Where did the gods come from?

[Captain Exaggeration]

Where did the Asguardians, Olympians, and the other Earth gods (or Sky Fathers) come from? I've been reading Eternals, which if you don't know explains how humans came to exist on Earth. But as far as I know Marvel has never explained where the gods truly came from. Did the Celestials create the gods too?

[Kaos]

nope...nobodys ever mentioned it

[Expletive Deleted]

It's been mentioned in passing a time or two, but I don't think it was ever explicitly dealt with. The OHOTMU: DE implies that they're jumped-up humans, but I'm sure I remember a few references to Asgardians as a simple (albeit powerful) extradimensional race.

Whatever it is, it's not the explanation from EARTH X. That one's glorified fanfic.

[ednemo]

In one of the future books (I think it was Earth X but I am too lazy to go upstairs and look), the gods explain that they were believed into being. Humans needed gods and created them using their collective conscience. I'll look it up later for a more definitive answer. Well as definitive as a non-continuity book can be...

[Dizzy D]

The old Deluxe version of the Handbooks (89 update) claimed that the "current" gods (Asgardians, Olympians, Heliopolitans et al.) were created out of the essence of the Elder Gods, after they were destroyed by the Demigorge and then formed by humanity's beliefs. I'm trying to find the exact entry which states this.

[Captain Exaggeration]

Interesting stuff you guys have pulled up.

[Soundrave]

Where did the Asguardians, Olympians, and the other Earth gods (or Sky Fathers) come from? I've been reading Eternals, which if you don't know explains how humans came to exist on Earth. But as far as I know Marvel has never explained where the gods truly came from. Did the Celestials create the gods too?


See here (http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/gaeathor.htm) and here (http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/atum.htm).

[Lorendiac]

One story that I've heard goes like this:

Way back around the 1960s, Stan Lee laid down the law for the benefit of his associates at the Bullpen. He said something along the following lines (paraphrased in my own words, since I don't know exactly what words he used at the time):

"The Asgardians are a bunch of nonhuman immigrants from some other corner of time and space who ended up on Earth, and were a) so incredibly powerful, and b) so susceptible to the power of human imaginations for some reason, that they ended up taking on the roles of the Norse Gods and Goddesses from the legends that were already springing up across Scandinavia. That was probably a few thousand years ago. After all this time, Thor and Loki and the others probably have just about hypnotized themselves into actually thinking they are Supernatural Beings who were born and raised on Earth and have been around practically since the Dawn of Time."

Somewhere I saw a claim that something along those general lines was actually inserted into a comic book published back around the 1960s, in order to have that excuse "on the record" in case Marvel was ever accused by angry parents of "promoting paganism" or something by having Thor, an Avenger, run around calling himself The God of Thunder all the time. I don't know if that is actually true. And if it did happen, I don't know if they printed it as dialogue in a story, or just as a one-paragraph-excuse buried in the middle of a letter column in case they ever needed to dust it off and use it to "defend themselves," or what! :)

I seem to recall that Warren Ellis explicitly referred to that version of the background of the Asgardians during his brief run on the Thor title in the mid-90s. And I think it got referred to by Loki in "Earth X" or one of the sequels in the "Earth X" version of the future of the Marvel Universe.

But I am not a big expert on Thor's continuity across the decades. I don't know just how "official" that "cover story" created by Stan Lee is supposed to be, these days. I suspect that most of the writers who have followed in Stan's footsteps over the years as they worked with Thor (and/or his Asgardian friends, relatives, and enemies) have either ignored this idea entirely (if they ever heard of it in the first place?) or may have blatantly contradicted it. Heck, if the Asgardians have really been doing what they do for thousands of years, and using magic on each other at the drop of a hat, and taking all those painful blows to the head from their constant brawling, then they may not even remember the truth themselves after all this time! :)

Did that help to thoroughly confuse the issue? :)

[DDM]

The old Deluxe version of the Handbooks (89 update) claimed that the "current" gods (Asgardians, Olympians, Heliopolitans et al.) were created out of the essence of the Elder Gods, after they were destroyed by the Demigorge and then formed by humanity's beliefs. I'm trying to find the exact entry which states this.

You'll find it under the Demon entry.

[Captain Exaggeration]

One story that I've heard goes like this:

Way back around the 1960s, Stan Lee laid down the law for the benefit of his associates at the Bullpen. He said something along the following lines (paraphrased in my own words, since I don't know exactly what words he used at the time):

"The Asgardians are a bunch of nonhuman immigrants from some other corner of time and space who ended up on Earth, and were a) so incredibly powerful, and b) so susceptible to the power of human imaginations for some reason, that they ended up taking on the roles of the Norse Gods and Goddesses from the legends that were already springing up across Scandinavia. That was probably a few thousand years ago. After all this time, Thor and Loki and the others probably have just about hypnotized themselves into actually thinking they are Supernatural Beings who were born and raised on Earth and have been around practically since the Dawn of Time."

Somewhere I saw a claim that something along those general lines was actually inserted into a comic book published back around the 1960s, in order to have that excuse "on the record" in case Marvel was ever accused by angry parents of "promoting paganism" or something by having Thor, an Avenger, run around calling himself The God of Thunder all the time. I don't know if that is actually true. And if it did happen, I don't know if they printed it as dialogue in a story, or just as a one-paragraph-excuse buried in the middle of a letter column in case they ever needed to dust it off and use it to "defend themselves," or what!

I seem to recall that Warren Ellis explicitly referred to that version of the background of the Asgardians during his brief run on the Thor title in the mid-90s. And I think it got referred to by Loki in "Earth X" or one of the sequels in the "Earth X" version of the future of the Marvel Universe.

But I am not a big expert on Thor's continuity across the decades. I don't know just how "official" that "cover story" created by Stan Lee is supposed to be, these days. I suspect that most of the writers who have followed in Stan's footsteps over the years as they worked with Thor (and/or his Asgardian friends, relatives, and enemies) have either ignored this idea entirely (if they ever heard of it in the first place?) or may have blatantly contradicted it. Heck, if the Asgardians have really been doing what they do for thousands of years, and using magic on each other at the drop of a hat, and taking all those painful blows to the head from their constant brawling, then they may not even remember the truth themselves after all this time! :)

Did that help to thoroughly confuse the issue? :)
Yep :D

Anyway its funny to read all these completely different answers. The link to Gaea Soundrave posted had some really interesting info on the subject. What should we believe?:eek:

[Joe Acro]

What should we believe?:eek:
I say we believe the Handbook, assuming someone posts up what it says.

[Expletive Deleted]

What should we believe?:eek:Whatever you want.

If Marvel wants to clarify it, they will. If they don't, they won't and we'll be free to use the explanation we like best.