This Black Winter was one of the Enders, a race that consumes entire universes.[5] This specific Black Winter had existed in the Sixth Cosmos and was purported to have caused the death of the previous incarnation of at least Earth-616.[3]
History
The Black Winter devoured the sixth iteration of the universe,[1] leaving only a single survivor—Galan of Taa, who it chose as its Herald.[2] Known vaguely to the Asgardians as the Fimbulwinter, its coming was prophesized to herald the beginning of Ragnarok.[6]
Seeking to take Galactus back into its service, the Black Winter encroached into the Prime Marvel Universe and attacked him—taking on the form of Thor Odinson. Galactus managed to escape, albeit severely wounded, and subsequently crash-landed in Asgard; where some of its dark frost infected Yggdrasill, causing the World Tree to slowly rot and die.[3] While Galactus marked Thor Odinson as his newest Herald and began consuming five special planets that would theoretically give him the power to oppose it, the Black Winter attacked an alternate universe and was confronted by its league of heroes. Upon looking in its eyes, the league saw the face of the one who was destined to kill them, and called out to their gods for help before being killed. The Black Winter then extinguished that universe, assuming the form of the cosmic hand that had originally created it.[9]
_(Multiverse)_from_Thor_Vol_6_5_001.jpg){kind=link}
The Black Winter in the form of Thor
Returning to the Prime Marvel Universe,[6] the Black Winter easily subdued Galactus and Thor. Intrigued by Thor's many brushes with death, the Black Winter pitted him against manifestations of his greatest enemies and mockingly informed him of what was supposed to be his true end; noting that someone or something was worming their way through time to derail destiny. Thor used a God-Blast to escape, prompting the Black Winter to again assume the form of a dark version of the Herald of Thunder before assuring him it had no intention of destroying his universe, ominously adding that much darker threats than it were coming. When asked what it actually wanted, the Black Winter mockingly revealed that Galactus had been lying to Thor and was actually its Herald, and that it had come to reclaim him.[2]
Furious at this revelation, Thor drained Galactus of all of his power, leaving him a desiccated husk. When the Black Winter tried to take him, Thor refused and used Galactus' dead body as a bomb to obliterate the Black Winter. A single snowflake survived, offering to show Thor a vision of his end—a world in which Thanos had stolen Mjolnir and imbued it with the Infinity Stones, commanding an army of zombified heroes—before Thor crushed it to dust.[8] However, according to the Watcher, Thor's belief that he had destroyed the Black Winter was false.[10]Attributes
Powers
Black Winter is a multiversal cosmic entity representing the end of all things, existing beyond the cycle of creation and destruction. It was the devourer of the previous reality, leaving only Galactus as its survivor.[11]
- Multiversal Consumption: The Black Winter devours entire universes and timelines, reducing them to nothingness. It consumed the universe that existed before the current Marvel Multiverse, leaving Galactus as the sole survivor and also destroyed The Second Cosmos Multiverse as All-Death.[3][12]
- Manifestation of Death: It manifests differently to each being, appearing as the embodiment of their personal death. To Thor, it appeared as Thanos wielding Mjolnir and the Infinity Stones.[2]
- Abstract Manifestation: The Black Winter exists as an abstract force and manifests according to the perception and essence of those it confronts. It scans the multiversal existence of its target—including every variant and timeline—and projects an illusory reality representing their ultimate death. These false universes can include recreated versions of beings as powerful as the Beyonder or alternate Thors, all reflections of the victim’s doom.[13]
- Reality and Perception Manipulation: The Black Winter can alter reality and create false worlds and illusions indistinguishable from truth, trapping even cosmic entities within them.[13]
- Omniscient Foresight: The Black Winter knows how every universe and being will end, existing beyond Eternity’s awareness of time.[2]
- Death Energy Manipulation: It controls pure entropy energy capable of erasing matter, energy, and cosmic lifeforms from existence.[8]
- Life-Force Absorption: The Black Winter feeds upon the life forces of universes and cosmic entities it consumes, including Galactus himself.[8]
- Conceptual Existence: The Black Winter is not a physical being but the personification of death and finality itself; it cannot truly die because it represents the end.[8]
- Entropy Seeding: Even after its destruction, it left a fragment of its essence within Thor, implying that it can plant parts of its being into others.[8]
- Dimensional Transcendence: Exists beyond all timelines, realms, and even the structure of the Multiverse. It entered the current reality from outside creation.[3]
- Cosmic Fear Inducement: Inspires existential dread in even the most powerful cosmic beings, including Galactus and Thor.[9]
- Matter and Energy Erasure: Can erase stars, planets, and cosmic energies entirely from existence through its entropic aura.[9]
- Resurrection Immunity: As a conceptual force, it cannot be permanently destroyed; any “death” is only a continuation of its purpose.[8]
Notes
- The writer Murewa Ayodele clarified that the Black Winters featured in Storm (Vol. 5) #7–12 were created by Hadad, but Hadad did not create every Black Winter. The Black Winter from the Sixth Cosmos predated Hadad.[14]
- Galactus' origin is tied to the multiversal cycles (the Sixth Cosmos is the previous multiverse),[15] but the Black Winter from the Sixth Cosmos is only stated to have destroyed the previous universe of Earth-616.[11] It is unclear if that Black Winter had also destroyed the rest of the Sixth Cosmos or if there were multiple Black Winters ending each universe of the Sixth Cosmos.
Trivia
- The Black Winter shares many similarities with Hunger, both being formless entities which devour entire realities, and with Omnipotentis, another devourer of universes. There is also the Griever at the End of All Things who also served as destroyer of universes.
- The league of heroes that confronts the Black Winter in Thor (Vol. 6) #2 is a nod to DC Comics' Justice League and mentions the major attributes of its seven major members. In addition, the comic also references the city of Metropolis, and Darkseid as their destroyer. After the slaughter of the heroes, the Black Winter takes the form of the hand that is shown having created the DC Universe in first place, before destroying it.
The Taa-ans dying from a plague
- The Black Winter is described as a "plague" and is the latest of many retcons of Galactus' origin story.[11] It appears to be inspired by the "Creeping Plague" from the very first iteration of Galactus' origin story, as told in Thor #169. In the original origin story, Taa was implied to exist in the current universe, but the galaxy it was in was suffering from a plague where its inhabitants were all dying from an incurable sickness. (The affected worlds were not destroyed; only their people were killed.) The last people of Taa, choosing to die in blazing glory than sickness, decided to fly their ship into a star. The ship flew around the star and the star's radiation killed everyone except Galan, empowering him instead. This heavily outdated account was how Galan became Galactus, before his origin story got significantly reworked into being a survivor of a previous universe.
See Also
- 5 appearance(s) of Black Winter (Sixth Cosmos) (Multiverse)
- 4 minor appearance(s) of Black Winter (Sixth Cosmos) (Multiverse)
- 12 mention(s) of Black Winter (Sixth Cosmos) (Multiverse)
- 28 image(s) of Black Winter (Sixth Cosmos) (Multiverse)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Black Winter (Sixth Cosmos) (Multiverse)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Silver Surfer: Black #4
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Thor (Vol. 6) #5
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Thor (Vol. 6) #1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Thor #169
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Storm (Vol. 5) #7
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Thor (Vol. 6) #4
- ↑ Marvel's Voices Infinity Comic #4
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 Thor (Vol. 6) #6
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Thor (Vol. 6) #2
- ↑ Hulk vs. Thor: Banner of War Alpha #1
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Thor (Vol. 6) #1–6
- ↑ Defenders: Beyond 1 5
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Thor (Vol. 6) #4–5
- ↑ Ayodele, Murewa (24 June 2025) @ayodelemurewa.bsky.social: "A Black Winter was from the 6th cosmos. Some Black Winters are created by Hadad. Once you don't think of them as more than one, you're good. 😊😊😊" Bluesky. Retrieved on 6 October 2025.
- ↑ Defenders (Vol. 6) #1