VRAKANIN race VRAKANIN race
Classification: Semi-humanoid extraterrestrial race
Location/Base of Operations: Unrevealed
Known Members: Charasulla, Weaponeers ("Fuzz-Face," others)
Affiliations: Phil Hovannes; formerly Lila Cheney
Enemies: Lila Cheney, the New Mutants (Cannonball/Sam Guthrie, Magik/Illyana Rasputin, Magma/Amara Aquilla, Mirage/Dani Moonstar, Sunspot/Bobby DaCosta, Warlock, Wolfsbane/Rahne Sinclair), Doug Ramsey, Roddy (Lila's manager)
First Appearance: New Mutants I Annual#1 (1984)
Powers/Abilities: The Vrakanins possessed
enhanced strength capable of hurling teenaged human beings away with
relative ease. They also appeared to have some degree of enhanced
durability, as the Vrakanin warrior that battled the New Mutants proved
able to withstand the heat from Magma's lava blasts (see comments).
Traits: Each member of the Vrakanin race had a
lizard-like tail and green skin, with green fur in certain places such
as forearms and face (though it was unclear if the green fur was only
present in males of the species). They had sharp, needle-like teeth and
long claws on each of their three fingers capable of rending wood. The
Vrakanins stood with a hunched appearance and had pointed ears.
Type: Bilaterally symmetric semi-humanoid
bipeds
Eyes: Two (on head; solid yellow color seen)
Fingers: Three (including opposing thumb)
Toes: Two
Skin color: Green
Average height: Approximately 6'0" (5'8" while hunched over)
History:
(New Mutants I Annual#1) - A Vrakanin
teleported onto Earth and quickly noticed a Lila Cheney concert poster
on a fence, which he angrily tore apart. Tracking Lila Cheney to her
concert, the Vrakanin warrior used a disintegrator weapon on chains
holding Lila's speakers. When the chains broke and the speakers
toppled, however, the New Mutants, who were attending the concert,
rushed to Lila's aid, saving her life. Recognizing the disintegration
as coming from a Meson Disruptor weapon, Warlock informed the other New
Mutants and Mirage had Wolfsbane shift into her wolf form to track down
the culprit responsible for the sabotage. As the concert continued, the
New Mutants investigated further, soon finding the Vrakanin warrior,
who announced that they would not deny him his prey. The Vrakanin then
hurled away Wolfsbane, who announced to her teammates the Vrakanin's
desire to kill Lila Cheney. The New Mutants jumped in to attack the
Vrakanin, who easily ducked Cannonball, hurled Sunspot away and blasted
Magik. Warlock then encased the Vrakanin's arms and legs but the
Vrakanin rolled over, tossing Warlock into Sunspot. Magma then went on
the attack, hitting the Vrakanin with a low-level lava blast but
unfortunately, the Vrakanin's battle armor prevented injury and the
warrior knocked Magma out. Returning his focus to Lila Cheney, the
Vrakanin pulled his gun once more, only to be hit from behind by
Cannonball. Noticing the impact vibrations, Lila went into a very loud
guitar, causing the Vrakanin (and Warlock) intense agony and shattering
the Vrakanin's armor. The sound also destroyed the wooden beams in
which the Vrakanin and Cannonball were fighting atop, causing both to
fall. Almost immediately upon falling, the Vrakanin was consumed by an
energy nimbus and teleported away, leaving Cannonball hanging to the
beam for dear life. While most of the audience thought the energy field
to be merely special effects, the field soon consumed Cannonball, Lila
Cheney and her band, leaving the panicked New Mutants and confused
audience behind. While the New Mutants soon learned from Warlock that
Lila's speakers housed a stargate, which they powered up to follow
Cannonball, Lila and Cannonball arrived in Lila's outer space Dyson
sphere, where Lila received a communication from the Vrakanin
Charasulla, who warned of a Vrakanin bounty hunter. When Lila explained
that she had already dealt with the bounty hunter, Charasulla asked why
an auction was necessary and why the Vrakanin could not arrange private
arrangements for Lila's sale of the planet Earth. A short time later,
as Lila flirted with Cannonball, Lila's bandmate Phil Hovannes
contacted Charasulla and informed the Vrakanin that he had beamed
Lila's coordinates to them and opened a channel through the Dyson
sphere's defensive perimeter to allow a Vrakanin strike force to slip
inside. Hovannes then suggested that once Lila was dealt with by the
Vrakanin, they could pay him and Earth would be theirs.
The
following day, the New Mutants arrived at Lila's Dyson sphere, only to
find themselves under attack by Charasulla's Vrakanin strike force.
Recognizing the aliens as similar to the bounty hunter they had earlier
fought at the concert, the New Mutants fought back, with Magma taking
down one of the aliens and Sunspot knocking another off of his flying
craft. While Sunspot managed to commandeer the craft, the Vrakanins
captured Warlock, Wolfsbane and Mirage, as well as Cannonball and Lila
Cheney during the continued attack and brought them before Charasulla,
who informed Lila of her bandmate Phil Hovannes' betrayal. After
announcing that the New Mutants would be sold as slaves, Charasulla
proclaimed Hovannes greedy for accepting a deal for more money with the
Vrakanin, and also stupid for trusting that Charasulla would honor such
a bargain. Charasulla then disintegrated Hovannes before explaining his
intentions to use Lila's only stargate technology to transport the
entire planet Earth to the Vrakanin's present location. Charasulla
continued, explaining that Earth's residents would be fitted with slave
shackles during their brief stasis-shocked state, but before he could
continue, vibrations shook the Dyson sphere and Magma erupted from the
building floor, terrifying Charasulla into ordering a retreat from the
sphere. His strike force, the Vrakanin Weaponeers, soon realized Magma
was causing the tremors and began to fight back, with Magik using her
Soulsword to distract a Vrakanin she referred to as "Fuzz-Face" while
the New Mutants' friend Doug Ramsey tackled the Vrakanin. Magik then
retrieved "Fuzz-Face"'s gun and shot him, much to the shock of Doug,
before using the gun to free Cannonball. During the battle, Sunspot
rejoined his teammates in taking down the Vrakanin Weaponeers, smashing
through a wall and causing its collapse atop the Weaponeers. With the
Weaponeers defeated and Charasulla having fled, the New Mutants found
that the destruction had triggered the stargate to destroy Earth but
they managed to halt the destruct sequence with the help of their
language-translating ally Doug Ramsey.
(Uncanny X-Men I#193 - BTS) - During a Danger Room
training session involving the X-Men and New Mutants, Rachel Summers
altered the landscape to resemble Lila Cheney's Dyson sphere. As part
of the scenario, the Vrakanin bounty hunter the New Mutants had
previously fought was also recreated in holographic form. When
Wolverine detected no scent on the Vrakanin, the hologram insisted that
Cannonball was a hologram instead of itself.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont, Bob
McLeod and Tom Palmer.
It was specifically stated that the Vrakanin warrior
that battled the New Mutants was able to withstand Magma's lava blasts
due to the battle armor he was wearing. I mentioned that the Vrakanins
had enhanced durability because, while the battle armor protected the
Vrakanin from the lava blast itself, I'm sure the blast also radiated
intense heat and the Vrakanin's entire body was not covered by the
armor, yet he still showed no signs of injury from the lava blast. That
leads me to believe his durability protected the non-armored parts of
his body from the heat while the armor protected him from the actual
force of the blast.
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Vrakanin race has no known connections to
Charasulla was the leader of a small strike force of Vrakanin Weaponeers. Originally working out of deal with teleporting thief/musician Lila Cheney, Charasulla attempted to get Lila to sell the planet Earth to him privately but Lila refused, preferring to sell it as an auction. Unfortunately, her bandmate Phil Hovannes betrayed Lila to Charasulla, arranging the sell of Earth directly to the Vrakanins himself in exchange for leading the Vrakanins to Lila. After attacking Lila's Dyson sphere and capturing not only Lila but her allies, the New Mutants, Charasulla gloated about selling the New Mutants into slavery and announced his plans to use Lila's stargate technology to transport Earth to the Vrakanins. When the non-captured New Mutant Magma erupted from the floor, a terrified Charasulla fled.
--New Mutants I Annual#1
"Fuzz-Face" was a member of Charasulla's squad of Vrakanin Weaponeers. After Charasulla fled at the sight of the fiery Magma, "Fuzz-Face" realized Magma had caused the tremors they had experienced moments earlier and ordered the Weaponeers to attack. Facing off against the New Mutants' Magik, "Fuzz-Face" was sliced by Magik's Soulsword. Assuming he had been killed by the Soulsword, "Fuzz-Face" realized too late that the Soulsword had actually not affected him at all as the New Mutants' ally Doug Ramsey tackled him. Magik then stole "Fuzz-Face"'s gun and shot him, much to the shock of Doug Ramsey.
--New Mutants I Annual#1
The Weaponeers of Vrakanin were a strike force assembled by Charasulla, who used them as soldiers to attack Lila Cheney's Dyson sphere. During the attack, the Weaponeers captured not only Lila Cheney but her New Mutants allies as well (excepting Magma and Sunspot). Magma eventually generated tremors and erupted from the floor, terrifying Charasulla into fleeing. The Weaponeers soon realized that the tremors were merely a power used by Magma and they renewed their attack. After Sunspot arrived by punching through a wall, the wall toppled onto the Weaponeers, incapacitating them.
--New Mutants I Annual#1
images: (without ads)
New Mutants I Annual#1, p5, pan3 (Vrakanin male, main image)
New Mutants I Annual#1, p14, pan6 (Vrakanin supplemental image)
New Mutants I Annual#1, p18, pan1 (Vrakanin male, without armor)
New Mutants I Annual#1, p32, pan1 (Charasulla)
New Mutants I Annual#1, p33, pan2 ("Fuzz-Face")
New Mutants I Annual#1, p31, pan1 (Weaponeers surrounding the captive New Mutants)
Appearances:
New Mutants I Annual#1 (1984) - Chris Claremont (writer), Bob McLeod
(pencils, inks), Tom Palmer (inks), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#193 (May, 1985) - Chris Claremont (writer), John Romita, Jr., Dan Green (art), Ann Nocenti (editor)
Last updated: 11/29/16
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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Charasulla
"Fuzz-Face"
Weaponeers