Heart of the Universe

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The Heart of the Universe is the most powerful object in the entire Marvel Comics Universe, above that of Cosmic cubes and even the Infinity Gauntlet but is not considered canon.

It is unknown where the heart came from. It was discovered by a group of alien explorers who learned to harness its great energy and became the Celestial Order. The order decided to use the power to attempt to bring peace (forcibly) to the universe, by appointing beings they deemed worthy of the Heart's power to rule sectors of the universe.

The being Thanos mathematically ascertained the existence of the heart and decided to seek it.

After the order's agent Akhenaten conquered earth, Thanos led the Defenders and Captain Marvel to seek the Order. As they fought the order Thanos destroyed the instruments that allowed them to access the power of the heart. However the Celestial Order's stored energies were still too great for the heroes. Thanos then jumped into the Heart (believing his armor would be able to absorb the power of the Heart). Upon merging with the Heart, Thanos gained ultimate power, which he used to go back in time and destroy the Celestial Order before they found the Heart of the Universe.

After a while, a group of the most powerful cosmic beings (including Eternity, The Living Tribunal, Galactus, and the Celestials), gathered to stop Thanos and failed. Thanos discovered a flaw had developed in the universe due to the constant resurrection of beings and attempted to fix it. The only way he could was to start the universe over. Adam Warlock, who had escaped the destruction by hiding outside space-time, convinced Thanos to undo the destruction and sacrifice himself to fix the universe. Thanos speculated and it was strongly implied that the whole scenario had been a set-up from the beginning by a far greater power to fix the universal flaw. Thus, Thanos had been manipulated.

This events took place in Marvel Universe: The End which is considered outside the main MU.