Origins

Ikaris was born over 20,000 years ago in Polaria, in the area now known as Siberia.
He is the son of the Eternals Virako and Tulayn. His real birth name is unknown.

When the Second Host of the Celestials sank the Deviant Lemuria in what is known as
the "Great Cataclysm", Ikaris guides a ship of humans to safety. The humans mistake
Ikaris for a bird, and (per Marvel Universe history) he is memorialized as the dove
that guided Noah to the Mountains of Ararat (Eternals #2).

Early centuries
Ikaris chose his name due to a tragic accident hundreds of years ago. While
fighting the Deviants in ancient Greece, the man eventually known as Ikaris meets
and weds a human woman. Together they bear a son named Icarus, who loves to soar
with his father high above the seas and mountains of Greece. In time, the Eternal
builds his son a set of mechanical wings so the boy can fly on his own.

When his father disappears while fighting the Deviants, the young Icarus seeks him
out using the mechanical wings. Too inexperienced to fly on his own, young Icarus
soars too high, loses consciousness in the upper atmosphere, and falls to his
death. Finding his son dead, the father Eternal takes the name of his son, Ikaris,
in his memory.

Around 1000 AD, Virako, Ikaris' father, dies in battle against the Deviant
Dromedan. Ikaris is then adopted by his uncle Valkin, who reveals to him his secret
Arctic home, the Pyramid of the Winds.

At some point during the early centuries, Ikaris and the Eternals would come into
conflict with the immortal mutant, Apocalypse. This conflict would end with Ikaris
and the Eternals defeating him, and Ikaris believing Apocalypse to be dead.

In 1823, as part of the Eternals' preparation for the coming of the Fourth Host of
the Celestials, Zuras orders Ikaris to perfect his cosmic senses in anticipation of
their coming. When they draw near, Ikaris is ordered to go to the City of the Space
Gods and revive the sleeping Eternal Ajak to greet them.

Modern Era
When the Celestials arrive on Earth around a century and a half later, Ikaris
succeeds in this mission with the aid of human archaeologist Dr. Daniel Damian and
his daughter, Margo. Ikaris witnesses the arrival of the Fourth Celestial Host on
Earth.[8] He then publicly reveals himself as all Eternals do.[9] He later battles
a "cosmic Hulk" robot,[10] and fights Dromedan.[11] During the Fourth Host,
Valkin's son Druig captures and tortures Ikaris to force him to reveal the location
of the Pyramid of the Winds. Ikaris catches up with Druig and kills him, but not
before Druig is able to fire a weapon at a Celestial; the Celestial, however, is
unharmed.[12]

Later, he encountered Thor for the first time.[13] He next participated in a battle
between the Eternals and the Olympian gods defeating Ares.[14] Not long after that,
he learned of the demise of Zuras, the Prime Eternal (leader of Earth's Eternals).
[15]

Later, it was revealed how Ikaris first encountered the Inhumans.[16] Ikaris was
later captured with the other Eternals by a Deviant army. He joined with the other
Eternals and Iron Man (Jim Rhodes) in defeating the Deviants.[17] After that,
Ikaris battled Maelstrom alongside the other Eternals and the Avengers. After the
battle, he was selected by the Uni-Mind to remain on Earth.[18]

During his long lifetime, Ikaris also attempts to be a fair and just leader of the
Eternals, but has abandoned Eternal traditions to take an active and public role in
protecting the human race. He has even adopted a unique human identity by becoming
a professional wrestler with the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation as "Iceberg"
Ike Harris.[19] Ikaris and fellow Eternal Thena have had a strong dislike for each
other for a long time, and find themselves coming to conflict when she is appointed
as Prime Eternal. Questioning her worth as Prime Eternal, Ikaris faces her in the
Hall of Eternal Judgment and defeats her, becoming the new Prime Eternal. Ikaris
then battled Ghaur alongside the Eternals, Thor, and the West Coast Avengers. He
also buried Margo Damian when she was killed by a Deviant experiment.[20]

Later, with the other Eternals, Ikaris captured the Silver Surfer on behalf of the
High Evolutionary.[21] Some time after that, he was captured by the Deviant leader
Brother Visara, and then freed by Kro. Ikaris exposed Dr. Damian as the Eternals'
enemy, and battled a transformed Ajak as a result.[22]

When the Eternal Sersi became sick with the Mahd Wy'ry disease, a uncurable
degenerating Eternal disease, Ikaris and others eternals tried to bring her to
Olympia and perform a rite of Cleansing. However Sersi rejected the idea, on the
basis that the ritual was designed to kill the infected Eternal, and solicited his
family to perform the Gann Josin bond between her and her lover the Black Knight.
Ikaris was furious by the idea, and performed the bond without consent of the
Knight.[23]

In The New Eternals series, Ikaris still retains the title of Prime Eternal. Ikaris
and the Eternals' ancient nemesis Apocalypse returned to detonate a nuclear warhead
on Deviant Lemuria. He causes Ikaris's father Virako to return to life. Ikaris
confronts, and fights Apocalypse. Although Ikaris is defeated by Apocalypse, Ikaris
still manages to destroy his ship and thwart Apocalypse's plan. Virako is appalled
to find the Eternals accepting Deviants such as Ransak the Reject and Karkas. Under
the alias of "Sovereign", he briefly introduces the Eternals to the world as a team
of super-heroes called the "New Breed".[24]

Changed Reality (Eternals mini-series-2006)

Ikaris was featured again in the Marvel mini-series Eternals, written by Neil
Gaiman and penciled by artist John Romita, Jr.. The Eternals were the victims of
memory and reality manipulation by former Eternal Sprite, and thus have forgotten
their true identities. Ikaris visited Mark Curry, to try to awaken/remember his
past but he rebuked him.[25] Although Ikaris (calling himself Ike Harris) was
captured and atomized by two Deviants agents, Gelt and Morjak, his body reappears
at the bottom of the (fictional) Antarctic city of Olympia.[26] His body and powers
fully restored by the sentient city, Ikaris regains his memories and sets out to
awaken his fellow Eternals to their true identities. After a prolonged battle, he
at last unites the few Eternals present. He then plans to team up with Makkari and
reawaken the ninety other Eternals.[27]

Eternals' search (Eternals – Volume 4)

At the end of the last volume, Makkari has been chosen as the "chosen one" that the
awakened Dreaming Celestial communicates with. This is very frustrating to Ajak
because he has spent his entire existence communing with the Celestials, their
language and what their showing up means. In conversations between Makkari and the
Dreaming Celestial,the eternal learned that the Celestials picks or create a planet
and seed it with life forms. They then create 100 Eternals and 100 Deviants. The
Celestials then keep a watchful eye on the planet and weigh which of the two races
influences the life forms more. This is done in servitude of the Fulcrum. If the
Deviants influence has more prominence, the Celestials send the Horde to eradicate
the race and they start over. If it is the Eternals, the Celestials allow the
goodness to flow back into the Fulcrum, which the Celestials seems to serve. These
conversations between Makkari and the Dreaming Celestial take place on a different
plane of existence and cause Makkari's body to shut down, seemingly almost dying,
which Sersi is concerned with because she thinks he is addicted to this state. We
also see here the origin of the Dreaming Celestial and how he came to be put to
sleep by the other Celestials.[28]

Next the story picks up with Thena and Ikaris, trying to find all of the other
amnesiac Eternals and reminding them of who they are. They find that a similar
effort is being conducted by Druig, who is now the ruler of Vorozheika. Druig is
using a secret source to find the Eternals and is winning in the contest of finding
and converting more Eternals to his cause. Ikaris and Thena approach Phastos, who
thinks he is an engineer in Sweden named Phillip Voss. Thena tries to trigger his
memory with questions about his past under the guise that she and Ikaris are
attorneys executing the will of a deceased relative of Mr. Voss'. This ploy proves
to be a failure and Ikaris just wants to force the memories on the Eternals who
have lost their memories, but this also causes problems as they react violently to
having their world's turned upside down like this.[29]

We then see that Thena prior to her trip with Ikaris to visit Phastos, she leaves
her son Joey Eliot in the care of her father: Zuras who seems a little absent-
minded. Zuras begins to explore and show the different parts of the Eternals'
habitat with Joey. It is here we learn that the Horde that the Dreaming Celestial
has spoken of, that is coming to Earth has an agent already on Earth who is bonded
to a human via a symbiotic relationship. This turns out to be Thena's son Joey.
Joey is then seen going into a trance-like state when viewing new and unexplored
areas of the habitat and information and transmitting that information back to the
Horde. Sersi investigates and finds out about this through tracing a signal that is
being sent from the habitat to the Horde and she informs Zuras of this fact. Zuras
scoffs at this notion and Joey's life is terminated by the symbiote who determines
that he has been detected.[30]

Makkari learns of Joey and his death from the Dreaming Celestial. He immediately
goes to the habitat of the Eternals—Olympia. Then Ajak comes up on the scene of a
"Burning Man"-like party being held at the foot of the Dreaming Celestial. He
attacks and disperses the worshippers there and is approached by Iron Man's strike
team called the Order. Ajak uses a "jedi mind trick" to send the Order away, and
Ikaris shows up to have him go undercover inside Druig's stronghold. Ajak agrees
and he soon is put to task to find Gilgamesh. Ajak finds him and convinces him that
Thena, and Ikaris are possessed by the Deviants and their influence. Eventually
Gilgamesh attacks Makkari and beats him violently, leaving to finish his attack
against other Eternals. Ajak shows up in the aftermath of Gilgamesh's attack and
atomizes Makkari, knowing that he will be given a new body and regenerated in one
of the chambers in Olympus like their race has used for thousands of years.
Makkari's death makes it necessary for the Dreaming Celestial, who does not have
anyone to communicate with, use a failsafe that puts all humanoids asleep on the
planet, except Eternals and Deviants.[volume & issue needed]

Gilgamesh resumes his attack when he reaches Olympus and Thena barely defeats him,
but only after he destroys the reassembling chamber that Makkari needs to
reconstitute. Sersi then attacks the Dreaming Celestial and is told that she was
given heightened powers to care for Makkari while he assisted the Dreaming
Celestial in cataloging all super-powered beings on the planet. She then uses her
powers to reconstitute Makkari, which stops the need for the failsafe of the
Dreaming Celestial. And surprisingly when all of the humans awaken from their
sleep, so to does Joey Eliot, ending Thena's sadness at the loss of her son. The
Watcher mentions to the Dreaming Celestial that the child was dead and the Dreaming
Celestial revived him. The Dreaming Celestial replies that the child was asleep
like the rest of the humans and simply woke up when the rest did. The Watcher
objects, and then realizes that the Dreaming Celestial has done this as an act of
kindness, explained away as the child being simply asleep like the rest of the
humans.[31]
Death
Later when the Final Host arrived on Earth, Ikaris along with all the Eternals
killed themselves after realizing the true purpose for which they were created. He
was the last Eternal still alive when Iron Man and Doctor Strange traveled to the
Mountains of Greece, to try to get some answers from The Eternals. Before his
death, he told the heroes the reason for the mass suicide.[32]

Powers and abilities

Ikaris' 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.
As a result, he is virtually immortal, immune to disease and aging, and
invulnerable to conventional forms of injury. Should Ikaris be injured somehow, he
could regenerate any injured or missing tissue. Cosmic energy bolsters Ikaris's
metabolism so that he does not tire from any physical exertion. He can resist
temperature extremes through mental concentration.

Ikaris can levitate himself by mentally manipulating gravitons around himself. He

can also levitate other persons and objects, even while simultaneously levitating
himself. Ikaris is able to fly via self-levitation at approximately 850 miles per
hour, which is faster than most other Eternals.

Ikaris has low level psychic abilities, enabling him to scan the superficial
thoughts of any mind less adept than his own. He can mentally create illusions so
as to disguise himself. Ikaris can also psionically manipulate atoms and molecules
so as to transform an object's shape. However, Ikaris is only a second-level adept
on a five level scale (the fifth level being the highest) in this discipline. He
can rearrange molecules in the air so as to create a virtually impenetrable shield
about himself.

Ikaris 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. Ikaris can project a maximum concussive force of at least
260 pounds per square inch. He can project heat of a maximum temperature of at
least 3,000 Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt iron. It takes about one minute for him
to attain this maximum temperature. Because Ikaris's heat beams can vaporize solid
objects, they are often called his disintegrator beams, The maximum range for his
energy beams is about 200 feet. Ikaris is a fourth level adept on a five-level
scale (the fifth level being the highest) in this discipline. The expenditure of
cosmic energy in this way continually for several hours will temporarily deplete
Ikaris's 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.

Ikaris can teleport himself psionically, but prefers not to do so, since, like
other Eternals, he finds the self-teleportation process physically unpleasant. He
can also teleport other people along with himself.