CHAOS MITES
also known as
CHAOS SPRITES?
Classification: Extraterrestrial winged humanoids (Distant Past to present)
Location/Base of Operations: Mobile throughout the known universe
Known Members:
Skreet
Estimated population: 1 (population prior to "the Purge" unrevealed)
Creator: Diableri of Chaos (Proemial God)
Purpose: (Currently) None
(formerly, when serving Diableri) To help maintain cosmic consonance in
the living universe by sowing chaos amid order
Affiliations: Diableri of Chaos (Proemial God, creator, deceased)
Enemies: Proemial Gods (especially Aegis of All Sorrows)
First Appearance: (Skreet) Marvel Comics Presents I#172/3 (late
January, 1995)
(identified as "Chaos Mites") Annihilation: Silver Surfer#4 (September,
2006)
(Origin as "Chaos Sprites") Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#2/2 (May,
2007)
Powers/Abilities: Chaos Mites are beings born of chaos who Galactus considers to be "powerful beyond measure." In separate encounters, Skreet was able to single-handedly overpower two different Heralds of Galactus (the Silver Surfer and the Fallen One). Chaos Mites are so incredibly durable that they are virtually indestructible but they can be killed by beings as powerful as Proemial Gods (like Aegis). Their hair may be significantly less durable than the rest of their bodies since it seems that it can be cut or burned.
Chaos Mites can survive without air and easily withstand the vacuum and the cold of space. It is not known if they need to eat or if they derive their nourishment from sources other than food.
Chaos Mites have two transparent wings which resemble those of dragonflies. Sprouting from their upper backs (shoulder blades), these wings enable Chaos Mites to fly within atmospheres at high (possibly supersonic) speeds.
Chaos Mites have a natural plasma emission which they can use to fly through space. These plasma emissions enable them to accelerate to an unspecified speed level. Presumably, in order to accomplish the tasks assigned to them by Diableri, the Chaos Mites must have been able to somehow travel at faster-then-light speeds but how they did so, if they did so, has not been revealed.
Chaos Mites can project plasma from their bodies, usually through their hands, in powerful and potentially lethal blasts. Skreet was able to use her blasts to render the Silver Surfer unconscious.
Despite their small size, Chaos Mites possess superhuman strength as well as superhuman stamina, speed and agility.
Chaos Mites have extended lifespans and may be unaging (immortal unless killed). Being the "firstborn of the Creation Event" means that Chaos Mites could potentially be almost as old as the universe. However, the only known surviving Chaos Mite, Skreet, may be considerably younger, possibly being only(!) a few billion years old.
It is not known if the all-female Chaos Mites are able to reproduce naturally (via parthenogenesis) or if new Chaos Mites could only come into being when created by Diableri.
Skreet has exhibited some ability to alter her appearance, specifically the color of her skin and the color of her eyes. It has not been revealed if this was a natural ability or if these alterations were achieved via artificial means (like skin dyes and contact lenses).
Cultural Traits: Skreet is a fearless and savage combatant. She can also kill easily and without mercy if doing so will achieve her objectives but finds those who kill for pleasure (like the Fallen One) to be repugnant. It is not known if this behavior is typical of Chaos Mites.
Type: Winged Humanoid
Eyes: Two
Appendages: Six (two arms, two legs, two wings)
Fingers: Four (plus opposable thumb)
Toes: Five
Skin color: Pink
Hair: Black, blond, shades of brown
Average height: 4-5 inches (but Skreet has recently seemed larger)
Average weight: 3.2 ounces
Type of government: Unrevealed; they obeyed their master, Diableri of Chaos
Level of technology: Unrevealed, possibly none of their own
History:
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#2/2 (fb)) - Long ago, "when the living universe was young," it was of chaos but cosmic consonance demanded that there be order to balance chaos. Eventually, a group of beings were created as caretakers who would maintain cosmic consonance. These beings were initially without will or identity or awareness of anything but their respective tasks. One of these caretakers was tasked with creating chaos because order, if left unchecked, led to entropy.
(Annihilation: Silver Surfer#4 (fb) - BTS/Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#2/2 (fb)) - The "Firstborn of the Creation Event" were "Alpha life forms" known as Chaos Mites or Chaos Sprites. These beings, born of chaos and powerful beyond measure, somehow came to be through the Chaos caretaker whom they considered to be their master. They served as their master's eyes and ears, and on his behalf they sowed chaos amidst order, and thus they too served cosmic consonance.
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#2/2 (fb) - BTS) - Over time, these caretakers shepherded the young universe, maintaining the delicate balance between order and chaos, and the living universe expanded and flourished. However, with the passage of time these caretakers also changed as they evolved to awareness. As they became sentient, these "Proemial Gods" chose names for themselves. The caretaker who had been tasked with sowing chaos amidst order became known as Diableri of Chaos.
(Annihilation: Silver Surfer#4 (fb) - BTS/Annihilation: The Nova Corps Files#1: Skreet profile (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the Chaos Mites/Sprites were judged to be "too unstable" and Aegis was tasked with culling them. Aegis carried out the purge and seemingly destroyed all of the Chaos Mites but she did not realize that one of them, Skreet, had been able to "hidey-hole" in a secret location that somehow prevented Aegis from sensing the fact that Skreet was still alive.
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#2/2 (fb) - BTS) - After more time had passed, the Proemial Gods fought amongst themselves in a war which left almost all of them dead. Diableri foolishly brought the war to Galactus who slew him and imprisoned Diableri's two remaining followers, Aegis and Tenebrous, in the Kyln for all time.
(Annihilation: Silver Surfer#4 (fb) - BTS) - It was at some point after that, when all of the Proemial Gods were dead and/or gone, that Skreet emerged from her "hidey-hole."
Many, many millennia passed. Skreet's activities during this extended period have not been revealed.
(Thanos I#11 (fb) - BTS) - In recent years, Skreet's partner Lunatik betrayed her by keeping her half of their earnings and delivering her to the authorities. Skreet was sent to the Kyln where she was placed in stasis confinement in a creche.
(Thanos I#9) - Skreet was freed from her stasis creche by the Maker who had previously escaped from her own creche. Skreet soon encountered Thanos.
(Annihilation: Prologue#1 - BTS/Annihilation: The Nova Corps Files: Omega Core entry/Annihilation: Silver Surfer#3 (fb) - BTS) - "Countless millennia" after the Creation Event, on Annihilation Day, the forces of the Annihilation Wave punched through the Crunch Energy Cascade into Reality-616 from the Negative Zone and immediately attacked the primary Kyln array, tearing the Moons from their gravitational moorings and causing them to collide with one another, resulting in massive casualties among both inmates and Omega Core officers. The destruction of the Kyln in which they had been contained for so long freed both Aegis and Tenebrous.
(Annihilation: Silver Surfer#4) <Annihilation Day, plus 40> - As Aegis and Tenebrous investigated the lifeforms on the unaffiliated colony world of Harborage Minor, they were approached by Thanos of Titan and his companion, Skreet, who was shocked to realize that the beings they were meeting were the "Proemial Elders" she knew as "Tenebrous of the Much Deepest Darkness" and "the Lady Aegis of All Sorrowings." During the conversation that followed, Aegis identified Skreet as a Chaos Mite, one of the firstborn of the Creation Event and an Alpha life form that the Proemial Gods had judged to be too unstable. Aegis asked the "little one" how she had survived the purge (that Aegis has conducted) but Skreet only replied, "Never tells! Never tells because might need to hidey-hole again!"
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#2/2 (fb) - BTS) <Annihilation Day, plus 281> - In preparation for his upcoming mission to find Aegis and Tenebrous, Galactus recounted to the Silver Surfer the origin and history of the Proemial Gods, including how "it was through Diableri that the Chaos Sprites came to be." Galactus described the Chaos Sprites as beings born of chaos who were powerful beyond measure and who served as Diableri's eyes and ears as minute sentinels tasked by their master to sow chaos amidst order in order to also serve cosmic consonance.
Comments: Skreet created by Lovern Kindzierski (script, co-plotter,
colorist and co-creator), Keith Giffen (pencils, co-plotter, and co-creator), and Charlie
Adlard (inks, he didn't co-create it)
Skreet identified as a "Chaos Mite" by Keith Giffen
Chaos Sprites created by Keith Giffen and Andrea Divito.
Information about a Chaos Mite's average height and weight comes from data about Skreet that I found online. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the source of this data is. Also, Skreet seems to have grown significantly by the time she and Cammi became partners so that data may be inaccurate anyway.
Information about a Chaos Mite's abilities is taken from Skreet's profile in Annihilation: The Nova Corps Files#1 (October, 2006), presented as being from the Xandar Worldmind Nova Corps Database. I have chosen to ignore the claims that Skreet was born on the planet Pyx and that Tenebrous aided Aegis in her "great purge" of the Chaos Mites.
Chaos Mites? Or
Chaos Sprites?
Lovern Kindzierski and Keith Giffen co-created the character
of Skreet in 1995 but it wasn't until more than 11 years later that Giffen revealed that she
was actually a Chaos Mite. I wonder if this was always the origin that he had intended for her
or if he just decided to use Skreet for his "Thanos at the Kyln" storyline and then saw a way
to incorporate her into the backstory of his Proemial God characters? I guess only he knows
(but I suspect it's the latter).
Anyway, Keith Giffen's Annihilation stories contain two sets of discrepancies. First, what is the actual name of Skreet's race? I wrote this profile believing that "Chaos Mites" like Skreet were the same as the "Chaos Sprites" mentioned by Galactus. As tiny pink-skinned humanoid women with wings on their backs, Skreet certainly does look exactly like the Chaos Sprites in this profile's main image. Also, slight variations in names are not unknown in Giffen's stories. When Aegis and Tenebrous were first introduced, Skreet called them "Proemial Elders" but Galactus later identified them as being "Proemial Gods." As a result, some online sources (like the Marvel Universe Wiki) believe that these Chaos Mites and Chaos Sprites should be considered to be two different species, and that the idea that they are a single species is only speculation until such time as a future Marvel story might confirm it.
The second discrepancy concerns whether or not the Chaos Mites/Sprites are older than the Proemial Gods. On the one hand, Aegis identified the Chaos Mites as the "firstborn of the Creation Event" and "Alpha life forms" who the Proemial Gods judged were too unstable and had them purged. On the other hand, Galactus claimed that the Chaos Sprites came to be "through Diableri," implying that that Proemial God had created them and that the caretakers must have existed before the Sprites.
I have developed two possible explanations for these
discrepancies.
Scenario #1: Chaos Mites and Chaos Sprites are different races. The Chaos Mites came into
being first, even before the Proemial Gods who later exterminated them. The Chaos Sprites
were actually created by Diableri at some point after the Chaos Mites had been purged.
Presumably Diableri created them without the instability inherent in the Chaos Mites.
Scenario #2: Chaos Mites and Chaos Sprites are just different names for the same species. The Proemial Gods existed first and Diableri did create the Chaos Mites but Aegis called them "Alpha life forms" because she and the other Proemial Gods considered themselves to be a different (and greater) class of being than any of the (lesser) "fledgling life-forms" that appeared in the young universe after they began their caretaking.
Both of these scenarios could be "true" and, although I
prefer the second one and have used it in this profile, there is really no way to say for
sure that it's the "right" explanation. Only future stories will tell.
I
agree that the second option seems likely, forgiving the writer for
using the term sprite instead of mite, or vice-versa...Snood.
How old are the Chaos Mites?
The only information provided about how old the Chaos Mites
are is that Galactus fought the Proemial Gods when "the universe was young." Aside from
being vague, this answer is also misleading because it implies that Galactus himself was
active when the universe was young. In fact, although Galactus, as a survivor from the
previous universe, has existed since the Big Bang, he has actually spent most of those 13.8
billion years in an inactive state within his re-created starship. It was not until after
his starship crashed on a planet whose primitive life forms were being observed by the Watcher
Ecce that Galactus began to awaken. It is this connection to the Watchers that significantly
limits how long Galactus could have been active since the Watchers, despite being an ancient
race, are not as old as the Elders of the Universe who have been alive for 5.5 billion
years. Therefore, if Ecce must be younger than 5.5 billion years and his observation of the
nascent Galactus cannot have taken place before his birth, then Galactus can only have first
become active in the universe less than 5.5 billion years ago.
Taking these facts into account, the Age of the Proemial Gods must have ENDED at some point within the past 5.5 billion years but there's no way to know how early in the lifespan of the living universe their age began. So, the Chaos Mites and the Proemial Gods could have come into being anytime within the first 8.3 billion years of the universe's existence or maybe even later. In any event, it would seem that the Chaos Mites are probably even older than the so-called Elders of the Universe.
Technically, stating that the present day is "countless
millennia" since the Creation Event is not inaccurate but it misleading since the use of
such a relatively small unit of time implies a smaller total amount of time had passed.
Surely just stating that billions of years had passed would have been more accurate and
more impactful?
--This annoys me, too. It's like describing the moon as being inches away.
Snood
In the "You Knew It Was Coming" department, I'm not too thrilled with the idea that the very first lifeforms to ever exist in the Marvel Universe just happen to look like (miniature) Caucasian human women...but what can one do? Tying the Chaos Mites to the Proemial Gods was a clever idea and Skreet had already been created as a very human-like character so there really wasn't anything that could be done to fix the situation.
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Chaos Mites (or Chaos Sprites) have no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#2, page 23, panel 1 (main image)
Annihilation: Silver Surfer#4, page 23, panels 1-2 (Aegis, Thanos and Skreet)
Only Appearance (excluding Skreet):
Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#2/2 (May, 2007) - Keith Giffen (writer), Andrea Divito
(artist), Andy Schmidt (editor)
First Posted: 02/15/2017
Last updated: 02/15/2017
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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