Meeting Of The Minds!

Artistically speaking, it's hard to get wrong the concept of the Uni-Mind, the ritual of the Eternals that we've occasionally seen enacted over the years. You basically have all of the Eternals (along with maybe a few guests) taking to the sky and doing some flying in a circular pattern before joining forces at one central point formed by their leader, Zuras, to reform into a huge floating brain. There's a considerable amount of spectacle involved, since the ritual itself seems to mean a great deal to the Eternals.

But even with such basics, artists have differed in their perspectives of the whole thing--some giving the grandeur its due, while others have regarded the end result (i.e., the Uni-Mind itself) as the focus of their efforts. Let's take a look and see how some of their different interpretations compare with each other.

First, in a series of back-up stories featuring the Eternals, one installment spends two entire pages on the ritual, courtesy of artists Ron Wilson and Alan Kupperberg, where Zuras forms the Uni-Mind in tandem with his brother, Alars:

In Thor, while the Thunder God is investigating the threat of the Celestials, he pays a visit to Olympia and is witness to the ceremony, drawn by Keith Pollard and Chic Stone:

Over in The Avengers, the Eternals have invited Starfox to participate in the Uni-Mind ceremony, this time with Thena issuing the call.  Though artists Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott seem to think a lot more of the Uni-Mind than the pomp which leads up to its formation:

Finally, the concept's creator, Jack Kirby, gives the Uni-Mind ritual a gorgeous two-page spread, and much more:

Despite the attention given to it, I confess that the Uni-Mind ritual has never really caught on with me in a singularly impressive way. But I'm still intrigued by whatever new twist an artist might give its latest appearance.