Marvel Comics just solved the MCU’s Eternals problem

When Marvel Studios announced they were bringing the Eternals to the big screen, not as supporting characters but in their own solo franchise, most people said, “Who?” But true Marvel Comics nerds said, “Why?”

The Eternals never really worked. Not when their creator, Jack Kirby, set them aside as a retread of the more iconic Fourth World, and not when the pre-eminent modern myth-maker Neil Gaiman teamed up with artist none other than John Romita Jr. to give them an update. And they didn’t really work at Marvel Studios. eternala film more intriguing for its ambition than for its achievement.

So expectations for Kieron Gillens eternal were low though his gods-walk-among-us-as-popstars-magnum-opus The Evil + The Divine gave him the perfect resume to actually make something of the characters. I was really looking forward to it and was still surprised at how much I enjoyed it, let alone that it would flow naturally into a line-wide Marvel Comics crossover event that I could honestly recommend to the casual reader.

And it’s not too late – not too late at all – for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to rip the whole concept out of the pages of the fun books and slam it onto the big screen.

What else is happening on the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of books our comics editor has enjoyed over the past week. It’s part society pages about the lives of superheroes, part recommended reading, and part look at this cool art. There may be some spoilers. There may not be enough context. But there will be great comics. (And if you missed the last issue, read this.)

I use the finale of AX: Judgment Day as an excuse to say that the eternal-to-Judgment Day Saga surpassed “If you like superhero comics, read this” and achieved “If you want to read a good comic, read Gillen and artist Esad Ribić eternal followed by AX: Judgment DayThe idea of ​​the story ending with a whole cadre of Eternals doing little superhero Robin Hood-esque acts across the globe and then leaving town while the Sad Hulk music plays — that’s it a good thing. This is a good setting for anyone else who wants to use these characters, either as a sequel or as guest stars in other books!

I’m usually the last person to advocate for a movie franchise to directly adapt any of this only happens in comics, but the MCU eternal just enough of the bones established Judgment Day that it didn’t take much more to steer the franchise in the right direction. And if the MCU gave the Eternals a chance before they got good, it might as well if they actually are.

Image: Daniel Warren Johnson/Image Comics

Speaking of storylines, well you gotta fight god now, I read a different issue of every month Make a power bomb and every month I get mad that I have to do other things with my time than tell people to read Make a power bomb.

Image: Anthony Falcone, Michael Cho/DC Comics

Anthologies are always hit or miss – after all, that’s their whole business plan. A real cracker of a story that evens out the rest and gives inexperienced creators or niche characters time to shine. Batman: Urban Legends However, #21 is the rare edition where I loved every story included. The Wheelman of Gotham (pictured above) is billed first with its crack writing and Darwyn Cooke artwork by Jiro Kuwata. But then it continues with one of the few recent attempts at writing a story about police brutality from the perspective of the Gotham police force that actually worked for me, a neat mystery about Batman’s parents coming back to life, and Part one of it a story about the new Arkham Asylum Juvenile detention program for super villain cronieswhich I can’t wait to read more of.

Image: Wes Craig/Image Comics

Mind blank, no thoughts, just the concept of lizard law.

Image: Benjamin Percy, Juan Jose Ryp/Marvel Comics

Ever since writer Benjamin Percy took the helm at both wolverine (what it says on the can) and X Force (Krakoa’s CIA program cloaked in all the bad stuff the comparison would suggest), the two books were on a slow collision course. With this week’s edition, it looks like he’s ready to finally ram Beast and Wolverine into each other like two semi trucks going in opposite directions. It probably won’t have a wider impact than those two books, and probably nobody cares except for the people who have been reading both series all along. But I’ll say it anyway: It’s exciting.