My thoughts on Eternals #1

Some comic fans might not like Jack Kirby.

Are those folks evil?

No, just ignorant.

But enough about them, let's talk about Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr.'s excursion into one of the most Kirby-centric aspects of the Marvel Universe, the Eternals.


Some quick history, and I do mean quick. The Eternals were a group of cosmic alien pseudo gods created by Jack Kirby. They have a fair amount in common with Kirby's New Gods: they're powerful, have advanced technology, fight misshapen monsters and tyrants, and have been around a really long time. Unlike the New Gods, the Eternals have influenced Earth history and even lived here for while, inspiring legends of ancient gods and heroes. So the speedster Makkari becomes, you guessed it, the basis for Mercury (and Osiris, go fig).

Yeah, I know, Marvel also has ancient gods and heroes running around. It's a long story which mostly makes sense, but I said this would be a quick history so in the words of the Bard in your fair minds let this acceptance take* and let's move on.

So fast forward to this Wednesday when American Gods & Anansi Boys novelist and comics veteran Neil Gaiman teams with one of my favorite artists ever to bring us a new version of the Eternals, who are apparently all on Earth and few if any of them remember who they truly are. All the while their enemies, the Deviants, are hunting them down and trying to use this opportunity to commit some nefarious act upon them that I'm unclear about because they haven't started with the committing by the end of the first issue.

I know what some of you are thinking. This all sounds really familiar, doesn't it? Like "this was basically the plot for the 7 Soldiers: Mister Miracle mini by Grant Morrison" familiar? And yeah, on some level it is. And that makes sense really. After all, New Gods are and Eternals of DC, and vice versa. So again, I say get on with the accepting and the taking and let's talk about this comic.

First the story. It's a set up issue mostly. And admittedly the plot's a bit standard: young man doesn't remember he's a chosen one and needs to rediscover his heritage. A crazy guy named Ike Harris** shows up to tell him about who he really is and he thinks the guy is crazy until...well, as of issue #1 he still thinks he's crazy. We also get a nice background on the Eternals for anyone who needed or wanted one as well as insight into what the other Eternals are doing right now. There was also a nice bit with a superhero reality TV show, a Eternal masking as a child celeb, and some Public Service Announcements that made for a unintrusive tie-in to Marvel's big Civil War event.

The whole thing didn't strike me as totally mindblowing and revolutionary like say, Morrison's 7 Soldiers. However, it's good solid storytelling with a mythic undertone that fits characters who are supposed to be immortal alien servants of primordial beings who were once wortshipped as gods. It's also a nice insight into how the Eternals would fit into our world if they were not immortal alien servants of primordial beings who were once wortshipped as gods. So the story's good and it's worth picking up if you have any love for the subject matter and aren't one of those "comics haven't been good since ________." morons.***


So the writng's solid and fun and will get me to check out issue #2. Now let me talk about the art.

Remember when I said John Romita Jr. was one of my favorite artists? Well, he is. Thus I'm biased. Still, that doesn't mean I necessarily like everything he does. After all, Frank Miller is one of my favorite comic writers and I wouldn't cross the street to get free-copies of All-Star Batman & Robin or Dark Knight Strikes Again. So it's entirely possible I wouldn't like the art in this issue, despite my admitted bias.

And I don't. I love it. Especially the scenese with the Eternals all decked out in full cosmic glory and fighting the Deviants. The colors, inks, pencils, etc... all combine to create something that invokes Kirby but isn't. Thus you get stuff like the sample images, which don't do the gorgeous art justice but should give you an idea of what it's like.

Strange though, that my only quibble with the issue is art related. The books ships with three variant covers. The most common on is, IMO, the least appropriate. It's a painted cover which looks great, but also looks nothing like the interior art nor anything Kirby did with these characters. I would have preferred something a bit more invocative. Still, its a minor complaint and as I've said there are two other covers, both more fitting.

So there it is. Check this book out if you love the Eternals or similar Kirby creations, want some more works like the recent Mister Miracle mini, or are a fan or either the writer or artist. I thought it was worth my 3 or so bucks.

*Henry V, Act 5, Scene 2. The more you know...

** Who's Ikkaris, leader of the Eternals before they went all Japanese CRPG protagonist.

*** Not to be confused with the "Classic version of a character means the version of the character I liked best or that I started reading" idiots. They are a different species. Same genus, though.