This will be important a little further down. As in, the grim reaper, the personification of death. In Marvel’s comics, even Death is a character. Other cosmic entities in this pantheon include Infinity, who represents the totality of space the near-omnipotent Beyonder and the ancient, mysterious, and massive Celestials. The Living Tribunal (another Lee co-creation, introduced in 1967) is seemingly the supreme being in the Marvel Universe, maintaining balance in all realities across the company’s fictional multiverse.

It got pretty meta when the universe itself became a character, Eternity (created by Lee and artist Steve Ditko in 1965), who represents all of time and looks like a space dude whose body is a window through which the entire universe can be seen. Things kind of spiraled from there, with more cosmic entities being added over the next several decades. This stuff started to be introduced in the 1960s by the iconic duo of writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, who created characters like Galactus (who consumes entire planets to survive) and the Watchers (who watch and record events as they unfold throughout the universe). In the comics, the Marvel Universe contains an entire pantheon of cosmic beings: abstract entities of near-omnipotence who are part of the fabric of the universe and influence it essentially like gods.

Most fans of the movies are familiar with classic characters like Captain America and Spider-Man, but when the adventures move into the cosmos, things can get very confusing. 2014).īefore discussing Thanos and his agenda, it can help to have a general idea of Marvel’s “cosmic” setting. Thanos’ future self gives him a tour of Marvel’s cosmic entities in Thanos Annual #1 (Nov.

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