ARCTURUS
ARCTURUS
Real Name: Arcturus
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Rigellian)
Occupation: Former fleet commander (stripped of rank)
Group Membership: Formerly led a Rigellian fleet that included Chief Engineer Y-17, Observer X-9, Observer XJ-17, Observer YJ-18, and numerous others
Affiliations: Formerly controlled the Growing Man, Punisher robot;
he
tried and failed to cultivate alliances with Iron Man (Tony Stark),
Jack of Hearts (Jack Hart), and the Knights of Wundagore
Enemies: Grand Commissioner of Rigel, Iron Man, Jack of Hearts, Knights of Wundagore/New Men/"Sons of the Lost Creator" (notably Sir Hogg, Sir Lepard, Sir Lyan, Sir Ossilot, Sir Ram (successor and likely son or descendant)), Observer YJ-18, Recorder#211, Rhunians, Soviet Super-Soldiers (Crimson Dynamo/(Dimitri Bukharin), Darkstar/Laynia Petrovna, Vanguard/Nikolai Krylenko);
most if not all of his fleet considered him to be a traitor after his
deliberately leading them away from the main Colonizer fleet was
revealed
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
presumably was taken to Rigel-3 after arrest (he may or may not have perished there)
formerly the command ship of his fleet;
formerly Rigel-3, Rigel star system, Milky Way galaxy
First Appearance: Fleet Commander
Powers/Abilities:
Like many Rigellians, Arcturus can project a "mind-thrust" of psychic
energy to incapacitate another living being (even superhuman ones, at
least after they had been weakened in battle by the Punisher). He may
or may not have been able to control minds, communicate via telepathy
and mentally alter his physical density to increase his strength.
He wears a solid helmet and chest harness, which presumably provided some degree of physical protection.
His helmet contained a form of the Rigellian Proton Coagulant Beam, which could entrap a foe in a seemingly indestructible cage (although Thor and at least the combination of Iron Man and Jack of Hearts could shatter such a cage).
Arcturus formerly commanded an interstellar fleet composed of hundreds of ships and used numerous warriors armed with hand-blasters.
Like many Rigellians, Arcturus considered other lifeforms to be inferior and he felt that colonizing their worlds was his right. Further, he had the hunger to establish his own galactic empire via colonization and conquest as well as to challenge his own ruler, the Grand Commissioner of Rigel.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'6 - 5'8"; he looked to be a few inches shorter than the 5'11" Jack of Hearts)History:
(Thor I#218 / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition)#11: Rigellians (see comments) - As the deadly Black Stars (led by the Rhunians) approached, the nine billion Rigellians still living on Rigel-3 escaped aboard a fleet of gigantic starships via the plan of the Grand Commissioner.
(Iron
Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - Arcturus was part of this fleet.
(Iron Man I#110 (fb) - BTS / Iron Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - A group of Rigellians were seemingly/allegedly separated from the main fleet by a cosmic storm. They were apparently uncertain whether the main fleet had survived.
(Iron Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - In actuality, the power-hungry Arcturus had deliberately separated his group from the main fleet, as he felt that he had stood too long in the shadow of the Grand Commissioner and now sought to colonize and conquer under his own name and to build a galactic empire under his rule.
(Iron Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - Although Earth had been declared off-limits to the Colonizers of Rigel, Arcturus' fleet set an egg-shaped observation base in the inhabitable Blue Area of Earth's moon.
(Avengers I#69 - BTS; Iron Man I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Finding an abandoned ship of the time-traveling Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards), Arcturus' group claimed the Growing Man to serve as their emissary in their sector, planning to send him on a scouting mission.
(Iron Man I#109 (fb) - BTS / Iron Man I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Under unrevealed circumstances and for unrevealed reasons, the Growing Man was briefly stationed at the Rigellian observation base in the Blue Area of the Moon before being relocated to Stark International.
(Fantastic Four I#175 - BTS/ Iron Man I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Finding Galactus' abandoned ship (after his seeming death following the consumption of the planet Poppup) circling Earth's sun, Arcturus fleet confiscated Galactus' Punisher robot and then transported it with them when they traveled in search of a new homeworld.
(Thor I#256 (fb) - BTS) - The main Rigellian fleet subsequently colonized a new homeworld, which they also named Rigel-3.
(Thor I#256 - BTS) - The Recorder informed Thor that the Colonizers of Rigel had sent him for aid from their new homeworld.
(Iron Man I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Thor told Iron Man that the Rigellians had found a new homeworld.
(Iron Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - The Rigellians serving Arcturus believed themselves to have found a new home when one of their space probes discovered Wundagore II. Not knowing the world's history, they considered it to be huge, alive, and lacking a sentient race.
The Rigellians found traces of a once-thriving civilization, but they saw only wild beasts foraging in it cities. The Rigellians were overjoyed, and they considered that this world would be New Rigel.
When the Rigellians' exploratory craft landed, the wild beasts fled, but cosmic radiation born by the ship from its journeys through space somehow caused the beasts to re-evolve back into the forms of the New Men, bereft of the savagery that had previously afflicted them. Speaking and clothing themselves, the New Men returned to their cities to see if they could recall what had caused them to devolve.
Whether they learned what had happened to them, they recalled that they were the Knights of Wundagore and that they had returned to their home.
(Iron
Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - From space, the Rigellians watched in horror as
they saw "New Rigel" slipping from their grasp.
Although there was
plenty of room on the planet for them all, the Rigellians were
unwilling to live with beasts, and the Knights of Wundagore were
willing to fight to keep their world and drive off the invaders. 
(Iron
Man I#111 (fb) - BTS) - Prior to any actual war being declared, the Rigellians allegedly attacked and wounded a number of the New Men. The Rigellians also allegedly tortured some of the New Men for information.
(Iron Man I#108 - BTS / Iron Man I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Stark International agents unwittingly activated the Growing Man before its programming completed, and it sought a power source to help it locate Kang. Iron Man ultimately subdued the Growing Man.
(Iron Man I#109 - BTS) - After Jack of Hearts and S.H.I.E.L.D. scientists determined that the Growing Man had been on Earth's moon before its arrival at Stark International, Jack and Iron Man traveled to the Blue Area of the Moon via an Avengers Quinjet.
(Iron Man I#110 (fb) - BTS) - After Russian forces detected energy transmissions on the moon, Crimson Dynamo, Darkstar, and Vanguard were sent to investigate via a Russian ship.
(Iron Man I#109 - BTS) - Both the American and Russian heroes' ships were struck by a sonic attack and crashed near the egg-like observation base. After the heroes discovered the "egg" to have caused their crashes, the egg activated again, and a portal opened. Iron Man and Jack of Hearts entered the portal, which closed behind them.
(Iron
Man I#109 - BTS / Iron Man I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Earth heroes Iron Man and Jack of
Hearts were transported to Arcturus' command ship.
The Rigellians assaulted the intruders, who broke free of their Proton
Cage and swiftly took down their blaster-wielding soldiers. The
Punisher was then summoned, and it subdued the pair.
(Iron Man I#110) - Arcturus then appeared and introduced himself to terran heroes, explaining how he had acquired both the Punisher and the Growing Man. Paralyzing them with a mind-thrust until he could learn why they had arrived there, Arcturus had them taken prisoner while noting that they were preparing for the final battle in the war of colonization with the resisting inhabitants of Wundagore II. While held by restrainer rays.
Arcturus subsequently received a report from one of his agents (the Rigellians in this story are all virtually identical, except for the goatee-wearing Arcturus) on how Iron Man's power was derived from his life-sustaining encasement while Jack of Hearts was essentially pure energy and that his armor was containing that. The same Rigellian then noted that while the terrans were very powerful, they meant no harm but had merely traced them to their observation base via the Growing Man, who had been prematurely activated.
Arcturus considered that, given time, they could duplicate Iron Man's armor, but that they had neither the time nor the need, as the Wundagorians were too primitive to resist them for long. However, the ship was then rocked by an assault from the Knights of Wundagore, causing Arcturus to exclaim, "Prayers of our forefathers...What?" and also incapacitating the restrainer ray, freeing Iron Man and Jack of Hearts.
The Rigellians were shocked to find the Wundagorians as having
progressed from their previously savage states: Wearing space suits and
astride their atomic steeds as
well as dragonfly-like ships, the
Knights of Wundagore -- including Sir Lepard, Sir Lyan, Sir Ossilot,
another Sir Ram and many others -- assaulted Arcturus' fleet. 
(Iron Man I#111) - The Rigellians in the command ship called an alert to battle stations as their space shields had been breached. When a blast from the Knights hit a fuel storage cell, the explosion hurled Iron Man from the Rigellian ship into the middle of the attacking Wundagorians.
(Iron Man I#111 - BTS) - After witnessing the Rigellian ship's' blasts killing a pair of Knights (Sir Lepard and Sir Ossilot), Iron Man resolved that Wundagore II belonged to the New Men, and he assaulted the Rigellian ship, taking out its main gun. Nonetheless, he was eventually struck by power-lance bursts from the Knights (who assumed he had caused Lepard and Ossilot's death) and photon torpedoes from the Rigellians and crashed on the surface of Wundagore II. The Knights then retreated back to their mother ship,
Meeting with
Sir Lyan and learning his people's history, Iron Man further resolved
to join the Knights against their attackers. Meanwhile, Observer YJ-18
told Jack of the Rigellians' history, and Jack appreciated that the
colonizers considered the New Men to be inferior beings. 
(Iron Man I#111) - Arcturus subsequently told Jack that they could find no trace of Iron Man and that the New Men must have slain him. Jack requested to search for Iron Man on his own, but Arcturus denied him, noting that this was war and not a scouting party. Arcturus asked Jack to aid the Rigellians in defeating "these animal scum," but Jack told him to fight his own colonial wars. Jack further told him that he was sympathetic to the natives, but that his primary concern was recovering Iron Man and returning to Earth. Arcturus then admitted that he had arranged for his fleet's having lost contact with the rest of the Colonizer, as he wanted to colonize and conquer in his own name. He then stated -- despite the objections of YJ-18, who reminded him of the oath sworn to Thor -- that if Jack refused to help him take Wundagore II, he would take Earth in its stead.
(Iron Man I#112 - BTS) - Atop an atomic steed and wielding an energy sword, Iron Man led a charge of Knights from out of their mother ship.
(Iron Man I#112) - Jack refused to aid Arcturus, who further considered that he might use Earth to settle at least some of his enormous fleet and use it as a power base from which to challenge the Grand Commissioner. After Arcturus threatened to send the Punisher to Earth, YJ-18 told him that he had not the authority to countermand the Grand Commissioner. In response, Arcturus announced that his authority was absolute while imprisoning YJ-18 in a Proton Cage, and then denouncing him as a traitor.
Jack threatened to inform Arcturus' crew that he had intentionally led them away from the rest of the Colonizers, but he was interrupted as the Knights assaulted the ship
(Iron Man I#112 - BTS) - With the Rigellians' space screens weakened from the earlier attack, Iron Man led the Knights to breach and board the command ship, although he warned the Knights that the Rigellians' weaponry still exceeded their own.
The battle swiftly spread to the entire Colonizer fleet, and blasters cracked and defense shields fell as New Men and Rigellians locked in deadly hand-to-hand combat.
(Iron
Man I#112) - When
Iron Man and Jack of Hearts confronted Arcturus, the Rigellian
commander -- protected by his force field -- considered that the
heavily armed re-evolved Knights, joined by the terran super-humans,
actually posed a threat to his fleet, and that he needed to create a
diversion. He sent the Punisher robot under his control to attack Earth
via the transport chamber back to the observation base on Earth's
moon. Iron Man
pursued the Punisher while telling Jack to stay and assist the New
Men.
(Iron Man I#112 - BTS) - Iron Man followed the Punisher to Earth and eventually subdued him.
(Iron Man I#112 - BTS) - Meanwhile, the Rigellians battling Jack of Hearts pulled him with them through the transport chamber, and an army of Rigellians and the New Men fighting them soon emerged from the observation base's transport egg in the Blue Area of Earth's moon. The Soviet Super-Soldiers -- who had been waiting by the "egg" following a previous encounter with Iron Man -- attacked both groups of aliens emerging through the portal until Jack of Hearts announced, "The furry ones are on our side."(Iron
Man I#112) - Realizing
the battle was going against him, Arcturus urged both the
Colonizers and Knights to listen to him. A Wundagorian bull-man warned
that if this was some sort of trick, but Arcturus assured "sir knight"
that he was just asking a question, "Why were they fighting?" An
apparently feline knight countered that they were fighting for a world,
which he knew well enough. Arcturus then suggested that they were
fighting for a world, any world, and he offered to allow the
New Men to keep Wundagore II if they helped the Colonizers take over
Earth. 
As Arcturus added that humanity had made the New Men outcasts, Rigellian Recorder#211 then arrived, having tracked Arcturus via the transport egg's signal beam. The Recorder related that the Rigellians had since found a new homeworld, and it stated that Arcturus' deliberately breaking contact with the fleet, his attempting to colonize without authority, and his threatening the restricted Earth had all broken Rigellian law. The Recorder then noted that it had been authorized to strip Arcturus of his rank and title.
Denouncing Arcturus as a traitor, the Rigellians then arrested him.
Declaring the war against the New Men to have been illegal to now be over, the Recorder then used the transport egg to return the Knights of Wundagore to Wundagore II.
(Iron Man I#112 - BTS) - The rest of Arcturus' fleet was subsequently reunited with the rest of the Rigellians on this new Rigel-3, while the Recorder vowed to destroy the transport egg after Iron Man, Jack of Hearts, and the Soviet Super-Soldiers returned to Earth in the spacecraft the Recorder provided.
(Iron Man I#112 - BTS) - Arcturus was presumably taken to Rigel-3, although his fate is unrevealed.
(Thor 2000/2 (fb) / Thanos I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Thanos slew more than 5 million Rigellians during an assault on this Rigel-3 (by some accounts, 88% of the population was wiped out). If Arcturus remained on this world, he may have perished during this assault.
(Thanos I#1 (fb) - BTS) - Rigel-3 was so badly damaged that the Rigellians abandoned it and established New Rigel-3. If Arcturus had remained on Rigel-3 and had not perished in Thanos' assault, he would have departed it at this time and presumably relocated to New Rigel-3.
Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo, Keith Pollard, and Fred Kida.
When startled by an attack on his ship by the Knights of Wundagore, he exclaimed "Prayers of our forefathers!"
I swear the Rigellians with their dome helmets remind me of Planters' former mascot, Mr. Peanut.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Arcturus should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Iron Man I#108 (March, 1978) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Carmine Infantino (penciler), Bob Wiacek (inker), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Iron Man I#109 (April, 1978) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Carmine Infantino (penciler), Fred Kida (inker), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Iron Man I#110-111 (May-June, 1978) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Keith Pollard (penciler), Fred Kida (inker), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Iron Man I#112 (July, 1978) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Keith Pollard (penciler), Fred Kida (inker), Jim Shooter (editor)
First posted: 03/01/2023
Last updated: 03/01/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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