Eternals #3 (1976)
by Jack Kirby
The cover would have you believe that Margo, the tagalong human, will play an important role in the story.
She won’t.
Be honest, did you even remember her name is Margo?
We begin with Ajak identifying the Celestial who landed on Earth at the end of last issue, and it’s the big one: Arishem, the leader of the Fourth Host… the group of Celestials here to judge the planet.
I can’t take Ajak seriously with that helmet. How does he even see with that giant thing in front of his eyes!?
Next is the most spectacular two-page spread so far, a truly gorgeous shot of Arishem that really sells how gigantic he is.
I absolutely adore the Celestial beyond words. They are easily the second best thing to come out of this book and everything about them is awesome.
The same two-page informs us that the stuff on Arishem’s hand isn’t just a fancy Arishem device: it’s a formula that allows him to decimate worlds.
Isn’t that a bit dangerous to put in a comic book? Maybe I should censor it.
The most fascinating part of the Celestials for me… besides the fact that they look as cool as divinely possible… is that Kirby REALLY sells how completely beyond human they are, treating entire civilizations like nothing.
This is why I find the Eternals mythology more interesting than the Fourth World one: despite what Grant Morrison has tried to do in the past couple of decades, the New Gods STILL feel like people with powers.
The Celestials, on the other hand, feel MUCH more than that.
The archeologist (no relation) is really accepting all of this… at least until he learns that this Incan temple will be completely sealed from the rest of the world for the next 50 years.
The archeologist decides to stay, despite the fact he definitely won’t live 50 more years.
The daughter is conflicted, but Ikaris decides he won’t let her stay because… uhm… honestly I have a hard time understanding Ikaris. Yeah it’s a harsh fate, but has he shown ANY indication that he cares?
Also, no thought whatsoever is given to the people who came out of retirement with Ajak.
I initially considered them Eternals, but some of my commenters correctly pointed out that there was no direct indication of that and they COULD be unfrozen Incas.
But the fact that only the archeologist and his daughter are discussed in this situation, I’m still convinced everyone else is an Eternal.
Arishem is not the only Celestial with an unbelievably cool design, but you won’t get to experience it in this issue. We only get an unremarkable glimpse.
The closest is this one, who doesn’t look like any of the named Celestials we’ll meet.
Our hero, ladies and gentlemen. The most baffling decision Kirby does in this series is to have IKARIS as the point-of-view character.
Kro gets his own splash page, dedicated to all Deviant enthusiasts.
He’s being tortured for being completely useless in the first two issues.
The same page also includes a caption where Kirby addresses the reader directly. It feels WEIRD to have him do this instead of Stan Lee, isn’t it? Kirby doesn’t usually do this in his stories.
Kro manages to convince Brother Tode, the Deviant leader, to give him another chance.
Kro plans to do this to use his shapeshifting powers to grow horns to impersonate the Devil.
Back to Margo, you might think she’s upset that she won’t ever see her father again, or because while he might uncover the secrets of history he won’t be able to tell anyone.
But no, she’s mostly upset because she doesn’t know what will happen to her without her father.
How old is she supposed to be?
Strangely enough, Kirby decides to show the Celestials protecting their base with an enormous dome in a very understated way. Not a complaint, it’s effective at giving the scale, but still not something you’d expect from Kirby.
Up to this point the series has been quite vague about what the Eternals can do… and they pretty much have all the powers you can think of.
One of the things that I’ve always liked about the Eternals is that while technically speaking they all have the same powers, the way they specialize on one still makes them very distinct.
Something lost with Ikaris, who is among the Eternals who can basically do everything.
Ikaris chose the wrong time to frolic in the clouds, because the Deviants now attack.
Amazingly they DO manage to hurt Ikaris! I don’t think they’d be able to do this later in the series.
And speaking of things that probably wouldn’t happen later in the series: Ikaris teleports the plane into space!!!
Or maybe he just telekinetically moved it very quickly? That would something he should TECHNICALLY be able to do.
As mentioned, this series was not initially considered to be taking place in the Marvel universe; especially not this early.
So Kirby had the chance to set the series ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD… aaaaand we’re back to New York City.
Specifically, Ikaris brings Margo to meet his friend Sersy.
Yes, it’s spelled that way.
Despite the unusual spelling that will be dropped quickly, here she is: the first best thing to come out of this book and FINALLY someone with an actual personality.
I could be making fun of Sersi’s interpretative dance, but I’m more baffled by Margo’s thought here. Sersi is the third Eternal she meets… she met the first two in an expedition in an Incan temple and the one she thinks shows up in “an unexpected place” lives in a New York apartment???
Ikaris, bringing down the mood since 200,000 B.C.
After the utter blandness of Ikaris, Sersi is a breath of fresh air.
But it’s not all fun and games with her, something that I appreciate: given how over-the-top Kirby is when introducing characters you’d expect her to be only interested in having fun… but the second things get serious she matches the tone.
It would have been easy for Kirby to make her one-dimensional like so many of his creations, but he definitely doesn’t fall on the same trap with her.
And we end the issue with the Deviants launching an attack against New York, disguised as Discount Parademons literal demons.
Kro also shows up, pretending to be the Devil… from space.
Despite the mass hysteria, the civilian reaction is not TOO different from what you’d expect in the Marvel universe.
And that’s our cliffhanger, promising more Ikaris next issue.
What joy.
By the way, in case you’re wondering, the reason she’s called Sersi is that she’s supposed to be (or have inspired, depending on the retcon) the same Circe from the Odyssey.
And for YEARS I had no idea how the heck we were supposed to make the connection: “Circe” sounds COMPLETELY different in Italian from Sersi.
The closest I can describe the Italian pronunciation for Circe would be “CHEER-che”.
Which apparently would be closer to the original Ancient Greek version… I can’t be 100% sure since I don’t know Greek, but a quick research tells me they might have pronounced it “KEER-kay”.
I’m sure the fact that Sersi = Circe must have been obvious to English-speaking readers, but I do wonder… since I know I have readers from various countries, was this weird for you too?
Historical significance: 8/10
If we were only talking about the Eternals it would be an easy 10/10, since Sersi is EASILY the one with the biggest impact on the Marvel Universe by a CONSIDERABLE margin.
Mostly thanks to being in the Avengers for quite some time, but she’s also the most likeable one… no wonder most relaunches and adaptations of the Eternals choose her as one of the point-of-view characters.
Silver Age-ness: 2/10
The old man is REALLY underselling living alone in a temple isolated from mankind for the rest of his life.
Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Definitely improving, but only so much. The arrival of the Celestials is properly majestic… but instead of focusing on that, or in giving Margo the slightest hint of characterization, we meander with a plot about the Deviants scheming and attacking.
Honestly at this point I’m not even sure what the Deviants are trying to accomplish here. Their goal at the start of the series was preventing the Eternals from bringing the Celestials back to Earth, sure, but now that Kro failed at that… what’s his mission supposed to be, just conquer the world?
Ikaris continues to be both uninteresting and unlikeable. Thank goodness Sersi is here so at least now we’ll have ONE character the reader might actually care about.
Reviewing this series next to New Gods is also making me notice something else: while it has less pages and the plot is still quite slow, a lot more happens in THIS series!
Does this fit the Marvel Universe? 8/10
Sure New York City is used to all kinds of weird invasions, but not THAT many by 1971 so there would still be panic. Honestly the fact that some people are so ready to resist makes MORE sense if this is the Marvel Universe.
The part that doesn’t fit is that NONE OF THE NYC HEROES SHOW UP, but that’s a problem for NEXT issue… in this one the invasion has BARELY started.
Splash pages: 3 out of 17 (18%)
Splash + double splash pages: 4 out of 17 (29%)
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
This was a truly baffling moment for me: why would Margo consider herself to “look ridiculous” here, to the point hoping Ikaris’s friend would be “tolerant”?
She’s not wearing anything out of the ordinary! Am I missing something from the sensibilities of 1971?
Sersi! One of the only Eternals Kirby attempted to give any personality besides generically noble and heroic. Then the movie completely jettisons any trace of that personality and makes her generically noble and heroic. Poor Gemma Chan got to show more sass and spark in her 30 seconds onscreen as Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel than she did in what felt like her 30 years onscreen as Sersi.
If Krysten Ritter hadn’t already been Jessica Jones in the MCU, she would’ve made a perfect Sersi – just reveal that her character from Don’t Trust the B In Apt. 23 was immortal and super powered all along and retcon it to be a prequel series to Eternals the movie.
It was also a bummer that the movie tossed out Arishem’s look and replaced it with “generic Celestial.” The unspeaking Arishem in this issue’s amazing double-spread is way more awe-inspiring and terrifying than the jabberbox Arishem from the movie.
I liked the scene with Ikaris and Margo in the plane. The whole sequence of Margo waking up calm rather than hysterical and the very low-key reveal of the Celestials’ dome is a rare example of Kirby going understated instead of operatic, and it works to sell that dazed feeling of trying to figure out what the heck just happened after witnessing massive events. It’s pretty much the only time in Margo’s entire existence that she’s an effective human POV character.
I disagree on the movie… yes that Sersi is different from the Kirby one, but she’s been different in comics for decades at this point.
I thought she did a good enough job, as did the movie for me.
While I would have preferred a silent Arishem, the movie sold him to me with a grandiose sense of sheer scale that even Kirby doesn’t always match.
Kro’s disguise as the Devil is the key to the whole plan. Otherwise, when thousands of armored aliens attacked New York, killing people and blowing up buildings, people wouldn’t have been alarmed.
More proof that it IS the Marvel Universe, where alien invasions don’t even get you out of school 🙂
I don’t think I’d heard Cerci pronounced any way but, well Sersi ,(the existence of Cersei Lannister can’t have helped). Never considered what other languages might do with the name.
Interesting that Kirby’s readers note instructed readers to “get the two prior issues” to understand the backstory. Were comic shops selling back issues a common thing in 1971? Certainty they weren’t the primary means of comic book purchase, that would be newsstand racks with one week’s worth of books displayed at a time. Even if they could be found, did the common purchaser of Eternals # 3 have any way to acquire issues 1 and 2?
I can’t be positive, but I get the sense that there was an active back issue market in the 1970s.
“Cersi” and “Circe” do sound rather similar in Portuguese. The vocal sounds are switched with each other and that is it.
It may be a bit easier to understand Ikaris if we consider him as a typical Kirby protagonist. They rarely lose their compostures, tend to be the one that others look up to… and act accordingly. As seen in the panels above, Ikaris pretty much decides that if Margo can’t make up her mind in due time it is his responsibility and duty to decide on her stead, even if she never actually asks him to.
Not an attitude that would fly in the present, but not unusual for the early 1970s.
I don’t know about Margo’s self-awareness about her clothing, but I always assumed that she was mostly worried about looking out of place in what was quickly shaping up to be one of the most significant days in her life. A part of it may or may not be a desire to look well composed and attractive in social interactions. Women were judged largely by their appearances in those days.
Sersy dropping a line about turning men into pigs would be enough for me to connect her to mythological Circe, but the identical English pronunciations certainly help. The fact that Ikaris is clearly derived from the mythological Icharus also helps… although with that name, he shouldn’t be able to fly too close to the sun.
Ajak is obviously from the Trojan War hero Ajax… or is he named after Ajax, the All-Purpose Powder Cleaner?
I did think Grant Morrison did an excellent job elevating Darkseid beyond being a stony guy who likes couches. In Final Crisis, once he became disembodied, he was far more terrifying as an invasive thought pattern, the antithesis of free will, replacing all independent thought with “Darkseid Is”.
Of course, Darkseid had to be devolved back to being a stony guy who loves couches because other writers can’t write on Morrison’s level.