The Eternals is a Marvel comic book maxi-series, revisiting the characters created by Jack Kirby. It’s mostly written by Peter B. Gillis (Walt Simonson took over as writer for the last four issues)
Whereas Kirby’s initial series had mostly stayed separate from the shared Marvel universe, the characters subsequently made guest appearances in comics such as Iron Man, The Mighty Thor and The Avengers. Additionally, several backup stories in What If? had expanded on their origins and connected them to Jim Starlin’s Titans.
All of which means that this second series, following on from those guest appearances, starts in a very different situation to the end of the last one. Zuras, leader of the Eternals, has now been killed by the Eternals’ creators, the Celestials. The Celestials have also left Earth, at least for the next few decades. Brother Tode, leader of their enemies the Deviants (and a recurring villain for the first series), has been defeated and killed by the Eternals. Tode’s general and right-hand man, Kro, has gone into hiding.
And most Eternals have left Earth to explore space, prompted by their newly revealed connection to the Titans.
With their hidden city of Olympia almost deserted, the few remaining Eternals on Earth now find themselves following a new leader and facing a new threat, as a sinister power rises to replace Tode’s regime in the Deviant city of Lemuria.
The Eternals (1985) provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Ghaur and Ahqlau try to disguise the kidnapped Margo Damian as a Deviant, not realizing that their transformation device isn’t correctly calibrated for humans. Margo is transformed but dies in the process.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Ghaur acquires a Celestial’s power, but finds himself merely a puppet in a body controlled by the Dreaming Celestial. And then he’s evicted from the body entirely, with his spirit seemingly fading into nothingness.
- Back for the Finale: Cybele is briefly introduced in the first issue, but isn’t mentioned again and plays no part in the rest of the series until the last few issues (after Walt Simonson took over as writer).
- Big Bad: Ghaur until the very end of the series, when the Dreaming Celestial starts to wake and he finds himself out of his depth.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Sersi, after Ghaur realises she’s impersonated Yrdisis and catches her by surprise. She’s programmed to kill Ikaris - and does kill Dave Chatterton before regaining her senses.
- Challenging the Chief: Ikaris is increasingly unhappy with Thena’s leadership and successfully challenges her for the role of Prime Eternal.
- Chekhov's Gun: In the first issue, Makkari uses hologram projectors to hide the low attendance at Thena’s coronation. Towards the end of the series, Karkas (the only other attendee who was actually physically there) uses the same device to trick Ghaur into believing that Ikaris is still in Olympia.
- Corrupt Church: Ghaur and the Deviant priesthood, who’ve been lying to their believers and plotting for a very long time.
- Crossover Finale: The West Coast Avengers join the final battle against Ghaur.
- Dead Man Writing: Zuras left an important final message for his daughter Thena. Too bad that she Stopped Listening Too Soon.
- Evil Is Not a Toy: Ghaur taps into the Dreaming Celestial’s power. It doesn’t go quite the way he’d hoped.
- The Exile: After she’s caught assisting Kro and ousted as Prime Eternal, Ikaris declares that Thena is exiled from Olympia and all Eternal sanctuaries for the rest of her life.
- Fake Action Prologue: After a very minor cameo in the first issue, Kingo is introduced as a lone samurai, “last of the old breed”, attacked by a horde of vampires. After two pages of fighting, it’s revealed to be a scene for his latest film (with Ransak as one of the stunt performers).
- Faking the Dead: The Deviant priesthood of Lemuria has been doing this on a grand scale. Those sent to the ‘fire pits’ are actually spared and placed in cryogenic storage. On the other hand, they also have their minds erased.
- Hologram Projection Imperfection: When Thena’s formally appointed as the new Prime Eternal, most of the others fail to turn up for the ceremony and disguise their absence with holograms. This is fine until Ikaris’s image very visibly glitches...
- Interrupted Suicide: Dave Chatterton jumps from a skyscraper. Sersi sees him falling, telekinetically stops him, and explains that she’ll only drop him if he can provide a sufficiently good reason. He doesn’t.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Margo Damian, Ikaris’s love interest (introduced in the original Kirby series), is killed towards the end of this one.
- After being saved by Sersi at the start of the series, Dave Chatterton is killed by a brainwashed Sersi towards the end.
- Leaking Can of Evil: The Dreaming Celestial towards the end of the series, after Ghaur successfully taps into its power (and is promptly reminded that Evil Is Not a Toy).
- Meet Cute: Khoryphos tries to follow Thena and Kro through a teleporter, and ends up in the Deviant artist Yrdisis’s house, in Lemuria. Firstly she’s scared because he’s an Eternal. Then, after he clarifies that he’s not violent and more of an artist than a warrior, she’s awkward and embarrassed because he clearly understands and loves her art, and is gushing about it. And she quite likes him. But he’s the enemy. So she flees the room in a confused state. By the end of the series, they work it out.
- Mercy Kill: Kro’s friend, the mighty Cataphrax, has his mind erased after loop the priesthood fakes his death and puts him into cryogenic storage. After they wake him and realize his condition, a grieving Kro asks Thena to grant Cataphrax a cleaner death.
- Mind Control: Ghaur’s psychic powers allow this over any Deviant whose genetic code he’s studied. He can also turn them into People Puppets.
- Mugging the Monster: Three gang members decide to assault a man sleeping on the New York subway, then turn on the only other passenger in the carriage. Unfortunately, they’re both Deviants, and the gang comes to a very nasty end. One of the Deviants directly says that they wouldn’t have bothered the humans if they hadn’t attacked first...
- Offing the Offspring: One Deviant recognizes his supposedly dead father in Ghaur’s mindwiped army and defies the priests by rushing forward to greet him. His father shoots him dead.
- Out of Focus: Sprite appears at Thena’s coronation, at the very start of the series (or, at least, his hologram does). But we don’t see him as part of the story after that.
- People Puppets:
- Ghaur can do this to any Deviant whose genetic code he’s studied. It’s backed up by his Mind Control powers too, giving him a very strong position in Lemuria.
- Inverted with a touch of Laser-Guided Karma when Ghaur successfully taps into the Dreaming Celestial’s power and it promptly takes control of his body.
- Rapid Aging: The fate of Ghaur’s mindwiped Legion of the Condemned.
- The Resistance: Kro’s loyalists in Lemuria. Unfortunately, Ghaur’s powers mean that they’re easily infiltrated and turned.
- The Reveal: Kro has been influencing Thena via mind-control technology - a ‘brain mine’ - for most of the series
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Dreaming Celestial is portrayed this way. Although it becomes a Leaking Can of Evil once Ghaur’s plan progresses.
- Stopped Reading Too Soon: Or stopped listening, in this case. Zuras left a final recorded message for Thena, his daughter and successor. But a grief-stricken Thena throws it away before listening to the dire warnings at the end.
