Deviant (comics)

Deviant (comics)

The Deviants are a fictional race of superhumans in the Marvel Comics' universe. They are an offshoot of the evolutionary process that created sentient life on Earth instigated by the alien Celestials, and wage war against their counterparts, the Eternals. According to the account of one Deviant in the 2006 mini-series, the Deviants were created as a delicacy to be consumed en masse by Celestials at periodic intervals once they multiplied sufficiently; however, the veracity of this has yet to be proven.

While the Eternals possess godlike power and are generally physically beautiful (by human standards), the Deviants, who sometimes refer to themselves as 'the changing people,' are for the most part hideous, with each member of their race possessing some random physical and/or cosmetic mutation that is by Celestial design never repeated within the sub-species. Extremely mutated or deformed Deviants are referred to as "mutates", and some of the monsters of myth and legend have in fact been identified as Deviant mutates. Some of these mutations can provide superhuman abilities, but their powers are usually not as great as those of the Eternals.

The Deviants are religious, revering the Dreaming Celestial ('he who sleeps in darkness'). They credit him with their creation and claim that he granted them dominion over the earth, an agreement they believe was later broken by the treachery of the other Celestials. They have one or more holy books—the only one named thus far being the Book of Krask.

The Deviants had already developed advanced technology such as genetic engineering when humans were still living in caves. The Deviants were created by Jack Kirby in The Eternals #1 (1976).