Eternity (Marvel Comics)
Eternity | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
First appearance | Strange Tales #138 (November 1965) |
Created by | Stan Lee (writer) Steve Ditko (artist) |
In-story information | |
Species | Abstract entity |
Notable aliases | The Living Embodiment of the Universe The Living Sentience of the Cosmos |
Abilities |
|
Eternity is a fictional cosmic entity appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by scripter-editor Stan Lee and artist-plotter Steve Ditko, the character is first mentioned in Strange Tales #134 (July 1965) and first appears in Strange Tales #138 (Nov. 1965).[1]
Debuting in the
Eternity appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Thor: Love and Thunder (2022).
Publication history
Eternity debuted in an epic 17-issue storyline dubbed "The Eternity Saga", which occurred in the ongoing feature "Doctor Strange" in Strange Tales #130–146 (March 1965–July 1966).[2][3] The character was first mentioned in the 10-page story "Earth Be My Battleground" in Strange Tales #134 (July 1965), and first seen in the 10-page story "If Eternity Should Fail" in Strange Tales #138 (Nov. 1965).[4]
Following the publication's retitling as Doctor Strange, the character returned in issues #180–182 (May–July 1969), and thereafter continued to appear in stories that were cosmic in scope, including in Doctor Strange vol. 2 #10–13 (Oct. 1974–April 1975); The Defenders #92 (Feb. 1981); and a story by writer-artist John Byrne in Fantastic Four #262 (Jan. 1984) that attracted controversy. At the conclusion of that story, Eternity validated the existence of another cosmic character, Galactus. Howard University Professor of Literature Marc Singer stated Byrne used the character Eternity as a means to "justify planetary-scale genocide".[5]
Eternity guest starred in
Eternity has also appeared in the
Fictional character biography
Eternity, along with his sister
The first recorded human contact with Eternity is by Doctor Strange, who seeks the entity out when his master the Ancient One is attacked by former pupil Baron Mordo. After a series of battles with Mordo and his minions, and discovering that arch-foe Dormammu is secretly backing Mordo, Strange finds and speaks with Eternity. The entity advises Strange that he is capable of defeating his foes without aid, and Strange wins a duel with Dormammu (who is ultimately defeated by Eternity) and thwarts an attempted sabotage in his Sanctum Sanctorum.[20]
On
The entity is aided by superhero team the Defenders, who locate three missing fragments of its being and convince them to rejoin with Eternity.[22]
Eternity is also summoned to the trial of
During a series of extended battles between cosmic hero
The character appears with the entire cosmic hierarchy (eventually revealed to be "retconned" into an avatar of the entity[25]) during an encounter with the entity the Beyonder[26] and consults with fellow entity Galactus when the Elders of the Universe plan to destroy the latter (to initiate a new Big Bang and restart the universe).[27]
Together with the cosmic hierarchy Eternity opposes the Eternal Thanos when the villain wields the Infinity Gauntlet, although they are all eventually defeated.[28] Once Thanos is eventually dispatched (courtesy of his own carelessness), Eternity unsuccessfully advises fellow cosmic entity the Living Tribunal against allowing the Infinity Gems to be used in conjunction.[29] Eternity develops animosity towards the artificial being Adam Warlock, whom the entity encounters on several occasions.[30]
Eternity also "spawned" several "children", or concepts that became separate, independent entities: Empathy; Eulogy; Expediency; Entropy; Epiphany; Enmity and Eon (Eon is eventually killed and replaced in turn by the concept
Eternity is imprisoned by the
Eternity is also summoned by the superhero team the Avengers to reason with the cosmic entities the Infinites[33] and observes the attempts of Thanos and several of Earth's heroes to defeat several of his clones, who are dedicated to destroying the universe and in turn, Eternity itself.[34]
Eternity is eventually killed due to the machinations of his son Entropy, when the later allied himself with Genis-Vell, who at the time was becoming insane under the strain of his cosmic awareness. Entropy soon regretted what he had done, when all of creation was destroyed, leaving only himself, his sister Epiphany, Genis and Rick Jones, since the prospect of spending the rest of eternity in an empty void was not all that alluring. Rick Jones suggested that he try creating something. Entropy did, and with Genis-Vell's help, he re-created the Universe, thus becoming the new Eternity. As Eternity, he revealed that this was all part of his life cycle.[35]
Eternity is one of the last beings (together with the
The entity's power is stolen by Dormammu and his sister Umar to remake the universe in their image. The pair are opposed by a reuniting of three of the original Defenders (Strange; the Hulk and Namor), with Umar betraying Dormammu and then being defeated in turn. Eternity's power returns to him and reality is restored.[38]
When an alien race's experiments in eternal universal observation cause damage to Eternity, he is narrowly saved by the actions of the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange,
In the "
During the
During the Time Runs Out storyline, the Beyonders are revealed to have killed Eternity as part of destroying abstract entities in each reality across the multiverse.[43]
Doctor Doom's killing of the Beyonders and use of their power to create Battleworld out of what remains of the multiverse revives Eternity, whose face and voice are replaced by Doom's. Glorian informs the Silver Surfer that reality being held together by Doom's will has turned Eternity into the will of Doom.[44]
At the end of the
The cosmic team The Ultimates traveled Outside of the Multiverse to survey the timestream to evaluate its status after the rebirth of reality during the Secret Wars event. The forces outside Reality proved to be too great a challenge even for the immensely powerful and skilled super-team. They were rescued by Galactus The Lifebringer, whom the Ultimates had earlier cured of his hunger and transformed into a positive cosmic force, much to the former Devourer's gratitude. An aspect of Eternity had informed Galactus of their danger and requested he assist them. However, after rescuing the Ultimates, Galactus discovered to his horror that the actual totality of Eternity - the actual life force of the Multiverse rather than the aspects of him that usually interact with lesser beings - had been chained and imprisoned by some mysterious cosmic force. Eternity had used the rescue of the Ultimates as an excuse to lure Galactus there to warn him of his predicament and that all of Creation was in danger from his jailer.[46]
It was eventually revealed Eternity's jailer was none other than his predecessor, The First Firmament. The destruction of the Seventh and the rebirth of the Eighth Multiverse by the Beyonders during the Secret Wars had an unforeseen consequence: It provided an opening for the Firmament, who had been patiently waiting Outside, to attack the newly reborn and therefore greatly 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. For example, under the Firmament's influence, Master Order and Lord Chaos destroyed the reborn Living Tribunal in front of Galactus the Lifebringer and then found their servant, The In-Betweener and forcibly merged into a new cosmic being many orders of magnitude of power greater that called itself Logos. Logos then located the surviving Celestials and destroyed all but one of them. One of the Celestials was rescued by The Queen of Nevers. Logos then transformed Galactus back into the Devourer of Worlds, with an enormously increased hunger. The goal was to turn Galactus into a living weapon that would devour the Multiverse. Galactus was rescued again by the Ultimates and his current herald, the Anti-Man-who sacrificed his life to restore Galactus as the Lifebringer. Enraged, Galactus devoured Rostov, the Firmament's servant who had infiltrated the Troubleshooters and attempted to manipulate them into defeating the Ultimates. After devouring him, Galactus knew all Rostov knew. However, Galactus was now weakened and had to have time to recover before planning their next move. Eternity remained chained with the First Firmament acting against the newly reborn and therefore malleable Cosmic Order within him. Galactus swore to free him by any means necessary and the Ultimates agreed to help.[47]
Eternity Mask
A black magical item created from Eternity's own substance during the sixth century by a group of renegade occultists to give whoever wears it equal power to anyone they may face, unless they are below the natural ability of the mask's user. This allowed for example, an untrained peasant to be on equal grounds with the Black Knight and fight him for three days straight. If the would-be user's intent was to commit acts of evil, the mask had no effect on them. So far the upper limits of this ability have yet to be established. The Mask has since then, been passed on from individual to individual and has been implied to have taken a role in the most important events in Human history. One of the first known users of the mask was Jim Gardley a.k.a. Masked Raider. Other users were the
Powers and abilities
Eternity is a tremendously powerful
Thanos, wielding the Infinity Gauntlet, ranked Eternity's scale of power as above that of Lord Chaos and Master Order, equal to that of Infinity, but below that of the Living Tribunal.[49]
Reception
Accolades
- In 2014, ComicBook.com ranked Eternity's introduction 56th in their "75 Most Iconic Marvel Comics Moments" list.[50]
- In 2017, Den of Geek ranked Eternity 34th in their "Guardians of the Galaxy 3: 50 Marvel Characters We Want to See" list.[51]
- In 2018, CBR.com ranked Eternity 2nd in their "Stan Lee's 20 Most Powerful Creations" list.[52]
- In 2018, Screen Rant ranked Eternity 17th in their "Marvel Vs DC: The 25 Most Powerful Gods " list.[53]
- In 2020,
- In 2022, Collider ranked Eternity 4th in their "19 Most Powerful Marvel Characters" list.[56]
- In 2022, Screen Rant ranked Eternity 3rd in their "16 Most Powerful Cosmic Characters In Marvel Comics" list.[57]
- In 2022, The Mary Sue ranked Eternity 5th in their "10 Most Powerful Marvel Characters of All Time" list.[58]
Impact
"The Eternity Saga" culminates in the introduction of the character Eternity. The saga is frequently cited on lists of the top Doctor Strange storylines to read,
Eternity possibly served as inspiration for Marvel writers Jim Starlin and Steve Englehart.[62][63]
Other versions
Heroes Reborn
In an alternate reality depicted in the "Heroes Reborn" miniseries, the Blur encounters and races Eternity.[64]
In other media
Television
- Eternity makes a cameo appearance in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode "Dark Phoenix".[65]
- Eternity appears in Silver Surfer, voiced by John Neville. This version is explicitly referred to as male, serves as an observer, and is the brother of Infinity.[66]
Film
Eternity appears in films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in varying forms.
- The entity's likeness is depicted in Guardians of the Galaxy within temple murals dedicated to it and others like it.[67][68]
- Eternity appears in Thor: Love and Thunder.[69] Gorr the God Butcher reaches Eternity's realm using Thor's axe Stormbreaker to wish for the death of all gods. However, Thor convinces Gorr to use his wish to resurrect his daughter Love instead.
Merchandise
A bust of Eternity was released by Bowen Designs and designed by the Kucharek brothers.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-1-4654-7890-0.
- ^ a b Cronin, Brian (November 14, 2017). "2017 Top 100 Comic Book Storylines: #90-81". CBR. Archived from the original on 2019-10-11.
- ^ Strange Tales #146 at the Grand Comics Database: "Indexer Notes: Part 17 of 17"
- ^ Strange Tales #134 at the Grand Comics Database: "Indexer Notes: Part 5 of 17. First mention of Eternity. Strange would finally find it in STRANGE TALES #138 (November 1965)"
- ^ Singer, Marc (May 18, 2004). "Byrne's Fantastic Four, or Optimism". Whiterose. Archived from the original on October 3, 2011. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-6054-9046-5.
- ^ Polo, Susana (May 3, 2019). "Destroying the Infinity Stones is next to impossible, at least in the comics". Polygon. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ Shaw-Williams, Hannah (September 28, 2018). "Eternity War: The Best Avengers 4 Title Contender - page 2". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on March 1, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ Stefansky, Emma (July 30, 2016). "Marvel's Very Complex Infinity War Saga is Officially Being Renamed". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on November 4, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ "QUASAR: Page 4 of 6 - BIOGRAPHY - page 4". Mighty Avengers. July 19, 2018. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ Russ, Chris (April 17, 2018). "Avengers Historian #4: Eternity in an Hour". Multiversity Comics. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-5115-9.
- ^ Hays, John (August 19, 2005). ""Disaster!" - Defender #2 review". Comics Bulletin. Archived from the original on October 17, 2013. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ "8 Weapons That Could Beat The Infinity Gauntlet (And 7 That Are Worthless Against It) - 1. The Heart of the Universe". Screen Rant. May 3, 2018. Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ Bondurant, Tom (September 5, 2017). "What Doomsday Clock Can Learn From These DC Epics". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ Shiach, Kieran (May 1, 2017). "Ultimates 2 #6 Reveals The True Enemy Of The Marvel Universe". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on May 26, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- Bleeding Cool News. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ Matadeen, Renaldo (July 2, 2019). "Galactus Just Earned a Massive Power Upgrade By Killing [SPOILER]". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 3, 2019.
- ^ The Ultimates 2 #6 (2017)
- ^ Strange Tales #130-146 (March 1965-July 1966)
- ^ Doctor Strange #180-182 (May–July 1969)
- ^ The Defenders #92 (Feb. 1981)
- ^ Fantastic Four #262 (Jan. 1984)
- ^ Quasar #19-25 (Feb.-Aug. 1991)
- ^ a b Quasar #37 (Aug. 1992)
- ^ Secret Wars II #6-7 (Dec.-Jan. 1985)
- ^ Silver Surfer vol. 3 #6 (Dec. 1987) & #10 (Apr. 1988)
- ^ The Infinity Gauntlet #1-6 (July-Dec. 1991)
- ^ Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1 (Feb. 1992)
- ^ Warlock and the Infinity Watch #9 (Oct. 1992); #11 (Dec. 1992); #14-15 (March–April 1993); #19-20 (Aug.-Sept. 1993)
- ^ Quasar #38 (Sept. 1992)
- ^ The Infinity War #1-6 (June-Nov. 1992)
- ^ Avengers Infinity #1-4 (Sept.-Dec. 2000)
- ^ Infinity Abyss #1-2 (Aug. 2002); #3-4 (Sept. 2002); #5-6 (Oct. 2002)
- ^ Captain Marvel vol. 5 #2-6
- ^ Marvel: The End #1-2 (May 2003); #3-4 (June 2003) & #5 (July 2003) & #6 (Aug. 2003)
- ^ JLA/Avengers #1 (Sept. 2003) & 3 (Dec. 2003); Avengers/JLA #2 (Oct. 2003) & 4 (May 2004)
- ^ Defenders vol. 3 #1-5 (Sept. 2005-Jan. 2006)
- ^ Fantastic Four #550 (2007)
- ^ The Mighty Avengers #30 (Dec. 2009)
- ^ The Mighty Avengers #34
- ^ Chaos War #2 (Oct. 2010)
- ^ New Avengers vol. 3 #30 (April 2015)
- ^ Dan Slott (w), Michael Allred (p), Michael Allred (i), Laura Allred (col), VC's Joe Sabino (let), Tom Brevoort (ed). "The Death of Everything That Ever Was or Ever Will Be" Silver Surfer, vol. 7, no. 13 (15 July 2015). United States: Marvel Comics.
- ^ Civil War II #8
- ^ The Ultimates #3-6 (2016)
- ^ The Ultimates 2 #3-6 (2017)
- ^ Al Ewing (w), Various artists (a). Marvel Comics, vol. 1, no. 1000 (August 28, 2019). Marvel Comics.
- ^ Thanos Annual #1 (2014)
- ^ "75 Most Iconic Marvel Comics Moments: #60-46". ComicBook.com. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
- ^ Buxton, Marc (2017-05-19). "Guardians of the Galaxy 3: 50 Marvel Characters We Want to See". Den of Geek. Retrieved 2022-11-10.
- ^ Curovic, Irina (2018-11-19). "The Man: Stan Lee's 20 Most Powerful Creations, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
- ^ Gunter, Gary (2018-09-18). "Marvel Vs DC: The 25 Most Powerful Gods Officially Ranked". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
- ^ Allan, Scoot (2020-01-31). "Marvel's 10 Most Powerful Giants, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
- ^ Dunphey, Charles (2020-07-08). "Ranking The 19 Most Powerful Marvel Cosmic Characters". CBR. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
- ^ Oddo, Marco Vito; Robbins, Jason (2021-09-28). "19 Most Powerful Marvel Characters, Ranked". Collider. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
- ^ Harn, Darby (2021-05-16). "The 16 Most Powerful Cosmic Characters In Marvel Comics, Ranked". Screen Rant. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
- ^ "10 Most Powerful Marvel Characters of All Time". The Mary Sue. 2022-08-14. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
- ^ Top Doctor Strange storyline ratings:
- Francisco, Eric (November 2, 2016). "5 'Doctor Strange' Comics to Read Before and After the Movie". Inverse. Archived from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- Trevor Van As (November 1, 2016). "8 Doctor Strange Stories You Should Read". How to Love Comics.
- Marston, George; Arrant, Chris (November 3, 2016). "The Top 10 Must-Read DOCTOR STRANGE Stories". Newsarama. Archived from the original on May 20, 2017.
- ^ Castro, Danilo (November 3, 2016). "15 Must Read Doctor Strange Comics". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on February 9, 2019.
- ^ Cronin, Brian (January 6, 2017). "Marvel Cosmic: The Greatest Space Epics". CBR. Archived from the original on 2018-03-30.
- ISBN 978-1-137-57822-8.
- ^ Bell, B. (2008). Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve Ditko. Fantagraphics Books.
- ^ Heroes Reborn Vol. 2 #3. Marvel Comics.
- ^ "The Dark Phoenix Saga Part One, Dark Phoenix". Marvel Toonzone. Archived from the original on June 20, 2018. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ^ O'Neal, Sean (November 21, 2011). "R.I.P. John Neville, star of The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
- ISBN 978-0785185536.
- ^ Dyce, Andrew (May 7, 2017). "Guardians of the Galaxy 2: Every Easter Egg You Missed". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on 2019-07-27.
- ^ Mirjalili, Fatemeh (July 8, 2022). "Who Is Eternity In Thor: Love And Thunder? A Key Marvel Character Explained". /Film.
External links
- Eternity at Marvel.com
- Eternity on Marvel Database, a Marvel Comics wiki
- The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators