Acanti

The Acanti are a race of fictional whale-like aliens appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They have appeared in Uncanny X-Men within the Marvel Comics universe. They were created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Dave Cockrum.^[1] Many of them were enslaved by the Brood empire.

Acanti
The Acanti as depicted in Uncanny X-Men #166 (November 1982). Art by Paul Smith (penciller), Bob Wiacek (inker), and Lynn Varley (colorist).
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Uncanny X-Men #156 (April 1982)
Created by	Chris Claremont (writer) Dave Cockrum (artist)

Physical characteristics

The Acanti are colossal whale-like creatures with several pairs of fins and widely spaced eyes. An adult Acanti can grow to several miles in length, and even an infant is large enough to swallow a spaceship.^[2] They communicate through psionic sounds referred to as songs and can fly faster than the speed of light without assistance.^[3][4][5]

Fictional race biography

The Acanti are an ancient species which peacefully wanders through space, benevolent and compassionate by nature. The Acanti are led by one individual known as the Prophet-Singer. The Prophet-Singer is the repository of the Acanti's racial Soul, a collective semi-mystical force that links and motivates the Acanti species. As death approaches, the Acanti typically hurl themselves into stars. The Prophet-Singer of each generation also does so, releasing the Soul to join the body of the next Prophet-Singer.^[6][4]

Upon migrating to the Milky Way galaxy, the Brood begin to enslave the Acanti to take advantage of their natural ability to travel at speeds exceeding light.^[3] The Brood infect individual Acanti with the Slaver Virus, a disease which destroys the higher cognitive functions of their minds, enabling them to be easily controlled and converted into living starships. The Brood succeed in enslaving the Acanti Prophet-Singer, and when he eventually dies and crashes on a planet, its body is reconstructed as a "throne city" that the Brood establish as the center of their empire. Thus, the Soul remains trapped in the skull of the dead Prophet-Singer.^[7][6][4][1]

One day, the X-Men are abducted and infected by the Brood and brought to their homeworld. Carol Danvers (formerly Ms. Marvel) becomes linked with a white hole and transforms into Binary. The process makes her temporarily insane, and she blasts out of Lilandra Neramani's yacht, causing an explosive decompression that sucks Storm into space. Storm is found by the newborn Prophet-Singer, whose mother was enslaved by the Brood. Storm starts transforming into a Brood as the egg begins to hatch. The Prophet-Singer saves Storm (who destroys the egg and critically wounds herself).^[7] Other Acanti merge Storm's consciousness with that of the Prophet-Singer while Storm's body heals in a cocoon within him.^[1]

The Acanti save Storm, entering into a symbiotic relationship in which they heal Storm's body, purging it of the Brood embryo, and Storm's experienced mind provides a source of focus and strength for the baby Prophet-Singer. The Acanti then swallows Lilandra's yacht, masking it from Brood sensors while the crew effect repairs.^[7]

The Chitauri used the Acanti and the Starsharks to create the Chitauri Leviathans, which serve a similar purpose as living ships.^[8]

In other media

• The Acanti appear in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode "Love in Vain".^[9]
• The Acanti appear in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy.^[1]