Species name: Sidri
Homeworld: None
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #154
BIOLOGY & ABILITIES
The Sidri are unusual, techno-organic, crab-like lifeforms with a hive-like mentality. The aliens possess thick exoskeletons, six legs (four large and two small) and a single V-shaped eye, from which they can fire powerful forceblasts. The organisms are capable of surviving in space and are known to travel from planet to planet under their own power. A colony of Sidri can merge into a single, gigantic, manta-like organism with a collective mind. This collective organism is capable of flight and interstellar travel. Their main weakness is intense heat and they have been observed being defeated by focused blaster fire and even flame. They have also shown a weakness to psychic attacks.
HISTORY
The Sidri have no known planet of origin and generally live in the vacuum of space. Operating mostly out of Shi’ar territory, the aliens are most commonly known as bounty hunters and have clashed with Earth’s heroes a number of times.
When the Starjammer Corsair was framed for kidnapping Shi’ar Empress Lilandra, he fled to Earth for the aid of the X-Men. A swarm of Sidrian hunters were in hot pursuit, though, and attacked Corsair and his allies at the X-Mansion, largely destroying the building in the process. Corsair and his allies fled but the Sidrian hunters combined into a skyscraper-sized organic ship and pursued. The X-Men managed to destroy the Sidrian ship by breaking it into its individual organisms, before Corsair detonated the fuel facility they were in, killing them. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #154]
Three Sidri had remained back at the X-mansion though and hid within the subbasement areas. One or more of the aliens also laid a clutch of eggs during their time in hiding. However, they were inadvertently discovered by Kitty Pryde, who managed to defeat the creatures with the aid of Colossus and Lockheed. Lockheed also destroyed the clutch of eggs with his fire breath. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #168]
The Sidri encountered Earth’s heroes on a number of occasions after this, most notably a when swarm of the bounty hunters attacked SWORD’s Peak space station, trying to retrieve the former Shi’ar Empress Deathbird and her unborn child. Unfortunately for the Sidri, several X-Men were present on the station at the time and defended Deathbird against their attack. The X-Men defeated the Sidri and drove them away, but not before the aliens caused significant damage to the Peak. [X-Men (4th series) #18-19]
MUTANT SIDRI
During an earlier adventure in outer space, the X-Men and Starjammers recognized an injured Sidri colony drifting helplessly in space. Although they were in a hurry to rescue Professor X, the X-Men wanted to help, as they consider life in all its form worthy. Still, Corsair objected and, as he was the Starjammer's captain, he ordered to pass them by without stopping. The Starjammers had dealt with the Sidri more than once and knew the aliens to be dangerous opponents. Nevertheless, Kitty Pryde and Nightcrawler secretly entered the medilab and launched a probe with what they believe to be a revitalizing serum, though in fact it was a mutation virus. Three of the Sidri mutated and, while they could still merge with each other, they were exiled from the collective. Angrily, they departed for Earth to take revenge and finally battled Excalibur. During the fight, Douglock discovered that the Sidri were actually techno-organic in nature and so he was able to link with them and purge the virus out of their system. As the trio left, they were already reverting to their original appearance. [Excalibur (1st series) #116-117]