Spikes

With an appetite that can never be sated, the Spikes consume other beings to continue living. Though they meet their match on Sakaar when the people of the planet fight back.

Never Satisfied

An extraterrestrial race of unknown origin, the history of the Spikes prior to their arrival on Sakaar remains a mystery. The voracious Spikes seem to be driven solely by an instinctive need to eat, grow, and reproduce. But to do so, they require massive amounts of organic material. It is speculated that decades ago, the Spikes ingested all of the organic material on their home planet, forcing them to develop space travel technology so they could venture to other planets to satisfy their insatiable hunger. While other star-faring species are driven to space travel by the thrill of exploration or desire for conquest, the Spikes are interested only in feeding.

Gelatinous Host with the Most

The Spikes are an intelligent species with their own language, culture, traditions, and history, but they are so different physiologically from the essentially humanoid inhabitants of Sakaar that Imperial scientists are unable to decipher how to communicate with them. Although Spikes possess highly evolved nucleus-brains and are capable of rapid adaptation and construction of advanced technology when it suits them, their physiology remains relatively primitive. Their bodies consist primarily of an amorphous ball of cytoplasm protected by a thin outer plasma wall. Spikes have few internal organs, the most important being their complex, brain-like nucleus. Although they seem to lack a central nervous system, the Spikes exhibit total control over their cytoplasm, able to create tentacle-like extensions for mobility and manipulation of tools. If necessary, Spikes can pull themselves into shapes approximating the forms of other creatures to operate weapons or vehicles created for other species, although it is very stressful for them to hold these shapes for extended periods of time. Plus, they have proven unable to fully mimic the appearance of another species since their bodies remain translucent and semi-liquid.

A Feeding Frenzy

Spikes envelop and consume any organic matter with which they come into contact. When in the vicinity of a suitable biological host organism, a Spike extends a dagger-like pseudopod used to infect its victim. Once one of these pseudopods pierces the host organism’s skin, Spike DNA is introduced into the victim’s body. In a process that can take place in mere seconds, the host organism exhibits uncharacteristic behavior, slurred speech, and joint deformity as the Spike DNA integrates into the DNA of the host cell chromosomes. The victim suffers from spinal cord breakdown and/or other severe neurological disorders as the fully-integrated Spike DNA replicates along with the host organism’s cell genome. Ultimately, the host organism is rendered brain dead, its body becoming completely gelatinous as bones and cartilage are dissolved into the Spike cytoplasm. At this point, the Spike DNA has taken over complete control of the host organism’s nervous system and bodily functions.

Foes Look Like Food

On Sakaar, the Spikes encounter the races that inhabit the planet–pink-skinned humanoids known as the Imperials, the grey-skinned nomadic Shadow People, and the insectoid Natives. All four races make up the Sakaarians. The Spikes’ goal is to eat them all to satisfy their insatiable appetites, but the Sakaarians eventually fight back in a united front.

Breadwinners at the Table

The Spikes are allied to each other and what drives them–their need to feed. They also ally with Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk, and his Warbound to go against the Imperial leader, Angmo II, AKA Red King. Doing so helps the Hulk and his allies, so in exchange Hulk sends the Spikes and the trapped Spikes on Sakaar’s moon into space.

A Movable Feast

The Spikes first arrived on Sakaar in the year 504 Post. When their armada of enormous, spike-shaped vessels appeared above Kumar Province and launched a devastating attack upon the province’s outlying cities, the Imperials once opposed to the Father Emperor immediately looked to their leader for guidance in such a crisis. It was clear that these strange aliens came to eat, and tended to regard humanoids as food rather than sentient beings. The Father Emperor declared war on these “Spikes,” named for the shape of their terrifying vehicles and the dagger-like pseudopods with which they infected their victims. Minor skirmishes erupted across the Empire as new Spike armadas arrived on Sakaar everyday. The other races on the planet, the Shadow People and the Natives, joined the Imperials in fighting the Spikes.

After a costly, decades-long war, the Father Emperor eventually forced a few Spike survivors to enter one of their own warships, which Imperial scientists had reconfigured to take the Spikes into permanent exile on Sabyr, Sakaar’s broken moon. With their ships and technology destroyed, the Spikes were stranded on Sabyr.

When the leader of the Imperials, the Red King, felt threatened by those who spoke against the Empire, including the Hulk and his Warbound, he corralled Spikes to quell the rebels. The Hulk ended up infected by the Spikes but survived it and fought it off. In the process, Hulk recognized that the Spikes were also sentient, and thanks to Miek, the insectoid Native who could communicate with them through a kind of telepathy known as “chemming,” offered them a deal to turn on the Emperor. In exchange, he would liberate them and those still trapped on Sabyr. The Spikes were vital in going against the Red King and Hulk followed through with his word, sending the Spikes into space.