DEVIANTS

 

DEVIANTS

First Appearance: Eternals (Vol. 1) #1, July 1976

History: The Deviants are an evolutionary offshoot of humanity that was brought into being approximately one million years ago through genetic experimentation by the extraterrestrial Celestials. The Celestials altered the structure of the DNA complexes of the proto-humans whom they genetically transformed into the first Deviants so that physical characteristics, beyond bilateral symmetry, radically changed with each generation. Thus a Deviant child will greatly differ in appearance from either of his or her parents. Experiments conducted by the Celestials at the same time resulted in the creation of the Eternals and humanity having the potential for benevolent mutations.

Unlike the Eternals, the Deviants are not virtually immortal or indestructible. The sole known exception is the Warlord Kro, who, despite being vulnerable to injury, has lived for untold centuries, although he has concealed this fact from his fellow Deviants. Many Deviants possess superhuman abilities. The most common superhuman power among the Deviants is superhuman strength.

The genetic instability of the Deviants is the most important factor underlying the structure of their society. Although the Deviants are ruled by a hereditary monarchy and governed by a class of nobility, a great deal of power in Deviant society is held by the priesthood. The priests attempt to weed out those Deviants who are born with the most extreme and grotesque genetic differences from the others by consigning these Deviants to death in the flame pits at "Purity Time." Through such measure, the priests hope to keep variation with the Deviant race's genetic makeup within certain limits.

Because there is no standard physical appearance for Deviants, and because their race produces such grotesqueries, Deviant culture lacks the concept of physical beauty. However, perhaps due to envy, almost all Deviants regard humans and Eternals as physically repellent. Since Deviant children do not resemble their parents, and indeed may look physically repellent even to them, Deviant parents take no joy in childbearing. Indeed, Deviants look upon sexual activity merely as a necessary means of propagating the race, and take no pleasure in it. The sexes are segregated from each other in most public places in Deviant cities.

The Deviants were the first natives of Earth to develop technology, and even thousands of years ago had already become highly advanced in the study of genetics. It was the Deviants who created the Subterreneans as their slaves, and it has been speculated that it was the Deviants who genetically transformed ordinary humans into the water-breathing Atlantean race.

Originally the Deviants built their cities on the Earth's surface. They used their advanced technology to conquer the nations of humans, and eventually conquered the entire known world except for the empire of Atlantis. The center of the Deviants' empire was the island continent of Lemuria in what is now the Pacific Ocean. The Deviants treated the humans they conquered as slaves, and forced many of them to serve in armies that the Deviants sent to conquer other human nations. Finally, the Deviants sent a human army from the Lemurian Isles to attack Atlantis itself. To rout the invaders, Atlantis's King Kamuu opened the magma pits which were the capital city's means of heating. The Lemurian invaders were destroyed by the molten lava, but Its release triggered seismological upheavals.

Meanwhile, the Celestials' second expedition to Earth was sighted over Lemuria itself. The Deviants launched an attack on the Celestials, who retaliated by using an immensely powerful nuclear weapon on Lemuria. The weapon's shock waves combined with the disturbances beneath Atlantis to trigger the Great Cataclysm that devastated much of the planet. Lemuria and Atlantis both sank, and most of the Deviant population was destroyed.

The Deviants who survived did so by escaping to the small number of underground cities they had previously established. They built more subterranean cities, but eventually abandoned most of them for their new subterranean capital city on the sunken Lemurian continent, the so-called "City of Toads."

Since the sinking of Lemuria, Earth's Deviant population has been greatly reduced from what it was. Because of the Deviants' distaste for childbearing, they have felt no need to increase their numbers by a considerable degree, and today there are only about two thousand Deviants in the world, most of whom are sequestered underground. The Deviants have had various contacts with humane over the centuries, and their grotesque appearances may hive inspired many tales of devils, demons, and monsters. Some of the monsters of legend may actually be mutates bred by the Deviants. Even today some Deviants have infiltrated human society; a number have even become professional wrestlers.

In recant years, under the leadership of the Deviant monarch Tode, the Deviants attacked New York City, but were repulsed by Eternals. Hoping to learn the secret of the Eternals' immortality, Tode led most of the Deviant ruling class and a good number of their warriors in an attack on the Eternals' principal city, Olympia. Tode and his forces captured all the Eternals who were present, who, however, broke free as a result of the intervention of the second Iron Man. The Eternals captured the invading Deviants, whose atoms the Eternals melded into a giant stone-like block and cast into space.

With Tode and most of the ruling class thus eliminated, Warlord Kro and Tode's son Ranar both attempted to claim the throne. However, it was the priest-lord Ghaur who instead became the true ruler of the Deviants, and he remained so since.

TIME BUBBLE

 

 

First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #372, October 1986 (first mentioned); Avengers (Vol. 1) #296, October 1988 (first seen)

History and Functions: In an alternate future timeline, the world devourer Galactus nearly died on Earth-8810, and Tiamut the Black Celestial (aka the Dreaming Celestial, who had long ago been expelled for the cosmic Celestials' ranks for unspecified crimes) restored him, but altered his makeup, such that his hunger had become ravenous and his appetite increased geometrically. The Black Celestial's intent was that Galactus would eventually consume the entire universe, including the other Celestials. Meanwhile, Tiamut summoned an army of Deviants to construct probability machinery that would ensure that they would still exist when all else had become void; Tiamut would then become the nucleus and founder of a new reality. As Galactus grew in size, he eventually utilized a machine which generated a black hole, drawing more and more mass into itself, which in turn caused both it and him to grow in size, and his hunger increased as well. Eventually, around 20 years after the modern era, the force generated by this massive black hole began to warp time around it.

Investigating the time warp, the infinitely bureaucratic cross-dimensional temporal regulatory agency known as the Time Variance Authority (TVA) unwittingly exacerbated it, creating a 15-year bubble of time around it. This bubble eventually extended across all timelines, limiting time travel in either direction past that point. Within the Time Bubble, the black hole's massive gravitation virtually halted time, such that only beings of massive power or possessing time-manipulation abilities could function. The Council of Cross-Time Kangs (an organization of beings who had usurped the identity of various incarnations of Kang the Conqueror throughout the multiverse) learned of the existence of the Time Bubble, and recognized it as containing a weapon of some sort. Infiltrating the Council, Kang-Nebula (Ravonna, the future Terminatrix) learned of the Bubble. Along with Kang-Nebula, a trio of Kangs (including a divergent counterpart of the prime Kang) attempted to use the Avengers to penetrate the Time Bubble, and they were lost forever while the Avengers escaped.

The Fantastic Four's Reed Richards later discovered the Time Bubble and, using his Radical Dodecahedron, Reed powered their timesled Rosebud II, with which the FF (assisted by Iron Man/Tony Stark and Thor) entered the zone around the Bubble, generating hundreds of divergences in the process (or perhaps just showing hundreds of divergent timelines converging on a single point).
The aforementioned Kang trio latched onto Rosebud and were drawn into the Bubble. They were destroyed with the aid of the TVA-sent freelance peacekeeping agent Death's Head, who vanished from the Time Bubble when a blast from one of the Kangs damaged his craft's probability generator. As they headed for the nexus of the Bubble, they observed the mammoth form of Galactus and recognized his involvement.

The Fantastic Four tried to destroy the device generating the black hole via the weapons cache of the entire Shi'ar empire, aided by Gladiator (Kallark), but Tiamut revived and teleported the weapons directly into the black hole, destroying it in one fell swoop. Journeying to the Earth of that reality, Reed duped the computer of the Black Celestial into revealing his origins. Gladiator then crashed the remaining floating weapons depot into the Black Celestials' base, destroying it and apparently himself. However, the Invisible Woman (Sue Storm Richards) and the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), assaulted by Kang-Nebula, were trapped there and seemingly destroyed in the explosion, but Kang-Nebula had activated Sue's force field to save them all.

Meanwhile, thinking that Sue and Johnny had perished in the explosion, Reed vengefully taunted the Black Celestial with his plans to travel back in time and inform his brethren in the Celestials of his plans, so that they might stop him before he ever brought them to fruition. Teleporting back and forth with the space of that universe and within the time period of the bubble, Reed allowed the Tiamut to grow ever closer to them, until they led it to the point of no return from Galactus' event horizon/black hole. At the last second, Reed signaled Thor to form a magical warp to teleport them a safe distance away, while the Black Celestial was pulled into and destroyed by the black hole. For a brief instant, Galactus' raging appetite (and thus his sanity) were appeased, but this soon passed, and the consumption occurred at an even more accelerated rate from the vast influx of mass and power of the Celestial.

Learning of Sue and Johnny's survival, Reed led the group to Taa II, Galactus' worldship, where he located the Ultimate Nullifier. Kang-Nebula had been possessing Sue, and she attempted to usurp the Nullifier, but she fell for a trap set by Iron Man under Reed's direction, as Reed had suspected her involvement. Stunned by the electrical shock, Kang-Nebula was forced out of Sue and lost into the atmosphere of the Bubble. Returning to Galactus, the combined full energies of Thor, Iron Man, and the Torch's nova flame briefly restored Galactus' sanity, and he recognized the Nullifier as Reed gave it to him. Wishing to end his torment, Galactus activated the Nullifier, and a sphere of nothing consumed him and then the entire universe, effectively destroying the Time Bubble.

The Fantastic Four and their allies narrowly escaped the destruction; Thor and Iron Man fell off the timesled and back to Earth-616), while the Fantastic Four instead arrived in the divergent reality of Earth-9061, in which the Earth is ruled by a robotic Josef Stalin. All individuals who were seemingly destroyed by the Bubble eventually returned to existence.

MAELSTROM

 

MAELSTROM

Real Name: Unknown

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #71, January 1981

Powers: Maelstrom was born to a Deviant mother and an Inhuman father. Deviants (Homo sapiens descendus) are an evolutionary offshoot of humanity created through experiments performed by the alien Celestials. Deviants tend to look monstrous and have no set phenotype. Their unstable genetic coding for physical characteristics is common to all members. Inhumans (Homo sapiens inanthropo) are a genetically engineered offshoot of humanity created by the Kree to possess heightened strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reaction time, roughly 50% greater than humans. Maelstrom's hybrid genes grant him these characteristics, but twice as strong.

He was also exposed to the mutagenic properties of the Terrigen Mist, a mutagenic or mutation-causing substance discovered by the Inhuman scientist Randac. It is potent enough to cause any living organism to mutate from exposure to it, although the Inhumans zealously restrict its use to Inhumans only. Maelstrom's exposure to it granted him the power to siphon and control all forms of kinetic energy, the energy of motion.

He can mentally manipulate all forms of kinetic energy and transform it into physical strength. This process, the nature of which is unknown, involves a body-wide interaction with kinetic energy from any ambient source. While Maelstrom can derive power from the motion of a single, room-temperature neutron, it is not yet known what the largest source of kinetic energy is that he can tap, or how much energy he can synthesize for use at the same time. He frequently uses the power of his opponents to energize himself. Once energized, he can direct kinetic energy in great storms of force. His body constantly absorbs kinetic energy and translates it into a bio-luminescent plume of force which whirls around his body. Its rate of motion is often affected by his mood, while its depth (volume) is a function of the amount of energy he has synthesized for use. He controls the amount of energy he synthesizes over his body's minimum capacity by force of will.

His absorption is capable of slowing and inhibiting molecular motion in his environment. Maelstrom is even capable of leeching away the motion of the planet Earth itself, slowing the planet's revolution and rotation. This siphoning effect can be used to freeze projectiles or opponents in place to prevent them from reaching him, or he can kill someone by stopping their heart from moving and pumping. Maelstrom can convert his energies into strength and mass, increasing his physical power and stature at will. He can also stir up storms of concussive energy that radiate out from his person, or project directed blasts of energy from his hands. The intensity of his bio-kinetic releases is controlled mentally, and can be used to cause intense pain, stun opponents into unconsciousness, strike with tremendous force and even reduce a target to nothing but powder. He also briefly possessed abilities stolen from Anomaly and Oblivion, respectively the ability to alter reality and perceive all reality within the cosmos (cosmic awareness).

Maelstrom was an extraordinary genius with highly advanced knowledge of genetics, genetic engineering, and cloning.

ETERNALS

 

ETERNALS

First Appearance: Eternals (Vol. 1) #1, July 1976

History: The Eternals are an evolutionary offshoot of humanity living on Earth who possess greater powers and longer lifespans than the mainstream human race. The Eternals first came into being about a million years ago when the extraterrestrial Celestials arrived on Earth to perform genetic experiments on the nascent human race. To test the adaptability of the human gene, the Celestials accelerated the evolution of a handful of subjects and gave them the genetic potential to mentally manipulate limited quantities of cosmic energy, as well as other superhuman traits. Thus, the Celestials created the race of Eternals. The Celestials also performed experiments on Earth that led to the creation of the genetically unstable Deviants, and to the implantation of latent genetic material in the general run of humanity's ancestors that would one day permit benevolent mutations in human beings.

At first, the Eternals' genetic potential for extraordinarily long lifespans and virtual invulnerability due to cosmic energy lay dormant (though they possessed enhanced physical prowess and semi-longevity). A devastating civil war eventually broke out among the first known generation of Eternals. The two opposing factions, one led by Kronos (whose name is also spelled "Chronos") and one by his brother Uranos, clashed in a conflict of ideologies over their people's destiny. Kronos's side prevailed, and the warlike Uranos and his surviving band of followers were exiled into outer space. The exiles found an abandoned military outpost left by the alien Kree on the planet now known as Uranus and used it to construct a spaceship in which they attempted to return to Earth and renew their war with their brethren. Four Eternals stayed on Uranus and gave rise to colonies of Uranian Eternals. However, the native Uranians (called Aboriginoids) had allowed the Uranian Eternals to colonize the planet under strict conditions. The Aboriginoids would feed off by-products of the Uranus colonies and the Eternals swore never to leave the planet, making them penal colonies. Feeling trapped, the Eternals eventually believed they found a loophole in the agreement that would allow them to leave Uranus if they were invited elsewhere. Longing to return to the world of their forefathers, during the 20th century, the Eternals welcomed German scientist Horace Grayson and his infant son Bob as part of a long-term plan to return to Earth. Bob grew up in the colonies and was sent to Earth as their ambassador Marvel Boy to pave the way for Earth inviting them home and freeing them from Uranus. Unfortunately for the Eternals, the Aboriginoids didn't appreciate the subtle loophole in their agreement. They destroyed the colonies from within, leading to the death of most Uranian Eternals just as Marvel Boy was returning home to Uranus.

While the four Eternals remained behind on Uranus to colonize it, Uranos and his followers were attacked by a Kree armada before reaching Earth. The survivors among Uranos's band crash-landed on Saturn's moon Titan and built a civilization of Titanian Eternals. One of Uranos's followers, Aflok, was taken by the Kree for vivisection. Learning that the being had derived from Earth, the Kree determined to perform genetic experiments on Earth's pre-humans themselves. Their experiments would result in the Inhumans.

Later, Kronos was working in his laboratory in the Earth Eternals' city of Titanos on an experiment with cosmic energy when he accidentally caused an explosion that demolished Titanos and subjected the Eternals to a cosmic particle bombardment. This irradiation activated the latent genes in the Earth Eternals that gave them their long lifespans, virtual invulnerability, manipulation of the cosmic energy bolstering their life force, and enabled them to pass these active genes down to the children produced by any mated couple of Earth Eternals. There is as yet no known example of an Eternal and a human mate together producing a child with Eternal superhuman traits. Kronos's atoms were scattered, but his astral form expanded to godlike proportions and survives on this plane of reality.

After Kronos's physical death, his eldest sons, Zuras and A’Lars, initiated the first creation of the Uni-Mind, a collective melding of the minds and bodies of the Eternals. While in the form of the Uni-Mind, the Eternals determined that Zuras should be Kronos's successor as their leader. To avoid disunity among the Eternals, A’Lars, who differed with Zuras as to what the Eternals' goals should be, left for outer space. Eventually, A’Lars arrived on Titan, where he mated with Sui-San, the last survivor of a civil war among the Eternals there. Together Alars and Sui-San repopulated Titan. However, since Sui-San was not present on Earth during Kronos's cosmic energy explosion, their children were not as powerful or long-lived as the Eternals of Earth, but they were stronger and longer-lived than the Eternals previously living on Titan. A’Lars renamed himself Mentor, and the race of Titanian Eternals, although recently greatly reduced in number, still exists today.

Zuras directed the construction of the principal city of the Eternals, Olympia, in a mountainous region in Greece. Two other major Eternal cities were founded: Polaria in Siberia and Oceana in the Pacific. Many Eternals have lived among ordinary human beings over the centuries.

Olympia lay near the principal nexus between Earth's dimension and that of the Olympian gods on Mount Olympus. Zuras and Zeus, leader of the Olympian gods, made a mutual non-interference pact between their two races. The people of ancient Greece and Roma often confused the Olympian Eternals with the Olympian gods. Over the centuries the Eternals have continually fought the Deviants' attempts to gain power.

In later years, the Fourth Host of the Celestials arrived on Earth to judge humanity. Fearing that the Celestials would destroy Earth if they judged against its people, Zuras led the Eternals against the Celestials, who retaliated by killing him. The Celestials judged in Earth's favor and left Earth. Zuras's daughter Thena contacted Zuras's spirit before it left this plane reality, and thus learned that the Eternals were to leave Earth to explore space now that the Celestials had departed. Virtually all of Earth's Eternals left for space in the form of the Uni-Mind. However, the Eternals' collective consciousness in the Uni-Mind decreed, that a small number of Eternals who were particularly involved in Earthly matters remain behind. Among the Eternals known to still live on Earth are Thena, their new ruler, Ikaris, Sersi, Makkari; the Forgotten One, Kingo Sunen, Sprite, Cybele, Phastos, Khoryphca, and Interloper.

Powers: The life force of all the Eternals of Earth is augmented by cosmic energy. Moreover, each of the Eternals of Earth maintains a virtually unbreakable mental control over the processes and structure of his or her body, even when he or she is asleep or unconscious. As a result, the Eternals of Earth have lifespans that last for at least thousands of years, are immune to disease and aging, are virtually indestructible, and, if somehow injured, can regenerate injured or missing organic tissue. There are only two known means by which Earth Eternals can actually die. One is through an injury that disperses a significant portion of the Eternal's body molecules; the other involves overwhelming and breaking the Eternal's mental hold over his or her own body. Once this hold is broken, then the Eternal can be injured or killed through conventional means. An Eternal's control over his or her body allows him or her to appear at whatever age he or she wishes. Hence, although many known Eternals have lived for at least several thousand years, they appear to be in their twenties. Cosmic energy bolsters the metabolism of Eternals so they do not tire from physical exertion. Through mental concentration, they can resist temperature extremes.

Eternals are born with the potential for various superhuman abilities. Although an Eternal may be born with less potential for one ability than another, he or she can overcome that difference through training, Eternals develop their superhuman abilities through training and discipline over their long lives. Each Eternal is guided by personal desires in deciding how far to develop a specific ability. Sersi, for example, is acknowledged to have developed her talent for matter rearrangement far more than any other known Eternal has.

All Eternals have superhuman strength, and an average Eternal can lift (press) about 15 tons without using his or her mental powers to negate the force of gravity on whatever he or she is lifting. Eternals can levitate themselves by mentally manipulating gravitons (subatomic particles carrying the force of gravitational attraction between atoms) around them. An Eternal can also levitate other persons or objects while simultaneously levitating himself or herself. Eternals can "fly" at great speed through levitation, and the average Eternal can thus travel at 600 miles per hour. Eternals can mentally create illusions so as to disguise themselves. They can also psionically manipulate atoms and molecules so as to manipulate and shape matter. However, this ability is highly limited in most Eternals.

Eternals can project cosmic energy in the form of beams from their eyes or beams or flashes from their hands. This cosmic energy, stored in specialized enclaves of cells in their bodies, can be used as force, heat, light, and possibly other forms of electromagnetic energy. An average Eternal can project a maximum concussive force of at least 200 pounds per square inch and heat reaching a maximum temperature of 2000° Fahrenheit. The maximum effective range for an average Eternal's energy beams seems to be about 176 feet. The expenditure of cosmic energy in this way continually for several hours will temporally deplete an Eternal's physical strength, but not his or her resistance to injury, although it will temporarily increase his or her sensitivity to pain. However, the Eternal will rapidly return to normal after such lengthy energy expenditure is over. Several Eternals are also known to be able to teleport themselves psionically.

The Eternals have an extremely low birthrate among themselves, having one child every millennium or so. However, those Eternals who choose to mate with ordinary human beings often have children much more frequently, although these children will not themselves be Eternals. Hence, the population level of the Eternals has remained very stable over thousands of years.

CELESTIALS

 

CELESTIALS

Roster: Dreaming Celestial, Gammenon the Gatherer, Arishem the Judge, Nezarr the Calculator, Ashema the Listener, Jemiah the Analyzer, Eson the Searcher, One Above All, Exitar the Exterminator, Oneg the Prober, Ziran the Tester, Tefral the Surveyor, Hargen the Measurer, and several unnamed others

First Appearance: Eternals (Vol. 1) #2, August 1976

History & Powers: The Celestials are a race of extraterrestrial beings of humanoid form who possess untold cosmic power. Standing two thousand feet tall in full body armor, no being knows their planet of origin or what they look like without the armor. It has been theorized that the Celestials actually exist in hyperspace and that their armor is actually a channel which allows them to interact on various planes of existence. What is known about the Celestials is that they travel through space and manipulate the genetics of species on various worlds. They came to Earth over 1,000,000 years ago and performed genetic experiments on Earth’s highest lifeform: The nascent human beings. In order to test the adaptability of the human gene, the Celestials created two subspecies of the human race: The Eternals, who possess long lifespans and vast physical and cosmic energy-manipulation powers; and the Deviants, who possess an instability in their genetic code. The Celestials’ sole legacy to the mainstream human race was the implantation of a dormant DNA complex that would one day permit the emergence of superhuman abilities (mutants and altered human mutates). After performing their experiments, they left Earth. 

 

The Second Host of the Celestials arrived on Earth over 25,000 years ago to inspect the results of their first visit. They were sighted over the continent of Lemuria, the center of activity for the Deviants who had made human beings their slaves. The Deviants attacked the Celestials, who retaliated by unleashing a vastly powerful nuclear weapon that affected the earth’s plate tectonics. Repercussions of the explosion resulted in the continents of Lemuria and Atlantis sinking below the ocean and the division of Pangea. This event was referred to as the Great Cataclysm.
 
The Third Celestial Host arrived on Earth over 1,000 years ago. Their landing sight was arranged by the Eternals working in conjunction with the Incas of Peru. Upon their arrival, they were confronted by a contingency of Earth’s mythological gods from extra-dimensional realms. The gods were afraid that the Celestials had returned to judge humanity’s worthiness to survive. If the Celestials ruled against humanity, Earth would be destroyed. Among the gods were Odin of the Asgardian gods, Zeus of the Olympian gods, and Vishnu of the Hindu gods. The gods challenged the Celestials’ right to interfere in human affairs. The Celestials had threatened to permanently seal the gods’ dimensional portals to Earth if they interfered in Celestial matters again. Though the gods were forced to forego their involvement in the destiny of humanity, Odin planned an assault on the Celestials on their next visit.  

 

The Fourth Celestial Host came to Earth over 50 years ago to finally judge humanity now that the dormant DNA complex had finally emerged in humanity. Odin had created an invincible suit of armor called the Destroyer to battle the Celestials if humanity was judged against. The suit was operable so long as another being’s life force animated it. Odin joined forces with the Eternals, who joined together to create the Uni-Mind. Odin gathered all Asgardians, including himself, to animate the Destroyer. The Destroyer grew to the size of a Celestial and did battle with them. The Celestials obliterated the Destroyer with a single energy blast, dispersing the life forces that animated it. The Uni-Mind tried in vain as Arishem the Judge broke it apart with a wave of his hand, injuring all Eternals but killing only one. Earth’s mythological goddesses had found 12 human beings who represented the pinnacle of human genetic perfection. They showed them to the Elder Earth goddess Gaea, who presented these 12 humans to the Celestials as proof of humanity’s evolution. The Celestials ruled in favor of Earth and departed with the 12 humans who were called the “Young Gods”. The Asgardians were resurrected thanks to the Olympian god Zeus. 

 

20 years ago, the Celestials came to Earth to study the young mutant named Franklin Richards, the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. Franklin possesses the mutant ability to manipulate and alter reality with his mind and created an entire pocket universe to save his family and the Avengers during a battle with the villain Onslaught. This feat placed him above the Celestials in power levels. The Celestials sent Ashema the Listener to Earth to show Franklin what he had created and force him to destroy either Earth or the universe he created. Franklin destroyed neither and returned the Fantastic Four and the Avengers to Earth. Ashema sacrificed her mind for the preservation of Franklin’s universe, which will exist within her mind forever. This allows the Celestials to get a first hand look into the structure and workings of humanity. Ashema remained in a catatonic state until revived.

No one knows the full extent of the Celestials’ power. They once withstood a full frontal attack from the collective might of the Asgardians and the Eternals. They are not indestructible, however. They once killed one of their brethren for breach of conduct. They have also been shown to resurrect the dead. The Celestials have erased themselves from the memories of most human beings in each of their visits. Only the Eternals, Deviants, the extra-dimensional gods, and a handful of humans remember the Celestials and the nature of each Celestial visitation.