Eternals

A race of immortal superhuman beings, the Eternals have lived among us for thousands of years, keeping humanity safe by battling the scourge of the Deviants, and these great feats have inspired myths and legends throughout history. Many years ago, the Eternals believed that they had finally completed their task, that all the Deviants were finally gone, that their long war was finally over, and they went their separate ways. But when the Deviants suddenly return, and one of their own is killed, this long-estranged family reunites to return to battle, but instead uncovers ancient secrets that upend their entire existence.

I’ve been doing a very casual movie rewatch lately, films like The Batman, Palm Springs, Logan, and Deadpool 1 and 2 have all had a new look, and now here we are again, this time with The Eternals as the latest one to be pulled off the shelf for another look.

Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg on August 28, 1917 (died February 6, 1994) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. A Jewish-American comic book artist, he is widely regarded as one of the medium's greatest innovators, as well as one of its most prolific and most influential creators.

Kirby, grew up in a rough neighborhood, and also served in Europe during WW2, so he lived a life where he knew how to throw a punch, and one where he didn’t back down from anyone, especially Nazis.

One famous story tells of the day where Kirby got a call at the Timely Comics office in the late 30s, and a voice on the other end said: "There are three of us down here in the lobby. We want to see the guy who did this comic and show him what real Nazis would do to this Captain America." Kirby allegedly responded with: "I'll be right down," then he hung up, rolled up his sleeves, and headed downstairs, but by the time he got there, the callers were gone.

Pouring a huge amount of effort and pure creativity into Marvel Comics in the 1960s, Kirby is credited with co-creating the lion's share of the company's major characters, including names like Ant-Man, Black Panther, Hulk, Iron Man, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, the X-Men, the Inhumans, and also The Mighty Thor.

Kirby especially put his mark on that particular character, creating a distinctive look and feel to the world of Marvel’s God of Thunder that is still apparent to this day. But in 1970 or so, feeling a bit unappreciated by Marvel, he went "across the street" to work for DC Comics. There, he created The Fourth World and The New Gods, for the most part, using the same ideas that inspired him to create the look and feel of Thor and the Nine Realms of Asgard, but the Inhumans and their city of Attilan as well, this time reapplying those ideas to a sprawling Shakespearian-ish fantasy epic featuring a pantheon of strange sci-fi beings and grand cosmic myths. He supposedly had a whole thing planned for his Fourth World saga, a beginning, a middle, and a specific ending, but the series was abruptly cancelled.

This isn't really all that surprising.

It's well-known that, whenever Jack Kirby was left to his own devices, he tended to wander rather far afield with some of his ideas, all of which were cool, in their way, but they're not always the most marketable. So, while The Fourth World still does have its fans, and Darkseid (basically the Thanos of DC Comics) is certainly an A-tier bad guy, the whole thing never really caught on with the wider audience.

Upon his inevitable return to Marvel, Kirby then took all of the concepts that he had been using with the Inhumans, and with Thor and Asgard, and with The New Gods and The Fourth World, and tried for one last bite at the high-concept sci-fi apple of his dreams with his new idea… The Eternals, a group of super-powered humanoids, who first appeared in The Eternals #1 in July 1976.

It didn't quite work.

And it was canceled after 19 issues due to low sales.

While The Fourth World was cancelled because it was just generally too weird for most comic readers, The Eternals were cancelled because no one likes the Eternals. Simple as that. No one likes them. Never have. Marvel has made several attempts over the years to change this, to bring the title back to the forefront, to make it high profile, to give it some gravitas both from the creative teams they attach to it, and also within the narrative of the Marvel Universe itself, but it's never worked. Not really. At least, not in any way that lasts.

The people just... don't like them.

Because the Eternals, as a concept, are just too obviously a copy of a copy of a copy, a final desperate lunge at a brass ring that Kirby wanted too much, a swing and a miss from an idea that is long past it's prime. Like a square peg being forced in a round hole, the Eternals feel like nothing else than a reskinning of The Fourth World, which was the closest Kirby ever came to realizing this dream he had, this story idea he absolutely loves, one that he was determined to try to see through to completion, no matter how many times he was stopped. And because of this feeling of sweaty desperation clinging to the idea, this feeling of it being forced...

No one likes the Eternals.

Well, nobody except for that one contrarian nerd that we all know, but if we’re really being honest here, he’s only saying that because being a contrarian nerd is his whole personality.

There was a recently relaunched version back in 2021, written by Kieron Gillen, with the stunning art of Esad Ribic, and it was a surprisingly fun read. Despite this, it also only lasted for a couple of dozen issues, then it got derailed and embroiled at the center of a big crossover, and after the dust settled with that, it has since faded away again, all but forgotten. It might as well have not even happened, like always. But if you’re curious, I do recommend picking up those dozen or so issues. They really were a lot of fun, and an interesting spin on the idea.

Other than that, these characters have always been, at best, a bunch of weirdo also-rans who would occasionally show up in other titles and never quite fit in with the rest of Marvel's characters. They’re just... too DC Comics-y, maybe? I think so. In concept and design, they really just don't fit with Marvel Comics' general vibe.

Regardless, I think I'm safe in saying here, and I feel confident that most comic-heads would agree me, The Eternals are possibly the most unpopular characters in all of Marvel Comics. They occupy the one corner of the Marvel Universe that fans have traditionally been the least interested in... except for Thanos, of course. And honestly, when the Inhumans are standing right there as a potential choice for the most unpopular, that’s saying something. The Eternals are so unpopular, that they are mostly known only as Kirby's biggest failure, so when I heard that the Powers That Be were going to make a movie about them, I was shocked... Shocked!

But these are the cards we’ve been dealt, right?

So, The Eternals are...

Ajak is a healer, and also the spiritual leader of the group. Sersi is a lover of everything humanity has to offer, and can reshape organic matter. Meanwhile, Ikaris is cold, loyal, and unfailingly moral, a dangerous combination for a nearly unstoppable living weapon. Kingo is a warrior, and the charismatic showman of the group. Sprite is a mischievous trickster, a storyteller cursed to forever appear as a child. Phastos is an innovative and brilliant builder, a master of technology. Makkari is the fastest being in all of creation. Druig is a devious and self-serving manipulator able to control minds. Gilgamesh is the original superhero, whose storied feats have inspired myths and legends. And finally, there’s the legendary Thena, known to human cultures throughout history as the Goddess of War.

What a bunch of weirdos.

And they’re not alone in this film, there's also...

The Celestials

With a litany of names like Hargen the Measurer, Tefral the Surveyor, Nezzar the Calculator, Gammenon the Gatherer, Exitar the Executioner, Jemiah the Analyzer, Eson the Searcher, Callus the Void, Devron the Experimenter, and of course, Oneg the Prober, the Celestials are a group of powerful cosmic beings who were created by the First Firmament. What is the First Firmament, you ask?

Stop pretending like you care.

So anyway, finding themselves generally desiring change, the Celestials rebelled against their creator, shattering the first universe, and the shards of that destruction became the first multiverse, and thus, did the multiversal cycles began. The Celestials encourged this new fractured reality, aiding in the creation of new universes and planets across creation, which of course includes the Prime Marvel Universe that we all know and love. Basically, the Celestials visit planets in groups known as Celestial Hosts so that they can experiment on, and also judge, the life-forms that live there. They will also create Eternals and Deviants from the native species, as the war between these groups acts as a catalyst, stimulating the planet's general development.

When it came to Earth, the First Celestial Host not only created Eternals and Deviants, but they also inserted a latent gene into baseline humanity that would eventually causes mutations (this is important to the X-Men's mythos). Millenia later, the Second Host destroyed the Deviant kingdom of Lemuria and also caused the sinking of Atlantis. Fast forward a few more millennia, and the Third Celestial Host forced the myriad gods of Earth to submit to them, and vow not to interfere with the Celestials' work. When the Fourth Celestial Host came to Earth millennia after that, so that they could judge the planet's inhabitants, despite their vow, the Asgardians and the Eternals tried to fight, but were easily defeated. The Fourth Host ended up sparing the Earth after Gaea–an Elder God born of the Demiurge, who, along with her siblings, Set, Oshtur, and Chthon, who etched the arcane glyphs of the Darkhold, were the first beings to emerge from the Darkness, long before the advent of recorded history–offered the Fourth Host twelve of Earth's finest mortals, which somehow inexplicably proved humanity's worth.

...Forget it, Jake, it’s Space-God stuff.

Anyway, also of note, one single solitary Celestial came to Earth about 4 billion years before the other Celestial Hosts did, and died. The Celestial’s blood and other bodily fluid spilled out all over the planet (gross), which then soaked into the very Earth, and irrevocably changed it forevermore. This great cosmic accident is what made Earth so unique amongst all the other planets in the multiverse, by basically making it a super-fertile garden of greatness, a hotbed for all of our homegrown super-powered madness.

So... why do you need to know all of this?

You don't. I just think it's funny to tell you this kind of shit. It makes me feel like Rick Moranis' character in Ghostbusters after he's been possessed by Vinz Clortho, The Keymaster, and he's excitedly telling Egon about Gozer the Gozerian. “During the rectification of the Vuldronaii, the Traveller came as a large and moving Torb! Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the Meketrex Supplicants, they chose a new form for him… that of a Giant Sloar! Many Shubs and Zulls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Sloar that day I can tell you.”

This movie also features cameos from such well known Marvel Comic names like The Black Knight, Pip the Troll, and Starfox.

Created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema as an homage to the classic DC Comics character, The Shining Knight, and first appearing in Avengers #47 in December 1967, Dane Whitman is the third person in Marvel Comics to use the name of the Black Knight. A regular member of groups like the Avengers and the Defenders, he is the descendant of the original Black Knight of Arthurian legend, and the nephew of the supervillain, The Black Knight, a foe of the Avengers in the early 60s. When Dane took the family legacy, he inherited The Ebony Blade, a mystical sword that was forged from a meteorite by Merlin the Magician, who enchanted it to be able to cut through any object, to protect its bearer from all magical attacks and even from death itself. But it was also cursed to slowly corrupt its bearer, and to create a growing lust for violence, bloodshed, and death within them, for the true nature of the Ebony Blade is that it can only be wielded by the impure of heart, drawing on their negative emotions until they finally become bloodthirsty berserkers, which can be a bit of an issue for a hero.

First introduced by Jim Starlin in Strange Tales #179 in February 1975 as a comic foil, Pip the Troll was once known as Prince Gofern of the planet Laxidazia, in the Dolenz System of the Milky Way galaxy. Prince Gofern was a layabout and a Haute Boheme, who enjoyed painting pictures of the night sky, but he was mutated into a morally degenerate satyr after he got drunk on some mutagenic hallucinogenic ale, as you do. His people, having grown sick of his lewd and lecherous ways, stripped him of his office and rank, leaving Pip with no other choice than to stow away on a spaceship, and tour the stars, where he continued his life of debauchery, a cigar in one hand and a flagon of ale in the other. It's at this point he apparently decided to wear nothing but a ripped loincloth forever.

Finally, there’s Starfox, an Eternal otherwise known as Eros, created by Jim Starlin, he first appeared in The Invincible Iron Man #55 in February 1973. Born on the moon Titan, he is brother of the Mad Titan himself, Thanos, and is meant to be his thematic opposite in all ways. He is an adventurer who is often depicted as a womanizer and a fun-loving and carefree cad. He’s also a character who became a bit more problematic in recent years, as his ability to manipulate the emotions of others, especially women, began to be examined through a more modern lens, with the good news being that She-Hulk beat the shit out of him for it. I’m honestly surprised they used him at all in this movie, even for a brief appearance in an End Credits stinger, because Starfox is considered to be a little “rapey” these days, but y’know… he's played Harry Styles in the film, who was a surprisingly good fit, so that’s just how shit goes, I guess.

The bigger question is… How will this trio figure into the future of the MCU? The answer is: Probably not at all. Dane Whitman is played by Kit Harrington, and this movie’s mid-credits stinger implied that he would have next appeared in the new Blade movie, starring Mahershala Ali, but after years of some rocky pre-production issues, it sounds like that film is officially in limbo. Pip the Troll and Starfox would have most likely appeared in Eternals 2, but despite the fact this film made over $400 million at the box office, and was the 6th highest grossing film in the U.S. in 2021, the Eternals was not a very popular movie, at least, not compared to most of the MCU’s output–fandom whined about this film a lot--and since Marvel is now dealing with the inevitable public backlash that all winners in Hollywood have to deal with at some point, Eternals 2 probably won't happen.

That's too bad, because, personally, and perhaps not surprisingly, I loved this movie. It's easily in my Top Ten MCU films, appearing at #7 out of the now 33 entry strong list.

So, on to the film...

In what feels like a pretty undeniably classic “glass cliff” situation, where a company in crisis will appoint a woman to “turn things around,” but in actuality they are deliberately setting them up for failure, here we see Chloe Zhao, one of the more exciting and visionary directors working today, being handed the reins of a massive big budget MCU blockbuster, the first such gig for a woman of color in the MCU, which is a huge deal...

And she's given The Eternals.

I just can’t help but notice how they have saddled the first woman of color to helm a film from the MCU with the least popular, and probably worst conceived group of characters that Marvel has to offer, and all with the expectation that she make a smash box office hit.

Still, Chloe Zhao is great. Her work is absolutely beautiful. She's inventive, empathetic, and has a great perspective. If you haven't seen her film The Rider, than you are wrong. She's very talented. So, really, if anyone has a shot at turning this weird Space-God Fever Dream of idea into something good, it's her. Plus, the cast is incredible, boasting names like Selma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Barry Keoghan, Don Lee, Kit Harington, Patton Oswalt, Harry Styles, Richard Madden, and even Angelina Jolie. So, at the very least, this is a film that is absolutely packed with talent and vision.

That is probably why this weirdo "twice-baked re-skin of some worn out and obviously beloved darlings of a famous creator that he should've just killed off but didn't and then went on and used too many times" film somehow got turned into a movie that I legitimately loved.

It is fair to say that, much like the inevitable coming of the X-Men, maybe there's a few too many characters here, and that maybe this whole idea would've been better off as a Game of Thrones-like TV show on Disney+, but like I said... these are the cards we've been dealt, right?

In the beginning….

…before the six Singularities and the Dawn of creation, came the Celestials. Arishem, the Prime Celestial, created the first sun and brought life into the universe. Life began, and thrived. All was in balance.

Until an unnatural species of predator emerged from deep space to feed on intelligent life—they were known as the Deviants. The universe was plunged into chaos.

To restore the natural order, Arishem sent Eternals—immortal heroes from the planet Olympia—to eliminate the Deviants.

Eternals had unyielding faith in Arishem until one mission, led by the Prime Eternal, Ajak, changed everything…

This is how the movie starts, this is the legend that the Eternals know.

But it is all a lie.

Stretching across history, from the beginning of the Bronze Age, to 5000 BC Mesopotamia, to 5th century BC Athens and to Babylon in 585 BC, to the Gupta Empire in 400 AD, to the Fall of Tenochtitlan in 1522 AD, to Hiroshima, 1945, and on to modern day London and the plains of South Dakota, the Eternals have been living amongst us, guardians of humanity, for over 7000 years. They've protected and shepherded society, passing knowledge and technology on to us, guiding our growth, and all while their names and deeds gave birth to our myths and legends.

And then, five hundred years ago, they thought their job was done, that all of the Deviants were finally dead. But having grown distraught over man’s inhumanity to man, barred as they were from ever directly interfering with humanity...

The Eternals split up.

But then... five hundred years later, in modern day London, a Deviant attacks Sersei and Sprite, along with Dane Whitman, and only through the timely arrival of Ikaris are they able to drive the creature off. This Deviant was not just notable because it was the first one they’ve seen in centuries, but it was also able to heal itself. This is something that has never been seen before. Taken all together, this obviously means that there's trouble afoot, so the Eternals begin to reunite, to get back to their war, but that is when they discover that Ajak, their leader, is dead.

And that she was killed by this new Deviant, and that it absorbed her powers.

Also, Thena is slowly coming apart, losing her mind, the victim of a disease the Eternals know as Mahd Wy’ry. A form of dementia, they believe that her mind is fracturing under the weight of her centuries and centuries of memories.

The hunt to understand why this is all happening, why Ajax is dead, how the Deviants have returned, and the reason why Thena is suffering from Mahd Wy'ry, leads to the reveal of long-buried secrets that the Eternals were never supposed to know, not in the billions of years, and the billions of lifetimes, that it turns out they have lived. Because it turns out, they really are Eternal.

In the slightly different mythos of the Marvel movies...

The Celestials create planets across the universe. They insert those planets with fertilized eggs. Each egg potentially holds a new Celestial. These eggs must then incubate within the planets for billions of years. In order for the new Celestial to be born, it needs the planet's native species to fully develop, and reach a point where the sheer mass of the population has the psychic energy needed to awaken the new Celestial, and drive it to break free of its egg, to be born.

Unfortunately for the native species, the egg is their planet, so...

Yeah, that's the rub, as they say...

Every birth of a new Celestial is a kind of cosmic scale Jungian self-actualization thing, which also destroys the planet within which it was residing. But once born, the new Celestial then goes on to make more planets, each with more people, each implanted with a new egg, a potentially new Celestials, all of whom, once born, will make more planets with more people and more Celestial eggs, and on and on and on, the great clock that is the whole of Creation ticking ever onward.

The Deviants were the result of Celestials attempting to streamline this billions and billions of years long process, as they were originally intended to remove local predators, which would allow the native population to grow more quickly, and thus allow new Celestials to be born sooner.

Unfortunately, the Deviants grew beyond the control of the Celestials, evolving into super-predators that started eating the native population, which slowed their growth, which then slowed the birth of a new celestial. In essence, the Deviants were actually protecting the native population… by eating them, sure, but this also kept the population below the levels required for the new Celestial to be born, at which point the population would be wiped out.

The Eternals were intended to be a counter-effort, like white blood cells unleashed upon an infection. They are constructs that are built in the World Forge, the great machine which sits at the center of All Creation, printed over and over again, reset after each Celestial birth, their old memories wiped away, and then sent to the next new planet, to wipe out the Deviants, until the incubating Celestial was ready to be born again. Over and over and over again. The presense of the Eternals allows the native populations to once again grow unchecked, which speeds up the clock on the Celestial’s birth, as well as the native populations' inevitable obliteration.

In essense, it turns out that the Eternals are agents of genocide.

This reveal breaks them, shattering their once close family, forcing them all onto opposite sides of a colossal conflict, a titanic tussle, a mammoth melee, a truly tremendous to-do, a brobdingnagian bout of epic proportions!

In the end, The Eternals perform a trillion month abortion, executing the baby Celestial as it emerges from the womb, and proving once and for all that they're nothing but stinkin' Demo-rats!

Seriously though, you'd think the giant stone corpse of a baby Celestial sticking half out of the Indian Ocean would severely affect weather patterns, right? Maybe even the rotation of the Earth too? Those are clouds, btw, in that picture. That's how big it is.

Also, one of shitty fandoms' favorite things to whine about when it comes to this movie is that the MCU has yet to mention this dead Space God sticking out of the planet (even though it has). But the good news is, it looks like this giant corpse will most likely play a part in the story in Captain America: Brave New World, possibly even as the source of Marvel’s favorite fictional indestructible metal, Adamantium, as the MCU is now getting ready to reintroduce the X-Men to the world. So hopefully that happens, because at least then those awful nerds will shut up about it.

Otherwise, while freely admitting that this is basiclly right up my alley, my complaints are few. Gemma Chan is the film's star, and she's not a great choice. She doesn't have it, y’know? She's not bad, she's just... doesn't have it. She's like the female equivalent of Orlando Bloom. They’re pretty, but bland… they’re pretty bland. And for some reason, for a brief moment, Hollywood was trying really hard to make them both happen, and audiences everywhere just keep saying “No thank you" in response.

Other than that... Is the cast too big? Yeah, sure, maybe. And are the characters maybe a little too undefined as a result of having to share the screen with so many others? Sure. That's probably fair to say, but I don't think it's as bad as that makes it sound. It does try to cover a lot of ground with all those characters, but the pretty straightforward story then kind of ends up seeming a little small. The film is long too, but it's not nearly as long as The Batman, so is that a problem then? I don’t know, but overall, none of this really bothered me.

In the end, I think the real problem–not that this film doesn't have a couple of issues–is that the way this story is told, and the way that it’s paced means that it’s generally not all that palatable when it comes to the big tent pole blockbuster film audience. It's just not the best film for the casual film-going crowd. Maybe it's not the best film for the CGI slugfest crowd either, or even the typical expectations of the superhero sci-fi action genre crowd in general. Really though, isn’t that more the fault of the audience than it is the filmmakers?

If you ask me... yes.

I’ll admit it though, maybe this film is really just for me? That despite its flaws, maybe it just does what I want it to, so maybe that's why I love it so. I don't know. Maybe. It doesn't really matter, because either way, I loved it.

All-around magnificent to look at it, this film really showcases natural beauty. From the distant storms flickering and flashing over the plains of South Dakota, to the black sands along the crashing surf of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, it truly is a visually arresting film. Of course, you would expect no less from such a talented filmmaker as Chloé Zhao. She has an incredible, mesmerizing eye. Even the CGI renderings of long-lost wonders of the world, like the hanging gardens of ancient Babylon look fantastic here.

Also, I've been a sucker for a good "Immortals moving through the history of humanity" story since Highlander, so I'm always all in for these kind of things. Plus, the cast has a really great chemistry too, they really show the close familial bonds of the characters, as well as the easy familiarity that they would have with one another. It's just fun and sweet and nice watching them interact. Despite the fact they're all immortal superpowered space robots eternally in the genocidal service of nearly omnipotent giant Space-Gods... it feels real.

Additionally, I liked the way the heroes's world is shattered upon learning the truth of who they are, learning that they're the bad guys, and have been all along too, that they've always been the unwitting tools of an inhumane system. That's an interesting commentary on superheroes and copaganda both, not to mention the blissfully ignorant lives the privileged and the powerful are able to live, especially when it comes to the reality of their own actions.

And I really loved the way that the central conflict was then framed... "You can stop the baby Celestial from emerging, thus saving billions on Earth, but if you do this, you are also preventing the creation of untold trillions and trillions of lives, all of whom will now no longer exist because this Celestial will not be there to create them and their worlds." That was really good, I love a good upending of motivations, the insertion of that small question of whether the heroes are acting out of altruism or selfishness...

Plus, the film touches on some important notes too, not just in its diversity and inclusivity, but from the way it addresses things like the climate crisis and mental health too, all of which feels like a good step from a corporate mega-franchise like the MCU. Best of all, at least to me, the beating heart of this film is that it's about love, and the relationships that matter. I appreciate it when a big explody action genre movie has something like that as it's central theme, especially when it's a film about collaboration, cooperation, and empathy.

And on top of all that...

The big end battle is indisputably one of the best versions of the classic Justice League versus Superman fights ever put on screen. It is hands down way better than any other version featuring the actual Justice League that we've seen.

Indisputably. Way better.

So for me… this a great time at the movies.

Admittedly, with all the characters and all the world-building, upon first watch, The Eternals may seem like too much all at once, but I think this is what makes a second watch more rewarding. As Truffaut says, once you’re freed yourself from the question of wondering “what is going to happen” in a film, you can watch from a “how does it happen” point of view, and it's at that point that a whole new appreciation for the craft can open up for you. I understand that a second watch of this particular film is probably too much to ask of most folks, but it is what it is.

I think it's worth it. Big thumbs up from me.