The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 917: Avengers v.1 #247, September 1984

I've never really taken to the Eternals. To me, they were one iteration too far of Jack Kirby's attempt to fuse superheroes and ancient mythologies. Like, we get it already, Jack. The superheroes are the new myths. And by the time the Eternals came about, that wasn't really super big news. Some early writing on The Eternals reveals Kirby's inspiration in the form of Erich Van Daniken's Chariots of the Gods, and the concepts, in the form that we meet them in today's comic, are about as dated as Von Daniken's work. A later retcon makes the Eternals much more interesting, questioning their free will. But right now they're creatures that were mistaken for figures from Greek and Roman mythology. Nevermind that there's actual Olympian Gods in the Marvel U. Oh, and just to make it even more clear, the Eternals live on Olimpia. With an "i."

I'm sorry if I'm seeming over-critical of this super-group. I actually have most of their appearances to date. I think what I'm critical of is that, with the possible exception of the Thor mythos, Kirby's creations always seemed a bit more original, less derivative of the mythological antecedents. The New Gods embodied particular archetypes, but didn't directly draw on any one mythology. I find this investigation of it by him far less-inspired than some of his others. But I do like the Eternals themselves. There's this strangely metatextual feel to them with their play-on-words Greek and Roman mythic monikers. Ikaris. Makkari. Given the presence of Hercules and his kin, there's literally no good reason to have these mythological names, especially when they're a species that predates humanity. So this unreality of the characters is, a lot of the time, embraced by writers, though whether willingly or unwittingly, I don't know. The Eternals stand apart in the narrative universe, but also in the characterized universe (?). They are quite a bit more abstract, almost like metaphors that realize and acknowledge that they are metaphors.

Which is actually pretty cool.

To be continued.