Book Review: The Eternals Vol. 1 by Jack Kirby

The Eternals Volume 1 written and drawn by Jack Kirby

Humanity discovers it is not alone on Earth. In pre-historic times, the Celestials came to the Earth and created three races of men. First are the Eternals, an undying people who have superhuman powers and have been mistaken through the ages by mere mortals as gods like in the Greek pantheon. Second are those mere mortals, humans who live and die and have rather normal lives. Third are the Deviants, a genetically unstable people who become more and more monstrous with each generation. They have been mistaken for devils and other horrors from folk lore. The Celestials are returning to check up on their work, forcing the Eternals out of hiding on the surface world and the Deviants out of hiding from the underwater cities (the main one seemingly being the lost city of Atlantis). Typically the Eternals and the Deviants fight each other, but will they have to unite against a common enemy, their creators?

The storytelling is a bit choppy, jumping from one plot line to another. The imaginative homes of the Eternals and the Deviants are fun to see. The characters are not that interesting and seem a bit overpowered. For example, Sersi (she claims Homer spelled her name wrong) can rearrange the atoms of any being, thus she can make men into pigs at will. Somehow she has a hard time fighting the Deviants. The story didn't get to the big confrontation between the earthlings and the Celestials but I am not interested enough to continue on. Maybe the movie will be better.

Not recommended--there's a lot of creative ideas here but they don't gel together as a convincing whole.