A Moment of Comics

A panel from Thor #284. Reading this and other issues collected in a trad titled The Eternals Saga, with Roy Thomas picking up from Jack Kirby's original Eternals series from the seventies. The art here is from John Buscema and Chic Stone. Pretty yawn so far, but this panel caught my attention. It points out that the Celestials (cosmic judges in Kirby's original series would be done judging whether the Earth is worthy by 2026.

Comics aren't real, and I still think humanity will be doomed in just a few more years.

A Moment of Comics

Maybe Jack Kirby wasn't firing on all cylinders in the eighties, but he didn't deserve this treatment. Here in issue #5 of Secret Wars 2 we have Jim Shooter's Beyonder character (drawn by Al Milgrom) bitch-slapping all the Celestials from his Eternals opus. Given that the issue of Jack Kirby's unreturned artwork was ongoing, this seems like a less-than-subtle "screw you" to Kirby and his later creations.

 

It seems that anything Jim Shooter created at the end of his tenure as Marvel's Editor-in-Chief was meant to be an alpha in whatever fictional universe he was working in. Of course, he'd have his comeuppance later, but that's another story. Maybe for another month.

A Moment of Comics

Jack Kirby's Eternals one last time. Here's the big "group shot" that Kirby loved doing. Still, I wonder if Kirby was forced to both draw this scene and to integrate these characters into the Marvel universe. It's only after getting halfway through this collection that any Marvel reference (S.H.I.E.L.D.) is even mentioned. I'll be doing some research later.

 

A Moment of Comics

Still slowly reading through Jack Kirby's Eternals. Forgot about this piece of Marvel history where Eternal Icarus leads Noah's Ark to land (remember that this book eventually became canon in the main universe, though that's not apparent in the early issues at all). The racist overtones of the Deviants are still bothersome, but it's fun to see Jack Kirby retcon the Bible. 

A Moment of Comics

I'm reading the first chapter in a collection of Jack Kirby's Eternals. Sadly, it's already a slog. The opening sentence on the very first page--"Is man alone in the universe?"--disappoints. Readers of comics are always ready to acknowledge aliens and gods. Especially Marvel Comics readers. The line just doesn't excite the way the first sentence of New Gods does."There came a time when the old gods died!" has way more of a kick to it. 

Imagine if Kirby had fit that line about gods dying in a book set in the Marvel Comics universe, where every mythological figure is also an entry in their Official Handbook series. People might have lost their minds.