a partially-true version of what had happened but claimed that she had managed to escape while Quicksilver had been taken prisoner. The Avengers (Captain America, Hawkeye, Goliath, Wasp) and their ally the Black Widow all agreed to help rescue Quicksilver and swiftly traveled to Transia. Once there, the Scarlet Witch led her comrades into a subterranean cavern which led to a huge underground complex with the giant computer attached to a chair in which the "Burgomeister" was imprisoned. The computer introduced itself as Ixar "from the star-sun Sirius" and revealed its captives, exposing the fake Wanda who transformed back into her true shape. When the Avengers refused to surrender, Ixar's vast army of Ultroids was sent against them and, by separating them, managed to overcome all of the human heroes.
(Avengers I#36) - With six Avengers imprisoned in transferral capsules and the Black Widow taken away to be disposed of later, Ultrana told her captive audience a partially-false origin for Ixar. The saucer then lifted off from Earth and into space. Goliath managed to free himself and his teammates, and they attacked the Ultroids who gave up very easily. Ixar threatened to electrocute the captive Burgomeister, thus delaying the Avengers enough that all of the Ultroids could be changed into pure energy which was absorbed into the computer, thereby enabling it to empower a giant Ultroid which emerged from it. In the resulting battle, Ixar managed to outlast his foes, but then Hawkeye arrived and, having realized that the Burgomeister was the real Ixar, threatened to kill him unless he surrendered. However, aware of the Avengers' code against killing, Ixar called Hawkeye's bluff by pointing out that he "was human, even though from another galaxy." Fortunately for the Avengers, the Black Widow was there and she was able to force Ixar to give up by pointing out that she was NOT an Avenger and thus not bound by the same code.
Defeated, Ixar piloted his saucer back to Earth, landing a short distance outside of Transia, where he allowed his former captives to leave in exchange for a promise to never come to Earth again. Ixar then returned to space, already planning to travel to other worlds where he might discover weapons he could use in his never-ending struggle.
Comments: Enslaved humanoids from Sirius created by Roy Thomas, Werner
Roth (as "Jay Gavin") and Dick Ayers.
Ixar and his Ultroids created by Roy Thomas and Don Heck.
Sirian race "created" by the staff of the first edition of the Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe (led by Head Writer Mark Gruenwald).
It has never been revealed how it was that Ixar was able to replace the true Burgomeister of Transia without the villagers even noticing. The profile on Ixar states that he "was able to assume other people's forms" but does not explain how he could do so. Was Ixar a shape-shifter, like the Skrulls? Or did he possess some advanced technology that was able to reshape his body? I prefer the second option. Me, too--Snood
Who were Ixar's enemies?
According to the OHotMUDE, "The Sirians of Sirius III were
destroyed in an interstellar war with an unrevealed alien race." So, what exactly were we told
about Ixar's enemies? Here are the "facts" that were presented to the Avengers:
1. The giant computer claims that it is "Ixar, from the star-sun Sirius" and that he is
"engaged in intergalactic warfare with powerful foes...in a struggle begun centuries ago!"
2. Ultrana claims that "For millennia, a thermonuclear war of cosmic proportions waged between
the ancestors of Ixar...and the inhabitants of a nearby star system."
3. Ultrana claims that "Finally, except for the two leaders, all humans on both worlds had
perished" because only artificial beings (like the Ultroids) could survive such prolonged.
pitched combat.
4. Ultrana claims that it was "a short time age" when the enemy Ultroids penetrated the palace
of Ixar and were driven out but Ixar decided to leave and search the galaxy for super-powered
beings.
5. Utrana claims that their quest was fruitless "for many of your years" before they found
Earth.
6. Ixar (the real one) claims that he is "human, even though from another galaxy."
First, according to Ultrana, the war was fought between "humans on both worlds." Given that Ixar looked exactly like a Caucasian human from Earth, this could mean that the unnamed enemy looked just as human as Ixar. Alternatively, the term "human" could have actually been intended to only mean "humanoid." And, given the context, it's also possible that writer Roy Thomas used that word to distinguish the original races from the artificial Ultroids who later took over all the fighting, in which case "human" could have only meant "organic" or "biological" in nature.
Second, the location of the enemy planet varies. At first, "Ixar" claims to be from Sirius and to be fighting an "intergalactic" war, which would mean that his enemy comes from another galaxy. However, Ultrana later states that the enemy are the inhabitants of a nearby star system, implying that they are "near" to Sirius and thus to Earth. And finally, Ixar himself claims to be from another galaxy, which throws doubt on his previous claims to be from Sirius and suggests that his enemies could pretty much be from anywhere.
Third, the description of the length of time during which the war has been fought is also inconsistent. It ranges from "centuries" to "millennia" to "since Earth was young." Depending on which is correct, the war began before the mid-18th Century, sometime BC or millions (or billions) of years ago.
What's in a name?
The Sirian race and their neighbors, the Siris, are two of
the ten Alien Races listed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition
which are known by names taken from the Earth designation for their home stars. Personally,
I feel that such names are not only lacking in imagination but also so Earth-centric as to
be arrogant. After all, how likely is it that any alien race's name would just happen to be
similar for the human name for their home star? Aside from the Sirians and the Siris, the
other eight races are:
1. Alpha Centaurians
2. Arcturans
3. Centaurians
4. Fomalhauti
5. Pegasusians
6. Procyonites
7. Rigellians
8. Vegans
Additionally, it seems likely that the Sagittarian race was named after the constellation of Sagittarius but this has so far not been confirmed. Personally, if I were ever elevated to the position of God-Editor of the Marvel Universe, one of the things I would do is instruct my minions to come up with new, non-Terran-derived names for these alien races.
What's in a name? Part II
Ixar (actually, the fake computer Ixar) only identified himself as being "from the star-sun Sirius" and never as a "Sirian" whereas the Mutant-Master identifies itself both as being "from Sirius" and as "a Sirian." And yet, when the Official Handbook staff chose names for those two alien races, the humanoids were now called "Sirians" while the non-humanoid race's name was changed from "Sirians" to "Siris." Curious.
Sirius in the real world
Sirius is the brightest star in the southern
constellation Canis Major and the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is also commonly
known as the "Dog Star" and its Bayer designation is Alpha Canis Majoris. Due to its brightness
and the fact that it can be seen from almost everywhere on Earth's surface, Sirius has been
observed by humans for thousands of years. Sirius was believed to be a single star until the
19th Century when it was determined, first by deduction and later by direct observation, that
Sirius has a faint companion and that Sirius was actually a binary star system.
At a distance of 8.6 light years, the Sirius system contains two of the eight
stars nearest to Earth's solar system and is the fifth-closest star system. Sirius A, the
brighter component, is a white main-sequence star that is twice as massive, 170% as wide and
25 times as luminous as the Sun while Sirius B is a faint white dwarf that is 98% as massive
as the Sun and about as wide as Earth. The two stars orbit each other every 50.1 years at a
distance which varies between 8.2 and 31.5 astronomical units (AU).
The Sirius star system is between 200 and 300 million years old and was
originally composed of two bright bluish stars. Sirius B was more massive than Sirius A and so
it aged faster. As a result, Sirius B consumed its hydrogen and evolved off the main sequence
to become a red giant, then later shed its outer layers before finally collapsing into a white
dwarf about 120 million years ago. It is believed that Sirius A will follow on this path when
it exhausts its hydrogen in less than a billion years.
So far, no planets have been detected orbiting Sirius AB and even if there
were any, the star system is too young for any planet to have developed a habitable biosphere
in which life could have evolved, let alone intelligent lifeforms.
Sirius in the MU
The following is a list of all references to the Sirius star system which exists in Reality-616 of the Marvel Multiverse (at least, those of which I am aware). These references are listed in order of publication.
1. X-Men I#21 (June, 1966) - Lucifer describes to the captive Charles Xavier
how his people's last conquest was "a planet of the star Sirius" whose people (when seen from
the back) appeared to be identical-to-Caucasian humans who had created "a great and advanced
civilization" but who now served Lucifer's people as "mere automatons!"
2. Avengers I#36-37 (January-February, 1967) - A giant alien computer brain claims that it
was "Ixar, from the star-sun Sirius." Its servant Ultrana later reveals that Ixar had
originally been "a human" until he received certain injuries which had forced him to have
"his very life itself" transferred into the mammoth computer. However, this is eventually
exposed as a deception perpetrated by Ixar who had retained his true human form and is now
posing as the Burgomeister whom he had killed and replaced.
3. X-Men #39 (December, 1967) - After having been exposed as an alien disguised as a human,
the Mutant-Master twice
mentions that he had come from Sirius. As he commits suicide, his last words are "A Sirian
may know destruction - - but never capture - -"
4. Avengers I#94 (December, 1971) - The Super-Skrull swears "By the Sargassos of Sirius" and
"By the Demons of the Dog-Star" but it's not known if this place or these beings ever actually
existed. When the Fantastic Four encountered an interstellar graveyard of derelict starships
in Fantastic Four I#209 (August, 1979), Reed Richards speculated that this might be the
"Sargasso of Space" that the
Skrulls had "always talked about" but this has never been confirmed. Similarly, these "demons"
may be related to the Werewolf of Sirius from the Dogstar Nebula (see below).
5. Hercules I#2 (October, 1982) - First mention (by Rigellian Recorder #417 in an alternate
24th Century future in Reality-829) of "the antler-dance ritual on Sirius-Four."
6. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#5 (May, 1983) - The "Alien Races" pages contains
a half-page profile on Humanoid Aliens which identifies the Sirians as being from planet Sirius
IV and first appearing in (both) Avengers #36 and X-Men #21.
7. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#6 (June, 1983) - The Knights of Wundagore profile
states that the High Evolutionary found a world for his New Men to settle "around the nearby
star Sirius" where "he founded Wundagore II."
8. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#9 (September, 1983) - The "Alien Races" pages
contains a quarter-page profile on the Mutant-Master's race who are now named as "Siris."
Their homeworld is identified as "Yormot" and is the second plant from the sun in the Sirius
star system. A notation states that "The third planet of the Sirius star system is inhabited
by the humanoid Sirians."
9. Marvel Team-Up Annual Spider-Man and Alpha Flight #7 (October, 1984) - The Collector reveals
that he has a limited time to complete his collections on Earth because "The lotus poppy of
Sirius 5 is about to blossom!" and he will have to wait a millennium if he misses it.
10. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15 (March, 1987) - The Appendix on Alien Races
contains quarter-pages profiles on both the Sirians and the Siris. The Sirians profile states
that their race originated on Sirius III but had a colony on Sirius IV, and that the Sirians
of Sirius III were destroyed in an interstellar war with an unrevealed alien race while the
Sirians of the colony world were conquered by the Quists. The Siris profile has a note which
states that "The third and fourth planets of the Sirius system is inhabited by the humanoid
Sirians" and "The fifth planet of the system is now known as Wundagore II."
11. West Coast Avengers Annual #3/3 (1988) - The ninth chapter of the history of the High
Evolutionary reveals that when he and his New Men left Earth they traveled through hyperspace
until they emerged "near a hospitable looking star system, which miraculously (boasted) a
near-Earthlike planet revolving about it." When the New Men explored the planet they found
an abandoned city, which they adapted to their use. At no point in this story is the planet
identified as being in the Sirius star system.
12. Avengers West Coast #48 (September, 1989) - Starfox recalls meeting "that mercenary on
Sirius IV (who) claimed he'd seen Nebula's pirate ship" in the vicinity of an ancient, dead
planet [later identified as Omicron Seti in Avengers I#311 (December, 1989)].
13. Quasar#14 (September, 1990) - The Stranger arrives in the Sirius system and finds the
local Watcher dead in his base on the largest moon of the fourth planet from the sun. The
omniscient narrative states that "The Sirius system has ten planets, three of which have
evolved sentient life, and ninety-seven moons, two belts of asteroids and a cloud of
comets."
14. Blackwulf#6 (November, 1994) - The alien Deviant warlord
Lord Tantalus confirms that his
homeworld, Armechadon, is located in the binary star system of Sirius, and that it would take
him nine years to reach the Sirius-B system aboard a ship that could only travel at light
speed.
15. Blackwulf#8-10 (January - March, 1995) - Lord Tantalus and his forces battle his enemies
on the planet Armechadon (formerly named Arqa). The name of the star system is not confirmed
as being "Sirius" but, when within the system, Armechadon is described as lying "just beyond
the white dwarf star."
16. Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet#1 (October, 2000) - A non-humanoid delegate (from the
Siri race) to the intergalactic council, while discussing the threat posed by Ego the Living
Planet, states that "It would be a black day indeed, before the star-sun Sirius would turn to
those of Sol for aid..."
17. Silver Surfer V#8 (June, 2004) - The Silver Surfer takes Gabriel Acheron to the planet
Sof in the Sirius
system and claims that its people live a thousand years and more yet they are human, distant
cousins of the humans from Earth. It should be noted that not only is pretty much everything
that happens in this series retroactively-undone in the final issue, but much of the
information revealed therein is somewhat questionable. However, the data about the planet Sof
does seem more plausible than anything about Marduk and Tiamat (and Mars).
18. Black Panther IV #33 (February, 2008) - The
Werewolf of Sirius,
who hailed from the Dogstar Nebula, was one of the warrior-slaves who were forced to fight
in the gladiatorial arena on the Skrull planet Kral. He was killed in combat by the Black
Panther.
I'm somewhat puzzled with how fixated writer Roy Thomas seems to have been with the Sirius system. In the space of less than two years, Thomas wrote stories in which THREE different alien races were described as being from that star system. First, in X-Men I#21, Lucifer identified his race's most recent conquest as being "a planet of the star Sirius." Then, in Avengers I#36, the alien Ixar claimed to be "from the star-sun Sirius." And finally, in X-Men I#39, the Mutant-Master twice claimed to be "from (the star-sun) Sirius" and identified itself as a "Sirian." Not only that, both the alien race conquered by Lucifer and Ixar's race were seemingly identical to Caucasian humans from Earth. Worse still, these two humanoid alien races had suffered very different fates, with one being enslaved and the other having been wiped out except for a single survivor.
A second puzzling occurrence is the revelation (in Quasar#21) that three of the ten planets in the Sirius system had "evolved sentient life." At first glance, these three sentient lifeforms would seem to be the humanoids from the planet that had been conquered by Lucifer, the Mutant-Master's species and Ixar's race. However, since Quasar writer Mark Gruenwald was heavily involved with the Official Handbooks of the Marvel Universe, he should have been fully aware of the fact that the OHotMU had combined Lucifer's victims and Ixar's race into a single species which therefore must have evolved on only one planet. So, with that in mind, the question becomes, if the Sirian and Siri races evolved on two of the planets in the Sirius system, what is the third sentient lifeform to have evolved in that system? So far, this question has never been answered.
As someone who regularly complains about the overabundance of alien species who look exactly like humans in various fictional continuities, I should be delighted by the fact that the Official Handbook has chosen to reveal that the humanoids from Sirius who were enslaved by Lucifer's race and Ixar's humanoid race were actually a single race which had divided itself into two groups, those who stayed on their homeworld and those who had colonized a neighboring planet. And yet, oddly enough, I have mixed feelings about this solution. While I appreciate the intent behind this revelation, this linking of these two races doesn't really work for me because of the following two weaknesses.
The first problem concerns the fact that Ixar's people and their unnamed enemy supposedly fought each other in a war that lasted for millennia and wiped out all but a single survivor of each side. In the face of such a monumental mutual antagonism, it seems highly unlikely that Sirian colonists on Sirius IV could possibly remain neutral. Personally, if I was one of those colonists I would probably not be happy about the possible destruction of the homeworld of my species. And even if the relationship between the homeworld and the colony was strained or antagonistic and the alien enemy had assured my colony that it would not be attacked if it didn't side with the homeworld, the fervent desire demonstrated by the aliens to commit genocide against the people on the homeworld would cause me to severely doubt that they would keep their promise once they had dealt with the homeworld, and I would join with the homeworld for our mutual survival. So, neutrality wouldn't be an option.
A second weakness of this theory concerns the resources available to Ixar's people. According to Ultrana, Ixar's ancestors and their enemies had fought a thermonuclear war for millennia until "both worlds (had) used up their enormous supplies of fissionable material" and were forced to continue their war with lesser weapons. I interpret this to mean that Ixar's ancestors had mined-out every planet that was available to them to obtain as much fissionable material as possible. However, this seems inconsistent with the status of the Sirius system planets. Even if one were to assume that the Siris from Sirius II and the Sirian colonists from Sirius IV were unwilling to help provide such material to Ixar's ancestors, there was still the then-uninhabited Sirius V. Why wouldn't Ixar's ancestors have exploited as much of its resources as they could? Then again, maybe they did and they only ran out of fissionable material after totally depleting both their homeworld and Sirius V? Or maybe there was some sort of mutual non-aggression treaty between the three Sirius worlds, one that made it an act of war for any of them to try to colonize/exploit the planet?
WARNING! The following is the personal viewpoint of the writer of this profile and does not represent any official position. Reader discretion is advised.
As if Sirius wasn't already overstocked with inhabited planets, the Official Handbooks chose to identify Sirius as the star system where the High Evolutionary and his New Men had established their colony, Wundagore II. A decade later, Lord Tantalus claimed that his homeworld of Armechadon was located in the Sirius system and a decade after that the planet Sof (and its people who were long-lived distant cousins of the humans from Earth) was added as well. So, by my count, that's no less than SIX inhabited planets which all supposedly exist within the Sirius star system. To make matters worse, at least three of these six planets are supposedly inhabited by races who are warlike to the point of being genocidal.Taking these factors into consideration, the Official Handbook's data on the Sirius system seems to be inaccurate and/or unworkable.
With this in mind, if the Sirius star system is allegedly occupied by too many different (and hostile) species, then the reasonable thing to do would be to review all of the data about said occupants and assess how reliable the data is. I'm going to begin by sorting that data into four categories: Confirmed, Probable, Problematic and Dubious.
Confirmed - The data in this category has been confirmed by appearing in two or more non-handbook sources (or it was written by Mark Gruenwald).
1. The Sirius system has ten planets, three of which have evolved sentient life. However, the fact that intelligent life has evolved on three of the ten planets doesn't mean that all of the other seven planets are devoid of life or uninhabitable. It also doesn't mean that those three sentient races are still present on their homeworlds since they could have died out or been killed off by alien invaders or emigrated to another star system. A Watcher's base in located on the fourth planet's largest moon. Oddly, Mr. Gruenwald's story doesn't mention the fact that Sirius should be a binary star system.
2. A non-humanoid race inhabits one of the planets of the star-sun Sirius. One of them, who tried to conquer Earth while disguising himself as the Mutant-Master, called himself a "Sirian" but other sources call them "Siris." Those other sources claim that this race lives on the second planet from the sun, Yormot. This race is presumed to be one of the three native sentient races and has been confirmed as being a member of the intergalactic council.
3. The fourth planet from the sun, Sirius-Four or Sirius IV, is known to be habitable and is sometimes visited by aliens (like the Titanian Eternal Eros), suggesting that it may have a starport. Also, its inhabitants, either now or at some point in the future, may engage in a sexual practice known as the "antler-dance ritual." Nothing else about these inhabitants has been confirmed but they may be the humanoids whose "great and advanced civilization" was conquered by the Quists decades ago.
Probable - The data in this category has only appeared once but has been presented in a manner that suggests that the source had no motive to lie.
1. The Quist agent known as Lucifer claimed that his race had most recently
conquered "a planet of the star Sirius" whose humanoid inhabitants were similar to Caucasian
Terrans in appearance. As a villain, Lucifer's claims might normally be suspect but the fact
that he was bragging to a captive audience (Charles Xavier) makes me inclined to believe him.
Plus, in his arrogance, Lucifer would have considered it beneath him to lie to an inferior
being (like Xavier) unless it was to manipulate him (which Lucifer would have had no need of
doing to Xavier since he was already a helpless captive). Of course, that doesn't mean that
Lucifer couldn't have embellished the truth a bit, perhaps by exaggerating the greatness of
the defeated race so as to enhance the superiority of his own people.
Official sources identify this conquered planet as Sirius IV, a world which
had been colonized by members of the humanoid Sirian race that had evolved on Sirius III.
However, since it is based on data that I consider dubious, I regard this identification of
which planet was conquered to be possible, or even probable, but unconfirmed.
2. The Elder of the Universe known as the Collector revealed that there was life on Sirius 5, specifically, a lotus poppy that only blossomed once every millennium. As a villain, the Collector's claim is naturally suspect, but the fact that he was definitely operating under a time constraint suggests that he was being truthful.
Problematic - The data in this category has only appeared once and its inclusion seems iffy but there is no confirmed reason why it should be excluded.
1. When seen gazing at an image of the binary star system of Sirius, the alien Deviant Lord Tantalus stated that his home world, Armechadon, was located in that system and implied that it was part of the Sirius-B system that was nine light-years away from Earth. Later, after the Undergrounders had followed Tantalus to his home system, the Kree Eternal Ultimus told Wildwind that "Armechadon (lay) just beyond the white dwarf star." This is the only storyline which correctly identifies Sirius as being a binary star system and the fact that these references are consistent with the "real world" Sirius star system suggests that writer Glenn Herdling was serious about Sirius being Armechadon's home star system.
Having said that, there are some problems with the idea that Armechdaon is part of the Sirius star system. First, the name "Sirius" is mentioned twice in Blackwulf#6 but not at all in issues #8-10 which actually take place on Armechadon. Could it be that Herdling had second thoughts about locating Armechadon there? Maybe he had done some more research and learned that Sirius is simply too young to (realistically) have any inhabitable planets?
A second, more significant problem arises from the fact that it seems HIGHLY unlikely that a warlord like Lord Tantalus would allow any foreign planets to exist in the same star system as his throneworld. Considering Tantalus' genocidal attitude towards all non-Deviant species and the fact that any nearby planets could have been used as staging bases for attacks on Armechadon, readers would expect that the Deviant overlord would have dealt with such (potential) threats by either conquering or destroying those other Sirius planets. However, there's no indication that ANY such hostilities ever occurred.
On the face of it, having Armechadon exist within the Sirius star system would seem to require that readers accept the idea of Lord Tantalus behaving in an uncharacteristically-benevolent way towards aliens. However, the fact that Tantalus is known to have been away from his homeworld for the 25,000 years that he was exiled on Earth might provide a more plausible explanation. Maybe the reason why Tantalus did not conquer or destroy those other planets was because, as of 25,000 Earth-years ago, the dominant lifeforms on those worlds had not yet reached any "civilized" level of advancement so he considered them to be nothing more than animals, lower lifeforms who posed no challenge and thus were unworthy of being conquered? It's possible that it was only within the last 25 millennia, when Tantalus was absent, that the lifeforms on those other Sirius planets evolved to intelligence and then developed advanced technology. Of course, one would have to also assume that the underlings who Tantalus had left in charge of Armechadon must have been unwilling to deal with these evolving threats from the other planets without instructions from their ruler who was unexpectedly incommunicado on Earth.
2. As part of the mission to Earth that he had undertaken at the behest of the alien Council whom he served, Norrin Radd brought the gifted human boy Gabe Acheron to the Sirius System to show him the planet Sof, a paradise planet inhabited by humans who were distant cousins of Terrans and who could live a thousand years or more. Some of Sof's other inhabitants were descended from ancestors who came to Sof after surviving the destruction of their homeworlds.
It's difficult to imagine that a utopian planet like Sof could exist in the same star system as the homeworlds of species that were capable of committing genocide or fighting interstellar wars. Surely the presence of these hostile species would have long ago made Sof a target for their aggressions? Of course, it could be that the people of Sof possessed highly advanced technology which they used to protect themselves from their unfriendly neighbors, but this would only be speculation.
A second problem with Sof being in the Sirius system is the fact that it might not even exist within Reality-616. So far, the planet Sof has only appeared in the fourth Silver Surfer series and I'm not sure of the canonicity of that series. For one thing, the title character is known only by either his name, Norrin Radd, or by his role as "Commander" of the mission to Earth. The term "Silver Surfer" appears only on the recap pages and the people of Earth know Norrin only as "the silver alien." This is inconsistent with Earth-616's reality where the Silver Surfer is widely known around the planet. Also, even if the series did take place in Reality-616, in the final issue a Cosmic Being is shown to have retroactively altered Earth history so as to negate the existence of the destructive force known as Marduk, effectively causing everything that had previously occurred in the series to have not happened after all. Since this includes Gabe's visit to Sof, there's no way to know if that paradise planet still exists in this altered reality. However, despite my doubts, there's also nothing that proves that Sof no longer exists within Reality-616 and so I am compelled to presume its continued existence.
In conclusion, I would like to remove either Armechadon or Sof (or both) from the Sirius star system but I have no real evidence proving that they can't be part of that star system.
Dubious - The data in this category has either appeared in the Official Handbooks OR there is evidence that the source is questionable OR it is strongly inconsistent with other established facts.
1. The humanoid being known as Ixar said many things during his conflict with the Avengers, including the claim that he was "from the star-sun Sirius." However, Ixar's entire campaign against the Avengers was based on deception, like using a shape-changing android to lead the Avengers into a trap, initially confronting them through the guise of a giant alien computer brain, and having impersonated a local human leader in order to capture his first two subjects. Considering the fact that much of his supposed origin story was later revealed to be lies, it's not unreasonable to wonder if his claim of being from Sirius was also a lie, something meant to mislead his foes in case he were defeated.
Official sources identify Ixar's depopulated homeworld as Sirius III and claim that some members of his Sirian race had colonized Sirius IV (before they were later conquered by the Quists). However, since these "facts" are based on claims made by Ixar, I regard this data as suspect.
2. Official sources claim that the fifth planet in the Sirius system is "now known as Wundagore II," a planet colonized by the High Evolutionary and his New Men.
However, none of the three storylines which feature Wundagore II have ever even mentioned any name for the star system in which the planet was located. Furthermore, one of the storylines (in Iron Man I#110-112) makes several references to the fact that Wundagore II is located somewhere VERY FAR away from Earth (i.e., "in a galaxy inestimably distant"). If these references are taken seriously, then Wundagore II could not possibly be located in the nearby Sirius star system.
A second problem I have with Wundagore II being in the
Sirius star system involves the fact that the High Evolutionary and his New Men were so
incredibly lucky as to find a near-Earthlike planet that had been inhabited but had later
been abandoned. Now, habitable alien planets are plentiful in fiction and I wouldn't have
given it a second thought if this empty planet had been the only habitable world in its
star system. I could easily accept a scenario in which an alien species had attempted to
colonize the planet but the aliens had left after the colony had failed. However, given that
there were at least two or three species known for colonizing other worlds already present
in the Sirius star system, I find it totally unbelievable that they would have left the
empty planet alone and not tried to claim it for themselves. After all, why would anyone
bother to travel across interstellar space to colonize a planet if there was already a
suitable planet available right in one's own backyard?
--For strategic reasons, of course!--Snood.
In conclusion, since there are significant problems with the claims that Ixar is a Sirian and that Wundagore II is part of the Sirius star system, and evidence for these claims is weak, if I had to choose to disallow two planets from being part of the Sirius star system, then Ixar's planet and Wundagore II would be the two I'd pick to remove.
Miscellaneous - The data is this category relates to one location and one being, both of which have the word "Sirius" in their names, but which otherwise have no confirmed connection to the Sirius star system. I'm listing them here just to be thorough.
1. Back in Avengers I#94 (December, 1971), the Super-Skrull swore "By the Sargassos of Sirius" and "By the Demons of the Dog-Star" but it's not known if this place or these beings ever actually existed.
2. In Black Panther IV #33 (February, 2008), while forced by Skrulls to fight in the gladiatorial arena on the planet Kral IV, the Black Panther fought and killed the Werewolf of Sirius, a humanoid canine who hailed from the Dogstar Nebula.
Analysis
Okay, now that all the data about Sirius in the Marvel Universe has been sorted into the appropriate categories, how can it be used to construct a more plausible star system? I would like to take this opportunity to remind readers that this is a COMPLETELY SPECULATIVE EXERCISE on my part with no official standing.
First of all, the fact that the Sirius star system that exists in the Marvel Universe definitely contains several inhabited planets where sentient life has evolved means that it is MUCH older (by at least FOUR BILLION years) than the real world version. Additionally, the fact that the MU Sirius is known to have ten planets is not consistent with the idea that it could be a binary star like its real world counterpart. For one thing, if the MU Sirius B was a white dwarf then that would mean that it must have previously expanded into a red giant and later shed its outer layers to form a planetary nebula, two events which any orbiting planet would be unlikely to survive. Second, the gravitational effects of two stars orbiting each other imposes certain limitations on which orbits will be stable. According to the information provided in this Wikipedia article, any planet which is orbiting just one component of a binary star will have an unstable orbit if its distance to that star exceeds about one-fifth of the closest approach of the other star. This would mean that any planets orbiting either star would have to do so in relatively close proximity to their primary, something that would seem to exclude any possibility of such a system having multiple planets with several orbiting in the system's habitable zone.
Taking these factors into consideration, there are only
the following three ways in which the Sirius star system, as described in Quasar#14, could
exist in the Marvel Universe:
1. Sirius is actually a single star and NOT a binary star system.
This would mean that those references in Blackwulf were wrong and should be ignored.
2. Sirius is a binary star system but the two stars orbit each other
very closely and all ten planets are circumbinary planets which orbit both stars.
3. Sirius is a binary star system but the distance between the two
stars is so great (i.e., hundreds of AUs) that Sirius B's gravitational effects on the ten
planets orbiting Sirius A are negligible.
Of course, the second and third theories don't include any explanation as to how habitable planets could exist in a solar system containing a star which had passed through the phases necessary to become a white dwarf. However, if the MU Sirius system is billions of years older than its real world counterpart but its Sirius B became a red giant when it was between 80 and 180 million years old, as the real world Sirius B did, then that event might have occurred early enough that any planets orbiting Sirius A could have had enough time to evolve habitable biospheres and even sentient life.
Aside from that problem with the star(s), there is the question of the planets of the system. I'm going to combine ideas from Quasar#14 and the Official Handbook and state that the Sirius system consists of ten planets, four of which are located in the star's (or stars') circumstellar habitable zone, and that sentient life has evolved on three of those four planets. I'm also going to go with the Handbook and agree that planets two through five are the four habitable worlds, with the innermost planet and the five outer planets being uninhabitable. I don't foresee any opposition to these stipulations.
Next, I'm going to follow my own suggestion and state that Ixar was lying when he claimed to be "from...Sirius" and that the Official Handbook was incorrect when it identified the planet Wundagore II as being located in the Sirius system. Again, these are just my personal opinions and have no official standing, but they are reasonable choices. Plus, abiding by them reduces the number of inhabited worlds down from six to four, and that will make it easier to finish this theoretical reworking of the Sirius star system.
Now, to those four (remaining) inhabited planets. Sirius II is a tropical world inhabited by a decapodal non-humanoid race that resembles Earthly cephalopods. Although this species is presumed to be one of the three native races which evolved to sentience on their homeworld, this has never been confirmed and so it is possible that they are actually aliens from another star system who have colonized or conquered the planet which they now inhabit. Official texts identify their name for their planet as being "Yormot" and their name for their race as being "Siris" but neither term has been repeated in other sources, so one or both of these designations may be incorrect.
The three other inhabited planets are Armechadon, Sof and the (unnamed) planet conquered by the Quists several decades ago. These planets are presumably the third, fourth and fifth planets but identifying which is which is a problem since so little has been revealed about them. In all, these three planets could be arranged in any of six different formations and there's no sure way to determine the correct order. Since I'm not willing to go through all six permutations, I'm going to examine just one of the possible configurations.
Sirius IV is a planet which aliens can visit and meet each other. Since it's unlikely that the Quists would allow visitors to the planet that they had conquered and Armechadon is similarly unwelcoming, I am going to tentatively identify this world as being Sof, a paradise planet were the survivors of many dead planets have found sanctuary. It's also where the antler-dance ritual originated.
Sirius V is the planet that is home to a lotus poppy that blossoms only once every millennium. Since Armechadon has a "biomechanical landscape" after Lord Tantalus transformed it, it seems unlikely that this particular plant could have survived the transformation so I'm going to pick this planet as being the world inhabited by humanoids who have been enslaved by the alien Quists.
Sirius III, by the process of elimination, would therefore have to be Armechadon, formerly known as Arqa, the homeworld of the Deviant conqueror Tantalus.
Of course, the reasoning behind these choices is so tenuous that some (or all) of the other five permutations could be just as likely.
One final thought: As mentioned above, I have a strong dislike of fictional aliens that look too much like human beings. I know and accept that there are practical reasons for this overabundance but it still seems almost racist to me, as if aliens having a human-type body-shape is some sort of prerequisite for them to be intelligent beings. I appreciate the Handbook's attempt to reduce the number of these too-human aliens by revealing that Ixar was of the same race as those who had been conquered by the Quists but their explanation doesn't quite work for me. Also, I guess I really don't like the idea that a race that looks identical to Caucasian humans might have evolved in such a nearby solar system. However, after giving this matter some thought, I've come up with a variation that seems more plausible to me.
The Official Handbook's explanation is that the Sirian race originated on Sirius III and colonized Sirius IV, and that Ixar is the last survivor from the homeworld while the colony planet was conquered by the Quists. Suppose we tweak this idea a bit by relocating the homeworld to some other, distant star system? In this scenario, the people from Ixar's planet would still have been wiped out by their enemy and the colonists would still have been conquered by the Quists but the objections that I had would be removed. First, having the "Ixarian" homeworld and colony be in separate star systems could account for why the colonists did not help in the war against the "Antixarians." The people who colonized the Sirius planet could have been refugees who were trying to escape the war by fleeing to a far-distant star system. Who knows, perhaps these refugees found their new world to already be inhabited by a non-humanoid native sentient species...and they wiped these natives out in order to take their world for themselves? Second, having the "Ixarian" race NOT originate in the Sirius system means one less "human" race evolving on a planet so close to Earth. This is especially important if, as seems likely, the idea that the planet Arqa (later Armechadon) is part of the Sirius system is canon. After all, if Arqa was the homeworld of Tantalus, then the fact that he was a Deviant means that the Celestials had experimented on his species and since those Space Gods have (so far) only ever been seen to have manipulated the genetic codes of primitive species that were humanoid, then that suggests that Tantalus' race was a humanoid species native to Arqa. So, if the "Sirians" were still also natives to their planet, then that would bring us back to the idea that there were TWO humanoid races who evolved in the Sirius system -- which is the situation that the Official Handbook was trying to correct in the first place!
In fact, if one wanted to do so, it would be possible to reduce the number of "human" alien races even further. Almost nothing is known about Ixar's enemies so it would not contradict anything if it were to be revealed that the "Ixarians" and the "Antixarians" were NOT two different species but actually two planetary populations descended from a common ancestor race. Maybe both worlds were once colonies of an interstellar empire, one that eventually collapsed. Both colonies fell into barbarism and all knowledge of their true origins was lost. Then, once their civilizations had rebuilt themselves and they again went into space, they encountered each other and hostilities erupted. By the time they learned of their connection, assuming they ever did, both sides had become so committed to wiping out their hated enemies that that knowledge was irrelevant.
Actually, this idea could be taken one step further by "revealing" that the Quists were also once part of this ancient empire that had collapsed. This would mean that not only were the "Ixarians" and the "Antixarians" who had wiped each other out were actually members of the same species, but so were the "Sirians" and the Quists who had conquered them.
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Sirians (from the Sirius star system) have no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15, page 57, panel 1 (main image)
X-Men I#21, page 12, panel 4 (enslaved Sirians)
Avengers I#37, page 4, panel 3 (Ixar)
Avengers I#37, page 2, panel 1 (Ultroids with captive Goliath)
Appearances:
X-Men I#21 (June, 1966) - Roy Thomas (extraordinary writing), Jay Garvin (exceptional art),
Dick Ayers (exhilarating inking), Stan Lee (exemplary editing).
Avengers I#36-37 (January-February, 1967) - Roy Thomas (scripter), Don Heck (artist), Stan
Lee (editor)
First Posted: 01/29/2017
Last updated: 01/29/2017
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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