Marvel's 8 Cosmos, the Gods Who Created Galactus and the Origin of the Multiverse

The vast and complicated Marvel Multiverse has gone through several iterations, each one embodied by a god-like cosmic being whose power dwarfs even that of Galactus. Especially thanks to films like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse or Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Multiverse has become a simple to explain concept that most can follow. But once the microscope is pulled back and the larger aspects of Marvel Comics cosmology are exposed, things become confusing again. Marvel’s Multiverse is a living being and, like all living things, experiences entropy. It lives, it grows, and it dies.

At the end of a Multiverse’s life, a new sentient Multiverse is born from the latent energy left over from the previous. Sometimes, a singular living being is preserved and imbued with the cosmic energy needed to survive the rebirth. Galactus is a great example of this phenomenon and would later prove to be the Multiverse’s most important being. With each new multiversal iteration, the complexity of existence evolves. New concepts are introduced with each rebirth, culminating in the Marvel stories we have today. To make sense of the Multiverse’s complex origins, here are Marvel’s Eight Cosmoses explained.

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The First Cosmos (The First Firmament)

The Reality of Nothing

The First Cosmos was once a singular universe. There was no life, no laws, no concepts to this universe, just existence. The First Cosmos had the potential to exist for eternity without the threat of death, without change, without rebirth. The embodiment of this first universe, an entity known as the First Firmament, did eventually spawn life, which in turn rebelled against its creator. Some of the Multiverse’s original creations, the Celestials, longed for change. The First Cosmos and its most devout Celestials, known as the Aspirants, saw this desire for change as blasphemous madness. This conflict led to a violent civil war between the two sides known as the Infinity Wars.

Facing the endless collapse of all existence, the rebelling Celestials gathered every weapon and bomb they had ever built and triggered a singular apocalyptic detonation on the First Cosmos, shattering its body into pieces. Those fractured remnants of reality would reform as the first Multiverse and begin the cycle of multiversal rebirth. Some of the First Firmament’s fragments reformed into a weaker version of the First and, along with its Aspirants, fled reality to hide in a faraway realm on the edge of nothing called the Far Shore.

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The Second Cosmos (Beyond)

The Birth of Creation

Upon the birth of the Second Cosmos, the first iteration of the Multiverse appeared. Driven by the surviving Celestials’ desire to change, the Multiverse was in a rapid state of creation and destruction. To aid in the maintenance of the growing infinite realities, the Celestials created a servant species called Omegas. The Omegas, currently known as Beyonders, work from behind the scenes of existence to oversee each Multiverse’s development. At this time, the Celestials also created an opposing force to the Beyonders called the King in Black. Along with each Multiverse, the King in Black would be reborn from a force called the Living Abyss after each regeneration.

Comparatively, the Second Cosmos did not live as long as its other iterations. Constantly seeking new sensations, the Second Cosmos developed an intense curiosity about death. The Cosmos believed that a new experience they dubbed the “all-death” would be an exciting sensation and actively sought its own demise. Upon the end of the Second Cosmos, remnants of the entity traveled to the Far Shore and became a new entity called the Beyond, which became the home for the Beyonders to watch over the Multiverse.

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3

The Third Cosmos

The Origin of Reality’s First Hero

Little is known about the Third Cosmos. In Defenders #5 by Al Ewing and Javier Rodriguez, it is revealed that the Third Cosmos existed before science and magic. The Third had yet to create the concept of narrative. There was no good and evil. There was simply existence and non-existence. To combat a growing force of nonexistence that threatened to bring existence back to the primordial void, the Third Cosmos created the first hero called the Lifebringer One. This title would be used again by Galactus in a future iteration of the Multiverse.

For the entirety of the Third Cosmos’ existence, the Lifebringer One was locked in an eternal conflict with a cosmic entity known as Anti-All. Anti-All was a creature that sought to devour the Lifebringer One and plunge the Multiverse back into the void of non-existence. During its respites from battle, Anti-All dwelled in the Below-Place, the source of power for all gamma-mutates. At the end of its life cycle, the Third Cosmos traveled to the Far Shore to be with its predecessors.

4

The Fourth Cosmos (Queen of Nevers)

The Progenitor of Possibility

Following the death of the Third Cosmos, the Never Queen was born. Identifying as a male entity at the time, the Fourth Cosmos was originally named the Pilgrim. Its name suggests that the Fourth may have been born as a mortal in another iteration of the Multiverse who would arrive at the death of the Third to receive its powers and become the Fourth Cosmos. As a cosmic entity, the Fourth created archetypes and the basic concepts of good and evil. The Queen of Nevers represented the possibility of existence. For the first time, there was no infinite quarrel or defined path. For the first time, choice had meaning.

During the Fourth Cosmos’ tenure, life began to take shape. Narrative still had yet to exist, but the seeds of personality had been implanted. As the parent of possibility, the Fourth Cosmos could peer through each potential reality from its conception until its destruction. Still referring to itself as the Pilgrim, the Fourth Cosmos met its end by assisting the Defenders’ descent into the Third Cosmos in Defenders #6. The Pilgrim shed its remaining energy to birth the Fifth Cosmos and, upon her death, the remnants of the Fourth traveled to the Far Shore where she would re-identify herself as the Queen of Nevers.

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5

The Fifth Cosmos

The Source of all Magic

The Fifth Cosmos is the first creator of magic in the multiverse. Besides this detail, almost nothing is known of the Fifth Cosmos’ accomplishments or personality. With the introduction of magic, concepts of experimentation and creation developed among mortals for the first time. Without the continuous conflict that plagued the previous iterations of the Cosmos, the beings of the Fifth Cosmos were finally able to think and act independently. However, autonomy and freedom of creation opened the opportunity for cruelty and madness in the Multiverse’s lower beings.

The Fifth Cosmos was home to existence’s first sorcerer and Sorcerer Supreme, Moridun. Visually reminiscent of a wizardly Chthulu, the Sorcerer Supreme of the Fifth Cosmos is described as reality’s first parasite. Moridun was a sociopathic sorcerer who carried out horrific occult experiments on other lives. When the Fifth Cosmos neared its death and moved to the Far Shore, Moridun survived the rebirth and entered the Sixth Cosmos as a reborn entity of destruction called Omnimax, the Devourer of Worlds. While Omnimax and Galactus share an identical title, the two have never officially met.

6

The Sixth Cosmos

The Origin of Science and Birthplace of the Devourer of Worlds

Unfortunately, little is known about the Sixth Cosmos outside of his basic functions as a cosmic entity. The Sixth completely rejected the magical nature of the previous reality and became the first Cosmos to create science. In the Sixth Cosmos, existence was completely devoted to scientific learning and exploration. The possibilities of mortal ingenuity felt infinite, so long as magic wasn’t involved. Outside the Multiverse, as far away as possible, the Sixth created a pocket dimension called the Overspace or “The Junction to Everywhere.” This dimension served as a reality where lower beings could communicate with abstract cosmic entities like Eternity or Death.

The Sixth Cosmos met his demise at the hands of Black Winter, the incarnation of hunger and Devourer of Universes. As the Sixth neared his end and faced rebirth, Black Winter chose an avatar to carry its will into the next reality. The Devourer chose a man named Galan of Taa who, upon entering the next Cosmos, would be reborn as Galactus, Devourer of Worlds. As with his predecessors, the remaining fragments of the Sixth Cosmos traveled to the Far Shore.

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The Seventh Cosmos (Infinity and Eternity)

The Old Home of Marvel Comics

Unlike their previous iterations, the Seventh Cosmos was reborn into two beings rather than a singular form. However, the twins, Infinity and Eternity, were still considered one complete being; two sides of the same coin. For most of Marvel Comics’ history, the Seventh Cosmos is where all Marvel stories were told, regardless if they were a comic, movie, or show. With this iteration of the Multiverse, reality became complex and rich with stories. The Seventh enjoyed their reign, happily entertained by the goings-on of mortal life. That is, until the events of Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić.

The Beyonders, the Multiverse’s cosmic custodians, had foreseen the creation of an entity called the Enigma. The Enigma is a creature from the far future and the magnum opus of Mister Sinister’s multi-life work, designed to become the one and only Cosmos. To prevent Enigma’s creation, the Beyonders sparked a war to destroy the Seventh Cosmos and force a multiversal rebirth. Doctor Strange, Doctor Doom, and Molecule Man, the very being the Beyonders had created to destroy the Seventh Cosmos, had successfully defeated the Beyonders but inadvertently caused a contraction in the Multiverse that forced the Seventh to collapse in on itself.

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The Eighth Cosmos (Eternity)

The Modern Multiverse

The heroes of the Seventh Cosmos failed to stop the incursion, and all life ceased to exist. However, some survived hidden in an ark and created a new micro-reality stitched together with salvaged chunks of the old Multiverse. Led by Doctor Doom, this reality, called Battleworld, was an interim existence turned into a perverse parody of itself as “God Emperor Doom” failed to control the chaotic nature of reality. He handed the power of the Beholders over to Reed Richards and, together with his son, Reed forged a recreation of the Seventh Cosmos.

Upon the birth of the Eighth Cosmos, Eternity returned alone as the sole embodiment of the Eighth, while his sister left to travel to the Far Shore. The rebirth process is an exhausting one for cosmic entities. The Eighth almost faced early destruction when the First Firmament, taking advantage of the new Cosmos’ weakened state, returned from beyond the Far Shore. Having spent seven eternities furious at the continued existence of the rebellious Celestials’ creations, the First Cosmos returned to ensure the Eighth would be the final Cosmos.

As the First Cosmos continued to sew its seeds of destruction into the Eighth, an unlikely hero stepped up to stop the First’s onslaught. Galactus, the once Devourer of Worlds, had been purged of Black Winter’s influence and was now a man free of his cosmic hunger. With Galactus’ aid, Eternity summoned the past incarnations of the Multiverse from the Far Shore, and together the Cosmoses defeated the First Firmament. For now, the Eighth Cosmos remains intact as the current setting for all stories in the Marvel Multiverse, with Galactus the Lifebringer as its champion.