The ETERNALS Cover Gallery OMNIBUS...

Copyright MARVEL COMICS

Welcome to an 'Omnibus Edition' of covers compiled from three separate posts about The Eternals, featuring Jack Kirby's issues from the '70s and the Sal Buscema-drawn issues from the '80s.  Having all 32 images together in one post saves you from having to trawl through the blog's 'back-catalogue' in order to find them, so it's a lot handier.  The Eternals was the longest-lasting title Jack did when he returned to Marvel, but at only 19 issues plus an Annual, it hardly set the comics-buying world alight.  (Nor did the recent movie.)

Jack was still full of ideas, of course, but this series seemed curiously unconnected from the rest of the Marvel Universe.  Did the cosmic-powered android Hulk exist only because there was a fictional Hulk TV show, or was there a 'real' Hulk that the android was based on?  It was all slightly ambiguous.  Yeah, Shield Agents made an appearance or two, but there were no established names or characters you'd actually recognise - and did the initials of Shield stand for the same name of the agency in the MU?  Who knew?

It's a funny old world when comics by the co-architect of Marvel seemed like 'second-banana' mags and not the main and major titles published by the company, but Jack failed to make much of an impact on his return to Marvel.  Had he lost his touch?  Probably not, but Kirby was still producing comics of the kind he'd been doing in the '50s and '60s and, sadly for him, comics had moved on since then, being a tad more sophisticated and relevant than in his heyday.  The 'King' may still have held an honorary crown, but the 'monarchy' had been abolished and he no longer dominated the world of comicbooks in the way he once had.

Anyway, enjoy browsing through Jack's 'last gasp' at Marvel, and if you see things differently from me, don't be afraid to say so in our comments section.

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(As far as I remember, I only ever had the first four (possibly five) issues and the Annual when they first came out (the ones seen here are my originals), not acquiring the remainder of the run until sometime in the early or mid-'90s.  Note that #19 is a cents copy, as is the Annual.)

And just for the sake of completeness, below is the 12-issue limited series from around the mid-'80s.  I think The Eternals may've had other series down through the years since then (not sure), but if so, as I don't have them, I can't show them.  I could never get too invested in the characters, so it's unlikely I'd buy any new issues if they were to be revived in the future.

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