The Marvel comics are filled with ancient relics of legendary power.
Occassionally, whole story arcs revolve around these relics and the power-hungry individuals
who want to take advantage of them.
Other times, they’re objects that make cameos in stories, acting the part of a deus ex machina
or just appeared in earlier panels, only to be further embellished with greater meaning
as time went on.
Regardless, all of them are pretty darn cool.
So today, we’re taking a closer look with our list of the top 10 strongest marvel relics.
10 Mjolnir Starting off this list with a relic you all
should be familiar with, in at ten, we have Mjolnir.
It’s Thor’s principal weapon, which first appeared in Journey into Mystery issue 83
in 1962.
Funny enough, it wasn’t the first time that Mjolnir appeared in a comic; back in 1942
in Adventure comics issue 75 in a Sandman story called The Villain from Valhalla.
This wasn’t a Marvel comic, it was a DC comic, and the creators behind it were Joe
Simon and Jack Kirby.
Eventually, Kirby, along with stan Lee and Joe Sinnott would establish it as the weapon
of the God of Thunder, Thor Odinson, spelt differently than its incarnation in the DC
comic.
In the Marvel continuity, it was forged by Dwarven blacksmiths from the Asgardian metal
uru.
It can only be held by someone who is deemed worthy of its power.
And it can do a whole lot.
It can level mountains.
It can create force fields powerful enough to potentially destroy a galaxy, it can manipulate
on a molecular level, it’s capable of controlling electromagnetism, it can generate geo-blasts,
thermo-blasts, anti-force, and can even travel through planets all to get back to Thor.
It’s been found capable of creating antimatter particles.
It can track a person or mystical items, absorb energy, detect illusions, and is lethal to
the undead since it was formerly a religious relic.
All in all, it’s wickedly powerful, and definitely makes Thor a mighty force.
I mean, he is a god after all.
There’s a few different origin stories for Mjolnir found in the comics, with the second
iteration being the one the MCU adapted (forged in a dying star), and others, like the one
in the Mighty Thor series, having it conceived from a nugget of uru that held a sentient
storm the size of a galaxy within it, which gave the hammer its power.
9 The Eye of Agamotto The Eye of Agamotto is yet another familiar
relic for those of you who are fans of the MCU.
In the comics, this mystical item first appeared in Strange Tales issue 115 in 1963, in a story
titled the origin of Doctor Strange, and is different that the MCU continuity; it doesn’t
contain the time gem.
What it is in the comics though is a weapon of wisdom, radiating powerful mystical light
that allows Strange to see through illusions and disguises, to see into the past, and to
track corporeal and ethereal beings based on their magic or psychic emissions.
It can probe minds, create a mystical shield, and create portals to other dimensions.
It can also be used to transport dozens upon dozens of beings from one point in the universe
to another, a trick that Strange used when the heroes of the marvel universe went up
against Thanos in the comics.
8 The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak first debuted
in X-Men issue 12 back in 1965.
It also has quite the history; as legend goes, over a thousand years ago, eight beings of
magical power gathered together (known as the Octessence) and debated over who had the
greatest power.
So each of these eight beings made a wager where they had to make a totem that held only
a fraction of their power, and the first person who touched it would become an Exemplar, the
living embodiment of that power, and then they’d duke it out with each other until
only one remained.
Kind of convoluted, right?
Well, Cyttorak was one of those eight beings, with his totem being this gem.
The gem turns anyone who touches it into an unstoppable individual; a juggernaut.
Enter Cain Marko.
It would eventually fuse to his body as well.
7 The M’Kraan Crystal The M’Kraan crystal first appeared in X-Men
issue 107 back in 1977.
It’s a massive pink crystal with unknown origins, that contains an alien city, with
time and space having no meaning within the crystal.
At the center of the city, a glowing energy sphere can be found with hosts a neutron galaxy,
the nexus point of all matter and anti-matter of not only the 616 universe, but all universes
and realities in existence in the entire marvel multiverse.
Those who attempt to use the power of the crystal put the universe at risk of destruction;
that’s where the X-Men came in, in order to protect it when D’Ken of the Shi’ar
Empire attempted to take hold of it.
The Phoenix Force ends up repairing the crystal, saving the universe in the process.
6 The Wand of Watoomb There are six wands of watoomb kicking around
the marvel universe.
Capable of near-omnipotent power, each one is controlled by the thoughts of its wielder,
and its jam is mystical energies; they’re used for multiplying, redirecting, focusing,
gathering and enhancing mystical energies, and blocking mystical attacks.
They’ve even been shown at times capable of controlling the elements, opening up portals
to other dimensions, and can use energy its absorbed to heal the individual wielding it.
It’s first appearance in the comics was in Amazing Spider-Man annual 2 from 1965,
and the first of the wands to appear was initially revealed as being broken in half.
Dormammu’s followers would manage to repair it, with Doctor Strange later seizing it.
5 The Evil Eye of Avalon The Evil Eye of Avalon is a weird one.
First appearing in Fantastic Four issue 54 from 1966, first impressions generally are,
that thing looks phallic, or, that looks like a whacky pink plunger.
It was forged with an unknown metal, is pretty much indestructible, and can manipulate matter
at a molecular level.
In addition to that, it has some serious fire power, being able to shoot concussive force
blasts, disintegrate matter, nullify energy sources and destroy or create force fields.
If you didn’t think that was impressive, this thing can also allow one to time travel
or travel between dimensions.
So why isn’t it higher up on our list?
Because of this one little downside – it had a safety button used to charge it, which,
if left in the on position, can cause it to over charge until it explodes.
If it explodes, it breaks into six pieces that drive through a planet until they find
sunlight.
4 Cosmic Cube The Cosmic Cube first appeared in Tales of
Suspense issue 79 in 1966, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
These days, fans of the MCU know it better as the Tesseract, which contained the space
stone.
But let’s talk about the version of it in the comics.
Cosmic Cubes are containment devices created by various different civilizations in the
Marvel universe.
They contain reality warping energies of unknown composition that, often, after an undefined
period of time, will cause the cube’s matrix to become self-aware and evolve into a free
willed being, with its personality being an imprint of those who have wielded it as a
cube prior.
But let’s back track a little – the first cube to appear in the comics was created by
AIM and was capable of transforming any wish into reality.
3 The Ka Stone The Ka Stone is a fragment of the lifestone
tree, landing on earth after an alien ship carrying it was shot down.
It’s capable of quite a few tricks, including reality warping (to the effect of recreating
timelines), matter manipulation, granting immortality, telepathy, energy projection
strong enough to take on the likes of an entity like Galactus, and give it’s user the ability
to fly, an increase in strength and durability, and the ability to grow in size, all of which
the upper limits of are still unknown.
Compared to some of the other valuable items on our list, it’s a relic that appears significantly
less, having roughly 28 appearances in the comics, primarily in Nova titles, The New
Warriors and the Fantastic Four.
But still, an object that does all of that and makes your immortal?
Not too shabby.
2 The Ultimate Nullifier The Ultimate Nullifier first appeared in Fantastic
Four issue 50 in 1966, when Uatu the Watcher directs the team to it in order to help them
prevent Galactus from consuming the Earth.
Reed Richards threatens to use it as a last ditch effort to stop the devourer of worlds,
which causes Galactus to withdraw; he doesn’t want to die, and that’s something the nullifier
is capable of.
It’s been described as the universe’s most devastating weapon, and has the ability
to completely eliminate any target that its user desires.
If you don’t have the right amount of will power and focus though, there’s a solid
chance it’ll annihilate you too in the process.
The more powerful the mind who has it in their possession, the more potentially damaging
it can be; it could destroy an entire timeline or erase one.
So no wonder Galactus got his undies in a knot over it.
1 The Infinity Gems Buckle up, this is going to be a long number,
friends.
The Infinity Gems have had a few names over the years.
Initially they were the soul gems, then the infinity gems, and thanks to the MCU, the
Infinity Stones.
Regardless of what they’re called, when collected together, the Infinity Gems allow
the user to become omnipotent, all powerful, and the master of the mind, power, reality,
souls, space and time.
The very first gem, simply called a soul gem, appeared in 1872’s Marvel Premiere issue
1.
4 years later, another one appeared in a Captain Marvel story, Mar-Vell that is, which established
the existence of six gems that all had a special ability.
The first time they all appeared together was in a story line that featured Thanos wanting
to use them to extinguish every star in the universe.
Thanos would seek them out again in the 1990 limited series The Thanos Quest, referring
to them as the Infinity Gems for the first time ever, going around the universe collecting
them, which led into the famous 1991 Infinity Gauntlet miniseries, in which he used the
gems to kill half of the universe’s population as a gift to his love, the entity Death.
So what exactly are the gems capable of?
The Soul stone allows one to control, manipulate, steal or alter living and dead souls.
It also acts as a gateway to an idyllic pocket universe known as Soul World.
When in possession with the other stones, it can allow the user to have control over
all life in the universe.
Then there’s the time stone, which allows the user to not only see into time, but to
adjust the flow of it, speed it up, slow it down, age and de-age beings, and create time
loops.
It can allow the user to be omniscience and have control over the flow of the past, present
and future when combined with the other five.
Moving onto the space stone.
It allows the user to exist in any location, move through reality, any object, warp and
re-arrange space, and alter the laws of physics.
Then there’s the mind stone, which allows the user to enhance their mental and psionic
abilities, access the thoughts and dreams of others, and combined with the other gems,
can access all of the minds in existence simultaneously.
This gem is the manifestation of the universal subconscious.
Next up, the reality gem.
It allows the user to alter reality, fulfilling whatever wishes they have even if it contradicts
with scientific laws, and it can alter reality on a universal scale when combined with the
other stones, to the point of even creating alternate realities, too.
And lastly, there’s the power stone.
It allows it’s wielder to access and manipulate all forms of energy, enhance their physical
strength, durability or any other super human ability, and it boosts the effects of the
other five gems exponentially.
When collected together, the infinity gems grant the user omnipotence.
There we have it friends!
If you could have one of these relics, which one would it be?
Give us a shout in those comments below and let us know your thoughts!