The True Price of a Life Eternal in Eternals #6

The Eternals take on Thanos as the world explodes, and we find out the shocking explanation for Phastos’ heel turn in Eternals #6, written by Kieron Gillen, drawn by Esad Ribić, colored by Matthew Wilson, and lettering/design by Clayton Cowles.

Karen Charm: Here we are, we’ve made it to the final chapter of Gillen and Ribić’s grand relaunch of Eternals. You and I had high hopes for this series which have been pretty consistently met each month, if not exceeded. We’ve both been really impressed with what this team has been able to pull off, breathing new life into a franchise that few besides us had any faith in. Does this sixth issue continue the hot streak – do we think they stuck the landing??

I really think they fucking did. How about you?

Zoe Tunnell: Well, considering that immediately after finishing it I messaged you, verbatim, “YOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

Yeah, I think they nailed it.

It’s the perfect first arc finale for a book like this where it ties up just enough threads to feel satisfying and provide closure while kicking down the doors to the REAL mystery and story that this book was waiting to tell all along. Just masterful stuff.

Karen: I feel like there’s so much to say about this issue. Let’s get to it!

Titanic

Karen: The issue opens with an (oddly slim) Thanos strapped down on an operating table, his insides exposed. This is the first thing the Mad Titan experiences after falling into a black hole during a previous iteration of Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s been fished out of oblivion by Phastos (traitor!) who has conscripted Thanos to be his own personal Eternals-killing machine. Phastos doesn’t quite get specific about what his motivation is but he does provide the pertinent details, namely that if Thanos is good, he’ll be added to the Machine like the rest of the Earth Eternals. If he’s bad, Phastos has rigged him with a detonation device that can be triggered at any point. The narration lets us know that a genius like Thanos is not easily coerced, but he recognizes when he’s been placed in check by an equal.

I really do like how Gillen is making use of the Uranian/Titan Eternal retcon as part of the larger mythology, which we can see reflected in Phastos’ curiosity toward Thanos. He makes sure to point out how Thanos is a “true Eternal” (emphasis provided by letterer Clayton Cowles, who really shows off later in the issue). What was your take on this opening flashback, Zoe?

Zoe: It really affirms my theory that Gillen should be the only person allowed to write Thanos for the next several years. (Which he’s going to have the chance to in detail in the upcoming Eternals tie-in one shot starring the giant angry raisin.) Despite Thanos being in a rare moment of vulnerability and weakness, he immediately pivots and understands the game he needs to play to move forward. Even when he’s hurt and backed into a cage, Thanos is never truly prey.

Beyond that, and it’s something I’ll happily dig into in a moment when it REALLY shines, I really appreciate the effort that has been done over these issues to elevate the Eternals as a force to be reckoned with in the Marvel Universe, which continues via Phastos being recognized by The World as a genius on par with Thanos to the degree that the two immediately clock each other as never intending to do anything but betray the other. It’s just a question of who pulls it off first.

Karen: Delicious stuff. The comic then cuts to the present, where we see Thanos enjoying the perks of his predicament – wailing on the Eternals. The last time they all tussled, in issue #4, our heroes were barely holding their own against the Purple One before Phastos helped him escape. Round two, however, not only has more Eternals in the fight – including Ikaris and Sersi – but is also happening on Gilgamesh’s turf. I loved this scene, I think I even messaged you “it makes the Eternals look cool.” 

I’m voting for Sersi as the MVP of this fight. How’d it feel to see your girl dominate so handily?

Zoe: SHE MADE GROSS FLESH MUSHROOMS I LOVE HER SO MUCH.

This whole fight scene was truly the peak of making the Eternals seem like they could hang with any team in the Marvel Universe. Thanos has brought the entire universe to its knees, he has been the focal point of multiple crossovers and its taken armies to take him down. 

To the Eternals, he’s just another monster. They’ve killed monsters as long as monsters have existed.

(Also while Sersi is MVP, GILGAMESH of all people throwing hands with Thanos and talking shit to his face made me cackle.)

Karen: I am totally enamored with the way the entire art team has been utilizing the hexagonal design motif through this series. It’s all over the data pages, but I love how Ribić uses it to represent the Eternals’ powers and the Machine’s various functions. It totally sells how everything is so interconnected, which helps back up the story as it’s telling us the whole can’t function if any piece is out of whack.

The End of the World As We Know It

Zoe: Turns out, with The World-Machine haywire the world itself doesn’t do so great. The flashes we get of Sprite and Toby trying to survive as the sky boils and lightning strikes are gorgeous, if a bit weirdly reminiscent of the imagery Ribić pulled out for the beginning of Secret Wars, the real powerhouse moment, for me, came with a Superman homage of all things.

Ikaris pulls the iconic “soar around Earth” maneuver that’s been referenced and parodied since Christopher Reeve burned it into everyone’s minds almost 50 years ago. It’s a gorgeous moment, super minimal and clean, but the angle the narrative views it from is what sings. For any other costumed Marvel powerhouse, this would be a moment of glory and triumph as they race to avert the end of all things. But The World reminds us

“Were this another Earthly hero, we would dwell on it.

But Ikaris is an Eternal.

This is simply what he does.”

CHEF KISSES, ALL AROUND.

Karen: IT’S SO GREAT! Ikaris looks so happy being a hero. It’s what he was made to do! 

Haha I almost called this segment Geostorm, calling back to the (apparently real) disaster movie Kingo name drops in the first issue, but also because of the scale of catastrophe happening as the world ends. The narration contrasts early fears of atomic weaponry igniting the atmosphere with the reality of that happening as the Machine falls apart – ”…because you are amateurs. Eternals are professionals.”

I’m glad that we’re given some more insight into what Phastos has been up to since, I’ll admit, I was a little confused by the reveal last month. When we learned he was our traitor, I was assuming that meant his efforts to repair the Machine were, actually, purposefully destructive. Here I learn my mistake – he’s genuinely been trying to fix things, he’s just in way over his head (I can certainly relate). Turns out you can’t break the Resurrection Chamber and expect the rest of the system to keep working. Noted.

Phastos’ delusions hold out long enough for the Reality Loom (I still love that title) to collapse all around him, and he finally has to call his friends for backup.

Zoe:  The whole sequence with Ikaris’ sacrifice could have easily been a pretty one note affair, visually.

But Esad Ribić drew this book so it instead blew my damn mind. The beautiful sea of oranges and yellow as he, essentially, hugs the Earth’s core and saves us all is as gorgeous as anything else the man has drawn and considering his career, that’s really something.

Karen: Everything we’ve seen is telling us how triumphant Ikaris’ heroism is, but throughout this run the narration has been teaching us not to trust appearances. It’s all a little bit too easy. As the surviving Eternals debrief and question Phastos, the other shoe we’ve been watching for since the first issue finally drops. But before we get to the major revelation, there are a lot of elements at work in this scene. First up, Phastos’ insurance policy on Thanos…

Zoe: Phastos made the fatal mistake of not paying attention to the snake. This is probably the single most genuinely devious, clever move Druig has ever pulled in his history and I genuinely loved it. By erasing the memory of Phastos’ failsafe for Thanos, Druig essentially hijacks the well-meaning Eternal’s schemes and ideas for whatever dark purpose he could get up to with A Thanos at his side.

Whoops!

We Need to Talk About Toby

Karen: I nervously await the day those two choose to show their faces again, but that’s a problem for later. Back to the Eternals’ interrogation…

They’re all understandably angry with Phastos – for almost destroying the planet, for setting Thanos loose – but at least the machine is fixed so they can bring Ikaris back right away. I appreciate the dynamic between the characters that Gillen’s been establishing throughout. They all come off as a little naive, more comfortable with following their core programming than making decisions on their own. This makes perfect sense as their species is written, but it also highlights when those traits are slightly amiss or altered. Sersi’s impatience in this scene is subtle enough to slip past you until Thena stops everyone to finally give Phastos a moment to explain himself.

Hoo boy. So last month, we were very put out to see Phastos cast in a villainous light. Even the issue’s recap text was surprised, describing him as a “sweetheart.” We all knew there had to be a good reason and I think it’s safe to say there is. As we see Ikaris resurrected, the narration describes the final touch is to “acquire” something that is lacking – that spark of life (am I dragging this out enough for you? The suspense!). That “something” turns out to be… a human life.

Oh no.

Zoe: It’s just one of those perfect retcons. The Eternals, guardian angels of the Earth who have soared over humanity and protected us from our earliest days walking plains with spears in hands, aren’t angels at all.

They’re vampires.

Distant, inhuman immortals that feed off of humanity, a life for a life, and have been since our first day. The mountain of corpses lying in their wake, people who had no say in the matter, must be STAGGERING. And poor Toby Robson is sitting at the top of the pile, having been the unwitting sacrifice to bring Ikaris back. WE GOT GILLEN’D, DAMMIT.

Karen: Ooh, that gives me chills… vampires [Ed. Note: Some might say the World is a Vampire]. I have to say, this detail struck me kinda raw at first – do we really need to hang something so morbid on the Eternals? I believe the creative team handled it extremely well but I was ambivalent. I’ve come around more as the totality of the run has sunk in but I want to be mindful that this could potentially be a dealbreaker for some readers. Credit to Ribić and Gillen working together so well, the page turn is great, and the panels of all the Eternals reacting. Everyone is shocked… except Sersi. Throughout this storyline, we’ve been noticing a haunting melancholy to a character who is typically the buoyant, easy-going one. But here we see all the threads all up – Sersi has known all along, and it’s been killing her. SHE KNEW!

Zoe: I love it so much. Sersi has been crueler and more dismissive towards humans in this series, written off by me as Gillen taking a more Gillen approach and the more long-view scope of the series, but I was wrong. She’s been lashing out because she knew the mystery was close to being unraveled, and the thought of confronting all the blood on her hands after centuries and centuries of suppressing it was too much to keep from peeking through.

Karen: She delivers maybe my favorite line of the entire run: “I have learned to care less. To be carefree cuts both ways.” I feel like my teenage self is getting that tattoo in some future past. When Zuras reawakens, we see why Sersi has become so disillusioned – political gridlock. Every time, the Eternals discover the horrible truth, they raise their objections but are outvoted in the Uni-Mind, and are made to forget. Is the comic doing a social commentary here? ?

I went back and read through the whole series again after finishing this issue and was gobsmacked to realize how this whole exchange was telegraphed on page ONE. The series began with Ikaris rising out of the resurrection chamber and the narration saying “we do what we must do,” implying the uncountable number of humans who have had to die since the beginning of time. Talk about getting Gillen’d.

 Everything in the text has been telling us over and over that Eternals can not change, caught in an endless loop of performing the core programming given to them by the Celestials. But can this time around be any different? We have a glimmer of hope as we move to the final page…

Zoe: You messaged me before I had a chance to read the issue and were RABID for the final page, which had me really wondering what it could be.

The second I saw the Lemuria location drop, I knew. You’re getting your wish Karen.

Ikaris, Sersi, Thena and the others have decided that they can’t be Eternals anymore. They cannot change their society within (literally, given the threat of a factory reset at any moment) so they pack their bags and leave. If they can’t be Eternals.

Then they’ll learn to be Deviants.

Karen: The Kro Ascendancy is upon us. Seriously though, I am so curious what this will look like for the series moving forward, and I’m so excited that it’s something so totally out of left field. I may perish in the two or four months it will take before regular issues resume.

Before we wrap up, I just want to reflect a bit on how wonderful this comic has been on every level. The creative team is really the highest caliber and each contributor is operating at omega level. Gillen and Ribić’s work is apparent, and I always try to make sure I give due adoration to Matthew Wilson who has been consistently awe-inspiring. Clayton Cowles’ design and lettering deserves as much praise as all the others, especially for this issue, and the glitchy data page we get after the Machine is brought back online. As I said before, we came in with high hopes and I think we ended up with a classic.

Zoe: And now they just have to follow-up on a classic.

Honestly? I’m not worried. They’ve captured lightning in a bottle here and it doesn’t look like anyone is letting go. Go nuts, folks.

Marvelous Musings

• For all of Ribić’s strengths as an artist, facial consistency is perhaps not high on that list. Various closeups of Phastos and Sersi especially make them look like different people. Thankfully they’re designs are good enough that you’re never confused about who they’re supposed to be.
• The brief glimpse of Phastos’ mindscape manifesting as a bunch of towers and sick dragons is SO much more fun than your standard imagery choices.
• Can we say this arc usurps the Gaiman run’s place as “most accessible Eternals trade to hand to a new reader?” I think it’s time.
• Those data pages… full of seeds for future stories…
• Show us the Uni-Mind! *whimper*
• Now that the Earth is fixed, what will the narration be like in future issues??
• Zoe’s Makkari theory may not have come to pass, but we did get news that the Eternal speedster will be co-starring with Ajak in the upcoming Eternals: Celestia come October.
• IT WAS A GOOD IDEA, I WAS JUST ABSOLUTELY WRONG