HUJAH race
Classification: Extraterrestrial non-humanoids
Location/Base of Operations: Huj, seventeenth planet from the sun in the Zuccone star system in the Milky Way galaxy
Habitat: Unrevealed
Gravity: Unrevealed
Atmosphere: Breathable by lifeforms from Earth
Known Members: first Thanos-thrall (purple-scaled, name
unrevealed), second Thanos-thrall (green-scaled, name unrevealed),
third Thanos-thrall (green-scaled, name unrevealed);
Estimated population: 3.9 billion
Affiliations: Unrevealed (except for the ones who followed Thanos)
Enemies: None (beyond those opposing the presumably relatively few (at least three) serving as thralls of Thanos)
First Appearance: (Unidentified) Avengers Annual I#7 (1977);
(race and homeworld identified) The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition) #15 (March,
1987)
Powers/Abilities: Hujah possess certain psychokinetic abilities that compensate for their lack of arms and fingers.
Weaknesses: Lack of limbs and manipulative digits.
Cultural Traits: Unrevealed
Type: Serpentine
Eyes: Two (red)
Fingers: None
Toes: None
Skin color: Green (scaled) or purple (scaled)
Hair: None
Average length: 16' 4"
Type of government: Tribal
Level of technology: Inferior to that of the humans of Earth.
History:
(The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15: Hujah entry) - The Hujah are a serpentine race who apparently
evolved on Huj, the seventeenth planet from the sun in the Zuccone star system within the Milky Way galaxy.
(The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15: Hujah entry) - Certain Hujah were recruited by Thanos the Mad Titan to serve in his army.
(Avengers Annual I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Thanos had many in his army of thralls equipped with various weapons. Certain Hujah Thanos-thralls may have been equipped with helmets that served some unspecified purpose.
(Avengers Annual I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Thanos initiated his plan to destroy Earth's sun by sending a giant space armada, seemingly commanded from Sanctuary III, to attack Earth. In actuality, this attack was just a massive diversion meant to keep the Avengers occupied while Thanos, who was aboard Sanctuary II, used his Stellar Projector to cause the Sun to go nova.
(Avengers Annual I#7) - While Thor and Iron Man ran interference for them by battling the smaller ships in the armada, Captain America, the Beast, Moondragon, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision and the Kree Captain Mar-Vell boarded Sanctuary III in the belief that it was Thanos's flagship where the "star-burster" would be located. After blasting their way into the starship, the six heroes soon found themselves battling a small army of aliens who had been waiting below to massacre them. One of those Thanos-thralls was a purple-scaled Hujah who was wearing a silvery helmet.
(Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2 (fb)) - During this battle, the Avengers also came into conflict with a green-scaled Hujah who was not wearing a helmet.
(Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2 - BTS) - After all eight heroes had been defeated by Thanos and imprisoned within stasis beams that kept them a micro-second away from reality and immobile, Moondragon used her telepathy to send a mental call for aid that Peter Parker (Spider-Man) experienced as a nightmare.
(Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2) - A different green-scaled Hujah was among the Thanos-thralls of Action Group #3 who attacked Spider-Man and the Thing after they had travelled to Sanctuary III and been brought aboard. The battle ended after Thanos temporarily turned off the artificial gravity, enabling the heroes to be easily shot by blasters.
(Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2) - Later, after the Avengers and Captain Mar-Vell had been freed from the stasis beams by Spider-Man and had joined with the Thing to battle Thanos, this Hujah was among the army of thralls who fought Earth's defenders.
(Drax I#9 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, a group of Hujah came into conflict with the two female alien bounty hunters, Ora and Killer Thrill. During this encounter, Killer Thrill was seriously injured, and Ora took the opportunity to leave her friend behind to die. However, Killer Thrill survived and presumably slaughtered those Hujah, but only after being forced to experience awful pain for a long time, presumably due to torture.
(Drax I#9 - BTS) - Years later, when confronted by Killer Thrill, Ora initially claimed that she had left because she had thought Killer Thrill was dead. However, Ora later admitted that she had abandoned Killer Thrill because her sanity had been slipping and she had begun to act upon her murderous and sadistic desires, as when she slaughtered all the members of a group of sentients on Frexel-Prime, even the children.
Comments: Serpentine Thanos-thralls created by Jim Starlin and Josef Rubinstein.
Hujah race created/named by the staff of the second volume of The Official Handbook of the
Marvel Universe (led by Head Writer Mark Gruenwald).
The idea that the Hujah possess certain psychokinetic abilities that compensate for their lack of arms and fingers is something that was created by the Official Handbook staff. So far, there has never been a Marvel comic in which a Hujah demonstrated any such ability. Then again, since there have been ZERO appearances by the Hujah race since that issue of the Official Handbook was published back in 1987, there really hasn't been any opportunity to display that power in any story.
Based on other race mini-profiles, I suspect that there was some reason
why the Handbook writers chose the name "Zuccone" for the home star system of the Hujah race. However, nothing
comes to mind.
---Yeah, beyond the statue by Donatello (namesake of the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtle), and notes that the Italian word loosely translates to
"pumpkin," and figuratively means bald head, I have no idea...and,
honestly, even that comes from internet research, whatever that's
worth--Snood.
The Hujah were one of several alien races who received quarter-page entries in the Official Handbook even though the only members of their races who had yet been seen had appeared in crowd scenes in which neither they nor their races were named. Other races who received entries even though their only representatives had only appeared for a few panels in one issue and had little (if any) dialogue were the Kodabaks, the Mandos, the Nymenians, and the Zundamites. It seems a bit wasteful to have given these races entries when there were probably other alien races whose appearances had been less minor.
The Hujah are another of those alien races who somehow manage to end up in outer space despite having a level of technology that is inferior to that of Earth humans. I guess that the star-faring races of the Marvel Universe don't have any "Prime Directive" that prevents them from interacting with cultures that are less technologically-advanced than theirs.
This profile treats the three serpentine aliens who were among the Thanos-thralls who battled the Avengers, Captain Mar-Vell, the Thing and Spider-Man as all being members of the same alien race, the Hujah. However, since none of the alien races who appeared in that story were actually named, it's possible that those three were actually members of two or even three different serpentine races. After all, there are at least fourteen humanoid alien races who look exactly like light-skinned humans from Earth, so who's to say that there might not be similar numbers of serpentine alien races who all look alike?
I don't know much about snakes but I have the impression that, aside from differences caused by age or injuries, all members of any given species look very much alike. As a result, the small differences between the three serpentine Thanos-thralls would seem to be enough to differentiate them into separate species. On the other hand, all dogs are members of the same species even though there is a great deal of variation in the appearances of different breeds so maybe those differences are just minor "racial" variations within a single species (like how some Romulans have ridged foreheads while other Romulans and all Vulcans don't).
I've noticed four features which differ amongst these three Hujah. The first
and most obvious difference is the colors of their skins; the second is the presence (or absence) of one or more lines
of upright scales running lengthwise along their bodies; the third is the cross-sectional shapes of their bodies; and
the fourth is whether or not their eyes are multifaceted. In the real world, these differences would, I think, be enough
evidence to declare them to be separate but related species. However, since the Hujah are both fictional and alien,
I'm not going to be stubborn about it.
Comparing the differences between Chihuahuas, Great Danes, Chinese
Shar-Peis, Italian Greyhounds, and English Bulldogs, as just a few
examples of vastly diametric members of the same species, I don't think
there is any strong support that those covered herein are from distinct
species. However, there is also no conclusive in-story evidence that
they are the same species, or than the Hujah profile noting some
members (other than a single member) to be Thanos-thralls.--Snood
All three of these Hujah are depicted as having underbellies that seem
to be divided along their lengths into bands, a feature that is often seen in drawings of snakes. In the real world,
snakes often have smaller scales on their backs and sides while those on their undersides are larger and wide
enough that they form a single row of scutes that stretch from side-to-side. As far as I know, although these
wide scales are distinct from each other, there do not appear to be any "grooves" between them. In contrast,
the undersides of these Hujah appear to be almost segmented, like the bodies of some worms, with each "band"
being thicker in their centers but narrower where they connect with other bands. I have no idea if any real snakes
have bodies like this but, as alien beings, this may not be applicable to the Hujah.
Who knows? Maybe as semi-civilized beings, those "rolls" are these beings are just fat.--Snood
According to the Official Handbook, the average length of a Hujah is sixteen feet four inches. I've made some attempts to measure the lengths of the three Hujah but it's been tricky since none of them were accommodating enough to stretch out to their full lengths beside a hero whose height was known. Since many of the images instead showed them twisted around, I used a string that I carefully positioned to follow the curves of their bodies and then measured that string. However, the results for the only Hujah who appeared in more than one image varied greatly.
Although the Hujah Thanos-thralls appeared in Avengers Annual I#7 (1977) and Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2 (1977), I've used images scanned from the 1992 Warlock reprint miniseries because those images are better than the originals, in part because they were printed on better quality paper.
Connection to the Hujahdarian Monarch Egg?
In All-New Guardians of the Galaxy#1, the Grandmaster blackmailed the Guardians of the Galaxy into stealing the "Hujahdarian Monarch Egg" from the collection of his brother, the Collector. The "Hujah" part of that name made me think of the Hujah.
In issue #2, while searching the Collector's main collection in his castle-like space station/museum, Star-Lord asked if anybody saw "the snake egg thing." This indication that the Hujahdarian Monarch Egg was a "snake egg" was consistent with the Hujah.
In issue #4, after catching the Guardians as they attempted to make their getaway, the Collector gave Gamora what he claimed was "a flawless forgery of (his) Hujahdarian Monarch Egg" for the team to bring to the Grandmaster.
Finally, in issue #10, the Guardians brought the fraudulent egg to the Grandmaster who revealed that he knew that "the egg is not the last monarch egg of the Mujahadareen species." The Collector then burst out of the fake egg to attack his brother.
So, what's going on here? For three issues, this giant golden "snake egg" was called a Hujahdarian Monarch Egg and presumably had some connection to the serpentine Hujah race. Then, in its final appearance, it is instead called the last monarch egg of the Mujahadareen species, a name that is significantly different from Hujah. Did writer Gerry Duggan forget the name of the egg sometime between issues 4 and 10? Or did he and/or editor Jordan White decide to change the name at the last minute? If so, what possible reason could they have had to do so? I know that I can't think of any.
As things currently stand, I favor the idea that the Hujahdarians are a serpentine race who are also known as the Mujahadareens, and that they are not actually directly connected to the Hujah. I'm sure that some writer is eagerly awaiting their chance to explain this name change...but I'm not holding my breath.
Anyway, while the idea that a race of large serpentine beings would hatch from eggs that seemed to be about 5 feet long is interesting, that size seems a bit excessive. After all, some snakes in the real world grow to be as large as the Hujah but hatch from eggs that are much smaller, no more than five inches in length. Maybe the fact that it was a "Monarch Egg" somehow explains its size?
While I don't thing the extraterrestrial Hujah have connection to Set, one of Earth's Elder Gods, who fathered numerous serpentine beings, you can check out Set's profile to investigate many other serpentine beings.
Profile by Don Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Hujah have no known connections to
One member of a small army of alien malcontents who had chosen to follow Thanos the Mad Titan, this purple-scaled Hujah was on Sanctuary III when a group of five Avengers (Captain America, Beast, Moondragon, Scarlet Witch and the Vision) and their Kree ally Captain Mar-Vell boarded it in search of the "star-burster" that Thanos was planning to use to cause all the stars in the universe to explode.
Once the battle had begun, this Hujah was seen preparing to strike at Captain America who had just dove into a small group of five thralls and knocked them all over. What this Hujah did (or tried to do) next has not been revealed but he definitely failed to defeat Captain America.
This Hujah was not seen participating in any of the subsequent battles against the heroes from Earth nor was he seen to be among the thralls who surrendered after Thanos was transformed into solid granite.
Since nothing has been revealed about this Hujah's life, I feel compelled to fill in this sub-profile with details about his appearance and how it differs from the other two Hujah:
• This Hujah had scales that were shades of purple instead of shades of green. The scales covering his head and the back and sides of his body were dark magenta in color while those on his underbelly were a lighter mauve color. If his underbelly did not extend to the tip of his tail, then his tail would have been dark magenta on all sides, like his head.
• Aside from his ridged underbelly, this Hujah's body was smooth, without any lines of upright scales protruding along the length of his body. Additionally, his body appeared to be cylindrical, and a cross-section of any part of it would have been round (although perhaps slightly flattened on the underside) or oval.
• This Hujah's eyes do not appear to have been multifaceted but it's hard to know for sure because even an enlarged image of the single visible eye doesn't provide any data, not even the color of the eye.
• Using the method mentioned above, I measured the length of the printed image of this Hujah to be 20 cm. Since I measured the image of Captain America that appeared in the same panel to be 6 cm, I would estimate this Hujah's length to be about 20 feet. However, since this Hujah appeared in the foreground while Cap was in the background, his actual length may have been less.
• This Hujah seemed to be wearing some sort of silver helmet that started on his snout (behind the nostrils) and extended to the back of his head. There was a fin atop his head and two small, triangular spikes that were upright on the snout portion. There were semi-circular eyeholes for him to see through and a small antenna-like structure protruding from the helmet behind the eyehole on the left side may have been mirrored on the unseen right side. It should be mentioned that, instead of being something that he wore, this "helmet" could have been bonded to his skull or even been a cybernetic replacement part.
--Avengers Annual I#7
One member of a small army of alien malcontents who had chosen to follow Thanos the Mad Titan, this large, green-scaled Hujah was on Sanctuary III when a group of five Avengers (Captain America, Beast, Moondragon, Scarlet Witch and the Vision) and their Kree ally Captain Mar-Vell boarded it in search of the "star-burster" that Thanos was planning to use to cause all the stars in the universe to explode.
At some point after the battle had begun, this Hujah came into conflict with Captain Mar-Vell who ended up with a choke-hold around the Hujah's neck as he moved through the fighting. What this Hujah did (or tried to do) next has not been revealed but he definitely failed to defeat Captain Mar-Vell.
After the Avengers and Captain Mar-Vell were captured and imprisoned within stasis-beams, Moondragon sent out a mental call for aid which Peter Parker experienced as a nightmare. The memories of recent events that were part of that telepathic distress call included a snapshot of the battle (such as it was) between this Hujah and Captain Mar-Vell.
This Hujah was not seen participating in any of the subsequent battles against the heroes from Earth nor was he seen to be among the thralls who surrendered after Thanos was transformed into solid granite.
As with the first Thanos-thrall, here are some details about the appearance of this Hujah and how it differs from the other two Hujah.
• This Hujah's scales were all green in color. The scales on the upper part of his head and his underbelly appeared slightly darker than those on the rest of his body but this apparent difference could be due to the fact that those darker areas were actually in the shadow cast by his body. Or not.
• This Hujah had a ridged underbelly but the rest of his body was smooth except for a line of small, upright scales that began in the middle of the top of his head and extended back in a single line along his body to the end of his tail. Each scale was rounded and there were gaps between them that were as wide as the scales themselves. His body also appeared to be cylindrical, with a cross-section of any part of it being round (although perhaps slightly flattened on the underside) or oval.
• This Hujah had large eyes that were completely red and not multifaceted. Dark spots in the center of them may have been his pupils.
• Since only part of this Hujah's body was ever depicted, I was unable to take any sort of measurements of his length. However, based on the fact that his head was about as large as Mar-Vell's torso, I would estimate his length to be significantly greater than that of the purple-scaled Hujah, perhaps as much as 30 feet or more.
• Of the three Hujah serving Thanos, this Hujah was the only one who was not wearing any sort of headgear.
--Avengers Annual I#7 - BTS/Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2 (fb)
One member of a small army of alien malcontents who had chosen to follow Thanos the Mad Titan, this green-scaled Hujah was stationed on Sanctuary III when the starship came to Earth's solar system to destroy the Sun.
However, this Hujah was apparently not involved in the battle that began when a group of five Avengers (Captain America, Beast, Moondragon, Scarlet Witch and the Vision) and their Kree ally Captain Mar-Vell boarded it in search of the "star-burster" that Thanos was planning to use to cause all the stars in the universe to explode.
He was also not among those thralls who, when directed by Thanos, were able to overcome and capture five Avengers.
Later, after the starship's tractor beam had pulled a space shuttle craft from Earth into a hangar bay, this Hujah was among the pack of goons waiting there for its occupants to exit the vehicle.
Once Spider-Man and the Thing did so, the thralls attacked them en masse. This Hujah initially focused on Spider-Man but, finding that the web-slinger was quick and agile enough to stay out of reach as he battled the smaller thralls, attacked the slower Thing instead.
The Hujah managed to wrap the coils of his body around his
prey, becoming one of the "larger matters" that were keeping him busy, but then the Thing got a firm grip on the
Hujah and used his body like a whip against at least four other thralls, knocking them all away.
Unfortunately for the heroes, the Thing's success caused Thanos, who had been observing remotely as they devastated his guardsmen, to realize that they might actually become a danger to his plans so he intervened by turning off the artificial gravity in that chamber, enabling Action Group #3 to easily defeat Spider-Man and the Thing.
This Hujah may have been temporarily incapacitated by the Thing's blow because he was not pictured among those thralls who defeated the heroes.
Later, after Spider-Man had freed the eight captive heroes so that they and the Thing could battle Thanos, this Hujah was (I think) among the Mad Titan's army that rushed to their master's side and were commanded to take no prisoners. During the resulting melee, as the heroes fought to keep the thralls from acting together as an organized and effective killing force, Captain Mar-Vell warned of an enemy build-up that the Vision immediately used his solar-powered eye blasts to break up. This Hujah was one of the thralls who were taken out of the battle by those eye blasts.
This Hujah was not seen to be among the thralls who surrendered after Thanos was transformed into solid granite.
As with the other two Thanos-thralls, here are some details about the appearance of this Hujah and how it differs from the other two Hujah.
• This Hujah had scales that were shades of green. The scales covering his head and the sides of his body were dark green but the scales on his underbelly and his back were clearly a lighter shade of green.
• This Hujah's underbelly and back were both ridged but the sides of his body were not. Aside from these ridges, his body was smooth except for two lines of upright scales that ran along the upper right and upper left corners of his body. Additionally, although his body was elongated, it was not cylindrical, and a cross-section of any part of it would have been squarish instead of round, with four distinct sides. Each of these sides were relatively flat (instead of curved) and parallel to the sides opposite to them, resulting in his body having four corners to it. The front half of his body seemed to have a consistent width but the back half (his tail) gradually tapered to a point..
• This Hujah's eyes were large, red and multifaceted, with no other discernable features to them.
• Using the string method mentioned above, I measured the lengths of four printed images of this Hujah against the heights of several heroes (Ben Grimm, Spider-Man and the Vision) in the same panels. Using that data, I calculated lengths of about 14, 24, 29 or 38 feet. Clearly this Hujah was not drawn consistently or my method was faulty or Hujah can really stretch their bodies.
• This Hujah wore headgear that was different from that worn
by the purple Hujah. The helmet was as dark green as the scales on his head and covered the area between his eyes
(but not much of his snout) and extended to the back of his head. There was a fin atop his head that pointed forward
and ended in a ball. Instead of having eyeholes, the helmet was designed to only half-encircle the eyes, with the rim
of the helmet being above the upper halves of the eyes and nothing beneath the lower halves.
Note: I am not 100% sure that the Hujah who was blasted by the Vision was the same Thanos-thrall who fought the Thing. For one thing, when a magnified version of the last image is viewed, it looks like that Hujah's only visible eye is yellow instead of red. However, since the differences could be due to minor artistic errors, I have chosen to not create a fourth Thanos-thrall subprofile because of them.
--Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2
images: (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15, page 44, panel 2 (main image)
All-New Guardians of the Galaxy#2, page 18, panel 1 (Hujahdarian Monarch Egg being carried by Drax)
Avengers Annual I#7, page 24, panel 3 (purple-scaled Thanos-thrall
poised to attack Captain America)
Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2, page 2, panel 2 (first green-scaled
Thanos-thrall being choked by Captain Mar-Vell)
page 12, page 25, panels 4 + 5 (second green-scaled Thanos-thrall going
at the Thing and Spider-Man)
page 13, panel 4 (second green-scaled Thanos-thrall wrapped around the
Thing)
page 13, panel 5 (second green-scaled Thanos-thrall being grabbed by the
Thing)
page 13, panel 6 (second green-scaled Thanos-thrall being used as a whip
by the Thing)
page 26, panel 4 (a green-scaled Thanos-thrall being struck by the
Vision's eye-blasts)
Appearances:
Avengers Annual I#7 (1977) - Joe Rubinstein (finishing), Petra Goldberg (coloring), Archie Goodwin (editing), Jim
Starlin (other manual labor)
Marvel Two-In-One Annual#2 (1977) - Jim Starlin (story & art), Joe Rubinstein (finished art), Petra G. (colorist),
Archie Goodwin (editor)
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15 (March, 1987) - Mark Gruenwald (writer/producer), Peter
Sanderson (writer/researcher), Kyle Baker (artist for the Alien Races Appendix)
First Posted: 12/23/2021
Last updated: 12/31/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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