What do you imagine would have happened if the Alien Xenomorphs got intelligence and the ability to not only communicate but also form alliances with other races? Marvel’s wicked and crafty race of parasitic insectoid scavengers known as The Brood has the answer.
These creatures were one of the X Men’s most heinous foes, despite the fact that the X Men are one of the most resilient superhero teams in the Marvel universe. The Brood are millions of years old and have been exploited for genetic research and other purposes by numerous higher races, including the Kree.
The Brood eventually came to believe that the ultimate objective of their existence was to conquer the universe. Many of their characteristics are similar to those of the Xenomorphs, such as being dominated by an Empress through a hive mind and reproducing by injecting embryos into hosts.
However, Marvel gave these super evil monsters some unique motifs, including speech and intelligence. We shall look at the Brood and the hardship they have gone through for the X Men in this video. Prepare your geek goggles because you are about to go on a thrilling adventure.
The Brood First Appearance In Comic Book
In one of their adventures, the X Men find themselves battling a vicious insectoid alien, a creature that they hadn’t had the misfortune of meeting just yet. Cyclops’s father Corsair and Storm were taking a stroll in Manhattan, discussing how Corsair had to abandon his son. But Corsair gets ambushed by a lone gunman from the Brood, named Skur’kll. It seemed that the lone warrior was, in fact, not alone, it was taking its orders from a shadowy winged figure, who ordered the Brood warrior to eliminate Storm and Corsair.
It fires an energy beam of sorts called the psi-scream. Storm and Corsair’s realities shatter around them in mid-sentence and mid-thought. Almost immediately, their most primal fears and darkest emotions are ripped from their deepest subconscious, only to be reshaped, twisted, and given a more hideous nature, before being unleashed. The two heroes had become insane, albeit temporarily, but this was enough for the winged figure or Deathbird to execute her plan. While Storm and Corsair dealt with their private nightmares, the X Men arrived on the spot to help their comrades.
Deathbird was about to launch an attack, but Cyclops thwarted that attempt. Next thing we know, Tigra launched an attack on Deathbird from another side, only to get repulsed. Meanwhile, Colossus and Storm fight Corsair and Storm, who mistakenly believe that the X Men are their enemies. The two rogues stopped only after Professor X released them from the mind control of the Skur’kll’s Psi-scream.
Ultimately, Wolverine manages to overpower the Brood warrior but to make things worse, there arrived other prime warriors from The Brood. Soon, Storm, Professor X, and Colossus find themselves in the line of fire. As the X Men move into a building to fight off the Brood warriors, they find Wolverine struggling. Although the Brood is seemingly defeated, Colossus is left grievously injured, while Professor X himself goes missing.
The comics never revealed the real intention of the Brood warriors, but we can see Skur’kll talking about a mother, which is a clear reference to the Brood Queen.
Who Are The Brood?
It must be clear by now that this formidable race of aliens has been in existence for several millennia, and was first encountered on Earth in 2620 BC. This specialized race of scavengers can consume almost any available resource and has a one-point agenda of reproducing. They arrive at different planets to infest its denizens with their embryos, and such unfortunate creatures become do the same to others. It was revealed in the comics that the Brood originated in an entirely different universe from ours.
Their homeworld is largely tropical with twelve percent water, and high oxygen content, while the gravity is about eighty percent that of Earth. At some point in time, the Kree experimented on the Brood. Much like the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise, the Brood are ruled by an omnipotent matriarch called the Empress, who controls the Brood Queens on thousands of planets across the cosmos.
But unlike the Xenomorphs, the Brood are not mindless beasts who live to kill and kill to live. They are sadistic and nefarious creatures who enjoy inflicting pain and suffering on others. More than eight million years ago, the Brood were captured by the Kree and were experimented upon by them. The Kree wanted to make weapons out of the Brood, only to be used against the Shi’ar.
However, as time passed, the Brood became more and more intelligent and powerful and made it their destiny to conquer the universe. They started by taking over the space-faring race of aliens called the Avanti, who once cured Storm of a Brood infection. In 2620 BC, during the reign of Pharaoh Khasekhemwy Khasekhemui, the Brood arrived on Earth with the aim of conquering all of Earth.
However, the invasion was ended by the combined power of the Knight of Khonshu, En Saba Nur, and Imhotep. Having said that, there has been evidence of a class of Brood called the Benign Brood; these creatures are pacifists who understand emotions such as honor, friendship, and compassion and can thrive alongside other races without struggle. The Brood considers these Brood as an abomination and labels kindness and compassion as diseases. Benign Brood is almost always killed by the usual Brood.
The Brood Biology and Reproduction
Brood reproduction is a very tricky and ghastly affair. While it is not known if they can reproduce amongst themselves, it can be said without an ounce of doubt that Brood reproduction is possible in all sentient species, especially the more intelligent ones. The Brood reproduces somewhat similar to Xenomorphs, by injecting an embryo into a host. But this process is closer to a few insect species from real-world like wasps.
In almost all cases, the Brood embryo remains dormant until a possible host presents itself. Furthermore, most hosts are not even aware of themselves carrying an embryo within themselves. Once an embryo has been injected, it starts to rewrite the genetic sequence and DNA of the host, which turns them into more Brood than the base species, often destroying the mentality and consciousness of the host. However, subjects with extremely strong willpower or superhuman immune system can resist this absolute loss of consciousness.
The Brood Are Back
The story begins with Wolverine and Storm fighting Stonewall and the Crimson Commando, while their mutant colleagues were busy taking down Juggernaut. But somewhere in the Diablo Rio Mountains, something worse was taking shape. A spacecraft entered the Earth’s atmosphere and crash-landed in the mountains, where a few campers were going about their activities. Alerted by the explosion, they went to investigate, but they were going in for slaughter.
The campers were massacred by the Brood, with the exception of a paramedic named Harry Palmer, who was used by the insectoid alien race to serve as the host for an embryo of their Brood Queen. The story then moves to the present time, at least with respect to when the comic was written.
We see Harry Palmer going about his business and inspecting a mutant who suffered a heart attack when his mutant powers of breathing fire activated. Initially, it seems that Palmer was a normal medic, but as soon as he was left alone with the mutant, Palmer’s Brood personality took over him, and he infected the mutant patient with a Brood embryo.
Later that day, Palmer returns to his humble place and feels unusually tired and drained, which is when he has an epiphany. Palmer only feels this way when he aids mutants, but he doesn’t realize the reason behind such a trend. Clearly, Palmer is not aware of his Brod personality or the embryo that lives within him. Palmer meets Colossus and Psylocke, who were waiting for him in the apartment. They try to reason with him and tell him about his Brood infection, but Palmer feels threatened and tosses the mighty Colossus through the wall.
It’s made evident to everyone, including Palmer, of the incredible superhuman strengths he possesses. He then tries to escape in his car but is stopped by Dazzler, Longshot, and Dazzler. Palmer attacks Longshot with the car’s door but misses. Next thing we know, Palmer is taking down a hydro pole, creating massive damage and danger because of the live wires. Although Storm takes care of the live wires, Palmer manages to escape.
But the X Men were hot on his trail. They regrouped, and Wolverine was tasked with tracking the Palmer, who had boarded a city bus to evade attention and lay low. However, his plans are thwarted by Rogue, who attempts to take him down, only to get easily overwhelmed. Palmer was about to infect Rogue with another one of his embryos but was stopped by Wolverine, who punched through the bus window, pulling him out. But Palmer escapes once again, as Wolverine chases him down to an alley with a dead end.
By now, Rogue had arrived on the spot, but along with her, two cops reached the place, and Wolverine realized that they had been infected by the Brood. He kills them, but Rogue perceives that Logan has gone rogue, and tries to stop him. Rogue stops only when other X Men convince her otherwise, but it was too late. Palmer had summoned a large number of semi-transformed Brood, who surround the X Men.
X Men vs The Empress’s First Born
Jean and Cyclops had been vacationing near the Grand Canyon with her family when she built a psionic bond with a woman who happened to be a Brood Queen. Somewhere in the American Southwest, Hannah Connover had been living amidst humans as a woman who could heal people with her touch, but in fact, she had been infecting them with the Brood embryos. Unlike other Brood Queens, Hanna was fully aware that she had an embryo living inside her, but she was further different from other Queens.
Even after years of serving the Brood empress, Hannah had managed to retain bits of her humanity and was realizing what she had done. Since all members of the Brood share a hive mind, Hannah’s mind was connected to the Empress, who saw her as a rogue because of her humane thoughts, her care for fellow humans, and her love for her pastor husband. The Empress had resolved to eliminate the rogue Queen and was sending prime warriors called the First Borns to accomplish the task.
Just as Hannah woke up from this psychic conversation, Jean woke up from her sleep because she had been a witness to the same. In fact, she saw the Empress’s home planet and the power she held. She immediately contacted Professor X back at his mansion and brought him up to speed about what she had experienced. He advised her to track Hannah, but not to engage. While Jean and Cyclops left their vacation to find Hannah, Professor X summoned the other X Men, including Wolverine, Storm, Cannonball, Bishop, The Beast, and Iceman.
Jean and Cyclops find Hannah Connover and her husband, but they were an alien attacked too late. The First Borns had already arrived on Earth and crash-landed on the Grand Canyon’s tip. They were guided by Josey Thompson, the same Brood who had infected Hannah in the first place.
She escorted them to Hannah, where they attacked her. However, Hannah was accompanied by two of her Broodlings, who immediately came to her defense and attacked the First Borns, who easily overwhelmed the Broodlings and proceeded to eliminate two cops who had arrived on the scene. Fortunately, Cyclops and Jean arrived at the scene and saved them. The hero couple was having a hard time battling the extremely powerful First Borns, and they would have been defeated had it not been for the rest of the X Men who arrived in the Blackbird.
While the beast escorted the civilians out of harm’s way, the others used their full might to kill the First Borns. In the end, the combined force of all the X Men could take down just one of the insectoid aliens, while the others escaped. They all rendezvoused near the Blackbird, where a heated debate about Hannah’s future and the First Born was going on. While Wolverine wanted Hannah and her Broodlings dead, Jean and the others thought that she wasn’t a lost cause, at least not yet.
To make things worse, Hannah’s Broodlings arrived to take her away in order to protect her. However, Hannah convinced them that the X Men were not enemies. The woman was tired of being the reason for violence and bloodshed, and instead of finding a solution, she begged those around her to kill her instead.
Hannah was convinced that even if the X Men and her Broodlings managed to kill all the First Born, the Empress would send more of her insectoid assassins after Hannah, the rogue Queen. She tried to reason with them to kill her, but they wouldn’t listen. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Hannah telepathically commanded her Broodlings to attack the X Men while she escaped.
Interestingly enough, the order was to only delay the X Men from going after her and not harm or kill them. Once she was far enough, Hannah called them back, but the X Men lost Hannah. However, Wolverine had caught her smell and went after her, while Jean followed him. Storm ordered the X Men to divide into groups of two and search for Hannah. But Hannah and her Brood were in mortal danger from the First Born, who had found them. They killed her Broodlings and were about to take her life but were saved by Wolverine, who surprised the First Born. It wasn’t before long that the entire mutant cavalry reached ground zero to join the fight.
The First Born was so strong that Bishop’s attack with Cyclop’s strongest beam couldn’t do much damage. Meanwhile, Hannah’s husband saw an explosion on the horizon and knew that his wife could be in danger. Naturally, he got into his jeep and drove towards the battleground in the desert, only to get caught by the super sleazoids. Learning from the hive mind that they had her husband, Hannah couldn’t control it any further and gave in to her Brood side, turning into a full-blown Brood Queen.
She appeared before the First Born and asked them to let go of her husband in exchange for her surrender. Although Hannah manages to take one of them down, she gets surrounded by the other First Born. For the Connovers, hope was difficult to find, like water in a desert. But the Reverend prayed one final time, and god sent the X Men. Wolverine had once again followed Hannah’s smell and found her.
While the others fought the First Born, Jean sneaked to the Reverend and told him about their new plan. They were going to freeze Hannah and put her in cryogenic sleep; this would stop her mental activity and cut her from the Brood hive mind, making the First Born and the Empress believe that she was dead.
That was the only way of ensuring that the Empress didn’t send any more of her assassins after Hannah. The plan worked, and not only did the X Men kill all the First Born but also brought Hannah safely to Professor X’s mansion. It turns out that Hannah was the living embodiment of hope when it came to understanding the Brood, and finding a cure for those who had been infected.
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