GIGANTIANS OF GIGANTUS

Classification: Extraterrestrial humanoid Eternal race

Location/Base of Operations: Gigantus, Gwydion system Andromeda galaxy, now destroyed

Known Members: None named;
    last survivor

Affiliations: None known

Enemies: Eternals of Eyung

Population: Zero;
    formerly quintillions

Capital City: Unrevealed

Government: Unrevealed

Languages: Unrevealed

Defense: They formed their own army and then an extraplanetary armada in response to the attack by the Eyungians;
    previously none, as the sheer size of Gigantus had been a deterrent to attacks

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#115 (October, 1971)

Powers/Abilities: None knowngigantansff-scientists.jpggigantansff-space_monitor

Traits: The Gigantans were a great, wise, peace- and life-loving, noble race with great technological advances, including equipment to view events on other worlds, presumably even other star systems.

    Gigantus was an immense Dyson Sphere, and the Gigantans presumably were the ones to develop that, indicating an incredibly advanced level of technology and resources.

    The Gigantans possessed weaponry, which they had had little cause to use; however, when assaulted by the Eternals of Eyung, the Gigantans developed armies and weaponry, combined with their vast numbers and Gigantus' vast size, that allowed them to fight off the Eyungians, who had defeated countless races before.

    The Gigantans were human in appearance and did not demonstrate superhuman abilities.

    As Eternals, they would almost certainly been long-lived, and they may have been able to form a Uni-Mind under certain circumstances (see comments).

History:
(Quasar I#16 (fb)) - Apparently at some point the Celestials visited the immense world (see comments) that would become known as Gigantus, experimenting on its natives and diverging three races, a baseline normal, Deviants, and Eternals.
    The Eternals apparently became the dominent race (see comments).

(All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#6: Over-Mind entry) - Gigantus was a Dyson Sphere.

(Fantastic Four I#115 (fb)) - The Eternals of Gigantus thrived great and noble, a gentle and wise people fully dedicated to the cause of peace. 

    Gigantus' immense size prevented any previous assaults.

    The people of Gigantus watched and feared via their advanced scanners/viewers as the war-faring Eternals of Eyung conquered and/or destroyed numerous worlds.

    The people of Gigantus watched as the Eternals of Eyung attacked the nearest inhabited planet.gigantansff-vowvengeance

    The Eyungians launched an attack on Gigantus. 

(Fantastic Four I#115 (fb) / Quasar I#16 (fb)) - The war between the Eyungians and Gigantans lasted millennia, with countless casualties.gigantansff-armada

(Fantastic Four I#115 (fb)) - Eventually, the Eyungians realized that Gigantus was too large too conquer, and that the Gigantans were progressively growing more skilled in warfare. As the Eyungians suffered greater numbers of defeats, they chose to instead destroy what they could not conquer.

(Fantastic Four I#115 (fb) / Quasar I#16 (fb)) - Fleeing Gigantus, the Eyungians launched a series of anti-matter Reaction Bombs, starting a chain reaction that would destroy it.  

(Fantastic Four I#115 (fb)) - Vowing retribution, the Gigantans launched a vast armada that soon attacked Eyung. Mocking the Eyungians' arrogance, the Gigantans launched Reaction Bombs on Eyung, which began to shatter as well.

(Fantastic Four I#115 (fb)) - The doomed Eyungians used synthesizing chambers to transfer their combined mental power into the greatest champion, Grom, whom they launched into space so he could escape Eyung and incubate to adapt to the power, eventually becoming the Over-Mind.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#10) - After destroying Eyung (aka Eternus), the Gigantians in some as yet unrevealed means melded their their minds into a single being to one day combat the Eternians' composite being (the Over-Mind).

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Archie Goodwin, John Buscema, and Joe Sinnott.

    As the dominant race was called Eternals, we can extrapolate that they were the result of experimentation by the Celestials, and that there were likely Deviant and baseline normals at some point, as we've seen with many other races, including the Skrulls.

    When first claiming to be the Gigantans' composite being, the Stranger said he was the sum of a billion billion brains. A billion billion equals a quintillion, which is 1000 quadrillion (which is 1000 trillion (which is 1000 billion (which is 1000 million))); so, it is a LOT.

    In Fantastic Four I#116, the Stranger claimed to be the sole survivor of the Gigantans. In Silver Surfer III#31 (IIRC), the Stranger claimed that to be a falsehood. In Quasar I#16, he claimed to have found, unwittingly slain, and adopted the role of the Gigantans' last survivor. The OHotMU has reported the current status quo in each case, with the current report echoing the Living Tribunal's comment that the Stranger is an enigma, even to himself.
    Regardless, the Stranger frequently changes his stories, it is very difficult to know the "truth."

    Quasar I#16 revealed that the Gigantians were the Eternals of Gigantus, and it was clarified/confirmed that the Eternals/Eternians/Eyungians were the Eternals of Eyung.

    In Fantastic Four I#115-116, they are just called the people of Gigantus. They are called Gigantians in the Over-Mind and Stranger profiles in the 20th century OHotMU profiles (although I don't think the names were used in their Master Edition), as well as in Quasar I#16 and the Over-Mind's 21st century profiles. They are called Gigantans in the Stranger's 21st century OHotMU profiles. I prefer "Gigantans," but it seems to be in the vast minority, and it doesn't seem to have any precedent. I'm currently working on a profile on the Stranger, so I'll try to keep an eye out for other references.

    The level of technology required to construct a Dyson Sphere is staggering. Google it.

    I had missed that back in OHotMU I#10's Stranger profile, when the Stranger was believed to be the Gigantian composite, Gigantus was identified as being in the Gwydion system--Snood

    A Dyson Sphere is a construct built around a sun like a shell. I saw one on Star Trek and I think Lila Cheney of the New Mutants was connected with one.
--Will U
    Yes, Lila uses one to store her loot.
--Snood

Profile by Chadman; expanded by Snood.

Clarifications:

No known connection to


gigantansff-survivor-cocoongigantansff-composite-gestatinglast Gigantians survivor
<see the note>

    The sole Gigantan survivor of the war against the Eyungians, it was gestating within an organic sac floating in space.

    It was intended to develop into a form that could seek out and thwart the last Eyungian survivor, who was a composite of the minds of all the Eyungians and who planned to enslave the galaxy, if not the universe.

    "Many galactic revolutions ago," when the Stranger had first begun collecting specimens for experiments regarding the nature of life in the universe, he encountered the Gigantan organic sac. Sensing a gestating being far more advanced than anything he had heretofore discovered, perhaps a member of the long-lost race that had sired him, the Stranger attempted to extricate the gesating being. In his youthful exuberance, the Stranger unintentionally fatally injured the being in the process.

    Before it expired, the being communicated to the Stranger its history, nature, and purpose.

    Unable to determine if the being was indeed one of his ancestors, the Stranger vowed to carry on its mission and to remain vigilant for the great menace it had described.

    The Stranger eventually carried out this mission when it first defeated the Over-Mind on Earth, at which point he represented himself as the being he had inadvertently killed.

--(Mentioned) Fantastic Four I#115; (seen) Quasar#16

Note: Most of the information above was supplied by the Stranger, and he has contradicted himself in relating tales of his origins, so we don't know how much, if any, the information is factual.

    When representing himself as the Gigantan being he had accidentally slain, the Stranger claimed to be the sum total of those of Gigantus, just as the Over-Mind was the sum of the Eternals of Eyung.

    When describing his encounter with the Gigantan being, the Stranger noted him to be the sole Gigantan survivor but did not specifically note that Gigantan to be a composite being. Without any further information to the contrary, that would be the assumption, but the "truth" may remain unrevealed.

    If the last Gigantan survivor was a composite being, he may be formed from the quintillion Gigantians, or perhaps "just" from the armada that escaped Gigantus' destruction. That armada, just a fraction of Gigantus' population, nonetheless represented an armada beyond anything the Eternals of Eyung had ever seen.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#10: Stranger) - It is unrevealed whether the composite-form's body is an artificial construct or one of the Gigantian's bodies enhanced to be a suitable receptacle for his race's mental and physical might.
--This information was based on the Stranger being said composite being.

(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z hardcover#11: Stranger) - The Stranger told the Over-Mind’s enemy was long dead, accidentally killed when the Stranger had found and studied the Gigantan uni-mind being.
--With the information from Quasar I#16 (or before) that the Gigantians were Eternals, the thought that they combined their mental powers via a Uni-Mind technique is an extremely logical progression.
   

images:
Fantastic Four I#115, pg. 8, panel 1 (main);
          panel 2-3 (interstellar viewing technology);
       pg. 10, panel 3 (vowing vengeance);
          panel 4 (armada)
Quasar I#16, pg. 28, pan2 & 3 (last survivor, organic sac and gestational forms)

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#115 (October, 1971) - Archie Goodwin (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Quasar#16 (November, 1990) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Mike Manley (pencils), Dan Panosian & Keith Williams (inks), Len Kaminski (editor)

First Posted: 11/24/2005
Last updated: 02/26/2020

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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