How Will Gods In Marvel Influence Future MCU Phases?

I get a little giddy thinking about this — MCU gods are such a weird mash-up of myth, magic, and cosmic weirdness. If I had to rank who’s visibly the strongest on-screen so far, I’d put the Celestials at the top. 'Eternals' makes it clear that Arishem and the Celestials operate on a level above normal gods: planet-sized influence, life-and-death decisions for entire species, and tech/mystic power that can birth or cull worlds. Their scale just isn’t comparable to a battlefield brawl. Below them I’d slot Dormammu from 'Doctor Strange' as an entity-level threat. He’s less about flashy god-poses and more about being the fundamental ruler of an entire dimension. The stakes when Strange bargains with him feel cosmic in a way straight-up Asgardian swordfights don’t. Then there’s the mythological tier — Odin, Hela, Zeus, Thor. Odin and Hela have clear Olympian/Asgardian might (Odin’s banishings, Hela’s near-dominance in 'Thor: Ragnarok'), and Zeus in 'Thor: Love and Thunder' comes off as shockingly formidable for a brief scene. Thor is powerful, but MCU Thor sometimes acts like a late-game boss with nerfed early-game showings. My takeaway: Celestials and Dormammu sit highest, then the Asgardian/Olympian pantheon, and Thor/Odin/Hela/Zeus fill out the top of the mortal-god tier. Makes me want to rewatch those scenes with fresh eyes.

If you like mash-ups of myth and superhero chaos, Marvel’s got an entire pantheon that reads like a collector’s checklist of world religions, folklore, and original cosmic horror. I’ve spent weekends flipping through dusty back issues of early 'Thor' runs and later cosmic sagas, and what struck me is how Marvel mixes traditional deities with beings that are functionally gods. At the core: Asgardians like Odin, Thor, Loki, Frigga and Hela are Marvel’s take on Norse gods (Odin being the All-Father). The Olympians—Zeus, Hera, Athena, Ares and Hercules—are Marvel’s Greek gods, with Hercules often acting like a bridge to Earth-based hero teams. Egyptian deities such as Osiris, Isis, Set and Bast show up too. Then there are the cosmic entities treated as divine: The One Above All (the supreme being), the Living Tribunal (cosmic judge), Eternity, Infinity, Death, and Oblivion. Don’t forget the darker elder-god types like Chthon and Cyttorak, and modern additions such as Knull, the symbiote creator. Marvel also sprinkles in Hindu, Celtic and Japanese gods in various storylines. What I love is how writers sometimes reveal these ‘gods’ are actually aliens, extradimensional beings, Celestial experiments, or embodiments of cosmic forces. It keeps things fresh—one issue you’re in a Viking saga, the next you’re in a metaphysical courtroom. It makes Marvel’s mythology endlessly re-readable and fun to debate with friends.

If you like mythic heroes getting the spotlight, Marvel has definitely given several gods their own comics over the years — some as long-running ongoing books, others as short limited series or one-shots. My go-to quick list: 'Thor' is the big one (countless runs like 'Thor', 'The Mighty Thor', 'Thor: God of Thunder' — basically a masterclass in solo god comics). 'Loki' has also starred in his own books, including the well-known 'Loki: Agent of Asgard' and a few limited series that lean into his trickster angle. Beyond those two, Marvel has put other deities center-stage: 'The Incredible Hercules' (Hercules as lead), a standalone 'Ares' limited run, and spinoffs for characters who cross into godhood or Asgardian myth — 'Angela' has had solo outings after being folded into Asgardian lore. Lots of other gods — Hela, Sif, Valkyrie, Odin and the like — show up as leads in minis, one-shots or major story arcs rather than decade-long ongoing series, so whether they count depends on how strict you are about "solo series." If you want a more exhaustive, issue-by-issue breakdown I can dig through Marvel Database and pull exact series names and years for any of these — I love tracking down the weird one-shots and minis that slip under the radar.

Growing up with a stack of old comics and a battered copy of the 'Poetic Edda' on my shelf taught me to spot what Marvel borrows and what it invents. In the comics and the MCU, Asgardians are often treated like superpowered aliens or technologically advanced beings with a quasi-scientific explanation for their feats — think energy fields, advanced biology, and things like the Odinforce — whereas the Norse myths present the gods as part of a sacred, symbolic cosmos tied to fate, poetry, and ritual. Marvel condenses characters into clear-cut hero/villain arcs; myths are messier, with gods who are capricious, petty, deeply human, and often morally ambiguous. Storywise, Ragnarok in the myths is an inevitable, world-ending cycle full of prophecy and renewal. Marvel uses Ragnarok as a dramatic event you can reboot or spin into a crossover — it’s plot fuel. Also, Marvel gives longevity, crossovers, and modern psychology to figures like Loki or Thor, turning tricksters and storm gods into relatable protagonists with arcs that span decades of continuity. If you like both, try reading the comics like 'Journey into Mystery' alongside the old myths — they play off each other in delightful ways.

I get a kick out of how artifacts in Marvel act like power amplifiers and narrative hand grenades for gods. Sometimes they simply boost what the deity already has — a trident or a spear will sharpen control over a domain — and other times they change the whole playing field, granting reality-bending or cosmic-scale abilities that even gods struggle to comprehend. Take 'Mjolnir' for example: it’s not just a hammer, it enforces worthiness, lets Thor fly, summon storms, and project massive energy. Norn Stones and things like Odin's Gungnir are more subtle: they funnel the Odinforce or enhance rune-magic so an Asgardian can punch way above their usual weight class. Then you've got the truly game-breaking stuff: 'Infinity Gauntlet' or a 'Cosmic Cube' hands you reality warping. A god with an Infinity Stone set can rewrite existence, which makes them almost unstoppable — at least until someone clever steals the artifact or the cosmos intervenes. I also love the moral dimension: artifacts can corrupt or teach. When gods rely on an object, storylines explore identity — are they powerful because of their bloodline, or because they clutch a stone? That tension is what keeps those epic fights interesting to me.

I still get a little giddy talking about how Marvel gods show up across TV — they pop up in both live-action and animated forms, and the tone changes wildly depending on the series. On the live-action front, the biggest recent examples are 'Loki' and 'Moon Knight'. 'Loki' (Disney+) centers on a god himself, and even when it becomes a time-travel/authority thriller the series keeps leaning on the idea that some characters are literal deities with mythic stakes. 'Moon Knight' flips the script: it treats Egyptian gods like Khonshu as psychologically and mystically real forces that shape a single character’s entire arc, which felt much darker and more folktale than a straight superhero show. If you drift into animation, gods are everywhere: 'Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes' and 'Avengers Assemble' both lean heavily on Asgardian mythology — Thor, Odin, Loki, Hela and big mythic battles show up regularly. 'Ultimate Spider-Man' and 'The Super Hero Squad Show' also feature mythic cameos and lighthearted takes on gods. And then there's 'What If...?' which plays with multiversal spins on Thor/Loki and other mythic figures, giving you alternate god-stories that are fun and surprising.

Man, this is one of those deliciously messy Marvel questions I love to dig into over a cup of coffee. If you go by the cleanest single origin story, the biggest concrete creator credit goes to the Celestials — they engineered the Eternals (and the Deviants) in Jack Kirby’s 'The Eternals', and because Eternals are so powerful and long-lived, many human cultures mistook them for gods. That’s a tidy line: Celestials → Eternals → worshipped-as-gods by mortals. But Marvel isn’t tidy for long. Different pantheons have different origins. The Asgardians are presented as a distinct, hyper-advanced race native to Asgard (and later writers lean into them being extra-dimensional beings tied to World-Tree magic), the Olympians trace back to Titans and primordial forces (Marvel’s take on Kronos, Uranos, Gaea, etc.), and Egyptian gods like Set or Osiris can be a mix of powerful extradimensional entities, spirits, or embodiments of concept. Above it all sits mystical concepts and cosmic entities — things like the One-Above-All, Eternity, and primordial forces — so sometimes the source is metaphysical rather than biological. In short: sometimes the Celestials made the beings humans called gods, other times the gods are themselves primordial or extracosmic. It depends on which comic run you’re reading.

Comic history nerd mode: I love tracing the comic-book genealogy of gods, and the clearest landmark is the Silver Age debut of Marvel's Norse pantheon. The first major, enduring Marvel god to show up was Thor in 'Journey into Mystery' #83 (1962) — Stan Lee and Jack Kirby replanted the Norse myths into a super-hero universe and things exploded from there. That said, Marvel's roots in myth go a little deeper. During the Golden Age (the Timely era) writers sometimes used mythic themes and one-shot retellings of legends, but it wasn't until the 1960s that mythological beings became regular, shared-universe characters. Throughout the mid-to-late 1960s and into the 1970s Marvel folded in Olympians, Egyptian deities, and cosmic reinterpretations — and later creators even retconned some gods as alien or extra-dimensional beings, which gives the Marvel take its trademark sci-fi spin. If you want to read the origin of Marvel's gods, start with 'Journey into Mystery' and then look forward to the Kirby era of 'The Eternals' for cosmic context.