Monday, October 5, 2020

What's green, immensely strong, leaps, and wears ripped purple pants? Don't ask the Eternals...


During his second and final stay at Marvel Comics from mid-1976 to early 1978, Jack Kirby took on a number of creative projects of which he assumed control as both artist and writer, while choosing to distance his work from any connection to Marvel's "universe" of characters--with the exception of assuming the reins of the existing Captain America book as well as beginning a new Black Panther series, while allowing the former to make use of the Falcon, Leila Taylor, Sharon Carter, Magneto, the Red Skull, and the trappings of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Yet though Cap readers might disagree with me, it may have been Kirby's work on The Eternals which garnered the most attention--an imaginative fresh take on human evolution, featuring a new race of super-powered immortals with names fashioned after the Olympians as well as an enigmatic race of space gods that left an indelible mark on ancient Earth.






Having still been involved in comics collecting at the time, I'd bitten the bullet and picked up Kirby's Cap and Black Panther books, knowing going in that both would be difficult reads due to Kirby's dated writing style that hearkened back to his own memories of what comics were like and what comics should always be like--but I steered clear of Machine Man and certainly Devil Dinosaur, while being content with the Eternals I remembered from the pages of Fantastic Four. Over time, however, thanks to their appearances in other books, I've become more familiar with the Eternals and the rich backstory which Kirby provided for them as they gradually became more integrated with Marvel's characters and continuity during the 1980s, now free from Kirby's segregation.

And so I can imagine how surprised readers of The Eternals in 1977 must have been to see one of Marvel's most visible headliners appear and be acknowledged in a book that would normally have kept him and others of his number at bay.




It's already apparent that something is up with "the Hulk" if he's indeed able to wield cosmic power; after all, the Hulk we're familiar with from the Marvel history that Kirby himself helped to chart is more than capable of giving Ikaris or any Eternal a fight all on his own. In this case, Kirby is able to circumvent his super-hero "blockade" with the aid of two Maryland engineering students out to build a mascot for a football game.






As to how this construct becomes so dangerous, much less cosmically powered, the "fallout" that Kirby mentions in his intro is attributed to the Eternals' Uni-Mind, returning to Earth from space and causing a number of disturbances as it descends--one of them notably being to turn this mascot into a raging, uncontrollable mass of destruction.





Admittedly, given that I never developed much of an interest in the Eternals, I've come to regard this story not as an Eternals story so much as an opportunity to see Kirby's last extensive work on the Hulk (however virtual) before his imminent departure from Marvel for good. In addition, as in the case of Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin, Frank Miller, John Byrne, et al. who have scripted their own artwork, there is also the incentive here to read a story exactly as the artist intended it to be interpreted, as opposed to a writer adapting his own interpretation of and dialog for the story to the pages of artwork that arrived on his or her desk. In that respect, it's a toss-up as to which scenes to appreciate in Kirby's treatment here, since the crisis at hand takes precedence; substitute the Avengers for the Eternals, and you might well have the same sort of patter taking place between characters.









With Ikaris out of the fight (at least for the time being), and Sersi having taken her best shot, it falls to the super-swift Makarri to deal with the construct. How strange that none of these Eternals, as informed as they seem to be on human history and events, have been able to make even a guess as to their foe's identity--stranger still that their human companions also seem to be clueless on the matter. (Though Ikaris has stumbled upon the same descriptive name coined by the army soldier in the Hulk's 1962 premiere story.) By contrast, Kirby, through narrative, isn't reticent about referring to the attacker as the Hulk, perhaps to add a further sense of drama to the savagery of its attack.

As for Makarri, his attack is dealt with all too handily, leaving the responsibility for halting or even slowing the creature's path of destruction to the National Guard--while spectators and reporters at the scene engage in a surprising bit of name-dropping under the circumstances.






It's 1977, and people are still wearing hats in Mr. Kirby's world.  What can I tell you.
(Though you may enjoy NPR's report on the subject.)



As Ikaris takes his leave and rejoins the fight, he finds Sersi doing an admirable job of keeping the Hulk busy ("the Hulk" handle now in use by those battling him)--which leads to two Kirby-packed pages of rampaging which lend credence to the story's title of "Disaster Area."





Finally, another Eternal steps in to deal with the threat, a figure known as the Prime Eternal--their ruler, Zuras, whose power gives him the means to remove the power that this construct was never meant to possess. Unfortunately, the Hulk's futile, panic-driven flight afterward will leave decimation in its wake.








We would see this construct walk again, however, when Dr. Doom has occasion to repair it and send it against the Thing, who unlike the Eternals recognized it on sight (or so he believed). Fortunately, Zuras knows his business when it comes to depowering mascots, and Doom's refitted Hulk went into battle this time without benefit of being cosmically powered.

BONUS!
Jack Kirby's covers for two of this story's issues.


11 comments:

  1. These two issues were near the end of the series so I assume the Hulk/"Hulk" was introduced as a desperate attempt to improve falling sales?

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  2. Of that I have little doubt, Colin.

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  3. A desperate attempt that failed. Kirby's dialogue just didn't inject any excitement or drama into the story past what was visible in the panels. It's a shame it wasn't the 'real' Hulk, and it's an even greater shame that Stan Lee didn't dialogue it.

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  4. I recall the Hulk guesting in Omega The Unknown around this point too, so yeah - ol' Jade Jaws was in all the top sellers.

    Enjoyed the post Comicsfan, but I think Kirby is really under-estimated as a writer and I'm afraid I have to disagree about his 70s work being dated at the time. Sure, it wasn't like what most writers were doing then, but it wasn't really the same as he'd been doing in the 60s either (which in turn was different to his 50s stuff). He was always developing his work, he just went in his own direction.

    For my money, Kirby did his best work at DC - he went there full of artistic ambition, and the Fourth World, Kamandi, The Losers, OMAC etc were a tremendous burst of creativity. But he lost something when he returned to Marvel, and much as I like his later 70s stuff too it (perhaps understandably given the circumstances) lacks some of that energetic vigour his approach to comics needs - its slower paced, stories that would have been single issues become two parters, and two parters become three or longer.

    The Eternals/Hulk crossover is a good example - it would have been a terrific done-in-one, but instead for all its qualities it dragged a bit, and derailed the ongoing series as you had to wait months to get back to the main storyline.

    -sean

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  5. I love you guys, but I have a totally different take on this. Now, granted my view is colored by the fact that I had the first issue of this arc when I was maybe eight years old and was a fanatic about Marvel Comics. So there's some sentimentality there.
    I loved it! I dug the Eternals and I was still new to Kirby. I'd really only seen his stuff at a buddy's house (the guy had some Captain American comics) or here and there in ads and stuff.
    My mind was blown. And while I would have preferred the real Hulk, the Cosmic-Powered version gave us a chance to see Kirby's modern take on the character, which I think is genuinely scary.
    I thought the initial battle was between Ikaris and the Cosmic-Powered Hulk (I love that name!) is incredible. This is Kirby at his most violent; it's kill or be killed. The guy was a genius at depicting large masses colliding at high speeds. When I look at it I imagine the impact. It's one of my favorite fight scenes!
    Now, I know I'm coming off as a real cornball, which I am, but this is one of those comics I'm always going to love if only because I read it as a kid.
    And the idea of a robot Hulk was a gimmick, obviously to gin up sales, but it's not nearly as egregiously cheesy or contrived as a lot of the crap Marvel has cranked out over the years.
    I prefer to to see it has having an almost naive charm. M.P. is a wistful, sentimental cat.

    M.P.

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  6. I tend to agree with you, Kid, though given the circumstances of this Hulk's origin Lee bring brought on as scripter wouldn't have helped since our engineering students apparently didn't go beyond giving it the ability to growl and roar. I truly wish Kirby would have simply substituted the real McCoy, as you suggest--given the CPH's visibility and all the battle scenes, what was the point of making it a robot, I wonder?

    sean, I'd differ with you as far as Kirby being underestimated as a writer, in light of the points raised by those who have taken specific issue with his style (as opposed to what we saw on Marvel's letters pages, which reflected more of a general uproar); but I well concede that he has his supporters in this area, and so it remains a conversation well worth having. There's no doubt in my mind that Kirby's ability as a storyteller is first-rate, nor is the art of subtlety lost on him in his plotting--but since I've probably sufficiently contributed my thoughts through the PPC as to what I find lacking in his scripting style, at this point I've found myself more interested in hearing from others on the subject, and your points are always food for thought, my friend. :)

    M.P., the enjoyment you express in what you got out of Kirby's story is probably the very thing that the man himself would have wanted to hear! I know it brought a smile to my face. ;)

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  7. True I suppose, CF, but I suspect that HAD Stan scripted it, those growls and roars would've been dialogue. As you know, Stan didn't always follow Jack's intent when it came to scripting over his pencils, and it's entirely likely that this would've been another such instance.

    What puzzles me is why those students would go to all the bother of enabling the robot to growl and not talk. Perhaps it was simply Jack's way of making clear that the robot was NOT to be confused with the 'real' Hulk. Or was it another attempt by Jack to separate his comics from the rest of the Marvel line (Captain America and Black Panther excepted perhaps) by intending the students to have been inspired by the TV show Hulk, not a real one that actually existed.

    Maybe in Jack's mind the other Marvel heroes didn't exist in his Eternals 'universe'. Sure, he has (generic) Shield agents, but no Nick Fury or Jasper Sitwell. And as far as I recall, the Eternals weren't really incorporated into the MU as characters who interacted with the other heroes until after Jack left.

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  8. Yeah, solo Kirby is a subject we all have an opinion on Comicsfan, and are unlikely to change anyone's mind about at this point.
    And you're also right that its Kirby's actual scripting that some have a problem with, and he certainly had a uh... shall we say distinctive approach to grammar, and a singular ear for dialogue.

    But for me his scripting - highly stylized, bold, epic, bombastic even - matched his artwork. Kirby wrote like he drew, and its a question of taste rather than good or bad.
    Someone else adding 70s-style dialogue etc wouldn't really have worked, and in fact something does seem missing from the handful of his post-60s comics scripted by people like Denny O'Neil and Steve Gerber (Stan Lee's writing was "dated" in the 70s too imo).

    -sean

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  9. I was really disappointed at the time that the cosmic Hulk was not the mannequin created by the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker from FF#100. I thought it beyond the realms of possibility that 2 ordinary college students could come up with such a complete and lifelike Hulk robot, and if I had been Jack's assistant at the time would have suggested that the students had instead found the lifeless Hulk mannequin, and then did work on it to bring some automation to it.
    The two issues were a dud, and it was obvious that the Hulk had been forced onto Jack, A pity, as the Eternals was one of my favourite comics from that era.
    Spirit of '64

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  10. I don't know, Spirit--that Hulk android from FF #100 didn't look like much of a mannequin when it was raging and trashing the Puppet Master's lab! :) (Though I like the idea of recycling it for the Eternals story.)

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  11. You are right. I originally put down android, then changed it to mannequin in my comment, on the basis of that's what the Pupper Master created with his special clay. Of course the Mad Thinker was into robots etc....
    Spirit of '62

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