Eon (comics)

Publication history

Eon was created by Jim Starlin, and first appeared in Captain Marvel #28 (Sept 1973) to proclaim Mar-Vell as the Protector of the Universe. He later appeared in the Quasar series to appoint Quasar as his new champion, advising Quasar throughout the series.

Fictional character biography

Eon's history stretches back into the universe's infancy; he is the offspring of Eternity and Infinity and the Celestial Axis. He was born eight billion years ago. Charged with protecting the Celestial Axis (the pattern of life energy threading through the universe), and Time, although it often chooses to observe our reality while removed in a dimension called 'The Mists of Time'.

Eon's third function is nurturing the evolution of sentient life of the universe and to maintain conditions favorable to life in the universe. This led to Eon searching out and appointing a being to be his champion, the protector of life in the universe, anticipating and conquering major threats to life. The full details of these appointments, including criteria, line of succession, and past champions, have yet to be fully revealed. The first known champion, Glakandar, was appointed 5 billion years ago. At the same time, Eon also created the quantum-bands, weapons that would enable his champions to wield massive amounts of energy.

In more recent times, Eon appointed Captain Mar-Vell of the alien race, Kree, to be his champion as the Protector of the Universe — the only one to do so without the quantum-bands. Eon granted Mar-Vell "cosmic awareness" to better combat the champion of Death, Thanos. Eon mostly left Mar-Vell to his own devices, but appeared to him at least once, to warn him of an alien threat to Earth.

After Mar-Vell's death, Eon appointed Quasar as his champion, the new Protector of the Universe, and sent one of his pseudopods to Earth with Quasar. Eon made a doorway to his pocket dimension in Quasar's business office. Eon befriended Quasar's father, Gilbert Vaughn. When Eon discovered Gilbert Vaughn's death, he determined to keep knowledge of it from Quasar. Eon was later visited by Moondragon. Eon reanimated Gilbert Vaughn, but had a falling out with Quasar when Quasar discovered the deception regarding his father's death.

It was soon revealed that Quasar was chosen specifically to combat an unknown threat to Eon's self and the universe. The threat was Maelstrom, who assumed the aspect of Anomaly. When Eon was attacked by Maelstrom, Eon bade Quasar to kill him so that Maelstrom would not wrest the secret of cosmic awareness from him. Quasar blasted a hole in the most vital part of Eon's brain. A funeral was then held for Eon by the Mourners. The service was interrupted by Thanos, who used the Infinity Gauntlet to turn Eon's body inside out and squeezed it through all of its portals into this universe. Eon's still animated body was opposed by various Earth heroes. During the fight, Eon's offspring, Epoch, was delivered from its dying womb by Quasar. Quasar promises to watch over her as she grows.

Eon appears to still exist in some form within another dimension.

Powers and abilities

The full extent of Eon's powers was unknown. His most famous power was his cosmic awareness which served as a form of omniscience about anything Eon wished to know. His vast intellect was capable of gleaning any and all information in the entire universe given sufficient time; how long this took depended on the nature of the information. Certain information concerning cosmic beings was more easily accessed than other information. One description had it as one searching the memory of a giant computer. Eon could also bestow cosmic awareness to the full amount on other beings such as he did with Captain Mar-Vell and Quasar.

Eon was a small universe-sized organism capable of extending pseudopods of his substance into Earth's dimension. One such pseudopod was once believed to be Eon in its entirety. Eon was able to grow and animate pseudopods at will. It could also generate arms out of an unidentified form of energy and reanimate dead bodies. Eon very probably had other physical powers than he was observed using. It sustained itself by living off the radiation left over from the Big Bang.

Eon possessed other abilities, but due to the being's passive nature the full extent has not been demonstrated. Known abilities include the reanimation of dead tissue, the ability to transport itself and others across dimensions, create dimensional portals, levitation and control its size. It also created a pocket dimension where it created imprints of all the previous protectors.

Its child Epoch demonstrated the ability to fire powerful blasts of energy, a power Eon may have had.

Oblivion described Eon as one of the beings who were the embodiments of Time, and based on its appearances after its death it seems to have had time manipulation powers to an unknown degree.

It was implied that along with its passive nature Eon was bound by certain agreements that may have limited how much it could use its own power to defend itself.

Other versions

In the alternate future seen in a 1995 storyline that ran in Silver Surfer Annual and Guardians of the Galaxy, Eon has managed to convince the Silver Surfer to wield the bands. Though powerful already, the bands allow the Surfer to gain speeds he had never been able to before. Eon assists the Surfer with intelligence, such as when he tells of Galactus' plans to distract the Surfer away from the next three planets he intended to devour. Later, it is revealed Eon's child Era has killed Quasar, sending him to the White Room, where all wielders of the quantum bands go. Eon becomes trapped there also, in the form of a table's centerpiece. Kismet and her child, Starhawk, dedicate themselves to stopping Era.