Extremely mutated or deformed Deviants are referred to as 'mutates' and some of the monsters of myth and legend have in fact been identified as Deviant mutates. While the Eternals possess godlike power and are generally physically beautiful, the Deviants (who sometimes refer to themselves as 'the changing people') are for the most part hideous, with each member of their race possessing some random physical and/or cosmetic mutation that is by Celestial design never repeated within the sub-species. They are an offshoot of the evolutionary process that created sentient life on Earth instigated by the alien Celestials, and wage war against their counterparts, the Eternals. The Deviants first appeared in The Eternals #1 (July 1976).
