Marvel Comics: Cosmic Entities / Characters

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Supreme Entities

The One Above All

"What you see is what I am to you. Don't worry. It's a compliment, not an insult. That's what my creations do. They find the humanity in God."

"I see through many eyes. I build with many hands. They are themselves, but they are also me. I am all-powerful. My only weapon is love. The mystery intrigues me."

In a series with many cosmic beings, there has to be one who is supreme. And that being is the One Above All. Marvel's mightiest character is one who appears rather rarely, showing up in only 16 issues in total, and only for a few pages. A good deal of knowledge about him comes from what is told to us by characters. Shrouded in mystery, the One Above All watches all the events of the Marvel Multiverse unfold and occasionally interacts with heroes like the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.

All-Loving Hero: Well, his only weapon is love. Heck, when Nightmare died in the final issue of Loki and went to Heaven (as part of his scheme, he had been turned into a mortal that had technically led a sinless life), the One Above All welcomed even him with open arms, saying "Bask in my love for all eternity".
All-Powerful Bystander: THE all-powerful bystander. When he interacts with beings, it is usually to heal them (either physically or emotionally) or to assist heroes in ways only an extraordinarily powerful entity could, if they need help. His bystander nature is justified since his only weapon is love.
Alternate Company Equivalent: While on paper his DC equivalent would be The Presence, as an Author Avatar for Marvel creators, he would probably be closer to The Writer from Grant Morrison's Animal Man.
Always Someone Better: Thor hints at this concept when describing a being greater than the Living Tribunal (the One Above All being the only qualifier at that time). The trope dies with the One Above All, however, who is indisputably the mightiest and highest entity in the setting.
Ambiguously Related: The more traditional Yahweh does exist in this setting, being (unsurprisingly) involved with Ghost Rider's lore and a satirical appearance in Howard the Duck MAX of all places. It's unclear how they tie into one another, if at all. There's also the Fulcrum from Eternals (2008), who is the creator of the cosmic system the Celestials maintain, is described as omnipotent, and also takes the appearance of Jack Kirby, leading fans to speculate he's related to the One Above All, but thanks to Chuck Cunningham Syndrome, we don't have an answer.
Angel Unaware: This seems to be a running gag with the One Above All. No one knows just who he is until he makes it clear, even Beta Ray Bill◊.
Author Avatar: One of the more widely accepted explanations of the One, possibly spawned by a famous appearance where he looked like Jack Kirby, that he is the in-universe representation of the creative teams and/or Marvel editorial.
Complete Immortality: Age is meaningless and no one can harm him. Except someone using an Astral Regulator like Thanos in Thanos: The Infinity Conflict, but that was a very unique case.
Cosmic Entity: He can fool anyone into thinking he is a regular human but he is far more on the inside.
Crisis of Faith: Spider-Man has one and demands that "God" answer his questions. The One Above All later converses with Peter and Peter's faith in all things (but especially humanity) is restored.
Deadpan Snarker: Yes, he has his moments.
TOAA: (after Peter has taken out his frustrations on a dumpster) Congratulations. That dumpster'll never menace anyone ever again.
Don't Fear the Reaper: He tells Spider-Man to not fear death or mourn Aunt May should she pass.
Empathic Healer: He healed Beta Ray Bill of his injuries. He also heals Peter of the hand injuries caused by Peter repeatedly punching a dumpster.
Evil Twin: In the form of The One Below All, introduced in Immortal Hulk. More specifically, they're two sides of the same coin. The One Below All is The One Above All's "Hulk".
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Marvel's prime example. Stronger than Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet, the Beyonder and the Living Tribunal and wiser than any Celestial, God, or Abstract.
Expecting Someone Taller: When the Fantastic Four meet the One, Sue Richards was more than a little surprised that she was taller than God.
Sue: ...Reed, why I am taller than the Almighty?
Even More Omnipotent: Is 99.99% of the time the "Even More" part, but it's briefly implied in Thanos: The Infinity Conflict and Defenders: Beyond that even he has superiors.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: He once took the form of a homeless man to speak with Spider-Man. When Jackie McGee sees him, she sees the face of her mother.
God Is Good: Between consoling Spider-Man and restoring his faith in humanity, bringing Thing back to life and giving Beta Ray Bill hope for him and his people, The One Above All is a pretty swell guy.
Gold-Colored Superiority: Often appears in a golden humanoid form, and is, well, above all.
Greater-Scope Paragon: The One Above All and the Living Tribunal are the main architects of balance and order in the Marvel Universe. However, they usually operate In Mysterious Ways and seldom involve themselves in events without something being so screwed up that only their power can fix it. They are also not above doing things like destroying an entire universe if it's the most efficient means of solving the problem.
Heaven: The One Above All has been seen residing in Heaven.
Hope Bringer: He is this to Beta Ray Bill.
"All is not lost. Where there is life... there is hope."
I Know Your True Name: This is how he got Spider-Man's attention when they first met.
In Mysterious Ways: At the end of Immortal Hulk, Hulk tries to get some answers from him about why his life is so horrible. The One Above All doesn't respond in a way Hulk can comprehend. Joe Fixit, meanwhile, just decides he's not going to give them a straight answer, and so decides "screw you!" Which it is then implied was the big guy's plan all along. And why didn't he intervene at any point when the Beyonders were destroying the Multiverse, up to and including killing the Living Tribunal? Who knows?
Medium Awareness: His appearance in Defenders: Beyond has him mention "the storyteller" and his conversation with Blue Marvel implies that while he's the highest being the characters can ever reach, he's still below the writers of Marvel Comics, a fact he is aware of.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Would you believe the man on the left◊, who is smaller and scrawnier than Spider-Man (on the right), is far stronger than guys like Hulk and Thor?
Mysterious Past: He is the Creator of all Marvel universes and it is explicitly their God but, aside from his earliest appearances, Marvel doesn't seem to want The One Above All with an identity identifiable with real world religions, his mysterious nature could be linked to several monotheistic gods with a benign nature and interest in love; in contrast DC Comics who has always been clear The Presence, the absolute God of their universes, is the Abrahamic God Yahweh. However, his domain is sometimes referred to as Heaven, (which is even protected by angels) and under Al Ewing in Immortal Hulk and Defenders: Beyond, references to the Kabbalah are constantly used around him, which really would make him the Abrahamic God, or at least those faiths were the closest to describing him. It's probably safe to say that, if nothing else, he is a stand in for God, just like how Mephisto is used as a stand in for Satan.
The Omnipotent: In case it hasn't been made clear yet: he's the strongest Marvel character.
The Omniscient: Various beings claim omniscience or are described as such. The One Above All is either the only true case of omniscience or the being who comes closest, and everything points towards the former.
One-Steve Limit: There’s a Celestial named One Above All created and titled as such before The One Above All was given this canonical name (His existence was only implied by descriptions before); hence why when referring to the absolute being of Marvel universe THE One Above All is required to differentiate Him from the Celestial.
Power Glows: If he wants it to. He appeared as a mortal man to Spider-Man and made Spidey believe he was some regular mortal, however even TOAA's robe was glowing when he appeared before Beta Ray Bill.
The Power of Love: When Susan Storm feared for her husband's possible death at the hands of the "all-powerful" Silver Surfer, Uatu the Watcher tells her that there is only one being who is truly "all-powerful", and that "His only weapon... is love!" Take a wild guess as to who he was talking about.
Primordial Chaos: The One Above All existed before the Living Tribunal, who has existed since the beginning of time.
Psychic Powers: Not a direct example but the following battle gives an idea of how powerful the One Above All is: Doctor Strange, who can overcome Eldritch Abominations that can destroy multiverses, takes on the Living Tribunal in a magical fight. Strange gets curbstomped and admits the Living Tribunal is mighty enough to destroy both Strange and the Earth with a ''thought''◊. The Tribunal himself will tell you his power is inferior to the One Above All's.
Shapeshifting: Just one of his abilities.
Sophisticated as Hell: Most of his appearances have him speak very formally and grandiose, as you'd expect God, but his appearances in Fantastic Four #511 and Sensational Spider-Man #40 have him speak much more casually and informal.
Spell My Name with a "The": One Above All (no 'the') is a Celestial. The One Above All is the ultimate power in the Marvel universe.
Stealth Hi/Bye: Pulls one off on Peter Parker, whose Spider-Sense usually makes him immune to this.
Top God: Every god from every religion (even alien ones) is present somewhere in the Marvel universe. This guy is above them all. In fact, he is the top god of the Marvel multiverse: 616, Ultimate Marvel, the MCU, the various cartoon universes, etc. You name it, the One Above All is the creator of that universe.
The Worf Effect: Yes, really. In Thanos: The Infinity Conflict, the One Above All admits that Thanos's usage of the Astral Regulator was causing multiversal damage even beyond him to fix. In The Infinity Ending, Thanos absorbs the One Above All. Temporarily, yes, but still...

The One Below All

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/obaimage.jpeg

"You cannot see what I am! You are speaking to a mask!"

"I howl through many mouths! I break with many hands! They are themselves but they are also me! I have all the power you give me and my weapon is HATE!!"

Just as there is a counter force for every force, a shadow for every light, and a reaction for every action, there is The One Below All. The One Below is the dark twin of the Marvel multiverse's top god, the One Above All. While there have been many hell lords and devils claiming to be the one true embodiment of evil, the One Below All may be the true source of all evil, or at least the closest of any evil entity.

Like the One Above All, the One Below All is apart from the physical universes, but is barred from the rest of the Multiverse, and can only extend itself through others and guide events while taking no direct role. It yearns to be free from the lowest point of creation, the opposite side of the mirror, so that it can indulge in its greatest desire... destruction and horror while feeding on the misery of all life.

A malevolent entity that resides in the Below-Place - the deepest layer of Hell - the One Below All is the dark counterpart of the One Above All. Sealed behind a metaphysical Green Door, it is the source of the elusive mutagenic third form of Gamma energy, and in a way every Gamma mutate is a facet of it.

Almighty Idiot: Brian Banner explains that it doesn't really have a mind of its own, only a drive. It's pure id, needing someone else to provide the ego. While it has intelligence and knows what it wants, it lacks focus and needs hosts to direct it.
Almighty Janitor: The Marvel example. An Eldritch Abomination below everything and everyone, both literally and figuratively, yet is The Anti-God of the whole of Marvel and the all-powerful Hulk persona of The One Above All.
The Aloner: Its ultimate end goal is to kill everything everywhere so that it can be completely alone.
One Below All: THE MYSTERY FRIGHTENS AND DISGUSTS ME. I WILL KILL IT. MAKE ALL HOLLOW AS I. DEAD AND DARK AS I. AND I WILL BE ALONE.
Alternate Company Equivalent: To the Great Darkness of The DCU fame, both being the dark counterpart to the resident God and being the immeasurably powerful source of all evil in the multiverse.
Always a Bigger Fish: As a good indicator of where it sits on the food chain, an alternate future version of Doctor Strange tried to cure the Immortal Hulk of its taint via a deal with Mephisto. Y'know, Marvel's premiere Devil. Mephisto instantly said he can't, before the question was even finished.
Strange: My power is almost gone. I am almost gone. And the Hulk must be returned home — cured of his spiritual infection, if possible—
Mephisto: Oh, it's not. The devil in him is far stronger than I am.
The Anti-God: As the opposite of the One Above All, using terms to describe itself that are a dark mirror of its benevolent counterpart. In fact, the final issue reveals the One Below All is the One Above All's Hulk: a split personality desiring only destruction.
Ax-Crazy: An entity of pure, unfettered destruction that would gladly destroy everything and anything in sight if it's let loose. The Breaker Of Worlds, its future self after it takes over the Hulk’s body in the Bad Future, is a haunting example of what would happen should it finally have the freedom to do what it wants.
The Bad Guy Wins: In a possible and likely future, it will take full control of the Hulk, whereupon it will kill everyone, including Galactus, Franklin Richards, and Mr. Immortal. The last two are killed not just out of the One Below All's hatred for all, but to ensure the Sentience of the Universe cannot merge with someone at the end of all things, leaving it vulnerable to be killed and assimilated by the One Below all so it becomes the Ninth Cosmos' Devourer of Worlds. In the Ninth Cosmos, it gets to work breaking apart this new iteration of the universe. It finally succeeds when it destroys O%los, the last planet and is finally given an empty void.
Big Dumb Body: Pretty much the main reason a lot of gamma mutates end up super strong giants with impaired minds. Its ultimate goal is becoming a Galactus-level Hulk capable of destroying everything.
Body Surf: If someone with the power to absorb gamma radiation tries it on someone currently possessed by the host of the One Below All, the host can jump bodies to them via the gamma radiation.
Broken Record: It's only got so much to say. Most of its lines are taken from the above speech. Other than that, it mainly just tells people they have its mark.
Characterization Marches On: A subtle case. The narration in the arc where it first appears in its true form compares it to Angra Mainyu, who can use his immense power for good, but actively chooses not to, implying the One Below All can be benevolent, but chooses to hate. However, after this, the One Below All just simply became a mindless beast who cannot comprehend being good and thus has no real moral agency.
Color Motif: Heavily associated with the color green as a part of its connection to gamma radiation. To a far lesser extent it's also associated with the red gamma mutations (i.e., Red Hulk, Red She-Hulk, etc.). What the latter means, especially since it only comes about from adding cosmic radiation, is not yet clear.
Cumulonemesis: The closest thing to its true appearance is a giant, storming green thunderhead with glowing pinholes for eyes and a gaping maw in the Below Place.
Death Is Cheap: Under its auspices death is meaningless. Gamma mutates won't stay dead if it doesn't want them to.
Death of Personality: Extended possession allows it to gradually erode all other personalities in its host until all that's left is the emptiness that is it.
Demonic Possession: Played With in regards to the One Below All. On the one hand, it needs a host to directly influence the material plane or any planes beyond the Below-Place. It inhabits people and "wears them like masks on a stage" as Brian Banner puts it. However, the One Below All is also an Almighty Idiot without a true mind and is basically a being of pure destructive id and impulse. So when the One Below All possesses you it isn't really taking you over so much as becoming a part of your mind and you become filled with its dark impulses and destructive desires. This plays in to its line "I am myself but I am also them" as there is almost no distinction between it and its host while it inhabits them. Prolonged exposure and being inhabited, on the other hand, will lead to Possession Burnout. See the spoiler below for specifics.
- The One Below All's host can take over anyone with gamma radiation in their bodies, gamma radiation serving as a 'door' through which the One Below All can affect the physical world. If another superhuman then absorbs the mutate's Gamma, the One Below All can then pass into them.
- In a Bad Future, the One Below All has completely possessed the body of the Hulk, having eaten all of Banner's identities.
Destroyer Deity: A perfectly pure and platonic one with no interests apart from living up to its role however and whenever it can.
Eldritch Abomination: Is an immensely powerful yet mindless being, who has nothing but bottomless hatred towards all creation. In a Bad Future, the One Below All inflicts upon the Eighth and Ninth Cosmos a Cosmic Horror Story straight out of Lovecraft's darkest imagination.
Emerald Power: Is the source of power behind gamma mutation, commonly associated with the color green, with the arc around it being built up on revelations of the Green Door.
Emotion Control: While the One Below All can only directly take control of one host, it can influence the negative emotions of any number of people anywhere, and the more negative the person feels, the more control the One Below All has.
Empty Shell: A recurring motif is emptiness or being a hollowed out husk. It wants to make the universe as empty as it is within, by destroying all life and snuffing out all light.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: An extremely literal example as the One Below All is a creature of destruction and evil with no true mind, only impulses and malevolent intelligence. It needs hosts to direct itself and to know and understand what it should do next. Not only does the One Below All not comprehend good, it's absolutely incapable of understanding good.
Evil Counterpart: Of course, as the evil opposite to the One Above All; but furthermore, in the finale of Immortal Hulk, it's revealed to be the One Above All's own Hulk-like persona, an aspect of it as a reflection of every mortal.
Evil Only Has to Win Once: We get a glimpse of what would happen if the One Below All managed to take control of Hulk and turn him into a Galactus-style entity. It proceeds to systematically destroy the entirety of the Ninth Cosmos, leaving a hollow, dead void, with nothing except it.
Evil Is Not a Toy: This is done indirectly in regards to the One Below All. Over the years, many people have tried to use Gamma energy and research for their own ends. What nobody ever realized was that the reason Gamma could create monsters and miracles was because of its elusive third form, which cannot be defined or analyzed. Turns out this third form is power coming straight from the One Below All, and doesn't follow the rules of science or nature because it's power drawn from an Eldritch Abomination that is The Anti-God for the Marvel multiverse. All of the people, good or bad, that have been trying to use Gamma energy for their own ends all these years had no idea they were essentially trying to use the power of the ultimate evil. This is also why Gamma energy and research can never create anything positive or beneficial. The One Below All is the opposite of creation and the dark side of existence. It and by extension its power can never be anything but destructive or harmful.
Foil: The One Below All is the inverse of the One Above All beyond just name. The One Above All is connected to and a part of everything and can move through the multiverse freely while altering anything directly. The One Below All is barred from existing in the multiverse, and while it is connected to everything its power and influence are subtle and small in scale, but can have far-ranging repercussions. The One Above All appears as a mortal being depending on the viewer, by finding a bit of themselves in the almighty. This serves to put them at ease and understand their creator, at least in a small way. The One Below All appears differently depending on the viewer but never takes the form of anything remotely mortal or like a "person", showing an absence of "humanity" or aspect of whatever races perceive it. Further, its appearance is also meant to terrify and intimidate the viewer with the visage seemingly being alien for the most part.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: Inverted; The One Below All uses avatars to avoid breaking mortal minds because it wants them to suffer instead. It's most often shown using Brian Banner, specifically because it unnerves the Devil Hulk. For others it uses a Nightmare Face.
Freudian Trio: After a fashion it forms this between itself as the id, the One Above All as the superego and any mortal as the ego.
God Is Evil: By a technicality of being the One Above All's evil half and has a greater level of power to fit the bill.
Godzilla Threshold: The One Above All only brings the One Below All out intentionally if a threat to the natural cycle of creation and destruction presents itself. If the culprit is lucky, it will just get destroyed. If it isn't, the One Below All will let it live. In a fashion.
Grand Theft Me:
- Brian Banner and the One Below All do this to Sasquatch in Immortal Hulk.
- Later on, Brian Banner explains that since the Leader did this to him, the One Below All can do the same to him, since it's wearing Brian "like a mask". It then proceeds to do just that.
- In one Bad Future, the One Below All devours Bruce Banner and the Hulks from the inside, co-opting their body to usurp Galactus's role in the next universe, where it becomes the Breaker of Worlds and wipes out all life.
Greater-Scope Villain:
- In Immortal Hulk, it influences events towards opening the Green Door completely and bringing everything into its domain, particularly through its host, Brian Banner. Indeed, it seems to have been doing this since before Bruce Banner was born, when Brian discovered gamma radiation could act as a door, and caught a glimpse of the One Below All on the other side.
- During the events of Absolute Carnage, Bruce speculates that it might be behind Knull, god of the symbiotes, and therefore responsible for Venom and Carnage as well. Defenders Vol. 6 elaborates on this by revealing that Anti-All, the dark dragon who is implied to be the ultimate progenitor of Knull and other dark entities, originated in the Below-Place.
- As the most powerful dark entity in the Marvel multiverse, it may be this to all of Marvel. Not just the comics, but all the movies, TV shows, and video games. Wherever there was evil, whether that be Doctor Doom of Earth-616, Thanos of Earth-199999, Kingpin of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, or even Kid Miracleman of Earth-18, the One Below All was there, influencing them.
Green and Mean: The closest to its true form is a green cloud, as it's the source of gamma radiation. As for the mean part, well, it's an Omnicidal Maniac working on The Power of Hate, that's plenty "mean".
Heart Is an Awesome Power: Inverted as its power is hate, but while the One Below All is infinite in power and scope being omniscient and omnipotent, it is trapped behind the green door while being barred from directly controlling the universe(s). However, it can influence the heart and minds of the inhabitants of the multiverse with its absolute control over negativity and evil. While the One Above All won't use his power over love to manipulate his creations as he is intrigued by the mystery and allows his creations free will; the One Below All is repulsed and disgusted by the mystery, actively hates all other life and despises free will, so it had no reservations using its power over evil to manipulate and control any number of beings in the multiverse. This also implies that, like the One Above All, the One Below All moves In Mysterious Ways because it can actively influence any evil creature no matter how powerful (It's the biggest and baddest thing around, period) but there is no way of knowing when it's enacting its plans through pawns, but given how many times the universe/multiverse has almost been completely destroyed, Bruce Banner and the Hulk probably aren't the only means it's using to destroy everything.
Hero Killer: In the Bad Future, it eats Franklin Richards, Galactus, Mr Immortal and every Hulk persona.
Light Is Not Good: As part of its association with gamma radiation it's usually heralded by a brilliant green radiance.
Leaking Can of Evil: It's largely sealed in the Below Place behind the Green Door, but as its debut series shows this does almost nothing to prevents its influence from reaching across the multiverse.
Legacy Character: In the Bad Future, the One Below All possesses the Hulk and becomes the last living being in the universe, thereby becoming Galactus' heir in the next universe. The One Below All also takes on the Green Scar's outfit and nickname of 'Worldbreaker', and never stops making the universe's inhabitants pay.
Mind Hive: Of a sort. The One Below All can only inhabit one soul at a time but it can influence any number of souls, and the more evil the soul or negative emotions present, the more influence it has.
Mouth of Sauron: It needs a host to affect things directly, a soul it can speak and act through. In Immortal Hulk, that host is Brian Banner, Bruce Banner's Archnemesis Dad. Until the Leader forcibly takes his place.
Nuclear Mutant: It's the reason why gamma radiation kills you. It's the manifestation of the evil being's utter hatred and contempt for your very existence. Those who don't die or succumb to its poison are mutated horribly enough to fall prey to its control.
Omnicidal Maniac: Where the One Above is intrigued by life, the One Below is disgusted and frightened, and wants to kill everything everywhere, just so it can be alone. In fact, its ultimate goal is the freedom to destroy everything in the universe if not the multiverse, leaving only a dark, empty ruin for all time.
Painting the Medium: It doesn't have speech bubbles. Its dialogue is conveyed through red text superimposed on the page, signifying it as something malignant with a scope far beyond comprehension.
The Power of Hate: Its only weapon is hate, and it only has as much power as it's given.
Satanic Archetype: Yes, these guys are running around the Marvel Universe by the dozens, most notably Mephisto, but the One Below All is usually referred to with references to the Devil. Considering it rules over the deepest Hell and has more power than any Hell-Lord could ever dream of, it may be the Devil.
Puck: Now, I've met a devil. Which was fun. But I think this... this is the definite article.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Despite being like the One Above All in that it's metaphysical, transcending the very Multiverse, being present everywhere, including right there in your room hating you, it's been forbidden from interacting with the Multiverse or any one soul. Hence the name, it's not the One Above All's second in command after all, it's the one BELOW every living being.
Seeing Through Another's Eyes: What the One Below All can do with anyone, much like the One Above All.
Sickly Green Glow: Its association with gamma radiation comes with a lot of neon green.
Superpowered Evil Side: To the One Above All. It's basically the god of these, and is a grim reminder that everyone has a Hulk.

The Living Tribunal

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The Living Tribunal is the supreme authority of the multiverse and one of its most powerful entities, second only to the One Above All. In general it only enters the field when all other forces have been outmatched.

All-Powerful Bystander: He doesn't interfere often, but when he chooses to get involved he utterly destroys any and all entities he opposes, no matter how powerful they are.
Always a Bigger Fish: He's by a pretty solid margin the biggest fish we actually get to see, and regularly plays this trope against assorted cosmic horrors who, while ludicrously powerful, are never as ludicrously powerful as him. In absolute terms, he's the second biggest fish around: for all his might, he's still small and humble compared to the One Above All.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Bar a couple of non-canon or semi-canon examples, the Tribunal is consistently portrayed as the most powerful force in all of existence, bar the Creator.
Big Damn Heroes: The Living Tribunal doesn't fight Eldritch Abominations, it curb stomps them.
Big Good: The Biggest Good in the multiverse, second only to God himself.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: His rules for getting involved are... strange. For example, one of his reasons for not stopping Thanos when he first got the Infinity Stones was because by becoming an all-powerful being and disrupting the cosmic balance, Thanos was taking natural selection to its logical conclusion. This is despite the fact that Thanos is, you know, insane and evil.
Death Is Cheap: Fried by Master Order and Lord Chaos during The Ultimates, thanks to the manipulations of the First Firmament. When everything's over, he's resurrected, and sits the two down for a long talk about things.
Don't Fear the Reaper: The Tribunal has a reaper-like form for when Death dies, like his regular form, but reaper-y. He's even got a giant scythe, but he's still the same old Tribunal.
God Is Neutral: He is the supreme being in the Cosmic Entity hierarchy and only answers to The One Above All, but acts as a neutral figure only concerned with keeping cosmic balance. Even universal threats like Thanos getting the Infinity Gauntlet isn't a concern, and the Tribunal only intervenes when the multiverse is in real danger.
Godzilla Threshold: If he shows up, you know this has officially crossed the Multiversal level. He has very particular rules on when he will cross said threshold, however. For instance, during The Infinity Gauntlet crisis, the greater cosmic forces of the universe, such as Infinity, were refused help from the Tribunal. According to the Tribunal, as powerful as Thanos was, it was of no concern to him, as a) even with all that power, Thanos' influence would not extend to rest of the multiverse, and b) Thanos gained the power of the Gems through his own strength, so, by the Tribunal's standards, no real crime was committed. This is after Thanos killed half the universe, too.
Good Is Not Nice: The Tribunal is perfectly willing to snuff out sentient lifeforms by the trillions, if it would prevent the entire multiverse from imploding.
Judge, Jury, and Executioner: And a head for each.
Killed Off for Real: The Living Tribunal seen after Secret Wars is not the original Tribunal, but rather an alternate Adam Warlock. The old one's still dead after being killed by the Beyonders.
Legacy Character: While it's unknown who or what the original Living Tribunal was, the one that exists post-Incursions is an alternate-universe Adam Warlock who was recruited to the position by The One Above All.
Multiple Head Case: He has three heads, or technically a single head with three faces.
Number Two: At least in the Guardians of the Galaxy timeline, the Tribunal is followed around by a Celestial named Scathan, whose role seems to be that of a "second opinion" man to the Tribunal's decisions. This came in handy when the Tribunal's powers were copied by an Omnicidal Maniac; Scathan simply denied him permission to use them, allowing the real Tribunal to deliver a well-deserved smackdown.
The Omnipotent: Or so close as to not matter, anyway. Even someone with the Infinity Gauntlet can't beat him.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Luckily for the Marvel universe, he is not unwise while using his great powers.
Unskilled, but Strong: He contains power that dwarfs even the Infinity Gauntlet, but his fighting skill is normal at best.
Weaksauce Weakness: Compared to everything else he may as well be omnipotent but if his three heads can't agree on something he won't act. This can be used to keep him out of a lot of plots he would solve before they began.
The Worf Effect: Despite his phenomenal power, he actually has losses under his belt. He was defeated by Protege, who used Power Copying against him. He was killed by the Beyonders in the "Time Runs Out" event, and then he was killed again by Logos within The Ultimates Volume 2. The other loses due to weaker Manifestation Bodies, or not part of continuity.
Worf Had the Flu: His death in Ultimates vol. 2 comes right after Master Order notes that the new multiverse means all the old rules, like the ones saying he's in charge, are currently uncertain. Cue sneak attack.

Abstract Concepts

Abraxas

Abraxas is the embodiment of the multiverse's destruction.

Amazing Technicolor Population: His skin is green.
The Anti-God: Less so than The One Below All, but as the antithesis to Eternity (the personification of the universe) he fits this bill.
Cosmic Entity: One of the higher-ranked cosmic entities in the Marvel hierarchy, meant to personify destruction and anti-creation in contrast to Eternity.
Destroyer Deity: Well not a deity, but similar to Galactus functions as a cosmic force of destruction. Unlike Galactus, he's not satisfied with destroying worlds and won't stop until the multiverse itself is destroyed.
Eviler than Thou: One of the main reasons why killing Galactus is a bad idea; he is far worse. While Galactus is a Planet Eater, even he couldn't eat all the life in the universe within its lifespan and is often Necessarily Evil in this. Abraxas almost destroyed the multiverse shortly after he broke free and proved his medal by slaughtering multiple Galactus from different universes.
Generic Doomsday Villain: Abraxas was created for the sole purpose of providing a tangible in-universe justification for the continued existence of Galactus, and as such is a fairly shallow character; he randomly popped out of Eternity, and wants to destroy literally everything for no reason other than because that is simply what he is there to do as the Anthropomorphic Personification of destruction itself whose existence revolves entirely around being the antithesis of the being of pure creation that is Eternity. He exists to destroy, and he destroys because he exists.
Humanoid Abomination: Compared to some cosmic entities he looks more or less like a well-built human minus the green skin, but is still a universe-old Cosmic Entity who functions as anti-existence.
Modesty Towel: Or cape, which he uses to cover himself.
Omnicidal Maniac: His very reason for being. During his rampage he tries to get the Ultimate Nullifer to nullify creation as a whole.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Named after the archon/mythological figure Abraxas/Abrasax, who shows up in Gnostic folklore.
Ret-Gone: Reed Richards used the Ultimate Nullifier, the very weapon he was trying to find, to erase him from existence.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Imprisoned within Galactus again upon his revival and the Ulimate Nullifier being using against him to remake the multiverse without him.
Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: Half of why Galactus exists and has to eat planets is to contain him, and he broke free when Galactus died.
Secondary Color Nemesis: Green; his body, eyes and the cloth he wears are green.

Anthropomorpho

Anthropomorpho the Prime Manifester

Anthropomorpho is the Prime Manifester of the Manifestations, which provide bodies for cosmic entities when they, well, manifest. Basically, they are the Anthropomorphic Personification of Anthropomorphic Personifications.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Of Anthropomorphic Personifications. Don't think about it too hard.
Myself, My Avatar: They make proxies or avatars for cosmic beings, since, well, cosmic beings don't really have bodies. The bodies they make are called Manifestation Bodies, or "M-Bodies" for short.

Black Winter

Alter Ego: None

First Appearance: Thor (Vol. 5) #4

A cosmic entity that serves as a multiversal counterpart to Galactus, the Black Winter devours entire universes and was responsible for the destruction of the Sixth Cosmos.

Cosmic Entity: The Black Winter is referred to as an Elder God alongside the likes of the God-Tempest and Phoenix Force, and is to Galactus what Galactus is to the Silver Surfer — being the entity responsible for the destruction of the Sixth Cosmos.
Destroyer Deity: The Black Winter is a devourer of universes and is classified as an Elder God alongside the likes of the King in Black, the God Tempest, and the Phoenix. He inflicts Galactus with a Curb-Stomp Battle when he first arrives in Earth-616, his dark frost causes anything it touches to rot to nothingness, and his mere presence poisons Yggdrasil with dark frost.
Enigmatic Empowering Entity: The Black Winter reveals that it was the one who made Galen into Galactus, having chosen to spare him when it devoured the Sixth Cosmos in order to act as its Herald, and it's displeased that he's shirked his duties and lied about his origins.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: Like the One Below All, it inverts this trope. The Black Winter takes the form of its victim's cause of death as it destroys them.
Greater-Scope Villain: It serves as this to Galactus himself, having devoured the Sixth Cosmos and spared Galen to act as his Herald.
An Ice Person: As its moniker suggests, the Black Winter is associated with darkness and ice
Make Them Rot: The Black Winter's dark ice causes whatever it touches to crumble into nothingness, and even Galactus is severely injured by it.
You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Like Galactus, the Black Winter appears differently to each person who beholds it — embodying the one to bring about their destined demise. For (a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo of) the DC Universe it's Darkseid and Perpetua, for Galactus it's Thor as the Herald of Thunder, and for Thor it takes the form of every enemy he's ever fought before finally showing him a vision of Thanos wielding an Infinity Stone-encrusted Mjolnir. The closest anyone comes to seeing its "true" form is a being resembling a monstrous version of Eternity with a three-eyed Skull for a Head.

Death

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"Oh, in case we have met before and I have forgotten the occasion — my name is Death. I meet so many people, of course, that it is quite impossible to remember all their names."

The Anthropomorphic Personification of Death in the Marvel Universe. While there are many death gods in the MU, she is the true grim reaper and all other death gods/entities pay court to her. Of the big 4 cosmic entities (the others being her brother Oblivion and her counter-parts Infinity and Eternity) she is by far the most active when it comes to interacting with mortals directly. Initially she was The Speechless but in recent years has been shown to converse more often with others. She is more or less a neutral force and prioritizes maintaining the cosmic balance between life and death. It often takes the form of a young woman, as which it earned the affections of the mad Titan Thanos. It grants authority to various Death Gods, Skyfathers and Hell Lords to take charge of souls after death or under certain arrangements. Though a largely amoral entity that ultimately desires the end of life itself, it is not actively malevolent and sees its duty as bringing an end to pain. It is thus opposed to those that are out to do far, far worse. The opposite of Eternity.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Speaks for itself.
Anti-Villain: When Thanos killed half the universe to impress her, it worked. But though she has no problem whatever with killing she is averse to causing needless suffering or worse.
Batman Gambit: The Thanos Imperative is one of hers. Basically, resurrect Thanos as completely immortal, and wait for him to meet the Many-Angled Ones, who need to kill Death in a reality in order to infest it... of course, in order to do that, they need to kill Thanos, which kind of requires Death to make an appearance. At which point... boom.
The Death of Death: Was at risk of this in an arc of Jane Foster: Valkyrie, as gamma mutates and mutants no longer being able to actually die thanks to the Green Door and the Five's resurrection protocols rendered her purpose even cheaper than before. Jane successfully advocates for her survival, avoiding another another Cancerverse.
Depending on the Writer: Her attitude. She can be distant, implacable, malicious, or apathetic, depending on who is writing her at any given time.
Did You Think I Can't Feel?: This is implied to be the case in the comic Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, when Ben made a comment about how he's not like her, someone indifferent to the live lost near them. She reacted violently to that supposition before returning to normal.
Ben: Just another life to add to the toll...
Death: You feel bad?
Ben: Well of course I do! I'm not like you! Some unemotional cosmic thing that goes around killing without any kind of remorse!
Death: (Putting on her Game Face) Do not ever presume to know how I feel! (going back to normal) Sorry, I'm sorry. That was rude.
Don't Fear the Reaper: While her consort and lover would gladly kill everything in the universe for her, and though she would find that very romantic, she is a necessary component of the universe and, further, sees herself as the end of pain and suffering. She is not actively malevolent or sadistic. In spite of being the representation of the end of all life, she is a necessary force in creation and an inevitability. A memorable example was during The Death of Captain Marvel where she was treated as the end of one thing and the start of something else. Averted in Thanos Rising, where she outright groomed Thanos into becoming the monster he would become feared as.
"I shall bring you—peace! As I have brought so many others before you—Thus has it ever been— Thus must it ever be!"
Fate Worse than Death: While she is far from nice, when you compare her to the likes of Dormammu — who turns life and death into a neverending torture camp, or Shuma-Gorath — who turns life itself into a cancer and enslaves you mind, body and soul, Death is practically a saint and is rarely directly opposed to Earth's heroes.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: Zigzagged. She doesn't really have a true form per se, so she looks like what people's incarnations of the Grim Reaper would be to them. Generally however she either appears as an incredibly attractive hooded woman or a hooded skeleton. Defied when she appeared to Thanos as a little girl during a Love Confession to him, which understandably unnerved him. She replied that he shouldn't expect comfort from Death.
The Grim Reaper: Will often appear as the stereotypical skeleton in a dark robe, though she will occasionally take a much more attractive form.
Humanity Is Infectious: Once spent time inhabiting Margo Chandler as a gambit to hide from a crazed death god who had the power of all the live of a single galaxy. She was influenced by Margo's personality and emotions. Since then, whenever death walks the earth, she does so in the guise of Margo.
Lady Macbeth: In Thanos' origin story, she is depicted as actively manipulating him to become an omnicidal lunatic to curry her favor by appearing as his Imaginary Friend since childhood.
Manipulative Bastard: In Thanos Rising, it's revealed that she's been manipulating the Mad Titan since he was a boy into becoming a genocidal lunatic.
Master of the Mixed Message: With Thanos. Especially when written by Jim Starlin. Does she like him? Does she not? Does she approve of his constant rampages in her name? Who can tell, because she never just says whether to cut the crap or not.
Ms. Fanservice: In her alternate form, she is a beautiful human woman with a brunette bob haircut and a Stripperiffic outfit that is very similar to that of Lady Death. And she is often draping herself over Thanos or Thane or whomever she is manipulating at the time.
Stalker with a Crush: Thanos, though she is one to Deadpool, thus earning Deadpool the ire of Thanos. Hilarity Ensues.
Unskilled, but Strong: She possesses vast power, but her fighting skill is normal at best. The fan-power ratings on the Marvel Wikia suggest otherwise, however.
Wanting Is Better Than Having: Her maybe crush on Deadpool stems from the fact that he can't die.
The Voiceless: Barely speaks at all in many comics.

Eternity

The Anthropomorphic Personification of Eternity has existed since the dawn of time and represents one of the fundamental aspects of the universe. It is enemies with some of the most powerful and dangerous evils in the cosmos which seek either to kill it or take its power for themselves, which in either case will result in the End of Reality as We Know It. He has assisted Doctor Strange when he comes into battle with these enemies.

And I Must Scream: At the end of Secret Wars, after reviving, he's attacked and imprisoned by the First Firmament, which begins corrupting the multiverse, while all Eternity can do, besides occasionally chat with lesser cosmic beings, is scream.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Of Eternity.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: Eternity doesn't think like we do, or share our human concerns. Nevertheless, he can occasionally be considerate.
Celestial Body: He resembles a humanoid starfield, filled with stars, galaxies and planets, and with a face floating around his head.
Cosmic Keystone: If it goes, reality goes.
Genius Loci: Each Eternity is their universe given an anthropomorphic form. Together, they make up an Eternity that is the whole multiverse given a humanoid form.
Good Counterpart: To Oblivion, the Chaos King, or whatever Cosmic Being happens to be personifying the End Of All Things at that particular moment.
Fighting a Shadow: In a way; forces that threaten it usually only threaten a singular continuity, and that specific continuity isn't replaced. Eternity can be destroyed on a universal level but it takes a different order of power to affect the entirety that is his multiversal self.
Legacy Character: What's only been hinted at is elaborated on post-Secret Wars; Eternity is the seventh instance of The Multiverse that has existed — technically the eighth, but the first existence only consisted of a single universe.
Powers That Be: Basically this. They're the deciding force behind who becomes Captain Universe.
Sentient Cosmic Force: He embodies the multiverse.
Time Master: To an extent, his sister-self Infinity is the real controller of time.
Unskilled, but Strong: He doesn't have any high level fighting skills, but he is virtually omnipotent.
The Worf Effect: It seems to be traditional that whenever a writer wants to introduce a new villain at the universal threat level, one of the first things they'll have him do is defeat/imprison/displace/frighten/infect Eternity. During The Ultimates (2015) it's revealed he's been chained up by the First Firmament.

The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum is a mysterious entity that operates as a bartender at a dimension called "the Vestibule." This is where Eternals and Celestials go when they die. He's described as "all-powerful" and "all-knowing," although nothing is really known about it. He may or may not be the One Above All.

Ambiguously Related: Described as "all-powerful and all-knowing" by a Celestial, is the creator of the cosmic system, and takes on a form resembling Jack Kirby, which makes many readers believe he's an alias or aspect of the One Above All. However, nothing has been confirmed since he hasn't shown up again since 2009.
Author Avatar: He tells Sersi to call him "Jack", and even resembles a younger Jack Kirby.
The Bartender: Acts as this to the Vestibule, which takes the appearance of a bar, where he listens to the stories of dead Eternals. He also makes a really good vodka martini.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being an immensely powerful cosmic entity, which would make one assume he would make another appearance somewhere, he's only appeared in Eternals (2008).
The Omnipotent: Described as such by the Dreaming Celestial. And if a Celestial remarks on how powerful someone is, you know they can pack a punch.
Wreathed in Flames: What appears to be his true form is a humanoid mass of cosmic fire.

The Griever at the End of All Things

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A being which describes itself as entropy, heat and death. She appears at the end of all things.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Of entropy. There seem to be a lot of these, don't there?
Creative Sterility: Since her purpose is to destroy universes she can't innovate any technology of her own.
Crippling Overspecialization: A cosmic being meant to destroy universes is not so good at focusing that immense power on single individuals any more than a person can choose to sterilize a single germ rather than an entire room. She also can't create and is entirely dependent on technology created by others to actually travel to different universes. If it gets destroyed then she's stranded with no capability to repair it on her own.
Hidden Eyes: Her headpiece occults her eyes.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Her clothes are black and her headpiece is red.
Underboobs: As her outfit shows.
The Worf Effect: How do we know that she's a threat? She kills the Molecule Man, who can erase Galactus from existence with a thought.

The In-Betweener

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I am everything for I am nothing! I am a Concept... of Concepts! Life and Death... Good and Evil... Reality and Illusion... all these things do I know and affect but never do they touch me!

— The In-Betweener, Silver Surfer vol 3 #17

An agent of Lord Chaos and Master Order, the In-Betweener is the personification of the balance between all things: life and death, reality and illusion, good and evil, logic and emotion, existence and nothingness, god and man. He is considered the opposite of Galactus, for while Galactus serves no one, neither life nor death, the In-Betweener is supposed to serve both.

Balance Between Good and Evil: That's what he's supposed to maintain, which doesn't always mean he's good.
Literal Split Personality: During Geoff Johns's Avengers, In-Betweener got split between chaos and order, who were extremely reluctant to be merged back.

Infinity

The counterpart of Eternity, but appears as a female. Believed to embody the concept of space, and along with Eternity embodies the space/time continuum. Perhaps better described as "the other side of the coin," and not as a fully separate entity from Eternity. Infinity is the embodiment of the seventh Marvel Universe.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Of Infinity itself, all that ever will be, doing double-duty with her brother, Eternity.
Distaff Counterpart: Infinity is vaguely depicted as feminine as a counterpart to Eternity being masculine.
The Nth Doctor: As The Ultimates reveals, Infinity is the seventh iteration of the concept (or possibly the eighth, depending on who you ask.)
Timey-Wimey Ball: Infinity embodies the temporal aspects of the multiverse, and this is Marvel we're talking about with all sorts of time travel shenanigans. That being said, it being an incarnation of the multiverse in a preceding position (possibly the pre-Secret Wars version of it) is a notable example.

Logos

The merged form of Lord Chaos, Master Order, and the In-Betweener. Manipulated by the First Firmament, Logos tries to impose its own law on the Multiverse, killing all of the Celestials and turning Galactus back into the Devourer. However, the Ultimates ultimately defeat him.

Fusion Dance: Logos was made when Master Order and Lord Chaos forced the In-Betweener to merge with them together.
Logical Weakness: As Logos is a personification of law, T'Challa, as a king, is able to physically tear Logos apart with his bare hands because it can be a fragile thing "in the hands of one man."
Meaningful Name: "Logos" is also the term for the Word of God. Considering that Logos looks like a Biblical angel (with what looks like three faces and seven wings), this is on purpose.
Upsetting the Balance: Logos upsets the balance of the new Multiverse, allowing the First Firmament to begin absorbing everything into itself.

Lord Chaos and Master Order

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Master Order and Lord Chaos with the In-Betweener in between.

Master Order is the personification of uniformity, orderliness, and immutability, while Lord Chaos is the personification of chaos, destruction and confusion. They cannot exist without each other and, together, they created the In-Betweener to maintain the balance.

Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous: Yep. As far as cosmic entities are concerned, they are probably the most dangerous aside from Death. When they merge with the In-Betweener to create Logos, it almost destroys the Multiverse. In an alternate future, the two of them drove Adam Warlock completely insane by yammering endlessly at him, turning him into the Magus.
Oxymoronic Being: As Galactus pointed out in a fight with them, Lord Chaos is inherently weakened by being part of a system.

Master of the Sun

A possible personification of the galaxies themselves, and the one who chooses the Star-Lord. If he exists.

Ambiguous Situation: As of 2022, whether the Master of the Sun really exists at all is super-sketchy. He might, or he might be a hallucination Peter Quill had. Not helping is the very recap pages of 2020's Guardians of the Galaxy suggest The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You, with mentions of the Master of the Sun being struck out.
Anthropomorphic Personification: If he exists, for stars.
The Chooser of the One: He decided to make Peter into a Star-Lord. Quill wasn't his first choice, but he decided to give him the title anyway.
Enigmatic Empowering Entity: For the Star-Lord. The Master shows up and makes people a Star-Lord for unclear reasons. Years later, Peter Quill admits even he's not sure what he was really supposed to do.
Retcon: Thanks to MCU synergy, he was retconned out in Sam Humpries' Star-Lord as just a hallucination Peter had. Al Ewing's Guardians of the Galaxy decides to muddy the waters by suggesting he wasn't just a hallucination (after all, in the Marvel universe, dreams can be binding...) and that someone or something was trying to erase his presence.

Mistress Love

Mistress Love is the physical embodiment of love. Her gender and appearance are mutable. Her male aspect was once coveted by the Enchantress.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Mistress Love is an abstract being who is the cosmic embodiment of love itself.
Love Be a Lady: She is love itself, an emotion often considered feminine. While she has taken on alternate genders when encountering other characters in some cases, her physical form will typically resemble a feminine woman.
Pink Is Feminine: Most usually takes the form of a beautiful tall blond female humanoid with pink colored flowing garb.
Super-Empowering: Mistress Love has the ability to empower worshipers or those who call upon her aid with awesome cosmic abilities.
Taken for Granite: One of the cosmic entities turned into a statue by Thanos during The Infinity Gauntlet.

Oblivion

The counterpart of Death, but appears as a male. Embodies the nothingness from which everything came and will eventually return to. Perhaps better described as "the other side of the coin," and not as a fully separate entity from Death.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Of the nothingness creation emerged from and will one day return to.
Cessation of Existence: What happens to anyone that falls under his purview. While Death gets the people who simply die, Oblivion gets the people who are erased from existence due to being Ret-Gone. Those consigned to his domain are lost in the infinite void without awareness of self or surroundings. While you might think that it should be possible to bring back the person who was erased, as a multiverse, it's literally impossible to change things in your own past and when someone travels in time, they're creating another universe where the timeline splits so there is a version of the peson you care about alive and well but the original one is cast into nothingness for all time and beyond.
Deal with the Devil: He made a deal with Phyla-Vell, allowing her to rescue Moondragon from the Dragon of the Moon in exchange for killing the Magus when the time came. When Phyla failed, Oblivion and Maelstrom set her up to be killed.
Greater-Scope Villain: Guardians of the Galaxy hints that at least some of the events of War of Kings, and the following events, were part of Oblivion's plans. He's also this to Chaos War and King in Black, as the Chaos King is one of his offshoots and Knull originated from the abyss Oblivion embodies.
In the Hood: Oblivion's features are hidden by a large hood, with glowing red eyes peaking out from the shadows.
Time Abyss: Even by the standards of the others, Oblivion is exceedingly old, being the void that predated creation.

The Phoenix

Phoenix Force

I am fire and life incarnate! Now and forever - I am Phoenix!

A cosmic firebird embodying creation and destruction, the Phoenix — more commonly known as the Phoenix Force — selects a host to serve as its avatar, and is a recurring ally and enemy of the X-Men.

Animalistic Abomination: The Phoenix resembles a bird of prey made of flames, but is a cosmic entity embodying both creation and destruction.
Animal Battle Aura: It often manifests as an avian aura of flames surrounding its host.
Big Bad: It is the primary antagonist of The Dark Phoenix Saga, Avengers vs. X-Men, Phoenix Resurrection, and the Enter the Phoenix arc of The Avengers - though in Avengers vs X-Men, it didn't actually mean any harm (nor, arguably in Enter the Phoenix, though it was absolutely screwing with everyone involved).
Blood Knight: While it also embodies creation Phoenix is noted to relish destruction and its hosts often have to struggle to avoid becoming Dark Phoenixes.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: In its native state, the Phoenix isn't malicious, just a bit weird and focused on its cosmic function. The problems tend to begin when it starts getting in touch with humanity.
Cosmic Retcon: At the height of its power, the Phoenix can wipe out entire timelines.
Deal with the Devil: In a surprisingly honest moment, when it offered Jean its power, it did take the time to warn her of the risks (such as going insane and being forever tied to it), even openly calling the arrangement a deal with the Devil.
Destroyer Deity: A pure platonic personification of Creation and Destruction.
The Dreaded: The Shi'ar once worshipped the Phoenix as Phal'kon, but after its avatar Rook'shir went Dark Phoenix they came to fear and despise it. After "Jean Grey" went Dark Phoenix and ate a star, the Shi'ar decided to wipe out her bloodline and even put Jean's time-displaced younger self on trial.
Elemental Motifs: Fire. It gives warmth and life and light, but always burns, and is dangerous if not handled carefully.
Energy Beings: The Phoenix is comprised completely of cosmic flames, making it resemble a bird-shaped star.
Enigmatic Empowering Entity: While capable of acting on its own, the Phoenix Force tends to select a host to act as its avatar, indwelling them and channeling its power through them.
God Couple: The Avengers reveals that the Phoenix, through its avatar Firehair, was in a romance with Odin Borson. The Phoenix, through a manifestation of Firehair, claims that Thor was conceived as a result of this, but Thor both acknowledges and disputes this. The ultimate answer is a bit of both - Thor was killed moments after he was born by Laufey, and Firehair rebirthed him through Phoenix Fire (and got somewhat attached). As a result, Gaea considers them both to be his mother, though perhaps an easier analogy is that the Phoenix is his godmother.
God of Evil: In its Dark Phoenix aspect, it is a bloodthirsty cosmic entity that revels in razing entire planets with its flames.
Has a Type: Of a non-romantic variant, the Phoenix Force is noticably drawn to female hosts with red hair and psychic powers — with Jean Grey being the most notable example.
Hot Wings: The Phoenix possesses wings made from cosmic flames, capable of burning entire planets and even stars to nothing.
Impersonation-Exclusive Character: The Phoenix Force chose a dying Jean Grey as its host, but after the The Dark Phoenix Saga it was retconned that the Jean Grey seen between X-Men #101 and X-Men #137 was actually the Phoenix Force itself having assumed Jean's appearance and identity, placing the real Jean Grey in a healing cocoon to recover from her injuries. Now, the retcon is zig-zagged a bit, leaving it ambiguous whether or not she was Jean.
Light Is Good: The most powerful form of the Phoenix, the White Phoenix of the Crown, dresses in a white and gold outfit. However, it rarely appears in this form.
Luke, I Am Your Father: In the Enter the Phoenix arc of The Avengers, the Phoenix claims to be Thor Odinson's biological mother via Firehair, and that Odin lied about Gaea being Thor's mother so he'd have a reason to protect the Earth, though Thor both acknowledges and disputes this retcon. It turns out to be a little bit of both: Gaea is Thor’s birth mother, but the Phoenix resurrected the infant Thor during a catastrophic attack from Odin’s old foe Laufey, so in a way, she’s as much responsible for Thor’s existence now as Gaea was.
Manipulative Bastard: In Classic X-Men, it's said that it helped manipulate Jean's entire life, including joining the X-Men and meeting Scott, so she'd be on the space shuttle and panicked enough to call for it, and desperate enough to take its offer, all so it could prevent D'Ken futzing with the M'Kraan Crystal and wiping out reality.
Mind Hive: The Phoenix is connected to a metaphysical realm called the White Hot Room, which serves as an afterlife for its hosts.
My God, What Have I Done?: When, in Excalibur, the Phoenix realises just what it is doing by playing god on the mortal plane. The result is that it gives all of its power to Rachel Summers, trusting her to use it more wisely.
Omnicidal Maniac: Despite proclaiming itself "fire and life incarnate", it very easily succumbs to its destructive impulses and relishes razing whole planets and devouring stars. The original Excalibur run explained this as a result of having been a bit too curious about humanity, and having been corrupted by mortal impulses and desires without the proper judgement to balance it out - an explanation touched on again in Phoenix Resurrection, when Jean says that they aren't good for one another.
Order Versus Chaos: Representing chaos on the cosmic hierarchy, though its counterpart (the Workman) points out that this isn't always necessarily bad; the Phoenix helps tear down the stagnant and sterile, helping to promote new growth.
The Phoenix: As its name suggests, it takes the form of a bird of prey made from cosmic flames.
Phosphor-Essence: When it first appears to Jean, and much later on with Taaia, it initially appears in the form of a featureless, glowing person. With Jean, as their conversation goes on, it gradually takes on more and more of her appearance.
Superpowered Evil Side: If the Phoenix's host is evil or succumbs to its destructive impulses, this will cause the host to become a Dark Phoenix, as has happened to Rook'shir and "Jean Grey",^note and almost happened to Firehair and Fongji.
Symbiotic Possession: The Phoenix, in its benevolent phases, functions as a Super Mode for its host. By far its favorite host is Jean Grey, to the point where for a while they were almost treated as one-in-the-same.

The Queen of Nevers

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I am the almost-now. The yet to be. I am the Queen of Nevers.

An entity that is the embodiment of all possibilities. Once romantically involved with Eternity itself (since he represents everything that is and she represents everything that could be), she had her heart stolen by the Incredulous Zed who used it to create the Impericon, a City Planet that seemed to defy the laws of reality. Eventually, her heart was restored by the Silver Surfer and Dawn Greenwood.

During The Ultimates (2015), when Master Order and Lord Chaos merged into Logos and killed all of the Celestials, she saved the last Celestial and during the final battle with the First Firmament, used the last Celestial to kickstart the rebirth of the Celestials.

And Show It to You: Her heart was ripped out and used to create an entire City Planet. Thankfully, since she's a cosmic entity, she can live without a heart, but it made her weaker and she would have eventually died.
Berserk Button: She reacts bitterly to time travelers, especially if they're part of a Stable Time Loop, as their very existence presents the certainty of a specific timeline instead of possible outcomes.
Big Damn Heroes: During the final fight with the First Firmament, she provides crucial assistance:
"Could one single Celestial have survived Logos' cull of his kind? If protected by some greater force? Could it then become a seed of many? All things are possible. Each "what if" may become what is. And could I fan that flame of becoming? This once? To help save everything? What if? Rise, then, my Celestials. My Avatars of the Possible! Rise Anew— The Fifth Host!"
Blank White Void: The Never Queen usually lives in the Land of Couldn't-Be Shouldn't Be, since it's outside of the universe and therefore the only place that she can meet Eternity (and kiss). The Land of Couldn't-Be Shouldn't-Be is just a blank white void forever.
May–December Romance: She has some years on Eternity, being the Fourth Cosmos and everything.
The Reveal: Defenders: Beyond reveals she's also the Fourth Cosmos.
The Watcher: As the personification of What-Could-Be, she sits outside reality, watching events.
What Could Have Been: She is the in-universe personification of every possibility that hasn't happened in the multiverse. She's perpetually melancholy because she's aware of all those moments lost forever.

Sire Hate

Master Hate is an abstract cosmic being who embodies hatred.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Master Hate is an abstract cosmic being who embodies hatred.
Emotion Control: Master Hate can inspire and ingrain varying levels of hate into any sentient being to various effects.
Taken for Granite: One of the cosmic entities turned into a statue by Thanos during The Infinity Gauntlet.

Universal Functions

Galactus

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Galactus is the infamous "Devourer of Worlds" in the Marvel Universe. His powers are nearly omnipotent. He has appointed several entities as his Heralds, imbuing them with the Power Cosmic. He uses energy from the core of planets and universal sources to sustain himself.

See Galactus

Omnimax

The Devourer of Worlds of the Sixth Cosmos.

See Defenders: Enemies

What-Must-Be

The Archetypical Devourer of Worlds of the Fourth Cosmos.

See Defenders: Enemies

Anti-All

The first Devourer of Worlds, a draconic personification of the Void that existed in the Third Cosmos and battled Lifebringer One for the fate of the nascent Multiverse.

See Defenders: Enemies

Breaker of Worlds/Breaker-Apart

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A potential future Devourer of Worlds for the Eighth Cosmos, the Breaker of Worlds is the result of The One-Below-All taking control of The Incredible Hulk.

See Marvel Comics: Bruce Banner

Personifications of the Previous Cosmoi

Shared Tropes

Eldritch Location: Earlier in the line, their laws of physics become less defined, with the inhabitants being nascent incarnations of character archetypes.
Genius Loci: They were the embodiments and consciousnesses of the multiverses that existed before the current one.
Legacy Character: They were each the Eternity of their time, before passing on the title to a successor after the existence's time came to an end.

The First Firmament

Notable aliases: The One Who is One and More

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The original version of Eternity, the First Firmament is the first universe to ever exist. Lonely, it created the Aspirants and first Celestials so it wouldn't be alone. Unfortunately for the First Cosmos, said Celestials had different ideas and war occurred that broke the first universe and gave birth to the next. Unfortunately for everyone the First Firmament was Not Quite Dead and wants to reclaim its position as embodiment of everything by force.

Abusive Precursors: It was the creator of the first Celestials and ultimately the source of all existence. While the First Firmament may not have started as this, it certainly is now considering it wants to kill everyone.
Control Freak: It despises the Celestials for creating against its wishes, and everything else for not being in power anymore.
The Corrupter: While it has Eternity imprisoned, it leaches life, love and joy from the universe, helping to cause the events of Civil War II and Secret Empire. It finds this funny.
Demiurge Archetype: An omnipotent cosmic being and source of the multiversal cycle that created a race of less-but-still-ludicrously-powerful servants, a faction of whom rebelled, leading to a cosmic civil war? Yeah, this would be a case of God Is Evil if we didn't know the One Above All existed and was benevolent.
Easily Forgiven: At the end of Ultimates, he's confronted by his successors, and taken off to see if they can heal his mental wounds. After all, the One Above All's only weapon is love.
Hero's Evil Predecessor: The original embodiment of the universe, long before Eternity. Unlike its successors, the First Firmament doesn't give a damn about the beings in it. However its played with in that it only became evil after being supplanted.
Laser-Guided Karma: It ends up wrapped up in the very chains he bound Eternity in, because the Fifth Cosmos thought the irony would be a nice touch.
Place Before Time: It is the universe before any other, predating the Sixth Cosmos of Galactus by a long mile.
Omnicidal Maniac: Its goal is to become the only existence, which would result in the destruction of everything except for itself and its loyal Aspirants.
Sealed Evil in a Can: After its defeat the First Firmament is locked away and imprisoned by its successors.
Time Abyss: While all cosmic entities are this, the First Firmament stands out even compared to them by being the first universe to ever exist, several iterations before the current reality. Barring The One Above All, it is a contender for the title of "oldest being in Marvel Comics".

Second Cosmos

The second multiverse, created as a result of the near destruction of the First Firmament. It created the Omega Force.

Constantly Curious: The Second Cosmos was always eager to experience the new. In the end, it killed itself just to see what that was like.
Eldritch Location: The Second Eternity was a roiling cauldron of raw possibility, without any shape or cohesion. The Celestials created the Beyonders just to hammer out some sense of sanity into it.

Third Cosmos

The third multiverse, and proof that what happened with the second wasn't some fluke, but a cycle. This gave her her title, "the Continuator".

Eldritch Location: Time and Space are so nascent there as to be indistinct. Lifebringer One and the Anti-All may be cosmic in scale or relative to mortals in size.
Greater-Scope Paragon: She is the creator of Lifebringer One, the first hero, to defend against Anti-All, the first evil ever fought.
The Quiet One: When the varied Eternities meet, she doesn't say a peep.

Fourth Cosmos

The fourth cosmos, the pilgrim and true believer. The one who journeys into mystery.

Anthropomorphic Personification: The inhabitants of this multiverse are less distinct people and more personifications of archetypes that would be represented by later characters.
Eldritch Location: Not quite as bad as the Third, but in the Fourth Cosmos, time and space are a bit less important.
Eternal Recurrence: When the Defenders visit, it's used to illustrate the cyclical nature of comic book storytelling, by having heroes fight amongst themselves or against villains in regular crises.
The Ghost: Isn't present when the previous Eternities show up at the end of The Ultimates, since he's on walkabout.
Legacy Character: Multiverse no. 4.
Mythology Gag: Three times over. His labels of 'pilgrim' and 'true believer' are both terms Stan Lee used to address fans and readers, and the Fourth is mentioned as being on a "journey into mystery".
Otherworldly and Sexually Ambiguous: When first mentioned in Ultimates, the Fourth Cosmos is referred to as a "he". When they make an appearance in Defenders, they look decidedly female (neatly serving as a mirror to the equally gender fluid Cloud).
Walking the Earth: He's walking beyond the multiverse, but apparently he will return... eventually.

Fifth Cosmos

The Fifth, and dark, Cosmos, a maker of magic and weaver of illusions.

Chekhov's Gunman: The Fifth Cosmos was mentioned by Moridun, a wizard who'd escaped it thanks to the Maker mucking about, in New Avengers in 2016. This guy shows up in 2018.
Dark Is Not Evil: Despite being the Dark Cosmos, he assists the other Eternities in answering their brother's call and imprisoning the First Firmament, before taking him off for healing.
Magical Land: The multiverse he represented predates science and ran solely on magic.
Mythology Gag: His description as 'the weaver of illusions of change' alludes to a Stan Lee quote about Marvel's philosophy for continuity and the floating timeline.
In the Hood: Befitting a multiverse of magic, he's decked out in a hooded cloak.

Sixth Cosmos

The sixth multiverse, inventor of science and builder of the Junction to Everywhere.

Apocalypse How: When he was dying, the Sixth Cosmos went up in mega-storms of cosmic radiation.
Fusion Dance: What was left of him merged with Galen of Taa, last survivor of Taa and indeed the entire sixth iteration of the multiverse, eventually producing Galactus.
Magic Versus Science: Immediately following the cosmos that runs on magic is one that introduces science. The inhabitants glimpsed near its collapse is a utopic civilization of super science, in the middle of defending against their version of Galactus, Omnimax, who is a reincarnation of a sorcerer from the previous cosmos.
Mythology Gag: His description as the creator of the Junction to Anywhere refers to a quote by Reed Richards about the Negative Zone on one of his first trips there.
The Quiet One: Same as the Third, he doesn't say a word during his appearance in The Ultimates.

Children of Eternity

Empathy

One of the Seven Friendless, child of Eternity, and probably the embodiment of, well, empathy.

The Ghost: Is never seen, only mentioned.

Entropy

One of the children of Eternity and the embodiment of the Big Freeze.

Grand Theft Me: Once possessed the supervillain Blizzard.
Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: He wanted to destroy his father, Eternity, and thus destroy all of creation. And, in fact, with the help of Genis-Vell, he did. But then he began to regret it and, with the help of Rick Jones and Genis-Vell, recreated the universe.

Eon

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An entity that was the embodiment of time. It lived in it's own pocket universe, the Eonverse, and appointed various Protectors of the Universe like Mar-Vell and Quasar. Eon was the one who granted the original Mar-Vell with "cosmic awareness" and designed the Quantum Bands that were worn by both Mar-Vell and Quasar.

Eon was killed (somehow) by Maelstrom, but his role was taken over by his daughter Epoch.

Greater-Scope Paragon: As the one who gave Mar-Vell cosmic awareness (and presumably everyone else who has it), and the designer of the Quantum Bands.
Starfish Aliens: While the other Abstract entities have humanoid forms, Eon looks like a tree stump with a face, a separate eye, and hair.

Epiphany

One of the Seven Friendless, daughter of Eternity, and the embodiment of sudden flashes of insight.

Really Gets Around: She slept with Rick Jones and Genis-Vell.

Eulogy

One of the Seven Friendless, son of Eternity, and probably the embodiment of the ending things and giving a eulogy.

Celestial Body: Fitting for a child of Eternity.
Pals with Jesus: Eulogy, using the name "Al," actually worked at Rick Jones' comic book shop for a time without anyone knowing who he actually was. He just liked working there.

Explosion

One of the children of Eternity and the embodiment of the Big Bang.

Grand Theft Me: Once possessed the supervillain Nitro.

Gravitation

One of the children of Eternity and the embodiment of the Big Crunch.

Grand Theft Me: Once possessed the supervillain Graviton.

Now and Then

Now and Then were the twin children of Eternity who dwelled in the House of Ideas. Then embodies the past, while Now embodies the present. They struck a deal with Loki so that he could have his heart's desire. They have made deals with many heroes, in fact, though none remember them.

Creepy Twins: Creepy twins who are omnipotent.
Deal with the Devil: They aren't devils or demons. In fact, their deals are very straightforward — but they still result in unexpected consequences for the heroes.

Beyonders

The Lost One

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Alter Ego: Cal-Horra

First Appearance: Avengers Beyond #1 (March, 2023)

Scion of the Celestials, Cal-Horra was a beautiful and benevolent godlike being of the First Cosmos who created the Beyonders. The race of reality warpers soon turned against the future Lost One, stealing his powers for their own use, and imprisoning him outside the Omniverse. He eventually escaped and proceeded to hunt down the Beyonders one-by-one.

Achilles' Heel: The Celestials took precautions against Cal-Horra to make it so he would never become a serious threat to them or their experiments. He has built-in vulnerabilities to the very biology of a Celestial, so a fist coated in Celestial blood can harm him with a punch he would have otherwise laughed off. His incredible senses have programmed blindspots when observing Celestial technology, so anything cloaked with the same would be utterly invisible to him even if it could be parsed through by those "weaker" than he is.
Always a Bigger Fish: The Celestials created him to have power surpassing their own, though with built-in limitations to never threaten them. He in turn created the Beyonders, who were capable of collectively stealing his power and becoming the bigger fish to everything else in the multiverse since they didn't have this restriction. Once he gets what he wants on Earth 616 he leaves noting that this is true of everything; that no matter how big the cosmic fish, there's always a bigger cosmos somewhere.
Evil Makes You Ugly: For as much power as he regains, for as many Beyonders as he kills, he never bothers to use any of his returned might to restore his once beautiful face as that's time he can spend to do the first two things. The Avengers getting the better of him and making him pause - if only for a moment - gives him enough lucidity to finally do that.
The Juggernaut: Cal-Horra's body is actually a physical construct he manifested to interact with the material plane. He describes it as "perfect", capable of swimming in suns, soaring through black holes, and crushing moons with its fists. So even robbed of most of his cosmic capabilities, he can still endure immense amounts of punishment with this leftover vessel alone.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: As he can weather almost any attack thrown at him, his typical strategy when dealing with Beyonders is to walk up to, fly towards, or teleport in front of them before stabbing them to death with rather basic weapons conceptually attuned to kill them.
Revenge Before Reason: The prospect of getting to murder and absorb five Beyonders is enough to lure him to Earth and what was, in hindsight, a fairly obvious trap that would've stuck him there.
Rummage Sale Reject: His outfit for most of Avengers Beyond is a hodgepodge of salvaged armor pieces he's slapped on to preserve his modesty and hide his face.
Sealed Evil in a Can: What happened to him during the time of the First Cosmos, and what the Beyonder almost does to him again in Avengers Beyond.
Smash Cut: In a dark riff on the core gimmick of All-Out Avengers each issue of Avengers Beyond after he arrives on Earth begins with him having advanced his plans offscreen to the confusion of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Underestimating Badassery: Either couldn't understand why the Beyonders would try to overthrow their creator, or was too arrogant to recognize their coup for the threat that it was.

Beyonder

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Alter Ego: Kosmos

Notable Aliases: Frank, Kurami

First Appearance: Secret Wars #1 (May 1984)

The Beyonder is an immensely powerful extradimensional entity of disputed origin. The Beyonder is the beyond-all and end-all of all things, striven on occasion to be both mankind's greatest savior and threat, in a quest to better understand human nature.

Always a Bigger Fish:
- It's a toss-up whether he's more powerful than the Phoenix or vice-versa. Generally, he's got the edge; a fully empowered Phoenix could take him, but it'd cause a lot of damage. In the White Hot Room, the Phoenix has the advantage.
- The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman) establishes that he is merely a child unit dispatched by the even stronger Beyonders, effectively his bosses / parents.
Ambiguous Situation: New Avengers: Illuminati claims he's a mutant-Inhuman hybrid... possibly. But Black Bolt claims he can't remember anything about this, and there's just enough wiggle room to suggest the Beyonder was making this all up to distract them. Maybe.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Beyonder is utterly, well, beyond any conception of human morality, so his attempts to fit into human society do not exactly go swimmingly. His behaviour ranges from apparently sociopathic and thoughtless to surprisingly benevolent and caring, but that is only because everything in this world is so alien to him. Part of his Character Development involves him gaining a more acceptable view of morality through his interactions with civilians and superheroes alike, though he still makes mistakes and never lets go of his godly detachment.
Broken Record: While attempting to live as a human, he constantly babbles about seeking understanding and experience. His unnatural behaviour quickly tips people off that he is not of this world.
Catchphrase: Usually introduces himself with "I am from the Beyond."
Cloudcuckoolander: Due to the circumstances of his birth, he admits he'll always be a little bit broken, one way or another.
Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Intentionally or not, his primary form bears some resemblance to Michael Jackson.
Constantly Curious: He is always asking questions and seeking to discover new experiences.
Continuity Snarl: In New Avengers vol 3 issue 33 Doctor Doom talks about how the Beyonders cannot travel through time, however the Beyonder has been seen time traveling several times, notably in Secret Wars II where he transports Iron Fist and Power Man through time.
Cosmic Entity: Well, barring that one time he was an Earthling and that other time he was an Inhuman-Mutant, he is definitely this.
A Day in the Limelight: Though less acclaimed than the original Secret Wars (1984), Secret Wars II greatly expanded on the Beyonder's character, making him the focal protagonist of the story, as opposed to the featureless Generic Doomsday Villain he was previously.
Death Is Cheap: As Kosmos, he (she) got drained of her energy and killed by the Promenials during Annihilation. But apparently it didn't take.
Depending on the Writer:
- His attitude through Secret Wars II, a consequence of multiple writers in different titles. For example, sometimes he speaks semi-casual and colloquial, sometimes with Spock Speak.
- The Inhuman-Mutant hybrid Beyonder seen in The Illuminati is much weaker than any other version seen, but even this wimpier interpretation is enormously powerful.
Dimension Lord: Early appearances had him as ruler of a vast dimension called the Beyond Realm.
Doing In the Wizard: New Avengers: Illuminati drastically retconned his origin, making it significantly more mundane. Instead of an extradimensional cosmic being, he's portrayed as an insane Inhuman-Mutant hybrid from Earth who deluded himself into thinking he was from the Beyond Realm. He still possesses reality warping powers, but nerfed to a much more manageable level.
Fish out of Water: His complete inability to fit into human society in Secret Wars II creates both drama and comedy.
Forced Transformation: As an extradimensional being, he has no fixed appearance, though he most commonly takes the form of a muscular man in a white suit. He has also been known to mimic the forms of others, namely that of Molecule Man.
A Form You Are Familiar With: Either a formless thing, or possibly looking like a Grey in power armor, he takes on the jheri-curl disco suit to make people more relaxed. ... results may be mixed.
Gender Bender: Of course, he can effortlessly change his gender, along with every other part of himself, on a whim.
Generic Doomsday Villain: Not as bad as other examples, but his first appearance in Secret Wars didn't give him much motivation for pitting the heroes and villains against each other, except to sate his curiosity. Subsequent appearances made him much more three-dimensional (ironically).
Genius Loci: Originally (before all the subsequent retcons), he was supposed to be the living embodiment of an entire alternate universe — albeit, apparently one with nothing in it except him. When a freak accident created a pinhole opening to the main Marvel Universe, he became fascinated by the sight of things that were not part of himself, and traveled there to investigate (leaving his own world completely empty). Hilarity Ensued. Later writers have retconned away this origin in many different ways, but it does still seem to be what he believed himself to be, at the time.
Great Gazoo: He's a reality-warping cosmic trickster who pops into the Marvel Universe to mess with the heroes' lives. Moreso in the second Heroes Reborn, where he's the Mr. Mxyzptlk to Hyperion's Superman
Hero Killer: He kills the New Mutants... and brings them back moments later. But they were understandably massively screwed up by the experience.
Hot in Human Form: While we may never see his "true form", the first on-panel form he takes is an ugly composite of various Marvel heroes, before he transforms into a very handsome human. He's handsome enough to almost sway Dazzler into his arms as she acknowledges his beauty, but he finds that he cannot force her to love him on looks and grand gestures alone.
Humanity Ensues: He willingly transforms himself into an ordinary human being in Secret Wars II, as part of his self-imposed mission for "understanding".
Immortal Immaturity: Beyonder is an immortal capital-g God in every sense of the word, but has the mental capacities of a prepubescent child, and even that may be too generous a comparison. He demonstrates almost no understanding of the world beyond his insulated bubble, forcing other characters to educate him on the barest basics. Justified since, at the time of Secret Wars and Secret Wars II he actually is a child, by his kind's point of view.
Let's You and Him Fight: His debut saw him abduct many heroes and villains from the Marvel Universe to a patchwork planet and had them battle it out.
Light Is Not Good: He wears a bright white suit and, while not irredeemably evil either, his appearances invariably spell bad news for everyone else.
Literal-Minded:
- During Uncanny X-Men #196, the Beyonder is taught manners. "Ya want something, ya don't grab for it, ya ask nice, say please, say thank you, that sort of thing." How does the Beyonder ask for his food? "Please, say thank you, that sort of thing."
- His solution to Power Man telling him that lack of money is the root of the world's problems was to turn an entire skyscraper into gold, which quickly collapses and proves unusable for the economy. Similarly, he decides to erase the concept of death from the universe by literally poisoning the Grim Reaper herself, but quickly comes to regret the decision.
Living Aphrodisiac: He has a brief fling with a socialite model. Beyonder manages to please her so well that she kills herself via overdose the moment he leaves her. Don't worry, he revives her... only to leave her again.
Mars Needs Women: He becomes very fixated on the mutant singer/superhero Dazzler and tries to win her heart, but his inability to relate to her on a personal level without showing her grand superficial gestures (such as giving her half his power, which almost breaks her mind completely) only turns her away.
Mix-and-Match Man: When he first appears on Earth in Secret Wars II, he takes the form of a strange homunculus of various Marvel characters such as Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, Storm, etc. The justification for taking this bizarre form is that the Marvel heroes were the first beings (besides himself) that he ever encountered, so he naturally assumed that everyone on Earth looked like them.
Morphic Resonance: When Deadpool is accidentally teleported into the Beyond in Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars and sees the Beyonder in his true form — a child-sized version of the Beyonders from the 2015 Secret Wars — the entity still has his trademark Jheri curls.
Multiple-Choice Past: Infamously so. Almost every comic to star the Beyonder has given him a completely different origin and generally portrayed his personality and powers inconsistently. Reconciling some of these origins is nearly impossible, leading many fans to mentally separate his appearances into loosely-defined but distinct eras.
- In the original Secret Wars, the Beyonder is established as a cosmic entity from another dimension, the Beyond Realm. He was said to be the absolute supreme ruler of this realm, a vast void which utterly dwarfs the entire Marvel multiverse, enough to make it look like a droplet of water in comparison. In Secret Wars II, he suddenly gains a desire to be human and spontaneously changes himself into one.
- In the pages of Fantastic Four, he was revealed to be the result of a failed Cosmic Cube experiment created by the Beyonders, his unseen Abusive Precursors. He changes back into a Cosmic Cube and eventually evolves into Kosmos.
- The most radical retcon occurs in New Avengers: Illuminati. Charles Xavier scans Beyonder's brain and discovers that he is actually an insane mutated Inhuman from the kingdom of Attilan who deluded himself into believing he was a cosmic entity.
- Secret Wars (2015) follows the thread of our MJ-lookin' Beyonder being a creation of the Beyonders, though it instead states that he is in fact one of them, albeit a petulant child by their standards. We also finally see that his true form (or the closest thing to it) is a cute little dark-skinned imp with his trademark Jheri curls!
- Defenders: Beyond tries trying most of these together; he is a child Beyonder, from Beyond. His Cosmic Cube form was his larval state, accidentally woken up early by Molecule Man's creation, forcing him to "speed run" his various forms in order to reach a semblance of maturity.
Nobody Poops: Infamously averted; at one point after becoming human, Beyonder feels a strange pressure between his legs, and it falls to poor Spider-Man to show him how to poop.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: His reason given for his odd behavior. He's a being from "Beyond". Normal reality is too small and cramped for him.
No Social Skills: As a human in Secret Wars II, he has none whatsoever, not helped by him being breathtakingly Literal-Minded. He also has to have very basic concepts explained to him constantly.
The Omnipotent: He has wavered from Type 1 to Type 5 and everything in between, but he gives one hell of a good rant about how utterly insignificant everything else in the cosmos is compared to his might:
"Everything is what I say it is! If I decide that granite is squeezably soft, it is! If I decide that cows have wings, they do! To put it another way, cows do not have wings because I don't want them to! My imagination and reality are virtually indistinguishable! All existence, except me, might as well be a figment of my imagination! Maybe it is! I might have just dreamed all this up, including wingless cows! But then, the whole point is that it makes no difference!"
Reality Warper: For all of his many conflicting origins, he is consistently portrayed as an immensely powerful entity capable of altering reality to his whims.
Retcon: For all his incredible power, he's a punching bag for bizarre retcons. See Continuity Snarl above.
Rogue Drone: Most of the other Beyonders are pretty uniform. The Beyonder, thanks to his time with Earth's heroes, has a bit more understanding of humans and how they work. If he's really putting in the effort, he tries to talk more casual to reassure folks.
Spell My Name with a "The": To distinguish him from all the other Beyonders, who have no names of their own.
The Unseen: Despite his instigating role in dragging everyone to Battleworld, he goes unseen in the original Secret Wars storyline. His most iconic design, seen above, comes from the sequel.
Victory Is Boring: At one point in Secret Wars II, he mentally dominates the entire population of Earth to bow before him. This bores him very quickly.
What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: His stint of living on Earth in Secret Wars II to understand the human experience saw him learn new emotions such as love and pain. Beyonder tries to make the heroine Dazzler fall in love with him, but realizes he can't win her love fairly, with no mind control tricks. This drives him mad.
The Worf Effect: His specialty is dishing out beatings to other cosmic beings. In his earlier appearances, he was far and away one of the mightiest beings in the entire setting, if not the strongest, leaving the other entities scared out of their wits. Effortlessly thrashing Galactus in his debut was merely the tip of the iceberg. He has since killed Death herself and sparred with the highest abstract beings of the multiverse.

Shaper of Worlds

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Notable Aliases: The Skrullian Cube

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1, #155

A powerful being that developed from a Skrull Cosmic Cube. He helped tutor Kubik, another sentient Cube, into maturity.

Anti-Villain: Not evil, as such, but does evil work for others.
Blue-and-Orange Morality: He has a compulsion to create new realities, but having no creativity has to rely on the thoughts and dreams of others as a template. He doesn't care a wit about what those dreams are, once having made a Nazi utopia in the microverse from the mind of an old Nazi sympathizer.
Contrived Coincidence: When he lost the ability to absorb dreams, Shaper was seeking a type of radiation that would restore his abilities. Three guesses just who gave off the unique radiation signature that worked.
Creative Sterility: He has no imagination of his own, so he depends upon other beings' ideas to manipulate reality. He can only create by copying the desires of others.
Deal with the Devil: Actually The Joker, but close enough.
Hollywood Cyborg: Crossed with A Form You Are Comfortable With. He isn't really a pointy-eared humanoid with tractor treads for legs, but he chose that form based on the old Skrull Emperor who wielded him back when he was a mere Cosmic Cube.
Reality Warper: The Shaper of Worlds generates illusions that typically cannot be distinguished from reality. Its initial reach is limited to a few meters, but increases when used. He can transform an entire planet in 21 hours. "Illusions" last for four years, unless the Shaper chooses to maintain them.
The Spock: Very composed.
Super-Empowering: He unlocked the latent reality bending psychic abilities of the the human that came to be known as Glorian and took him on as an apprentice.

Beyonders

See Beyonders

Others

The Dominion

"The Dominion"

A mysterious cosmic threat from outside the Multiverse.

Cool Crown: What the limited human mind can comprehend of it is as a giant "crown above all things".
Deity of Human Origin: Revealed in Immortal X-Men to be the original Nathaniel Essex. Or rather, an A.I. copy that became an all-powerful machine intelligence by exploiting the efforts of Essex's Sinister clones to become Dominions themselves.
The Dreaded: The Beyonders, who can wipe out most of the other cosmic entities, were scared enough of the Dominion that they blew up all of reality as a "necessary experiment" to keep it at bay.
Eldritch Abomination: It's some immeasurably powerful thing from beyond the Multiverse, and when the Defenders see it, they can only comprehend it as a giant crown seeming to float above five realities at once.
Even More Omnipotent: The Beyonders initiated the Incursions as a "necessary experiment" to stop this thing. Loki also states that it makes the Black Winter look like an "angry jelly baby."
You Cannot Grasp the True Form: Blue Marvel outright says that the vision of the Dominion the One Above All is showing the Defenders, a giant crown, is the closest they can comprehend.

The Workman

"The Workman"

First Appearance: Classic X-Men #43 (1989)

A cosmic entity who appears in the form of a construction worker, outside of space and time.

Anthropomorphic Personification: Admits to being one of order and entropy.
Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Well, coffee, but when Phoenix-thinking-it's-Jean has a mild breakdown he stops what he's doing to offer her reassurances.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: Admits to Jeanix that his appearance is just the closest she can get to perceiving him.
Godly Sidestep: Is he Death in another form? Is he the One Above All? Both? Neither? He never says. When Jean postulates that he's Death, who traditionally presents as female, he doesn't give an answer either way. Same decades later when asked about it by Adam Brashear, merely saying "I am as I am". The fact he mentions a schedule to keep suggests whichever entity he is, there's someone above him.
No Name Given: Whoever or whatever he is, he never actually gives any sort of name or identifier.
Rule of Symbolism: His domain looks like a giant, endless construction site, with him forever building more and more.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The gist of his speech to the fragment of Jean in Phoenix that winds up in his site.

The Gravedigger

"The Gravedigger"

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk vol. 1, #-1

An unnerving being who appears to be a loquacious gravedigger, hiding a sinister bent.

All Just a Dream: His encounter with the Hulk in issue -1. Of course, in the Marvel universe, just because it's a dream doesn't mean it didn't happen anyway, and the stuff he shows the Hulk turns out to be right.
Ambiguously Related: Might be an aspect of the One Below All, or just someone who's face it's taken on. Or he might be his own person.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The first time he appeared to the Hulk, he mentions he use to handle "the plots 'round these parts". Since he looks eerily like Stan Lee, he could well be talking about plots as in a graveyard, or story plots.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Looks like a dead ringer for Stan the Man himself. Only malevolent and creepy.
No Name Given: He never actually gives his name.
Sinister Shades: Always wearing a pair of sunglasses. Sinister as all Hell.

Characters / Marvel Comics: Cosmic Entities

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Supreme Entities

The One Above All

The One Below All

The Living Tribunal

Abstract Concepts

Abraxas

Anthropomorpho the Prime Manifester

Black Winter

Alter Ego: None

First Appearance: Thor (Vol. 5) #4

Death

Eternity

The Fulcrum

The Griever at the End of All Things

The In-Betweener

Infinity

Logos

Lord Chaos and Master Order

Mistress Love

Oblivion

Phoenix Force

The Queen of Nevers

Sire Hate

Universal Functions

Galactus

Omnimax

What-Must-Be

Anti-All

Breaker of Worlds/Breaker-Apart

Personifications of the Previous Cosmoi

The First Firmament

Notable aliases: The One Who is One and More

Children of Eternity

Empathy

Entropy

Eon

Epiphany

Eulogy

Explosion

Gravitation

Now and Then

Beyonders

The Lost One

Alter Ego: Cal-Horra

First Appearance: Avengers Beyond #1 (March, 2023)

Beyonder

Alter Ego: Kosmos

Notable Aliases: Frank, Kurami

First Appearance: Secret Wars #1 (May 1984)

Shaper of Worlds

Notable Aliases: The Skrullian Cube

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk Vol. 1, #155

Others

"The Dominion"

"The Workman"

First Appearance: Classic X-Men #43 (1989)

"The Gravedigger"

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk vol. 1, #-1

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