Ruler of Titan and a scientist, A’Lars, AKA Mentor, builds a super-computer which he uses to control Titan’s planetary functions. While he rules the planet, he also keeps close watch over his sons Eros, AKA Starfox, and Thanos. When his son Thanos becomes genocidal, Mentor pulls out all the stops to prevent his son from doing more harm.
Self-Imposed Exile
A’Lars is the second son of Kronos and Daina, two of the first generation of Earth’s Eternals, an evolutionary offshoot of humanity created by the enigmatic Celestials. A’Lars and his brother Zuras are raised in the aftermath of a great civil war that divided the Eternals into two factions: one led by Kronos and the other by his brother Uranos. When Kronos’ faction prevails, Uranos and his followers are exiled and colonize the planet that becomes known as Uranus.
A’Lars and Zuras spend their childhood in peace, tutored by their mother, as their father toiled at his experiments. Circa 3000 BC, Kronos isolates the cosmic energy that empowers the Eternals, but his containment vessel ruptures and explodes, disintegrating him. Though Kronos’ astral form survives as a disembodied cosmic entity. The explosion also greatly amplifies the remaining Eternals’ powers; A’Lars and Zuras unite the Eternals into a collective Uni-Mind wherein they learn the majority preferred Zuras as their new leader. Seeking to avoid another civil war, A’Lars goes into a self-imposed exile in space.
Cosmic Energy
Mentor’s life force is augmented by cosmic energy, granting him superhuman strength (lifting 1500 pounds), durability, resistance to disease, endurance and longevity. Mentor does not tire and can regenerate from injuries unless a substantial portion of his body’s molecules are dispersed. He can fly at 500 mph and fire blasts of concussive force, usually generated from his hands, equal to 50 tons of TNT. He has displayed telepathic abilities, the extent of which are unrevealed, and can manipulate matter on a molecular level.
Mentor has a beyond-genius intellect and built the computer ISAAC, which he can use to control the planetary functions of Titan. As Titan’s ruler, he commands its technology and soldiers.
Eternal Opposition
Mentor’s son, the Mad Titan Thanos, proves to be a bane to the universe and as his father. Mentor often finds himself trying to reign in his son despite his best efforts to help him.
Forever Family Ties and Allies
Mentor is the founder of the Eternals of Titan and becomes the moon’s ruler. There he finds Sui-San, the only survivor of his uncle Uranos’ exiled followers and they have two children together, Eros and Thanos.
Mentor often employs his son Eros to help him with Thanos, and supports Eros’ desire to adventure with the Avengers.
A Long History
Eventually, A’Lars came upon Saturn’s planet-sized moon Titan, where a group of Uranos’ followers had previously built a subterranean civilization that had been destroyed by internal strife. A’Lars explored the world and fell in love with its sole survivor, Sui-San. The two had numerous offspring, eventually repopulating the world. A’Lars served as Titan’s ruler, taking the name Mentor and building an immense computer, the Integral Synaptic Anti-Anionic Computer (ISAAC), which covered Titan’s entire inner surface. With ISAAC’s aid, Mentor developed Titan into a peaceful paradise dedicated to the pursuit of science and beauty.
Over 100 years ago, Mentor and Sui-San begat their youngest sons, Eros and Thanos. While Eros was born a normal Titanian Eternal, Thanos was born with Deviant Syndrome, physically repulsive to his fellows and more akin to the Deviants, the Eternals’ natural enemies. Concerned about his sons’ growing enmity, Mentor forced Thanos and Eros to agree to “the Truce,” an annual meeting where they would behave as brothers and not foes. As Thanos grew, he developed an obsession with death and eventually a romantic desire toward its personification, Death. Unbeknownst to Mentor, Thanos began conducting morbid experiments on several Titans, one of which rendered Sui-San comatose. When Mentor discovered Thanos experimenting on a young girl several years later, Thanos tried to overthrow his father, but failed and fled off-planet, where he amassed armies and eventually became a galactic power. Over a century later, Mentor observed Thanos attack an Earth family that had seen his ship. Mentor rescued the infant daughter, Heather Douglas, bringing her to Titan and raising her as his own. Heather trained under Titan’s Shao-Lom monks, gaining considerable psionic powers and becoming the adventurer known as Moondragon.
When Mentor and Eros were off-world, Thanos returned to Titan, detonating cosmic-nuclear weapons and killing most of the population, including Sui-San. Returning to Titan to resist Thanos, Mentor pleaded to Kronos for aid. Kronos agreed, resurrecting Heather’s father, Arthur, as Drax the Destroyer, a weapon against Thanos; however, Thanos defeated Drax and imprisoned him on Earth. Drax contacted Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, for help, and Mentor aided Iron Man from afar by having ISAAC channel a powerful energy blast through Iron Man’s armor, breaking Drax’s constraints. Nonetheless, Thanos escaped and completed his conquest of Titan, implanting a time-delayed fail-safe in ISAAC to destroy Titanian civilization if he were defeated.
Thanos later abducted Rick Jones to Titan and stole from his mind the location of the reality-altering Cosmic Cube. After Thanos departed to retrieve the cube, Mentor recruited the heroic Kree Mar-Vell, AKA Captain Marvel, who was molecularly bonded to Jones, sending Mar-Vell back to Earth to battle Thanos while he and Eros remained on Titan to fight Thanos’ army. Despite their efforts, Thanos recovered the Cosmic Cube and imprisoned Mentor, Eros, Kronos, Mar-Vell, and several other Earth heroes. Hoping to impede Thanos, Mentor had ISAAC send Titan careening from its orbit. However, Thanos used the Cube to restore Titan and abandoned his body, merging with the fabric of the universe itself. As Mar-Vell and the Avengers resisted Thanos on Earth, Mentor and Moondragon freed the surviving Titans from Thanos’ dungeons and continued defending Titan until Mar-Vell shattered the Cosmic Cube, neutralizing Thanos’ power and seemingly slaying him.
Mentor resumed leadership of Titan and began rebuilding, but months later, the fail-safe in ISAAC’s programming was activated, and ISAAC captured Mentor and the other Titans in a stasis field and orchestrated a series of attacks against Titan. However, ISAAC’s servant Elysius rebelled against it, helping Mar-Vell and Drax free Mentor and other Titans, who joined the fight against ISAAC’s robot drones. On the verge of defeat, ISAAC deactivated Titan’s life functions and atmosphere. Mentor worked to restore their biosphere machines while Mar-Vell and Drax fought ISAAC’s lieutenant Stellarax on Earth. Mentor and the Titans were saved when Mar-Vell used his cosmic awareness to make ISAAC experience life as an organic being, erasing Thanos’ programming and restoring Titan’s atmosphere.
Some time later, when Mar-Vell developed terminal cancer, Mentor labored to prolong Mar-Vell’s life, and via ISAAC, contacted numerous planetary governments and recruited many of Earth’s most brilliant heroes to develop a cure. Their efforts ultimately failed, and Mar-Vell passed away. Mar-Vell’s widow, Elysius, wanting to keep part of her husband alive, accessed his DNA from ISAAC to conceive a child, Genis. Mentor realized Mar-Vell’s enemies would target Genis and used Titanian science to artificially age him to adolescence and implant false memories of a childhood. Around this time, Mentor also gave Eros his blessing to relocate to Earth and seek adventure with the Avengers, where he took the code name Starfox.
Later, after Moondragon’s body had been destroyed in a conflict with the Dragon of the Moon, her mind inhabited the body of her cousin, Pamela. Influenced by Moondragon, Pamela traveled to Titan, where Mentor grew Moondragon in a cloned body.
When Death resurrected Thanos and tasked him with destroying half of all life in the universe, the Norrin Radd, AKA Silver Surfer, discovered Thanos’ plot and sought Mentor’s counsel. Mentor told the Surfer of Thanos’ past, after which the Surfer seemingly killed Thanos in battle and returned his corpse to Mentor. Unbeknownst to any of them, Thanos had faked his death via a genetically altered duplicate. Thanos gained the six Infinity Gems, and combined them in the Infinity Gauntlet, becoming virtually omnipotent. He used the Gauntlet to kill half of everything that lived, deliberately including Mentor to prevent his interference. Ultimately, an armada of heroes led by Adam Warlock dismantled Thanos’ plans, and Mentor and the rest of the universe were restored.
Genis-Vell, AKA Photon, was later framed by Kree and Shi’ar conspirators, and Mentor granted him temporary sanctuary on Titan. Although Genis soon cleared his name, his self-indulgent lifestyle led Mentor and Titan’s ruling council to strip him of his Nega-Bands until he proved worthy of them. Adam Warlock also sought Mentor for assistance, seeking a way to remove his Soul Gem (one of the Infinity Gems), which had apparently permanently grafted to him, though Mentor could offer no solutions. Shortly thereafter, when the Negative Zone tyrant Syphonn murdered Elysius, Genis showed intense determination to avenge her death, leading Mentor to lift his earlier ruling.
Genis, now using the name Captain Marvel, later brought the Thunderbolt Karla Sofen, AKA Moonstone, and several of her teammates to Titan to consult Mentor over the nature of her powers. ISAAC concluded Moonstone was using her Moongem to access the memories of its past wielders and decided she was unworthy of the gem. Mentor had the Thunderbolts restrained and briefly tried to remove Moonstone’s gem until Captain Marvel and the Thunderbolts convinced him Moonstone had the potential to reform, promising to watch over her.
Mentor later became aware of the Rot, a destructive, semi-living anomaly in the midst of space created by the union of Thanos and Death, which threatened to destroy the universe. He also observed a new star signaling the Celestial Messiah’s birth and concluded Thanos would seek the Messiah’s death. The Celestial Messiah was Quoi, son of Mantis. Mentor gathered several Titans in the Hall of War, including Eros, sending them to assault Thanos (actually one of the Thanosi, a duplicate of Thanos created through a mix of science and magic). Meanwhile, Mentor traveled into the Rot, seeking to lure “Thanos” there should the Titans fail, in hopes “Thanos” might be capable of destroying the Rot. After defeating the Titans, “Thanos” confronted Mentor within the Rot, seemingly slaying him. The Thanosi was assaulted by Quoi and a contingent of Avengers, until the Rot enveloped Thanosi's ship. The Thanosi joined its power with Death’s to dissipate the Rot, restoring Mentor.
Eros was later placed on trial on Earth and placed in a holding cell, accused of using his pleasure-inducing powers to seduce women against their will. Upset at his son’s treatment, Mentor had ISAAC teleport Eros back to Titan to undergo a Titanian mind-trial. With surprise testimony by another Thanosi believing itself the real Thanos, the mind-probe seemed to prove Eros’ guilt until Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk, entered the mental plane and revealed Eros had false memories of guilt implanted by Thanos, whose actions also resulted in Eros’ reduced control over his powers. Mentor ruled that Eros would make amends by traveling to neighboring star systems and seeking forgiveness from the victims of his uncontrolled powers.
Later, when Moondragon had been killed in battle, her lover Phyla-Vell, AKA Quasar, and Drax sought Mentor’s assistance to restore her. Mentor used his power to temporarily kill Phyla and Drax, sending their souls into Oblivion’s realm, where they retrieved Moondragon’s soul. Mentor provided the returned Moondragon with another cloned body.
While Mentor was on a scientific outpost in Shi’ar space, he was visited by Thanos, who was ill and sought his father’s help. Mentor refused him until Thanos threatened to kill everyone at the outpost. Mentor analyzed Thanos’ cells and informed him that he had a God-like cancer. He expressed happiness that his son was dying as he felt responsible for all his evil deeds over the years. In anger, Thanos killed Mentor.
Though Mentor’s life didn’t quite end there. He was soon resurrected in the Exclusion, the pocket dimension where Eternals are brought back to life. There, he found out that his wife, Sui-San, had also been resurrected but refused to see him, believing it would be better had they never met nor existed. The Eternals imprisoned him there for fear he would breed another Thanos, and created a cell for him where the walls lit up with the total deaths caused by his Mad Titan son, which blinded him in only a week’s time. Mentor and Sui-San were soon discovered by Thanos and subsequently tortured and killed repeatedly by their son.
