THE FIRSTBORN

Membership: The Firstborn have no individual names, but refer to each other as “Brother”, they typically travel in groups of four.

Purpose: Assassins used to enforce the will of the Brood Empress. Once their mission is accomplished and their target is dead, the Firstborn kill each other “We do not go back. We come, we kill, we die. That is all.”

Affiliations: Brood Empress

Enemies: Hannah Conover and her nest, William Conover, Josey Thomas, X-Men

Base of Operations: The Brood Nestworld, presumably the Empress' Lair

First Appearance: X-Men/Brood: Day of Wrath#1 (September, 1996)

History: (X-Men/Brood: Day Of Wrath#1)- The Brood Empress sent the Firstborn to destroy the Rogue Queen Hannah Conover and her Brood Nest.

Four, (possibly five, see comments), Firstborn crash-landed in the Grand Canyon, their ships dissolving into dust, and made contact with Josey Thomas, whom the Empress had sent to lead them to Hannah Conover. They told Thomas, (while constantly finishing each others' sentences), that it was “Of no importance to us, who is Queen. We bow to no Queen. Only our Empress do we obey.” Josey Thomas used her psychic connection to Conover to lead the Firstborn into an unnamed town, where Conover and two of her Brood, Fred and Nancy, had traveled. While spying on the trio from an alley, they revealed to Ms. Thomas that they were not going to kill Hannah yet, only attack her, to draw out her Nest, so that they could kill them all at once. They also revealed that they were to kill all who have been “infected” by the Rogue Queen, including Josey, who made Hannah into a Brood. Josey put up a good fight, but she was no match for the Firstborn, and they left her body in the alley and attacked Hannah, killing Fred and Nancy, and immediately alerting all of Hannah’s Brood that the Queen was in danger.

The local cops arrived, but they were no match for the “Bugmen from Mars”, and the X-Men Cyclops and Jean Grey came their rescue. Soon all the X-Men arrived, but they couldn't beat the Firstborn either. Bishop channeled Storm’s lightning through them, with little effect. Iceman froze one, “How do you like Sleazoids on a stick? Save the wrappers! They’re valuable for prizes and stuff!” he joked, just as the Firstborn shattered the ice cage and took a giant bite out of his arm. The battle kept going downhill from there, until Cannonball managed to rocket into the sky with one of the beasts. It hit him with his tail and he dropped it, right onto a gasoline truck, as the others teleported away and left him to his fiery fate. The X-Men then fled with Hannah into the desert, to avoid any innocent bystanders being hurt.

(X-Men/Brood: Day Of Wrath#2)- Hannah, realizing the Firstborn would keep coming until she was dead, had her nest attack the X-Men to give her time to escape into he desert, hoping that only she would be killed, but her nest followed her. As she begged their forgiveness and that of God, the Firstborn arrived, “No Forgiveness. Offended the Empress. Now we all die together!” Her “children” leapt to her defense, ignoring her pleas to save themselves, and were all slaughtered, despite her efforts and those of the X-Men, who arrived immediately after to save them. After futilely trying to save one of her injured Broodlings, Iceman, Jean and Beast came up with a risky plan to save Hannah. Bishop, channeling Cyclops power, managed to blast off the lower jaw of one of the monsters, but it was a very hard battle, so Cannonball carried Hannah to safety, to give them time to regroup, and the Firstborn came up with a plan, teleporting away. They kidnapped the Reverend William Conover, Hannah’s husband, knowing that she would come to rescue him, and then they could kill her. Hannah changed into full Brood form and arrived, hoping to offer herself in exchange for William, but the Firstborn did not make deals. After a brief struggle Hannah reverted to human form, and the Firstborn were about to kill the Conovers when the X-Men arrived. In a heated battle, Iceman drove a giant ice stake through one, killing him, and then Iceman, Beast, Jean and William cryogenically froze Hannah. Sensing that Hannah was no longer mentally active, and assuming her dead, the two (!?) remaining Firstborn killed each other. “GLORY TO THE EMPRESS!”

Comments: Created by John Ostrander and Bryan Hitch.

Four Firstborn vessels are shown landing in the Grand Canyon, and four Firstborn follow Josey Thomas to Hannah, but their seems to be continuity error in the second issue, One Firstborn is killed in the gasoline explosion, one has his lower jaw blasted off by Bishop, one is impaled by Iceman, yet two are left to kill each other in the end, either the one with his jaw blasted off survived and re-grew his jaw in the course of a few hours, or there was a mistake. When the Firstborn capture William Conover and confront Hannah at the end, only two are shown, one being killed by Iceman. Apparently after killing off three of them, the writers realized there was only one left, and, as, simply killing himself would be less dramatic, so they added another, so that they could kill each other.
    The Firstborn disintegrate into dust when they die. The Firstborn’s remarks and special status seem to indicate that they are the true, biological children of the Brood Empress, “There is no god but the Empress, and the Firstborn are her children!” They also lack a second form, unlike most Brood , who can transform from Brood into Human or Kree or Skrull, whatever their host had been. This leads me to believe that they may be specially hatched by the Empress herself, without the use of Host Bodies. Unlike the Brood of years past, the Firstborn have no insectoid features whatsoever, being entirely reptilian, which is the one thing about the Brood: Day of Wrath saga I dislike, the Drones maintain some insectoid features, but as a whole the Brood have been converted into a more reptilian race, which, in my opinion, takes away from their very nature and history in the Marvel Universe.

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