Tu

Real Name: Tu

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial

Occupation: Merchant

Group Membership: Owner of Tu's shop

Affiliations: Formerly Karel and the Chnitt race

Enemies:  Lucas Bishop, Deathbird (Cal'syee Neramani), Karel, the Chnitt

Known Relatives: Allegedly nine offspring; he did not mention a wife

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unidentified (see comments)
    formerly a "traders' planet"

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men#358 (August, 1998)

Powers/Abilities: Tu did not demonstrate any superhuman abilities. He had four arms (each with three fingers and an opposing thumb), and he was blind. He smoked and apparently drank (presumably an intoxicating drink) on the job. He was an experienced negotiator and ran a shop, Tu's, "where bargains bloom and purchasers pay front-up."
    He was willing to betray a friend, presumably for financial reward.

    In addition to whatever was around his shop, he had some sort of handheld communicator device, which he used to contact the Chnitt.

Height: Approximately 5'6" (he looks 2-3" shorter than Karel, who is pretty close to Deathbird when they are standing face-to-face)
Weight: Approximately 180 lbs. (boosting him up a bit due to the two extra arms)
Eyes: Unrevealed (he wears a pair of  opaque/presumably one-way glasses)
Hair: Black
Skin: Light blue

 

 

History:
(Uncanny X-Men#358 (fb) - BTS) - Tu opened a curios (and other things) shop called Tu's and allegedly had nine children.

(Uncanny X-Men#358 (fb) - BTS) - Tu met Karel, who came to regard him as a friend and to whom he thanked for many things.

(Uncanny X-Men#358) - Tu was visited in his shop by Karel, along with his allies Bishop and Deathbird. Before Karel even spoke, Tu knew it was him. Upon Karel speaking, Tu said, "I can hear you. I can't see you, but I can hear you...and your friends. Hello! Welcome to Tu's--where bargains bloom and purchasers pay front-up...I'm just a poor old sightless one, really...nine offspring...no food..." Karel cut Tu off, explaining how his allies were attacked by the Ursaa after he found them and that he had returned to his camp, only to find it destroyed, apparently by the Chnitt. Tu responded, "Oh my..." and Karel asked for a place to rest until low sun, after which they would get out of his hair.

(Uncanny X-Men#358 - BTS) - Tu agreed to Karel's request.

(Uncanny X-Men#358 (fb) - BTS) - Tu informed the Chnitt of Karel's plans and locations, and apparently accompanied at least one of them to that location, but they rewarded him for his aid with death.

(Uncanny X-Men#358) - After Deathbird slew the Chnitt that ambushed herself, Bishop, and Karel, they found Tu's corpse as Bishop pointed out that that the Chnitt had inside help that got killed once it served its purpose. Karel was nauseated upon seeing his seeming friend's fate, but led his allies on in their quest.

 

 

Comments: Created by Steve Seagle, Joseph Harris, Chris Bachalo, and Tim Townsend.

    Whether Tu is a native of the traders' planet, or whether he originates from another world is unrevealed. If the latter, it is unrevealed whether his appearance and abilities are typical for his race or not. Presumably, not everyone else in his race is blind. Also, if he originates from another world, we have no idea when he arrived on the traders' planet; if so, presumably he was shot down by the Chnitt when his ship approached the planet's orbit...or not.

    It is not specified, but presumably Tu betrayed Karel intending to gain some financial or other reward. Perhaps his family really was starving...or maybe he was just a jerk.

    Tu had the head of C-3PO (of Star Wars) or someone very similar looking on his bookshelf. In the bookshelf below, he has items (books, videos, DVDs, who knows?) labeled Lucas, Poe, (H?)einlein, and *pacers* (you can't read letters before or after that).

    Sammy7D wrote Tu as a sub-profile on Karel back in August 2002, in the early days of the Appendix. While doing profiles on the Barodi, Chnitt, and Ursaa, I decided to profile Karel and Tu as well (since we don't know enough about his race to profile them). It wasn't until I got most of the way through that I actually checked to see that Karel already had a profile. Nonetheless, the early profiles were lacking in detail and imagery compared to the modern ones, and most of the original Appendix profiles could use a revamp. So, I re-vamped Karel and Tu, expanding the latter into a full profile.

    We don't know a whole lot about Tu, as he was only in 4 panels.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

images: (without ads)
Uncanny X-Men#358, pg. 6, panel 4 - face;
            panel 5 - most of body, profile;
        pg. 8, panel 6 - with communicator; betrayal
        pg. 15, panel 1 - dead

Appearances:
Uncanny X-Men#358 (August, 1998) - Steve Seagle (story), Joseph Harris (script), Chris Bachalo (penciler), Tim Townsend (inker), Mark Powers (editor)

Last updated: 12/03/13

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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