POWERS
Ikaris possesses the conventional abilities of the Eternals of Earth. His body is augmented by cosmic energy, and he has total mental control over his entire molecular structure. He is virtually immune to injury, and can regenerate his entire body if need be. He is also immune to disease, aging and extreme temperatures. Only total molecular dispersal can kill an Eternal.
Ikaris can manipulate gravitons to enable himself and others to levitate at speeds up to 850 miles per hour. Ikaris is said to be the fastest flier of all the Eternals. He also possesses telepathy, is able to cast low-level illusions, and can rearrange the molecules of other substances. Ikaris usually employs illusions to alter his appearance. In combat, he wields cosmic energy to enhance his physical strength (lifting over 40 tons) and durability, and can release energy from his hands and eyes in the form of heat, light or concussive force. At maximum intensity, he can vaporize solid matter. He also possesses the ability to teleport, but seldom utilizes this power because of the discomfort it causes him. He has honed his senses so that he can detect the Celestials from light-years away.
As the Prime Eternal Ikaris’ power was greater than that of other Eternals; he could also manfiest the Blue Flame, a unique energy required to reshape the physical forms of Eternals, humans and/or Deviants into a Uni-Mind, a psychic entity with the combined power of all those participating in its creation.
Ikaris is also an experienced hand-to-hand combatant, including human wrestling styles. He can construct various mechanical devices, including battleships.
ORIGIN
Ikaris is a member of the Eternals, a near-immortal evolutionary offshoot of humanity created by the Celestials. He was born over twenty thousand years ago under another name which has not been revealed. Ikaris’ family belonged to a community of Eternals who dwelt in the city of Polaria, calling themselves Polar Eternals, while most of the other Eternals lived in the city of Olympia. When the continents of Atlantis and Lemuria were sunk circa 18,500 B.C. by the Second Host of the Celestials in what was known as the Great Cataclysm, Ikaris helped guide an ark of refugees led by fellow Eternal Utnapishtim to safety. The humans aboard the vessel mistook Ikaris for a bird, and the tale became a part of common human folklore, like many of the Eternals’ encounters with humanity. During the Second Host’s time on Earth, they disciplined one of their number by releasing its cosmic energies from its armor. The inanimate Celestial was buried deep beneath the Earth, and became known as “the Dreaming Celestial.” The weapon used to disperse the Celestial and the being’s cosmic essence were entombed within the Pyramid of the Four Winds, an Arctic facility constructed by Ikaris’ father Virako and uncle Valkin. Valkin designed a security feature that would alert Ikaris if anyone should breach the facility, and Ikaris was one of the only Eternals to know what the Pyramid contained.
In the centuries that followed, Ikaris became a constant opponent of the Deviants, the misshapen race who were also creations of the Celestials. Although Ikaris was quick to oppose Deviants himself, other Eternals judged him as brash and headstrong. His closest friends among his people were the speedster Makkari, the hedonistic Sersi, and Thena, daughter of their leader Zuras. In the times of ancient Greece, Ikaris fell in love with a human woman he met in Crete while battling Deviants, and she gave birth to a son named Ikaris. The younger Ikaris, not sharing his father’s entire Eternal heritage, enjoyed being carried by the elder Ikaris when he flew. The elder Ikaris had his comrades Phastos and Makkari construct a flight harness that would enable the younger Ikaris to fly on his own; however, before he could properly instruct his son in the use of the device, the elder Ikaris was drawn into more battles with the Deviants, and was away from his son for years. The younger Ikaris resolved to find his father using the flight harness, but he soared too high into the atmosphere and fainted from lack of oxygen. The sun’s rays burned out the harness’ controls, and he fell from the sky into the ocean. The elder Ikaris buried his son, and took the name “Ikaris” as his own from then on so that some memory of his son would endure for centuries.
As the Eternals prepared for the coming of the Fourth Host, the gathering of Celestials who would determine the fate of the Earth, Zuras assigned Ikaris to hone his senses so that he could anticipate the Host’s arrival. In the time leading up to the Fourth Host, Ikaris befriended Black Bolt, ruler of the Inhumans, another sub-species of humanity, and the Eternals helped the Inhumans relocate their city Attilan from the Atlantic Ocean to the Himalayan mountains. Ikaris also befriended the time- displaced hero Yankee Clipper, who had once been the leader of the First Line. At some point in his adventures, Ikaris became an enemy of the long-lived mutant Apocalypse.
At the time of the Fourth Host’s arrival, Ikaris had adopted the human guise of “Ike Harris” and posed as a guide to archaeologist Dr. Daniel Damian and his daughter Margo. Ikaris led the Damians to the City of the Space Gods, an outpost in the Andes mountains where the Third Host had been based. The Deviants attempted to prevent the Fourth Host’s arrival, but Ikaris awakened his friend Ajak, who had been in suspended animation since the Third Host’s departure. Ajak opened communications with the Fourth Host, and their ship came into Earth’s orbit.
While Dr. Damian remained with Ajak in the Andes, Ikaris introduced Margo to the world of the Eternals, and they became lovers. Ikaris joined the Eternals in revealing their existence to the public of Earth in order to quell humanity’s fearfulness of the Celestials. After Zuras formed a Uni-Mind to determine how to proceed with the Fourth Host, it was revealed that all races would have to act as one. To this end
Ikaris aided humanity against a robotic Hulk which had been animated by the Uni-Mind’s energies, and battled the Deviant Dromedan in the streets of New York. When Ikaris’ wicked cousin Druig attempted to obtain the Celestials’ weapon from the Pyramid of the Four Winds, he captured Ikaris and tortured him to learn of its location. Ikaris pursued Druig, and ultimately destroyed him to prevent him from wielding the weapon. While investigating a Deviant outpost beneath New York City, the Eternals became allies with the Asgardian god Thor, and they brought him back to Olympia. Thor fought with them against an alliance his father Odin had made with the Gods of Olympus to oppose the Eternals. The Eternals and Olympians’ conflict came to a draw, and the Eternals joined forces with the Asgardians to confront the Fourth Host. All of the Eternals merged into a Uni-Mind, but the Celestials easily defeated it, killing Zuras. In the end, the Celestials judged in Earth’s favor and departed in peace, erasing humanity’s memories of them, the Deviants, and Eternals.
Soon after, many of the Eternals chose to leave Earth and explore space, causing the numbers on Earth to dwindle. Zuras’ daughter Thena became Prime Eternal, but she and Ikaris clashed on matters of authority as Ikaris became aware of a Deviant plot to awaken the Dreaming Celestial. When Thena’s love for the Deviant Warlord Kro compromised her leadership, Ikaris won the title of Prime Eternal from her and, aided by the Avengers, prevented the Dreaming Celestial from returning. Sadly, Margo Damian was killed during the conflict by the Deviants, and Ikaris buried her on an island where he had laid to rest dozens of his lovers from over the centuries.
Margo’s death drove her father insane, and he utilized Celestial technology to try to destroy the Eternals and Deviants, but he was finally stopped and killed by his one-time friend Ajak. Later, Ikaris was among the heroes of Earth who aided Quasar in his pursuit of the Starblasters, extraterrestrial mercenaries who were seeking the all-powerful Star Brand (an energy source from Earth). During the adventure, Ikaris was captured by the Starblasters and split in two by their scientist Insidio, but Black Bolt helped hold Ikaris’ body together, and he survived the experience.
When Apocalypse increased the mutations of the Deviants to make them run amok, Ikaris led a party of Eternals to halt the rampages, and reintroduced his people to humanity. To avoid upsetting humans, Ikaris and the other Eternals posed as super-heroes called “the New Breed,” and Ikaris referred to himself as “Sovereign.”
Recently, the mischievous Eternal Sprite used the Dreaming Celestial’s power to generate an illusion that caused all of Earth’s Eternals to believe themselves to be ordinary humans. Initially a disheveled homeless person as “Ike Harris,” Ikaris eventually regained his faculties and began to gather other Eternals to face the Dreaming Celestial, which had begun a new judgment over the Earth. Ikaris and the other Eternals set out to reawaken their fellow Eternals to prepare for an eventual confrontation with the Horde, enemies of the Celestials.
