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Arcturus IV is a planet orbiting the star known as Arcturus that was the homeworld of the Arcturans, a humanoid alien species who were indistinguishable in appearance from pale-skinned Humans from Earth.[2]

Some Arcturans came to worship Ratha'kon the Starhawk, a cosmic force that soared through the cosmos in the form of a great bird. These worshippers built a temple to this celestial raptor on their planet.[3]

At some point, the humanoid race known as the Fortisquians established a small colony on the planet. Some of these Fortisquians eventually came to be in control over the evolution of the Arcturan race, using their science to improve the species.[4]

Over ten thousand years ago, a starship called the Comet travelled from Arcturus IV to Earth but crashed there, leaving only three survivors.[5] The crew were genetic specialists who had been sent by their unknown creators to save the Savage Land by repairing environmental systems that had been damaged by the Great Cataclysm.[4]

While the three on Earth were completing their mission, the scientific leaders back on Arcturus IV decided to outlaw all natural reproduction in favor of creating new people only in their laboratories. However, many Arcturans violently opposed this idea and what began with terrorist bombings soon led to a full-scale nuclear war that killed most of the population. The human survivors went mad and deserted the cities to live in tiny tribal enclaves as barbarians. The super-race that had been created by the geneticists also survived but exposure to the bomb radiation mutated their bodies into many different freakish forms.[2]

After completing their mission on Earth, the three scientists found a teleportation warp in the Savage Land that took them back to Arcturus IV. Discovering their world in ruins, they searched for and found another warp that returned them to Earth.[4] The trio eventually came to think of themselves as the Caretakers of the human race.[5]

At some point, a different type of Arcturan race came into being that, although humanoid, could not be mistaken for humans from Earth. They had dark pink skin and pointed ears, and their faces lacked noses. Unlike the other inhabitants of their planet, these Arcturans began to develope technology that, at its height, was comparable to that of the humans of Earth.[6]

In recent years, a number of humans from Earth visited Arcturus IV, arriving via a telportational warp that led there from the Earth-adjacent pocket dimention known as the Land Within. The first was the so-called "living vampire" Morbius who befriended Lord I and left with him for Earth in the last remaining starship from before the Genetics Wars.[7]

Several years later, Master Pandemonium arrived through that same warp. Months later, the Thing, the Human Torch, Ms. Marvel, and Crystal also came through that warp and soon encountered Pandemonium. Their presence on Arcturus IV attracted the attention of the Fortisquian named Max and his companion, Dr. Stephen Beckley. Max ultimately activated the return warp that transported them all to the Savage Land on Earth.[8]

A few years later, Arcturus IV was targeted by the Axi-Tun, a race who believe themselves to be superior to all other life forms. While being led by a ruler who believed that all inferior life forms should be exterminated, the Axi-Tun sent out a fleet of purification vessels to secretly commit genocide against such races. One of these vessels, commanded by Captain Ramrog, directed a giant asteroid at Arcturus IV. The impact ignited the planet's atmosphere and subsequent bio-readings confirmed that the planet was "clean" after having been purged of all its inferior life forms.[6]

Although all life on the planet was destroyed, the temple to Ratha'kon survived and was visited by the Fraternity of Raptors who sought to summon the power of the Hawk God.[9]

Alternate Realities[]

Earth-691[]

In this timeline, Arcturus IV was also the homeworld of a humanoid race whose advanced civilization destroyed itself in the Genetics War that was fought centuries or millennia before the early 21st century.[10] However, not enough details have been provided to determine if the history of this planet is identical to that of the Arcturus IV from Reality-616.

At some point before the war, Arcturians built a temple to the Hawk God deep beneath one of their cities.[11] The temple contained a giant statue of the Hawk-God that was actually a computer-robot that contained all the knowledge that their civilization had amassed.[12] The robot had been built in the Hawk God's likeness by those among the scientists who worshipped the Hawk God[13] and it also contained the essence of the real Hawk God who had been trapped within that physical form as a punishment imposed by the Living Tribunal.[14]

In the aftermath of the war, those Arcturians who had been genetically-engineered reacted to the radiation by mutating into forms that were considered inhuman by those Arcturians who retained their original "human" appearance. The latter group organized themselves into a military organization called the Reavers that was dedicated to wiping out all "mutants" on their planet. By the early 21st century, the Reavers had accomplished their mission.[11]

On one of the last mutant-killing missions, a male Reaver named Ogord discovered an infant that seemed to be completely human. Believeing that the child was a member of his own race, Ogord adopted him, named him Stakar, and raised him alongside Ogord's only biological child, his daughter Aleta.[11]

Over a decade later, Stakar journeyed to the forbidden ruined city and discovered the temple of the Hawk-God. Stakar had been followed there by Aleta who, dmiring his courage, had come to protect him. However, when Ogord and a patrol later approached the ruins in searh of them, Aleta's fear of what her father would do to them caused her to do something rash that resulted in her life essence entering the robot which then burst out from the underground temple where it had stood for centuries.[12] Aleta's actions had actually served to regenerate the Hawk God.[14] After a brief but deadly rampage against the Arcturian air force, the Hawk God experienced a mental contact established by Stakar that resulted in a multinuclear explosion and implosion. Discovered at the center of the smooth plain of glass that had been ground zero was a single being who first presented himself to Ogord as Stakar before transforming into Aleta and then transformed again into a blue-clad stranger who called himself Starhawk and claimed to be Stakar and Aleta. Starhawk stated that he was the power that Arcturus had been but rejected Ogord's plans to use that power for conquest and left for the stars.[12]

Five hundred years later, an early Arcturian starship's attempted first contact seizure of an alien spacecraft was thwarted by Starhawk.[10]

Early in 3016 A.D., Starhawk's three children were discovered and kidnapped by an elite Reaver starship that brought them to Arcturus IV where testing revealed that they possessed latent power of unusual strength and could become psychic vampires. Ogord used headbands that mentally controlled them to press his own grandchildren into imperial service so that they would kill Starhawk. As Ogord had planned, the abduction of their children had acted to lure Starhawk back to the Arcturian system and into a trap. His scheme almost succeeded but intervention by Starhawk's allies, the Guardians of the Galaxy, saved Starhawk's life but inadvertently caused the three children to die by tremendously accelerated aging that reduced their bodies to lifeless dust within seconds.[15]

Points of Interest

  • Temple of the Hawk God

Residents

See Also

Links and References

References

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