What if the Celestials never came to Earth?

[Dr Will Hatch]

I hope this is the right place to ask this question. If it isn't, feel free to move it to the appropriate forum or thread.


In the Marvel Comics canon, it seems like an enormous amount of what happens hinges on the arrival of the Celestials. They experimented on early humans, resulting in the creation of mutants, Eternals, Deviants, etc. They also sunk the continent of Lemuria, the home of the Deviants, indirectly caused the sinking of Atlantis, drove off all of the different pantheons of Earth gods, etc.
If the Celestials had never come to Earth, how would the history of Marvel be different?

[lordozone]

My theory is that if the celestials never arrived to earth, the marvel world would be a lot like us: For me, even the super-genius like Tony Stark, Reed Richards etc. are a product of "soft mutation". You can't be that good in every science fields with a normal brain ! And even the gamma Mutation, Spider mutation etc. Can't exist for me without the celestial genes. Super humans are in fact mutants, it's just that their dormant celestial genes have been activated by scientific means, in a particular direction (If almost every super humans have mutants child with similar powers for the most part, it prove that the mutant gene is activated in their dna).

Without the celestial gene, the Marvel word would have been destroyed a long time ago, because beside the magically-powered heroes, they would have no protectors against extraterrestrials threats.

[jackolover]

If thinking on that level, Marvel Earth was getting interference from all sorts of agents, from the Kree Inhumans, to Skrulls, to Stone Men. Earth was never going to be like us, because there were too many Pheonixs, or Galactus' around for Earth to just be an isolated island in the sky. No Celestials? The Beyonders were still going to destroy the 616 but what would have been here when it was destroyed could have been anything by that time. There may not have been Richards, Starks, Von Dooms or T'Challa's in existence, but Inhuman occupation would have been widespread.

[Loki]

If thinking on that level, Marvel Earth was getting interference from all sorts of agents, from the Kree Inhumans, to Skrulls, to Stone Men. Earth was never going to be like us, because there were too many Pheonixs, or Galactus' around for Earth to just be an isolated island in the sky. No Celestials? The Beyonders were still going to destroy the 616 but what would have been here when it was destroyed could have been anything by that time. There may not have been Richards, Starks, Von Dooms or T'Challa's in existence, but Inhuman occupation would have been widespread.

Without the Celestials, no Eternals. Without the Eternals, no Inhumans, since the Kree got the idea of meddling with DNA after finding a dead Eternal's corpse. Since it was the Celestials that prompted the various godly pantheons to agree to mostly withdraw from direct involvement with Earth, without them there would presumably be a world where mankind was still largely worshipping the "old" gods.

[MyriVerse]

My interpretation has always been that Celestials made ALL scientific superpowers possible. So, there would only be gods and magic.

[Chainsaw Vigilante]

Mutants would have happened without them. Marvel can't seem to get their history straight, but the x-gene was never a result of the Celestials, going by most instances of pre- 2000's continuity. Earth X brought this back to the minds of other writers (along with other tidbits that Marvel has since followed). The x-gene was also dormant in all non-mutants and that was a big part of a past plot with Sentinels discovering that and trying to snuff out the sun and destroying themselves in the process.

[Darth Phoenix]

deader.jpg

and no deviants, no sinking of Atlantis , no mutant Atlantians

[Loki]

Mutants would have happened without them. Marvel can't seem to get their history straight, but the x-gene was never a result of the Celestials, going by most instances of pre- 2000's continuity.

Sorry, but you are wrong about that. It was established as far back as at least the mid-1980s that the mutant gene is a result of the Celestials' experiments on humanity.
cf: Deluxe Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Celestials entry
http://i.stack.imgur.com/db1ws.jpg

Last sentence of second paragraph: "Their sole legacy to the mainstream human race was the implantation of a dormant DNA complex which would one day permit benevolent mutations."

And then there's this from X-Men Annual #13, 1989
celestials.jpg

So from at least the 1980s, no Celestials = no mutants.

[autbey]

This makes the whole mutant sterilization thing in Extraordinary problematic. Storm says that mutants are sterile now, but because of the Celestials every human has the potential to give birth to a mutants. So does this mean the Inhuman cloud made everyone on earth sterile or what?

[resipsaloquitur]

According to Earth X, without the Celestials, everyone looks like Wolverine and Sabretooth.

[davew128]

This makes the whole mutant sterilization thing in Extraordinary problematic. Storm says that mutants are sterile now, but because of the Celestials every human has the potential to give birth to a mutants. So does this mean the Inhuman cloud made everyone on earth sterile or what?

Sterile? No. The human race continues to procreate. More likely the Terrigen Mist is suppressing the X-gene. I suspect in time that will be reversed scientifically (and editorially) because in Marvel, mutation goes back thousands of years (Selene, then Apocalypse and who knows who else) and only picked up in the 20th century because of the increase of man made background radiation.

[Loki]

According to Earth X, without the Celestials, everyone looks like Wolverine and Sabretooth.

Thankfully that only holds for Earth X.

[autbey]

Sterile? No. The human race continues to procreate. More likely the Terrigen Mist is suppressing the X-gene. I suspect in time that will be reversed scientifically (and editorially) because in Marvel, mutation goes back thousands of years (Selene, then Apocalypse and who knows who else) and only picked up in the 20th century because of the increase of man made background radiation.

They really need to clear it up, right now all we've heard basically boils down to "lol, mutants can't have babies...tee hee...Inhumans win again"