Let the Eternals synergy begin: Eternals #1 coming this November

[kcekada]

I hate it when there is synergy between movies and comics.

Amen! It always impacts the comics negatively!

[kcekada]

Gonna be harsh here, but the Guardians were nobody's before the film and film synergy. They were niche even among comic fans. It's sad for fans who liked and were familiar with the team prior seeing them change, but the fact is the change made them more popular than they ever were. They went from forgettable nobody's to instantly recognizable. It's the sad truth of it all, they less popular the character/team the more likely they are to be changed and the more likely they will be more popular for it.

But the so-called synergy did not help sales of the book. Readers still recognize quality. It's taken years to get that stink of the film mostly off the comic book --- and we're all the better for it.

[Hypestyle]

what about off-planet adventures for the Eternals? Are they content to just be on Earth?

[Killerbee911]

But the so-called synergy did not help sales of the book. Readers still recognize quality. It's taken years to get that stink of the film mostly off the comic book --- and we're all the better for it.

You mean it didn't help floppies but trades are different monster. I don't have the time right sit down and put those numbers together but I don't need it for the bigger point. Synergy has raise the profile of the franchise to point where the brand GotG is integral to marvel comics. And every single major character from GotG is a decent brand capable of generating enough interest for marvel to push a project behind of them which is why Star Lord, Rocket, Groot, Gamora Yondu, Nebula, Drax got solo/mini series. There is no stink from the film. It is not even an objective opinion that synergy is harmful thing they made a bloody Yondu comic, Gamora was a center piece of an event, GotG is the premiere cosmic book at Marvel and it is functionally what Avengers or X-men is their neck of the woods. The book has went from unknowns to something that isn't going to be canceled for extended stretch by Marvel.

Ask an Inhumans or Eternals fan what they would give to always have ongoing book from at least 2014 until today AND every single major character get a solo or mini during that time AND marvel is involving characters and concepts from your book in events. GotG is stable franchise at Marvel without a SINGLE character capable of carrying a solo, and it not being a top 25 books sold monthly. It is franchise that now resets when it puts out an issue 1, It is guarantee to be in the top ten. The state of franchise doesn't match your opinion and franchise has clearly grown and the hey "single issue sales didn't go up" isn't an indictment on the book but on the comic book market .

[JudicatorPrime]

what about off-planet adventures for the Eternals? Are they content to just be on Earth?

It wouldn't surprise me if some day we do hear about more of the Earth Eternals having space adventures. Not just the Interloper or the Forgotten One, but other unnamed Eternals who have yet to be revealed. And if not outer space, maybe adventures in some of the many dimensions that are easily accessible via the Nexus of All Realities. I'm willing to bet the Deviants didn't waste any time exploring such things.

[Kirby101]

I am interested in the book and like the work of Gillen and Ribic, but "From The Minds Of"... NO! It's effing from the mind of one man, Jack Kirby. This is really insulting.

[Drops Of Venus]

I am interested in the book and like the work of Gillen and Ribic, but "From The Minds Of"... NO! It's effing from the mind of one man, Jack Kirby. This is really insulting.

This particular book is made by Gillen and Ribić, so therefore, it comes from their minds. No one is saying Jack Kirby wasn't the original creator.

[Kirby101]

This particular book is made by Gillen and Ribić, so therefore, it comes from their minds. No one is saying Jack Kirby wasn't the original creator.

Kirby is not mentioned in the promo at all. It makes it sound like they created it. This is particularly egregious, because unlike the Lee and Kirby creations, this one was all Jack. Marvel should know better.

[Drops Of Venus]

Kirby is not mentioned in the promo at all. It makes it sound like they created it. This is particularly egregious, because unlike the Lee and Kirby creations, this one was all Jack. Marvel should know better.

No promo video for new #1s talk about the original creators when they're not involved in the book, 'cause that's... not the focus of the video.

The description of the video, however, DOES mention Jack Kirby:

THE ETERNALS ARE HERE! From the thought provoking minds of Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine, Uncanny X-Men, Thor) and Esad Ribić (Secret Wars, King Thor) comes a brand new vision of Jack Kirby’s classic Marvel creation in ETERNALS! Get your first look at this mind-melting new series, featuring Esad Ribić’s stunning interior artwork.

[skyvolt2000]

You mean it didn't help floppies but trades are different monster. I don't have the time right sit down and put those numbers together but I don't need it for the bigger point. Synergy has raise the profile of the franchise to point where the brand GotG is integral to marvel comics. And every single major character from GotG is a decent brand capable of generating enough interest for marvel to push a project behind of them which is why Star Lord, Rocket, Groot, Gamora Yondu, Nebula, Drax got solo/mini series. There is no stink from the film. It is not even an objective opinion that synergy is harmful thing they made a bloody Yondu comic, Gamora was a center piece of an event, GotG is the premiere cosmic book at Marvel and it is functionally what Avengers or X-men is their neck of the woods. The book has went from unknowns to something that isn't going to be canceled for extended stretch by Marvel.

Ask an Inhumans or Eternals fan what they would give to always have ongoing book from at least 2014 until today AND every single major character get a solo or mini during that time AND marvel is involving characters and concepts from your book in events. GotG is stable franchise at Marvel without a SINGLE character capable of carrying a solo, and it not being a top 25 books sold monthly. It is franchise that now resets when it puts out an issue 1, It is guarantee to be in the top ten. The state of franchise doesn't match your opinion and franchise has clearly grown and the hey "single issue sales didn't go up" isn't an indictment on the book but on the comic book market .

One of those post moive GOTG trades has been a top 100-200 (and even top 10 for a long time) seller for Amazon. Even beating the Batman.

But the so-called synergy did not help sales of the book.

Well it's hard to do that when the direct market doesn't care for you. And like Black Panther & Dr Strange and Deadpool attempt to milk off those movies with books gets attacked.

Funny all these books find an audience OUTSIDE the direct market.

And a bigger indictment on the direct market that the one person so many wanted back STATIC is doing an OGN and digital only series. maybe folks are realizing the direct market is not the end all folks want it to be.

[Frontier]

One of those post moive GOTG trades has been a top 100-200 (and even top 10 for a long time) seller for Amazon. Even beating the Batman.

...Is it from the Bendis run?

[juan678]

[juan678]

[juan678]

On a similar note, what do you think is the Eternals' place or role in the wider Marvel Universe pantheon of heroes?

Talking from the creative side, if there’s been a sticking problem with the Eternals is actually nailing down what that exact role is. They’ve served a lot of purposes, in various places. They’ve excelled at being support actors, and some of their best riffs have been used elsewhere – in fact, promoted so that they tend to be thought about as the Marvel Universe’s rather than specifically the Eternals’. The best case in point is the Celestials themselves. At least part of what I’m trying to do is to tie all these strands together, into a coherent, epic history of the Eternal’s own. When you’ve finished the first issue, you’ll know what the Eternals are for, and why they’re not really like anything else. From that point on, I’m just adding more to it – details, angles, worlds to lose and find yourself in.

I’ll say this – the problem in part comes from that the Eternals weren’t originally in the Marvel Universe. They’re inspired by Chariots of the Gods 1970s thought – as in, gods are aliens and us humans mistook them for them. When they were transplanted in, this doesn’t quite work in the same way. If Athena actually exists, Thena obviously feels like something else than in a world where Athena doesn’t exist. A lot of creators have tried to square this equation. I believe I’ve got an approach, and it’s based on something that is 100% clear in original Kirby issues, but never stated. The Eternals are not gods. They’re something created by Space Gods for a purpose – Eternal, unchanging beings who exist to look after humanity.

Eternals are the Marvel Universe’s angels, in all their warring Paradise Lost excess.

Equally, to give it a different tone, in the spirit of the quasi-scientific inspiration of the Eternals, I’m definitely trying to use a lot of history in the Eternals rather than riffing on mythology. I think that’s going to give Eternals their own tone. Sersi namedrops like Tahani from The Good Place. I’ve just written a short sequence with Druig and Kingo during in the Mongol invasion of Europe, for example.

This is my own answer to the above “What about Athena?” problem. For all the grandeur of their own science-mythology and their culture, I’m treating them in a way which we simply don’t do with the Marvel Gods.

However, if we’re talking from inside the Marvel Universe? They’re the professionals. They’re the oldest hand on the block. They’ve been protecting the planet since before humans had prehensile thumbs. Imagine the Eternals, watching the Avengers of 1,000,000 BC turning up, while tapping their watch and going “Hey, what kept you?”


The solicitation suggests that change is going to be a theme of the book. Can you expand at all about what that theme means to you and what it means to these characters?

This is one of the first things I have in my bible. “Eternal” doesn’t mean immortal. “Eternal” means unchanging. That’s a different thing.

[Neil] Gaiman and [John] Romita Jr. very much brought this aspect out, and we’re pushing it even further. There can be something comforting about the Eternals, but there’s also something fundamentally disturbing to it. The old superhero cliché of “The Never-ending battle against crime” is one of those lines which, if you take it out of context for a second and think about it, seems absolutely Sisyphean in its hopelessness. Yet, to lift a line from Camus, we must imagine Sisyphus happy – the Eternals have been doing this for so long, they must be accepting of it? Right?

Clearly not. The irony of the book, as we show the epic history of the Eternals, this hasn’t been true. The Eternals have been having arguments about what it means to be “unchanging” forever. They must remain, and their cellular programming demand they remain and continue… but it causes all manner of tensions.

This ties in with the present situation in the Marvel Universe, where they’ve just had a huge shock with the reveals of Jason Aaron’s first arc of Avengers, which (er) they took badly. Their purpose is over. Yet they still continue… and it’s increasingly hard to imagine Sisyphus happy.



How important is it to know about the Eternals' past to understand this story

Absolutely not. I’m presenting it as a clean entry into a whole wonderful mythology. Those who know it will hopefully be charmed when they see all the aspects have been integrated, tweaked, and re-imagined, but it’s designed to be accessible.

If you want to read some Eternals, the original Kirby run, the Gaiman/Romita Jr mini and Jason’s most recent Avengers work would be what I’d read, but that’s all extra credit stuff. You don’t need to know it. What you need to know, I’ll introduce.

https://comicbook.com/comics/news/ma...len-interview/

[From The Shadows]

I admit I only read the old mini and am not all that well versed in the newer history. But the only one I see from the old line up is Icarus. No Athena, no Sersi etc.