A Brief History Of The Eternals

Run Through Their Comic History

By Culture SlatePublished 4 years ago • 3 min read

Eternals, Marvel’s latest movie in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is showing exclusively in cinemas now. There are a lot of people out there asking the question, “Who are the Eternals?” Most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies released so far have dealt with well known iconic characters and superheroes, so this question is no real surprise. With that in mind, let’s look at how the Eternals came into being within Marvel Comics. Like a lot of Marvel Comics characters, this all harks back to the vision of Jack Kirby. He had to go round the houses to create what he wanted, and it was certainly worth the wait.

The Eternals are an extra-terrestrial race of humanoids that made their first appearance in Marvel Comics’ Eternals #1 in 1976. They are loosely based on various bits of mythology. Back in 1970, Jack Kirby had moved from Marvel Comics to DC Comics where he started working on New Gods which was a mix of both mythology and science fiction. However, DC Comics canceled the run before it could reach its ending. Kirby then returned to the Marvel Comics' fold and started working on a series called The Celestials. Marvel Comics had wanted to change the title to Return of the Gods complete with a cover that resembled Erich von Danikan’s book Chariot of the Gods. To avoid any legal repercussions Marvel Comics eventually decided to rename the series to Eternals.

The theme of The Eternals saga was very similar to New Gods, which is not surprising given Kirby’s clear interest in both science fiction and mythology. Unfortunately, the Marvel Comics' Eternals series was destined to suffer the same fate as Kirby’s New Gods run with DC Comics in that it was canceled before reaching a proper conclusion.

The Eternals story was then continued by writers Mark Gruenwald and Roy Thomas. The two were able to close out some of the plot points that were left open after the cancellation of the original series with the story concluding in Thor #301 in 1980. Although there was no desire to continue an Eternals comic run, the Eternals would make appearances in various other titles.

The Eternals returned for a twelve-issue run in 1985 with writer Peter B. Gillis. It was said that the final four issues were written by Walter Simonson due to Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter disliking the scripts that Gillis had prepared. After this run ended, the Eternals would take a hiatus from the comics.

Fast forward to the year 2000 with a one-shot issue New Eternals: Apocalypse Now #1, which features the Eternals and X-Men villain Apocalypse. In 2003 the Eternals were rebooted into a new series called The Eternal under writer Chuck Austin.

The legendary Neil Gaiman then stepped in to create and write a new Eternals mini-series in 2006. The series was originally supposed to be six issues but there was so much material that they added in an extra one, taking the run to seven. Marvel Comics then embarked on a new ongoing Eternals series which featured nine issues and an annual and ran from 2008 to 2009. Following this, the Eternals went on hiatus once again. The Eternals did return in the Avengers comics in 2018 under Jason Aaron with a storyline focusing on the Dark Celestials.

This brings us to the present. With Kevin Feige announcing an Eternals movie as part of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is no surprise that Marvel Comics would decide to relaunch the comics series. Writer Kieron Gillen would resurrect the Eternals characters in a new ongoing series that launched in early 2021.