WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Avengers #1 by Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, David Curiel and Cory Petit, on sale now.


As the old saying goes, "And there came a day, a day unlike any other, when Earth's mightiest heroes found themselves united against a common threat." However, the threat of the Final Host at the end of Avengers #1 may be bigger than anything the team has ever faced before. After all, if they can take out beings as powerful as the Celestials, what can't they do?

The Celestials are a group of giant godlike cosmic entities who have conducted experiments on lifeforms throughout the cosmos. They are typically considered to be the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe, outside of abstract entities like Eternity and Infinity. For years, their appearance has meant the arrival of powerful cosmic forces far beyond the control of human intervention. Watching them fall by the dozens out of the sky to their doom is supposed to feel unsettling. After all, only the most powerful forces in the Marvel Universe could take out an entire host of Celestials like that.

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This new host of Celestials is far different than any we have seen before. Instead of sporting rather generic cosmic armor based on Jack Kirby's original designs, these Dark Celestials are each physically unique, indicating different personalities. We don't know how many of these entities will be coming to Earth, but by the look of it, they could each embody some cosmic force of the universe. (In a bit of irony, they're arriving the same week we caught a glimpse of DC's own cosmic threat in the DC Nation one-shot prelude to Justice League: No Justice.)

The fact that these Dark Celestials were able to take out their brethren so easily should immediately put them in a class of an elite few. As you might imagine, it's nearly impossible to harm a Celestial by normal means. Thor was only able to kill Exitar the Executioner thanks to the enchanted nature of his axe Jarnbjorn, for example, while it took the combined power of the Avengers of 1,000,000 B.C. to take down a single Celestial long ago.

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On the other hand, the Beyonders, another race of cosmic experimenters, were able to cut through them with ease. If the Dark Celestials of the Final Host are comparable in power to the Beyonders, the Avengers might be doomed before they even get started. After all, the Beyonders proved to be far too powerful for the Avengers to defeat them during Jonathan Hickman's run on the title just prior to 2015's Secret Wars, so what hope would the new team have against even stronger foes?

This new threat is destined to bring the heroes of the Marvel Universe together. We know who will eventually be among their ranks, but this could be a threat that requires the assistance of a team long gone by. If Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor want to bring back the Avengers, they are going to need a bigger team. Perhaps they will need the Avengers of 1,000,000 BC to guide them to victory -- somehow.