Eternals #13



The Deviants prepare to launch a giant bomb into space, to destroy the Celestials mothership.



it will be piloted by astronauts. meanwhile, Earth's own space shuttle is being tested by its crew. They encounter the Celestial mothership.

Meanwhile, at Olympia, Sprite observes the events, while the others join in the Uni-Mind. He knows something must be done. he ventures into a forbidden area and eats up with The Forgotten One, an Eternal banished by Zuras, because of his pride (sounds familiar). he was an ancient hero on Earth, known by many names. Sprite fits him out in space armor and launches him in a spacecraft. the various astronaut groups collide and swap places. The Deviants attack the humans, while the hero tries to stop the Deviant bomb. The Humans survive re-entry to Earth, on the hero's ship. The Deviants are killed when the earth shuttle breaks up over water. The hero succeeds in stopping the bomb and is seen floating, lifeless, in space.

Excellent fast-paced episode, which introduces the Forgotten One, aka Hero, aka Gilgamesh.



I've always considered the space armor to be one of Kirby's best cosmic designs. It is simple, yet epic. It acts as a statement about the hero, that he is just what he seems, a simple champion for mankind. In ancient days he was Gilgamesh, Herakles/Hercules, Samson, and more. He is like Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion, but on the same plane of existence, living through time. I would have liked to have seen more, though the spare use of him makes him stand out. he is a key element in Roy Thomas' use of the Eternals in Thor and one of the better rendered characters in Thomas' hands. Alas, he disappears from the story again, as do most of the Eternals, as it centers more around Thor and other gods against the Celestials, rather than the eternals. This is why I always felt the Eternals should have been in their own universe, as Kirby intended.

First up; things have been sporadic lately, with preparations for moving. Probably won't stabilize until October; so, things may go slow.

Eternals #14



The Hulk runs into the Eternals!

sort of....

In a scene right out of Real Genius...



A pair of college students have created a Hulk robot, for a half-time show.



Of course, their professor puts the bummer on the deal, so the idea is shelved. or would be, if the Uni-Mind hadn't pulled a bunch of cosmic particles down to Earth, in a plot convenience. Said Uni-Mind breaks up and the Eternals separate, without ever really achieving anything from it, in regards to stopping the Celestials (or even affecting them). Sersi wants a party (Sersi always wants a party) and one of the human guests wants to head home. Makarri takes them in his new hot rod, when Hulk robot smash! This being comics, his rampage brings him on an intercept course with the Eternals and Ikaris leaps to the fray, when time runs out, just as the fight gets going, like an old-school pro wrestling tv program.

Not really a lot going on in this one; it's mostly set up for the fight next issue. Kirby was being pushed to integrate the Marvel Universe more; but, he resisted. hence, the Hulk is a student-created robot, animated by "cosmic particles" (which sounds like a euphemism for narcotics). The Uni-Mind has come to an abrupt end, with nothing really occurring; so, you are left wondering what was the point? I don't know if Kirby was losing interest or if editorial demands were throwing off his rhythm, or whether the criticisms were getting to him; but, Kirby does seem like he lost the narrative thread. It will take a few issues for him to get back to the Celestials. You get the sense that he was building to a climax with the Uni-Mind; but was told not to resolve it yet and gave in.

Eternals #16



Zuras intercedes in the fight and shows up his son, by releasing the cosmic energy power the Hulk Robot. Hulkbot jumps away, streaming cosmic fire, while Ikaris pouts. Zuras suddenly becomes the center of attention and speaks of sharing knowledge with the populace, for mutual benefit (sounds like we are getting back on track here). Hulkbot, smashes below the streets and runs into something that unleashes a massive fire on the city. Zuras takes care of it and Ikaris pouts. Zuras goes to investigate and finds the containment helmet of the Dromedan, a creature created by the Deviants, to destroy the eternals. It has massive mental powers, which it uses to make Ikaris and Makarri fight. Uh, oh........this cannot be good!

Zuras's appearance feels very deus ex machina and, like Odin, tends to so overpower his children you wonder why they are needed. Kirby wraps up Hulkbot and moves onto something bigger; but, the last couple of issues still seem like a pointless diversion. I suspect the writing was on the wall and Kirby decided to just go out in a blaze of glory.

Great to see the thread return! I'll get back to commenting on the earlier posts later but I just wanted to respond to this bit for now: I think you're absolutely right about Kirby being under pressure to integrate the Eternals into the MU and resisting that pressure, but I think there was another reason behind the Uni-Mind kind of fizzling after the big build-up: running through the series there is a repeated message that the key to earth surviving this encounter with the Celestials' Fourth Host is for Eternals, humans, and Deviants to reconcile their differences. The Uni-Mind in question was composed almost entirely of Eternals, with IIRC Margo and the professor as  the only human participants. I think a later climax of the series might have been a Uni-Mind that successfully incorporated not only Eternals but also humans and Deviants in large numbers. But I imagine this could only have taken place far down the road, because at this point in the story the antagonism between Eternals and Deviants is still so great - which is why I believe that the 3-issue story of Thena in Deviant Lemuria is one of the crucial turning points of the series and that the Thena/Reject/Karkas storyline would have been extremely important to its later development.

I did not like his art as much when he returned to Marvel. Seemed rushed, a little sloppy, lots of miss aligned eyes and very stiff poses. He really loved those two page splashes, as it may have allowed him to work a little faster, not sure. I liked some of his DC stuff prior to his return to Marvel, like Kamandi, and OMAC, but it all seemed rushed there as well, and those stories seemed to just introduce weird stuff instead of really moving the story along.

About a decade ago I started re-reading his Black Panther series, and just couldn't get past 3 issues. Yes the art is cool, but again a bit sloppy, almost a caricature of the Kirby style. I hated the plots, and dialog, of those Black Panther books, just not a fun, a real chore to get through.

His last few issues of FF were the start of the DC look, and he brought that look back to Marvel.

I think all the super size epic stories and scenes in the Kirby stuff just gets tired, to my eyes. I would like to re-read this stuff at some time, if I ever collect them again.

It's obviously not going to be popular opinion on this thread, but I would say that all the material Kirby did for Marvel after his return was poor (I would actually go with "dreadful", but let's not quibble) - the art just looked klunky and old-fashioned, particularly the incredibly stiff covers he did for non-Kirby books like Avengers, and as for his writing ...!