Exitar the Exterminator first appeared in Thor #387, published in January 1988. He was co-created by writer Tom DeFalco and artist Ron Frenz, who had taken over the monumental task of following Walter Simonson's legendary run on the title. To establish their own epic scope, DeFalco and Frenz delved deep into the cosmic lore established by Jack “The King” Kirby, bringing the Celestials back to the forefront of Marvel cosmology. The creation of Exitar served a crucial narrative purpose: to raise the stakes of the Celestials' judgment on Earth to an unimaginable level. While readers had seen Celestials before, they were primarily depicted as judges and experimenters. Exitar was different. His title—“The Exterminator”—and his staggering size immediately established him as the embodiment of cosmic annihilation. His visual design by Frenz, a towering, dark, and faceless armored being even larger than his Celestial brethren, perfectly captured this sense of impending doom. He was the ultimate final boss, a walking extinction event whose very presence signified that all negotiation and debate were over.
The origin of Exitar is inextricably linked to the origin of the Celestials themselves, a history shrouded in mystery and cosmic myth. As one of the Space Gods, he has existed for millions, if not billions, of years, predating almost all known civilizations in the universe.
In the prime Marvel continuity, Exitar's “origin” is less about a single event and more about his function within the ancient Celestial hierarchy. The Celestials are cosmic “gardeners” who travel the universe, seeding life on countless worlds and returning eons later in groups called “Hosts” to judge the progress of their experiments. The First Host visited Earth a million years ago, experimenting on early hominids and creating the superhuman races of the Eternals and the genetically unstable Deviants, while also embedding latent potential for mutation in baseline humanity (the X-Gene). The Second and Third Hosts returned at later periods to check on their work, often resulting in cataclysmic events like the sinking of Atlantis. Exitar's primary story begins with the arrival of the Fourth Host of the Celestials on Earth. Their purpose was to render final judgment on humanity. The skyfather deities of Earth, led by Odin of Asgard and Zeus of Olympus, had forged a truce to not interfere with the Celestials for a millennium. When that time expired, Odin, anticipating a negative verdict, prepared for war. He inhabited the Destroyer armor, absorbed the life forces of all Asgardians (save for Thor), and wielded the Odin-Sword to confront the Host. Despite this immense power, he was effortlessly defeated, and the Celestials melted the Destroyer armor into slag. With Earth's greatest champion defeated, Arishem the Judge raised his thumb to signal his verdict. Though the final judgment was in Earth's favor (thanks to the intervention of Gaea, the Elder Goddess of Earth, who presented twelve exceptional humans as proof of humanity's potential), the storyline established the protocol for failure. Had Arishem's thumb turned down, he would have summoned Exitar. This exact scenario came to pass on the planet Pangoria. After Arishem judged the planet's denizens unworthy, he summoned Exitar. Arriving from an unknown corner of space, Exitar dwarfed the rest of the Fourth Host. He initiated his process of “purification,” which involved creating a force-field around the planet, transmuting the unworthy populace into a perfected single being, and then terraforming the planet into a pristine, Eden-like paradise, ready for a new evolutionary cycle. It was Thor, who had been transported to Pangoria, who first witnessed Exitar's terrifying purpose firsthand. This established Exitar not as a simple planet-destroyer, but as a cosmic terraformer who “resets” failed experiments on a planetary scale.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe presents a radically different origin and purpose for the Celestials, and by extension, for Exitar's function. As revealed in the film Eternals (2021), Celestials are not merely cosmic visitors; they are born from planets. In the MCU's cosmology, Celestials “seed” promising worlds with a nascent Celestial. This seed lies dormant in the planet's core, feeding on the life energy of the planet's intelligent population. For a Celestial to be born, the host planet must reach a specific population threshold. The birth process, known as the “Emergence,” is cataclysmic and inevitably results in the complete destruction of the host planet and all its inhabitants. The Eternals are synthetic, android-like beings created by the Celestials and programmed with false memories of being from the planet Olympia. Their true purpose is to protect the host planet's dominant life forms from Deviants (aberrant creations that prey on intelligent life), ensuring the population can grow large enough to fuel the Emergence. In this context, Exitar the Exterminator is not an individual who physically arrives to destroy a planet. Instead, his name appears to refer to the function of planetary destruction itself, which is the inevitable outcome of a “successful” Celestial birth. Arishem the Judge explains to Sersi that for millions of years, he has overseen this cycle. When a planet like Earth is deemed ready, the Emergence of a new Celestial (in Earth's case, the Celestial known as Tiamut the Communicator) serves as the “extermination” of its civilization, allowing the birth of a new cosmic god who will, in turn, help create new galaxies and worlds. Therefore, while Exitar himself does not appear on screen, his role as the great cosmic reset button is fulfilled by the Emergence process. Arishem's final words to the Eternals, after he abducts them from Earth to judge their memories, promise that if humanity is found unworthy, he will return for judgment, implying a more direct and traditional form of extermination could still be possible.
As a Celestial, Exitar's power is of an order of magnitude that defies easy categorization. He is a being of pure cosmic energy contained within an immensely durable physical shell.
While Exitar has not physically appeared, we can infer his capabilities based on the Celestials shown in Guardians of the Galaxy and Eternals.
Exitar does not form “relationships” in the human sense. His connections are defined by his role within the cosmic hierarchy of the Celestials.
Exitar does not possess personal enemies, but several beings have dared to stand against his cosmic might.
Exitar's appearances are rare, but when he does appear, the event is always a universe-altering crisis.
This storyline cemented Exitar's fearsome reputation. After Arishem and the Fourth Host defeated the Destroyer armor, Thor was taken aboard their mothership and shown a vision of what would happen if Earth failed its judgment. He was transported to the alien world of Pangoria, where he witnessed Arishem condemn the planet. The Judge summoned Exitar, and Thor watched in horror as the 20,000-foot-tall Celestial appeared and began his work. This arc was crucial as it established the mechanics of a Celestial judgment and showcased Exitar's terrifying, methodical process of planetary “cleansing.” It served as a dire warning of what awaited Earth if not for Gaea's intervention.
This is arguably Exitar's most important storyline, as it contains his shocking death. As part of an elaborate temporal scheme, Kang the Conqueror manipulated the Apocalypse Twins into becoming saviors of the mutant race. They successfully destroyed Earth with Exitar's own power (channeled through Kang's technology), rescued all mutants in a space ark, and established a new world, Planet X. When the Celestials arrived to judge this act, Exitar was summoned to destroy the remnants of Earth and the twins' new world. In a stunning climax, the twins, aided by a future version of Thor controlled by them, used the Celestial-killing axe Jarnbjorn to decapitate and kill Exitar. This single act sent shockwaves through the cosmic hierarchy and became the central crisis that the Avengers Unity Division had to prevent by using time travel to undo the twins' victory.
While Exitar was not a primary actor in this event (having been resurrected off-panel after his death), this story is vital for understanding the modern lore of the Celestials. It revealed that the Celestials were not the universe's original gods. They were born from the Progenitor, the first Celestial to ever visit Earth, who was infected by a cosmic swarm called the Horde. This infection drove the Progenitor mad and led to its death, its cosmic blood and viscera seeding Earth with the potential for superpowers. The “healthy” Celestials that followed, such as Arishem and Exitar, were effectively a cosmic clean-up crew, working for eons to contain the Horde infection. When the Horde (now called the Dark Celestials) returned to Earth, the classic Celestials arrived to fight them, eventually joining with the Avengers to defeat their fallen brethren. This arc retconned the Celestials' purpose from being purely genetic experimenters to being guardians against a universe-ending infection, adding a new layer to Exitar's exterminating function.
Due to his nature as a fundamental cosmic force, Exitar has few true variants, but his role has been interpreted differently in other realities.