Celestials

• Core Identity: The Celestials are a race of enigmatic, vastly powerful, and unimaginably ancient cosmic beings who conduct large-scale genetic experiments on fledgling life forms throughout the universe, returning after eons to judge whether their creations are worthy of survival.
• Key Takeaways:
  • Role in the Universe: Functioning as cosmic gardeners and arbiters, the Celestials are responsible for the creation of super-powered races like the Eternals and the Deviants on countless worlds, including Earth. Their “judgment” can result in the complete annihilation of a planet's entire biosphere if it is deemed a failure.
  • Primary Impact: They are the in-universe source of humanity's latent potential for mutation (the X-Gene) in the comics and serve as a recurring, seemingly insurmountable threat that forces disparate heroes and even cosmic entities to unite. Their existence poses fundamental questions about free will versus cosmic design.
  • Key Incarnations: In the Prime Comic Universe, their motives are inscrutable and god-like, focused on judging the genetic and evolutionary “success” of a species. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, their purpose is simplified and made more concrete: they cultivate intelligent life on planets to provide the energy needed for new Celestials to “emerge” from the planet's core, destroying the host world in the process.

The Celestials first thundered into the Marvel Universe in The Eternals #1, cover-dated July 1976. They were conceived and brought to life by the legendary artist and writer Jack Kirby upon his return to Marvel Comics after a stint at DC Comics. Kirby, often hailed as “The King of Comics,” created the Celestials as the conceptual centerpiece of his new Eternals mythology. Deeply influenced by the popular “ancient astronaut” theories of the 1970s, particularly Erich von Däniken's book Chariots of the Gods?, Kirby envisioned the Celestials as the literal space gods behind humanity's myths and legends. Their colossal, silent, and technologically intricate designs were a perfect encapsulation of Kirby's signature art style, blending cosmic grandeur with a sense of unknowable, almost terrifying, power. Their initial role was to be the creators and judges of humanity, having visited Earth in four distinct periods or “Hosts.” This concept provided a vast, mythic backstory for the entire Marvel Universe, retroactively explaining the existence of superhumans and the cosmic dramas that played out on Earth. While Kirby's initial Eternals series was short-lived, the Celestials were too compelling to remain dormant. Writers like Roy Thomas and Mark Gruenwald later integrated them firmly into the mainstream Marvel continuity, establishing their conflicts with the gods of Asgard and other cosmic powers, cementing their status as one of the universe's most formidable forces.

The origin of the Celestials is a matter of cosmic legend, differing significantly between the primary comic continuity and the cinematic universe.

In the prime Marvel timeline, the origin of the Celestials is tied to the very first iteration of the multiverse. Before all existence, there was only one sentient universe, the First Firmament. It was a singular, lonely being. To cure its solitude, it created life: celestial-like servants known as the Aspirants. The Aspirants were uniform and obedient, but a faction of them, who were multicolored and desired their own creations to evolve and change, rebelled. This dissenting group, who would eventually become known as the Celestials, sought a dynamic, evolving multiverse. This ideological schism led to a cataclysmic civil war that shattered the First Firmament. From this cosmic destruction, the Second Cosmos and the first Multiverse were born. The Celestials went on to populate these new realities. Their fundamental purpose became seeding new worlds with life, instilling in that life the potential for immense evolutionary change, and returning millennia later in great “Hosts” to judge the results. Their first visit to Earth, known as the First Host, occurred approximately one million years ago. During this visit, they experimented on early hominids, creating two distinct subspecies: the god-like, immortal Eternals and the genetically unstable, monstrous Deviants. A critical side effect of their tampering was the implantation of a dormant genetic sequence in the baseline hominid genome, which would much, much later activate to create super-powered mutants, giving rise to the X-Gene. A more recent storyline introduced a crucial addendum to this origin. One of the very first Celestials, known as The Progenitor, was infected by a cosmic parasite called the Horde. Driven mad, it fell to the primordial Earth billions of years ago. Its death and the leaking of its cosmic blood and flesh into the planet's core is now understood to be the primary catalyst for the planet's unique potential for developing super-beings. The arrival of the First Host was, in fact, an investigation into their fallen comrade.

The MCU presents a more streamlined and defined origin and purpose for the Celestials, as primarily explained in the film Eternals (2021). In this continuity, the Celestials are the first form of life in the universe, ancient beings of cosmic light who brought stars, galaxies, and planets into existence. Their core purpose is self-perpetuation. Celestials are not born through conventional means; instead, a Celestial “seed” is planted within the core of a suitable planet. This seed requires a vast amount of energy to gestate and eventually “emerge.” This energy can only be generated by a large and complex population of intelligent life. To facilitate this process, the Celestials engage in a form of cosmic engineering on a galactic scale. They select promising worlds and introduce apex predators, the Deviants, to eliminate native predators and allow intelligent life to flourish. However, the Deviants evolved beyond their control and began preying on the intelligent life they were meant to protect. To correct this, the Prime Celestial, Arishem the Judge, created the synthetic, immortal Eternals. The Eternals were tasked with eradicating the Deviants from a given planet, guiding the native population's development, and ensuring the population grew large enough to trigger the Emergence. Crucially, the Eternals were programmed with false memories, believing their mission was to simply help civilizations. The truth—that they were merely cultivating a planet as an incubator until its inevitable destruction during the birth of a new Celestial—was hidden from them. This fundamental difference transforms the Celestials from enigmatic cosmic judges into a species focused solely on a parasitic, albeit natural, life cycle. The severed head of a deceased Celestial, transformed into the mining colony of Knowhere (first seen in Guardians of the Galaxy), serves as a stark reminder of their physical nature and mortality in this universe.

The nature of the Celestials is one of the great mysteries of the cosmos, but millennia of observation by beings like the Watchers have provided significant insight.

A common question asked by mortals and gods alike is, “What are Celestials made of?” The answer is complex. A Celestial's visible form is merely a suit of armor, standing anywhere from two thousand feet to several miles in height. This armor contains their true essence, which is a swirling universe of pure cosmic energy. The armor is composed of an unknown, virtually indestructible material, and damaging it is a feat few in the universe can achieve. Even a combined assault by the sky-father pantheons of Earth (led by Odin and Zeus) barely scratched Arishem the Judge. Their power is nearly limitless and is often referred to simply as “Cosmic Power.” This manifests in several ways:

• Matter & Energy Manipulation: They can create, transmute, or destroy matter and energy on a planetary, and in some cases, galactic scale. They can create life from scratch, move planets, and generate energy blasts capable of leveling entire civilizations.
• Reality Warping: Celestials can manipulate space-time, create pocket dimensions, and alter the fundamental laws of physics within a given sphere of influence.
• Telepathy & Telekinesis: They possess psionic abilities on an immeasurable scale, capable of communicating across galaxies and moving objects of immense mass with their minds.
• Invulnerability: For all intents and purposes, a Celestial is immortal and invulnerable to almost all forms of harm. Only weapons of immense cosmic power, such as the Infinity Gems, the Phoenix Force, or weapons forged by the Celestials themselves (like Apocalypse's armor), have been shown to injure or kill them. Even the Odinson wielding the Odinsword and empowered by the souls of all Asgardians could only sever one's arm.

The overarching purpose of the Celestials is to observe and nurture the evolution of the universe, which they helped create. Their primary methodology is the “Host” system. A Host is a delegation of Celestials that visits a planet at a key evolutionary juncture. Earth has been visited by four such Hosts.

• The First Host (1,000,000 B.C.): The initial visit where they experimented on early man, creating the Eternals and Deviants and planting the X-Gene.
• The Second Host (c. 18,000 B.C.): This Host came to check on their experiments. Finding the Deviants had created a vast, aggressive empire based in Lemuria and were warring with the Celestials' other creations, they destroyed it, an event that caused the “Great Cataclysm” that sank Atlantis.
• The Third Host (c. 1,000 A.D.): Arriving to judge humanity's progress, they were confronted by an alliance of Earth's pantheons, including the Asgardians and Olympians. The Celestials effortlessly defeated them and forced them to swear an oath of non-interference with humanity's development for one thousand years.
• The Fourth Host (Modern Era): The final judgment. Arishem the Judge and his delegation arrived to determine humanity's fate. They were confronted by the Eternals (in a Uni-Mind) and a Thor-empowered Destroyer armor. Ultimately, the Earth goddess Gaea presented the “Young Gods”—twelve perfect human specimens—as proof of humanity's potential, satisfying the Celestials and causing them to depart peacefully, judging Earth worthy of survival.

While they often act in concert, the Celestials are not a monolith. They have distinct roles and personalities.

In the MCU, Celestials are beings of pure cosmic energy who construct immense armored “bodies” for themselves. Their scale is vast, dwarfing planets. As seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, Eson the Searcher used the Power Stone embedded in his staff to wipe out the surface of a planet with a single gesture, demonstrating power on an unimaginable scale. Their internal composition appears to be a mix of biological and energetic matter, as the colony of Knowhere is a functioning city built within the severed, decaying head of a Celestial. Their primary weakness, as revealed in Eternals, seems to be a concentrated burst of cosmic energy from their own creations. Sersi, channeling the power of the Uni-Mind (the collective energy of all the Eternals on Earth), was able to transmute the emerging Tiamut into inert marble, killing him before his birth was complete. This suggests that while individually powerful, they are not completely invulnerable to the very energies they wield.

The sole, driving purpose of the Celestials in the MCU is reproduction via the Emergence. This process can be broken down into a multi-million-year cycle:

1. **Seeding:** A Celestial seed is placed in the core of a planet with the potential for life.
2. **Cultivation:** The Celestials use the Eternals to eliminate native predators and the rogue Deviants, allowing the dominant intelligent species (like humans) to grow their population exponentially.
3. **Gestation:** The collective life-force and psychic energy of the intelligent population "feeds" the Celestial seed.
4. **The Emergence:** Once a critical population threshold is reached, the new Celestial awakens and violently emerges from the planet's core, completely shattering and destroying the host world and all life upon it.
5. **Birthing New Worlds:** The energy released from the Emergence allows the newborn Celestial to create new suns and galaxies, starting the cycle anew.

Arishem the Judge states this is a natural cycle, a universal necessity for the creation of light and gravity, and that the sacrifice of one world for the birth of a Celestial who will create billions of new stars is a worthwhile exchange.

• Arishem the Judge: The Prime Celestial, responsible for creating the Eternals and overseeing the Emergence process across the galaxy. He is the primary antagonist of Eternals.
• Tiamut the Communicator: The Celestial seeded within Earth. He began to emerge in the Indian Ocean before being stopped and killed by the Eternals, his partially emerged hand and head now forming a new island.
• Eson the Searcher: Seen in a flashback using the Power Stone to subjugate a planet. His presence confirms the Celestials were active and wielding cosmic artifacts eons ago.
• Jemiah the Analyzer: One of the Celestials Arishem communicates with when judging Earth at the end of Eternals.
• Nezarr the Calculator: Another Celestial seen alongside Arishem and Jemiah during their cosmic communications.
• Knowhere: While not a living member, the severed head is a constant presence and reminder of the Celestials' physicality in the MCU.

The most significant relationships the Celestials have are with the races they engineered.

• Eternals: In both continuities, the Eternals are the Celestials' “successful” experiment. In the comics, they are genetically perfect, immortal beings meant to defend the Earth and await the Celestials' judgment. In the MCU, they are synthetic constructs with a more specific, and ultimately tragic, purpose. The relationship is one of creator-and-creation, but one that evolves into rebellion in the MCU.
• Deviants: The “failed” experiment. In the comics, their unstable genetic code leads to endless mutation, making each Deviant unique and often monstrous. They harbor a deep-seated resentment for their creators and their favored cousins, the Eternals. In the MCU, they are initially simple apex predators who evolved beyond their programming, developing intelligence and a desire to consume the Eternals to absorb their cosmic energy.
• Humanity & Mutants: In the comics, humanity is the baseline control group for the Celestial experiment on Earth. The dormant X-Gene they implanted is the Celestials' greatest success, representing infinite evolutionary potential. This makes humanity, and particularly mutantkind, the ultimate focus of their judgment.

The Celestials operate on a level of existence where few can challenge them, but several entities are their cosmic peers or ideological opposites.

• Galactus: A common fan question is, “Are Celestials stronger than Galactus?” The answer is generally yes. While a single, well-fed Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, is a cosmic force on par with a single Celestial, the Celestials operate as a race. In a direct confrontation, the Celestial race would overwhelm Galactus. Their relationship is one of mutual, grudging respect for their respective cosmic functions; Galactus culls worlds, while Celestials judge them.
• The Watchers: The Watchers, like Uatu, represent the philosophical opposite of the Celestials. Where the Celestials practice active, direct, and often devastating intervention, the Watchers are sworn to a strict code of non-interference, only permitted to observe and record.
• The Horde: The dark antithesis to the Celestials. The Horde are cosmic parasites that infect and corrupt, serving the will of the ancient First Firmament. They represent cosmic decay and regression, whereas the Celestials, for all their destructive methods, represent evolution and change.
• The Asgardians: The Celestials' power is so immense that it forced the arrogant sky-fathers of Earth to their knees. Odin spent centuries preparing for the Fourth Host, creating the nearly unstoppable Destroyer armor and the planet-cleaving Odinsword, only for the Celestials to melt the armor and dismiss their efforts with ease. This relationship firmly establishes the Celestials at the very top of the cosmic power hierarchy.

This is the foundational Celestial storyline. Spanning across Jack Kirby's original series and later integrated into Roy Thomas and Mark Gruenwald's Thor, this arc details the arrival of the Fourth Host to deliver their final 50-year judgment on humanity. The story showcases their immense power as they effortlessly defeat the combined might of Odin, the Asgardians, and the Eternals' Uni-Mind. It culminates not in a battle, but in a plea. Gaea, the spirit of the Earth, presents twelve of humanity's best and brightest as evidence of their potential, convincing the Celestials to judge in their favor and depart, leaving Earth to continue its evolutionary journey.

In a miniseries by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr., the slumbering Celestial Tiamut, imprisoned under the Earth for eons, is awakened. Instead of bringing judgment, however, he becomes a silent, colossal, silver figure standing over San Francisco. He chooses not to destroy the world but to observe it. He becomes a bizarre fixture of the city, with the X-Men even building their new base, Utopia, in his shadow. This storyline humanized a Celestial for the first time, transforming one from an abstract threat into a complex, silent character whose ultimate motives remain a mystery.

Jason Aaron's run on the Avengers fundamentally reshaped the Celestials' origin relative to Earth. It was revealed that the first Celestial on Earth was the Progenitor, who fell, died, and seeded the planet with his cosmic fluids. The story introduces the “Dark Celestials,” Celestials infected by the Horde, who arrive on Earth to cleanse it. This forces the modern Avengers to unite with the Avengers of 1,000,000 B.C. (led by Odin) to battle them. This storyline ties the Celestials directly into the core mythology of the Avengers and recasts Earth not just as an experiment, but as a uniquely important and dangerously contaminated planet from the Celestials' point of view.

The landmark Earth X trilogy by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross presented a radically different and influential take on the Celestials. In this reality, Celestials are beings of pure energy who encase themselves in armor created from cosmic vibrations. Their life cycle is the primary driver of the Marvel Universe: they implant a Celestial “egg” in the core of a planet. They then manipulate the planet's dominant species' genetics (creating superheroes) to act as a planetary “immune system” to protect the gestating Celestial from cosmic threats like Galactus. When the Celestial is born, the planet is destroyed. This concept—a Celestial gestating inside a planet—was a clear and direct inspiration for the core plot of the MCU's Eternals.

The Celestials have a far less prominent role in the Ultimate Universe. They are mentioned in the context of the Gah Lak Tus swarm, a galaxy-ending threat that was initially believed to be this universe's version of Galactus. It was later revealed that the swarm was created by a technologically advanced race to deter the “true” Galactus. The Celestials are referenced as an ancient, god-like species in this continuity, but their direct intervention and role as creators of the Eternals are not central to the universe's lore as they are in Earth-616.

• Eternals
• Deviants
• Galactus
• Jack Kirby
• Cosmic Entities (Marvel)
• Arishem the Judge
• The Progenitor

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