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Zuras
Real
Name: Zuras Occupation: Leader of the Eternals of Earth Identity:
Zuras' identity as an Eternal is publicly known to the people of Earth but is
generally disbelieved. Legal Status: First citizen of Olympia Other
Aliases: Father Zuras. Zuras has often been mistaken for the Olympian god
Zeus. Place of Birth: Titanos, the first city of the Eternals, location
unknown Place of Death: A valley in Peru Marital Status: Married Known
Relatives: Chronos (father, deceased), Mentor (alias Alars, brother), Thena
(daughter), Eros (alias Starfox, nephew), Thanos (nephew, deceased), and Nebula
(great grandniece). Group Affiliation: Olympian Eternals Base
of Operations: Olympia, Greece First Appearance: ETERNALS #5 Final
Appearance: (physical death) THOR #300, (death revealed) THOR #301, (spirit
leaves body) IRON MAN ANNUAL #6
History: Zuras and Alars were the eldest
sons of Chronos, the leader of the first generation of the race now known as the
Eternals. Chronos was working in his laboratory in Titanos on experiments to discover
the secret of immortality when he grasped a vessel containing an unknown "cosmic
force" he had isolated. The vessel ruptured, causing an explosion which demolished
Titanos. The explosion scattered Chronos' atoms throughout the universe, but Chronos'
astral form, now possessing godlike intelligence and perceptions, remained on
this plane of reality. The "cosmic force" released by the explosion
also altered the other members of Chronos' race, all of whom survived. Now both
they and their descendants would have virtually indefinite life spans compared
to those of ordinary humans, and could be killed only by means that would disperse
a large proportion of their atoms. Thus the inhabitants of Titanos truly became
what they are known as today, Eternals.
Zuras and Alars together initiated
the first creation of the Uni-Mind, a collective melding of Eternals' bodies,
shortly thereafter. While in the form of the Uni-Mind, the Eternals determined
that Zuras should be Chronos' successor as the leader of their race. To avoid
disunity among the Eternals, Alars who had different ideas than Zuras about what
the Eternals' goals should be, left for outer space. Eventually Alars settled
on Saturn's moon, Titan, where he fathered the race of Titanian Eternals and became
known as their leader, Mentor.
Zuras directed the construction of the new
principal city of the Eternals, Olympia, in a mountainous region in Greece. Other
Eternals settled elsewhere, but Zuras remained the leader of all of Earth's Eternals.
At some point Zuras married a female Eternal named Cybele and they had a daughter,
Azura, now known as Thena. It is not known whether they had other children as
well
When the civilization of ancient Greece began to rise, the Olympian
god Zeus decided to make the presence of the Olympian gods known to the Greeks
so that they would worship him and the other gods. The principal nexus between
the dimension of Olympus and Greece lay atop Greece's Mount Olympus, near Olympia,
the capital city of the Eternals. Zeus and his daughter Athena held a meeting
with Zuras and Azura, who had become her father's principal advisor. Noticing
the marked physical resemblance between Zeus and Zuras and between Azura and herself,
Athena suggested that the Olympian gods and the Eternals form an alliance in which
the Eternals would act as the gods' representatives on Earth. Zeus, Zuras, and
Azura agreed. Azura took the name of Thena as a token of this agreement. Over
the many years, many human beings came to think of several Eternals not as representatives
of the Olympian gods but as the gods themselves. This confusion led to a growing
resentment by the gods towards the Eternals, which recently erupted into a war,
during which there was a battle between Zuras and Zeus. However, the war ended
the very same day that it began, and the Olympian gods and Eternals are now at
peace.
With the arrival of the Fourth Host of the Celestials, Zuras knew
that if the Fourth Host judged that humanity did not live up to the standards
it had set for them, it would destroy the Earth. Deciding to prevent such a fate,
Zuras and the Eternals decided to join the Asgardian god Odin in his attempt to
drive the Celestials from Earth. So Zuras and the other Eternals of Earth merged
once again into the Uni-Mind, and advanced into the South American base of the
Fourth Host, where they were joined by the Destroyer. The Celestials Gammenon
and Jemiah together fired powerful bolts of energy into the Uni-Mind, causing
it to turn back into the various individual Eternals, who fell to Earth, temporarily
unconscious. However, Zuras, whose consciousness lay at the center of the Uni-Mind,
was immediately killed by the force bolt. His corpse fell to the ground with the
other Eternals. The Celestials judged in Earth's favor and left Earth.
Thena
assumed leadership of Earth's Eternals upon the demise of Zuras, and the Eternals
brought his body back to Olympia where it lay in state. However, although Zuras
had physically died, his consciousness still remained within his physical form.
Shortly after the Eternals returned to Olympia, they were captured by the Deviants,
who used devices called "brain mines" to place them all in catatonic-like
states. James Rhodes, who was then operating as Iron Man, placed Thena's body
near Zuras' in an effort to free her from this state. Thena and Zuras thereby
achieved mental contact, and Thena revived. Shortly thereafter, the Deviants used
a machine to disassociate the atoms of Zuras' body, so that Zuras was now truly
dead at last. Rhodes and the Eternals defeated and captured the Deviants shortly
afterwards.
Apparently, however, Zuras can still manifest himself on the
Earthly plane. His spirit seemingly appeared when the Eternal Ikaris battled Thena,
who was then unknowingly under the influence of a Deviant "brain mine,"
for the right to be the Prime Eternal of Earth.
Height: 6 ft. 2
in. Weight: 300 lbs. Eyes: Blue Hair: Red
Strength
Level: Zuras's physical strength was greater than that of any other known
Eternal except for the Forgotten One and Ikaris. Zuras could lift (press) 30 tons
without also employing his psionic power to levitate the object he was lifting.
Known
Superhuman Powers: Zuras possessed the conventional attributes of his race
as well as many special abilities developed through millennia of rigorous discipline.
Like
that of all Eternals, Zuras's life force was augmented by cosmic energy, and,
like all Eternals, he had total mental control of his physical form-and bodily
processes even when he was asleep or unconscious. As a result, he was virtually
immortal, immune to disease and aging (Zuras stopped noticeably aging when he
reached adulthood), and invulnerable to conventional forms of injury. If Zuras
was injured somehow (apart from the injury that finally killed him), he could
regenerate any damaged or missing tissue. As an Eternal Zuras would only die through
an injury that dispersed a significant portion of his body molecules, or if he
was fatally injured after his mental control over his body was somehow broken.
Cosmic energy bolstered Zuras's metabolism so that he did not tire from any physical
exertion. He could resist temperature extremes through mental concentration.
Zuras
was more powerful and accomplished in the Eternal discipline of projecting cosmic
energy from his body than any other Eternal during his lifetime. He could 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,
could be used as concussive force as well as electricity, heat, light, and possibly
other forms of electromagnetic energy. The belts of electrical energy that Zuras
fired resembled lightning. Zuras could project a maximum concussive force of at
least 350 pounds per square inch. He could project heat of a maximum temperature
of at least 4000 Fahrenheit. It took about one minute for him to achieve this
maximum temperature. Because Zuras's heat beams could vaporize solid objects,
they were often called disintegrator beams. The maximum effective range for his
energy beams was at least 300 feet. Zuras could also project cosmic energy around
his body so as to form a protective force shield. The expenditure of cosmic energy
in the ways listed above continually for several hours would temporarily deplete
Zuras's physical strength, but not his resistance to injury, although it would
temporarily increase his sensitivity to pain. He would rapidly return to normal
after such lengthy energy expenditure was over.
Like all Eternals Zuras
could levitate himself by mentally manipulating gravitons (subatomic particles
carrying the force of gravitational attraction between atoms) around himself.
He could also levitate other persons and objects while simultaneously levitating
himself. Zuras could fly via self-levitation at approximately 850 miles per hour
(1.1 times the speed of sound), a rate of speed most other Eternals cannot match.
Zuras
could psionically manipulate atoms and molecules so as to transform an object's
shape. He was a fourth-level adept on a five level scale (the fifth being the
highest) at this discipline.
Zuras had low-level psychic abilities which allowed him
to engage in simple short-range telepathic communication
with other persons and to scan the superficial thoughts
of any human or Eternal mind less adept than his own. He
could mentally create illusions as well.
Zuras could teleport himself or other individuals' psionically,
but, like other Eternals, found the Eternal method of teleportation
physically unpleasant. The limit of his teleportational
range is unknown.
During his lifetime Zuras was the only Eternal known to
be capable of initiating the creation of the Uni-Mind, the
collective life form resulting from the physical and mental
merging of a significant number of Eternals, by himself.
He would do so by causing cosmic energy that took visible
form as blue flame to erupt from his head. The "flame"
would then envelop his entire body as the body turned to
pure psionic energy. The other Eternals would then merge
with the "flame," transforming into psionic energy
as they did so, their consciousnesses all merging into one.
Thus the Uni-Mind was formed.
Zuras may have had other superhuman abilities as well which
have not yet been revealed.