AENTAROSAENTAROS
Real Name: Aentaros
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial energy constructs (Undying)
Occupation: Predator, killer
Group Membership: Undying (Lothan, Semijan, Tiamet, Vaudois)
Affiliations: Azazel;
formerly the Serayn;
his hosts (which are currently limited to cockroaches, but which previously included numerous beings from multiple races, notably Blockade/Dexter Parrish, Andy Carmody, Domino/Neena Thurman, Irene Merryweather, numerous others unidentified (including his preferred host), possibly including the Circle Killer and/or Esther Parrish)
Enemies: Professor Berger, Blaquesmith, Cable (Nathan Summers/Nathan Dayspring Askani'son), Beast (Hank McCoy), Clarity (and his agents Greg and Lea), Jean
Grey, Sheik Hamid, Key, the Serayn, Wall;
Aentaros' hosts (which are currently limited to cockroaches, but which previously included numerous beings from multiple races, notably Blockade/Dexter Parrish, Andy Carmody, Domino/Neena Thurman, Irene Merryweather, numerous others unidentified, possibly including the Circle Killer and/or Esther Parrish) are his unwilling servants;
countless victims of its hosts on Earth and on various worlds
(including whole races presumably exterminated by them, notably the
races from which they chose their favored hosts, specifically the hosts
of Aentaros, Lothan, Semijan, Tiamet, and Vaudois);
indirectly friends and families of its hosts and other victims (notably Jane Carmody (widow), Sue Carmody (daughter), two unidentified sons);
for the purposes of their competition, the other Undying (Lothan, Semijan, Tiamet, Vaudois) are him enemies
Known Relatives: Lothan, Semijan, Tiamet, Vaudois ("siblings")
Aliases: The names of many of his hosts, including Blockade/Dexter Parrish, Andy Carmody, Domino/Neena Thurman, Irene Merryweather
Base of Operations: Unspecified various locations throughout Earth;
body/former host contained within Azazel in the Sinai desert;
formerly mobile throughout the universe and across multiple planets via the ship Azazel;
originally created on the world of the Serayn
First Appearance: Cable II#79 (May, 2000)
Powers/Abilities: Like the rest of the Undying, Aentaros is an artificial, asexual creature of pure intellect and energy that melds his energy fields with the minds of other living creatures, possessing and controlling them. 
Such hosts, even ones with strong wills, such as
Domino, were unable to
resist his control or exert their own wills, even to the point of
killing friends and family.
Once possessing a host, Aentaros could only transfer to another via the host's physical death or via Azazel -- the artificial intelligence of the Undying's starship/base -- specifically transferring them. Once a host perished, Azazel placed Aentaros into a new host.
Full cardiopulmonary arrest was sufficient to expel Aentaros, and a host
could be liberated at great risk via inducing this and then recovering
via cardiopulmonary resuscitation (see comments).
Surviving such a resuscitation, a former host
will remember only a small amount of what he or she had experienced
while possessed. The thoughts of the Undying are alien and difficult to
understand.
Following reprogramming by Key, Azazel is only able
to transfer Aentaros and the rest of the Undying into cockroaches at least until the death of
the last cockroach on Earth.
Like the rest of the Undying, Aentaros feeds and thrives on blood and
death, both those slain by hosts and by the deaths of the hosts
themselves. Considering other living beings to be no more than food and sport, Aentaros drives hosts to kill, growing in more the
more beings its host slays.
As an energy being, Aentaros' true form has not been revealed. Hosts can be recognized by a glowing circle-within-a-circle pattern on their foreheads, although these do not apparently always show. Perhaps Aentaros can sometimes make these invisible.
At least some of Aentaros' hosts gain superhuman powers while
possessed. For example, Andy Carmody had powerful claws for hands and
could bend Cable's telekinetic force field;
the already superhumanly strong and durable Blockade was reportedly
ten-times stronger while possessed by Aentaros.
Like the rest of the Undying, Aentaros
maintained a favored alien lifeform in stasis on
Azazel to which he could be called back to defend their ship. Although
a powerful warrior, after an extensive time in stasis, this form rapidly decayed
within a few minutes after being exposed to Earth's atmosphere, at least.
The Undying compete in a game/competition, aided and judged by Azazel: Whichever killed the most lifeforms won. Each match lasted 10,000 years or until all life on the planet was destroyed. To keep the game fair, the Undying gave Azazel the power to transfer their energy matrix from one specific host to another at the moment of death. This insured that none of the Undying gained an "unfair advantage." When circumstances unbalanced the competition, Azazel stabilized the situation by using another member of the Undying as its executioner.
The Undying's desires and
abilities are currently limited by Azazel's programming to only
transfer them into cockroaches.
History:
(Cable
II#84 (fb)) - Several million years ago, the Serayn -- who were driven
by scientific curiosity and sought the secrets of creation but whose
bodies could not survive leaving their world -- built a virtually
indestructible spaceship to explore the universe for them. Desiring a
crew that would be immortal (for all practical purposes), the Serayn
created five artificial energy beings of pure intellect that they dubbed
the Undying.
Wishing to learn everything about other races, the Serayn gave the Undying the power to meld their energy field with the mind of any creature and thus observe alien life directly. Once one of the Undying gained control of a host body, it could only be released by the host's death.
However, the Undying fed on the energy released during death. Lacking any sense of right or wrong, the Undying turned on their creators to feed their unquenchable thirst for death.
After a thousand years, the Serayn were no more.
(Cable
II#84 (fb) - BTS) - The Undying spent the next several million years
traveling from world to world aboard the Serayn ship, the artificial intelligence of which became
known as Azazel, devouring the death energies of a multitude of lifeforms.
Eventually, the Undying grew bored, so
they started a game/competition, aided and judged by Azazel: Whoever
killed the most lifeforms won. Each match lasted 10,000 years or until
all life on the planet was destroyed. To keep the game fair, the
Undying gave Azazel the power to transfer their energy matrix from one
specific host to another at the moment of death. This insured that none
of the Undying gained an "unfair advantage." When circumstances
unbalanced the competition, Azazel stabilized the situation by using
another member of the Undying as its executioner.
Each of the Undying kept a favored alien lifeform in stasis aboard Azazel.
(Cable II#84 (fb) - BTS) <7000 years ago> - Azazel established a base on Earth in the deserts around Mt. Sinai.
(Cable
II#81 (fb) - BTS) - Azazel apparently killed anyone who attempted to speak of the location.
Many perished with Azazel's name on their lips.
(Cable II#81 (fb) - BTS) - The Undying possessed various humans throughout the world and across time, sending them on killing sprees, and the Undying grew more powerful the more their hosts murdered.
(Cable
II#82 (fb) - BTS) -The Undying led various peoples to war.
(Cable
II#82 (fb) - BTS) - Semijan possessed low-level psychomorph, Randall Shire, who ran a small traveling carnival in Australia. Semijan's
presence boosted Shire's powers to astonishing heights.
Whenever Shire spoke, he bound people to him by the sound of his voice. Anyone who heard him became his slave, starting with Shire's allies, Key and Wall. Semijan led Shire to America, from which he intended to conquer the world.
(Cable
II#84 (fb) - BTS) - In this unbalanced situation, Azazel chose Aentaros to execute Shire.
(Cable II#79 (fb)) - Aentaros possessed family man Andy Carmody while he was out on a camping trip with his sons. The possessed Andy then drove off, purchased a machine gun and other weapons, and went to Madison Square Garden with the intention of slaying Randall Shire.
(Cable
II#79) - Forewarned of this threat by the Fates,
Cable rushed to Madison Square Garden and telekinetically intercepted
the bullets just as Andy opened fire. Sensing the alien presence
possessing Andy, Cable then contained Andy in a force field; although
Aentaros' power allowed Andy to bend his force field, he remained
contained while ranting about murder, blood, violence, Azazel, and
specifically killing Shire. 
Unable to escape, Aentaros spoke through Andy, mocking Cable as a false messiah and noting that while even Cable feared death, his (Aentaros') people laughed at death, which was made them strong. Advising Cable to remember him and that he would return, Aentaros introduced himself, noted that he was Undying, and then activated a pair of hand grenades, killing Andy and allowing Aentaros to escape his form.
(Cable II#79 - BTS) - Hearing reports of his would-be assassin, Shire/Semijan correctly realized that Azazel had acted to prevent Semijan from accumulating too much power, and he noted that Aentaros would be back in one body or another as he was very determined. When Wall assured Shire that Aentaros would not get past him, Shire/Semijan expressed confidence in him but instructed him not to kill Aentaros, as they needed him alive.Aentaros subsequently possessed the otherwise comatose Blockade (whose mind Cable had destroyed after Blockade had tried to kill his friend Domino) from his hospital bed at a S.H.I.E.L.D. military hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, and resolved to kill Cable first and then Shire.
(Cable
II#80 (fb)) - Blockade awakened, and Aentaros prevented the alarms set
to sound if Blockade moved. Looking at the invisible cameras,
Blockade/Aentaros ranted about death and destruction and then stated,
"Fear me, humans. I am Aentaros. I am Undying."
(Cable
II#80 (fb) - BTS) - Blockade/Aentaros broke out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital,
killing eight and wounding 23 more, while 37 others were missing. 
(Cable II#80 - BTS) - An unidentified S.H.I.E.L.D. agent showed Commander G.W. Bridge footage of Blockade's revival, after which he noted that the symbol on Blockade's head reminded him on an old serial murder case of the "Circle Killer."
(Cable
II#80 - BTS) - Regarding the apparent possession of Andy Carmody, Irene
Merryweather advised and arranged for Cable to meet with the man known
as Clarity.
(Cable
II#80) - Aentaros stalked Cable.
(Cable
II#80) - As Cable met with Clarity, Blockade/Aentaros broke into
the room, and almost immediately, soldiers of the Ranshi Empire of
Earth-2775 arrived and assaulted Cable as well.
(Cable II#81) - After some struggle, Cable found normal assaults to be ineffective against Aentaros/Blockade. Cable broke Aentaros' fingers to little effect, but finally damaged Aentaros/Blockade's lumbar spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. However, when Cable tried to force answers from his foe, Aentaros mockingly told him that this shell/body meant nothing and that death made him strong. After telling Cable that his friends would perish and that he would follow, Aentaros caused Blockade to twist his own neck around until it broke, killing Blockade and liberating Aentaros to possess another.
(Cable
II#81 - BTS) - Clarity analyzed the battle via Lea and Irene's recordings.
(Cable
II#81 - BTS) - Clarity's agents Greg and Lea detailed the histories of the Circle Killer, Esther Parrish, and
numerous other similar murderers throughout the world and across
history (longer than recorded history), concluding that they were
caused by a quintet of beings known as the Undying.
(Cable
II#81 - BTS) - Cable subsequently enlisted Blaquesmith to create a
portable immobilizing trap he could use to keep the Undying paralyzed
for hours, no matter what it's strength: A device that channeled the
creature's kinetic energy in a loop so that the harder it moved, the more the bonds holding it tightened.
(Cable II#81 - BTS) - Cable met with Bridge and discussed Blockade.
(Cable
II#82 (fb) - BTS) - Blaquesmith worked on a device to prevent the Undying from escaping a host.
(Cable II#81 (fb) - BTS) - Aentaros possessed Irene Merryweather, who incapacitated Blaquesmith.
(Cable II#81) - When Cable returned to his base, Irene/Aentaros confronted him at knifepoint.
(Cable
II#82) - As Cable battled Irene/Aentaros,
Cable telepathically made a call to a hospital, leading them to send an
ambulance to arrive just as he telekinetically induced cardiac arrest in Irene,
causing Aentaros to depart her form.
(Cable
II#82 - BTS) - Cable telepathically communicated with Irene as the EMTs
used external defibrillators (see comments) to restore her heart function and keep her
alive.
The somewhat recovered Blaquesmith
informed Cable that he would have his weapon to trap the Undying in a
host within the hour.
(Cable
II#82 - BTS) - Cable met with Irene, who shared the little that she
remembered from her possession, notably detailing that the creature
that had possessed her was millions of years old and fed on blood and
death. She also noted the existence of Azazel as the judge.
Lea subsequently told Cable that
Clarity had located Azazel via information sent by Professor Berger, although it would still
take a few hours of satellite scans to find the exact spot.
(Cable II#83 (fb) - BTS) - Aentaros possessed Domino (Neena Thurman).
(Cable
II#82 - BTS) - Meanwhile, Cable learned via alternate future reality
contacts that Domino was to be the one seeking to assassinate Randall
Shire.
(Cable
II#83) - Blaquesmith supplied Cable with the weapon he sought. 
When Domino attacked, Cable
stopped Bridge from killing her and then ultimately used Blaquesmith's weapon to
immobilize/incapacitate Domino, with Aentaros trapped within her.
As Semijan taunted
Aentaros, Cable shared Semijan's words with the crowd listening
to Shire, and his message of hatred led the crowd to hate him. This
resulted in diverging both the Ranshi and Harmonist futures.
Cable then instructed Bridge to
gag Shire and put him in solitary confinement, and to place Domino in
maximum security. He subsequently met with Wall and Key, and they agreed to
help him against the Undying.
(Cable
II#84) - Cable -- joined by Key, Wall, and X-Men Beast (Hank McCoy) and Jean
Grey -- traveled to the door of Azazel and met with Professor Berger and
Sheik Hamid.
In addition to the five inert aliens within the ship, Jean also noted a sixth presence, a
powerful psi-force broadcasting some sort of low-frequency alpha-waves,
strong enough to scramble a normal person's thought patterns; she
surmised this to be Azazel, and she blocked its mental attack from
them, although it continued to fight, increasing the pressure.
As Key determined the code and unlocked the door, Azazel sent a distress signal, summoning the Undying back to their host bodies in stasis.
(Cable
II#84 - BTS) - As the Undying were recalled, Domino, Randall Shire, and
three other unidentified hosts were freed from the Undying's influence.
(Cable
II#84) - Released from stasis, the Undying attacked the invaders. Aentaros specifically assaulted Cable. As
the Undying proved difficult to harm, the enraged Cable came close to
unleashing the power that kept his techno-organic virus in check.. The
Undying taunted that they could not lose, as if their hosts were
slain, they would just be freed to reclaim new hosts.
Via information downloaded from
Azazel, Key related the history of the Serayn and the Undying.
Berger noted that they could not kill the creatures or they would just
be unleashed into new bodies, and Beast further advised that these ancient
lifeforms that had been in stasis were rapidly decaying in the
atmosphere;as these forms would not last more than a few minutes,
after which the Undying would inhabit new bodies, leaving the Undying
alone was also not an option.
Having gained control of Azazel, Key
adjusted the settings: Azazel would now only be able to transfer the Undying into cockroaches;
and not just for 10,000 years but until the last cockroach on Earth
died.
Despite Aentaros roaring that they dare not and could not, Cable and Jean Grey formed a telekinetic shield to hold the Undying off until the transfer took effect.
Aentaros and the Undying's hosts perished soon
thereafter, and Key noted that he had locked the settings so that once
they left, they could not be changed "for all eternity."
Cable and Jean
Grey then caused a rock slide to cover the door and prevent others from
accessing Azazel.
Comments: Created by Robert Weinberg, Michael Ryan, and Andrew Pepoy.
Aentaros' true form is energy and has not been seen on panel. The forms shown in the profile are some of its hosts.
Unlike its use in every movie or
book you will watch, a defibrillator is to be used for ventricular
fibrillation, which is electromechanical disassociation of normal
cardiac conduction/function. Everybody uses it for full cardiac arrest,
which is electromechanical standstill. It won't work for that. Presumably
Cable induced arrest via ventricular fibrillation.
That all being said, ventricular fibrillation
commonly occurs with people in the early stages of cardiac arrest, and
so defibrillation is appropriate.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Aentaros should be distinguished from:
Eventually, they grew bored, so
they started a game/competition, aided and judged by Azazel: Whoever
killed the most lifeforms won. Each match lasted 10,000 years or until
all life on the planet was destroyed. To keep the game fair, the
Undying gave Azazel the power to transfer their energy matrix from one
specific host to another at the moment of death. This insured that none
of the Undying gained an "unfair advantage." When circumstances
unbalanced the competition, Azazel stabilized the situation by using
another member of the Undying as its executioner. --Cable II#84 Note: We don't know anything about the race of the host that was held in stasis within Azazel for Aentaros. Presumably they were exterminated by the Undying during their games or before the games' establishment, and this host survived in stasis until recent times, when it was used by Aentaros to try to drive invaders out of Azazel. However, after a lengthy time in stasis, it swiftly perished upon being revived and exposed to air.  Large and powerful bipeds, possibly insectoid, reptilian, and/or something else, these beings were powerful, deadly, and highly durable warriors. |
Appearances: Official
Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#12: Undying entry
(March, 2010) - Jeff Christiansen (head writer/coordinator), Mike
Fichera, Markus Raymond, Mike O'Sullivan & Madison Carter
(coordination assistants), Chad Anderson, Jeff Christiansen, Stuart Vandal, Sean McQuaid, Michael Hoskin, Mike O'Sullivan, Ronald Byrd, Mike Fichera,
Madison Carter, Rob London, Gabriel Shechter, Eric J.
Moreels, David
Wiltfong, Jacob Rougemont, Chris Biggs, Rich Green, Kevin Garcia, Jeph York, & Mark O'English (writers), Brian
Overton (copy editor), John Denning & Alex Starbuck (assistant
editors), Mark D. Beazley (editor, special projects), Jeff Youngquist
&
Jennifer Grunwald (editors)
Cable II#79 (May, 2000) - Robert Weinberg (writer), Michael Ryan (penciler),
Andrew Pepoy (inker), Mark Powers (editor)
Cable II#80 (June, 2000) - Robert Weinberg (writer), Michael Ryan (penciler), Scott Hanna (inker), Mark Powers (editor)
Cable II#81-82 (July-August, 2000) - Robert Weinberg (writer), Michael Ryan (penciler),
Andrew Pepoy (inker), Mark Powers (editor)
Cable II#83 (September, 2000) - Robert Weinberg (writer), Michael Ryan (penciler), Walden Wong (inker), Mark Powers (editor)
Cable
II#84 (October, 2000) - Robert Weinberg (writer), Michael Ryan (penciler),
Nathan Massengil & Andrew Pepoy (inkers), Mark Powers (editor)
First posted: 05/26/2023
Last updated: 07/02/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
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Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
(Cable
II#84 (fb) - BTS) - The Undying spent the next several million years
traveling from world to world aboard the Serayn ship, the artificial intelligence of which became
known as Azazel, devouring the death energies of a multitude of lifeforms.