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Origins[]

After killing Death, Kree hero Mar-Vell created a Paradise for the dead to inhabit. To police this world, and to ferry souls from the Realm of the Dead to inhabit it, Mar-Vell created the Avenging Host, transmogriphying and ascending several heroes who had served him in his quest to destroy Death. He chose Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, Henry Pym, Black Bolt, Victor von Doom, the Phoenix Force, and Matthew Murdock to be his defenders.[1]

Paradise X[]

Each member of the Host would be charged with visiting certain souls to determine if they were ready for Paradise. Those who were ready were transported to Paradise and allowed to ingest a shard of the Cosmic Cube, granting them the ability to create their own ideal afterlife.[1]

After the creation of Paradise Mar-Vell became increasingly reclusive. Phoenix used her psychic rapport with the still living Cyclops to learn of events in the land of the living, where no one, even those suffering from mortal injuries, could die anymore. Phoenix soon began to doubt Mar-Vell's intentions, and her doubts quickly spread to her comrades.[2]

While Phoenix learned more of what was happening on Earth, Captain America struggled with convincing his parents and Frank Castle to abandon the Realm of the Dead. He eventually began considering recruiting his former enemy the Skull, whose powers would allow him to compell the dead to realize their fate and journey to Paradise. This brought him into conflict with Thanos, who distrusted and opposed Mar-Vell. The two joined forces after Kyle Richmond, sharing a portion of Mar-Vell's omniscience, arrived to cast further doubt on the Kree hero's intentions.[3]

After learning that Paradise was situated in the Negative Zone and was seemingly swallowing populated worlds as it grew, and that the "personal paradises" of the dead had begun to spin out of control, the group eventually decided to turn on Mar-Vell.[3] Captain America instead recruited the Skull in order to free the denizens of Paradise from their Cosmic Cube-induced hallucinations. After freeing all of them, they were suddenly summoned by Mar-Vell.[4]

Mar-Vell forced them all to confront their failures before destroying them. Phoenix was at this point the only member of the Avenging Host who had realized their mistake. She understood that Mar-Vell had intended for all of the chaos erupting in Paradise to happen, and that Mar-Vell was the Paradise. Rather than a bid for personal power, Mar-Vell's Paradise was in fact a shield made to protect the universe from the meddling of the Celestials and the Elders of the Universe.[5] [6]

As the Kree launched an invasion of Paradise and Reed Richards arrived seeking the truth behind Mar-Vell's actions, Mar-Vell revived the Avenging Host. He explained the truth to Reed and passed his omniscience to him, before defusing the conflict with the Kree. With Reed now his replacement, Mar-Vell left in search of the first, core reality from which all others had emerged.[5]

Captain America chose to leave the group to return to the Realm of the Dead, in order to spend his afterlife with his deceased family, and the Host would choose Clint Barton as his replacement, due to the bravery he showed in the confrontation with Mar-Vell.[5]

See Also

Links and References

References

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