GOLGOTHA(see comments)
GOLGOTHA
(see comments)
Classification: Apparently fungal extraterrestrial race
Location/Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
a large pod/swarm of the creatures dwelled in space
(and were apparently utterly destroyed outside Earth's atmosphere);
three different Golgotha formerly dwelled in
subterranean regions in Antarctica; Jerusalem, Israel; and Los Angeles,
California, USA;
Known Members: None identified;
Antarctic creature; Jerusalem creature; Los Angeles creature;
although all observed Golgotha were apparently exterminated, it is quite possible that others exist
Affiliations: Group of mutants led by Boy (including Frankie)
Enemies: Antarctic mutant society
(notably "Butterfly-Bore," High smith, "Sinner"), Gazer, X-Men (Emma
Frost, Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Havoc/Alex Summers, Iceman/Bobby Drake,
Polaris/Lorna Dane, Rogue/Anna Marie, Wolverine/James Howlett/Logan);
people of Los Angeles, California and Jerusalem, Israel
First Appearance: (Mentioned, behind-the-scenes) X-Men II#166 (March, 2005);
(seen) X-Men II#167 (April, 2005)
Powers/Abilities: The Golgotha are apparently
fungal creatures that feed on negative psychic energy, particularly in
mutants; this feeding causes insanity, hallucinations, and extreme
violent behavior to
manifest in those nearby.
The Golgotha “pods,” which are pea-sized and capable of flight, use that collected energy to construct massive, heavily-armored shells.
They discard their shells after 24
hours and fly away, searching for new sources of sustenance, although
when psychic energy is scarce, they can apparently reside in their
shells for millennia, at least.
While regrowing their shells, they
are vulnerable to attack and psychically influence others to avoid them
(such as making others think they have checked a location), keeping
them safe from harm.
Within their shells, they are
large and powerful, able to assault others with their tentacles. They
are capable of interstellar travel, indicating both an ability to
survive the frigid vacuum of space and the ability to achieve
faster-than-light travel (presumably via warp speed or accessing space
and/or time portals, etc.)
Traits: Golgotha travel through space within their shells in large groups (pods? swarms? schools? packs?).
They apparently have no qualms about generating suicidal and/or murderous insanity in those around them.
Type: Somewhat unique fungal entities in the form of something resembling a cetacean-cephalopod hybrid
Eyes: Multiple, black
Fingers: None
Toes: None
Skin color: Blue-gray
Average height: The pods were apparently only 5-10 mm in size, while shells grew to great size, perhaps 40-100' in length
Other Distinguishing Features: The Golgotha have multiple tentacles extending from the lower/back portion of their bodies. 
History:
(X-Men II#167 (fb) - BTS)
- Golgotha apparently arrived on Earth at least 2000 years ago, with
one below the site of Golgotha (aka Calvary), the Jerusalem hill on
which Jesus Christ was crucified.
(X-Men II#166 (fb) -BTS) - A group of mutants attempted to establish a Mutant Utopia in an Antarctic base.
Influenced by one of the Golgotha, the society committed mass suicide (one mutant even ripped out his own heart) and murder and wrote the word "Golgotha" in blood on the walls within their society.
Additionally, the Golgotha in Jerusalem caused an outbreak of violence in the region.
The Golgotha in Los Angeles caused local humans and mutants to wreak havoc.
(X-Men II#167 (fb) - BTS)
<Two weeks before the main story> - A suicide bomb at an
archeological site in Jerusalem killed two young volunteers.
Two days later, the madness killed another 20 around the archeological site.
(X-Men II#166 - BTS) -
Investigating the Antarctic mutant site, X-Men Gambit, Havoc, Iceman,
Polaris and Rogue appreciated that something inside the society had
caused their deaths.
The few surviving mutants they encountered
committed suicide soon after, while Polaris apparently slew one who
assaulted her mentally.
The X-Men encountered and battled
a trio of mutants whose memories had been degraded by the Golgotha.
A
captured mutant bit off his own tongue and then died of a heart attack
rather than discuss what had happened to him.
Emma Frost told them she knew who and where Golgotha was...
(X-Men II#167) - Emma led the
others to the deeper levels to locate Golgotha, although they suffered
progressive irrationality and hostility. The creature apparently
extended a tentacle toward Havoc, who blasted the tentacle apart.
They
then dragged it to the
surface and, while Havoc wanted to destroy the creature, Emma (and
Wolverine, who had accompanied her) convinced the others to bring it
back to the X-Mansion so she could study it.
They towed it beneath the
Blackbird.
(X-Men II#167 - BTS) - In
Hollywood, a mutant known as Boy recruited a few scatter-brained
mutants.
Gologtha was written in graffit on a wall. 
Boy felt that he
was half-crazy already, which left him less-affected by whatever was
affecting the sanity of others left him pretty much unscathed.
Overwhelmed by the Golgotha's influence, Boy
subsequently led the mutants to slaughter a group of humans in their
shelter, included Jim Collins and his family, who had formerly used Boy
as a servant.
Golgotha was written in blood on a wall at the site.
(X-Men II#167) - Back at the X-Mansion, the creature was apparently hermetically and clinically sealed to prevent it from spreading further madness.
After sending the other X-Men to investigate Calvary (one of the locations suspected to be the site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ), Emma hooked up with Cerebra and tried to probe the creature's mind, but she suffered some degree of insanity instead.
(X-Men II#167 - BTS) - In
Jerusalem, Rogue and Gambit encountered a man selling religious
trinkets; touching the man while reaching for an amulet in a form similar to
Golgotha, Rogue gained his memories of stories handed down from
generations of a creature that lived inside the rock shaped like a
skull.
Wolverine sensed that there was something alive below them.
(X-Men II#168) - Cerebra cleared the chemicals
affecting Emma.
As the X-Men battled the creature beneath the alleged site of Christ's crucifixion, Emma reported the outbreaks of Golgotha rage in Los Angeles and asked the X-Men to look into those after they had defeated the creature.
(X-Men II#168 - BTS) - Regaining some clarity, Boy struggled to control the still-affected mutants, who continued to battle and injure each other.
(X-Men II#168) - As the X-Men towed the creature from Jerusalem back to the X-Mansion, Iceman, Polaris, and Wolverine dropped down to LA.
(X-Men II#168 - BTS) - Boy's group slaughtered multiple humans at a major television network's board meeting, after which Polaris subdued the group, and the X-Men contained them and brought them back to the X-Mansion.
(X-Men II#168) - The captured Antarctic and Jerusalem creatures were placed within stasis tanks in the X-Mansion.
(X-Men II#168 - BTS) - As the other captured mutants
howled in padded cells, the creatures continued to affect the X-Men,
causing in-fighting. 
The X-Men quarantined themselves to the mansion
for 24 hours before the source of madness would apparently wear off.
(X-Men II#169 - BTS) - The Golgotha inside the Blackbird continued to madden the X-Men. Emma nearly cut up her own face with scissors, and she saw Havoc as Cyclops.
(X-Men II#169) - When Iceman and Polaris went to check the Blackbird, the Golgotha made them believe that they had already checked it.
(X-Men II#169 - BTS) - Wolverine kissed Rogue, weakening him and causing her to believe she was Logan.
(X-Men II#169) - Polaris
located the Golgotha and led the others to it.
They then located and
destroyed the pod to prevent it from starting another cycle.
Gazer subsequently reported from Space Station
Eight, notifying them of a swarm of Golgotha headed for Earth.
(X-Men II#170 (fb) - BTS) - The X-Men determined that there were 362 Golgotha headed for Earth.
(X-Men II#170 - BTS) -
The X-Men met with General O'Shea in NASA HQ, Houston, Texas.
Although
the US military had nuclear missiles intended to stop the creatures,
Emma argued that the creatures would evade the missiles and then cause
mass insanity on Earth.
(X-Men II#170 (fb) - BTS) - Believing the X-Men would die in space, O'Shea agreed to let them take a NASA rocket up to Space Station Eight.
(X-Men II#170) - Borrowing some power from Havoc and Polaris, Rogue joined the other X-Men in spacesuits destroying the giant Golgotha shells.
Once most of the group was dying, some atavistic
swarm instinct apparently caused the others to commit
self-annihilation.
(X-Men II#170 - BTS) - The X-Men returned to Earth.
Comments: Created by Peter Milligan, Salvador Larroca,and Danny Miki.
The name of the race may not
really be Golgotha, but that word was used repeated in the heads of
those manipulated by the creatures, so that's what we're going with.
They were referred to as mushrooms
by the X-Men in-story. Looking at them, I would have called them squids
or something more like a mollusk than a fungus, but apparently the
X-Men analyzed them and considered them to be fungal organisms.
Golgotha
From my half-ass research, Golgotha was the term
used by St. Jerome to replace Calvary (derived from Latin words meaning
"skull" or "place of the skull," like calvarium) in his translation of
a number of Bible verses.
As far as I can understand, Golgotha is the Greek translation of
the Aramaic Gulgatha or the Hebrew Gulgoleth, which both mean "skull."
Apparently the site was a little knoll rounded like a bare skull.
The actual location of Golgotha is under contention, and you can do your own research on that...
I don't see where the X-Men
captured the creature under Los Angeles (the one that was sending Boy
and his group on their rampages).
The X-Men brought the one
from Antarctica back in #167 (and it was put in Cerebra, where it
continued to affect Emma Frost until she contained it), and then in
#168, they brought the one back from Jerusalem. While I have enjoyed a lot of
Peter Milligan's work, I did not enjoy this story arc. The madness seemed more the focus, and battles with
the creatures were largely glossed over.
They were described as mushrooms but looked like
mollusk/cephalopods...and when traveling through space, they certainly
looked more like cetaceans/whales with tentacles on their lower
half...not unlike the Giganto variant (the red, tentacled creature in
the bottom left of the composite image in the comments section of Giganto's profile.
Apparently they weren't much
of a physical threat, and once they were found, the X-Men could easily
subdue them despite their massive size...it was their madness
generation that made them
dangerous.
Anyway, I read the original stories back in 2005 and
then re-read them all twice for this profile...but, if you can provide
clarification/explanation/correction, please do...just be certain to
cite your sources so I can confirm.
It is interesting that when the Golgotha approached Earth, no effort was made to turn them away and/or convince them not to travel to worlds and cause insanity there. The X-Men just slew them.
Even more oddly, when the Golgotha
started exploding in space, and Emma Frost noted that they were having
some atavistic swarm instinct causing self-annihilation, Wolverine
asked her if she was making this stuff up, and she said "maybe a little."
I guess the mass suicide was good for a joke...
The X-Men also seemed relatively flip about the mass murders and suicides in the Antarctic mutant society...
Maybe the Golgotha madness-influence can be blamed?
Perhaps I missed the point, but I
believe part of the point of the story was that the Golgotha beneath
Jerusalem was responsible for the unrest in the Middle East for the
last 2000 years. Wouldn't it be nice if it were that simple?
When did the Golgotha arrive in Los Angeles and
Antarctica, and why did they only cause unrest in the present?
OK, LA, like any city, has plenty of unrest, but why did the Golgotha only start causing unrest recently?
Maybe the one under Jerusalem had settled into a certain level, but
then the Antarctic mutant society stimulated the Golgotha dwelling
beneath that area, and that creature's activity further stimulated the
Golgotha under LA and Jerusalem?
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Golgotha should be distinguished from:
 
One of the Golgotha lived in Antarctica, and at some point, after a
mutant society was established there, the creature drove them all to
mass insanity culminating in murder and/or suicide. This slaughter attracted the attention of the X-Men who futilely sought to save the survivors. Emma Frost subsequently arrived and led the X-Men to locate and capture the Golgotha. They transported it back to the X-Mansion, and Emma Frost tried to examine it via Cerebra. Emma initially fell under its influence, but eventually Cerebra nullified its influence. --(BTS) X-Men II#166; (full) X-Men II#167 (168 Note: The creature being dragged across the frozen wasteland in the Antarctic is this creature. After it was brought to the X-Mansion, its existence became less clear... |
 
(X-Men II#167 (fb) - BTS)
- Golgotha apparently arrived on Earth at least 2000 years ago, with
one below the site of Golgotha (aka Calvary), the Jerusalem hill on
which Jesus Christ was crucified. (X-Men II#166 (fb) -BTS) - The Golgotha in Jerusalem caused an outbreak of violence in the region. (X-Men II#167 - BTS) - Emma Frost sent the other X-Men to investigate Calvary (one of the locations suspected to be the site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ) (X-Men II#167 - BTS) - In
Jerusalem, Rogue and Gambit encountered a man selling religious
trinkets; touching the man while reaching for an alien form similar to
Golgotha, Rogue gained his memories of stories handed down from
generations of a creature that lived inside the rock shaped like a
skull. Wolverine sensed that there was something alive below them. (X-Men II#168) - The X-Men battled the creature beneath the alleged site of Christ's crucifixion, Emma reported the outbreaks of Golgotha rage in Los Angeles and asked the X-Men to look into those after they had defeated the creature. (X-Men II#168) - As the X-Men towed the creature from Jerusalem back to the X-Mansion, Iceman, Polaris, and Wolverine dropped down to Los Angeles. (X-Men II#168 - BTS) - Boy's group slaughtered multiple humans at a major television network's board meeting, after which Polaris subdued the group, and the X-Men contained them and brought them back to the X-Mansion. (X-Men II#168) - The captured Antarctic and Jerusalem creatures were placed within stasis tanks in the X-Mansion.--(BTS) X-Men II#167; (full) X-Men II#168 |
(X-Men II#169 - BTS) - Wolverine kissed Rogue, weakening him and causing her to believe she was Logan. They then located and destroyed the pod to prevent it from starting another cycle. --X-Men II#169 |
| The creature below Los Angeles creature notably caused a mutant known as Boy to lead other mutants to slaughter people hiding in a safe house, Jim Collins and his family, who had formerly used Boy
as a servant; as well as those present at a major television network's board
meeting. The X-Men subdued and captured Boy and his group and apparently captured the associated Golgotha creature --X-Men II#167 (168 |
 .. (X-Men II#167 - BTS) - In Jerusalem, Rogue and Gambit encountered a man selling religious trinkets; touching the man while reaching for an amulet in a form similar to Golgotha, Rogue gained his memories of stories handed down from generations of a creature that lived inside the rock shaped like a skull. --X-Men II#167 |
images: (without ads)
X-Men II#167, story pg. 8-9, panel 1 (X-Men dragging Antarctic creature);
pg. 12-13, panel 1 (Blackbird towing Antarctic creature);
pg. 16, panel 2 (Antarctic creature within Cerebra);
pg. 19, panel 3 (Jerusalem necklace);
#168, story pg. 3, panel 1 (X-Men vs. Jerusalem creature);
pg. 6, panel 4 (Jerusalem creature towed under Blackbird);
pg. 16, panel 1 (two creatures in stasis tanks);
#169, story pg. 7 (Golgotha true form/pod within Blackbird);
pg. 19 (previously hidden Golgotha shell now visible);
pg. 22 (Golgotha swarm headed toward Earth);
#170, pg. 11 (X-Men vs. Golgotha in space);
pg. 17, panel 1 (Golgotha self-annihilating)
Appearances:
X-Men
II#166 (March, 2005) - Peter Milligan (writer), Salvador Larroca
(penciler), Danny Miki (inker), Stephanie Moore & Sean Ryan
(assistant editors), Mike Marts (editor)
X-Men II#167 (April, 2005) - Peter Milligan (writer),
Salvador Larroca (penciler), Danny Miki (inker), Stephanie Moore &
Sean Ryan (assistant editors), Nick Lowe (associate editor), Mike Marts (editor)
X-Men II#168 (May, 2005) - Peter Milligan (writer),
Salvador Larroca (penciler), Danny Miki (inker),
Sean Ryan (assistant editor), Nick Lowe (associate editor), Mike Marts
(editor)
X-Men II#169-170 (June-July, 2005) - Peter Milligan (writer),
Salvador Larroca (penciler), Danny Miki with Allen Martinez (inkers),
Sean Ryan (assistant editor), Nick Lowe (associate editor), Mike Marts
(editor)
First posted: 11/12/2023
Last updated: 11/12/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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(X-Men II#169) - When Iceman and Polaris went to check the Blackbird, the Golgotha made them believe that they had already checked it.