Eternals vol 1 by kieron gillen

Vol 1 (2021): Only Death is Eternal, illustrated by Esad Ribić, colored by Matthew Wilson

The story opens up on the resurrection of Ikaris, the last of the Eternals to be “woken” again. He is given instructions to release Sprite, an eternal who caused a lot of problems for the Eternals recently and has been “reset.” The two travel to the main city of The Eternals and soon find Prime Eternal Zurus has been murdered. This isn’t a majorly big deal because he’ll be resurrected soon, but then they find out The Machine, the system that keeps Earth alive and maintains The Eternals, has been sabotaged, including the mechanism to revive Eternals. There’s no shortage of suspects who would want to bring down Eternals and/or destroy the Earth. Together with Sersi, Thana, Ikaris, Sprite, and a few others try to track down the traitor while keeping humans safe and alive.

---

This is a little bit of a tough place to start for Eternals storylines. There are references to previous storylines that aren’t really explored in depth, and none of the characters benefit from a lot of backstory. There are a couple times that the narrator, who is The Machine, delves into a few “flashbacks” to explain what some Eternals are talking about, but overall you're supposed to know a little bit about the Eternals to start here. The big bad is someone familiar from comicbooks and Marvel movies, so that's helpful. The art is well done with some really beautiful, spacious places depicted, like the Titan home world and the various spaces inside The Machine. Character expressions are sometimes a little comical when in the background. But, whenever a character's face is the focal point of the panel, Ribić is very detailed and expressive.

Marvel rates this for Teen+, possibly for the violence and death you see on the page. There are a couple of mild cuss words. In one scene, Thana is in bed with her lover, but they are fully covered. Her outfit she puts on afterwards is pretty revealing but no worse than a swimsuit.

Sara's Rating: 7/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12

Publisher: Marvel 
Publication Date: July 12, 2021
ISBN: 9781302925475 (Paperback)

​Tags: Rating: 7/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Superheroes, Action Adventure, Marvel