Eternals
Writer: Kieron Gillen
Artist: Esad Ribić
Publisher: Marvel Comics
The choice to bring the Eternals to the big screen was Marvel’s most curious, eyebrow-raising risk for Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Seven of eleven films in Phase Three were sequels. The four new properties starred Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel, all classic, long-popular characters, each with a wealth of high quality comic book source material and built-in fan base.
Overall, the Phase Four slate was a similar story, with seven of eleven sequels to previous films. Two of the new titles were led by popular characters and were near-guaranteed hits. One was Black Widow, the much-beloved Avengers member, who had already starred or featured in seven MCU movies (eight, when including post-credits scenes).The other was the Fantastic Four, Marvel’s first family, whose four questionable movies are overwhelmingly outweighed by popularity garnered from six decades of near constant comic book publication.
While nowhere near as popular a character, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings had a strong case to be a hit, specifically a financial one. Black Panther had shown that Marvel needn’t fear producing movies with stories and casts of actors more diverse than those led by white men named Chris. The commercial strategy to tailor a movie towards China’s lucrative box office also made sense, even though the film failed to achieve the highly sought after Chinese release that potentially could have earned hundreds of millions of dollars.
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This left Eternals as Phase Four’s biggest question mark. It failed to tick so many of the boxes that underpin a new MCU property. The ensemble cast of characters wouldn’t lend itself to Marvel’s lead character origin story formula, repeatedly used to consistent success. The Deviants, the Eternals lead antagonists, are regularly an ill-defined threat that lack the focal points of other MCU movie villains. Marvel hadn’t made any previous efforts to shoehorn the characters into previous movies to test audience reaction to the characters. The Eternals themselves are strange, and their stoic personalities and status as millennia-old outsiders to humanity make them far less relatable for audiences than most MCU characters.
Arguably most importantly, the Eternals very minimal comic publication history came with almost no core audience for Marvel to excite and build from. They were the brain-child of comic book legend Jack Kirby, who upon his return to Marvel was at the status where the company would print whatever he created, confident that fans would try out any new title. Kirby’s initial run began in 1976 and lasted just nineteen issues, as a lack of audience saw the title cancelled with unresolved plotlines. The Eternals returned for a 12-issue miniseries in 1985 under writer Peter B. Gillis and penciler Sal Buscema, though according to comic-book historian Peter Sanderson, "editor in chief Jim Shooter disliked Gillis’s scripts, so Walter Simonson wrote the final four issues." In 2006, legendary author Neil Gaiman paired with artist John Romita, Jr. for a well-received seven issue standalone miniseries. The Eternals fourth series began in 2008 and lasted just nine issues and one annual.
With all of this in mind, it’s hard to understand what motivated Marvel to green-light Eternals into production. It seems like it was a clear risk, at least compared to their previous movies, and critics and audiences responded poorly. The movie received mixed reviews; its 52/100 on Metacritic and 47% on Rotten Tomatoes are the lowest for any MCU movie. It managed a worldwide total box office of $402.1 million, the MCU’s fourth lowest. From a budget of $200 million, it’s questionable whether the movie would have made a profit of any significant value, after marketing and other costs are factored in. It was a long, boring film, with a story and characters that failed to captivate.
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Thankfully, so much of what failed to work for the movie was delivered successfully by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribić in the fifth Eternals comic series. They get what works for this property, in a way that only Kirby and Gaiman & Romita Jr. have before. Their tone is consistent and even; unlike the MCU, they’re not hindered by needing to produce something that matches twenty five previous titles with their work’s own incongruent qualities. Their use of a narrator that is involved yet secondary to the story’s events works terrifically, as the reader is gradually fed necessary background knowledge without the need to pause the action so characters can provide this via clunky exposition dumps. Further information on the wider universe of the Eternals and their history is provided between scene-breaks in a manner that echoes the best of Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men series.
The Eternals in this book actually feel, well, eternal. They’ve been on earth for millions of years, as opposed to only a few thousand. The book commences with their rebirth process via The Machine, and shows the consequences they face from previous lives. These Eternals are very removed from humanity. When they interact with regular people they’re aloof and uninterested, or they treat people as passing play-things, or their engagement is purely in service of saving the world from complete destruction. As readers we don’t feel a need to relate to these Eternals. Rather, we get to enjoy the massive scale of their lives and the majesty of their world for what it is. At no point does it feel like any of these Eternals are going to run off to the suburbs to live in IKEA-decorated numbness. These Eternals are actually excited to fight Thanos - the MCU’s greatest ever villain – and they are more than a match for the Mad Titan.
Sure, the book features an excellent villain in Thanos. But so much more than that, it has a compelling mystery, resulting in an incredibly captivating story. Thanos is merely an entrée; the Eternals themselves are the main course. They’re under attack, and it only makes sense that they’re being betrayed from within. Past actions come to light and longtime grudges play out. Alliances are formed in the common interest of survival. As investigations play out, character motivations and choices come to light that change the reader’s understanding of what’s going on, and what’s about to happen next. As the book’s climax plays out, we’ve undertaken a hugely satisfying journey that’s capped off with a compelling ending.
One of the most interesting things about contemporary comics is seeing present-day creators take a title from years past and actually build it into something more than it was previously. Gillen and Ribić’s work matches the best ever Eternals previous releases, a huge effort given the legendary stature of Jack Kirby and Neil Gaiman. What’s most exciting is that this feels like the run that the characters need to cement them as characters that require regular comic book releases. As they continue to release high quality issues, it’s very hard to imagine that once they finally finish their run, Marvel Comics will wait another decade before the sixth Eternals title. Conversely, it’s a very optimistic outlook to think there will be a second Eternals movie happening in the next decade, or possibly ever.
Want more of 2021’s greatest comics? Visit Amazon to purchase the full length ‘Best Comic Books of 2021’ book or eBook. It contains 45 detailed essays reviewing the year's best comic book titles.
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