Marvels Eternals’

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You know how when you make a copy of a copy, it’s not as sharp as… well… the original.?

Why am I quoting a line from Multiplicity(1996) for my Eternals review? You’ll see.

In 1970, Jack Kirby, as introverted as Stan Lee was outgoing, had had, “a gut full of Marvel” and left to joint the Distinguished Competition. Given free reign he wanted to do a comic with cosmic and science fiction themes, and created a story on a grand scale, with cosmically powered individuals, or what he called ‘New Gods’, complete with a grand scale epic vision and mind-blowing graphics. This wasn’t the Eternals. This was Kirby’s ‘New Gods’ and it was awesome!

Cut to 1976, and Jack once again gets to experiment with cosmically powered beings, and thus, The Eternals. Who, as far as I was concerned, was the leftovers from New Gods. It ran 19 issues before being cancelled, and Jack didn’t get to finish what he was saying. Writers Roy Thomas and Mark Gruenwald used the Eternals in a Thor story-line, and tied up loose ends.

The Eternals returned for a 12-issue miniseries in 1985 under writer Peter B. Gillis and penciler Sal Buscema.

and according to comic-book historian Peter Sanderson, “Jim Shooter disliked Gillis’s scripts, so Walter Simonson wrote the final four issues.”

Neil Gaiman, with artist John Romita, Jr., created a 2006 miniseries, which helped bring the Eternals’ role in the modern Marvel Universe up-to-date. it was well received, even adding an extra double sized issue to finish Gaiman’s story.

Since then, it’s been brought back in less impressive versions, including the current ongoing run from Marvel, brought back to cross promote the film, no doubt.

So you see the current movie, is a copy of a copy of a copy

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