History
Beta Scorpi is the Earth designation for a star in the Milky Way galaxy that, when observed from Earth, appears to be in the southern zodiac constellation of Scorpius. The semi-humanoid Elan race originated on Elanis, the fifth planet out from the sun.[1]
After the Skrulls from an unspecified outpost somehow learned details about an encounter that the Fantastic Four had once had with the Elan, they decided to use that information in a plot to destroy the heroes. The Skrulls sent one of their own, disguised as the young Elan known to the humans only as the Infant Terrible, to Earth to contact the FF and lure them back to the Skrull outpost by telling them a story about how his homeworld had been attacked by a Skrull fleet. Mister Fantastic was aware of the fact that the world of the Elan was located in the Beta Scorpi sector of the Milky Way galaxy and that there were at least three Skrull outposts within a hundred cubic parsecs of it. However, elements of the Infant Terrible imposter's story that weren't in keeping with what he knew of the Elan nature made him privately suspicious, so he covertly checked a read-out on the arrival of the "Elan" ship from Avengers Mansion and discovered that the pilot hadn't made the course adjustments necessary for his arrival to appear to be entering from a Beta Scorpi trajectory. With the Skrulls being the obvious suspects, the FF played along with the imposter until they were able to take advantage of an opportunity to turn the tables on him, allowing them to later infiltrate the Skrull outpost.[2]
Later, when Quasar needed more information if he was to use the Ultimate Nullifier against the Magus, he was told by Epoch that there was a repository of ancient and modern knowledge in the Beta Scorpii system. Quasar and Epock then traveled there to visit the planet Rus, which Epoch described as the Tri-Galaxy area's academic center. After acquiring what little data was available, Epoch chose to remain on the library world to continue her studies while Quasar returned to the Infinity War.[3]
Later, after learning that his mother had been diagnosed with cancer, Quasar went to visit Epoch who was still on the library-world (described in-story as the fourth planet in the Beta Scorpi system) to see if she knew of a cure. Unfortunately, he soon learned that nobody had ever discovered a treatment that worked in every case and, frustrated, he quantum-jumped away.[4]Points of Interest
Residents
Notes
- The Beta Scorpi star system was stated to be where the home planet of the Elan was located in the quarter-page entry on that race that appeared in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #3. That information was first mentioned in-story in Fantastic Four Annual #19 and the star system itself was first seen when it was visited in Quasar #39.
- The fact that two issues of Quasar stated that the library world Rus was the fourth planet from the sun in the Beta Scorpi star system was inconsistent with previous stories and Official Handbook entries which had established that world as being located in three very different regions of space. However, this is not a continuity error because it was established in Champions #13 that Kamo Tharnn, the Elder of the Universe who had adopted Rus as his homeworld, possessed the ability to move his entire world through space. Apparently, this is something that he has done three times in recent years.
- Out of the five texts (two Official Handbook entries and three stories) in which this star system is mentioned or visited, its name has been spelt "Beta Scorpi" four times but only spelt "Beta Scorpii" once. The latter spelling is the one used in the real world.
- When the planet Elanis first appeared in Silver Surfer (Vol. 8) #1, a caption stated that it was located "One star system away" from Earth. This is inconsistent with the real Beta Scorpii system which is about 470 light-years away. It may be that the "Beta Scorpi" system is MUCH closer to Earth in the Marvel Universe or that the Elan are also able to move their home planet through space. However, neither of these possible explanations have yet been confirmed.
Trivia
- In the real world, Beta Scorpii is a multiple star system whose estimated age is about 6 million years. No planets have yet been detected orbiting any of the stars and, even if planets did exist, they would be far too young for habitable biospheres to have evolved on them, let alone intelligent life.
See Also
- 3 appearance(s) of Beta Scorpi
- 1 mention(s) of Beta Scorpi
- 1 image(s) of Beta Scorpi
- 2 article(s) related to Beta Scorpi
Links and References
- Beta Scorpii on Wikipedia