Marvel Comics Reveals the Secret Origin of All Mankind

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Avengers #6 by Jason Aaron, Paco Medina, Ed McGuinness, Juan Vlasco, Mark Morales, David Curiel and VC's Cory Petit, in stores now.

The current Avengers storyline is changing the Marvel Universe in ways few fans likely imagined.

The relaunched title has spent its first half-dozen issues focusing on Earth's Mightiest Heroes' first encounter with the Dark Celestials -- in the form of a group called the Final Host -- who are intent on razing Earth. But it's more than just your ordinary invasion: It's an extermination, but surprisingly, it's not one meant to kill off humanity.

These details have been emerging since the series launched, as we's seen our planet serving as the battle ground between the Celestials, the Avengers and the Horde -- insect-like creatures who could kill the Celestials, and whose infection of the Progenitor (Earth's first Celestial) led to the creation of mankind and, eventually, superhumans.

In Issue #6, all these threads come together in order to build on that revelation of how humanity was created, and in so doing, now we finally know why we're here, as well.

Mankind's purpose for existence is a bit subjective, depending on which perspective you look at it from. With Robbie Rider (the Ghost Rider) now using a Celestial as his fire-powered vehicle, his mind has become locked into the consciousness of all other Celestials, and more so, their history, and from here, we see the truth (or, a truth, at least).

He calls the human race "god vomit," which syncs up with a story Loki recently told Captain America about the human race becoming a life-form from the liquid byproduct of the dead Progenitor. This was no mere accident, though; Black Panther quickly realizes the Celestials wanted this to happen, because they saw the dead Progenitor as the start of an experiment -- one to create a weapon to fight off their greatest enemies, the Horde.

For eons the Celestials couldn't defeat the insectoid creatures, and so, from their point-of-view, Earth is a petri dish, with humans as violent organisms, aka a biological weapon. Doctor Strange calls us pathogens, meant to act as a vaccine, but Panther takes it a step further, calling humanity a cure meant to counteract the Horde.

Things didn't go according to this plan, though, with the Celestials becoming infected themselves. Apart from then turning into the Dark Celestials, the other dead ones on the planet are now rising up as zombies. In other words, as much as the Celestials gambled on humans, they did themselves a disservice because they left their own species vulnerable in the interim. This is all too obvious in the field of battle here, as they're not just at the mercy of the Avengers, but the locust-like swarm as well. That's what you get for placing all your bets on the creatures of Earth to fight your war for you, right?

If not for the Celestials' vision, life on our planet wouldn't exist. Ultimately, everyone realizes fighting the Horde is their birthright, and what they were initially conceived to do. Science experiment or not, humanity owes our existence to the Celestials. Thankfully, they've transcended their intended purpose as well, growing into defenders of the entire universe. It's the least we can do now, to help them out.

CBR

Avengers #6 Reveals The Reason Humanity Exists in the Marvel Universe