When the universe first came into existence, one planet developed differently from all others, gradually evolving over millions of years to possess intelligence and consciousness. This planet became known as Ego, the Living Planet.
The entire sector of space within which Ego previously dwelt is a “bioverse,” teeming with life, but Ego is the only sentient creature known to exist. This area was dubbed the “Black Galaxy” by the Colonizers of Rigel, who lost several ships in attempts to explore the region. When Rigellian Colonizer Tana Nile extracts a portion of Ego's planetary surface, it drives the living planet mad. Galactus intervenes with the help of his herald Firelord, Thor, and Hercules. The trio distracts Ego long enough for Galactus to fashion a propulsion device that attaches to the planet's south polar axis, exiling Ego from the bioverse and making it unable to threaten inhabited worlds.
Ego the Living Planet has complete control over its entire mass down to the molecular level. If someone on Ego’s sentient surface looks like a threat, Ego can form tentacles and “antibody” minions to fight back. It can also reshape itself to assume the appearance of other worlds. Ego can also manipulate the weather, generate tremors, and create non-sentient plant and animal life.
But Ego isn’t known for being stable – the big brain at its core provides the Living Planet a world of intelligence and psychic abilities, like telepathy. Ego was also clever enough to control Galactus’ thruster when it was attached to its south pole, then mastered travel at warp speed after the thruster was gone.
Thor, the thunder god of Asgard, learns of Ego's past and sympathizes but ultimately opposes Ego on the occasions that it threatens Earth.
The Fantastic Four, super-powered protectors of Earth, confront Ego when it approaches their home world and causes massive tremors.
Nova Corps is Planet Xandar's space militia and exploration division and their power, Nova Force, comes from a living supercomputer called the Xandarian Worldmind. The Worldmind usurps Ego's consciousness, using the planet as Nova's new headquarters and calls it Nu-Xandar. Ego fights for control but Nova lobotomizes the Living Planet rendering it catatonic.
Elders of the Universe accept Ego into their ranks because it was the only creature of its kind, just as the Elders are each the last survivor of their species.
height
(Diameter) 4165 miles
weight
(Mass) 3.82 x 10^20 tons
gender
Male
Universe
Other Aliases
Identity
Known Relatives
Powers
Fearful that Ego would emerge from the Black Galaxy and devour their nearby planet, the Rigellians attempted to colonize Earth. Confronted by Thor Odinson, they explained their dilemma to him. Thor journeyed into the Black Galaxy to meet Ego, who was fascinated to meet a being from outside his space, and engaged Thor in battle so that it could test itself against other powers with its “antibody” creations. Ego intended to send its antibodies out to conquer other worlds, but Thor summoned energy from his father Odin and generated a powerful storm that stunned Ego. Forced to surrender to Thor, Ego vowed it would not leave the Black Galaxy.
Months later, the planet-devouring cosmic being Galactus invaded Ego’s space, seeking to replenish his energy by consuming Ego, who drove Galactus off with the aid of Thor. In gratitude toward Thor, Ego allowed its surface to become the new home of the Wanderers, surviving members of the Archeopian extraterrestrial race whose planet had been the first devoured by Galactus billions of years ago.
The Rigellian colonizer Tana Nile took a sample of Ego and bonded it to the planet Blackworld hoping that it might aid the Rigellians in terraforming new worlds. Instead, Blackworld spawned Ego-Prime, who bore some of the power of Ego itself and could dramatically accelerate evolution. Ego-Prime sought to transform Earth to resemble Ego so that it could become a part of the bioverse, but Jason Kimball, Carter Dyam, and Chi Lo (three of the mortals chosen to serve in the Young Gods) stole its energies. Ego-Prime’s energy allowed their latent abilities to manifest, and the weakened Ego-Prime was taken prisoner by the Stranger, who stored it within his laboratory world.
Driven insane by the removal of Tana Nile’s sample, Ego devoured the Wanderers. Desperate for energy, Galactus again tried to devour Ego but was outmatched and forced to flee. Recognizing that Ego had gone insane, Galactus dispatched his herald Firelord, Thor, and Hercules (Heracles) against Ego. While those three battled Ego, Galactus constructed a thruster and attached it to Ego’s south pole, forcing the planet to be continuously driven through space, unable to threaten inhabited worlds.
As Ego propelled through space, it began to decay from lack of sunlight but gained control over the thruster. Seeking revenge on Galactus, Ego headed for Earth, which Galactus had recently visited. Ego’s arrival in the solar system caused massive upheaval on Earth as tremors shook the world, but a man possessing near-infinite reality-altering power named L.R. “Skip” Collins exhausted his abilities to repair the damage Ego had done. The Fantastic Four confronted Ego in space, and Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards) had the Thing (Ben Grimm) remove an engine from Ego’s thruster. The Thing descended within Ego and hurled the engine into Ego’s brain, but it had little effect. Angered, Ego tried to fire the thruster again to destroy Earth. Ego was thrown off course by the missing engine, caught in the sun’s gravitational pull, and torn apart.
However, Ego’s consciousness still existed in every remaining portion of itself, and exposure to the sun’s energy helped revive it. Ego gradually rebuilt itself, reclaiming and repairing the thruster. Seeking new energy, Ego disguised itself as an idyllic paradise-like sphere to lure space travelers into landing upon it. A party of Dire Wraiths fell for Ego’s trap and set up a base on its surface. When they fought the Spaceknights Seeker and Scanner, Ego pulled them all beneath its surface to begin digestion. However, Rom the Spaceknight came to his comrades’ rescue and forced Ego to release them by threatening to fire his Neutralizer into Ego’s brain. The Dire Wraiths were sent to limbo by Rom before Ego could consume them.
Ego became an ally of the Elders of the Universe, who accepted Ego into their ranks because it was the only creature of its kind, just as the Elders were each the last survivor of their species. Ego served as the Elders’ mobile base of operations and fought the Silver Surfer on their behalf, attempting to consume the Surfer’s energies, but the Surfer seized control of Ego’s thruster and threatened to steer it into a sun, forcing Ego to release him.
Ego later encountered the Korbinite fleet, led by Beta Ray Bill, and attacked them, destroying several ships. When Ego revealed to Bill that it was being driven mad by Galactus’ thruster, Bill had the fleet destroy the thruster. In gratitude, Ego offered to make itself the Korbinites’ new home, but Bill refused, suspicious of Ego and knowing that the Korbinites would resent Ego for having killed some of them. Bill deserted Ego.
The enigmatic Celestials transformed the Black Galaxy into a new member of their race, and this Celestial contacted Ego. The High Evolutionary (Herbert Wyndham) investigated this, and as Ego was being consumed by an immense Super-Ego, speculated that Ego might be a single manifestation of a larger being and that more than one Ego may exist. More Celestials came to examine Ego’s dilemma, but how Ego escaped the Super-Ego is unknown.
As part of a complicated ploy to reestablish the Kree Empire, the Supreme Intelligence took control of Ego and sent it out to assault other worlds, attempting to “awaken” them with its energies so that those worlds would become sentient. Ego destroyed the homeworld of the Krylorians in its rampage, and the incident heightened tensions among the extraterrestrial races making up the Intergalactic Council. The Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd), Professor X (Charles Xavier), and Cadre K prevented it from destroying the Shi’ar throneworld, but the Supreme Intelligence arranged Ego’s seeming destruction before they could discern its purpose.
The Supreme Intelligence had his agents compact Ego’s essence and sent it to Earth. The Intergalactic Council was determined to make Earth a penal colony, and were in the process of sending many of their worst offenders there. Ego’s essence was found in a crashed rocket by a pair of senile farmers from Nebraska who thought they had saved a “space baby.” Ego started to spread itself across Earth, and manifestations of it engaged many of Earth’s heroes. As Ego began to consume the planet, the Supreme Intelligence tapped into Ego’s power with conduits and siphoned it to the Kree so that they could use Ego’s power. The Silver Surfer attempted to halt Ego’s infestation, but could not meet the challenge entirely. Quasar (Wendell Vaughn) finally stopped Ego by absorbing it into the Quantum Zone from which he drew his power. Ego was contained but was in danger of escaping containment at any time. Quasar exiled himself into space to prevent Ego from infecting Earth again.
When Quasar was seemingly killed, Ego was able to escape the Quantum Zone. But the Xandarian Worldmind usurped Ego's consciousness and used the planet as Nova's new headquarters, dubbing it Nu-Xandar. When Ego fought for control, Nova lobotomized the Living Planet and continued to use the catatonic Ego for their purposes. Later, Ego regained control over its body with help from the Bounty Hunter Monark Starstalker, who damaged Worldmind's systems.