The gods of the Norse, Greek, Ancient Egyptian, and many other pantheons are shown to be real in Marvel comics. But, where did they come from? Do their origin stories match those of the original mythos upon which they’re based? Not exactly. Thor Annual #10, published in 1982, reveals the story of how all the gods came to be. It shows that mankind actually came before them, and, in a way, created them. So, go way way way WAY back. You’ve got Earth. No life yet. But it’s TEEMING with life energy and potential. That energy became a sentience known as the Demiurge, “the sentient life-force of Earth’s biosphere” The Demiurge passed over the Earth and showered it with sparks of its own creative life-force, and these became the Elder Gods. The Elder Gods multiplied and filled the Earth. As time passed, their overpopulation caused them to degenerate into demons constantly at war with each other in a struggle for supremacy. All except for Gaea, , who loved the Earth with a motherly tenderness, and feared that the others would destroy its potential for new life. Her yearning to bring goodness into the world she so loved summoned the Demiurge itself, who impregnated her with Atum, first of the new gods. Atum possessed the power of the blazing sun, and with it, he slew the Elder Gods, and absorbed their godly energies into himself, becoming the misshapen Demogorge--the God-Eater! He then flew into the sky, and cast these excess energies out of himself, seeding the world with them. Now returned to his true form, Atum merged with the sun itself. Eons passed, and mankind emerged. Man’s consciousness tapped into the “godstuff” left behind by Atum, and created new gods in man’s own image. These are the present Marvel gods that we are now familiar with. Of course, this being Marvel, there are doubtlessly a lot of contradictory canon stories out there too....