[Cosmic] Why was it named so?

[tg_ambro]

It recently dawned on me that I have never questioned why cosmic is called so. I have a couple of theories, one is that it is a Silver Surfer power Cosmic type of thing, and the other is that it is meant to mean "universal" and would imply that for nearly all game worlds it is the highest power.

What are your theories, or the actual aswer?

[Ragitsu]

My theory? Comics.

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

My theory? Comics.

Marvel by way of Champions more like it. Champions 'Cosmic power pools" to be precise.

Then again the meaning of the word itself may suffice to explain it's choice:

Cos"mic\ (k?z"m?k), Cosmical \Cos"mic*al\ (-m?-kal), a. [Gr. kosmiko`s of the world, fr. ko`smos: cf. F. cosmique. See Cosmos.]

1. Pertaining to the universe, and having special reference to universal law or order, or to the one grand harmonious system of things; hence; harmonious; orderly.

2. Pertaining to the solar system as a whole, and not to the earth alone.

3. Characteristic of the cosmos or universe; inconceivably great; vast; as, cosmic speed. "Cosmic ranges of time." --Tyndall.

cos·mic (kŏz'mĭk)
adj.
Of or relating to the regions of the universe distinct from the Earth.
Infinitely or inconceivably extended; vast: "a coming together of heads of government to take up the cosmic business of nations"

[sgtcallistan]

The Captain Marvel comics by Starlin may be the origin.
From the 197mid-1970's he used psychedelia, op-art and the music scene of the period to inform a universe-spanning series of stories, which introduced 'cosmic awareness' as a superpower (arguable DC did this with Green Lantern as well).
'The Power Cosmic' comes a little later, and has been developed on from there, most notably with the Silver Surfer.
I daresay there are earlier versions of all this, not least magicians visiting other realms and planes (Dr Strange), but I am only so old.
This is how I remember it.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by sgtcallistan

'The Power Cosmic' comes a little later, and has been developed on from there, most notably with the Silver Surfer.

I can't recall the first use of the phrase in Marvel, but it appeared frequently in relation to the Surfer and Galactus. I'm fairly certain it was bandied about before the term 'cosmic awareness' was used in Captain Marvel.

[tg_ambro]

Ah ok, particularly insightful stuff people.

[Kromm]

Speaking as the one who named it . . . I did a digital thesaurus search for something equivalent to "limitless" or "unrestricted," and the thesaurus I was using at the time suggested "cosmic" (as well as "vast" and bunch of other terms).

[tg_ambro]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Speaking as the one who named it . . . I did a digital thesaurus search for something equivalent to "limitless" or "unrestricted," and the thesaurus I was using at the time suggested "cosmic" (as well as "vast" and bunch of other terms).

Then the universal/unlimited theory is the correct one then, and I suspect that that is the meaning that comics generally are going for.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by tg_ambro

Then the universal/unlimited theory is the correct one then, and I suspect that that is the meaning that comics generally are going for.

At first glance, for the universal, metaphysical *could* be better suited (1). The same for the irresistible effect of GURPS cosmic stuff (2), because nothing can stand in front of "that doesn't have an opposite" -exclusive condition of the metaphysical order. However, cosmic also can reach the universal degree, but only to some extent, not to the absolute point of the true unlimitedness. We return to cosmic again, because metaphysics doesn't have (directly) nothing to do with the phenomenological domain (where's the action!), being utterly transcendent, completely beyond space & time and any other notion.

(1) I'm not using here Aristotle's incomplete and purely philosophical (theorical) meaning on metaphysics, but the term in its fullest sense according with real world doctrines and operative methods of realization.

(2) GURPS concept of cosmic seems to be beyond all other things, denoting transcendence. But it, being limited to the cosmological domain, can be, instead, relative superiority, as let's say, Ether regarding the other four elements in some cosmologies.

[Kromm]

"Transcendent" was the leading competitor, but with an extra syllable and twice as many letters, it lost. The consolation prize was a new level of Appearance. :D