The Phalanx are a fictional alien species in the Marvel Comics universe who have come in conflict with the X-Men and related groups on several occasions. They are an offshoot of the Technarchy, a race of techno-organic alien beings bent on galactic conquest. They have evolved into a collective mind, although there are still traces of individualism, such as personal names. They are all linked to each other by a cybernetic system which is so advanced that it approaches telepathy, and can be accessed by telepaths.

The "Phalanx" on Earth were a group of human mutant-haters who voluntarily infected themselves with the Technarchs' matter-converting Transmode Virus stolen from the corpse of Warlock, a renegade Technarch who had joined the New Mutants. These cremated remains were scattered across the grave of his friend and teammate Cypher, but were stolen by some leaders of the anti-mutant Friends of Humanity for further studies. Many members of the Friends of Humanity and of Cameron Hodge 's anti-mutant group, the Right, were invited to form a Transmode-powered army of invincible soldiers. Bonding their bodies together with the "transmode-virus" that ran in Warlock's body, they formed the Phalanx. They were led by Stephen Lang , the man who had used the Sentinels against the X-Men many years before, and he was assisted by Cameron Hodge, a traitorous former friend of Archangel who had obtained immortality from the demon N'astirh .

The virus transformed them into a hybrid form of Phalanx. Enhanced with the ability to change form and to absorb energy and matter into their bodies, these Phalanx hoped to eradicate mutantkind.

However, the Phalanx's directives were hard-wired into them by the original Technarch; soon the collective's goal became the assimilation of all life, not just mutants, and they began to build a giant array to signal their forbears, the original Technarch. Apparently, this sort of "Phalanx Event" is a programmed response of any organic community that gets infected with the Transmode Virus. The purpose is to convert enough of the community into techno-organic beings and then signal the Technarch, who will come and drain the energy of both the planet and of the Phalanx who summoned them.

Thus the Phalanx is an entity formed by techno-organic beings, once humans, that have been melted and included as part of a global conscience, that calls itself the Phalanx. Most of the original people were willing to join, for they thought it was the way to finish with the mutant menace. But as it's hard-wired directives took over, the Phalanx began to incorporate whoever and whatever it wanted.

The Phalanx quickly organized an attack on the X-Mansion, kidnapping most of the X-Men and replacing them with themselves in disguise. Banshee, one of the few allies that weren't replaced, understood what they were. He saved the White Queen, Jubilee and Sabretooth from the beings. He then blew Cerebro's data bank, so that the Phalanx couldn't pursue the new generation of mutants, who would later be dubbed "Generation X".

The early target of the Phalanx was to turn the whole population of earth into technoorganic beings (which was hard-wired into it], and killing what it couldn't absorb-namley mutants, as the transmode virus was ineffective against their DNA. Later, when it decided the time had come to show itself, a great offensive was undertaken, many mutants where kidnapped for further studies on how they might learn to assimilate their DNA, and a whole town of humans where absorbed and started to construct Babel's tower, in order to connect with other technoorganical entities from outer space-the Technarch.

What made the Phalanx so formidable, was their abilty to adapt to and gain resistances to mutant powers, as a result of the testing that they ran attempting to find away to absorb them. So, mutants powers suddenly stopped working as the phalanx studied them, analyzed their powers and gained resistances. However, the were not able to react to every spectrum of the powers, for example, they were only immune to Sonic attacks from Banshee if they had already had an attack on that sound wave before (same pitch, tone) and Psyclops could use a few different light spectrums before they had adapted to them all.

The Phalanx was thought vanquished by the combined effort of all the mutant teams, and two beings of the Phalanx : Douglocke, a combination of Warlock and Ramsey, and Lang, who didn't want to exterminate the whole population, but only the mutants. However, the Phalanx has now and again resurfaced and threatened the future of mutants and humans. It was largley defeated by Blink when she killed Harvest (as she trapped him in one of her spatial distortions). To do this, she had to sacrifice her own life.

The Phalanx later, in a war with the Shiar Empire, learned to assimilate mutants into themselves. The Phalanx are apparently considered an abomination by the Technarch, which despises the organic components of the Phalanx. The Technarch will follow the signal put out by a Babel Spire, but will consume the Phalanx along with the rest of the planet.

Seldomly, members of the Phalanx exist both in and outside of the central consciousness, eg. they have both their own free will as well as a connection to the group mind. Members such as Harvest, Lang, and Hodge all had this. It was generally something that belonged to the most powerful members-something like a high council for making the best choices for the phalanx hive. These entities usually had a greater degree of powers as well as more strength and ability. it is quite possible that they were former mutants or otherwise enhance humans since mutants can voluntarily submit themelves to being assimilated by the phalanx, and a number of them did.

Technarch

The Technarch is a race of giant techno-organic entities with very agressive natures. They travel the universe looking for things on which to feed, which can be organic or mechanical. The Techanrchy feeds by infecting their prey with the Transmode Virus, converting it into techno-organic matter, from which they then drain the energy, or "lifeglow." The Technarchy is apparently a dictatorship, led by the Magus. The Technarch homeworld was called "Kvch," and is covered with city, and which appears to be T-O in nature. It is possible that some of the structures are actually Technarch who have taken a fixed shape. The Technarch reproduces using an advanced assembly line, possibly using genetic code from a "parent." "Babies" are brought up in a creche. It would seem that the Technarch are asexual, regardless of the male designations that Earthlings appeared to give them. Upon reaching a certain age, Technarch young must face their parent in single combat to prove that they have the right to live. Those that are weak are destroyed, while those that are strong either destroy their parent or flee until their parent finds them and forces them to fight. However, in the case of Warlock, who was a peaceful mutant, that didn't exactly happen. Warlock refused to fight at all, so the Magus came after him and challenged him directly. Technarchy members are very individualistic. Each has its own defined personality, unlike the Phalanx, which used personalities only when absolutely necessary. They grow in size and strength throughout their lives, and gain new abilities as their power increases. In addition to the shapeshifting and energy-channeling abilities granted by their physical nature, Technarchy members can (with enough power) travel through hyperspace, cross dimensional barriers, detect energy sources at interstellar distances, detect mental activity, detect lifeglow, communicate in a wide variety of formats, and even fuse hydrogen. They may also be able to teleport, although it is a seldom-used skill.