Celestial (comics)

"Queen of Nevers" redirects here; not to be confused with Duchess of Nevers or Countess of Nevers.

"Celestials" redirects here. For other uses of "Celestial", see Celestial (disambiguation).

The Celestials are fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Depicted as cosmic beings, they debuted in the Bronze Age of Comic Books and have reappeared on numerous occasions.

Celestials
The Celestial Fourth Host (left to right) Hargen, Tefral, Nezzar, Gammenon, Arishem, Jemiah, Eson, Oneg, and Ziran. Panel from Thor #300 (October 1980). Art by Keith Pollard.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Eternals #2 (Aug. 1976)
Created by	Jack Kirby
Characteristics
Place of origin	First Firmament
Inherent abilities	Manipulation of reality Supreme technology

They also appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe live-action films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Eternals (2021), and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). In addition, the MCU changed the origin of Ego the Living Planet into an alleged Celestial in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017).

Publication history

The Celestials debuted in The Eternals #1 (July 1976) and were created by writer and artist Jack Kirby. They reappeared as regular guest stars in three subsequent limited series sequels: The Eternals vol. 2 #1–12 (Oct. 1985 – Sept. 1986), Eternals vol. 3 #1–7 (Aug. 2006 – Feb. 2007), and Eternals vol. 4 #1–9 (Aug. 2008 – May 2009).

The characters have also been featured in other titles, including the "Celestial Saga" storyline in Thor Annual #7 (1978), Thor #283–300 (May 1979 – Oct. 1980), Thor #387–389 (Jan. – March 1988), Quasar #24 (July 1991), Fantastic Four #400 (May 1995), X-Factor #43–46 (Aug. – Nov. 1989) and #48–50 (Dec. 1989 – Jan. 1990). The first detailed account of the Celestials' origin was finally presented in The Ultimates 2 #6 (2017).

Fictional history

The origin of the Celestials was long unknown, with many species across the mainstream Marvel Universe having only unconfirmed legends about their beginnings—until the "Eternity War" storyline, when major revelations about the Celestials were revealed by the Queen of Nevers.

Billions of years ago, before the current Cosmic Order, creation was composed of a single and sentient universe, referred to as the First Firmament. For countless ages, the First Firmament was the sole being in creation, until its loneliness became unbearable. It decided to create the first life to give it companions as well as servants—an act that it would come to regret. These servants, cosmic beings of a lesser order of power, were of two kinds: black and multicolored humanoid servants. The black servants dutifully obeyed and worshiped their creator. They even created their own servants and sought to preserve the simple order their creator had mad. The First Firmament named these loyal beings Aspirants and was pleased by their goals and desire to maintain the status quo. However, the multicolored ones had completely different values and desires from the Aspirants. Considered "rebels" by the First Firmament, they wanted a dynamic, diverse and continually evolving reality where beings lived, learned, reproduced, aged and died to slowly improve themselves through evolution. The rebels wanted this with the ultimate long-term goal of producing superior cosmic beings with the power to create universes of their own and for the universe to evolve with them as they advanced towards that state. These were the beings whom one day would be called by lesser life forms, "The Celestials".

The two opposing factions of the First Firmament's children could not peacefully co-exist and the ensuing war nearly destroyed the first universe. At some point during the war, the Aspirants created a now-lost hyper weapon called the Godkiller, a 25,000 foot (7,600 m) tall humanoid robot that dwarfed even the Celestials themselves. It was powered by a cosmic artifact later called the Heart of the Voldi and operated by genetically engineered pilots. During the war, the Godkiller killed billions of Celestials and brought them to the brink of extinction. At this point, a civil war broke out among the Aspirants that led to the Godkiller being stripped of critical parts for weapons. This division within the Aspirants gave the Celestials a chance to recover and make their last stand. In the final battle against the Aspirants, the Celestials detonated their ultimate weapons that tore the First Firmament apart and nearly killed it. In a desperate act of self-preservation, the core essence of the First Firmament took the surviving Aspirants and fled outside Reality. In the wake of its near destruction, the major fragments of the First Universe that were torn off coalesced into a new cosmic being, one with multiple realities composing it. This was the birth of the Second Cosmos and the first multiverse. After the birth of the first multiverse, the "rebels" settled inside him, multiplied and began their vast plan to create and nurture transitory but evolving life on the newborn worlds within, a general outline of the basic plan the Celestials follow for shaping the evolution of life on a chosen planet after it develops primitive sentient life.

This First Host of Celestials is made after the chosen planet has been judged to possess the needed properties for an effective "seeding". The Celestials then return for follow-up visits or "Hosts", during which they monitor the subject planet's progress and make whatever modifications or interventions they deem appropriate. During the First Host on Earth, the Celestials begin genetic experimentation to determine the future development of humans. They created three subspecies: Eternals, Deviants, and mutants.

The End of the Seventh Multiverse

During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, the Beyonders are revealed to have killed all the Celestials to perform an experiment by destroying the seventh multiverse. A number of Celestials survive the Beyonders' attack, having taken shelter within the folds of space-time. They were planning to reenter the multiverse after it was reborn after the "Secret Wars" event. This rebirth provided an opening for the embittered First Firmament, who had been patiently waiting to attack the newly reborn and weakened Eternity, with the goal of destroying the multiverse and restoring itself to the center of creation. The Firmament first chained and then began infiltrating Eternity with both its loyal Aspirant agents and taking control over the lesser cosmic entities that protected the cosmic balance in its component universes. Under the Firmament's influence, Master Order and Lord Chaos destroy the Living Tribunal, then merge into a singular entity called Logos, who intends to replace the Tribunal. Logos locates the surviving Celestials and destroys all of them except for the One Above All, who is rescued by the Queen of Nevers.

The secret origin of the new Marvel Universe

Some time later, Celestials began literally "raining" down on Earth forcing the Avengers to reunite again and just in time to see the arrival of the Final Host which is composed of Dark Celestials that are each physically unique and were the ones who easily took down their brethren. Soon afterwards it appeared that these Dark Celestials are in league with the Horde of bugs pouring out of Earth. In an attempt to learn more about the Celestials, Iron Man and Doctor Strange visit the Eternals, only to find them all dead or dying from self-inflicted wounds. Ikaris is found barely alive and reveals to Iron Man that the Uni-Mind is the only thing that can stop the Final Host from fully unleashing the Horde, as the existence of a dead Celestial that Loki calls the Progenitor is revealed. The Progenitor was the first Celestial to arrive on Earth; he died shortly after arrival, with the materials from his body influencing the evolution of life on Earth.

Five billion years after the death of the Progenitor and his corpse's incorporation into Earth's "primordial soup", another Celestial eventually followed looking for him. This was the Fallen, who was known as Zgreb the Aspirant, the lover of the Progenitor. Odin and his Prehistoric Avengers took on this Celestial, leaving it for dead deep in the Earth. Eventually, the disappearance of two Celestials brought the First Host to Earth. They made quick work of the Prehistoric Avengers, but left Zgreb buried to keep the Horde infection contained.

Dark Celestials

When Loki revives Zgreb, he discovered that the Horde did not kill Zgreb. Instead, they transformed him into a new type of Celestial known as Dark Celestial. Together with the rest of his kind, collectively known as the Final Host, they have killed or infected every other Celestial, the dead bodies of whom now litter Earth, feeding the Horde.

The heroes finally realize why the Celestials did not cleanse planet Earth when they had the chance. They saw the potential to grow an antidote to defeat the Horde and so they waited, visiting the planet now and then to see if the cure had been developed. The Avengers, combining their powers through the Uni-Mind, purge the Earth of the Horde, curing the infected Celestials. The newly revived Celestials defeat the Dark Celestials.

Infinity Wars

In the 2018 Infinity Wars event, as the Infinity Stones are gathered once again, Loki dupes his own version of the Infinity Watch within the Soul World, stealing the six Stones belonging to the main Marvel universe from Gamora. He does so to dive deep into the Quarry of the Gods at the end of time, believing unlimited power awaits him there. As he enters, he discovers the Stones hold no power in the bottom of the quarry, becoming ordinary rocks. Loki sees that the area littered with thousands of Stones, confirming that this quarry is where these powerful artifacts originated and are actively mined by the Celestials.

A.X.E.: Judgment Day

During the "A.X.E.: Judgment Day" storyline, the Avengers and the Eternals who did not side with Druig work to revive the Progenitor (which became Avengers Mountain) when Druig awakens the Hex to attack Krakoa. This was not to be a simple resurrection. Instead, they would re-write the "programming" of the Celestial, creating a being with ideals more aligned with their own. This new God would, if they succeeded, forcibly end Druig's war. Upon waking, the Progenitor orders the Hex to leave. However, the Progenitor surmises that the inhabitants of Earth had driven it to ruin, so he declared they would have twenty-four hours to prove themselves more good than evil, else he would destroy the world. The Eternals, X-Men, Mister Sinister, and Iron Man infiltrate the Celestial to activate its own self-destruct while continuing to be judged by the Progenitor. Upon reaching the core, they convince the Progenitor that it itself is not worthy, which resulted in it undoing every death it caused and reverting to Avengers Mountain. However, an aspect of the Progenitor's consciousness survives and continues to observe Earth.

Known Celestials

• Arishem the Judge: A Celestial tasked with judging whether the civilization of a planet will live or die.
• Ashema the Listener: A Celestial tasked, along with Nezarr the Calculator, with retrieving Franklin Richards for evaluation as a new member of the Celestials.
• The Blue Celestial: The first Celestial with a documented birth.
• Callus the Void: One of the Celestials turned into a Dark Celestial.
• Celestial Destructor: A member of the Aspirants, he was sent by the First Firmament to cause as much damage to Eternity as possible. He was confronted by the Avengers, X-Men, Ultimates and other countless heroes and was banished by the magic users with the use of a spell from the Book of the Vishanti.
• The Celestial Gardener: A Celestial tasked with the maintenance of the Apocalypse entity on Earth.
• The Celestial Madonna: A Celestial who had arrived in 114 A.D. at Zhang Heng's palace. She was "pregnant" at the time and wanted to consume either Earth or the Moon to survive, but Zhang Heng convinced her to instead consume the Sun, which killed her immediately.
• Devron the Experimenter: A young Celestial tasked with watching over Earth alongside Gamiel the Manipulator.
• The Dreaming Celestial: Originally known as Tiamut the Communicator; a renegade Celestial.
• Ea the Wise:
• Eson the Searcher: The Celestial tasked with "seeking."
• Exitar the Exterminator: A Celestial tasked with the destruction of life on worlds that fail the Celestials' tests.
• The Fallen a.k.a. Zgreb the Aspirant: A deranged Celestial that came to Earth during the Stone Age, apparently searching for something. This Celestial was actually the lover of the Progenitor and was searching for him before it was defeated and left for dead deep in the Earth by Odin and his Prehistoric Avengers. When Loki revived Zgreb from its long slumber, he discovered that the Horde did not kill Zgreb; instead the Horde transformed it into a Dark Celestial, now known as Zgreb the Sorrower.
• Gamiel the Manipulator: A young Celestial tasked with watching over Earth alongside Devron the Experimenter.
• Gammenon the Gatherer: A Celestial tasked with collecting samples of all life forms present on a planet during a Celestial Host.
• Godhead: A silent Celestial who was tasked to observe the planet Viscardi. After the inhabitants revealed their desire to become powerful like him, he created The Black Vortex.
• Geun the Executioner: A Human scientist turned Celestial.
• Groffon the Regurger: An obscure Celestial who destroys planets. He is killed by Deadpool when trying to destroy Earth.
• Hargen the Measurer: A Celestial tasked with measuring or quantifying the planets the Celestials survey.
• Jemiah the Analyzer: A Celestial tasked with analyzing life-form samples.
• Kahltro the Tinkerer: A Celestial tasked with creating instruments of destruction.
• Marazov the Penitent: A Human scientist turned Celestial.
• Nezarr the Calculator: A Celestial who is a mathematician and possesses the ability to project illusions
• Neena the Luck Dragon: The superhero Domino, she transformed into a Celestial by the Creation Constellation to stop Geun. Domino Hotshot #5
• The One Above All: The leader of the Celestials and temporarily marked as the last living Celestial.
• Obliteron: One of the Celestials that was turned into a Dark Celestial.
• Oneg the Prober: A Celestial tasked with experimentation and implementation.
• The Progenitor: The first Celestial to visit Earth. This Celestial had been infected, while traveling in deep space, by the Horde which eventually killed him. A new version of the Progenitor was later resurrected to end the Eternals' war against the mutant nation of Krakoa. This Celestial then began judging whether the civilization of planet Earth will live or die.
• The Red Celestial: The Celestial tasked with helping to birth the Blue Celestial.
• The Red/Blue Judge: The Celestial tasked with judging whether the civilization of a planet will live or die.
• Scathan the Approver: A Celestial from the alternate timeline/reality Earth-691 who is tasked with approving or disapproving situations. It seems that Scathan also exists in Earth-616, the Prime Marvel Universe.
• Star Child: A "Variant Celestial", the son of the Celestial Madonna. He was born on the sun following the death of his mother and was retrieved by Leonardo da Vinci.
• Xodus the Forgotten: A mutant M'Kraan evolved into a Celestial at Earth-92131.
• Tefral the Surveyor: A Celestial tasked with surveying and mapping the geography of planets.
• Valknar the Exhumer: One of the Celestials that was turned into a Dark Celestial.
• Ziran the Tester: A Celestial tasked with testing the stability of the genetic material of life forms they alter.

Biology

Referred to as "space gods" by the Eternals and the Deviants, the Celestials appear as silent, armored humanoids with an average height of 2,000 feet (610 m). They weigh an average of 260 tons, meaning they are far denser than air. They are capable of feats such as reducing the Asgardian construct known as the Destroyer to slag, moving planets at will, and creating and containing entire pocket universes. Reed Richards theorized that the Celestials' source of power was Hyperspace, the source of all energy in the Marvel Universe. The Celestials are near-vulnerable, though not immune to injury.

New Celestials may be born by consuming the mass of the Black Galaxy, a place made out pure biological and organic matter, or with planets which were implanted with Celestial eggs/embryos at the core and after millions of years they would be born and would consume the planet, similar to the Celestials of Earth X. However, there are other ways for a Celestial to be born as witnessed with the Celestial Madonna who was carrying an infant Celestial. The Celestials also have an immune system, consisting of armored behemoths, jellyfish-like antibodies and a swarm creature with wings and tentacles, which can fire blasts from their eye. The Celestials are all telepathically linked to one-another no matter the distance.

Thanos, wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, ranked the Celestials as being on roughly the same scale of power as Galactus, the Stranger, Odin, and Zeus, but below that of Mistress Love, Lord Chaos, and Master Order.

Reception

Various online articles have assessed the Celestials as among the most powerful characters in Marvel Comics.

Other versions

Although the Celestials appear in other realities, these are all aspects of the same characters because Celestials exist across the multiverse simultaneously.

The characters also appear in the 1999 alternate universe limited series Earth X, appearing as beings of energy encased in armor composed of vibranium, a metal with properties that prevent their dissipation. They reproduce by planting a fragment of their essence in a planet, which matures into a new Celestial over the course of eons. In the Ultimate Marvel universe, the Celestials are a race of powerful superhumans led by Shen Xorn. In Mutant X, the Celestials were killed in battle with the Goblin Entity, an all-powerful being that consumed entire galaxies and the polar opposite of the Phoenix Force. In X-Men '92, the Celestials evolved from mutants. What If?: Secret Wars features a version of Doctor Doom with the powers of the Beyonder and the Infinity Gauntlet who had defeated the Celestials.

In other media

Film

• The Celestials are featured in media set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As in the comics, their origin and nature are shrouded in mystery. Whatever can be known about them is known only by a few, such as Taneleer Tivan / The Collector, who reveals that the Celestials utilized the Infinity Stones as a means of power against lesser life forms.
  • The severed head of a deceased Celestial was converted into Knowhere and appears in the live-action films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), the animated Disney+ series What If...? (2021), the television special The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Knowhere was used as a congregation hub for space travelers, and the Tivan Group set up mining operations within it to harvest valuable resources. Following the events of Infinity War, the Collector sold Knowhere to the Guardians of the Galaxy, who turned it into their headquarters.
  • In Guardians of the Galaxy, footage of Eson the Searcher is shown using the Power Stone to destroy a planet.
  • In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ego the Living Planet, Peter Quill / Star-Lord's biological father, is a Celestial who controls a humanoid avatar to travel the universe. His planetary form is a living extension of his Celestial consciousness. Over the course of many years, he planted thousands of alien seedlings to expand his existence across all life-sustaining planets. However, Ego needed another Celestial's assistance to activate them, so he fathered children with various alien races and had Yondu Udonta retrieve them so he could gauge their Celestial powers. Quill is the only child who gained his father's Celestial abilities, though he loses them after killing Ego.
  • In Eternals, Arishem the Judge, Nezarr the Calculator, Jemiah the Analyzer, and Hargen the Measurer appear. These versions stabilized the universe with their infinite powers and to plant seeds of their species in planets, destroying them in the process. To control those planets' population growth, they made the Deviants. When they disobeyed the Celestials' will, the latter created the Eternals. Arishem has a greater rank than other Celestials. In the present day, Tiamut the Communicator nearly emerges from Earth, but is turned to adamantium by Sersi.
  • In Thor: Love and Thunder, a Celestial Gardener and a Mad Celestial are seen outside the Council of Godheads chamber.

Theme parks

Eson the Searcher appears in Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

Video games

• Eson the Searcher appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.
• An unnamed Celestial appears as a boss in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order's Black Order Expansion Pass.
• Eson the Searcher appears in Marvel Snap.

External links

• Celestials on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki
• Celestials at Comic Vine
• Celestials at Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
• 25 Things That Make No Sense About Marvel’s Celestials at Screenrant