Phastos (Earth-616)

Phastos
Name	Phastos
Aliases	Hephaestus, Vulcan, Ceasefire, Phillip Stoss
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Eternals Formerly New Breed; creator of the Evolutionaries
Relatives	Spouses: Gretel Stoss
Marital Status	Married
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′3″ (1.91 m)
Weight	410 lbs (185.97 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Bald, Black facial hair
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Eternal
Living Status	Alive; formerly deceased
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Death	Olympia, Greece Lemuria, Pacific Ocean
Cause of Death	Suicide (resurrected by the Exclusion) Killed by Thanos (resurrected by the Exclusion)
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	Olympian Eternal
Occupation	Technologist, inventor, engineer Formerly chief engineer of a steel mill
Base of Operations	Olympia, Greece Formerly Ruhr Valley, West Germany
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Peter Gillis, Sal Buscema
First	Eternals (Vol. 2) #1 (July, 1985)
First	Eternals (Vol. 2) #1 (July, 1985)

History

Early Life

Phastos is one of the 100 Eternals who were created on Earth million years ago by the First Host of the alien Celestials, and has looked after humanity ever since.

Little has been revealed about Phastos' past. He has served as a master technologist for the Eternals of Earth, and has created numerous weapons and inventions for them. It was Phastos who forged the sword of the Eternal Kingo Sunen. He was also the teacher of the Eternal scientist Sygmar.

Evolutionaries

2.7 million years ago the beings that would become the Evolutionaries, a race existing prior to mankind on the evolutionary tree, were hunted by predators until Phastos took pity on them and, using his creative abilities, created armor for them powered by cosmic rays, while restoring injured members to health using nanotechnology and increasing their intelligence and also giving them the ability to enter a dormant state to wait between periods of evolution. Given the task of safeguarding the species farthest along the evolutionary track and protecting them from those who would target them simply for being an aberration, they sought to protect mankind as they evolved, eradicating Australopithecus sediba, and saving the first human children born to them, in order to ensure the days of Homo sapiens.

Across the Millenia

600,000 years ago, after Uranos had been captured alive near the end of the Uranos War, it was Phastos who bound him with null-point chains so that he could be brought before Kronos and Oceanus in Titanos to face judgment. Phastos was presumably among those Eternals who subsequently spent a century trying, without success, to tear from the mind of Uranos the secret of the fail-safe that he had created that could destroy the Machine.

500,000 years ago, when Kronos attempted to master time, he succeeded but in doing so caused a disruption that destroyed Titanos and threatened the planet. The initial explosion killed Phastos and all other Eternals who were then on-planet (except for Uranos), and they all were resurrected and killed several more times before they managed to stabilize the situation, leaving the ruined city superimposed between three seconds from now and two seconds ago.

200,000 years ago, during the Titan Schism, Phastos was one of the minority faction of Eternals who supported A'Lars in his attempt to discover a way by which Eternals could breed amongst themselves. After an accord was reached that ended the war, Phastos was presumably among the majority of Eternals who had their memories of the conflict removed. He may be one of the many Eternals who were almost completely mindwiped and thus no longer even remember which side they were on.

Phastos has long lived with a deep sorrow whose nature and origin has not been revealed. Phastos believes life to be meaningless, and was searching for someone or something to show him some semblance of the meaning of life. Presumably this person or object was the focus of his obsession which he admits to having. Perhaps Phastos' search was the reason why he remained on Earth when most of his fellow Eternals left for outer space. Perhaps, too, his sorrow and his obsession influenced Phastos' refusal to participate in war.

Ancient Greece

Being a weapon-smith, Phastos was mistaken for the Olympian god Hephaestus during the days of Ancient Greece. Phastos and Ikaris observed Hercules defending the city of Lerna from the Hydra. They grew concerned that an Olympian god was among the mortals. They decided to continue to observe the situation and intervene as necessary.

Modern Age

When Apocalypse tried to incite a new war with the Deviants, the Eternals decided to go public as superheroes. In his new identity, Phastos adopted the codename Ceasefire.

After having his memories rewritten by Sprite, Phastos was living as a human man named Phillip Stoss and worked as an automotive engineer in Zuffenhausen Germany, where he continued to search for that special something that would show him life. While his memories still had yet to be reawakened, Phastos turned away his fellow Eternals Thena and Ikaris who hoped to have him join them in opposing a dangerous new plot by Druig. He was forcefully reawakened by Ikaris when the Dreaming Celestial put the world's population to sleep.

High Evolutionary

Phastos and the Eternals intercepted the New Warriors to thwart the High Evolutionary's potential scheme. Their primary goal was to prevent the Celestials from passing judgment on Earth. However, their plan was complicated by the deception of Zuras, the leader of the Eternals, who falsely claimed that the Celestials were imminent. Despite Hummingbird's revelation through telepathy exposing Zuras' lie, the New Warriors suffered defeat and were utilized to power the High Evolutionary's machine. Justice liberated his friends causing damage to the machine in the process. Phastos and the other Eternals learned that Zuras had lied about the Celestials' return. Consequently, the blame for the potential genocide fell squarely on the High Evolutionary. Phastos and the Eternals, confronted with this truth, departed.

Alliance with Thanos

After Eternals committed mass suicide after learning the true purpose of their kind was to cultivate humankind, including Phastos, the Eternals were slowly resurrected by the Exclusion. Phastos was first to be resurrected, allowing him to peer into the resurrection machines and discovered a frightening truth: Eternals were resurrected at the cost of human lives. Phastos wanted to stop to this. So, he enlisted the aid of Thanos by blackmailing him into fully restoring his body and threatening to end him if he turned on him.

Thanos proceeded to kill the many Eternals including the Prime Eternal Zuras while Phastos sabotaged the machines that resurrected the Eternals, the latter action threatening the biosphere of the Earth itself. Phastos' treachery was uncovered when Gilgamesh revealed how the way the resurrection machines could only be done with knowledge provided by Phastos. As the Eternals went to confront Phastos, Phastos warned Thanos that enemies were coming his way just as his attempts to repair the resurrection machines failed.

When Phastos' attempts to repair the machines failed, he tried teleporting an Eternal that could help him but that failed and teleported everyone across Earth. When Ikaris arrived, Phastos informed him how to repair the machine. Ikaris was successful but died in the process, though he later resurrected. As Ikaris was repairing the machine, Druig entered Phastos' mind and erased the method he would have used to stop Thanos to aid the Mad Titan. Phastos then revealed what he learned to his fellow Eternals about the resurrection process. When it appeared that the resurrection process wouldn't be changed, Phastos was among the small group of Eternals who visited the Deviants of Lemuria, asking how to become them.

Thanos later invaded Lemuria to capture Phastos so he could link to the Machine and be resurrected to fully restore his body. Thanos eventually found Phastos and decided to kill him, knowing he would be resurrected by the Exclusion. After Phastos was resurrected, he was tortured by Thanos to force him to connect him to the Machine. However, Phastos revealed that he never figured out how to that and suggested to Thanos that he talk with his parents as only they knew how they made him. Thanos later died when he was tricked by Druig to activate Phastos' failsafe.

Attributes

Powers

Phastos possesses the conventional attributes of the Eternal race as well as certain special abilities developed through rigorous discipline. Like that of all Eternals, his life force is augmented by cosmic energy and he has total mental control over his physical form and bodily processes even when he is asleep or unconscious.

• Superhuman Strength: Phastos possesses superhuman strength whose exact extent is unknown but he is believed to be able to lift at least 25 tons. He has been shown to throw huge boulders and larger cars without much stress.
• Invulnerability: Resistant to conventional forms of injury. Should Phastos be injured somehow, he could regenerate any injured or missing tissue. An Eternal can only die through an injury that disperses a significant portion of his body molecules, or if he is injured after his mental control over his body is somehow broken.
• Cosmic Energy Manipulation: Phastos can project cosmic energy in the form of beams from his eyes or beams and flashes from his hands. This cosmic energy, stored in specialized enclaves of cells in his body, can be used as force, heat, light, and possibly other forms of electromagnetic energy. Phastos can project a maximum concussive force of at least 200 pounds per square inch. He can project heat of a maximum temperature of at least 2,000 Fahrenheit. It takes about one minute for him to attain this maximum temperature. Because Phastos' heat beams can vaporize solid objects, they are often called his disintegration beams, and the maximum range for his energy beams is about 175 feet. The expenditure of cosmic energy in this way continually for several hours will temporarily deplete Phastos' physical strength, but not his resistance to injury, although it will temporarily increase his sensitivity to pain. He will rapidly return to normal after such lengthy energy expenditure is over.
• Flight: Phastos can levitate himself by mentally manipulating gravitons (subatomic particles carrying the force of gravitational attraction between atoms) around himself. He can also levitate other persons and objects, even while simultaneously levitating himself. Phastos is able to fly via self-levitation at approximately 600 miles per hour.
• Psionics: Phastos has low level psychic abilities.
  • Illusions: He can mentally create illusions so as to disguise himself.
  • Matter Manipulation: Phastos can also psionically manipulate atoms and molecules so as to transform an object's shape.
• Teleportation: Phastos can teleport himself psionically, but prefers not to do so, since, like other Eternals, he finds the self-teleportation process physically unpleasant.
• Immortality: He is unable to die by age and is resistant to diseases and toxins to an unknown degree.

Abilities

• Genius Intellect: Phastos possesses a genius-level intellect in technology, invention, and engineering, excelling in fields ranging from robotics to quantum mechanics. Renowned for his innovative prowess, he consistently pushes the boundaries of what's achievable, crafting ground breaking solutions to intricate problems with precision and creativity. With a versatile skill set, he adeptly navigates diverse challenges, seamlessly adapting to emerging technologies and leading collaborative efforts with multidisciplinary teams. His meticulous approach ensures the accuracy and efficacy of his creations, while his commitment to continuous learning keeps him at the forefront of technological advancements. Equally skilled in innovation management and strategic thinking, he guides projects from conception to fruition, aligning them with organizational goals and driving sustained progress in an ever-evolving technological landscape.

Weaknesses

Cosmic Manipulation Overuse: After using his manipulation powers for too long he becomes more susceptible to pain but not injury.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

• Cosmic Hammer: Phastos carries a weapon shaped like a hammer which fires bolts of cosmic energy. Its other purposes, if any, are unknown. Phastos also possesses many other advanced weapons of his own creation.

Transportation

Teleportation and Levitation / Flight through psionics.

See Also

• 49 appearance(s) of Phastos (Earth-616)
• 6 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Phastos (Earth-616)
• 4 mention(s) of Phastos (Earth-616)
• 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Phastos (Earth-616)
• 58 image(s) of Phastos (Earth-616)
• 3 quotation(s) by or about Phastos (Earth-616)
• 1 victim(s) killed by Phastos (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Phastos on Wikipedia.org