The Eternals: Everything You Need To Know

12. They're Basically Marvel's New Gods

Comics fans won't need reminding that Jack Kirby had a fraught relationship with the House of Ideas, but whereas most will recall the writer/artist's departure from the company to join rivals DC during the early seventies, they may have forgotten his eventual return, which occurred in 1976, the same year he created The Eternals.

Kirby had a habit of interchanging between the Big Two throughout his career, and so there was a lot of crossover with his creations. Upon leaving Timely Comics in 1942, Kirby and collaborator Joe Simon created Guardian for DC, who was basically another version of Captain America. Likewise, when Kirby left for DC again at the turn of the seventies he created the New Gods - arguably his greatest work - before returning to Marvel and writing The Eternals, a book with a very similar premise.

The Eternals, much like the New Gods, focused on an eternal struggle between two paragons of good and evil, with the Eternals representing all that is good, and their enemies, the Deviants, representing all that's not. Comparisons between that premise and that of the New Gods' conflict between Apokolips and New Genesis are inevitable, and though it is true that DC have the advantage when it comes to the source material, there's plenty to love about The Eternals too.