The Eternals Challenge
I am issuing an open challenge to everyone who reads this blog (which thankfully is a relatively low number in case this backfires):
Go out to your local comic shop. Buy Eternals #1 and Eternals #2. Read them and enjoy them. If you don’t like them, send them to me and I’ll send you a check for $7.98.
It’s that good. However, in the midst of a deluge of new DC titles with high-profile creative teams on top-tier characters and Marvel’s Civil War and it’s thousands of crossover, Eternals isn’t getting the credit it deserves. Eternals is quite simply one of the best series I’ve read in recent memory.
I know what your thinking…the Eternals? You’ve probably never even read a story with the Eternals in it, or even read a story that mentioned them. That’s the same thing I thought when I heard Neil Gaiman was going to write a new series featuring Jack Kirby’s last creations at Marvel. Okay, so they mentioned them in the Earth X trilogy, albeit very briefly, but I certainly didn’t know anything about them. Other than the fact that Sersi is one and Cannonball used to think he was one, I knew absolutely nothing about the Eternals. Thing is, you don’t need to. Gaiman gives you all the backstory you need to know in the first issue, and there’s surprisingly little of it.
Oh, and did I mention Neil Gaiman is writing it? And John Romita Jr. is drawing it? Romita’s at the top of his game here, and Neil Gaiman always shines. And did I mention the first issue was by far the best book to come out the week it was released? That’s no small feat, considering Ex Machina, Justice, Astonishing X-Men, Ultimates 2 and Fallen Angel all came out the same week.
So what’s stopping you? Go out and buy Eternals. The second issue just came out on Wednesday. So take The Eternals Challenge. Doom DeLuise and Colonel Doom already did. You want to be cool like them, right? So do it!
Okay, here’s the specifics of the challenge. Buy Eternals #1 & #2 and get a receipt. Read them. If you don’t like them, submit a comment here with you e-mail saying why you didn’t like the issues. I’ll contact you and we’ll work everything out from there. You must buy both issues on one receipt in order to qualify, and they must have been purchsed after you read this blog. That’s why a dated receipt is essential. The challenge is only open for one week, so the receipt must be dated between 7/20/06 and 7/26/06. Also, you have to reply here by 7/26/06. You’re responsible for tax and shipping to me…so sorry, you won’t get all your money back, but you can ship the comics as cheaply as you want. I’m not doing more than 5 payouts. And this isn’t legally official or anything, so if I forgot to mention something it doesn’t mean I have to do anything I wasn’t intending to do.
If someone takes your challenge and doesn’t like it, they’re lying.
Seriously. That was awesome. I regret nothing.
Part of the brilliance of the Eternals is that Gaiman’s taking a concept immediately recognizable as Kirby’s (Giant space gods seeding a planet!), efficiently fills in all necessary backstory, and clearly places in it current marvel continuity through without overwhelming readers like me who are relatively new to regular Marvel readings. And all that aside, it’s just really sweet. I mean, come on-MILE TALL ALIEN ROBOTS!
I’m being a chump and waiting for the trade.
I was so blown away I didn’t bother with issue #2.
John Romita Jr at the top of his game is like saying “The Royals are playing as well as they have in years!” He is one of the most expressionless, emotionless artists consistently getting work.
I would be careful not to read too much into not getting any takers on those terms.
Why the JRJr hate? To each his own, I guess.
And yes, I never actually expected to get any takers. Those of us that post stuff here probably make up over half of the readers.
Hey Dumb..er Doom,
I’m happy to know that a person of your artistic taste doesn’t have a position anywhere in the industry. As a matter of fact, you don’t have a position as a reader, either….But as Fin Fang writes…”to each his own”…just the way I feel.
Funny, out of all my critics, and there are many, expressionless and emotionless, were never stated before…so you’ve broken new ground with your insipid vitriol….and now so have I!:-)
JRJR just figured out google! YAY!
Wait, was that actually John Romita Jr?
Yeah, it’s me….I can’t help it….some posters get under my normally thick skin…..And, btw, I figured Google out a long time ago…..it’s just that I was afraid to confront my critics….They scare me!!:-)
This is SO much more exciting than the flock of spammers posting on one of my old Q & A’s.
Yeah, JRJ…it sure does stink that I could never get a job in cartooning…whatever it takes to make yourself feel better.
I get people ripping on my work all the time. I don’t hunt them down and pat myself on the back with my responses of “insipid vitriol.”
I’m not a fan of your art. If I were forced to find a compliment, maybe I’d pick consistent? But to be fair, I don’t hate your art, but I have never considered it a selling point. So I guess in other words, I’ve never bought a book because you were the artist, but I’ve never NOT bought a book because you were the artist.
However, Fin Fang’s review was hyping the book partially based upon you being ‘at the top of your game,” or something like that, and I responded to that. To each his own – absolutely – but that hardly translates to “No one can ever have a negative opinion.” People have different tastes – that doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to talk about them.
And so I’m not at all apologetic that I have a response that is somewhere beyond the apparently desired “Yeah, JRJr is the best!”
Google’s pretty amazing in its complexity – maybe there’s some hidden function that will allow you to find only positive comments.
On a completely different note, thanks for totally legitimizing this comics blog. As Jean-Claude Van Doom alluded to, usually all the comments here are from people who write here and people who spam here. 😉
[…] Another holdover from last week. Somehow I missed this one on the shelf. Well, not twice in a row. If you’re not buying this series, you’re missing out on a fun romp through the lesser-knowns of the Marvel U that seems (perhaps because of expectations) a lot more enjoyable than the Eternals series that Gaiman chap is putting out. (For self preservation, I won’t say a cross word of that Romita fellow. Here, we learn a great history of the mysterious Venus (and I really enjoy how each issue quickly fits in these histories), see some great fights and hear some typically clever lines. Writer Jeff Parker deserves to keep getting good opportunities, because he’s managing a good balance of whimsy, drama and action. […]