Eternals (Hardcover)

~ (Author), John Romita Jr. (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Jack Kirby's old Eternals series gets a serious dusting-off from Gaiman (Anansi Boys) and artist Romita. The Eternals, a super-race, are now scattered and forgetful of their powers and immortality, living mortal human lives of supreme normalcy (Sersi is a New York party girl, while Makkari believes himself to be Bellevue ER doc Mark Curry). Meanwhile their age-old enemies, the Deviants, stalk the earth with nefarious intentions, and at least one of the super-duper-race Celestials (who created both Deviants and Eternals eons ago) may be returning to Earth. The source of all this forgetfulness and strife appears to be the eternally 11-year-old Sprite, who desires to be allowed to age like an actual human. It is easy to spot Gaiman's touch in this modern-day clash between ancient forces, as he shies away from Kirby's '70s-era, Chariots of God–style alien mythologizing to focus more on the characters' slow coming to grips with the enormity of their identity and the loss of humanity that comes from being an Eternal. Romita's storytelling is strong without coming near Kirby's epochal original. While Gaiman fans will still sign up, it isn't long before the tale gets tangled in the Olympian scope of this often baffling struggle. (May)
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Product Description

You are thousands of years old. You have amazing powers. You have watched civilizations rise and fall. So why does no one remember any of this? Bestselling Author Neil Gaiman (Marvel: 1602, Anansi Boys, Sandman) is joined by superstar artist John Romita Jr. (Amazing Spider-Man, Wolverine) to present a tale that will change the Eternals and the Marvel Universe forever! Collects Eternals #1-7.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (June 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785125418
• ISBN-13: 978-0785125419
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 7.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #254,561 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gaiman at his best with lovely pictures from Romita Jr., May 26, 2007

By	Stephen Richmond "Librarian/Teacher/Reader an... (Newton, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jack Kirby created them and now Neil Gaiman has put his unique and always achingly beautiful spin on the Eternals. I loved this soaring, yet sensitive space opera years ago and what a pleasure it is to be reacquainted with Zuras, Thena and company. Gaiman makes it all fresh again without sacrificing the least of Kirby's baroque characters and concepts. John Romita Jr. provides gorgeous art that respects without preening. Once again this superb graphic novel reveals the heights and depths the comic book form is capable of achieving. Gaiman fans will love it and it would also be a great introduction to his work, in both the fiction and graphic novel genres. No previous knowledge of the Eternals is necessary, but knowing what has gone before certainly adds to the pleasure of the current work. They even managed to slip in some references to Marvel's Civil War big company-spanning and forever-changing multi-series, running concurrently.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well-executed, but not Gaiman's best work., February 22, 2008

By	Thornwell Simons (Columbia, SC United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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This reads like the first three or four chapters of a really good Neil Gaiman series. The problem is, that's all. He does a magnificent job of setting up the characters, starting their stories, and precipitating them into conflict, but then the energy trails off, and the resolution is stamped far more with "ok, time to close this off and work on other projects" than it is "I have thought of a masterful reworking of this concept."

All in all, it's not bad, but it's more a revitalization of Kirby's characters than a reworking of them -- the transformative brilliance Gaiman has displayed in works like the Sandman series or _1602_ isn't present here. There's no flash of genius, just a technically well-executed story. There are strong, believable characters, a decent plot, compelling villains, and so forth. That's still better than a lot of things out there, and overall this is probably worth reading, but it isn't in the first rank of Gaiman's works.

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gaiman enlivens Kirby's notion, June 13, 2007

By	Tom Knapp "Rambles.NET editor" (Lancaster, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Neil Gaiman, who took a mothballed and gimmicky character from the DC Comics warehouse and created the Endless phenomenon, does similar service for Marvel Comics here by revisiting the late Jack Kirby's extraterrestial immortals. Kirby, who co-created Captain America for Marvel and devised the New Gods for DC, crafted the Eternals (nee Celestials) as a graphic response to "Chariots of the Gods?" and other ancient ET theories.

The fruit died on the vine back in the 1970s, but Gaiman has given new life to the concept.

Let me be frank: I've never been a fan of Kirby's inventions that, for all their purported godly origins, were just your average, oddly costumed superheroes. But, while DC inserts the New Gods into countless storylines, making them hard to ignore, the Eternals had fallen entirely off my radar over at Marvel. Until now; Gaiman's involvement was enough for me to give them a chance.

And he does it. He successfully remakes the Eternals in a way that honors Kirby's source material while shoehorning them into the Marvel Universe in a way that makes sense -- something Kirby himself was unable to do. And, while he hasn't created a sensation like the Endless, Gaiman has put some interesting concepts on the table; it remains to see what Marvel does with them next.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(n e t) editor