Celestial (comics)

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.

They also appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe live-action films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Eternals (2021), and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).

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).

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 mysterious cosmic entity "Queen of Nevers".

At the beginning of creation itself, countless 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 in Creation 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 made complete and unchanging for all time. The First Firmament named these loyal beings Aspirants and was very pleased by their goals and desire to maintain the status quo of its reign. 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 space-borne 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 (named after the species which would adopt it) and operated by genetically engineered pilots. During the war, the Godkiller destroyed countless billions of Celestials and brought them to the brink of extinction. At this point, for unknown reasons, 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 initial visit is called a First Host of Celestials, 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. These Hosts have been documented on Earth, and have also been found on many other planets throughout the universe. Other major examples include the Skrull homeworld, hundreds of millions of years ago, and numerous Shi'ar worlds, such as Gladiator's homeworld.