The Eternals the Complete Collection

The Eternals: The Complete Collection

by Jack Kirby

Marvel Comics, 2022

 

In 1975 Jack Kirby quietly returned to Marvel Comics, a company he had left, with some rancor, five years previously. Kirby's efforts at DC Comics, such as 'The Demon,' 'The New Gods,' and 'OMAC,' had not brought lasting commercial success, and Kirby increasingly felt constrained by the editorial staff at DC. So, following conversations with Stan Lee, who offered Kirby the freedom to create new books at Marvel, Kirby decided to return to the company.

Lee handled Kirby's 'return of the prodigal son' with grace and consideration (something Lee's detractors have failed to acknowledge). Lee assigned Kirby to draw 'Captain America,' as well as Kirby's new title, 'The Eternals.'

'The Eternals,' which Kirby both drew and plotted, ran for 19 issues from July 1976, to January 1978, at which time Kirby, disillusioned with the comic book business, left Marvel to go work for Hanna-Barbera. 

 

'The Complete Collection,' which was published by Marvel in 2020, assembles in trade paperback format all 19 issues, plus the 1977 Eternals Annual, along with some pencil art pages, editorials, and advertisements, for a total of 400 pages.

 

Kirby took inspiration for The Eternals from the works of Erich Von Daniken and other popularizers of the 'Ancient Astronauts' theme. In Kirby's mythology, the Eternals are godlike beings created a million years ago by a race known as the Celestials. Opposing the Eternals are the Deviants, a race of monsters who dwell in the depths of the sea and inside the Earth's crust. Homo sapiens form a third humanoid type, displaying both the malevolent tendencies of the Deviants, as well as the moral and intellectual aspirations of the beneficent Eternals.

In the opening issues of the series, Kirby introduces the reader to lead characters Ikaris, an Eternal who is engineering the return of the Celestials to the Earth, and Margo Damian, a young woman who serves both as Ikaris's girlfriend, and as a sort of interlocutor between humankind and the Eternals.

As the series unfolds additional Eternals are introduced, all assisting in the fight against the machinations of the Deviants. The Celestials, depicted as beings of immense size, remain enigmatic as they appear in various places around the Earth, terrifying the populace (as well as the Deviants). 

While Kirby's artwork for The Eternals maintained his characteristic visual energy, the reality is that his writing had not advanced much at all, in terms of sophistication, during his time at DC. The dialogue and plotting in The Eternals has a simplistic, almost juvenile quality, and is markedly inferior to the caliber of writing that was commonplace in other Marvel titles of the mid-70s.

According to Sean Howe's 2012 book 'Marvel Comics: The Untold Story,' the reader mail for Kirby's titles was so relentlessly disparaging that at least one staffer admitted to fabricating letters that said favorable things about Kirby's stuff, this being the only way the letters pages could have an approbratory quality.

Also according to Howe, Kirby resisted efforts by Lee and the Marvel editorial staff to feature other Marvel universe characters in The Eternals, something Lee saw as a viable way to bring new readers to the Kirby lineup and boost circulation. 

Grudgingly, in issue 14 Kirby did include the Hulk, but it's not really the Hulk, rather, it's the 'Cosmic Hulk,' an android created by students at the 'Maryland Institute of Technology.' 

 

It's a lame storyline, with trite dialogue ("Jumpin' Jupiter -- He's a MONSTER !") and perfunctory plotting that did little to endear The Eternals to the newer generation of Marvel comic book buyers who were avidly reading 'X-Men,' and its complex plotting from Chris Claremont.

Who will want a copy of 'The Eternals: The Complete Collection' ? While Jack Kirby fans certainly will be interested in the book, I doubt modern-day comic book readers will see much in its pages that they will find appealing (particularly after the 2021 feature film based on the comics turned out to be a Woke mess that bombed at the box office). That said, I was able to find a copy of the book for under $9, so getting it is not a heavy lift for those curious about this chapter in Kirby's career.