RIGEL-3
Official Name: Rigel-3
Nature: Extraterrestrial world (destroyed), Rigel star system, Milky Way galaxy;
Thor I#216 notes "a blue-white star sheds burning light...a paradoxically soft glow lights the buildings"
Habitat: Temperate, 77% covered with water;
Gravity: 92% Earth's
Atmosphere: 76% nitrogen, 22% oxygen
Natives: Formerly Tana Nile, the Grand Commissioner/High Commissioner/Imperial Colonizer Emeritus, at least one Indestructible, Recorders (notably Recorder#211), Rigellian mutants (Bolaa, Gerr, Jukka, and Tryx), others
Population: None;
formerly nine billion
Capital City: Unrevealed
Government: Formerly a technocratic empire ruled by the Grand Commissioner
Languages: Rigellian
Defense: Colonizers, Indestructibles, a vast array of defense satellites, a field shielding them from detecting by Galactus (which weakened and eventually failed)
Places of Interest: Various space stations and starships are noted, but, as far as I could tell, landmarks on Rigel-3 itself were not identified;
Thor I#216 notes, "the
cities' buildings towered into the eternal night, taller than the
dreams of mankind, moreequisite than the finest creations of Asgard."
Visitors: Silas Grant, Balder Odinson, Thor Odinson, Sif
Enemies: Ego the Living Planet, Rhunians (aka Black Stars);
possibly Surtur;
formerly Thor Odinson
First Appearance: (As "Command Planet") Thor I#131 (August, 1966);
(as Rigel) Thor I#132 (September, 1966)
History:
(Iron Man
I#111 (fb)) - Rigel-3, the Rigellians' homeworld, was huge beyond
measure, but as the Rigellians had an extended lifespan, new
generations sprung forth far apace of death.
As the Rigellians' own numbers threatened to crush them, they took to space, colonizing other worlds in various galaxies.
Nonetheless, Rigel-3 continued to hold the great mass of the Rigellians.
(Thor I#131 (fb) - BTS) - The Rigellians on Rigel-3 were threatened by the menace (Ego the Living Planet) within the Black Galaxy (actually a bioverse, rather than a galaxy).
(Thor I#132 - BTS) - Although the Rigellians could accurately chart the Black Galaxy, no Rigellian who entered the Black Galaxy survived to tell of it.
(Thor I#131) - Tana Nile contacted the Command Planet from Earth, reaching the Division of Claims and registering her claim to Earth. While Tana noted that Earth (on "the perimeter of sector five") was unregistered and she wanted to claim full colonization rights, the Division representative told her that they must check their file of "fringe area galaxies," and they instructed her to maintain contact.
After a computerized survey lasting but a brief micro-second, the Division confirmed that there were no claims in that space sector, that all was in order, and that they would dispatch an official inspection team at once: As soon as they would transmit their report, their claim would be approved. Tana countered that they must send no inspection team, as if they were observed, it might lead to battle.
However, the Division representative told her that Colonizers were invincible and that nothing could affect them, except the menace of the Black Galaxy, of course. He then notified her that inspectors had been dispatched and that she should await their arrival. As the Division representative ended the transmission, the inspectors ship departed, noting their star drive to be operational and that their destination was Earth.
(Thor I#131 - BTS) - After the inspectors captured Thor in a proton cage, they took him aboard their ship and headed back to Rigel-3, hoping that by studying him (as a being who had resisted a Rigellian min thrust), they could find a way to defeat the one within the Black Galaxy.
They set their ship on a robot control trajectory back to Rigel-3, during which time Thor broke free and overpowered the Rigellian inspectors.
(Thor I#131) - Tana Nile contacted "Power Planet 4, Constellation Rigel," and requested a Space Lock be energized. The Space Lock was indeed energized, and it sent a beam across space, containing Earth within its grip.
(Thor I#132 - BTS) - As Thor approached Rigel, a group of Rigellians aboard Sky-Station 14-R confronted and tried to stop him, but Thor overpowered them and accompanied them to Rigel. The Colonizers then dispatched an Indestructible to destroy him, but Thor incapacitated the Indestructible by turning its own immobilizer beam back on it.
(Thor I#132 - BTS) - A deadly beam from within the Black Galaxy destroyed a Rigellian space cruiser.
(Thor I#132) - Observing this space cruiser's destruction within Control Central, the Grand Commissioner was concerned of the dual threats of the Black Galaxy and the invader from Earth's solar system; however, he conceived of a way to solve them both. The Grand Commissioner then had an attendant activate the matter transmitter to send him to their Power Planetoid.
Swiftly arriving there, the Grand Commissioner noted that they must protect the Space Lock at all costs. Tractor beams pulled Thor away from the Space Lock as he approached it, bringing him down to the planetoid where he overpowered Rigellians seeking to stop him. When Thor turned anew to the Space Lock, the Grand Commissioner bade him halt, introduced himself, and told him of the threat of the Black Galaxy.
Taking Thor to the Tower of Telescopes, the Grand Commissioner showed Thor the Black Galaxy and promised to release Earth from the Space Lock if he could stop the the menace that threatened to break out of its shadowy confines. The Grand Commissioner had Recorder#211 accompany him and record whatever he learned in case he never returned.
(Thor I#132 - BTS) - Aboard a Rigellian starship, Thor and the Recorder entered the Black Galaxy, finding it instead to be a Bio-Verse, composed of living biological matter. Therein, they were confronted by Ego the Living Planet.
(Thor I#133 - BTS) - Thor defeated Ego, who vowed to seal itself off in his bio-verse and to never again attack Rigel or other galaxies.
(Thor I#134 - BTS) - As Thor and the Recorder approached the periphery of Rigel, a previously-programmed Colonizer sentry ship fired a mesa beam that drew them into the ship. The Rigellians praised Thor's success, and they assured him they had already given the order to declare Earth's solar system to the Colonizers.
When the Recorder sensed a rapidly approaching massive power source (Galactus, although this was not known to them at the time), the Rigellians ordered "time warp escape drive -- mach thrust," and they rapidly departed.
The Rigellians then informed Tana Nile that the Space Lock on Earth had been removed and that Earth was not to be colonized. They subsequently returned with Thor to Earth and collected Tana, telling her the the High Commissioner had chosen her to be his wife; having loved him from afar for years, she was happy to return to Rigel.
(Thor I#160 (fb) - BTS) - To
address the threat of the immensely powerful Galactus and the weakening
shield that had hidden the Rigellians from Galactus' detection, Tana
was sent to recruit Thor's aid via Rigellian spacecraft.
(Thor I#160) - Tana informed Thor of a threat to many worlds (and galaxies). After Thor agreed to help, she led him aboard her ship, and they departed Earth; en route, she detailed the threat of Galactus.
Tana and Thor soon after met with
the Grand Commissioner, who told Thor that his people had hidden from
Galactus in the past via a shield that was growing weaker over time.
After Tana noted that they dared not wait until they were found and
decimated, the Grand Commissioner sent the Recorder to join Thor
against Galactus. The two boarded a craft that would take them to
Galactus.
(Thor I#160 - BTS) - The craft carried Thor and Recorder#211 into the Black Galaxy where Galactus was confronting Ego. The energies released between the two cosmic combatants destroyed their craft.
(Thor I#162) - Having saved Ego from Galactus, Thor and the Recorder were returned by Ego to Rigel, and Thor noted that Rigel's ever-orbiting satellites of defense seemed truly endless in number. Eventually, a gleaming multi-purpose space station, poised above the heart or Rigel, drew them to its center, and the Recorder asked the Rigellians who met them to bring them to the Grand Commissioner.
Via the Grand Commissioner's porta-communiscreen, Thor's success was electronically flashed throughout the galaxy, and the Grand Commissioner praised Thor 's strength and valor before instructing the removal of the Recorder's memory bank and the Recorder's subsequent deactivation. However, at Thor's insistence, the Recorder's memories were instead transcribed (by Tana Nile), and the Recorder was allowed to remain active and retain his memories. Thor then departed via Mjolnir, returning to Asgard.
(Thor I#201 (fb)) - The Grand Commissioner summoned Tana, telling her that while they could not colonize Earth, they needed an Earth-type world for unspecified reasons. With only primitive planets of that type available, the Grand Commissioner sent Tana on a mission into the Bioverse/Black Galaxy.
(Thor I#201 (fb) - BTS) - Tana landed on the surface of Ego, blasting free a living slab of stone and placing it within a special isotope container on her ship.
Tana then sped to the the galaxy's "eastern rim" and landed on a planet (which was somewhere in the stone age, with Neanderthal like people being present) called Blackworld by humanity while being nameless to the Rigellians.
While Blackworld was rapidly terraformed using the portion of Ego, the portion of Ego itself evolved into Ego-Prime.
(Thor I#201 - BTS) - Ego-Prime ultimately destroyed Blackworld.
(Thor I#400) - Catapulted across time and space streams by their battle, Thor and Surtur encountered Rigel-3 (see comments).
(Thor I#216) - In a Rigellian city, Rigellian music could be heard in the distance.
Ignoring this, the Grand
Commissioner -- curious as to why Tana Nile had not reported back since
being sent to terraform Blackworld -- demanded to see a report of
Tana's current activities. One of his men showed him a tablet with
imagery and told him that Tana and several Asgardians were involved
with Xorr the God-Jewel. Interested that Xorr had at last awakened, he
noted that they must observe the situation carefully in case Xorr
became a threat.
(Thor I#216 (fb) - BTS) - Monitor 12 received an image...
(Thor I#217 (fb) - BTS) - ...of the Black Stars approaching Rigel...
(Thor I#216 (fb) - BTS) - ...via the viso-scanners, and he rushed to show it to the Grand Commissioner.
(Thor I#216) - Monitor 12 the
rushed in and delivered the report to the Grand Commissioner.
Appreciating a calamity the likes of which Rigel had never seen, the
Grand Commissioner ordered the readying of the transport ships so they
could flee the planet at once.
(Thor I#217 (fb) - BTS) - For six days, the Grand
Commissioner watched the multitudes board the giant vessels of the
Rigellian fleet, each day praying that the threat might turn aside.
(Thor I#217) - As the Rigellians continued to board
the giant ships, the Grand Commissioner spoke to an aid, considering
that perhaps they should face their foes and die with honor. However,
he ultimately resolved that it was his duty to preserve their race and
that leaving their homeworld was not so terrible as they were the
Colonizers and that it was their destiny to wander, colonize, and rule.
When an aide reported the the Black Stars would reach Rigel within a
fortnight, the Grand Commissioner dismissed him, aware of what he must
do and wishing to hear no more.
(Thor I#217 - BTS) - In Asgard, Tana listened as Odin announced a threat that
would first destroy the world of the Colonizers and then the worlds of
men.
(Thor I#218 - BTS) - Tana joined Balder, Silas, Sif, and Thor aboard the Starjammer in an Odin-directed mission to investigate the menace to the Rigel.
(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.
Over seven hundred such ships were part of this fleet, with each ship having 5000 chambers, each of which held thousands of Rigellians.
(Thor I#218 - BTS) - Colonizer 12 reported to the Grand Commissioner as the last of the ships had taken off and the command planet was deserted. While Colonizer 12 praised this as a miracle, the Grand Commissioner lamented that they should not boast of their cowardice and that there was no honor in what they had done, merely expedience. Nonetheless, the Grand Commissioner agreed that there was no hope to withstand the Black Stars and that there would not have been honor in facing them.
The Grand Commissioner further noted that this flight was only a temporary solution as the Black Stars would eventually reach them wherever they went.
(Thor I#218) - As the Starjammer arrived on Rigel-3, Tana was excited to see her homeworld. Although Rigel initially seemed vacant, the Rigellians mutants Bolaa, Gerr, Jukka, and Tryx soon assaulted them. Recognizing their attackers, Tana was nonetheless caught in a lasso along with Silas. After Thor forced an end to the conflict, the Rigellian mutants revealed their fearful motivation, after which they accepted Thor's offer to join them in locating the Rigellians.
(Thor I#218) - Shortly after the Starjammer's departure, the Black Stars arrived and destroyed Rigel-3, shattering it with multi-blasts of cosmic energy. Cities spun into space on mile-wide shards of stone until the Rhunians extended giant space-scoops, which used tractor fields to pull the planetary debris into them; these giant waste disposal units would break down the fragments into pure energy, which would be used to power the machines of the Rhunians.
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition)#11: Rigellians) - Virtually all of the mutant worker race were left behind and destroyed along with Rigel-3.
(Thor I#218 - BTS) - Guided by Jukka's knowledge of Rigellian navigation charts he had glimpsed, the Starjammer caught up to the Rigellian fleet.
Comments: Created by Stan "The Man" Lee, Jack "King" Kirby, and Vince "The Prince" Colletta.
Stan originally described Rigel-3 in Thor I#131 as "a planet so large, in a galaxy so
distant that it beggars are poor mortal power of description.
Thor I#162 (also Stan) referred to "Rigel galaxy."
Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe II (Deluxe Edition)#11: Rigellians
entry noted that previous sources referring to Rigel as being from
another galaxy were in error.
Unfortunately, that source also incorrectly specified
the number as nine million Rigellians who escaped Rigel-3 before its
destruction. The correct number as per the original story is nine
BILLION.
The physical characteristics of Rigel-3 were revealed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#8: Appendix to Alien Races: Rigellians
In Thor I#218, the Grand Commissioner noted that the Rigellians were colonizers because they "hate the stink of bodies around us," and they sought other worlds to relieve the overcrowding on their own world.
It seems that many adventures/encounters involving Rigel take place in starships, but it's really hard to tell sometimes; where it is noted that events occur in a ship, I've specified. I've covered the events of the Rigellians from their first appearance until the destruction of Rigel in this profile...
Rigellian worlds
In Wolverine & the X-Men #7 (2012), Professor Xanto Starblood (who came to Earth to kill Broo) was the head of the Intergalactic Anthropology Department at the University of Rigel-3.
Anyway, from my perspective, we've got:
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Rigel-3 should be distinguished from
images: (without ads)
Thor I#131, pg. 5 (command planet);
pg. 6, panel 1 (surveying computer);
#160, pg. 17, panel 3 (Rigellian craft departing with Thor & Recorder);
#216, pg. 5 (command planet);
#218, pg. 3, panel 1 (exodus);
pg. 6, panel 1 (Starjammer approaching);
panel 3 (surface);
pg. 10-11 (Rigel-3 destroyed);
pg. 12, panel 3-4 (Rigellian remnants sucked into Rhunian space-scoops);
Iron Man#111, pg. 7, panel 5 (Rigel-3 from space);
panel 6 (Rigel-3 overpopulated)
Thor I#400, pg. 22, panel 4 (Thor and Surtur fighting across time and space and appearing on Rigel-3);
pg. 23, panel 1 (Rigellians commenting on the encounter);
Appearances:
Thor I#131-134 (August-November, 1966) - Stan
"The Man" Lee (writer/editor), Jack "King" Kirby (penciler), Vince "The
Prince" Colletta (inker)...also Smilin' Stan Lee, Jolly Jack Kirby, and
Vivacious Vince Colletta
Thor I#160 (January, 1969) - - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (penciler), Vince Colletta (inker)
Thor I#162 (March, 1969) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (penciler), Vince Colletta (inker)
Thor I#201 (July, 1972) - Gerry Conway (scripter), John Buscema (penciler), Jim Mooney (inker), Stan Lee (editor)
Thor I#217 (November, 1973) - Gerry Conway (scripter), John Buscema (penciler), Sal Buscema (inker), Roy Thomas (editor)
Thor I#218 (December, 1973) - Gerry Conway (scripter), John Buscema (penciler), Jim Mooney (inker), Roy Thomas (editor)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#8 (August, 1983) - Mark Gruenwald (editor/head writer/designer), Peter Sanderson, Mike Lerer, Tom DeFalco, Dan Fingeroth (writers),
Frederick Baumann, Myra David, Robert Simpson, Joanne Harras, Roger
Stern, Kurt Busiek (research), Paty Cockrum (penciler for Rigellians
entry), Josef Rubinstein (inker), Michael Carlin (associate editor/designer)
Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition#11
(October, 1986) - Mark Gruenwald (writer/producer), Peter Sanderson, Steve Saffel (writers/researchers), Dennis Janke (Rigellians penciler), Josef Rubinstein (inker), Harry Eisenstein, Marc Siry, David Wohl (editorial assistants), Howard Mackie (assistant editor)
Thor I#400 (February, 1989) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (penciler), Joe Sinnott (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#3 (October, 2010) - Jeff
Christiansen (head writer/coordinator), Mike O'Sullivan, Stuart Vandal,
Markus Raymond, & Mike Fichera (assistant coordinators), Mike
O'Sullivan, Stuart Vandal, Sean McQuaid, Michael Hoskin, Madison
Carter, Markus Raymond, Rob London, Kevin Garcia, Chris Biggs, Jacob
Rougemont, & Ronald Byrd (writers), Dennis
Janke (Rigellians penciler; refurbished), James Emmet & Joe
Hochstein (editorial assistants), Alex Starbuck & Nelson Ribeiro
(assistant editors), Jennifer Grunwald & Mark D. Beazley (editors,
special projects), Jeff Youngquist (editor)
First posted: 10/10/2021
Last updated: 10/29/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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