Martian Masters

History

In an effort to contain humanity and restrict them to Earth, Immortus turned the attention of a warlike spacefaring race toward Earth. They would use the planet Mars as a staging base for their invasion.^[2]

War of the Worlds

These Martians invaded Earth in the early 20th century in what was known as the first War of the Worlds. The invaders later abandoned Earth after possessing no immunizations to Earth's diseases which wiped out the invaders. Following the invasion, the events were heavily fictionalized by H.G. Wells in his book The War of the Worlds.^[3]

Earth-616

The Martians came back in 1917.^[4]

Martians from another timeline launched an invasion using the mind of Maureen Raven. ^[5]

Years later, in the 21st century, the Martians again turned their attention to Earth.^[4]

Earth-691

In this reality, the Martians returned in 2001. En route to Earth, the Martian forces intercepted a temporal anomaly described as "pure knowledge."^[6] Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, the anomaly was Era, an immensely powerful cosmic being. For its own reasons, it greatly aided them in their assault on Earth, giving their tripods an aura of invincibility.^[7]

Without warning, the Martians came out of the night skies in North America,^[8] lighting them up and blinding out any view of the stars.^[9]

By the next morning, Saturday, June 30,^[9] weapon stockpiles across Earth were obliterated, without a single nuclear device being fired. Earth forces used biological warfare against the Martians, but it backfired, killing many.^[10] The Martians tried to kill as few Humans as possible so that they can be used for food, labor, experimentation and sport.^[11][12]

The Martians' 'second assault' lasted into 2006. Spider-Man was the last remaining superhero.^[13] In admiration for his tenacity, the Martians preserved Spider-Man's body in a shrine on Mars.

Led by a powerful High Overlord, the Martian Masters enslaved most of the population, as labor in converting Terran edifices to new uses, guards for their fortresses, or even as simple cattle. Some were drafted as gladiators to fight for the Martian Masters' amusement, while others were trained as Exterminators to hunt down the last freemen threatening Martian rule. The Martians were particularly interested in co-opting scientists, many of whom became Keepers, collaborators responsible for overseeing their fellow humans.

In 2014, the gladiator Killraven escaped from captivity, and soon became the leader of a particularly troublesome band of Freemen.

By 2019, many Martians born on Earth stood out as different from their predecessors. Having never been to Mars, they questioned Martian values such as hostility toward humans.^[14]

Killraven defeated the Martians by poisoning their food supply with a zombie plague with the help of a time-traveling Howard the Duck.

The Martians abandoned Earth by 2075, depleting its natural resources and returning to a glorious homecoming.^[11][12] The High Overlord elevated the Martian who would become Ripjak to a Cabinet chair.^[15]

In the 23rd century, the Martians began planning a 'Final Pillage' of Earth but were visited by Bubonicus, who infected them with a genocidal virus. Ripjak transfused himself with Spider-Man's blood and began a long mutation process. By the time it was complete, he was the sole survivor of his race.^[15]

Ripjak studied the corpses of his fellow Martians for decades, eventually learning that the plague was not of Martian origin. He then constructed a ship to seek out its source.^[16]

Biology

The Martian Masters are a cephalopod-like species. The Martian Masters of Earth-2120 had three eyes, three long thick prehensile tentacles used for locomotion, a beak consisting of three mandibles, and multiple small tentacles around the beak mouth.^[17] The Martian Masters of Earth-691 had two eyes, multiple prehensile tentacles and lacked tentacles around the two mandible beak mouth.^[14]

Martian Masters are genderless lifeforms that reproduce asexually in which their infants grow like fruit on their bodies and are severed from the parent. When on Earth they fed on the flesh and blood of humans.^[14]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Telepathy^[14]

Weaknesses

• The Martians lacked the immunization to Earth's native bacterias which cost the loss of the invasion force during the First War of the Worlds. However, the Martians finally made themselves immune to Earth's diseases and returned in the second invasion of Earth.
  

Notes

• The Martian Masters are distinctive from the Martians that first and only appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics #3.

See Also

• Discuss Martian Masters on the forums
• Appearances of Martian Masters
• Minor Appearances of Martian Masters
• Media Martian Masters was Mentioned in
• Race Gallery: Martian Masters
• Images of Martian Masters

Links and References

Footnotes