History
The Mourners are a non-for-profit religious order dedicated to commemorating the death, destruction or disappearance of any great things in universe, including planets or anything physically bigger than these,[1] civilizations that suffered from genocide or annihilation in wars,[3] and people of cosmic note, including but not restricted to cosmic beings.[1] These fanatic of death rituals[5][6] feel that they their duty is to recognize beings who lost their lives in the universe,[4] honoring them in a solemn way.[2] They believe that death at that level is inevitable[4] and that they themselves lack the capacity to prevent it,[2] although witnessing the tragedy often affects them emotionally.[4] To find the objects of their funerals, the Mourners resort to some of their members, called Listeners, who can perceive the psychic scream of the dying and take the group there. The Mourners rarely notify any third party of impending disasters that the Listeners are perceiving, and when a champion was informed once (about the extinction of the Scadamites), she proved unable to stop the catastrophe.[2] The Mourners move through the space in their Gothic cathedral-like planetoid-sized[3] warp drive-equipped[2] starship Mourning Star,[3] that lacks any weaponry[1] and is sometimes used to officiate the funerals.[3]
The many members of the Mourners are beings from different alien species, including A-Chiltarians, Alpha Centaurians, Betans,[1] Courga,[3] Deonists, Glx,[1] Entemen,[1][3] Guna, Interdites,[3] Kamado,[3] Kawa, Kodabaks, Korbinites,[1] Kymellians,[3] Lem,[2] Megans,[1][3] M'Ndavians, Reptoids, Xartans and several non-identified aliens, including among these Fath, who is one of their leaders.[1] They do not seem to have any obvious superhuman feature, except for those used in the rites (Listeners,[2] and empaths, see next)[3] and can be perceived by beings with superpowers;[1] they do not tend to hide their presence,[3] thou they do escape into warp espace to avoid direct harm.[7]
Once they reach an object of mourning, the Mourners arrange the funeral, trying to adapt to the wishes of the deceased if known; if not known, the Mourners do their best to discover them, finding instructions, last will, next of kin, intended guests and intended location of the tomb, if that can be found. The Mourners will respectfully approach people related to the deceased and talk to them about what would be considered the best idea for the funeral, while also writing relevant information in their permanent records. They may start arrangements in a general way, like building structures,[1] and have proved able to contact cosmic beings to ensure their attendance to a funeral. They rarely restrict entrance to anyone interested, except for people wanting to disrespect the deceased,[1] and commonly they extend invitation to people they respect.[3]
The services are religious in nature (thou the specific faith is not clear[3] and may be adapted to the wishes and faith of the deceased),[1] commonly officiated by Fath either totally[1] or in part.[3] The Mourners attend in their traditional white garb; other guests are free to wear their typical clothing.[1] In some cases, one of the Mourners' empaths communes with, and channels, the immortal zama (equivalent to souls) of the recently dead, that must have reached the weavern (realm of the afterdeath) after a given time. The Mourners do know the timeframe when the empaths can perform this ritual and, if the funeral takes place within that span, the empath is expected to perform in front of other Mourners and attendees.[3]
The Mourners have been criticised (by Her, later Kismet) for being macabre in their activities and for never trying to stop any of the deaths they know of - especially if they know of a death in advance thanks to the Listeners; Her believed that the Mourners were thus not honoring the dead, but celebrating death itself. The Mourners defended themselves from the accusation by explaining that they lacked the power to prevent the casualties.[2]
The omnipotent cosmic being Eon[1] was killed by his own Protector of the Universe, Quasar, to prevent a greater calamity.[8] The Mourners knew of this and entered Eon's corpse, the Eonverse, building a cathedral-like structure there to start preparations for their funeral. Quasar, detecting their presence, approached them, and Mourner leader Fath introduced himself and explained their goal. Quasar agreed to let them officiate a ceremony for Eon, and was then approached by an unnamed Mourner who wanted details on Eon for the ceremony. Quasar was invited[1] to the funeral itself,[1][9] to which he attended three days later, along with the Living Tribunal, Lord Chaos and Master Order, the In-Betweener and the Time-Keepers, along with many Mourners and unidentified individuals.[1] This funeral was interrupted by Thanos,[1][9] an enemy of Eon who wanted to disrespect the latter and even attack the attendees. One of the Mourners, Sardan, found the incursion sacrilegious and wanted to kick Thanos out; but Quasar took care of that, confronting Thanos and protecting the Mourners while they evacuated the premises.[1]
During the Kree-Shi'ar War, trillions of individuals in the Kree Empire lost their lives[3] due to the explosion of the Nega-Bomb The being appropriately known as the Soul-Eater roamed the Large Magellanic Cloud at that point, looking for freshly-dead souls to feed upon, and was close enough to absorb all these souls at that point,[10][5] [6] which prevented the souls from reaching their intended resting place. Unaware of the Soul-Eater, the Mourners flew to Pama, so as to stage a funeral for the many Kree[note 1] victims of the war. There they found Quasar with his superhuman allies, Makkari of the Eternals and Her; Eon's daughter Epoch, in contact with Quasar, found the Mourners' ship.[3]
The Mourners received Quasar and his friends, and invited them to the funeral for the Kree. The funeral started with empath Wayopex the Interdite channeling the souls; but then Wayopex scream that the souls they were honoring were not death, leading to controversy and scandal in the audience.[3] The Mourners asked Quasar to investigate what happened,[3][10][5][6] and he and his friends found the Soul-Eater. Quasar contacted the souls of the victims, and convinced them to resist the Soul-Eater,[10][5] [6] as the latter was using them for evil intent;[10] this caused a reaction that destroyed the Soul-Eater's form,[10][5] [6] apparently also releasing the souls so they'd reach their final destination.[10] While Quasar went elsewhere, Her and Makkari returned to the Mourning Star to tell the Mourners how the dead Kree were helped.[2]
Although Her was unhappy in the eerie transport, Makkari convinced her to stay for a bit more, as it gave them a headquarters, and because they wanted to know how the Mourners knew where to go. When the Listener Krugarr told Fath of a disaster in the Advinter System of the Milky Way, Her questioned him and discovered that the Mourners knew, sometimes in advance, of massacres that, she thought, could be stopped,[2] and left the ship to try and stop the attacking Black Fleet;[2][11][12] Makkari did not join her because his powers did not allow him to fight in outer space, and instead remained onboard,[4] where a Mourner of unclear sex[7] told him of a species of super-fast beings native to the planet Grosgumbeek.[7][13][14] Her despised the Mourners for standing still in the face of a problem, and considered that her fate, or "kismet", took her to situations of conflict where her actions could make a difference, thus deciding to adopt the name of Kismet.[4][11][12] She failed to stop the Fleet or save the Scadamites, thou,[7][11][12] and the Mourning Star eventually warped to far from the system to avoid being damaged by a shock wave caused by another contender.[15] The Mourners returned later, believing that Her had destroyed the Fleet, and let her onboard.[7] Makkari then announced that he had decided to travel to Grosgumbeek to research this unheard-of race,[7][13][14] while Her, now Kismet, decided to leave the ship and fly solo.[15] The Mourners took Makkari to Grosgumbeek, and left.[13]Paraphernalia
Weapons
Transportation
Notes
- ↑ The Kree Empire includes many worlds inhabited by beings of different species, all of them members of the Kree Empire, meaning that they are collectively referred as "Kree", politically, even if many are not biologically Kree.
Trivia
- Fath talk about all the shulan of the Mourners' existence.[3] It was never specified what "shulan" mean.
- The Mourners' ceremonies are religious. Quasar is not religious himself, but attended the ceremonies with respect.[3]
- When Her left the Mourners to battle the Black Fleet, she told them that she didn't want to be mourned by them.[2]
See Also
- 5 appearance(s) of Mourners (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) of Mourners (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Mourners (Earth-616)
- 2 image(s) of Mourners (Earth-616)
- 4 member(s) of Mourners (Earth-616)
- 1 item(s) used/owned by Mourners (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 Quasar #26
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Quasar #39
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 3.28 3.29 3.30 3.31 Quasar #35
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Quasar #40
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z: Update #2 ; Soul-Eater's profile
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #10 ; Soul-Eater's profile
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Quasar #43
- ↑ Quasar #23
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #14 ; Eon's profile
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Quasar #36
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #6 ; Kismet's profile
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #6 ; Kismet's profile
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Quasar #47
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #2 ; Grosgumbeekians' profile
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Quasar #45