STEVEN LANG

 

STEVEN LANG

Real Name: Steven Lang

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #97, February 1976

Powers: Dr. Steven Lang was a baseline human with no superhuman powers, as well as an expert in robotics and genetics and the creator of the Mark III Sentinels. Later, he cybernetically linked himself to the artificial intelligence of his Mastermold Sentinel. However, the process of a mental connection for the two left Lang a mindless shell, while copying his personality and memory engrams into the Mastermold itself. While recuperating in a convalescent home, Lang was recruited to become part of the Earth-based faction of the techno-organic beings known as the Phalanx.

The Phalanx exist as incidental biological refuse created by Technarchy life cycles. When the Technarchy feed on organic life energy, they expose living matter to a Transmode Virus (which is part of their physiology) before consuming it. If all the techno-organic matter is not consumed, it may survive after the Technarchy moves on. Because Transmode-infected matter is highly contagious, infestations of techno-organic matter and beings may grow unchecked, often forming an offshoot known as the Phalanx. On Earth, the Phalanx were created deliberately by the Friends of Humanity in an effort to forge a new breed of living Sentinels to exterminate mutantkind. The original Phalanx drones and agents were created through exposure to the Transmode virus harvested from the ashes of the Technarch known as Warlock. The Phalanx assimilate the sentience of its victims in a manner that unified everyone infected by the Transmode virus into a collective intelligence (a vast hive mind where every memory, viewpoint, and sensory experience could be sampled and revisited by any parts of the whole, maintaining constant and direct telepathic communication between all parties). Lang's recruitment was meant to monitor and control the actions of the hundreds of Phalanx, needing his mind to act as an interface with the techno-organic collective intelligence.

As the human host of the Phalanx collective and a partial Transmode-infectee, Lang could manipulate the techno-organic matter of the entire race, communicate telepathically, and translate computer languages. He provided the collective with focus and direction and had access to all of the thoughts and actions of each Phalanx linked to the collective. The various "individual" Phalanx had only limited capacity for creative thinking beyond following the directives of the collective. Lang gave the Phalanx guidance and helped coordinate and update their mission parameters.