BROOD

 

THE BROOD

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #155, March 1982

Traits: The Brood are an utterly savage, insectoid alien race with six legs, transparent wings, sharp teeth, armor-like skin, and a long tail that is divided at the end into two large stingers. The tentacle-like forelegs can manipulate objects and operate various devices. Driven primarily by hunger and procreation, the Brood are parasites whose Queens implant their eggs in other living beings. The embryos metamorphosize their hosts' bodies until they hatch, fully consuming the hosts and converting them into members of the Brood who retain each hosts' knowledge and abilities. As such, the Brood often seek out superior life forms to use as hosts. The Brood operate with a collective intelligence under an absolutely matriarchal hive structure, ruled by a single Empress ("The Queen of All Mothers") who is guarded by an elite group of Brood known as Firstborn. From among her legion of Queens, the Empress selects one, known as the Imperiatrix (or "Great Mother") to act as her off-world representative when dealing with other races.

Brood Queens are typically stronger and larger than average drones, and can expel a paralyzing liquid from their mouths. The Brood Empress is the most powerful of her race, a massive creature that, it is believed, is unable to move from her lair on the Brood's central nest world. The Empress is able to reproduce asexually by laying eggs. The Empress' Firstborn are larger than Queens, and are covered in bony, super-durable armored plates. They also have razor-sharp clawed feet and a tail with a single stinger. Firstborn are able to teleport, apparently via technological mean, and are accomplished warriors.

Highly advanced in the fields of bioengineering and weaponry, the Brood use a mind-virus to enslave the space-faring Acanti race both as a mobile food source and to utilize as living starships due to the Acanti's natural ability to fly faster than light. The Brood employ sentient alien Star Sharks as attack fighters and for planetary assault, as well as craft pillaged from other races.