THE COLONY
Earth-92131
Classification: Extraterrestrial race, semi-humanoid
Location/Base of Operations: Alternate Earth (Earth-92131), unrevealed galaxy/star system
Known Members: Colony troop-leader, Colony Queen
Affiliations: Cody Robbins
Enemies: X-Men (Beast/Hank McCoy, Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Professor X/Charles Xavier, Rogue, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Wolverine/Logan)
First Appearance: X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (February, 1996)
Powers/Abilities: The Colony are semi-humanoid green reptilians with two tusks on their heads. All Colony creatures have a long, prehensile tail that's equipped with a glowing orb at the end with which they shoot energy blasts. The Colony are unable to have children and need host bodies for their race to continue, Colony creatures can dust victims with spores that causes them to slowly turn into Colony creatures themselves. Colony creatures are generally male and are commanded by a Colony Queen. The Colony's minds are insusceptible to telepathy and are hurt by the beautiful sounds of the Acanti.
Level of technology: The Colony wear a silver exoskeleton with four tentacles which they can use like any other limb, with their minds. The back of the exoskeleton is outfitted with a jetpack which allows them to fly for short periods of time. The Colony possess advanced technology that allows them to watch different planets for decades in order to find suitable hosts to continue their race. To travel through space the Colony had a small troop of insect-like ships which presumably only granted them short distance travel, after enslaving one of the Acanti, a space faring whale-like creature, the Colony was able to travel at a much faster rate.
Type: Reptilian
Eyes: Red
Fingers: Three
Toes: three, and one on the heel
Skin color: Green
Average height 6'6"
History:
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (fb)) - The Colony used a troop of small vessels to hunt one of the Acanti, a space-faring whale-like creature. The Colony successfully enslaved the Acanti's mind and while remaining conscious would serve as their new spaceship, allowing them to span large distances in space in a relatively short time.
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (fb) - BTS) - For an unrevealed amount of time, the Colony would turn creatures of all different origins into their own as the Colony-creatures were unable to have children and need host bodies for their race to continue.
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (fb) - BTS) - Preparing for her passing, the Colony Queen sought for a worthy successor. As such she turned her gaze towards Earth keeping a close eye on the planet for decades. When she discovered the mutant Rogue, she believed the X-Man would make for the perfect host body to produce a new queen. However, fearing a direct attack would result in failure the Colony decided to use Rogue's former lover Cody Robbins as a pawn to convince Rogue to join them willingly.
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (fb) - BTS) - The Colony successfully located Cody Robbins, Rogue's old boyfriend who's kiss caused Rogue's mutant abilities to manifest and inadvertently render the boy comatose, leaving Rogue riddled with guilt. Believing he'd make the perfect pawn the Colony dusted the man with spores in his sleep which lead him to slowly transform into one of the Colony.
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in
Vain") - The Colony landend their Acanti-ship in the desert, however
their arrival hadn't gone unnoticed as X-Man Wolverine was meditating
in that very desert. Upon investigating the whale-like ship, the Colony
appeared in numbers and attacked the mutant. In the end it was the
troop leader who rendered Wolverine unconscious with an electric blast
from its tail after which he commanded his troop to bring the mutant
inside the ship.
At the same time, Cody Robbins, under the influence of
the Colony, successfully reached out to Rogue after which the two met
up in the city. After reacquainting themselves Robbins pulled Rogue
into a nearby alley where one of the Colony secretly dusted Rogue with
the spores. After sharing a kiss (without her mutant powers being
activated) Rogue fell unconscious after which the Colony appeared again
for unrevealed reasons.
Meanwhile in the Acanti-ship, Wolverine regained
consciousness and managed to flee the ship while fighting several of
the Colony off. But just as Wolverine scaled a nearby cliff the
Colony's troop leader, using his jetpack, appeared and quickly dusted
the mutant with spores after which he left. Unaware what had
transpired, Wolverine set out in search of a telephone to warn the
X-Men. Upon the troop leader's return to the Colony Queen she expressed
her delight, believing Wolverine would make for a great addition to
their race after which she revealed her desire to turn all of the X-Men
into host bodies.
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in
Vain") - The following day, Wolverine and X-Men Beast, Gambit and Storm
arrived at the Colony's ship. To oppose the mutants, the Colony Queen
send her troops to capture them while warning her troops not to damage
the future host bodies. A fierce battle followed during which Rogue and
Cody Robbins arrived in a separate jet. While the battle went on
Wolverine, who'd been dusted with the spores before, began transforming
into one of the Colony. Still in control of himself, Wolverine fled the
scene leaving the X-Men behind to be captured. Having been defeated,
the X-Men were helpless to watch as Cody Robbins also transformed into
one of the Colony. Desperate for help, Storm telepathically reached out
to Professor hoping their mentor could rescue them.
In a nearby cave, Wolverine struggled with his
transformation and eventually purged himself of the Colony parasite
through his mutant healing factor.
The Colony brought the unconscious Beast, Gambit and
Storm into their Acanti-ship while a distraught Rogue pleaded with Cody
to understand what had happened, Cody explained it was the only way the
two of them could be truly together. But just as Rogue herself began
transforming into one of the Colony the Colony Queen herself appeared.
The Colony Queen took hold of Rogue and reassured the mutant there was
no turning back, explaining she'd been chosen to become a Colony Queen
herself to follow in her footsteps. The Queen continued, revealing Cody
Robbins had been nothing more than a pawn to reach her, this news
caused Rogue to breakdown believing she once again was the cause for
Cody's suffering.
Just then, Wolverine returned, seemingly healed from the
Colony parasite, took hold of Rogue's bare skin causing her to absorb
Wolverine's healing factor. Rogue apologized to Cody as they would
never be part of the Colony together after which she used Wolverine's
healing factor to purge herself of the infestation. Healed, Rogue and
Wolverine freed Beast, Gambit and Storm but were opposed by the Colony
Queen and her troops. In a final effort to trap the X-Men, the Colony
Queen ordered the Acanti to return to space with them trapped inside.
However, it was the X-Men's mentor Professor X who used his telepathic
abilities to reach out into the Acanti's mind and free the creature of
its enslavement. Now freed, the Acanti roared its beautiful whale-like
song which intensely hurt the Colony, unable to act and stop the
mutants, the X-Men successfully fled the Colony's ship through the
Acanti's mouth. Just as the X-Men left, Rogue begged Cody to join them
in the hopes of one day restoring him. Cody, however, merely hissed at
his former girlfriend, now fully transformed he returned to his kind.
The Acanti, with the Colony trap inside it returned to space their fates unrevealed.
Comments: Created by Martha Moran and AKOM Productions. (see Appearances list for full list of artists)
The Colony, X-Men: The Animated Series's version of the Brood race although they are very different from the malign parasitic insectoid creatures we know from the comics. The reason the Colony don't resemble the Brood is because they already had a cameo in the first season of the cartoon series in "Mojovision", unsure if the cartoon series would even get a second seasons they put as many cameo's as possible into the show. So when the show appeared to be the massive hit it was they felt they had to modify the creatures to fill an entire episode. In their book X-Men The Art and Making of The Animated Series, Eric and Julia Lewald reveal the episode "Love in Vain" was originally called "the Brood". The episode itself was heavily influenced by Claremont's Brood-storyline from Uncanny X-Men I#232 through #234 where a Brood-infected Wolverine is also able to purge himself thanks to his healing factor.
Like with the Brood there are different kinds of Colony creature. The Colony Queen is considered to be the ruler who commands all of her kind, she's highly intelligent, has the ability to speak and doesn't wear the exoskeleton other Colony creatures do. The next rank is a troop leader, who commands the troops, he's intelligent, has the ability to speak and wears the same exoskeleton as others, the troop leader does wear a red hood which sets him apart. The last rank are the troops (similar to the Brood's Sleazoid), they follow the commands of their troop leader and Queen, their intelligence is questionable, appear unable to speak and wear the standard exoskeleton.
I was unable to track down the voice actors for the Colony troop-leader and Colony Queen.
Shown on the right is a concept sketch created by Larry Houston gifted to network censor Avery Cobern. The sketch was meant as a re-submission for the creature design of the Conquest.
When, in 2015's Secret Wars, the Multiverse was destroyed following the incursions of planets it appeared as if Reality-92131 was drafted onto Battleworld as the Westchester domain. However, this has since been debunked. As such the reality seen in the two volumes of X-Men '92 (2015 and 2016-2017) now have their own reality-designation of Earth-15730. The X-Men '92: House of XCII (2022) series was inspired by both the animated series and Hickman's House of X run but is its own separate reality. The limited series X-Men '97 (2024), however, is Reality-92131 and bridges the gap between the original X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon and the new X-Men '97: The Animated Series cartoon.
The Colony Queen, Acanti and Cody Robbins will receive their own separate profiles.
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Colony have no known connections to
The Colony originally used a small troop of insect-like ships that bear some resemblance to small Shi'ar vessels. While allowing the Colony to travel through space these insect-like ships were presumably only fit for short-distance travel which lead the extraterrestrials to enslave the Acanti.
--X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (fb)
The Colony troop-leader seems to be the second-in-command to the Colony Queen. The troop-leader commands the Queen's troops, he's intelligent, has the ability to speak and wears the same exoskeleton as others. The troop leader does wear a red hood which sets him apart from the other Colony creatures.
--X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain"
images: (without ads)
X-Men The Art and Making of The Animated Series book, p186 (main image, digitally colored by MarvellousLuke)
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (attacking Wolverine)
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (defeating the X-Men)
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (final face-off)
X-Men The Art and Making of The Animated Series book, p260 (re-submission sketch)
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (insect-like ship)
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (enslaving the Acanti)
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (troop leader)
Appearances:
X-Men: The Animated Series cartoon - "Love in Vain" (February,
1996) - Martha Moran (writer), Frank Brunner, Mark Lewis (model
design), Marcos Borregales, Darrel Bowen, Claude Denis, Warren
Greenwood, Mark Lewis, Andre Nieves, Steve Olds, Shayne Poindexter
(prop design), Patricio Agnasin, Claude Denis, Tenny Henson, Cesar
Magsombol, Frank Squillace, Zhaoping Wei (layout design), Trish
Mendelson (color key), Yung Woo Kim, Laura Rasey Miller, Sung Woo
(color backgrounds), J.K. Kim, Sue Peters (animation director), Jerry
Acerno, Troy D. Adomitis, Patrick Archibald, Dell Barras, Francis
Barrios, Armando Carrillo, Romeo Francisco, Greg Garcia, Tenny Henson,
Rick Hoberg, Tom Nesbitt, David Simons, Michael Sosnowski, Frank
Squillace, Keith Tucker, Dan Veesenmeyer (storyboards), Patrico
Aganasin, Marcos Borregales, Gerald Forton, Romeo Francisco, Ernie G.
Guanlao, Tenny Henson, Abel Laxamana, Mark Lewis, Romeo Lopez, Tec
Manalac, Mike Sosnowski (storyboard cleanup), AKOM Productions
(animation studio), Eric Lewald (editor)
First Posted: 03/03/2023
Last Updated: 06/26/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All
other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff,
you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com