Writer: Kieron Gillen

Artist: Esad Ribić

Color Artist: Matthew Wilson

Cover Artist: Esad Ribić

Reviewer: StoryBabbler.

Last time we saw the Eternals in the midst of completing their full resurrection after Jason Aaron killed them all off in the beginning of his Avengers run. We followed Ikaris chase after the troublemaking Sprite to New York, saw them fight a lone Deviant in the sewers, only to come back home to a murder. The comic left off with Ikaris and Sprite heading to the abandoned Eternal city of Titanos only for Thanos, the Mad Titan himself, to confront them. Let’s smash into Eternals #2 by Kieron Gillen to discover what’s wrong with the Great Machine as well as what Thanos has to do with all of this!

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Eternals #2 Review:

We finally get the fight that should’ve happened long ago: Thanos vs. Ikaris. Despite the comic cover, Thanos doesn’t stick around that much. The comic starts with the Eternals’ Great Machine recapping the previous comic before Ikaris starts fighting Thanos. The two trade blows across time-displacement portals surrounding Titanos, leading to a fight straight out of Thor: The Dark World, as they fight from portal to portal leaping through time on Earth. Until they land back in Titanos where Thanos defeats Ikaris before Sprite manages to help them escape his wrath. Thanos is written too emotional here, as he literally rages from being tricked by Sprite instead of immediately trying to assess the situation and search for them.

That’s the highlight of Thanos’ involvement in this comic. From there, Kieron Gillen proceeds to lay out his take on the Eternals’ history regarding Thanos’ relations to the Eternals from his parentage to the conflict preceding the founding of the Eternal Colony on Titan that he was born in. However, before you get your hopes up, this is not done in Esad Ribic’s epic illustrations, rather just an info page similar to Jonathan Hickman’s white data pages only with blue hexagons. The focus shifts from the fight to the Eternals trying to figure out what happened, how Thanos even got into their city, and what to do next. The comic introduces longtime Eternal Sersi and others to the comic. And while she helps heal Ikaris’ wounds the group realize that in order for Thanos to make it into the Great Machine at all, someone had to grant him access from the inside. There’s a traitor among the Eternals, but they don’t know who it is.

Eternals #2 Spoilers:

It’s great to finally see someone tell a story where Thanos interacts with the Eternals and Deviants. But if you’re expecting Thanos to be written as if he were ripped straight from the MCU or from his more definitive comic stories like Infinity Gauntlet, then you’re out of luck here. He’s only here to fight Ikaris for 5 pages, almost kill him by ripping off a quick body double’s head then get enraged like a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain. The fight itself is fine but pretty underwhelming. Heck, the one thing the characters never do is ask one simple thing: Why would Thanos kill Zuras? Heck, how did he do it? Thanos is dead in the main Marvel 616 universe, and while Titanos opens the option that it’s Thanos from the past or future, the comic never brought that up. It might be brought up in the next issue, but I’m not so sure. Perhaps this is the real Thanos and we’ll get an entire issue exploring how he comes back from the dead. Though, that’s just wishful thinking on my part. But if so, I wonder if it will conflict with Donny Cates’ plans for Thanos in his Thor run.

Maybe Kieron Gillen will do more with him in the next few issues. Gillen shifts focus from Thanos and the murder mystery to Ikaris and his connection to a new family. During his fight with Thanos, Ikaris caught a glimpse of a portal where a young cave-boy saw a Deviant. The comic then shows a flashback to Ikaris telling the young boy to be on the lookout for said Deviant and he’ll meet with him again. Only for the young man to grow up, start a family, grow old and die never seeing the Deviant or Ikaris. In fact, Ikaris got it wrong, he saw the man’s grandchild see the Deviant, but you don’t see Ikaris fight the aquatic Deviant.

Instead the comic shifts to the present day ending with Ikaris floating in the middle of the night at a random house to talk to a young boy, possibly the caveman’s descendant. He tells the boy he will protect him only for the boy to go, “Sure, whatever” and just go back to sleep thinking it’s a dream. It’s possible this is setup for a potential plotline in upcoming issues, but if not then it was a waste of time.

FINAL THOUGHTS

While this comic will try to get you hyped for seeing Thanos, he’s barely in it and the issue kind of slows down to tell a flashback that may or may not be important. If you want to see the Eternals fight Thanos and the Deviants, then you should wait till the next issue for more. If you want to see more of the Eternals’ drama, then this comic might be for you.

6.5/10

If you’re interested in THE ETERNALS #2, click HERE to get a copy! If you’re intrigued about these mysterious protectors, click HERE to get your hands on related trades, volumes, and back issues of THE ETERNALS. And finally, if you’re looking for something else to read, check out my Amazon Online Comic Shop by clicking HERE. Thank you all for the read and continued support. Stay safe and stay healthy.

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