So, does Marvel comics acknowledge the main Judeo-Christian God? Has he ever made an appearance, or been directly encountered by a character in the Marvel universe? Has he ever taken direct, observable action? Has a character in the Marvel universe ever directly challenged him? Has anyone cosmically or mystically powerful enough to be taken seriously ever confirmed/denied the existence of the main Judeo-Christian God?
Where do humans come from in the Marvel universe? Did we evolve? Did God create us?
What about the other Gods? Everyone’s familiar with Thor and the Asgardians. I always assumed the Asgardians created humanity. But later we meet Greek gods, Egyptian gods - I think I even remember mention of Native American gods and maybe some African gods. Do all these gods claim to have created humans?
Or, did these gods come into existence simply because humans began to believe in them? If so, wouldn’t they have faded away now that no one believes in them? Have the various gods been explained? It almost seems like the Asgardians are just some egocentric, powerful alien race that showed up and started acting like our gods. Or what? Could Odin kick Galactus’ ass if he wanted to?
Where is Asgard? Thor can whirl his hammer around and transport himself there. Otherwise, you have to use this Rainbow Bridge thing. Does Asgard exist in another dimension? I seem to recall Silver Surfer getting there under his own, cosmic power, so maybe Asgard is just “out there” somewhere in space?
Who, or what else has played a role in the creation/development of humanity? I can’t remember their name, but there were these really huge robot-looking things, the Celestials? Or Eternals? At least one was buried in the Earth for millenia, but otherwise I don’t remember much about them, or what their purpose was.
So, has Marvel ever laid out any kind of “official” explanation about where humans come from?
I remember seeing somewhere that apparently the Asgardian gods were aliens who at one point came to Earth, with technology so advanced that it looked like magic. They stayed so long, they started to believe it was magic, though I can’t recall whether they influenced the stories or the stories influenced them.
Other than that, can’t help you until I have some caffiene in my system.
The Asgardians as Aliens theory was from Earth X, which is considered out of continuity. They are really just other-dimensional beings worshiped as gods once upon a time. Their origins are just basically a Marvelized version of the old Norse myths. I think Marvel has never really shown “the” God, but it does have a being called Eternity, who supposedly encompasses all of creation. They never really call it “God,” however.
Also, there is a race of uber-powerful beings called The Celestials that came to Earth thousands of years ago and tinkered with its inhabitants, creating three races – The Eternals, who have been worshiped as gods by various people throughout history (although the gods they were worshiped as, such as the Greek gods, also exist; that’s because Jack Kirby created the Eternals to be out of continuity, but when they were brought into the real MU continuity, they became kind of extraneous), the Deviants, a kind of subterranean evolutionary cul-de-sac, and humans, who were also given the potential to be superhuman.
From my understanding (through the various “infinity wars” “infinity gauntlet” and other “infinity” type series) Eternity is extremely powerful, but does in fact answer to the Living Tribunal, who is the representative of an unnamed entity that is even more powerful than any of the known entities. The general idea is that Living Tribunal serves an entity that, for all intents and purposes, is Almighty God.
Whether that Almighty God is also Yahweh is unknown. The impression I got was that Marvel didn’t want to step on too many toes by declaring that any “known” God was THE God. So everyone could just imagine that this unnamed diety was the one they believe in.
There’s also the whole mystic-reality-underlying-evolution scenario, as seen in the backup strips in the “Serpent Crown” annuals a bit over ten years ago.
The deities referenced by Dr. Strange, say, are a bit different from the Asgardians & from monotheism.
As far as Dr. Strange & the Asgardians, haven’t they sort of crossed paths? I know Loki & I think her name is Hela, have crossed paths with Dr. Strange. They are all magic users, which means Asgardians aren’t just an alien race with super high-tech powers, right?
I was also thinking of a story I read once about the Guardians of the Galaxy. They encountered a frozen Thor, and when they revived him the character Yondu bowed down before him in reverence as a god. I thought, “why would Yondu, who is an alien from another star system, worship Thor as a god?” Are the Asgardians gods to more than one planet?
Well, Marvel did publish the Conan the Barbarian comics - and Conan is, of course, part of the Lovecraftian mythos. So that implies that humans in the Marvel universe are descended from some of the Old Ones experiments on the spawn of Ubbo-Sathla that ran away.
And just for the heck of it - maybe the Living Tribunal is one of the forms of Nyarlathotep, and the “higher power” that it serves is Azathoth. :eek:
Conan wasn’t part of the Lovecraftian mythos. Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan) and Lovecraft each made up their own mythos. Marvel worked as much of the Conan mythos into their “universe” as they could, though; there was a “What If?” story where Thor goes back in time to meet Conan, and he (Thor) ends up climbing Crom’s mountain to confront Crom himself.
There are indications in the Conan comic that there is a race of “Elder Gods” but they are not Lovecraftian, from what I can tell.
I can’t give a precise answer to the original question, since it’s been so long since I’ve read comics of any kind, but I can hint at a direction for finding the answer…I vaguely remember some heroes who had certain “holy” powers since they were in the business of fighting unholy/satanic villains. I don’t mean Dr. Strange- or Thor-type characters who used good magic to fight weirdo creatures from other dimensions, but rather, characters whose powers were supposed to be from God (the one-and-only god of the Judeo-Christian Bible), doing battle with villains/monsters who supposedly came from Hell…I’m being vague here, I know, but I’m sure there are a few heroes who fit this profile…
Also, there are characters within the Marvel universe who believe in the Judeo-Christian god, even if this god isn’t an ass-whoopin’ character in his own right, like Thor or Hercules. Nightcrawler was supposed to be Christian, Kitty Pride was supposed to be Jewish, etc.
No, I mean that DC already trademarked God. Y’can’t copyright a character, but you can trademark him. I’m pretty darned sure that DC beat them to the punch.
That’s what I was looking for. The God is more or less acknowledged, but otherwise off-limits.
Some of you are joking around about copyrights and trademarks, but how does that work with someone like Thor? You can’t trademark a Norse myth, can you? Can Marvel comics stop me from coming out with my own Thor comic?
You can publish stories about Thor, but you cannot make him blonde-haired and clean-shaven, with a winged helmet, six light-blue discs on a dark-blue tunic, and yellow boots. And you cannot claim that his hammer is made of “uru” metal. That version is Jack Kirby’s invention, and Marvel owns the trademarks and copyrights associated with it.
If I understand correctly, you cannot publish a magazine in the USA with the title “Thor” without Marvel’s permission.
