Could someone help explain cosmic entities to me?

[Malachi]

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The living tribunal acts across the multiverse as the judge of each universe, it has 3 faces which represent 3 cardinal powers within each universe

Those faces are represented by eternity, death and galactus (as equity), on this level is also oblivion - I think these 4 properties are together called the fulcrum or universal axis?

The tribunal may have had a 4th face but a being of unsure background called the stranger was supposed to have declined the role

I remember that, not sure in what story it happened though. Not sure it's canon anymore. Mostly due to the roles of Galactus, Death and Eternity seems to have been redefined as new enteties have been introduced.

Eternity and it's other side Infinity represents life and immortalness , death death, oblivion the lack of exsistence, and equity the balance between the these within life's struggle to survive, life is linked to the Phoenix force, which is a force of death and rebirth for universes, it's power combined with the universe/multiverse it's comes from creates the next ( and also galactus in the universe prior to the one before the current one)- see the xmen Jean Grey and mkraan crystal for more on that

Not sure how the Phoenix works in that context. For me the important part of the cosmic enteties is who introduced them. Gruenwald handled Infinity and Oblivion. He tied Infinity to the quantum bands and gave her dimension as the source of their power. Making the claim that kree invented them a bit odd. Mostly becasue it further complicates the massivly powerful items the kree has invented yet they still get their asses handed to them from everyone they meet.
Starlin I believe introduced master hate and mistress love in Silver Surfer. Death, eternity, order, chaos, inbetweener are Kirby/Lee creations I believe. The importance of who created them is relfected in who decides to use them. Some enterily skip Gruenwalds creations. Others even skip what Starlin created.

There's also order and chaos and their balance represented by the being the in-betweener

death, eternity, Infinity, order, chaos, oblivion, pheonix are not literal life forms but more forces of nature called abstracts, galactus and the inbetweener are alive ish, but represent abstract concepts too

The abstract bodies where introduced by Gruenwald i believe. A clever concept that explains why they can appear and talk to ordinary people.

The celestials are galactus level beings who judge and stimulate life's evolution, a bit like life's gardeners, they have hosts, the first came from the first version of the multiverse which at the tine was only a singularly vast universe sort of

As with Galactus the Celestials power levels fluctate immensly between stories.

there's other abstract concepts too, love, hate, and other cosmic powers like eon and epoch, the promeal gods and the infinites, there either less important or less commonly used

There are also a sort of ranking where lesser enteties like anomoly exist in the same category as eternity yet the span between their importance and power is massive.

There's also the beyonders who sit outside of reality and likely outclass all of these except the one above all, see secret wars for these

I wish Hickman wouldn't have gone down that route.

[Rosebunse]

http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Chthon_(Earth-616) would count a Lovecraft elder god too right.

He's also Thor's uncle.

[kilderkin]

I remember that, not sure in what story it happened though. Not sure it's canon anymore. Mostly due to the roles of Galactus, Death and Eternity seems to have been redefined as new enteties have been introduced.



Not sure how the Phoenix works in that context. For me the important part of the cosmic enteties is who introduced them. Gruenwald handled Infinity and Oblivion. He tied Infinity to the quantum bands and gave her dimension as the source of their power. Making the claim that kree invented them a bit odd. Mostly becasue it further complicates the massivly powerful items the kree has invented yet they still get their asses handed to them from everyone they meet.
Starlin I believe introduced master hate and mistress love in Silver Surfer. Death, eternity, order, chaos, inbetweener are Kirby/Lee creations I believe. The importance of who created them is relfected in who decides to use them. Some enterily skip Gruenwalds creations. Others even skip what Starlin created.


The abstract bodies where introduced by Gruenwald i believe. A clever concept that explains why they can appear and talk to ordinary people.




As with Galactus the Celestials power levels fluctate immensly between stories.




There are also a sort of ranking where lesser enteties like anomoly exist in the same category as eternity yet the span between their importance and power is massive.



I wish Hickman wouldn't have gone down that route.

Good points, and I agree completely with what Hickman did, but I suppose it was based on a brief to reboot everything that eventually wasn't followed up on from higher ups

At least that's I suspect with secret wars and it's build up

[Knives]

Hard to say for sure sometimes they seem concepts that came to life or were given life by the work of another being but their actions although associated with the balance of the universe often seem totally random. Or perhaps it is the interpretation of mortals since the designs of Gods can not be understood by ordinary living beings. Since SW everything is changeable and there are no absolute rules and they can even change their orientation or goals or they can be replaced even by a new entity.

[Malachi]

Good points, and I agree completely with what Hickman did, but I suppose it was based on a brief to reboot everything that eventually wasn't followed up on from higher ups

At least that's I suspect with secret wars and it's build up

It surely felt like that until somepoint where I no longer felt anything about it. It was an odd event in the regard that I liked the middle part but not the start or the end. For instance I liked Black Swan until they made her a lackey of Thanos and therefore stripped her of moral ambiguity and moved her to a story where her specific background wasn't relevant anymore. But I have always liked cosmic power characters like heralds. Where power is more malleable and less defined.

I miss the old cosmic stories like Starlins Jung themes, Gruenwalds obsessive need to link everything and energy wielding characters in general. Now it's only the watered down version of GoG where everyone either has a sword or a gun. The streethero level of cosmic stories. In that sense Hickman did it right. He tried to worldbuild and introduce new concepts.

[kilderkin]

It surely felt like that until somepoint where I no longer felt anything about it. It was an odd event in the regard that I liked the middle part but not the start or the end. For instance I liked Black Swan until they made her a lackey of Thanos and therefore stripped her of moral ambiguity and moved her to a story where her specific background wasn't relevant anymore. But I have always liked cosmic power characters like heralds. Where power is more malleable and less defined.

I miss the old cosmic stories like Starlins Jung themes, Gruenwalds obsessive need to link everything and energy wielding characters in general. Now it's only the watered down version of GoG where everyone either has a sword or a gun. The streethero level of cosmic stories. In that sense Hickman did it right. He tried to worldbuild and introduce new concepts.

I like the story mostly, the last issue confrontation felt a bit forced, for me it could have brought in a lot mythos changes or clarification and they really dropped the ball on that

Some shifts but nothing I felt was significant in the day to day story telling

that's how it felt to me anyways