Retro Review: The Eternals #1

After having left Marvel Comics for DC Comics in the early 1970s, artist/writer Jack Kirby, returned to Marvel Comics after his failed run of The Fourth World floundered at DC.

 

Unfortunately all of the promises of a brighter future and creator control at DC came to naught and a disgruntled Jack returned to where it all started-Marvel Comics.

Of course things weren’t the same.   A second generation of artists and writers held sway at Marvel.  Jack’s art and story-telling abilities seemed antiquated and out of date-or were they?

While at DC Comics Jack successfully set in motion a totally new concept that in the last few decades has radically altered the DC Universe.  The characters he created during his Fourth World period sent ripples of change through the entire convoluted DC Universe.

His characters and concepts helped form the modern day DC Universe. 

Who is the main super-powered bad guy in the DC Universe-Darkseid of course-a Jack Kirby creation? The Source, The New Gods, Mr. Miracle, and The Demon: the list goes on and on-all were Jack’s creations.

Back at Marvel Jack let his creative energy run free.  His Marvel titles seemed insignificant and naïve to the younger generation of comic book creators.  Nothing could have been farther from the truth.

Jack was always fascinated by the entire UFO phenomenon.  At the time author Erich von Daniken’s book: The Chariots Of The Gods, was extremely popular.

UFO fans raved about the book that gathered clues from ancient sites scattered all over the world seeming to indicate that aliens had once visited Earth and helped create mankind and civilizations as we know them.

 Jack took the central theme of The Chariots Of The Gods and ran with it.  

In issues #1 of The Eternals Jack introduced the recently discovered lost city of the Space Gods.

One of the members of the discovery party is an ancient member of The Eternals, a long-lived race of super-beings genetically linked to humanity.  Another less, peaceful genetic ancestor is the Deviants.

Sworn enemies of humans and The Eternals, the Deviants want nothing less than complete power and control.

In this simple, single issue Jack sets in motion an entirely new concept in the Marvel Universe.  From that one simple concept hangs the entire cosmic impetus of the Marvel Universe.

Without Jack’s The Eternals most of Marvel’s space borne/cosmic storylines would not exist.  From The Eternals comes the Space Gods and the myths and legends surrounding such characters as the Norse Gods, The Guardians Of The Galaxy and previously created concepts by Stan Lee and Jack before Jack’s Marvel Comics departure.

Galactus, the Silver Surfer, the Kree, the Skrulls, and other space-faring races and cosmic powers, both natural and supernatural, owe their existence and origins to Jack’s vision.

Pick up any space bound Marvel Comic and it traces back to Jack’s The Eternals.

It s remarkable that one man, single-handedly, created the core concept for both DC and Marvel Comics.  Is it any wonder he was referred to as Jack “King” Kirby?