I need context help

[TedderX]

I'm reading All New Invaders and I really enjoy it!

On the last issue, there were a lot of new characters/races of aliens I'm not sure about.

I'm somewhat familiar with other races because I read X-Men (shi'ar for instance).

But who are the Eternals? What is their claim to fame?

Also, what is up with the black Captain America/Falcon? When will Steve Rogers come back?

Is the Human Torch in this series the same one in Fantastic Four?

[Rosebunse]

I'm reading All New Invaders and I really enjoy it!

On the last issue, there were a lot of new characters/races of aliens I'm not sure about.

I'm somewhat familiar with other races because I read X-Men (shi'ar for instance).

But who are the Eternals? What is their claim to fame?

Also, what is up with the black Captain America/Falcon? When will Steve Rogers come back?

Is the Human Torch in this series the same one in Fantastic Four?

I believe the Externals are an offshoot of humanity. I would look them up on wiki, though.

[MagSeven]

I'm reading All New Invaders and I really enjoy it!

On the last issue, there were a lot of new characters/races of aliens I'm not sure about.

I'm somewhat familiar with other races because I read X-Men (shi'ar for instance).

But who are the Eternals? What is their claim to fame?

Also, what is up with the black Captain America/Falcon? When will Steve Rogers come back?

Is the Human Torch in this series the same one in Fantastic Four?

http://marvel.wikia.com/Main_Page I'd go here for answers.

Falcon is replacing Cap for a while (changes usually aren't permanent in comics). Steve is still around but has been aged to around 70 years old (long story, read the Wiki). He's running SHIELD I think.
The Human Torch is actually an Android with no relation to Johnny from the Fantastic Four. His robot body actually had a cameo in the recent Captain America movie.

[Darkspellmaster]

I'm reading All New Invaders and I really enjoy it!

On the last issue, there were a lot of new characters/races of aliens I'm not sure about.

I'm somewhat familiar with other races because I read X-Men (shi'ar for instance).

But who are the Eternals? What is their claim to fame?

So here is the short version of this via Wiki:

They are described as an offshoot of the evolutionary process that created sentient life on Earth. The original instigators of this process, the alien Celestials, intended the Eternals to be the defenders of Earth, which leads to the inevitability of war against their destructive counterparts, the Deviants. The Eternals were created by Jack Kirby and made their first appearance in The Eternals #1 (July 1976).

The longer version is pretty much the Eternals are a lot like Marvel's version of Kirby's New Gods from DC (Miracle Man, Big Barda, Orion, etc). They were created by Kirby back in 76 after he came back to Marvel when DC cancelled the New Gods series leaving it unfinished. Marvel gave him the chance to finish the story and tell it with the Eternals but sales cause that to be cancelled as well and the story never finished. The idea was that the Eternals were not going to be part of marvel 616 but then, like the New Gods, that got changed and they got incorporated by Nick Fury introducing three SHIELD agents to them. Years later Roy Thomas and Mark Grunewald used them as part of a Thor Story line that got them more notice and some time later Marvel added some older alien races into their fold that didn't fit in with any of the other cosmic story telling they were doing. The idea was that it was going to explore concepts about ancient astronauts and the like. It's really complicated when it comes to the history of their publishing since the story never got finish.

Pretty much they've been a sort of background set of powers to a lot of the cosmic storylines without getting majorly involved until just now as more writers want to use them including James Robinson.

Also, what is up with the black Captain America/Falcon? When will Steve Rogers come back?

Sam Wilson took over as Cap with Steve's blessing most recently when he was aged to his 90s and lost his powers. We don't know yet how this will be resolved, but I'm okay with Sam as the Cap. Bucky was it for a while and there's no reason not to let the title be used as a legacy character. Will Steve come back, probably by the time Avengers rolls out, but it's nice to see Sam in control right now, he's earned it.

Is the Human Torch in this series the same one in Fantastic Four?

No no and no. Johnny took the name well after this guy. This is Jim Hammond the original Human Torch the first LMD if you will. He was created by Professor Phineas T. Horton and was a hero during the "Golden Age" along with Cap, Namor, Bucky, and a lot of other characters that will be way to long to list. Anyway years later they killed him off for reasons, but then they made him better and brought him back. Jim's pretty much a mix of Cap and I would say Reed minus the whole science thing. He tends to be the quieter guy of the team, where as Namor is the hot head, and he's one of the few people that Namor actually likes as a friend. His powers come from some weird chemical thing with his body that pretty much makes him burn due to oxygyn around him if he doesn't control his powers, which he learns to and now can switch it on and off like Johnny, difference being it doesn't happen due to emotions like Johnny's does.

Really digging the New Invaders, wish it wasn't being cancelled!