The Eternals they enjoyed little importance in the 90s thanks to the change in style of superheroes in the decade. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try to come back from time to time.
After the departure of the celestials from Earth, the Eternals they had no real mission beyond what their consciences gave them. Being immortal isn’t always a blessing, and finding a place and a goal is important. Leadership, fame or family will be some of the ones that take over the third race of the Earth, with different results. Two attempts by Marvel to recover the importance of their characters in their universe and a story of the Avengers leave the testimony of the publisher’s effort, which did not help much.
The Eternals. The Herod Factor is actually the meeting of three different stories. The first the one that gives name to the volume, the second a filler saga that took place in the Avengers when Sersi was part of the formation. And finally, a miniseries that tried to revive the brilliance of the race by turning them into a group of superheroes by adding new members of the Eternals hitherto unknown.
The Herod Factor marked the return of Roy Thomas to Marvel after a long tenure in the Distinguished Competition. The one who was the editor and main screenwriter of the house takes up some characters whose cycle Kirby began and he himself ended in Thor. After many stumbles, he decided to return to some stories that were far away, the relationships of the eternals with humans, the relationships between them, their belligerent character and need to be led, and above all, that sin that is being a weapon without a target that point.
Interesting but with a rather timid result, the mini saga was in control of the drawing Mark Teixeira. The cartoonist had shone in Ghost Rider and Punisher, and his gritty, dark style seems a bit far removed from bright, energetic figures like the Eternals. And it is true that the lack of pure black that marks his style detracts from his strength, his hyperexpressiveness does not sit badly in a story in which fury, love and unleashed feelings occupy a good part of the story.
That Sersi has always worshiped humans is well known. And his long relationship with Dane Withman, the Black Knight, made him a part of the Avengers for a good season. But an Eternal being part of the group didn’t make it one of his stories. But sometimes it was. In this second part of the volume the deviants and the reappearance of Lord Ghaur ends up turning it into a story of the immortals. Despite seeming like something of relative importance, it was a filler saga while the official lineup of the series took a break. Thus Bob Harras and Steve Epting were temporarily replaced by Glen Herdling and Geoff Isherwood. Leaving a successful and fun saga, but inconsequential both within the line of the Avengers and the Eternal.
It is in the third part where we really face a real and powerful attempt to recover the Eternals. Failed, but with a lot of intention. Apocalypse Now is a one shot where new members of the race are introduced, and a new objective. Mixing the timeline of Ikaris with Apocalypse, and creating a government body that seeks to control new superheroic threats, it tied in perfectly with what was being presented in the comics of the time, but it did not catch on with American readers, and was lost in the the many publications of the time, which finally ended in the famous Marvel crisis that almost ended with the publisher.
This tome marks the end of attempts to reclaim the Eternals as a heroic group. And it left the field open for Neil Gaiman’s idea of bringing characters back from scratch, adding new flaws and ambitions, and bringing a Celestial back to Earth, more appealing to an audience that was no longer asking for the same thing.