The Cotati () are a fictional alien race appearing in
American comic book
An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...
s published by
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
. They are a highly intelligent species of
telepath
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...
ic
plants
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...
.
Publication history
The Cotati first appeared in ''
The Avengers'' #133 (March 1975), and were created by writer
Steve Englehart
Steve Englehart (; born April 22, 1947) is an American writer of comic books and novels. He is best known for his work at Marvel Comics and DC Comics in the 1970s and 1980s. His pseudonyms have included John Harkness and Cliff Garnett.
Early li ...
and artist
Sal Buscema
Sal Buscema ( ; born Silvio Buscema, , on January 26, 1936) is an American comics artist, primarily for Marvel Comics, where he had a ten-year run as artist of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk'' and an eight-year run as art ...
.
Fictional history
The Cotati are telepathic plant-like aliens who were once humanoid, but eventually lost their anthropomorphic traits and came to resemble Earth
trees
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only p ...
. They originate from the planet Hala in the
Large Magellanic Cloud
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a dwarf galaxy and satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around , the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy, Sagittarius Dwarf ...
, the same planet as the
Kree
The Kree, briefly known as the Ruul, are an List of fictional extraterrestrials, alien race appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are native to the planet Hala in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and have a scientificall ...
.
Approximately one million Earth years ago, Hala was visited by the
Skrulls, who wished to include Hala in their empire and offered its inhabitants their knowledge and technology in exchange for their loyalty and Hala's resources. They transported a group of Kree and Cotati to two separate planets and left them with complete supplies for one year. During this time, the Kree built a gargantuan city on Earth's
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
, which would later be known as the
Blue Area of the Moon. However, the Skrulls were more impressed by the Cotati terraforming their barren moon to be full of plant life. Enraged, the Kree killed the Skrull delegation and most of the Cotati and took the technology of the former.
Unbeknowst to the Kree, a new generation of Cotati were born from seeds dropped by the previous generation as they died. Centuries later, the Cotati made contact with a pacifistic Kree group known as the Priests of Pama, who agreed to protect them.
The eldest of Earth's Cotati possessed and resurrected the
Swordsman, becoming the father of the Celestial Messiah Sequoia.
[''Giant-Size Avengers'' #4. Marvel Comics.]
In ''
Empyre'', General G'iah and her daughters Alice, Ivy, and Madison break into a lab and steal a Cotati sample to preserve the Cotati species. Sequoia requests the Avengers' help in protecting the Cotati from the Kree and Skrulls. However, it is later revealed that the Cotati have abandoned their peaceful nature and aim to kill all animal life. This causes the Avengers and the
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four, often abbreviated as FF, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism i ...
to work with the Kree and Skrulls to fight them.
[''Empyre'' #6. Marvel Comics.] Afterwards,
Franklin Richards brings the Cotati to an uninhabited planet where they can live safely.
Known Cotati
* Ru'tuh-Baga – A Cotati who operated in
Genosha.
[''Empyre: X-Men'' #1. Marvel Comics.]
* Qqoi – A Cotati science minister who worked for Ru'tuh-Baga.
* Shi Qaanth – A Cotati spellcaster who fought
Captain America
Captain America is a superhero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby who appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in '' Captain America Comics'' #1, published on December 20, 1940, by Timely C ...
in Arlington and later attacked Mexico City.
* Sequoia – Also known as "Quoi", Sequoia is the Celestial Messiah and the child of
Mantis
Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate a ...
and an Elder Cotati who possessed
Swordsman's corpse.
*
Swordsman – After being killed by
Kang the Conqueror
Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in '' Fantastic Four'' #19 (October 1963) as Rama-Tut, an ...
, the Swordsman was possessed by a Cotati before being killed again by
Black Panther
A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...
.
* Trrunk – A Cotati priest at the Temple of Pama. He was killed by Va-Sohn.
* Veltri – A Cotati spellcaster who operated in the
Savage Land
The Savage Land is a fictional prehistoric land that features in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It is a tropical preserve, hidden in Antarctica. It has appeared in many story arcs in '' Uncanny X-Men'' as well as other relate ...
.
In other media
The Cotati are alluded to in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appe ...
(MCU) films ''
Guardians of the Galaxy'' and ''
Avengers: Infinity War''.
References
{{reflist
External links
Cotatiat Marvel Wiki
Large Magellanic Cloud in fiction
Marvel Comics plant characters
Marvel Comics telepaths
Characters created by Steve Englehart
Characters created by Sal Buscema