The Warrior's Discovery

The Warrior's Discovery is recognized as the first event in Earth's chronology within Invincible, reaching back some three thousand years. It centers on a warrior of Celtic stock who, by pure chance, gains powers that will let him walk through the whole of human history.

Venturing high into the mountains, the Celtic fighter encountered a luminous blue spiral orb humming with an energy he had never seen. The instant he stretched toward it, the sphere loosed a beam that poured its power into him. He grasped none of it at the time, but the years revealed abilities no ordinary person should hold, culminating in the realization that he was, in fact, the first human ever to slip free of death. Down the centuries he slipped into role after role and name after name. He served as a knight, perhaps even in the ranks of King Arthur, carrying the armies under his command to victory, and far later he took on the identity of Abraham Lincoln, serving as the country's sixteenth president, until an assassin's bullet ended that life. His deathless nature simply returned him to the world to press on.

In time he set aside those borrowed lives and settled into something resembling a modern champion, calling himself The Immortal. Under that name he stood watch over Earth for a great span of years before finally choosing to step back and retire in the present day. His accidental awakening in the wasteland stands as the origin point of costumed heroism in this world, the first link in a chain that would eventually include the likes of Invincible himself.