The Eternals are about to join the MCU and while early reviews of the movie are mixed at best, they're still one of the comics' most venerable, if little known, franchises. Created by comics legend Jack Kirby upon his return to Marvel, the Eternals were created by the Celestials as the pinnacle of humanity to defend against the Deviants, a wildly evolving Celestial experiment. Over the years, they've had amazing adventures.
In their five decades of existence, the Eternals have gone through a lot of changes. While they aren't as popular as some of Marvel's other groups, they still have an intriguing history.
10 They Joined The Marvel Universe
This one may seem like a given but it's not so cut and dry. Reading Kirby's original Eternals, there's a feeling of disconnection from the Marvel Universe. One of the biggest selling points of the Marvel Universe that Kirby and Lee revolutionized was the feeling of continuity between books. Events from one would be referenced in another but Eternals didn't have that.
The book felt like it took place in its own little world outside the Marvel Universe. The closest it came to being a part of the Marvel Universe was when the Eternals fought a Hulk robot but even then, it wasn't really referenced as a "Hulk robot." In the coming years, the Eternals and Kirby's other ideas from the book would get folded into the Marvel Universe but at the time, no one was sure.
9 Gilgamesh Joined One Of The Most Derided Avengers Teams Ever
The Avengers is known for its powerful and skilled heroes and so it makes sense for an Eternal to join the team, as they are massively powerful. In practice, it never really worked that well and the first indication of that was when Gilgamesh joined the team in issue #300. For one thing, the roster would go down as one of the worst ever, with only five members of the team: Captain America in his Captain days, Thor, Gil, and Reed, and Sue Richards.
Fans hated the team and Gilgamesh, one of the least known Eternals, didn't help. The team didn't last long and Gilgamesh was gone from the Avengers.
8 Sersi Became One Of The Most Important Avengers Of The '90s
Sersi was the next Eternal to join the Avengers and this made more sense than Gilgamesh. She was one of the most popular Eternals, as her matter controlling powers made her more important to the team, and she was generally more entertaining, a party girl always ready to fight evil. She became one of the most important members of the team in the '90s, something that isn't as great as it sounds.
The '90s were not a good time for the Avengers, as the team was mostly missing the members that made it the Avengers in fans' eyes. While Sersi was one of the best parts of the team, it's still another infamous Avengers period with an Eternal on the team.
7 The Eternals Of Titan Were Introduced, Opening The Door For Thanos
Earth's Eternals are known as the Eternals of Olympia because they aren't the only Eternals. It was eventually revealed that there was an offshoot group of Eternals on Saturn's moon of Titan. The two were once one group but a schism over whether Eternals should try to re-engineer their bodies to breed caused them to splinter off.
This led to one of the most important developments in Marvel history, the introduction of Thanos. Thanos was the child of Sui-San and Mentor and would go on to become one of Marvel's greatest villains.
6 Neil Gaiman's 2006 Series Brought Them Into The Modern Marvel Universe
The Eternals disappeared for years but they weren't really gone. Marvel entrusted none other than Neil Gaiman, one of comic's greatest writers, to re-introduce them to Marvel Universe and he brought a wonderful back-to-basics approach, one which also brought a lot of change to the property. In order to explain their disappearance, he took a novel approach.
Using the Machine, the mysterious Celestial created device that is forged from the Earth itself, to literally reboot the Eternals, one of their number concocted a scheme to get rid of their old friends. When this backfired, it led to the return of the Eternals all over the world.
5 The Celestials Stopped Speaking To Them
After Gaiman's series, Marvel pretty much dropped the ball completely on everything he set up and so the Eternals were lost again. With the beginning of the most recent series, by writer Kieron Gillen and artist Esad Ribic, many things were revealed about the team but one of the biggest came in Eternals: Celestia, a one-shot that revealed the Celestials no longer spoke to their creations.
This is a massive blow to Ajax, who ran the Celestial religion. It's also turned her against the Avengers, who the Celestials have spoken to. For whatever reason, some of the smartest beings in the Marvel Universe abandoned their creations, which can't be good.
4 Some Of Them Have Changed Forms
One of the more interesting aspects of the Eternals is they can be whatever they want. The Machine can transform them and many of the group have taken advantage of this. Ajax and Sprite are now women, Makkari is a woman and deaf for some reason, and Sersi, who was the inspiration for the Greek myth of Circe, is now Asian.
While the real reason for these changes is the MCU, Gillen has used it as an intriguing plot point, setting up that the Eternals can experience the world any way they want. How this all plays out in the future remains to be seen.
3 Zura's Death Opened A New Mystery With Terrible Implications
Zuras has been the Eternals' leader since the beginning. The inspiration for Zeus, much like the Eternal city of Olympia is the inspiration for Olympus, Zuras has led the society for millennia. The first Eternal, he knows as many secrets as the Celestials deigned to reveal to him and while his fellows weren't always happy with him, he was their leader.
The inciting act of Gillen and Ribic's series is the investigation of Zuras' death and why the Machine couldn't at the time resurrect him. While this death is also because of the MCU, as Ajax and not Zuras is the leader in the movie, the mystery made for a great first arc of the book.
2 Phastos Tried To Destroy The Eternals
It was revealed that Phastos, using an incorrectly resurrected Thanos, was behind the murder of Zuras. His reason was that Zuras knew the secret of the Eternals: whenever one of them died, the Machine would kill a random human in order to resurrect them. Knowing that their existence hurt the people they tried to protect, Phastos decided to destroy his entire race.
This revelation changed everything for the group. Phastos was one of their most trusted members, his technical know-how helping to keep the Machine running smoothly, and his betrayal hurt a lot. His reasoning also shook them to their core, causing them to do something unprecedented.
1 The Eternals Joined The Deviants
With the revelation that their blase attitude towards death has cost humanity countless lives over the years, some of the core Eternals like Ikkaris, Sprite, Sersi, Kingo, and Gilgamesh abandoned Olympia and the newly resurrected Zuras. They decided to go to the one people who had stopped hurting humanity, their ancient foes the Deviants.
This is a massive change to the Eternals. Joining their greatest foes in order to learn how to live a life away from humanity is the right thing for them but it's also a step that no one thought they'd ever take and changes the way the Eternals interact with the Marvel Universe.
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