Eternals #14 (1977)
by Jack Kirby
Considering the Hulk is on the cover this should be the issue that firmly connects the Eternals to the Marvel Universe, right?
Well… it’s complicated.
It’s no secret that Hulk is the star here, considering the teaser pages is also dedicated to him.
And the Hulk is also in the first scene, in the last place where you’d expect to see him.
In the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Until he’s knocked out by a sonic weapon.
This isn’t the real Hulk, however: it’s just a robot built by these college students.
Notice that they say they’re all Hulk fans: that actually reflects Hulk’s popularity in the 60s, where he (and Spider-Man) had particularly active fandoms in various colleges.
I don’t know if that extends to the 70s.
With all this talk about the Hulk, let’s not forget the Uni-Mind of the Eternals.
Which, after a huge buildup to its creation, has been spending its time… doing nothing.
Honestly that’s kind of on brand for the Eternals.
In fact, the Uni-Mind is doing anything but helping: it’s leaking Cosmic Energy everywhere.
Whatever that is supposed to be.
In addition to causing a ton of accidents, this also powers up the Hulk robot.
And that’s all the Uni-Mind is able to accomplish, apparently.
Clearly time well spent by everyone involved.
It’s fascinating that the Eternals find this incredibly fulfilling, while the humans are just confused.
You can interpret this two ways: either the human mind is not sufficiently evolved to appreciate this (probably Kirby’s intent), or this was actually incredibly boring and the Eternals are easily amused (my take).
Thank God the Hulk decides to go on a rampage.
Something that I’m sure is very rarely said in-universe.
Going back to New York on Makkari’s ship, the Eternals sense something is up.
They do indeed find the Hulk robot, which takes out Makkari between panels.
Notice Sersi is worried that the fall from the top of a building could permanently cripple Makkari, even if it doesn’t kill him. That’s VERY different from how he typically repeats that the Eternals are basically invulnerable, and in fact this will be contradicted by multiple sources later.
This is when Kirby’s decision to make Sersi so stupidly powerful bites him. Because if Sersi can transform any non-Eternal into anything, why is she relegated to saving Makkari and doesn’t just snap her fingers to turn the Hulk into a frog or something?
This turns into, what else, a big dumb fight.
Even Ikaris isn’t able to win this one through brute force alone, resorting to blasting a cliffhanger out of his eyes.
Splash pages: 1 out of 17 (6%)
no double splash pages
Most Kirby panel
Most WTF panel
Remember that this is not supposed to be the Marvel Universe, so the professor thinking that building a fully functional robot (in 1977 no less) is a complete waste of time doesn’t make much sense.
Historical significance: 6/10
The Hulk robot has THREE appearances in this series alone (!!!), but it will keep popping up all over the place for decades.
We’ve in fact already met this robot in the Doom retrospective TWICE, in Fantastic Four #320 and Incredible Hulk #606.
As of 2025, its last appearance to date is 2010’s Hulk vol2 #23, it was torn apart by Red Hulk.
I would imagine he hasn’t been used since because at this point there are multiple Hulks running around, but I have no doubt someone will repair it.
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
A couple of college students build a perfectly functional Hulk robot that just needs to be powered a giant space brain that oozes Kirby Krackles.
Does it stand the test of time? 1/10
As usual, saved from a 0/10 just because of the Kirby artwork. But even that can only do so much when the fight scenes are so generic.
Still, that would normally warrant at least a 2/10… but I’m detracting a point because this story makes dedicating a issue and a half to the creation of the Uni-Mind COMPLETELY POINTLESS.
This has barely anything to do with the Eternals and grinds the general plot to a halt, which is particularly bad because it wasn’t going fast to begin with.
This time I can cut Kirby some slack because I’m absolutely certain that bringing in the Hulk wasn’t HIS idea. But while this stinks of editorial mandate, I still have to consider it.
Does this fit the Marvel Universe? 4/10
The next issues will have clues that the Hulk is not considered to be a real person by the cast, just a character from a comic book.
On one hand, setting this in the Marvel Universe gives credence to a bunch of students building this (and the fact that it wouldn’t be THAT exciting), but on the other hand we have the Uni-Mind oozing reality-warping energies across the planet and nobody notices.