"Five hundred years or five thousand. Five million, even. No matter what it takes, no matter what tactics they employ, we will prevail and protect this world from the Deviant menace"
— Ajak, Eternals: The 500 Year War #7
Eternals: The 500 Year War is an Infinity Comics webcomic from Marvel Comics, a limited series based around the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Marvel's Eternals.
Arishem the Celestial created the Eternals and sent them to Earth thousands of years ago, ordering them to protect it from the Deviants. But by the 16th century, the Deviants seem to be defeated and extinct, and the immortal Eternals are no longer occupied by their task. A plan for one last sweep of Earth reunites the group in their old home of Babylon, where they collect their belongings from their long-hidden spaceship, the Domo, and prepare to go their separate ways.
Sorting through some of the items in the ship brings back old memories - and the Eternals' illusionist, Sprite, takes the opportunity to tell stories about how they were acquired.
Each issue of the series focuses on a different setting and different Eternals, with a Time Skip between each tale.
Dan Abnett writes the first and last issues, which contain the bulk of the Framing Story, with art by Geoffo and color art by Matt Milla. Each of the other issues has its own creative team, typically creators with a connection to the culture or region the issue is set in.
- #2 - In 1084 CE. Makkari and Druig hunt a murderous Deviant in the Japanese city of Heian-Kyo. Written by Aki Yanaga, with art by Rickie Yagawa and color art by Carlos Macias.
- #3 - In 1142 CE, Sprite and Kingo uncover a nest of Deviants with strange powers in Korea. Written by Jongmin Shin and Ju-Yeon Park, with art by Do Gyun Kim and color art by Fernando Sifuentes.
- #4 - In 1238 CE, Ajak and Phastos visit Córdoba for the consecration of the Great Mosque as a Christian Cathedral, only to be attacked by Deviants. Written by David Macho, with art by Magda Price and color art by Pete Pantazis.
- #5 - In 1520 CE, Thena helps to navigate an Andalusian ship through the South Atlantic, finding a shipwreck, Gilgamesh, and a fearsome aquatic Deviant. Written by Rafael Scavone, with art by Marcio Fiorito and color art by Felipe Sobreiro.
- #6 - Sersi and Ikaris visit China during the Ming Dynasty and find that construction work on the Great Wall is threatened by a battle between a Deviant and a dragon. Written by Yifan Jiang with art by Gunji and color art by Pete Pantazis.
As with Marvel's other Infinity Comic webcomics, it's a single-column vertically scrolling comic that's designed to be readable on a phone screen, rather than using a traditional comic book approach to panels and pages.
As an Infinity Comic, the series is initially only available via the Marvel Unlimited app.
The full series was released January 12, 2022.
Eternals: The 500 Year War provides examples of:
- Adventure Towns: Each of the stories is set in a different part of the world. Japan, Korea, Spain, the South Atlantic ocean and China.
- Asian Fox Spirit: The Deviants preying on 12th century Korea are viewed as Kumiho - malevolent fox spirits - by the people who encounter them. They're using a bead radiating cosmic energy to boost their powers, which adds to the myth.
- Been There, Shaped History:
- Phastos showed humans how to make 'fire medicine', and is appalled to see how it's been weaponised as gunpowder.
- Sprite uses her illusions to illustrate the true history of Korea for the scholar Bu-Sik Kim, after he helps the Eternals to defeat the Deviants. She later wonders if this is why his great history, the Samguk Sagi, was so powerful and enduring.
- Implied but never stated in Thena's story. In 1520 CE she's navigating a ship from Seville through uncharted waters in the South Atlantic, with the captain talking about Portuguese routes. Those details match the Magellan expedition, but the captain and ship are never named.
- Blatant Lies: When Ajak and Phastos visit Córdoba, she claims that they're "mere pilgrims" who heard about the new cathedral and got permission to see the building. In other circumstances, this might have been plausible. But not after directly getting Pope Gregory to write and approve the visit. The bishop immediately tells them he's not buying their story, but he will respect their privacy and follow the Pope's instructions.
- Combat Tentacles: The huge aquatic Deviant that Thena and Gilgamesh confront in the South Atlantic is a Tentacled Terror that uses them to grapple enemies.
- Enemy Rising Behind: When Thena finds Gilgamesh in the South Atlantic, he's standing on the wreckage of his ship, sole survivor of a Deviant attack. He tells Thena that it didn't attack him, though - perhaps it was scared? Thena, who gets a good look at the huge tentacle rising behind him, decides that he was just being used as bait...
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Unlike the previous stories, the most prominent human in Thena's tale - the ship's captain she's accompanying - doesn't even get a name. He's only ever referred to as the captain.
- Fighting a Shadow: When Kingo's energy blast catches the Kumiho (actually a Deviant) preying on 12th century Korea, it vanishes without a body. Sprite confirms that it wasn't an illusion, and Bu-Sik Kim describes it as one of the 'tails' of the Kumiho, just an aspect of the true being.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Deviants are murderous horrors with glowing orange eyes. Exactly how much they actually glow depends on the artist, but it's very visible in the Japan and Córdoba stories.
- Historical Domain Character:
- Druig and Makkari ally with the famous samurai and commander Yoshiie Minamoto (Hachimantarō) when hunting Deviants in 11th century Japan.
- Sprite and Kingo encounter the historian and scholar Bu-Sik Kim while he's compiling the great Korean national history, the Samguk Sagi.
- When Ajak and Phastos visit Córdoba, they're welcomed by Lope de Fitero, the future Bishop of Córdoba, and Juan de Soria, the Bishop of Osma. Pope Gregory doesn't appear in the story, but apparently knows Ajak well enough to vouch for her in a letter to Bishop de Soria.
- Hive Queen: The surviving Deviant that Druig and Makkari fought in Japan eventually replicates some of Druig's powers. By the time the assembled Eternals face it in 15th century China, it's controlling the other Deviants in a Hive Mind. When Thena kills it, all of the others die as well.
- How We Got Here: The story starts in Babylon, with the Eternals gathered to retrieve their possessions from the Domo, then leads into flashback tales.
- Human Resources: Discussed. Bu-Sik Kim mentions that the Kumiho gains its power and immortality from eating human livers. It's later shown that it's a Deviant drawing power from a bead charged with cosmic energy, but Sprite still uses it an an excuse for liver comments and jokes about foie gras.Sprite: I didn't know the human liver could do such a thing. That's amazing.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The Korean high priest who starts telling Bu-Sik Kim about Kumiho is promptly Killed Mid-Sentence, stabbed In the Back by a Deviant. It has very long claws, which protrude several feet from his chest and stomach.
- Infinite Canvas: As with Marvel's other Infinity Comics, it’s presented in the vertical scrolling variant. Each issue is a single long page, with one column of panels.
- In the Back: The Korean high priest who starts telling Bu-Sik Kim about Kumiho is promptly Killed Mid-Sentence and Impaled with Extreme Prejudice when a Deviant appears behind him.
- Kappa: The Deviant preying on Heian-Kyo isn't a Kappa, but the people of the city don't know that, and tend to refer to it that way (or, alternatively, as an Oni).
- Keystone Army: When Thena kills the Hive Queen in the final battle, every other Deviant in the Hive Mind drops dead as well.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: In an isolated Korean temple, the high priest starts telling Bu-Sik Kim about the Kumiho who's been preying on the countryside, only to be stabbed In the Back and fatally Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by her claws.High Priest: We've been tracking her for hundreds of years, and according to the latest news—
[SHHNNK]High Priest: Urg! - Kraken and Leviathan: Thena and Gilgamesh encounter a huge aquatic Deviant in the South Atlantic, a Tentacled Terror big enough to wreck ships. Some of the crew on Thena's ship immediately decide it's the Kraken.
- The Mutiny: Thena orders her ship's captain to hold position while she and Gilgamesh dive into the ocean to fight a huge Deviant. Unfortunately, some of the crew immediately decide it's the Kraken. By the time the two Eternals resurface there's been a mutiny and the ship's moving on, with the captain left behind on a makeshift raft of floating wreckage.
- Named Weapons: The katana Onikirimaru ("Demon Slayer"), a gift to Makkari, is a Public Domain Artifact that supposedly acquired that name after chopping off a demon's arm. Minamoto, mind-controlled by Druig, does actually sever a Deviant's arm with his sword shortly before offering the gift and explaining its name, but it's not directly implied to be the same katana.
- Oni: The Deviant preying on Heian-Kyo isn't an Oni, but the people of the city don't know that, and tend to refer to it that way (or, alternatively, as an Kappa). At one point Sprite starts to talk about it as a Deviant when Minamoto can hear her, but quickly corrects herself and calls it an Oni instead.
- Our Dragons Are Different: The young Sacred Dragon that Sersi and Ikaris encounter in China is a silver and gold eastern dragon. When fighting the Deviant, it wraps around it and calls down the lightning.
- Public Domain Artifact: Two of the items stored in the Eternals's spaceship Domo are famous artifacts that were gifted to them centuries ago.
- The sword Onikirimaru ("Demon Slayer"), also known as Higekiri. One of the flashback stories reveals that it was gifted to Makkari in the 11th century, by samurai Yoshiie Minamoto.
- Immediately subverted with the Samguk Sagi, the great Korean history. The document Sprite has is one of Bu-Sik Kim's original scrolls, but it was an account of his investigations into Korea's Kumiho - actually Deviants - and deliberately removed from his final version of the history. As Bu-Sik Kim told Sprite at the time, The World Is Not Ready.
- Prequel: The series, released in 2022, acts as a prequel to the 2021 Eternals film. It's their last adventure as a group (and their last clash with the Deviants) before they disperse, not reuniting until modern times and the events of the film.
- Rotating Protagonist: Each issue (apart from the first and last) focuses on just two Eternals, on a mission away from the others.
- Shock and Awe: The Sacred Dragon that Sersi and Ikaris encounter in China is capable of calling down lightning from the sky.
- Smoke Out: An aquatic variant. The Tentacled Terror Deviant that Thena and Gilgamesh fight in the waters of the South Atlantic releases a cloud of ink to cover its escape.
- Speech Bubbles: The Deviants don't get any actual dialogue, but when the various snarls and roars are in speech bubbles, the background is a distinctive pale green. As of the 2021 Eternals series, this is the same color used for Deviant speech in the Marvel Universe comics.
- Tentacled Terror: The huge aquatic Deviant that Thena and Gilgamesh face in the South Atlantic has a set of tentacles and squid-like body topped by a vaguely reptilian head. It's already destroyed one ship by the time that Thena arrives. Some of the crew on Thena's ship immediately decide it's the Kraken.
- Time Skip: There are decades (and, mostly, centuries) between each story. As the title suggests, there's about 500 years between the Eternals' first and last confrontation with these particular Deviants.
- The World Is Not Ready: Said almost word for word by Bu-Sik Kim, who decides not to include the Kumiho (actually Deviants) in his final version of the Samguk Sagi, and gives that particular scroll to Sprite instead.
- Written by the Winners: Discussed by Lope de Fitero. After bloody, inconclusive battles, a peaceful truce was negotiated between King Fernando and the Moors, for the good of Córdoba. But two years on and some people are already telling grand stories about how the Moors were 'humbled' in battle.
