Trivia / Eternals (2021)

• Creator-Driven Successor: The book can be seen as one to Gillen's Journey Into Mystery run with Kid Loki. Both books feature immortal beings who try to change and reinvent themselves despite outside forces.
• Follow the Leader: The data pages and the Eternals having Resurrective Immortality makes the book very similar to Jonathan Hickman's reinvention of the X-Men titles in the Krakoan Age era. To be fair, the Eternals have always had some level of immortality (and the Neil Gaiman miniseries gave them a resurrection mechanic), but the data pages are new.
• In Memoriam: One special, The Heretic, is dedicated to artist Ryan Bodenheim, who died while illustrating it. Edgar Salazar completed the unfinished artwork.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: With the then-upcoming MCU film, it was a given that Marvel would be relaunching their book for multimedia synergy.
• Schedule Slip:
  • Originally scheduled for November 2020 (much like the MCU film it was promoting), COVID-19 shifted the first issue's release to January 2021.
  • The third special, The Heretic, was intended to be read before issue #10, but slipped a few weeks. This means that reading issue #10 first spoils some elements of it.
• Shrug of God: In September 2022, after the series ended, Kieron Gillen invited fans to ask questions about his work via social media. However, he politely declined to answer some Eternals questions (e.g. Which of Uranos, Kronos and Oceanus is 'oldest' or 'youngest' in terms of the brothers' inbuilt sibling relationship?) as he hadn't been able to answer them in the comic itself and, as an outgoing writer, didn't want to bind or contradict his successors.
• What Could Have Been: Writer Kieron Gillen had broadly plotted out a one-off special covering Kronos and his transformation into a cosmic entity, but the series was Cut Short before it could be published. Gillen has said that he only had scope for one more special before the series ended - and the story of Uranos was deemed the more urgent one due to that character's role in the Judgment Day (Marvel Comics) crossover.
• Word of God: Pixie and Vampiro never appear in the series, and their Eternal names are never confirmed. However, Kieron Gillen has stated on social media that Vampiro is working for the Damocles Foundation (which would suggest that he's Khonchan, named in the first issue - the only other two Eternals working for the foundation are existing characters). He also stated that Pixie is one of the remaining Olympian Eternals, later linking her to Mabb. However, he's also pointed out that as God Does Not Own This World and it's not confirmed in canon, future writers (including Gillen himself) may make different decisions.
• Working Title:
  • Kieron Gillen’s newsletter referred to the series as Project Cowboy (after the Kenickie song 'Cowboy') until it was officially announced.
  • The third one-off special was initially announced as The Undying, then retitled as The Heretic a few weeks before its release.

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