dwc@hou2b.UUCP (D.CHEN) (08/29/84)
i got a reply to my ranking of cosmic beings but i lost the address of the sender. so i thought i'd post his reply along with my reply: ( i took off his name in case he doesn't want publicity) *************************************************************************************** Beg to differ. Simonson's Odin may be tougher but the Celestials are no wimps either! I'd have to make the list more like: 1) Order and Chaos 2) Beyonder 3) Eternity 4) Death 5) Celestials 6) Galactus 7) Dark Pheonix 8) Odin and Zeus 9) Watchers 10) Franklin Richards (I'm impressed you remembered him!) 11) Elders of the Universe ******************************************************************************* i guess that we agree on a few points. lets go over them one by one: 1) order and chaos: agree! i think that they are the basic forces in the marvel universe. there may be other conceptual beings but it can be argued that all the others derive their existence from these two. 2) beyonder: okay.... while it may currently seem that the beyonder is very powerful, i am reluctant to accept any character who is not yet fully developed. i even tend to think that the beyonder is a temporary character since there is no mention of him anywhere in the regular comics except in the 'thing'. (all these comics are now supposedly after secret wars) notice the curious absence of dr. strange and his all-seeing eye of agamotto in secret wars. 3) eternity: agree! he is the body of the universe! i guess i neglected to mention the ancient one also. (the ancient one is now one with all) 4) death: okay. death is kind of funny in the marvel universe. in every comic, there is a character that is some aspect of death but the only time death is associated as a conceptual being is with eternity. so i could argue the entry should be eternity/ancient one/death/eternity/... 5) celestials (yuk): agree its hard to say where the celestial belong. the only hints are that they are physical beings (they travel in a big ship and thor can trip them up) i place them close to galactus because odin once thought that galactus might be a renegade celestial. i put (yuk) next to them because they were a very ill-conceived idea of kirby's and they still have not quite found a place in the marvel universe and worse yet, have not said a word! 6) galactus: agree! galactus is in the top ten in any universe! what a character! the only thing i do not like is the recent association in f.f. between galactus and eternity. he may play a role in order and chaos' scheme of things but he isn't eternity's son any more than dr. strange is. 7) dark phoenix: agree the only reason i put her above galactus was because of the scale of her appetite. she ate whole stars! i was also impressed with her connection with the 'source' (a dc comics idea) 8) odin and zeus: maybe this is where we run into trouble. we have to be careful as to which odin we are talking about i am currently trying to think of a way to consolidate the stories of the celestials with simonson's current issues. very hard. 9) watchers: agree who said nice gods finish last? 10) franklin richards: agree! i'm just waiting for him to bust out! that reminds me. i left out michael/korvac. although he was short-lived, he was a very interesting character. 11) elders of the universe: agree! i just wonder how may of them are left! again with the current thor storyline, i am tempted to include surtur but perhaps he is just yet another aspect of death.