JUDAN race
Classification: Extraterrestrial four-armed bipeds
Location/Base of Operations: Dyofor, second planet from the sun in the Palyn star system of the Milky Way Galaxy
Habitat: Tropical over most of the planet, 84% of the surface is covered by oceans
Gravity: 300% Earth
Atmosphere: 43% oxygen
Known Members: Kray-Tor (maybe - see comments); former
prisoner of the Runestaff
Estimated population: 3.2 billion
Affiliations: Squirrel Girl (Doreen Green);
(pre-timequake) The
Universal Church of Truth and the deity they worshipped, the Magus
Enemies: Non-Believers, "Silver Surfer";
(pre-timequake) Adam Warlock;
formerly Oobagonians, Phaznozzes and Tralfamadorians
First Appearance: Strange Tales I#180 (June, 1975)
(race and homeworld identified) Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#5 (May, 1983)
Special Adaptations: Rather than being divided into a head, a chest and an abdomen, a Judan's body is an oval-shaped trunk with enormous features, four arms and two legs.
Powers/Abilities: Judans support their great weight by generating psychokinetic force from their enormous brains.
Judans reproduce asexually but no details about exactly how it happens have been revealed.
Cultural Traits: Religious, fanatically devoted to their equivalent of a pope and intolerant of all other cultures
Type: Unique
Eyes: Two (red, multifaceted)
Limbs: Six (four arms and two legs)
Fingers: Three (plus opposable thumb)
Toes: Two
Skin color: Brown
Hair: None
Average height: 12'
Type of government: Theocracies
Level of technology: Relatively undeveloped because the Judans regard science as evil
History:
(The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#5: Judans entry) - The Judans are a four-armed
bipedal race who apparently evolved on Dyofor, the second planet from the sun in the Palyn star system within the
Milky Way Galaxy.
(Thor I#335 (fb) - BTS) - Millennia ago, a Judan visited the interstellar academy on the planet Rus, then located in a far distant galaxy. Unfortunately, the Judan was still on Rus when Kamo Tharnn's reckless experimentation with the mystic Runestaff caused the faculty of his academy (and maybe all other living sentient beings on Rus) to be absorbed into the Runestaff where they were trapped in the limbo-like pocket dimension within it.
(Warlock I#11 - BTS) - After having retroactively altered the past 5,000 years of history, Adam Warlock and Pip the Troll appeared on the planet Sirus X. Warlock brought with him the Soul Gem that he had been wearing for several years and that contained all of the souls that it had stolen over the millennia. Many of those souls had been taken from members of the Universal Church of Truth who Warlock had recently been fighting, including multiple Black Knights and a Judan named Kray-Tor.
(Thor I#335) - Years later, the Lady Sif used the Runestaff on Kamo Tharnn and released all of the beings who had been trapped within his body. The Judan was among the many who were restored to life in the physical world.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Unbeatable Squirrel Girl II#29 (fb) - BTS) - The Judans were blackmailed by a fake Silver Surfer and his two fellow space-hunks. The Judans complied with their demands.
(Unbeatable Squirrel Girl II#29) - The Judans joined a fleet of 76 extraterrestrial races to get revenge on the Silver Surfer.
(Unbeatable Squirrel Girl II#30) - After it became clear that the Silver Surfer that screwed them over was actually not the real Silver Surfer, the alliances between the 76 races crumbled and their grievances with other were reignited.
Squirrel Girl worked out a plan to fix the problems between the many races, including the problems the Judans had with the Oobagonians, Phaznozzes and Tralfamadorians.
Nothing else is known for certain about the current status of the Judan race that exists in Reality-616.
Comments: Grand Inquisitor Kray-Tor created by Sam Jiltirn, Jim Starlin and J.L. Minirats.
Judan race created/named by the staff of the first volume of The Official Handbook of the Marvel
Universe (led by Head Writer Mark Gruenwald).
Many Marvel stories that feature alien characters do not provide extensive background information about the species to which they belong unless such information is crucial to the story's plot. Accordingly, when it came time for The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe to produce quarter-page entries on these alien races, the handbook staff members had to "invent" almost all of the information needed to fill in the back-story of those aliens. Some of these "facts" demonstrate a certain whimsicality on the part of the writers, with the names created for the handbook being either anagrams or homophones. I strongly suspect that this might be the case with the names "Dyofor" and "Palyn" but, if it is, I'm not seeing it. Or maybe someone just pushed random keys on a typewriter to generate the names?
Given that Judans reproduce asexually, I'm not sure what pronouns should be used when speaking of them. Do they self-identify as male or female or both or neither? I think that Jim Starlin used male pronouns with regard to Kray-Tor but I don't think that, given how rarely they have appeared, the question of how they see themselves has ever been raised.
Also, the exact method of asexual reproduction employed by the Judans has never been revealed. Do their offspring grow on them like buds until they're large enough to separate from their parents? Or do they fission like the Solons? Inquiring minds want to know.
The first Judan ever seen was Kray-Tor, who served as a Grand Inquisitor for the Universal Church of Truth, a tyrannical and genocidal interstellar religious empire who worshipped the Magus. However, when Adam Warlock was able to change his destiny and prevent his future-self from travelling five thousand years back in time and becoming the Magus, he retroactively altered history. The resulting "explosive reshuffling of time" supposedly destroyed the Marvel Universe so that it could be reborn again as a timeline in which neither the Magus nor his Universal Church of Truth had ever existed. The only four mortal beings who remembered the universe as it had been were Adam Warlock, Pip the Troll, Thanos and Gamora.
Aside from Kray-Tor, it was never revealed how the Judans interacted with the U.C.T. In fact, as Chuck D. pointed out, it was odd that Kray-Tor had been able to rise to the position of Grand Inquisitor since it was the Church's doctrine that only biped, basically humanoid types were considered sacred while all non-humanoids were not considered fashioned in the image of the Magus and thus must be creatures spawned from Hell. Sure, the Judans might have been bipedal but they were otherwise VERY non-humanoid so the U.C.T. should have "purified" them.
The pre-timequake timeline in which Kray-Tor lived and died is known as Reality-7528. Although it was initially believed to have been destroyed by Warlock's choice, it was later revealed to have actually been transformed into an inert/quiescent/detached/redundant timeline. And then, in order to stop the Fault from consuming the entire universe, Warlock cast a massive enchantment that grafted/overlapped Reality-616 with that reality. As a result, certain elements from Reality-7528 appeared in Reality-616. Exactly what this means has never been fully explained which leaves the situation...confused. Some people seem to think that the Prime Marvel Universe that existed before the timequake is still considered to be Reality-616 even now. However, although a Judan named Kray-Tor may exist in the current "mainstream" reality, he would be a counterpart of the original Kray-Tor, and that's assuming that such a counterpart even exists within the altered timeline.
The second Judan ever seen was the one who had been imprisoned within the Runestaff of Kamo Tharnn for untold millennia. His first and (so far) only appearance was in a crowd scene in Thor I#335 (September, 1983).
The third and (so far) last Judan ever seen was the Grand Inquisitor from Reality-691 who ruled the planet Sarka on behalf of the Universal Church of Truth that existed in that alternate 3018 A.D. future. His first and only appearance was in Guardians of the Galaxy I#14 (July, 1991).
So, this means that only three Judans have ever appeared in all of the Marvel comics published in the past 46 years. To make matters worse, they all came from different timelines.
Given that the Judans, because they regard science as evil, have a "relatively undeveloped" level of technology, it's odd that any of them have been able to leave their homeworld. So how did that one Judan manage to be on Rus when he was? Are some Judans less fanatically religious and more tolerant of other cultures than the majority of their race? Or was that particular Judan abducted by aliens when he was very young and developed a very different set of values due to being raised away from Dyofor? Or maybe Kamo Tharnn had very advanced technology that scanned the universe searching for beings with a thirst for knowledge and learning, and it was that scanning system that transported that Judan to Rus as a potential student?
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Judans have no known connections to
former prisoner of the Runestaff
A Judan who had the misfortune of being on the planet Rus, then located in a far distant galaxy, at a time when Kamo Tharnn, the Elder of the Universe who had established a massive interstellar academy on that planet, had acquired (by force) the mystic Runestaff and begun experimenting with it recklessly. Eventually, an improper conjuration caused the faculty of his academy (and maybe all other living sentient beings on Rus) to be absorbed into the Runestaff where they were trapped in the limbo-like pocket dimension within it.
Millennia later, the Runestaff was taken from Kamo Tharnn by the Asgardian goddess Sif and the Olympian demigod Hercules who brought it to Earth.
Months later, Kamo Tharnn reclaimed the Runestaff and again attempted to master its powers. However, he only succeeded in transferring the souls trapped within it (including that of the Judan) into his own immortal body.
Years later, the Lady Sif used the Runestaff on Kamo Tharnn and released all of the beings who had been trapped within his body. The Judan was among the many who were restored to life in the physical world.
Somewhat oddly, none of the beings who were rescued from the Runestaff seem to have suffered any adverse physical or psychological effects from their millennia-long imprisonment. This suggests that the mystic realm within the Runestaff may have been somewhat limbo-like in nature and that time may have effectively stood still for those trapped within it. As a result, their bodies did not age and their minds may have existed in a state of deep unconsciousness which prevented them from being aware of any passage of time. Lacking any memories of their imprisonment, the Runestaff inhabitants did not experience any trauma and thus were (seemingly) completely unaffected by what had happened to them.
And that's all that is known about this particular Judan. His name, when he was on Rus and why he was there (i.e., was he a teacher or a student) have never been revealed. Similarly, what happened to him after he was returned to a physical existence after being trapped in the Runestaff for millennia has also not been revealed. Did his people welcome him home or reject him as unclean for having been trapped in an alien mystical power object for so long?
Information about the thousands of other beings who were also trapped within the Runestaff can be found here.
--Thor I#335
images: (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15, page 44, panel 4 (main image)
Thor I#335, page 17, panel 1 (former prisoner of the Runestaff)
page 18, panel 1 (with fellow ex-prisoner Jane Foster)
Appearances:
The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#5 (May, 1983) - Mark Gruenwald (writer/producer), Peter
Sanderson (writer/researcher), Kyle Baker (artist for the Alien Races Appendix)
Thor I#335 (September, 1983) - Alan Zelenetz (scripter), Mark Bright (penciler), Vince Colletta (inker), Mark
Gruenwald (editor)
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl II#29-30 (April-May, 2018) - Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Wil Moss (editor)
First Posted: 10/19/2021
Last updated: 02/07/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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