In Guardians of the Galaxy #8 we learned that Ronan had the scientists of the Kree Empire rebuild the Babel Spire the Phalanx initially constructed in Annihilation: Conquest Prologue #1*. Ronan recognized the Kree weren't exactly at their best right now, and the barrier the spire creates would hopefully provide some protection. Plus, it needs an energy source, and that means he had a use for all those damn Skrulls trying to secretly invade his empire**.
Of course, the barrier created by the Spire wound up being more of a Maginot Line*** than a {insert manmade defensive structure with greater direct success rate}, considering that Star-Lord made it to the Kree homeworld**** and the Inhumans went around it so easily, it might as well have not even been there.
That seems a bit curious. Consider that in Nova #4, Rich opened a stargate and hauled butt for the border of the Kree Empire once he learned the Phalanx had taken over. He hit the barrier and got crisped. OK, so teleportation involves hopping into some other dimension, then popping back into the one you started in at a different point. The barrier may have cut Kree space off from the rest of the universe, but that doesn't extend to those other dimensions. Except that leaves me wondering what the hell a stargate is supposed to be then? It's obviously some form of faster than light travel, if Rich can cross the distance between star systems in less than an hour. I was under the impression that it was equivalent to a hyperspace jump, like the ones they have in Star Wars. In both cases, one has to adjust for the gravitational influences of stars, planets, various other sources of significant matter*****.
Perhaps it's a matter of the "distance" removed from the universe in question. I haven't seen teleportation depicted as being affected by gravitational forces. Teleporters travel through a dimension far enough removed from their home universe that the forces present in said universe don't interfere with their travel. Stargates (or hyperspace) is just outside the home universe, so it can be interfered with by those forces.
The Phalanx barrier cut Kree space off from the rest of the universe, such that nothing could get in or out (except Rich opening a stargate as he was flying into a star, and that lacked accuracy and control). There was no communication between those inside and outside, the Quantum Bands couldn't draw from wherever their energy normally comes from. So I guess the answer is that the barrier forms a sort of gulf between what's inside and what's out, and stargates normally can't cross it. Stargates are an RV when the bridge is out, and teleporters are a helicopter.
Well, I feel better. Not really.
* It's funny, Babel Spires are normally formed from the Phalanx themselves, and signal their Technarch "parents", but here it was formed from corrupted Sentry robots, and created a barrier. Guess we chalk that up to Ultron being in charge.
** I like how Ronan was insulted - without really showing it - by Star-Lord thinking they'd need his assistance to deal with Skrulls. The Kree haven't been fighting the Skrulls to a stalemate for thousands of years by luck.
*** I know, that isn't really fair to the Line, since it did force the Germans to attack Belgium first, as planned, and it was ultimately beaten by aerial bombing, which it wasn't prepared for. Still, for the amount of time, effort, money, and hopes they had in that thing, it really didn't meet expectations.
**** I assume the barrier was up when Quill dropped by. The spire was already rebuilt, and certainly appeared to be up and running.
***** Wonder if that includes dark matter?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Stargates in Marvel have always been a little weird. Early on they seemed to be primarily a Shi'ar technology, and actually used a gate structure (in fact they still do, at least in Shi'ar space proper).
In Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire there's mention of a Stargate network, which Vulcan disrupts by destroying the second gate in the network from Earth to the Empire proper (wanted to leave the X-men stranded if they followed).
However cosmic beings seem to have the capability to generate personal stargates. Phoenix did it after leaving Earth, however it drained so much energy she had to eat the D'Bari solar system to repower.
The Nova Corps clearly has their own method though how they get around the power requirements interests me.
My guess though, is that it works by somehow linking the two locations directly possibly with some sort of "wormhole." That's why the Phalanx shield would disrupt stargates, but some teleporters would be able to bypass it.
Since it represents a physical linkage between two locations it would require even more power to break through it (and a Stargate's power requirements are off any scale that we could measure anyway). That would explain why Nova needed to go diving into a sun to build up the power requirements needed to gate past the barrier (and as I recall the process still left him barely able to function at the end of the jump).
So that's my two cents...I may have too much free time here at work. Isn't pseudoscience grand!
seangreyson: I would say you have just enough free time at work. And I really like the idea of stargates creating a connection between the locations. That would probably explain why Nova wound up on the ass end of the universe when he jumped through it, since the barrier would disrupt the connection, possibly shunt it elsewhere.
Pseudoscience is the best thing to talk about ever!
Post a Comment