PEGASUSIAN racePEGASUSIAN race
Classification: Humanoid extraterrestrial race
Location/Base of Operations: Lar (see comments),
fifth planet from the sun in the Stinlar system (Earth designation
Alpha Pegasi, sometimes Star System Pegasus), Milky Way galaxy;
they were also active on Tarkus, third planet from the same sun.
both planets were semitropical with 81% of their surfaces
covered in water; their atmosphere being 67% nitrogen, 23% oxygen, and
their surface gravity, 75% of Earth's
Known Members: Sphinxor, the Prime Movers of Tarkus,
approximately 2.8 billion Pegasusians were believed to exist
Affiliations: The Prime Movers, at least, were former agents of the Beyonders.
the Prime Movers were formerly allied with the High Evolutionary
Enemies: Her (later Ayesha), High Evolutionary (Herbert Wyndham), Alicia Masters, Moondragon (Heather Douglas), Starhawk (Earth-691's Aleta & Stakar Ogord), the Thing (Ben Grimm), Adam Warlock
First Appearance: Strange Tales I#178 (February, 1975) (as Sphinxor from the Star System Pegasus);
(identified as Pegasusians)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#7: Appendix to Alien Races: Pegasusians (June, 1983)
Powers/Abilities: Pegasusians are massive
humanoids. In high-gravity environments, Pegasusians can psionically
project anti-gravitons to support their own bulk. However, this size
and amount of matter does not translate into raw physical power:
Pegasusians have been quickly defeated in fair fights by several
superhumans (from Earth and other planets) who were three times smaller
than the Pegasusians (and pejoratively nicknamed "tiny aliens" by
these), including the Thing, Spider-Woman, Starhawk and Moondragon, the
latter of whom resorted to martial arts instead of superpowers to fight
them; and in most of these cases, Pegasusians had personal weapons that
were useless to stop the superhumans.
Pegasusian minds have been found
particularly alien for Earth-born telepath Moondragon; her telepathy
was unfit to affect Pegasusians. Still, psionic blasts affect their
minds; and Pegasusians also proved vulnerable to Her's biostellar
bursts and eruptions and to Starhawk's cosmic blasts. One particular Pegasusian,
Sphinxor, demonstrated several other skills which may be a trait of his
species or a personal attribute of Sphinxor (note
that Sphinxor was imprisoned by the Stranger along with unique cases of
multiple species, suggesting that Sphinxor is far from a common
Pegasusian), or , most likely, was accomplished via technology.
Sphinxor half-phased the Earth's solar system in a process that
allowed him to monitor TV transmissions; manipulated the Soul Gem so
that its wearer, Adam Warlock, developed vampiric tendencies; later
manipulated Adam Warlock again with different illusions that Warlock
could not differentiate from reality, including simulating the
disappearance of a planet only to Warlock's senses (this may have been
a manipulation of the Soul Gem or any other psionic power); and
apparently broke the so-called fourth wall to speak with the audience
(or with a person off-screen). He was also able to speak English
(although with idioms taken from TV sitcoms). Pegasusians, or at least the Prime
Movers of Tarkus, had advanced space technology, including starships
with advanced warp drive, personal weapons and space suits with
pressure helmets; in a given environment, some Pegasusians were seen
with their helmets on, while others were helmetless. A good part of the
Pegasusian technology had been provided by the virtually
omnipotent extradimensional species known as the Beyonders;
Sphinxor declared that the Beyonders were too powerful for the
Pegasusians to even consider opposing them. Pegasusians had access to
technology that allowed them to move planetary masses to different
space sectors without the creation of gravitational chaos. This was
done by surrounding the planet in two different axes with a number of
spherical tow-ships (or ringships) that were connected by other ships
through a stasis-ring, so that two huge perpendicular rings surrounded
the planet. Each tow-ship had a teleport device, and also generated a
stasis field to keep the planet in suspended animation for the duration
of the process; inhabitants, and theoretically visitors entering the
planet during the process, were unable to move, unless the stasis field
was partially turned off, which required a considerable expenditure of
time and energy. The tow-ships were crewed by Pegasusians and were
easily detected; some superpowers allowed a person to identify the
command ship. The movement of the planet was then faster-than-light,
and it left behind a particle trail that could be followed. It was
accurate enough to move a planet without taking its moons, which would
remain in the original solar system. Traits: Republic government, where commercial
corporations were in control. Pegasusians were capitalistic, cordial
and particularly xenophilic. Type: Semi-humanoid reptilians History: (Marvel Two-in-One I#63 - BTS /
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#7 / Warlock and the Infinity
Watch#4 (fb)) - A number of Pegasusians were involved in a moving
company specialized in towing planets, alternatively called
thePegasusian Moving Company, Prime Movers of Tarkus, and the
Ringshippers; this company was led by a Pegasusian named Sphinxor.
Eyes: Two (on head; jet black and reflective of other colors; no visible pupil)
Fingers: Four (plus opposing thumb)
Toes: Four
Skin color: Light green
Average height: 20'
Other features: Scaly skin; pointed ears; pronounced scales around the eyes; pronounced scales over lower lip; vertical crest from the nose to at least the back of the head
(Marvel Two-in-One I#63 (fb) / Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II#15 / Warlock and the Infinity Watch#4 (fb)) - The extradimensional species known as the Beyonders became interested in Counter-Earth, an artificial planetoid patterned after Earth in the Solar System and created by the High Evolutionary. The Beyonders hired the Prime Movers of Tarkus to tow Counter-Earth to another space sector that served as their museum of curio; and they explained Sphinxor that they got interested in Counter-Earth when the Evolutionary was building it with extradimensional mass.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#63 - BTS) - Sphinxor visited the Solar System for preparations to transport Counter-Earth. There he learned about about the High Evolutionary and Adam Warlock, two super-powered champions of Counter-Earth, who were classified as potential threats to his plans.
(Strange Tales I#178/1) - Sphinxor recorded Warlock's activities, up until when Warlock left Counter-Earth to explore space.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#63 - BTS / Warlock I#9 - BTS) - The Pegasusian tow-ships reached Counter-Earth, only to find that Warlock had returned. After Warlock's crucifixion, the Pegasusians stealthily manipulated Warlock's Soul Gem to awaken its vampiric tendencies.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#63 - BTS / Warlock I#14 - BTS / Marvel Team-Up I#55 - BTS) - As Warlock overcame this problem, the Pegasusians used an illusion to make Warlock believe he had grown to the size of a solar system, correctly assuming that Warlock, unable to interact with Counter-Earth, would leave the area. However, Warlock overcame this illusion and returned to Counter-Earth, noticing in the process that the Soul Gem seemed to be receiving an external input.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#62 - BTS / Marvel Two-in-One I#63 - BTS) - The Pegasusians then developed a new illusion for Warlock: Making him believe that Counter-Earth had been destroyed, even though other beings could perceive Counter-Earth. On the surface of Counter-Earth's moon, Warlock seemingly slew the High Evolutionary (who instead evolved into an advanced consciousness); and lastly Warlock left to explore space.
(Marvel Two-In-One Annual I#2) - Warlock eventually perished in battle with Thanos, after which he was buried on Counter-Earth.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#62 - BTS / Marvel Two-in-One I#63 - BTS) - Assuming the Evolutionary to be dead, the Prime Movers entered with their tow-ships, prepared their stasis-rings and left, towing Counter-Earth but leaving its moon behind.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#61 / Marvel Two-in-One I#62) - Her, a humanoid construct patterned after Warlock, traveled to Counter-Earth on a quest to recover and resurrect Warlock's body with her somewhat reluctant allies, Alicia Masters, Moondragon, Starhawk, and the Thing. They discovered that Counter-Earth was missing, but they found the High Evolutionary's body. They restored the Evolutionary who, noticing that his planet had been stolen, found the trail left by the Pegasusians and decided to follow it, using the moon as his starship. Her and her allies joined the Evolutionary in his mission.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#63) - The Evolutionary caught up to the Pegasusians, and Her, Moondragon and Starhawk teleported to the command ringship to attack the Pegasusians. Captain Sphinxor was informed, and he forcefully teleported the High Evolutionary, Masters and the Thing to meet with him, after which Sphinxor explained the situation and agreed to take the Evolutionary to the Beyonders. Pressured by the Thing, Sphinxor allowed Her to try to resurrect Warlock on Counter-Earth, who failed as his soul was in the Soul Gem, after which Her returned to Earth along with Masters and the Thing.
(Avengers Annual I#17/2) - The Pegasusians reached the so-called space sector of the Beyonders, where they were paid, released Counter-Earth from the stasis field and then left.
(Avengers Annual I#17/2 - BTS) - The Evolutionary remained behind to meet the Beyonders. The Beyonders used their extraordinary power to grab Counter-Earth, put it on a solar system-sized stasis sphere and left it along with other unusual planetary objects. Witnessing this, the Evolutionary suffered a depression that led him to several suicide attempts and to megalomaniac missions.
(Spider-Woman VII#6 (fb)) - The Evolutionary eventually updated his files with information on the Pegasusians. The Avengers also updated their files with data on the Pegasusians, as the Counter-Earth's theft was a relevant event for them, and Carol Danvers was briefed about that. Similarly, Sphinxor decided to keep up to date on Counter-Earth's location.
(Quasar#14 - BTS / Quasar#15 - BTS / Quasar#16) - The
cosmic scientist and surveyor self-styled as the Stranger kidnapped
Sphinxor to keep him in his Labword, along with several extraordinary
beings of different species, for his own enigmatic purposes. The
Stranger's ancient enemy, the Over-Mind, released Sphinxor and several
other prisoners, keeping them under his control in a plot against the
Stranger. Sphinxor and other minions of the Over-Mind were being
transported to join the fray against the Stranger, but they never
reached the battle in time. Soon afterward, all of the Stranger's
prisoners escaped.
(Spider-Woman VII#6) - Sphinxor and other Pegasusians were later seen in Elepha Base, a scavenger space station, drinking with other aliens. Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) and Miss Marvel (Carol Danvers) forecefully questioned him to get the cooridnates of Counter-Earth.
Comments: Created by Jim Starlin.
The Pegasusians referred to human-sized beings as "tiny aliens."
Starhawk was unfamiliar with the Pegasusian species and was convinced that they were not members of the Federation in his time (which is the 31st century of Earth-691).
The Pegasusian language was transcribed using irregular symbols, which represented unrecognizable words.
Avengers Annual I#17 showed
Sphinxor in a flashback of the events seen in Marvel Two-In-One I#63;
then presented what happened afterward. The narrator stated that the
Beyonders paid the Pegasusians, but this was not graphically shown (as the Beyonders weren't depicted until the 21st century Secret Wars).
Warlock
and the Infinity Watch#4 (May, 1992) is also a flashback of that same
story (and also the only time the company is called the Pegasusian
Moving Company); but the way it tells the story, it suggests that
Sphinxor personally stole the Counter-Earth due to his own greed and
sold it as a curio to the Beyonders (instead of the Beyonders hiring
the Pegasusians to do that). It also fails to mention Moondragon.
The Pegasusians have 1/4-page profiles in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#7 (June, 1983) and II (Deluxe Edition)#15 (March, 1987), with several differences: In the second profile, four fields from the first one are lost (Habitat, gravity, atmosphere and cultural traits), two fields are added (names of representatives and Note, the latter describing the history in one paragraph), and their planet, identified as "Tarkus, third from the sun" in the first Handbook (notice that the Pegasusians are called Prime Movers of Tarkus), is replaced with "Lar, fifth from the sun" in the second one. Also, the first of these Handbooks identified their star system as Stinlar, which is an anagram of Starlin (after species creator Jim Starlin).
Courtesy of Donald Campbell:
In my opinion, Mark Gruenwald and/or Jerry Bingham made a poor creative choice when they decided to reveal that Sphinxor and the rest of Pagasusian race were about 20 feet tall. Prior to Marvel Two-in-One I#63, Sphinxor's only appearance had been in Strange Tales I#178 and there was nothing in that issue that showed him to be unusually tall.
Very tall characters may look impressive but they bring with them an increased awareness that the world in which their stories are set is not obeying the same natural laws (i.e., gravity) as the real world and that weakens the readers' suspension of disbelief. Furthermore, "official" attempts to explain away these problems by claiming that the brains of these giant aliens psionically project anti-gravitons to support their large masses just sound contrived, again weakening the suspension of disbelief.
In short, inserting giant characters into stories for no reason other than they look impressive and/or alien has the overall effect of weakening those stories.
Plus, Pegasusians from the star system Pegasus could work if "Pegasus" was, as unlikely as it seems, the actual name that these aliens had chosen to call their planetary system. However, the Official Handbook's statement that their star system was named "Stinlar" (an anagram of Starlin - no problem with that) and "Alpha Pegasi" was its Earth designation just underscores how human-centric the Marvel Universe is. If their homeworld is named Lar, then their race's name for themselves should be some variation of "Larians" or "Larites" or something like that. Of course, that's an example of using human suffixes to create the names of the alien races but it doesn't seem as bad since the alien names are being translated into English anyway.
Naming alien races after the human names for the constellations in which their homeworlds can be found (if one is looking from Earth) is just wrong. It supports the idea that Earth and the human race are (or should be) at the center of the universe. And with as many alien races as there are in the Marvel Universe, that's just comes across as arrogant.
I hold this opinion about all fictional continuities.
Pegasusians of Reality-96943 make a cameo appearance in 2099 Manifest
Destiny#1. In this alternate reality, a Pegasusian is seen in a meeting
of important beings of both other planets and dimensions. This
Pegasusian is brown-skinned, not green, and is not noticeably taller
than other beings in the room - although several beings there are
shapeshifters that can adapt their height, and the text specifies that
the laws of physics are defied in that area.
Diverging from Reality-928, Miguel O'Hara led humanity into a golden age as of 3099 AD. By then, Earth was a power respected by other space-faring alien species, including Pegasusians.
An orbital station from Earth, Emancipation, was used for meetings with beings from several species, like Ovoids and Pegasusians, and mystical beings, like Mephisto and Nightmare. At one time in 3099 AD, a Pegasusian there witnessed a speech given by O'Hara.
The Pegasusian in this reality was brown in color, not green like the other Pegasusians. He seems surprisingly human-sized, but he is in Emancipation and the narrator explicitly mentions how the laws of physics are defied in the area.
Handbook images cleaned up by Ron Fredricks.
I think that's a Z'nox to the Pegasusian's right--Snood
This profile was completed 8/13/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Skippy Farlstendoiro.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Pegasusians have no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#7 page 32 pan 4 (main image)
Marvel Two-in-One I#63 page 6 pan 1 (the Prime Movers)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition)#15 page 52 pan 2 (wearing underwear)
Spider-Woman VII#6 page 10 pan 1 (with drinking buddies)
2099 Manifest Destiny#1 page 40 pan 2 (from Earth-96943)
Appearances:
Strange Tales I#178 (February, 1975) - Jim Starlin (writer, pencils and inks), Len Wein (editor)
Warlock I#9 (October, 1975) - Jim Starlin (writer and pencils), Steve Leialoha (inks), Len Wein (editor)
Warlock I#14 (August, 1976) - Jim Starlin (writer and pencils), Steve Leialoha (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Marvel Team-Up I#55 (March, 1977) - Bill Mantlo (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Dave Hunt (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Marvel Two-In-One Annual I#2 (December, 1977) - Jim Starlin (writer, pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Marvel Two-in-One I#61 (March, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Jerry Bingham (pencils), Gene Day (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Marvel Two-in-One I#62 (April, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Jerry Bingham (pencils), Gene Day (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Marvel Two-in-One I#63 (May, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Jerry Bingham (pencils), Gene Day (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Marvel Two-in-One I#69 (November, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald and Ralph
Macchio (writers), Ron Wilson (pencils), Gene Day (inks), Jim Salicrup
(editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#7: Appendix to Alien Races:
Pegasusians (June, 1983) - Mark Gruenwald (editor/head
writer/designer), Peter Sanderson, Mark Lerer and Tom DeFalco
(writers), Joanne Harras, Bob Simpson (as Robert Simpson), & Fred
Baumann (research), Michael Carlin (associate editor/designer), Paty
Cockrum (as Paty) (penciler), Joseph Rubinstein (inker)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Deluxe Edition) II#15: Appendix to Alien
Races: Pegasusians (aka Deluxe Edition; March, 1987) - Mark Gruenwald
(writer/producer), Peter Sanderson (writer/researcher), Kyle Baker
(penciler), Josef Rubinstein (inker), Eliot Brown (technical
illustrator), Gregory Wright (assistant editor), Marc McLaurin
(editorial assistant)
Avengers Annual I#17/2 (July, 1988) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Ron Lim (pencils), Tony DeZuniga (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Quasar#14 (September, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Manley
(pencils), Dan Panosian (inks), Howard Mackie and Len Kaminski (editors)
Quasar#15 (October, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Manley
(pencils), Dan Panosian (inks), Howard Mackie and Len Kaminski (editors)
Quasar#16 (November, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Manley
(pencils), Dan Panosian and Keith Williams (inks), Howard Mackie and
Len Kaminski (editors)
Warlock and the Infinity Watch#4 (May, 1992) - Jim Starlin (writer),
Rick Leonardi (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Craig Anderson and John
Lewandowski (editors)
2099 Manifest Destiny#1 (March, 1998) - Len Kaminski (writer), Mike
McKone (pencils), Mark McKenna (inks), Tom Brevoort and Gregg Schigiel
(editors)
Spider-Woman VII#6 (November, 2020) - Karla Pacheco (writer), Pere
Pérez (pencils and inks), Jake Thomas, Nick Lowe, Lindsey Cohick, Danny
Khazem, Shannon Andrews Ballesteros (editors)
First Posted: 09/30/2021
Last updated: 09/29/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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