The series is set in its own Alternate Continuity, with no stated connection to the shared Marvel Universe.
The Eternals are humanoid aliens who serve the powerful beings known as Celestials, moving from world to world to mine resources for their masters. They have been given immortality and power, but at a high cost - the Celestials also exterminated all women of the Eternals' species.
On each world, they uplift some of the primitive inhabitants into 'deviants', physically and mentally transforming them, for use as a slave workforce. Sometimes they also use uplifted females - still not much smarter than animals - as sexual playthings.
But now they have reached Earth. And when they uplift humanity's ancestors, Homo Erectus, the ancient men of the Eternals find that these 'deviant' women are very much like the long-dead Eternal women. Close enough that they're tempted to further enhance them, to give them intelligence and language. Close enough that they may bear the Eternals' children.
The Eternals aren't overly concerned with the morality of those actions. But there are laws prohibiting this, laid down by their masters the Celestials. Are they truly prepared to break them?
The Eternal contains examples of:
- Adam and Eve Plot: Ikaeden and his pregnant lover Jeska both have their minds altered by the Apple, and are among the few survivors left to populate the world after the Celestial's visitation.
- Alternate Continuity: Completely different to the previous (and subsequent) Eternals series. And not linked into the Marvel Universe’s alternate universes in any obvious way.
- Ancient Astronauts: The Eternals are perceived as gods and some of the uplifted humans are seen building pyramids and The Sphinx, partly to honor them.
- Artificial Limbs: Kurassus has a huge, mechanical right hand. It ends in clawlike spikes, and it's not physically attached to his arm (which ends above the elbow), but still acts like a hand.
- Artistic Licence – Biology: The ape men are described as Homo Erectus, but are heavily furred and bestial. Homo Erectus was an archaic species of human, far less apelike and apparently with some body hair (which may have been sparse), not full fur.
- Berserk Button: Kro really doesn’t like being called a 'deviant'. When Agrimet uses it, it starts a fight where Kro's allies decapitate him. When Teneftu uses it, later in the same scene, he gets a spear shoved through his eye. Ikaeden later cuts Mammon off mid-sentence when Kro's present, telling him not to use that word.Kro: Deviant. That name offends me on sooooo many levels.
- Body Horror:
- The first ape woman modified by the Eternals dissolves and reshapes into a mess of blood and gore inside their machine. Ikaeden and Kurassus wonder if the process will fail entirely. And then she stabilises and adopts a very human form, becoming Jeska.
- After his final battle with Ikaeden, Kurassus is just a head and a mass of broken, torn flesh. He'll eventually heal. But he's alive and conscious through this. And then the rats come to feast - although he has enough power left to deter them.
- Bondage Is Bad: Kurassus is a murderous sadist who treats deviants as expendable sex toys. In the first issue, Ikaeden walks into his quarters while Kurassus is 'playing' and finds a dimly lit torture chamber with three restrained deviant women. Kurassus's dialogue makes it obvious that he's not finished with them yet, but it's also unclear if any of them are still alive.
- Brutal Honesty: The Eternal Semmeka discovers the deviant woman he's been sleeping with having sex with another Eternal. He asks why. She replies that he's a better lover, doesn't hurt her, and has a bigger penis. Semmeka snaps and murders both of them.
- Coitus Uninterruptus: The Eternals are perfectly happy to hold conversations while having sex.
- The banquet hall essentially becomes an orgy room. When Ikaeden visits to demand that his men spend more time working and less fornicating, they don't actually stop having sex while they reply.
- Kurassus's chambers are a very dark version of this. He's got three deviant women restrained and is 'playing' with them when Ikaeden walks in to discuss the next stage of the mission. It's unclear if they're all still alive, but his dialogue suggests they may not end that way.
- Decapitation Presentation: Kro's allies decapitate Agrimet and impale his head on a spear before proudly waving it about. He's still alive at this point, too.
- Deus ex Machina: Just as Ikaeden makes his final stand against the Celestials, some of them are struck down by falling asteroids.
- Downer Ending: Jeska's left shameful and superstitious, her frontal lobe permanently damaged by the Apple. Ikaeden inflicts the same thing on himself, telling the Celestials that this means he's no longer a threat and so they can be allowed to live. He also mentions that it will affect all of their descendants. The Celestials seemingly agree, and transport them to another part of the world. Agrimet is left behind as a severed head, and may or may not survive the meteor shower. Kro has already fled, and Mammon's fate is unknown. Everyone else is dead.
- Establishing Character Moment: Kurassus questions Ikaeden's orders, gets distracted by an ape woman's breasts, and then casually (and needlessly) kills an ape man with a wave of his hand. It’s immediately clear that he's not a pleasant person.
- Frazetta Man: The native apes are hairy, brutish humanoids until they're genetically uplifted into deviants by the Eternals.
- Gendercide: The Celestials killed all women of the Eternals' race.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Kurassus is the villain of the piece, a devious, murderous creature. His eyes glow red at times, matching his armor.
- Half the Man He Used to Be:
- When the Eternals first land and capture specimens, Kurassus cuts one attacker in half vertically with a gesture.
- Ikaeden ends his first battle with Kurassus by slicing him in half vertically. It's not actually fatal, though.
- Immortal Procreation Clause: The Celestials killed all female Eternals, and have threatened dire consequences if the male Eternals breed with another race.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- During their first battle, Kurassus skewers Ikaeden's head with the long claws of his mechanical arm. They go right through, protruding from the far side, but it's not enough to kill him.
- After he's released, Kurassus attacks an Eternal who's having sex with one of the deviants. He's stabbed in the back, and Kurassus's claws are long enough to impale his lover as well, seemingly pinning both of them to the rock wall behind them.
- When Kurassus's ally Teneftu calls Kro a 'deviant', Kro puts a thrown spear through his eye socket and out the back of his head.
- In Name Only: While ostensibly based on Jack Kirby's work, The Eternal has very little in common with the previous series, besides having races called Celestials, Eternals, and Deviants.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: The deviant women were transformed from furred apes, and don't seem to see any need for clothes once they're furless humans. As time goes on, some of them start to wear skirts, but remain topless. Later subverted when Kurassus tricks Jeska into using the Apple again, as she's suddenly very aware of her nakedness and fears that the gods will judge her.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Immediately after Agrimet grants his deviant lover speech via the Apple, Kurassus and his followers discover them. Kurassus promptly explodes her, drenching Agrimet in gore.
- Mars Needs Women: Once the Eternals have used their technology to uplift the female apes into 'deviant' human forms, they immediately note how much they look like Eternals... and start having sex with them. It's later noted that they're significantly behind schedule because the Eternals are too distracted to get on with their work.
- Neural Implanting: The Eternals in this version have a device called the Apple which allows them to give their slaves rudimentary intelligence.
- Questionable Consent: The deviant women are given more human forms, at which point the Eternals start having sex with them. In most cases they don't seem too unhappy about this, but even when the Eternals aren't actively abusive and their partners are eager to have sex, the women can't understand them, and don't (initially) have full human intelligence. Jeska eventually calls this out to Ikaeden.
- Red Right Hand: Although Eternals can regenerate from almost any wound, Kurassus has a huge mechanical right hand. It ends in sinister looking spikes, not fingers, and it hovers at the end of his arm with no physical connection. It is, of course, red.
- Scary Stitches: After his first confrontation with Ikaeden, Kurassus's head is stitched or stapled back together. They're very visible, in a vertical line down his face that shows the join.
- Uplifted Animal: The Eternals use technology to transform the savage ape men into more human forms, boosting their intelligence as well. And because the Eternals are all male and Mars Needs Women, the uplifted women are further boosted to give them speech and human intelligence.
- The Voiceless: The Celestials never speak, they merely listen and act. The Eternals' conversations suggest that they are not mute, though.
