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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2017 17:15:23 GMT -5
This is one heck of a panel. So much action and you can visualize the action to yourself and imagine what's happening here without reading the book!
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Post by kirby101 on Jul 25, 2017 17:41:17 GMT -5
And the one from #10 is pretty awesome.  Though one poster here doesn't think this is great art.  |
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Post by LovesGilKane on Jul 26, 2017 5:52:50 GMT -5
how? i've loved that since i bought it off the spinner.
i always loved how Kirby made 'black' vibrate with LIFE. not merely be an absence of light.
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Post by LovesGilKane on Jul 26, 2017 5:57:32 GMT -5
thx for this thread, codystarbuck  i love the King through all decades, but am a sci-fi/fantasy/myth person, so Eternals always meant more to me than Captain America. |
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Post by tarkintino on Jul 28, 2017 8:57:53 GMT -5
Though one poster here doesn't think this is great art. There's more than one in here who pointed out the degraded skills over the years. |
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Post by kirby101 on Jul 28, 2017 10:40:45 GMT -5
Though one poster here doesn't think this is great art. There's more than one in here who pointed out the degraded skills over the years. I think by the time he did Captain Victory, Sliverstar and definitely Super Powers, that was the case. I think his work in the Eternals and 2001 was still good Kirby. AND you are moving the goal post, since you said his work from the Silver Age on was choppy and distracting. A time when many think he was in his prime glory. So your "degraded skills" argument doesn't pass muster. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 28, 2017 13:37:53 GMT -5
Hmmm, I think both the art and writing in Capt. Victory - the first 6 or so issues anyway - are superior to most of Kirby's output during his second tenure at Marvel in the 1970s.
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Post by kirby101 on Jul 28, 2017 14:48:05 GMT -5
Hmmm, I think both the art and writing in Capt. Victory - the first 6 or so issues anyway - are superior to most of Kirby's output during his second tenure at Marvel in the 1970s. I don't remember it that way. But I might have to revisit Cap Victory to reassess. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 1, 2017 14:34:48 GMT -5
Eternals #11  "The Russians are Coming!" Whoops; wrong Russians! At Olympia, Zuras has sounded the call, gathering the Eternals to form the Uni-Mind!  Margo is there with Ikaris and Sersi arrives with Prof Holden. Even Japanese actors (Eternals in disguise) show up. Meanwhile, the Russians react to a Celestial on their doorstep. general Gershkov advocates attacking it, even though it has harmed nothing. Gen. Vulcannin acts as the voice of reason, calling for study by scientists. In the end, power is invested in Greshkov and Vulcannin departs. He is met by his aids and they leave in a helicopter. Away from prying eyes, it drops the illusion and reveals 4 Eternals: Valkin, his son Druig and Aginar and Zarin. They head for Olympia, while the others taunt Druig about his attachments to his work in the KGB. They arrive at Olympia and are attacked by other Eternals. It turns out there is a rivalry between these Delphan Eternals and the Polar Eternals, led by Valkin. Even Ikaris gets involved, until Valkin stops everything with powerful lightning. He warns that the Russians mean to attack a celestial and we see a missile launched at it, which the Celestial turns around and sends back at the Russians. We end with a Boje Moi! and a lot of brown trousers. We are then promised the Uni-Mind, in the next issue.  Valkin is one of the oldest Eternals, and one of the most powerful. he is a surrogate father to Ikaris, after the destruction of his Father, Virakko (seen in Thor Annual #7). His son Druig is a schemer and will cause many problems, in the issues to come and said Thor Annual, as well as in the Thor issues, covering Roy Thomas' take on the Eternals. Valkin is typical of Kirby's wise old men, who are a bit cold and distant, and chastising to their offspring. One wonders about his relationship with his father. His memoir, Streetwise, never shows him, only his mother. I find that interesting. He worked as a tailor, cutting material for trousers, but made little money. he worked long hours and Kirby took up professional art work to help the family. Soon, he was earning more than his father. Ikaris shows that he is a bit of a butthead, as he gets involved in the brawling with the Polar Eternals, until Uncle Valkin puts a stop to things. Kirby shows an amazing variety of beings, as the Eternals gather. He also indulges in action, via the brawl. Even the Russian exposition scenes are intriguing and pull you in. Kirby is a master at work, showing the level of his storytelling. No argument will ever convince me his skills were deteriorating at this time. He had evolved into a more abstract form, to be sure, as he was dealing in more allegorical concepts. His figures are gods, acting within their myths and epic sagas. They were power in two dimensions. Captain America may have gone down a weird path (and I will get to that, down the road); but, in Eternals, the 2001 expanded series, machine man, and even Devil Dinosaur, Kirby was moving in realms way beyond the generations that followed and it would take years for the rest to catch up. By the next decade, Kirby's art had suffered, as health problems affected his eyesight and the steadiness of his hand; but, never his brain or his storytelling. His line may have been less assured, shakier; but, his storytelling was still at the apex. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 1, 2017 15:34:31 GMT -5
Eternals #12  The Uni-Mind and Ajak goes up against an Incan wrestler, and Machu Picchu Square Garden! Thena arrives on Olympia, in a flash, bringing with her the Reject and Karkas. The Ladies Love Cool Reject and Thena warns them off, a bit. Karkas is seen as a monster, though Thena speaks of his gentle soul. Karkas collapses from his wounds and Thena calls for aid. She then tells Reject that he must learn to love others, that love includes respect for the dignity of others. She commands him to remain with Karkas and watch over him, until help arrives.  Back in the Andes, at the Celestial landing site, Ajak finds Dr Damian pouring over tablets. He gets him to take a break and they walk around the temple. Ajak uses a projector in his helmet and brings a hieroglyph to life, that of an Incan wrestler. he grapples with his foe, before rearranging the atmos back to a picture.  Back on Olympia, the eternals are flying in a circular formation, along with their human guests.  They merge together in a blinding light and the Uni=Mind emerges.  The flash of energy is seen in areas nearby and humans wonder at the phenomena. All the players are now together and Thena has put Reject together with his previous opponent, Karkas. Reject must now learn to care for another. Ajak offers diversion to Dr Damian and shows a compassion that hasn't been as evident, in the past. The Uni-Mind is formed, and it is a weird sight. Some nice character stuff here, including Kirby's philosophy of love. He continues building the characters and firmly puts Reject and Karkas into a duo. He also dazzles us with more mind-blowing (and mind building, in the form of the Uni-Mind) concepts. He does hint that the Eternals may have a weapon, in the Uni-Mind, that can stop or influence the Celestials, to ensure Earth survives. At his point, aside from the word SHIELD being used with the agents who came into the Andes, the series has remained outside the Marvel Universe (the Sersei scene, turning a bystander into Ben Grimm could have been from a comic book, rather than the actual Thing). Kirby wanted this to be self contained. We will soon see the Hulk; but, on Kirby's terms. The series won't be fully integrated until Roy Thomas puts the Eternals into Thor, about 3 years later. Thomas does a decent job in that saga, though the Eternals are subservient to Thor, as characters, and he handles some better than others. He does use Reject and Karkas well, but I felt he dropped the ball on Thena and Kro. The Forgotten One does get a nice arc, though. Kirby will introduce us to him, later. |
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Post by berkley on Aug 8, 2017 1:50:55 GMT -5
Eternals #7  It's alive, I tells ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Time for the Fourth Host, because the priest dropped the other three............. BA-DUMP-BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (by the way, did you see the pope said no to a gluten-free host? My question is, what do vegans do at communion?) Anyway........ Dr Damian is shooting photos of the Celestials at work, gathering samples. We are introduced to some of them. There is Gammenon, the Gatherer; Jemiah, the Analyzer, and Fred, from Accounting. Off in the corner is the guy from IT, who none of the Celestials hang out with. Gammenon is scooping up stuff with a cosmic butterfly net and Ajak tells Damian that they are "life seeds", pods with living specimens. Gamenon offers one to the pair and Ajak is able to "open" it, releasing the 3 SHIELD agents Tyler, Parks and Stevenson. After a bit of "Who, what, where....." (in their best Daffy Duck voice), Dr Damian fills them in and one of the agents recognizes him and proceeds to pull a gun on him. Why is it that every SHIELD agent in the 70s and 80s was some gun-pulling jack-ass? Damn the CIA of the 60s and 70s for ruining a perfectly good super-spy organization! Anyway, Ajak (and Kirby) fill the agents (and new readers) in on the Celestial backstory and human and Eternal evolution. He tells them about the Third Host (the last time they were on Earth) and how he and a red-bearded guy (Quetzlecoatl) refueled the Celestial ships and filled out their flight plans (emptied the chemical tank, washed the windshields, polished the chrome...). Stevenson nods a lot then decides to use his "ace card" and runs spastically at the Celestials and hurls a nuclear device, which fits in the palm of his hand. Tefral, the Surveyor catches it and hands it to Serak, the Preparer............wait, that's the Simpsons...............he catches it and it explodes (damn neighbor kids and their fireworks!). His hand is smoking but intact and he calls a huddle. Next thing we know, the mothership sends down info on a lightning chain, there's a massive flash of blinding light and they are gone, leaving only Arishem, the Judge and the verdict doesn't look favorable... The other Celestials have been scattered across the globe, so you know the defecation is about to hit the oscillator! More epic Kirby, as we get a lot of scenes of giant guys collecting specimens, like massive space nerds. Might explain why we see no Celestial women. Typical government type screws the pooch for the rest of the planet, without asking anyone if they would mind. There is a strong sense of impending doom, by the end. Good point about the absence of female Celestials. I think that was definitely a flaw in Kirby's original series - not that I've seen any later writers do anything to remedy it, which would be one of the few changes or additions I'd welcome. However, the series was cancelled so quickly, I don't rule out the possibility that Kirby might have addressed this situation himself somewhere down the road. Glancing through Eternals #7, I see this was an important issue for info about the Celestials. Not only Ajak's history-digest given for the benefit of the SHIELD agents, but also in the way they interact with each other and with Ajak and the agents. A lot of clues in there that hint at what the whole thing is all about. |
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Post by The Cheat on Aug 8, 2017 14:41:32 GMT -5
How do we know they're males? Sure, our POV characters use male pronouns, but they don't know anything about them as a race.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Aug 8, 2017 15:14:57 GMT -5
I always thought the Celestials had moved far beyond biology. I don't think that they reproduce sexually, if they have to make more Celestials at all. Harnessed quantum fluctuation, that's the ticket!
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Post by berkley on Aug 8, 2017 17:35:40 GMT -5
Yes, I agree, that might have been Kirby's intention - but in that case, perhaps it was a mistake to give them uniformly male proportions, as I think is clearly the case. You could have had some with a more feminine shape without giving up the idea that they were beyond sexual, biological reproduction.
What would be the point of female Celestials if there's no sexual reproduction? The way I see it, the only reason such advanced beings have anthropomorphic shapes at all is that Kirby meant them to stand as symbols of what humanity needs to strive towards. But giving them a masculine shape exclusively seems to send the message that the male is the default for humanity as a whole.
One possibility that occurred to me is that there were female Celestials, just not on this mission. Perhaps they were doing something else, back at the Celestial home base, if they had one . Perhaps they or some of them were the even the Celestial leaders - if they had leaders. Kirby did use the masculine pronoun when referring to The One Above All, but that could be gotten around - mayeb that One Above All was only the leader of the Fourth Host to Earth, for example. I don't know if this was left open or not, I'll have to keep my eyes open next time I read the issues.
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Post by codystarbuck on Aug 9, 2017 15:55:46 GMT -5
Eternals Annual #1  Zuras and Thena observe a neanderthal rampaging through New York. Zuras recognizes it as the work of the Deviant Zakka, the Tool Master (who must have his own home improvement show on HGTV). Thena is tasked to stop him, with Reject and Karkas. They head to NY, in disguise. Zakka hides out in a small apartment, where his landlady believes he is a magician. he is using a high tech camera to project historic images, which create chaos and terror. he unleashes Jack the Ripper upon the scene. The trio arrive and Reject is out looking around, when he sees Jack try to attack a woman. he fights him off, but Jack vanishes when reject tries to shove his knife into him. Karkas encounters mongols, saving a woman and her baby brother, losing his human disguise in the process. The humans flee from their savior. They track Zakka, who runs into the Deviant mutate Titanux, who ends up battling Karkas and Reejct, with Thena helping to protect innocents. The trio save the day, of course.    This is a fun, if diverting tale, which further develops reject and Karkas, as well as their relationship with Thena. However, it has little to do with the main storyline. You get the sense that Marvel wanted an annual and Kirby obliged, even though it wasn't part of his master plan for the series. Ever the ro, Kirby delivered a quality, if minor adventure. One note, even in disguised form, karkas is a giant, which amuses the small child. he is less scared of the true Karkas than the others. In Karkas, Kirby gets a bit of depth into the story, as we see that the heroic and thoughtful Karkas is treated as just another monster, when his true form is seen. Classic stuff, there. |
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i love the King through all decades, but am a sci-fi/fantasy/myth person, so Eternals always meant more to me than Captain America.
