The genesis of Cosmic Marvel is inextricably linked to the boundless imagination of its primary architect, artist and writer Jack “The King” Kirby. During the Silver Age of Comics, Kirby, alongside writer stan_lee, began pushing the boundaries of traditional superhero storytelling. While early seeds were planted in titles like Journey into Mystery, it was in fantastic_four that these cosmic concepts truly blossomed. The introduction of the Watcher (Fantastic Four #13, 1963), the Skrulls (Fantastic Four #2, 1962), and the Kree (Fantastic Four #65, 1967) established that Earth was but a small part of a larger, populated galaxy.
The true turning point was the “Galactus Trilogy” (Fantastic Four #48-50, 1966), which introduced both galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, and his tortured herald, the silver_surfer. This storyline established a new echelon of power and stakes that redefined what a superhero comic could be.
In the 1970s, writer-artist Jim Starlin became the next great architect of the cosmic landscape. He introduced thanos of Titan (Iron Man #55, 1973), a nihilistic tyrant obsessed with the personification of Death. Starlin's work on Captain Marvel and Warlock created a sprawling psychedelic space opera, introducing concepts like the infinity_gems and characters like adam_warlock, gamora, and drax_the_destroyer. His epic 1991 miniseries, infinity_gauntlet, became the definitive cosmic event for a generation and a major inspiration for the MCU.
The modern era of Cosmic Marvel was revitalized in the mid-2000s by writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (often abbreviated as DnA). Their epic crossover events, Annihilation (2006) and Annihilation: Conquest (2007), revived and redefined characters like Nova (Richard Rider) and Star-Lord, leading to the formation of the modern guardians_of_the_galaxy. More recently, writers like Al Ewing have explored the metaphysical underpinnings of the cosmos in titles like The Ultimates and Defenders, delving into the nature of previous incarnations of the universe itself.
The in-universe origin of the Marvel cosmos is a story of sequential creation, destruction, and rebirth on an unimaginable scale. Before all existence, there was only a single, sentient universe: the First Firmament. It was alone and, in its loneliness, it created life—the Aspirants and the celestials. The Celestials, wishing for a dynamic, evolving universe with a mortal life cycle, went to war with their creator and the Aspirants. Their war shattered the First Firmament, and its pieces coalesced into the Second Cosmos and the birth of the multiverse.
This cycle repeated. Each universe, or “Cosmos,” would live, die, and give birth to the next. The prime Earth-616 reality exists within the Eighth Incarnation of the Marvel Multiverse, which was born from the destruction of the Seventh during the 2015 Secret Wars event.
Within this framework, abstract concepts gained sentience. As the universe was born, so too were the fundamental forces that govern it: Eternity (the sum total of all life and time), Infinity (the personification of space), Death, and Oblivion. Presiding over this cosmic pantheon is the living_tribunal, a multi-faced entity of near-omnipotence tasked with safeguarding the multiverse from imbalance.
Ancient, powerful races seeded life throughout the galaxies. The Celestials traveled from world to world, experimenting on nascent life forms, creating the super-powered Eternals and the genetically unstable Deviants on countless planets, including Earth. Their actions inadvertently led to the eventual evolution of Earth's mutant population. Meanwhile, races like the Kree and Skrulls built vast, competing empires, their millennia-long conflicts shaping the political landscape of the known universe.
The MCU's cosmic origins were revealed more gradually, piece by piece, across its various films and series. The foundational story, as explained by the Collector in guardians_of_the_galaxy, centers on the six Infinity Stones. These were described as six singularities that existed before the universe itself. After the Big Bang, these singularities were forged into concentrated ingots: the Space, Mind, Reality, Power, Time, and Soul Stones. These artifacts became the ultimate source of power in the universe, sought by tyrants like Thanos to reshape reality to their will.
The celestials are presented as the architects of the universe on a grand scale. As shown in Eternals, these colossal, armored beings are cosmic gardeners who create suns, planets, and the very laws of physics. They seed nascent planets with a Celestial “egg,” which requires a massive amount of energy from a developed intelligent population to hatch. To protect this process, they create the synthetic Eternals to eliminate the predatory Deviants and guide the planet's population toward the necessary growth. This fundamentally reframes the Celestials from cosmic experimenters (as in the comics) to beings directly responsible for the birth and destruction of galaxies.
The concept of a multiverse was introduced through doctor_strange, explored in Loki, and fully unleashed in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Loki series revealed the existence of the Time Variance Authority (TVA), an organization existing outside of time and space, created by a variant of Kang the Conqueror known as He Who Remains. Its purpose was to prune divergent timelines to prevent a multiversal war between his own variants, imposing the concept of a “Sacred Timeline” upon reality. The death of He Who Remains shattered this control, causing the multiverse to branch uncontrollably.
The comic book cosmos is defined by a complex and often esoteric hierarchy of power. Understanding this ladder is key to grasping the scale of cosmic events.
These are not merely powerful aliens; they are the sentient manifestations of universal concepts.
The MCU's cosmic hierarchy is significantly simplified for narrative clarity, focusing on tangible threats and visually distinct groups.
Eternals, they are the oldest beings in the universe, responsible for creating galaxies. Their purpose is procreation, which involves sacrificing the populated world where their seed gestates. Ego, Peter Quill's father from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, was a rogue Celestial. Arishem the Judge is the leader of the group shown in Eternals.Thor: Love and Thunder, Eternity is depicted not as a humanoid entity but as a silent being residing at the center of the universe. It grants a single wish to the first person who reaches it, a concept that deviates significantly from the comics' all-encompassing personification of time.What If...?, they are observers of the multiverse, led by a figure known as The Watcher (voiced by Jeffrey Wright). Like his comic counterpart Uatu, he is sworn to non-interference but has been forced to break his vow to combat a multiversal threat like Infinity Ultron.Multiverse of Madness, indicating its existence but not yet defining its role.Captain Marvel film.Avengers: Infinity War when he acquired the Power Stone.This seminal storyline by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, and Sal Buscema was one of the first true comic book epics. It plunged the avengers into the heart of a galaxy-spanning conflict between the two oldest alien empires. The story revealed the Kree's ancient experiments on humanity that created the inhumans, featured the Skrulls turning public opinion against Earth's heroes, and forced the Avengers to operate on a galactic scale for the first time. It established the core political dynamics of Cosmic Marvel that would be built upon for decades.
Crafted by Jim Starlin, George Pérez, and Ron Lim, this is the definitive cosmic crossover event. The saga begins with Thanos Quest, where the Mad Titan collects all six Infinity Gems. In the main Infinity Gauntlet series, he uses his omnipotent power to erase half of all life in the universe with a simple snap of his fingers to impress Mistress Death. What follows is a desperate battle where Earth's surviving heroes and the universe's most powerful cosmic entities unite to stop a god. The story explores themes of power, nihilism, and sacrifice, and its impact is still felt in the Marvel Universe today.
This event, spearheaded by writer Keith Giffen, single-handedly revitalized Marvel's cosmic line. It began with the sudden, brutal invasion of the universe by the Annihilation Wave from the Negative Zone. The story sideline established heroes, focusing on characters who had been in limbo for years, such as Nova (Richard Rider), Star-Lord, drax_the_destroyer, and the silver_surfer. It was a gritty, high-stakes war story that re-established the cosmic landscape as a dangerous and thrilling corner of the Marvel Universe, leading directly to the formation of the modern guardians_of_the_galaxy.
The culmination of years of storytelling by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, this event pitted two of the three major galactic empires against each other in an all-out war. On one side was the Shi'ar Empire, now ruled by the insane and power-mad X-Men villain Vulcan. On the other was the Kree Empire, now under the command of the inhumans and their king, black_bolt. The conflict was a brutal, galaxy-shaking affair that resulted in the deaths of key leaders and tore a massive hole in the fabric of space-time known as The Fault, setting the stage for the next cosmic event, Realm of Kings.
Infinity Gauntlet comic, the snap happens early in the story, and the bulk of the narrative deals with its aftermath and the fight against an already-omnipotent Thanos. The MCU's Infinity War and Endgame films split this structure, making the snap the climax of the first film and the quest to undo it the plot of the second.secret_invasion storyline where they secretly replaced many of Earth's heroes in a massive infiltration plot.