I finished reading Jack Kirby's
The Eternals. It's a weird beast, and I went in expecting unused ideas from New Gods but it is different. New Gods is him mixing the cosmic with the Prisoner and is about his optimism of youth, while The Eternals, taking into account the old saw as "superhero as new mythology" brings back a sense of scale. Boy, does he.
(why is there a Stan Lee signature on this?)
The Eternals instead is inspired by Chariot of the Gods mixed with a sense of breath-taking epic scale, and manages in a world of flying men constantly doing the impossible make the Celestials mind-boggling in scope and power. They are unknowable but there is a hope that one day mankind can evolve to do it. There's a sense that the Deviants are the recurring threat but they aren't necessarily the "villains". Kro is the most face-forward opponent but he does come up with plots but it's also implied they are the products of a broken culture and the Deviants have capacity for good. I feel like this is a series with antagonists but it isn't about the villains, the primary concern is meeting the worth of the unknowable gods and even the mystery of "what are we even supposed to do in this world." The Gods are real but can't provide answers, not out of evil but simply because it would be impossible for a human to explain stuff to an ant.
Most of the protagonists aren't interesting but there are some good ones. Thena is a watered down Big Barda but she gets two great sidekicks, the beautiful Reject, a deviant who looks human (and strikingly handsome) whose visage belies his barbarism while Karkas, another Deviant, is desperately trying to rip himself a way from his hateful culture. Sersi is also really great, a sorceress who calls people ding dongs and seems to enjoy her power instead of being boring and bloviating like most of them. And her bestie is an older stuffy but good-hearted dude who she either is interested in or at least enjoys watching his mind get absolutely blown with each revelation and enjoys seeing the world through his eyes. Kro is also great, a devil-looking guy who leads the Deviant armies but seems to have a philosophy beyond "WAR!" There's a lot of untapped potential in him and I worry that most other writers made him a regular baddie or at best Magneto for Deviants. It's a shame because I really like him as a co-lead but a messier anti-hero than the other characters. But Ikaris, Makkari, Zuras are damned snoozes, just boring white dudes flying around and saying Kirby stuff but without a real tangible identity (Makkari comes close but that's simply because he doesn't MIND having fun sometimes).
The Eternals never gets to where it is headed, but there are a lot of interesting promises made. It wants to be a little more mysterious and ponderous but after the "Uni-Mind" story, the series loses it's way. There's an interesting annual (where it isn't clear where it takes place in the timeline) and a one-off with an unnamed Eternal but then there's a bizarre two and a half-parter with a cosmic powered robot Hulk. It's clear this story is the result of editorial mandates for a Marvel character appearance and Kirby probably didn't want this to take place in Marvel continuity proper (it is implied that Marvel Comics are fictional in the Eternals) and the compromise of Hulk but Not Hulk made NO ONE happy. The action is actually pretty good and it's a source of unintentionally fun dumbness but it reduces the series to generic action rather than action that spices up the actual central narrative. Then the Hulk disappears (where) and a new, actually scary villain shows up but he and the villain following reduce the series to something more generic. the last 5 issues have great Kirby action pacing but everything else feels like a detour from the interesting stuff and considering it's cancelled, it never gets to right the ship.
Eternals is worth checking out but once they get out of the Uni-Mind, the giant life-form made up of most of the Eternals, this element seemingly designed to kick off act two with a stronger sense of direction for the Eternals mission (which is implied to be bringing humans, Eternals and Deviants together as one), instead, it's all just chucked to the winds. Shame, it could have been Kirby's true epic. But when Kirby makes plans, editorial laughs...
