Jack Kirby's The Eternals is a series I honestly enjoy and appreciate more every time I read it. I know I read it circa 2004-2005 and I think I've read it once between then and now. This time I read it in "omnibus" format, eschewing the unwieldy "Monster Edition" format. (I recently read three issuse of Kirby's Black Panther in that format and didn't feel I wanted to wrestle with a 12-pound book for 20 issues, although that is probably the best way to experience it. Next time.) In a recent post to another discussion, regarding Jack Kirby's work in the 1970s, doc photo said: "He wasn't trying to tell stories on an epic scale or establish a new mythology. He was simply telling entertaining adventure stories." I agree with that assessment for the most part... except when it comes to The Eternals.
- #1. Introduces the concept of two offshoot races of humanity, the Eternals and the Deviants, as well as the first four main characters: Ikaris, Dr. Damian, his daughter Margo and the Deviant Kro.
- #2. Introduces the Celestials and their four "Hosts" was well as the Eternal Ajak.
- #3. The scene switches from the Andes Mountains to New York City and intoduces the Eternal Sersi.
- #4. The Deviants invade New York City.
- #5. Introduces Olympia and the Eternals Zuras, Thena, Makarri and Major Domo.
- #6. Dr. Samuel Holden (a colleague of Dr. Damian's) is introduced, and the seven main characters of this part of the story (Ikaris, Sersi, Makarri ,Thena, Kro, Margo Damian and Dr. Holden) hold a press conference. Also, three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents infiltrate the Celestials' base of operation in the Andes.
- #7. This episode takes place entirely in the Incan ruins and features Dr. Damian, Ajak and the three S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.
- #8. Thena and Kro visit Lemuria, the city of the Deviants, and Reject and Karkas are introduced.
- #9. The Deviants Reject and Karkas are developed and, in Olympia, Sprite is introduced.
- #10. The three main plots are intermingled and further developed.
- #11. Introduces the Polar Eternals and the Delphan Brothers.
- #12. Zuras calls for the Uni-Mind. (The humans Sam and Margo are allowed to participate, but the Deviants Reject and Karkas are not.)
- #13. Introduces the Eternal known as "The Forgotten One"; Sprite is also featured.
It is at this point, IMO, the series starts to lose focus. All along, Marvel editorial had been pushing Kirby to establish ties with the Marvel Universe proper. (Up until this point, the series had existed on the periphery of the MU.) Kirby "complied" (sort of), by introducing the so-called "cosmic-powered Hulk" (a robot), which stuck around for two and a half issues. the final issue and half of the four issue sequence introduced the Deviant Dromedan.
- #14-17. The "cosmic-powered Hulk" and Dromedan.
- #18-19. The final two-part story focuses on Ikaris' cousin, Druig, and his plan to destroy a Celestial with a weapon left behind by the Second Host.
There was one additional Eternals comic book by Jack Kirby.
- Annual #1. This annual was released concurrently with #16 of the original series, which is probably when it takes place (more of less). Except for Zuras, it doesn't have any charactes in common with the story in #14-17, but it must take place after #14 (and possibly before #16). Why then did Marvel choose to place it between #12 & #13 in the omnibus? That makes no sense. FWIW, it "reads" best, IMO, between #17 &18.
I have heard it said that The Eternals failed due to "Kirby's abysmal sense of pacing," but I could not disagree with that assessment more vehemently. It wasn't until the "cosmic-powered Hulk" was foisted upon him that the pacing began to suffer. Up until that point, Kirby had not only been introducing new characters and concepts nearly every issue, but also balancing them equally among multiple locations. As it is, Kirby supplied the "House of Ideas" with story fodder for years to come.
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Interesting. I could've sworn that you'd already done an Eternals thread. I even remember responding to it. Odd.
Yes, I did... on the old board.
...or perhaps you are thinking of "Post Kirby Thor" in which I covered Thor #283-300 in some detail.
I distinctly remember a discussion of the Kirby Etermals book, because I remembered only ever reading two or three issues of it.
That would definitely have been the "Jack Kirby's Eternals" discussion from the old board then.
Nice! I've read issues of this here and there, picked up an back issues or in sampler packs when I was a kid, but never the whole series in order.
Whenever I read Kirby's Eternals, I almost invariably follow it up with Roy Thomas's version from Thor (which incorporated the concept into the MU proper), but this time I decided to take a different tack. In 2006, Neil Gaiman and John Romita, Jr. did a seven-issue Eternals series which was collected in hardcover in 2007. I read the series (once) and bought the hardcover, but I haven't read the series a second time until today. Although it's been 18 years, I remembered it quite well, albeit in broad strokes. As the series opens, all of the Eternals have somehow become human, with human lives and identities and no memory of ever having been Eternals. You might think this is a good "jumping on point" (and it probably is), although I think readers familiar with the Kirby series would get more out of it. The post-Kirby stuff, not so much, although all of those stories are still in continuity. Unfortunately, the events of this mini-series are tied heavily to the Civil War crossover, and I do remember which of the Eternals which of the Eternals betrayed the others for a taste of mortality. I sort of "lost track" of the Eternals after this point. The story is left open-ended because it led directly into an ongoing series (written by Charles & Daniel Knauf and drawn by Daniel Acuña) which lasted nine issues, the first five of which I bought but have never read.
I hadn't intended to take this discussion any further than the Kirby original and the Gaiman/Romita follow-up, but the Gaiman story dealt heavily with the so-called "Dreaming Celestial" which sparked my interest in the 1985 maxi-series, a.k.a. "The Dreaming Celestial Saga." Also, I recently read the run of Thor by Walt Simonson and Sal Buscema, and both are involved with this series (albiet only one issue at the same time). The series is written, mostly, by Peter Gillis (#1-8), and drawn, mostly, by Sal Buscema (#1-9). Walt Simonson took over the writing with #9, and Kieth Pollard the art with #10, Paul Ryan providing the pencils for the double-sized finale in #12.
The work of Peter Gillis is cycling back under my attention several times this year, first with 1988's Black Panther mini-series, now with Eternals, and later this summer his Micronauts: The New Voyages is slated to be reprinted. In 1985's Eternals series, he and Buscema introduced several new characters: the Eternals Kingo, Phastos, Khoryphos and Cybele; the Deviants Yrdisisa and Ahalau; and the human Dave Chatterton. Most noteable among the new characters is Lord Ghaur, High Priest of the Deviants. [SPOILER] Significantly, Ikaris' longtime companion (and Kirby character from the very first issue), Margo Damien, dies. [END SPOILER] This 1985 series may not be as important as the Kirby or the Gaiman/Romita ones, but it is quite enjoyable nevertheless.
CELESTIAL THEORY
Setting aside "Marvel Time" (which would compress the events I am about to discuss even more) for a moment, let us examine the movements of the Celestial "Space Gods" in the Marvel Universe. The Celestials first appeared on Earth (in modern times, anyway) in 1976 (Eternals #1) to begin the Fourth Hosts' 50-year judgement of the planet. That period of judgement was truncated, however, in 1980, when the Space Gods reached their decision prematurely, after only four years as opposed to 50. I don't know what the Celestials were up to for the next seven years, but they arrived on the Skrull world Tarakar in 1987 (Silver Surfer #4). Their appearance set off a series of events, but neither their ultimate decision nor the length of the tenure was revealed.
In 1988, however, the very next year, Thor encountered the Celestials on the planet Pangoria (Thor #187-189) and learned what happens to a planet when the Space Gods adjudicate against it. But how long was Pangoria's period of judgement. If the Celestials had been their for the full 50 years, that would have overlapped with their tenure on Earth and Tarakar. Furthermore, X-Factor encountered the Celestials in "The Judgement War" in 1989 (X-Factor #43-46, 48-50). The Thor story postulates that the Celestials are so far advanced that they have the ability to manifest in multiple locations simultaneously but, applying Occam's razor, I have come to a differnet conclusion.
The Celestials of the Fourth Host on Earth were dually identified, by name and function: Jemiah the Analyzer, Gammenon the Gatherer, Oneg the Prober, and so on. But what if their "name" is actually their function, in their own language, repeated in the language of the planet they are occupying? For example, el Aguila the Eagle or el Toro Rojo the Red Bull. I postulate that there are more than ten Celestials, but that each Host is composed of a crew of ten, each bearing the name and wearing the armor of that office. In other words, each crew would have a judge (and "Arishem"), a surveyor (a "Tefral"), a searcher (an "Eson"), and so on.