Marvel has announced a new Eternals comic for what would have been the same month the feature film debuted, if it wasn’t for COVID-19. No, the film is now scheduled to arrive next February, but a new comic series by Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribić will debut in November.
“I said if I was ever to do a book again at Marvel, it would have to be something I’ve never done before. This is exactly that. This is me teaming up with literally my favourite artist of the epic, taking one of those lightning-storm Kirby visions and re-making it to be as new as the day it was forged,” Gillen said. “While Esad makes whole worlds on the page, I’m applying all the skills I’ve developed when I was away. It’s a lot. It’s everything. There’s enough scale packed in here that I believe that when you look at the comic, you’ll see the pages slightly bulge. Essentially ‘Eternal’ has to mean ‘never going out of style,’ which means we’re aiming for ‘instant classic.’ Also — fight scenes, horror, human drama, emotions, explosions. Comics!”
Created by Jack Kirby in the 1970s, the Eternals were created by the cosmic giants known as the Celestials to protect the Earth against the enemy Deviants and other threats. Since Kirby’s initial run, which followed his thematically simialr work on DC’s The New Gods, the Eternals have returned in various series and miniseries over the years, by Peter S. Gillis, Wal Simonson, Chuck Austen, Neil Gaiman, John Romita Jr. and others. Most recently, they appeared during Jason Aaron’s run on Avengers, which did not end well.
Gillen shared a few more details about his approach to the Eternals in his email newsletter: “Key facts: it’s a clean, accessible book. It’s set in the Marvel universe, and will impact it hard, but it’s also designed to be picked up by anyone and enjoyed. Plus it’s very much me trying to bring to bear the skillset I’ve developed when I’ve been away (especially from WicDiv and DIE) and a whole bunch of other things I’ve been chewing over, in terms of things one could do.”