Ajak

Hailing from the Eternals—a race of god-like beings—Ajak the near-immortal serves his creators, the Celestials, as their communicator and takes on many Earthly roles over his long life.
 

Ancient and Near-Immortal

Ajak is a member of the Polar Eternals, a band of the near-immortal Eternals whose outpost lay within the Ural Mountains of Russia. Ajak’s earliest known interactions with humanity occur in Babylon around 2,500 BC when he and the Eternals clash with the Deviants and their leader, Warlord Kro.

Around 1200 BC, Ajak and his brother Arex are spotted in Greece where they became known respectively as Ajax the Greater and Ajax the Lesser.

Around 1000 AD, Ajak interacts with the natives of South America where he assumes the identity of the Incan god Tecumotzin and the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl as he uses the Eternals’ advanced knowledge to assist them.

When the Celestials, who created the Eternals and Deviants, visit Peru around that time as part of their Third Host, Ajak performs the role of communicator with them, imparting messages from the Host to the Eternals, even delivering a warning from the Celestials to the gods of Earth. After the Third Host departs, Ajak places himself into suspended animation alongside a team of Eternals who are his assistants within the City of the Space Gods, a building constructed in Peru for the Celestials’ use.
 

Eternal Powers

Ajak possesses the conventional powers of the Eternals, including superhuman strength enabling him to lift 25 tons and complete control over the atoms of his body allowing him to regenerate after virtually any injury. Ajak also possesses the ability to project cosmic energy from his eyes or hands in the form of heat, light, or concussive force, teleportation, flight at the speed of sound. Furthermore, Ajak has the ability to rearrange the molecular structure of objects. Ajak is also a brilliant archaeologist and skilled wrestler.
 

Forever Enemies

Ajak’s most common enemies, like all Eternals, are their less-evolved brethren, the Deviants—the evolutionary offshoot of humanity created by the Celestials much like the Eternals but malformed and without powers. He and the others are locked in an age-old conflict with the Deviants.

Though, Ajak’s closer relatives aren’t always his allies. Ajak harbors a particular hatred for fellow Eternal Makkari. When the Dreaming Celestial ceases communication with Ajak and instead chooses Makkari to speak through, Ajak believes Makkari laps up too much of the Celestial’s words. He comes to believe that Makkari stands in the way of convincing the other Eternals that the Celestials were correct in their decision to imprison the Dreaming Celestial on earth, and that it had been corrupted. Ajak brainwashes fellow Eternal Gilgamesh into slaying Makkari, though Eternals do not stay dead for long and they have a long memory.
 

Allies Against Aggressors

Ajak allies with most of his fellow Eternals and is the liaison to the Celestials, their creators. When seeking to remove Makkari from the picture, Ajak brainwashes fellow Eternal Gilgamesh to do his dirty work for him.

Ajak joins the God Squad assembled by the Olympian goddess Athena. The team includes Heracles, AKA Hercules, as team leader, but considering his failures against the Skrulls and their invasion of Earth, Ajak takes over as lead strategist and calls Hercules out for being over-confident. Despite his efforts during his time with the God Squad, he perishes in a battle.

Ajak’s Account

In recent years, Ajak and his men were awakened from their slumber by fellow Eternal Ikaris just in time to greet the Fourth Host of the Celestials. Ajak once again served as communicator and befriended the human archaeologist Dr. Daniel Damian, revealing many of the secrets of the City of the Space Gods to him. The Celestials ultimately judged in Earth’s favor and departed. Soon after, Ajak was among the party of Eternals who assumed the form of the psychic Uni-Mind entity to explore other worlds.

Ajak eventually returned to the City of the Space Gods, but while he was away Damian’s daughter Margo had been slain by the Deviants. Blaming the Eternals and Deviants for her death, Damian used Celestial technology to transform Ajak into a monster and sent him to slay Deborah and Thomas Ritter, the offspring of Kro and Thena. Although the children were saved and Ajak was returned to normal, he had killed other children in his hunt and was haunted by their deaths and the betrayal of Damian. Ajak chose to disintegrate himself, destroying Damian in the process.

Ajak was later resurrected through unknown means but had become amnesiac due to the manipulations of Sprite, a young Eternal who sought to become mortal. In doing so, Sprite awoke the Dreaming Celestial, a seemingly malevolent Celestial who had lain dormant on Earth for thousands of years. Ajak was cast into the role of a gardener until the Eternals’ leader Zuras restored him. Zuras then had Ajak hire a pair of Deviants to assault Ikaris in order to restore his memory. The awakened Dreaming Celestial chose to communicate through the Eternal Makkari, slighting Ajak.

At the same time, Ajak was asked by the Aztec, Incan and Mayan gods to represent them as part of the so-called God Squad assembled by the Olympian goddess Athena. Led by Hercules, the God Squad was dispatched to confront the gods of the extraterrestrial Skrulls, as the Skrulls were in the process of invading the Earth. During the battle against the gods Kly’bn and Sl’gur’t, Ajak was mortally wounded but regenerated from his injuries. Returning to the Eternals, Ajak revived the memories of Gilgamesh, the Forgotten One, and sent him to attack Olympia and kill Makkari so that he could have revenge; Ajak nearly doomed the Earth by upsetting the Dreaming Celestial, but fellow Eternal Sersi restored Makkari to life.

When the Celestials fell from the sky and landed dead upon the earth, it was the coming of the Dark Celestials. The Eternals then fully learned their true purpose was not to protect the Celestials, it was to help humanity, and since they had spent their millennia on Earth mostly avoiding interacting with humans, they went mad. Some turned on one another while others committed suicide.

Sometime later, Ajak was restored as were the other Eternals.