On sale this week is Marvel's "Star Wars" #29, Yoda's Secret War Part IV" by Jason Aaron and Salvador Larroca. The comic features a story starring Yoda, who befriends a child name Garro and their encounter with a new and strange creature that appears to be a living mountain. This led us to think, what are some of the craziest lifeforms we have seen in Star Wars?
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In the 40 years since the franchise's creation, we have seen tons of creatures, species and unique individuals created to populate the galaxy. Some of these creations are funny, some are scary and some are just really cool. In this list, we take a look at 15 of the craziest of those lifeforms; some big, some small and some that will leave your head shaking in disbelief.
15 GEONOSIAN BRAIN WORMS
Making their debut in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" season two episode, "Legacy of Terror," the Geonosian Brain Worms may be an homage to the Ceti eels from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," but these worms are even weirder and more insidious. Hatching from eggs, these parasites would travel through one of the orifices of the skull to find their way into the victim's brain. On Geonosis, one of the hive queens, Karina the Great, was able to use the worms to reanimate dead Geonosian warriors to attack Republic forces.
The worms were also powerful enough to take over clone troopers and convince them to infect their brothers. The Jedi Barriss Offee was also infected by the worms and attempted to infect her friend Ahsoka Tano on board a Republic Medical frigate in the episode "Brain Invaders." The worms aren't particularly hard to kill when they are outside of a host, but the only known way to incapacitate them is extremely low temperatures.
14 ZONAMA SEKOT
Zonama Sekot first appeared in Greg Bear's novel "Rogue Planet," a Prequel era novel that was set three years after the events of "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace." This Legends story featured Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi leading his Padawan Anakin Skywalker to a mysterious planet in search of these special organic Sekotan ships that were supposedly the fastest in the galaxy. What we find in the story is that the planet they travel to is actually alive... but that's not all.
This planet produced seeds that would be attached to a host and then create the ship for them, it was a seed offspring of the Yuuzhan Vong's homeworld and it also could travel through hyperspace. The idea of a planet traveling through hyperspace is an idea that we would see used once again in "The Force Awakens" in the Starkiller Base; of course, that time, the travel was through technological and not organic means.
13 THE ANZATI
Not all humanoid species in the galaxy far, far away are created equally. The Anzati were the Star Wars equivalent of vampires. They possess one of the longest lifespans at over 900 years. The Anzati looked fairly normal (by human standards) except for a large and misshapen nose. What lurks below the surface of their cheeks is the really strange part. They possess to hidden proboscises, which would shoot out of their face and up the nostrils of their living victims!
The Anzati used these proboscises to drink the cranial contents of their victims, which they called the "soup." With age and the consumption of soup, many of the Anzati were able to get some psychic powers and were often attracted to the soup of Force-sensitives. Mos Eisley Cantina patron Dannik Jerriko was a member of the species, but one of the best portrayals of the "snot vampires" was Kell Douro in Paul S. Kemp's "Crosscurrent."
12 BENDU
The Bendu is a massive Force-wielding being introduced in the third season of "Star Wars Rebels." This huge creature was voiced by former Doctor Who actor Tom Baker and named after George Lucas' original name for the Jedi, the Jedi-Bendu. The seemingly omniscient Bendu claims to know both the light and dark sides of the Force, but also claims to be "the one in the middle."
He lives on the planet Atollon on which the Rebels set up a base and appears to be awoken from a sort of hibernation by the presence of the Jedi Kanan Jarrus and his apprentice Ezra Bridger. He had the ability to unlock a Sith Holocron, something that requires use of the Dark Side, and was able to use the Force to snap a physical object that Kanan was holding. The extent of his powers and motivations are still unknown, but this giant rocky space moose is indeed a strange sight to behold.
11 THE DECRANIATED
If you want to know what got Dr. Cornelius Evazan the death sentence on 12 systems, then you have to look no further than the Decraniated. Created for "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," you get your best look at them in Pablo Hidalgo's "Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide." A creation of the mad scientist, these poor souls were victims of the Saw Gerrera's insurgency against the Imperial occupation of Jedha. Dr. Evazan removed their brains and replaced them with a programmable neuro-box interface.
This seems like a horrible extension of the idea of characters like Lobot, who had an AJ6 cyborg construct implanted in his skull. Whether or not the Decraniated submitted to the process willingly in some cases is unknown, but given the severity of the procedure, it seems unlikely. The entire process left them as little more than organic droids. The Decraniated -- itself a very illustrative name -- are some of the strangest looking and most disturbing creatures you'll see as you can still see the lower portion of their face and recognize the humanity that was once there.
10 B'OMARR MONKS
Star Wars has a variety of religious orders, many of which have been introduced in the new canon, like the Church of the Force and the Guardians of the Whills. The B'omarr monks, however, may be the strangest of them all. The order constructed monasteries across the galaxy, such as the one seen on Teth in the animated movie, "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and in "Return of the Jedi" as Jabba's Palace.
Jabba took over the monastery from the Monks, but we do get a brief look at one in the film. The B'omarr do not appear as an old man in a robe in the background, it is the six-legged spider droid with a brain in a jar. The monks willingly removing their brains from their bodies and inserted into these monstrosities. How many are members of this order and the motivations for their participation in such a ritual is knowledge that has been unfortunately lost to legend.
9 WARU
When Star Wars canon was rebooted and the novels were turned into "Legends," the loss of many characters bothered fans. You would have to search pretty far and wide to find fans who were upset with the loss of Waru, however. Waru was created by Vonda McIntyre for her novel, "The Crystal Star." It was a being from another galaxy who was basically a gold-plated blob that had the power to heal or kill people.
Waru's ability to heal garnered him a cult following, but this sad and lonely monster only really yearned to go home to his own dimension. Waru unfortunately needed a special kind of fuel for trans-dimensional travel and that meant trying to eat Han and Leia's son Anakin or alternatively, Luke Skywalker. That's right, a depressed trans-dimensional blob was the big bad for a Star Wars novel. Somehow, we don't think Disney will resurrect this character any time soon.
8 T'LANDA TIL
With a Han Solo stand-alone film in production, it seems only fitting to delve into the legends of Han's past and talk about the T'landa Til. Created by A.C. Crispin for her trilogy of novels, "The Paradise Snare," "The Hutt Gambit" and "Rebel Dawn," the T'landa Til were a species related to and controlled by the Hutts. The males possessed a unique anatomical feature: a neck pouch that they used to create vibrations and noises that attracted the females of their species.
These neck pouches also could produce a feeling of ecstasy in other species. So they did what was logical, used this ability to start a cult and force cult members to work as slaves processing the Hutts' spice supply on the planet Ylesian. As imposing as they were, they were still no match, of course, for Han Solo and Bria Tharen, the girl he helped escape their clutches.
7 RATHTARS
The new big creature introduced in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was the rathtar. Why King Prana wanted to buy three of the monsters from Han Solo we may never know, but what we do know is that these things are killing machines. Credited with both the Trillia Massacre and significantly reducing Han Solo's crew, we see these guys take out members of both the Kanjiklub and the Guavian Death Gang.
The rathtars are extremely fast and agile, using their tentacles to both propel their bodies and attack. One of the rathtars even almost finishes off Finn before he is saved by Rey. Full of eyes, tentacles and a giant mouth, the rathtars are some of the strangest looking creatures in the galaxy, and related to other similar creatures like the vixus, blixus and sarlacc. We have some simple advice for you when it comes to rathtars, don't transport them no matter how much the job will pay.
6 HYDROID MEDUSAS
Between the loss of limbs and the body modifications in Star Wars, there are tons of cyborg creatures. Perhaps the strangest cyborg in the galaxy, however, is the Hydroid Medusa. First appearing in the season four premiere of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," these giant cyborg jellyfish were weapons of mass destruction, deployed against the Mon Cala people by the Separatist commander, Riff Tamson.
The world of Mon Cala is divided among two dominant species that Mon Calamari and the Quarren. During the war, the Quarren sided with the Separatists and invited Tamson to the world. Tamson used Separatist ships to transport and drop the medusas into the seas of Mon Cala during the battle. The massive jellyfish stood over 22 meters tall, were armored, produced their own electrical power and featured many electric tentacles. When deployed in underwater battle, they were nearly impervious to attack and able to neutralize large numbers of opposing forces.
5 KUD'AR MUB'AT
Another deep cut from the Legends novels is Kud'ar Mub'at, who was created by K.W. Jeter for the "Bounty Hunter Wars" trilogy of novels. Kud'ar was a giant spider-like alien, a member of the species known as the Assemblers. Each Assembler created smaller immature versions of themselves called subnodes. These subnodes could mature, kill and replace their creator, but were more often consumed by the mature assembler before that could happen.
Kud'ar lived in a giant, ship-sized spider-web in open space and was himself immune to the effects of its vacuum. But even a space spider has to find a job, so Kud'ar served the galaxy's underworld as a negotiator and information broker, including for the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Unfortunately for Kud'ar, he got a little too comfortable using one of his subnodes named Balancesheet to help him in negotiations and Balancesheet got ambitions of his own, breaking away from Kud'ar's hold and going to business on his own!
4 SPACE WHALES
In Star Wars, whales are not confined to oceans... or even worlds! Instead, they are free to roam the vastness of space. In the new canon we have two examples of whale-like creatures in space. From "Star Wars Rebels" episode "The Call," we saw the Purrgil, a massive deep space creature that travels in groups and is able to travel through hyperspace. The Purrgils were known to wander into hyperspace lines frequented for space travel, resulting in some rather catastrophic collisions.
From Marvel's "Darth Vader" #5 we were introduced to the whale-ships of Dr. Cylo, cybernetically-enhanced creatures possibly related to the purrgils. These massive cybernetic beasts became one of the most unique bases of operation in the galaxy. It was from this base that Cylo conducted his research and testing on cybernetic enhancement. Whether you are in a starfighter, freighter or capital ship, it is best to steer clear of these massive creatures, or it could end your trip quickly.
3 MORABAND SERPENTS
The Moraband serpents are the last but not least among the creatures created for "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." The serpents appeared in the season six series finale episode "Sacrifice," on the Sith planet of Moraband. Jedi Grand Master Yoda travels to the ancient Sith homeworld and the first entity to confront him is the giant Sith serpent, which tells him that "We are Sith," before attempting to attack him.
Yoda uses the Force and the serpent breaks into its smaller constituent snakes before slithering away and being replaced by specters of dead Sith warriors. It would be interesting to see if less powerful Jedi or non-Jedi would have been able to defeat the serpents. Whether these serpents were a species natural to Moraband or a creation of the Sith is not known. Nor is it known if they are present at other ancient Sith sites that we know are scattered across the galaxy. The point is, we may not have seen the last of these serpents.
2 BOR GULLETT
"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" gives us our most recent addition to the list in the Bor Gullett, a creature that was kept by Saw Gerrera and his partisans. The tentacular monster possessed psychic powers that allowed it to wrap its slithery arms around individuals and read their thoughts. The ever suspicious Saw Gerrera used the Bor Gullett as a sort of living lie detector to ensure that individuals he was dealing with were being truthful.
One of these individuals was Imperial defector Bodhi Rook, who was seeking to deliver information and a message to Saw from Imperial scientist Galen Erso. As we saw in "Rogue One," the use of the Bor Gullett has side effects on the victims that leaves them confused; in some cases, it can even lead them to actually lose their minds. Given the psychological state we see Saw Gerrera in during the film, we wonder if he might have subjected himself to the Bor Gullett's embrace at some point in time, or if his crazy was just a happy coincidence.
1 SPICE SPIDERS
A second arachnid graces our list in the form of spice spiders. These creatures, also known as energy spiders, were found on planets such as Kessel and Ryloth. These spiders lived in the dark spice mines of Kessel and fed on the energy of another native species, the bogeys, as well as any human or aliens that they were able to capture. Like most spiders, they used a webbing to capture their prey, before killing and consuming the energy from that prey.
What makes these spiders special was that the webbing they extruded was made of glitterstim, one of the forms of spice used for narcotic benefit by many alien species. Furthermore, if they were fed a diet that included another spice, called ryll, they would grow in size and produce a hybrid spice known as glitteryll. So, just remember Han Solo was smuggling spider webs that people were using to get high. Star Wars is really crazy sometimes.
Which creatures from a galaxy far, far away most freaked you out? Let us know in the comments!