Phastos
Phastos is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
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Biography
Phastos was a male member of the race of Eternals that lived on the planet Earth.
Around 600,000 years ago, after Uranos had been captured alive near the end of the Uranos War, it was Phastos who bound him with null-point chains so that he could be brought before Kronos and Oceanus in Titanos to face judgment. Phastos was presumably among those Eternals who subsequently spent a century trying, without success, to tear from the mind of Uranos the secret of the fail-safe that he had created that could destroy the Machine. (Eternals: The Heretic v1 #1)
Around 200,000 years ago, during the Titan Schism, Phastos was one of the minority faction of Eternals who supported A'Lars in his attempt to discover a way by which Eternals could breed amongst themselves. After an accord was reached that ended the war, Phastos was presumably among the majority of Eternals who had their memories of the conflict removed. (Eternals: Thanos Rises v1 #1) He may be one of the many Eternals who were almost completely mindwiped and thus no longer even remember which side they were on. (Eternals v5 #2) Phastos has long lived with a deep sorrow whose nature and origin has not been revealed. Phastos believes life to be meaningless, and was searching for someone or something to show him some semblance of the meaning of life. Presumably this person or object was the focus of his obsession which he admits to having. Perhaps Phastos' search was the reason why he remained on Earth when most of his fellow Eternals left for outer space. Perhaps, too, his sorrow and his obsession influenced Phastos' refusal to participate in war. (Eternals v2 #4)
After their recent death, Phastos came to be their number to resurrect where he decided to pass the time by studying the Machine and the temporal eddies around it. During this time, he came to learn the dark secret of the Eternals where their resurrections were powered by the death of humans with this overseen by the Machine. This horrified Phastos and he sought to stop this cycle instigated by the Machine without any harm to the planet itself but had to engage in such measures in secret as the great majority of Eternals cared not for the death of humans. Whilst looking through the temporal eddies, he came to witness the recent demise of the Mad Titan Thanos and sought to use him as part of his plot. He came to conduct a partial resurrection of Thanos with Phastos placing a failsafe that allowed him to remotely kill the Mad Titan. In exchange for his aid, Phastos promised to fully resurrect the villain if he were to help break the Machine with a device allowing him partial access to its systems. In secret, Phastos sabotaged the Machine to prevent the resurrection process whilst Thanos began murdering Eternals that stood in the way to their plans with this including Zuras. Ikaris and his comrades came to uncover this plot where they captured Phastos and undid his sabotage of the Machine thus preventing the destruction of the Earth. From him, they came to learn the truth about their resurrection with this disturbing Ikaris, Gilgamesh, Thena and Sprite. (Eternals v5 #6)
Overview
Personality and attributes
The Deviant race and their Warlord Kro often go head to head with the Eternals, and while Phastos defends his people and aids them with his powers, he often expresses dissent towards any conflict, aggression, and war. Eventually, Phastos remains with the Deviants to help them solve the deadly plague that’s killing their race to save his friend Ransak and give the Deviants a fighting chance.
Powers and abilities
As an Eternal, Phastos’ bodily cells contain cosmic energy, and he maintains constant mental control over every molecule of his body. He is virtually immortal and can be restored to life even if the molecules of his body are scattered.
He also possesses the capacity for superhuman strength, telepathy, flight, teleportation, illusion-casting, and matter transmutation. As an Eternal, he can also generate various forms of energy from his body, including force, heat, light, and other electromagnetic radiation. Some Eternals have devoted themselves to specializing in a particular facet of their powers, and can increase their proficiency in one area by decreasing their power in another.
While he admits that he will never be as good at it as Sersi he is nonetheless able to reconstitute his hammer after it hab been turned to slag by Antarctic Vibranium. (Thor: The Deviants Saga v1 #4)
Phastos and the other Eternals discover that with their new powers, they can unite to form the collective Uni-Mind, merging into a single form to make decisions for their race together.
As an Eternal, Phastos is duty-bound to his people and acts as their engineer solving their weaponry and technical problems for centuries. He even invents the reactivation chamber, a device that can heal or resurrect Eternals, which effectively makes them immortal.
Notes
- Phastos was created by Peter Gillis and Sal Buscema where he made his first appearance in Eternals v2 #1 (October, 1985).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Films
- In Eternals, Phastos appeared in the setting of the live-action film set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where he was portrayed by actor Brian Tyree Henry. He was an Eternal and an intelligent weapons and technology inventor who was also noted for being gay. Phastos was sent to Earth in 5,000 BC to progress the planet's societal development, and protect it from the Deviants. He guided and progressed many technological revolutions throughout the course of human history, but fell into a state of dejection when he realized that the tools he introduced to humanity were used in August 1945 to create the first atom bomb which resulted in monumental loss of human life. Blaming himself, he grew distant from his fellow Eternals. In the present day, Phastos settled and started a family with his husband Ben and they raised a son named Jack. He met again with the Eternals to prevent a new wave of Deviants led by Kro, and realized their true purpose; to pave the way for the Emergence of Earth, which would lead to the birth of Tiamut and result in the destruction of the planet. The Eternals were divided, with Phastos sidestepping to protect the planet and prevent the Emergence from occurring. By choosing to save the planet and its occupants rather than allow the Emergence to occur, Phastos was abducted from Earth by Arishem who planned to observe their memories to see if humanity was worthy enough to live where he departed to places unknown.
Appearances
- Eternals v2: (1985)
- Thor: The Deviants Saga v1:
- Hulk v2:
- Eternals v5: (2021)
External Links
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