“The Ancient One” “The First Light” “The Eternal One” 

En Sabah Nuhr

That’s right folks, VeVe has dropped the First Appearance of Apocalypse with X-factor #6!  And oh boy is this a Villain for the ages! Doesn’t it make you wonder though, who the oldest characters are in the Marvel Universe? Well if so, you’re in luck because we, Chris Severs (@mrktsmart) and Xhibition (@Richard__Prins) have just the list for you!

We’ll be the first to admit that top 10 lists are a little arbitrary, and if you want to chase a headache you can certainly debate who the oldest Marvel character is.  Thankfully for this article, it’s made easier by not having all the first appearances on VeVe yet, which gives us something to look forward to for future drops while allowing us to revisit our Top 10 lists down the road. We writers do love evergreen content...

The Criteria 

First, we’re flat out ignoring Marvel Legacy #1.  Don’t get us wrong, it’s an enjoyable book, it just shouldn’t be ‘hard’ canon, and this is just one of those books that is retcon* galore and then in time they will somehow retcon the retcons.

(* Retcon is short for 'retroactive continuity' - essentially, a story in which something is revealed about an older story that brings new context to light and generally allows new direction to explore with a character or situation.)

To make it in the list, the first appearance must be available on VeVe. That’s very straightforward, although we would have loved to introduce readers to characters like Selene Gallio, but her FA isn’t on VeVe yet.

Age has to be an integral part of the character, though this is where we enter murky territory. Two easy examples are Captain America and Wolverine, no explanation needed, as their ages are a big part of their stories.

Silver Surfer on the other hand, was omitted as it’s hard to pinpoint his age, but also as he traveled back in time to the end of the last universe and stayed until modern time caught up with him.  Although badass, there's no one who thinks of him as an ancient being and while he technically is, it’s not part of his origin nor reimagined origin. Like, how old is Cable - minus 12,000 years!?  LOL, who the heck knows...we'll just assume he's somewhere around 13 Billion years old!

Then we have the one-off characters. From time to time there’ll be someone crazy powerful or crazy old or crazy whatever, and then we’ll never hear from that character again, thus don’t make it into the list. We comic readers ignore stuff like this all the time, it’s a right we earned and it makes the Marvelous world of Marvel better - Romulus anyone?

As Chris’ favourite mutant is now so renowned, “Let’s EffIng Go” and discover the oldest characters available on VeVe right now!

10. Mystique - At Least 100 to 125 Years Old

FA: Ms. Marvel #16 

Ahhh, the mysterious Mystique.  This rule breaking bundle of hot stuff serves her side orders with a capital C and has been doing so for a long time. Her actual age was clouded, since she could eliminate the outward signs of aging with her shape-changing power.  Check all this out (thx Wikipedia) -  Mystique is the wife of Destiny / Irene Adler, the mother of the villain Graydon Creed, adoptive mother of the X-Men heroine Rogue, and the biological father (yes!) of the X-Men hero Nightcrawler; conceived with her wife Destiny while in one of her male forms.  Mystique has been described as one of Marvel's most notable and powerful female antiheroes.  You just have to read the full backstory on Wiki - it’s crazy awesome!

Her character is convoluted, with her comic and movie appearances captivating, her comic history dates her back to somewhere in the late 1890’s where she was living as the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, and where she first began her romance with Irene Adler.  Before that, she spent a century alone, which could make her anywhere from 200 to 250 years old. Mystique’s upcoming solo series is about to release in October and IOHO's, no doubt will be available on VeVe Comics.

9. Sabretooth - 200 Years Old

FA: Iron Fist #14 

The Super Saiyan version of Wolverine (the analogy was floating around the Interwebs this week & Richard is kicking himself for not coming up with that one!).

Magneto & Professor X are somewhere around 90 years old, but Captain America, Namor & Black Widow were already of fighting age in WWII, with Wolverine being the grandpa of the bunch being 60 years old during WWII.  However, Sabretooth, who attacked Wolverine at the end of the war was already a staggering 120 years old at that point, thus making him 200 years old.

8. Moira McTaggert - 1500 Years Old

FA: Uncanny X-Men #96 

The former love interest of Professor X and long standing mutant ally turned out to be a mutant herself, and a very powerful one at that.  Although her powers are passive, her abilities have changed mutant history forever. And how!

Powers of X (pronounced ‘powers of ten’) also refers to Moira having 10 lives (11, maybe, if she makes the right choice). After a life ends for her, she is reborn in a reset timeline with her memories intact (she resets the whole of 616).

House of X and Powers of X are two-books-that-are-one.  Please note, Richard’s mind was already blown by HoX, but PoX completely obliterated him, so read with caution!  Hickman has a nuclear reactor in his pen and you should read these books, otherwise you and I have quarrel.

7. Thor/Loki - 1500 Years

FA: Journey into Mystery 83/85

OK, so here’s where the headache builds - first, we grouped them together because Asgardians are old and this spot is reserved for this species. So we know Thor is an Adult in 893 AD, and we also know Ragnorok constantly restarts the Asgardian’s world, and that he was born after Christ (no, not Nate Grey, the real one or well… you know). So when Thor refers to having lived millennia, we think he has some recollection of the lives of past (passed) Thors.

Loki is younger than Thor, but by how much?  Hard to tell. The MCU puts Thor at 1,500 years old and Loki at 1,050 and that’s okay with us.  Asgardians live to be about 5.000 years old, while Odin with the Odinforce lives a lot longer.

6. Apocalypse - 5,000 Years Old 

FA: X-Factor #6 

He is here, the First, neither good nor evil, he just is. “I simply am, my children”

The father of mutants is not the first mutant, that’s Namor. Apocalypse is neither the oldest, that’s Selene, and in the future it will be Franklin Richards.

The mutant external sometimes borderlines the abstracts, although less powerful he is a force to be reckoned with and the only reason he is not a cosmic threat is because he doesn’t concern himself with other worlds. He is a founder of the first mutant paradise Okkara. He is the cause of the Bronze Age collapse, he fights the Eternals as a TGIF, kills his fellow Externals because he wants to make a door and he will give Thanos a run for his money.

And I’m just going to say it, he will win against Uranos. That’s right, Thanos granduncle will lose. Uranos the undying, The Dungeon Where All Light Fails will see its First Light. Death incarnate, En Sabah Nuhr is Mutant Dawn.

5. The Eternals - 5 Million Years Old

FA: The Eternals #1 

The Eternals were created by the Celestials to protect the machine called Earth. Think of them as white blood cells, they attack anything on instinct if something is deemed harmful in the earth’s systems, we are talking about beings with an unstable genetic code that causes random mutations, better known as deviants.

Eternals have their own personalities & can think for themselves but cannot overwrite their core. If something is deemed a deviant, they will attack. If they are perished they simply respawn. They are Demi Gods & the inspiration for the old Greek Gods of Mythology.

4. Uatu - Billions of Years Old

FA: Fantastic Four #13

“There are more realities than there are grains of sand in the universe. With each reality, there are different truths, different falsehoods.”

The Watcher is billions of years old and may even have come to existence close to the beginning of time itself.  As a member of a highly advanced cosmic species called The Watchers, Uatu is commanded to watch, but forbidden to interact.  The species used to want to help underdeveloped worlds, however, you can kind of guess how it goes when you give a technology to a people who aren’t ready for it yet (let’s hope that’s not AI here on planet Earth, haha). After a world got destroyed by their doing, they vowed to watch only.

However, Uatu sometimes interferes, a decision he doesn’t make lightly and is cause of sever stress for him. He has a weak spot for Earth and is an ally of the Fantastic Four.  Of course, Uatu falls for the intellect of Reed Richards, which has nothing to do with Susan Storms “human form,” (right Uatu?  You’re married anyway!)

Then there’s that feeling one gets when he pops up in comics or Marvel’s WHAT IF…?  Uatu The Watcher is the personification of the “OH CRAP” moment.  He’ there when “said crap” is about to get down.  For non-comic readers, you can also spot him in Episode 5 of X-Men ‘97. If that episode doesn’t at least make you go “oh crap” then we don’t know what would!?!

EXTRA EXTRA!!

For the “find something very unique” collectors out there, do know VeVe’s Rare & Ultra Rare digital collectible comic cover variants are the FIRST EVER produced for VeVe by Marvel artists.  That certainly says something about Marvel’s belief in digital collectibles, VeVe and of course, the importance of The Watcher to use his image as the basis for those cover art selections!  (NFA as always - DYOR!)

3. Eternity - OLD, As In "The Personification of Time" 

FA: Strange Tales #138 

 “Eternity! You who are the beginning and the end and the all of time itself”. (Dr. Strange)

The first abstract on our list, thus far remaining as the only abstract on it, as it’s the only one with its first appearance available on VeVe. In the future, other abstracts will be included in spots like Asgardians, Eternals, Celestials etc., until we might have enough on the app to give them their own Top 10’s - we shall see!

Dang though, don’t you just love this stuff?!?  We’ve reached position 3, and what a worthy entry! With Eternity, we’re now entering a whole different level...

These are beings who just ‘are,’ bringing balance to our universe.   They’re neither good nor bad, however, sometimes they can be bad for our heroes, hence why it’s so incredibly exciting when they pop up in the comics.  We’re not even dealing with Gods here, this is something beyond that.

How the heck do you go up against something like that!? And especially Eternity, whose authority is only surpassed by the Living Tribunal.

2. Phoenix - Beginning of Time, Every Time

FA: X-Men #101 

“We come into this world alone and we leave the same way. The time we spent in between - time spent alive, sharing, learning together... is all that makes life worth living.” —Jean Grey

The cosmos is in its 8th iteration, with prime Earth-616 at its center, where every iteration, every big bang, the Phoenix rebirths. She is at the end of the universe, she is at the beginning of the universe.

“Hey Richard - here’s some Kleenex!”  (Our man is having a few ‘moments’ writing this without tearing up…)  Hope Summers is one of his favorite characters, the little oversized gun carrying badass daughter of Cable and Jean, who fulfilled her destiny by becoming the Messiah 16 years after the Messiah Complex.

To be absolutely clear, I asked Richard to go a bit further into explaining this character as she’s DEEP.  Here goes:

“I wrote that line about Hope being the daughter of Cable and Jean to be deliberately confusing, because Jean is the mother of Cable, so I thought a few “experts” might find that funny, as it’s weird.  Of course, Cable is the adoptive father of Hope and Cable the son of Maddie, however he has the genes of Jean since Maddie is her clone, but he does see Jean as his mother and calls her that too.  So, Jean would be Hope’s Grandmother, but she (Jean) impregnated Hope’s mom, with herself/Phoenix/Hope.  Yeah, Comics y’all LoL!!"

Are you still with us?  Richard’s on the verge of getting another headache trying to explain this in writing to an audience that must already be confused, so I’m letting take the reigns fully here, as he breaks down the last part like this: The Mother, The Daughter and The Firebird, this is the holy trinity and they exist now, in past and in future. Forever. As one, but also separate, like the holy trinity.

You can find all of this in X-Men Forever #1-#4 that I’ve been postponing my read, as I saw that cover of Hope and I didn’t wanted to deal with it, not in the midst of the Fall of Krakoa. I’m very invested in the X-Men and as long as I don’t read it, Hope is still with us, so you see, I’m actually being smart that way.

Damn, I went ahead and read it before writing the next bit, but only once though. When the Phoenix book is a couple of issues in, I’m going to write an X-article about this all and have more space to explain & discuss what The White Hot Room is and Pacific Krakoa, and how it all connects. I am happy that Hope truly became the Messiah, although it doesn’t stop me from crying.

The Phoenix solo book has just started with Issue #1 available on VeVe, so get yourself a copy and don’t miss out one of the most exciting books in modern comics.

48 years after Uncanny X-Men #101, Jean Grey is still a Cosmic God. And always has been, and always will be.

"I am fire and life incarnate! Now and forever — I am Phoenix!"

1. GALACTUS - Before Time

FA: Fantastic Four #48 

Imagine explaining a being like Galactus and thinking “yeah, this’ll be easy.”  Well, that’s where Richard & I find ourselves having great similarity.  We don’t always know exactly what we’re doing, but HOT SMOKE we’re sure as hell having a lot of fun doing these!

Galan was a humanoid being from the species named Taa-an, who crossed over from the 6th iteration of the cosmos to the 7th, and became Galactus. Wait didn’t we say we’re in the 8th now?  Well, yes, that’s correct, but the 8th iteration didn’t start with a big bang. Incursions, Reed Richards… yada yada, 8th iteration. So now you’re all up to speed and not confused, let’s talk Galactus.

Galactus is not an abstract, although you might be able to call him Equity. Galactus is not a Celestial, although he too feeds of planets - Celestials do so to be able to be born, Galactus does so to feed his hunger.  It’s hard to imagine him not being evil and although ridiculously huge, you should see him from a cosmic perspective.

All living things die. Here on Earth we have little scavengers that clean up the planet and so help life by cleaning up death or sometimes bringing death. That’s how you have to see Galactus, that is, our pale blue dot is not even a speck of dust on a cosmic scale.

Before wrapping up our written summary, Chris also wanted to add a PERFECT YouTube review of Galactus by MerryMarvelite, so be sure to check this out too!

Seeing Galactus makes us uneasy.  Being confronted with our own mortality is one thing, but getting a full blown existential crisis that is met with complete nihilism, is another.  In the grand scheme of things we don’t matter, but Galactus does.

“Of all the creatures in the vastness of the universe, there is none like me. I was present at the birth of the universe, and I shall be there at its end. Though I ravage worlds to live, I bear no malice toward any living thing. I simply do what I must to survive. And why must Galactus survive?  For, no matter how many worlds I devour, how many civilizations I destroy, it is my destiny to one day give back to the universe, infinitely more than I have ever taken from it. So speaks Galactus!”

OUTRO

"Life is Time, Time is Power."

This Top 10 list serves merely as a surface-scratcher to tickle your curiosity for Marvel Comics. You may also wish to check out Marvel Unlimited, where for a few bucks you can read almost every Marvel comic if they haven’t made it yet to VeVe or VeVe Comics (Modern Age Titles). It could sincerely enhance your collecting experience on VeVe to further depth of storylines and deep histories.

Having said that, we’ll leave you with a little power hierarchy, as we’re sure we’ve stirred an itch you have to scratch now, LoL:

- The One Above All

- The Living Tribunal

- Eternity / Infinity and Death / Oblivion

- Galactus, Celestials and other Abstracts

- Beyonder, Phoenix etc.

“I will leave no reader unscratched, for I am here, The Living Word, so speaks Xhibition!”

Thanks for Reading!