Technarchy

comicbookspecies|


imagesize=
caption=
species=Technarchy
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="New Mutants" #18 (Aug 1984)
creators=
homeworld=Kvch
notable members=Warlock
Magus
powers=
subcat=Marvel Comics
altcat=
sortkey=PAGENAME|The Technarchy, or Technarchs, are a cybernetic, shapeshifting, fictional species of extraterrestrial origin in the Marvel Comics' universe, created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkewicz. Its most notable members are the former New Mutants member Warlock and his "siredam," the supervillain called the Magus. The Technarchy first appeared in the person of Warlock in "New Mutants" vol. 1 #21 (November 1984).

History

The Technarchy is a race of giant techno-organic entities with very aggressive natures. They travel the universe looking for things on which to feed, which can be organic or mechanical. They feed by infecting their prey with the Transmode Virus, converting it into techno-organic matter, from which they then drain the energy, or "lifeglow". If the "lifeglow" is not drained from organic creatures after infection, then Phalanx are formed, creatures who maintain hiveminds, unlike the highly individualistic Technarchs, and who are inherently coded to send a message to the Technarchy once they reach a critical mass. The Technarchy, who consider Phalanx to be abominations, exterminate all such "nests" upon receiving the messages.

The Technarch homeworld was called "Kvch," is covered with cities, and itself appears to be techno-organic in nature. The Technarchy is itself a dictatorship, led by the Magus. The Magus has only had contact with Earth on account of the actions of his son Warlock, who chose not to continue a native custom whereby the son eventually kills the father and takes his place in their society. The Magus pursued his son and had several encounters with Warlock's new team - the New Mutants - and other Terran superhumans such as the X-Men and Avengers. Each time the Magus was thwarted in his schemes, and was thought to have returned to his home planet. An offspring of Magus in a mindless state has been revealed to be lying dormant underwater and awoken by the codeword "Warlock". His existence was revealed by the resurrected Bastion who plans to use him as a weapon in his war on mutants.

Bastion rewrote its programming and infected Donald Pierce and the Leper Queen, the recovered techno-organic remains of Cameron Hodge and Stephen Lang, as well as the corpses of Bolivar Trask, Graydon Creed and Reverend William Stryker with the Technarch transmode virus, declaring them to be the future of humanity and the end of mutantkind.

Reproduction

The Technarch reproduces using an advanced assembly line, using the genome from a "parent". The "babies" are then brought up in a creche. The Technarch themselves are asexual, and refer to their parents as "siredams", after "sire" for father and "dam" for mother, although humans tend to refer to them as male. Upon reaching a certain age, Technarch young must face their parent in single combat to prove that they have the right to live. Those that are weak are killed, while those that are strong kill their parent. The only known exception is Warlock, a peaceful mutant, who refused to fight and instead chose to flee, ending up on Earth where he joined the New Mutants. The Magus came after him and challenged him directly, before being eventually devolved to childhood by a merged Warlock and Cypher. He later returned and was defeated by Warlock and Hope, another ally who infected him with an altered version of the transmode virus, leading him to flee in self-hatred.

Powers and abilities

Technarchs grow in size and strength throughout their lives, and gain new abilities as their power increases. In addition to the shapeshifting and energy-channeling abilities granted by their physical nature, Technarchy members can (with enough power) travel through hyperspace, cross dimensional barriers, detect energy sources at interstellar distances, detect mental activity, detect lifeglow, communicate in a wide variety of formats, and even fuse hydrogen.