The Eternals (1976) #2 - "The Coming of the Celestials!"

[mistersandman]

"Besides being a first-hand report [of the Flood], the Epic of Gilgamesh also contains descriptions  of  extraordinary  things  that  could  not  have  been  made-up by any intelligence living at the time the tablets were written, anymore  than  they  could  have  been  devised  by  the  translators  and  copyists  who  manhandled  the  epic  over  the  centuries...

"Perhaps  asking  some  new  questions  may  throw  a  little  light  on  the  darkness. Is it possible that the Epic of Gilgamesh did not originate in the ancient East at all, but in the Tiahuanaco region? Is it conceivable that   descendants   of   Gilgamesh   came   from   South   America   and brought  the  Epic  with  them? Ought we not to ask such questions? It seems to me that the classical method  of  research  into  antiquity  has  got  bogged  down  and  so  cannot come to the right unassailable kind of conclusions." --  Erich von Däniken, Chariots of the Gods, 1968

---

Last time, Doctor Damian and his daughter Margot explore Incan ruins built in tribute to space gods. They are accompanied by a man named "Ike Harris," who reveals that he is truly Ikaris, an Eternal. According to Ikaris, Eternals, humans, and Deviants are three ape-descended species created by the space gods aeons ago.

The trio are beset by a group of Deviants led by Kro. Kro and his Deviants fail to stop Ikaris from activating a cosmic beacon that will summon the space gods to Earth and now, after a thousand years of absence, the space gods return...



Parts of the temple are collapsing as the angry Celestials respond to Kro's outburst. As they flee back into the temple, Ikaris tells Damian and Margot of Tecumotzin, Lord of Flight, an Ican who could communicate with the Celestials.









Ikaris brings Tecumotzin and some followers, an ancient "ground crew," out of stasis. He discovers that Tecumotzin is none other than Ajak, another Eternal. Ajak speaks respectfully to the Celestial Host...





If I were Damian and Margot, I might be seriously questioning the wisdom of calling the Celestials back to Earth.
 

Comments

[mastermahan]

Man, look at Kro. You can really see why Thena fell head-over-heels for him.

[mistersandman]

To be fair, he's having an extraordinarily bad day. He cleans up a little bit when the heroes meet him in New York. And you know what they say...

"If you don't love me at my raving at genocidal space gods..."

[tinygaylaura]

Ikaris just casually revealing that every single thing humans have ever believed in is actually down to space aliens warring with superhumans they invented reminds me of the "SO EVERY RELIGION IS WRONG" scene from Futurama with Leela and Nibbler

[icon_uk]

As has been noted before, that's some sublime ultra-techy Kirby-tech and the Celestials are a fabulous concept with gorgeous designs, but man, this hasn't aged well unless you're a devout Von Daniken-ite

[scorntx]

So apparently people living in Mesopotamia couldn't possibly have come up with the stuff in the Epic of Gilgamesh, but instead got it from people from the other side of the planet.
Yeah, that sounds totally more plausible than "they just used their damn imagination" and not the raving of a total crackpot.


Looking at these, starting to get a greater understanding of why, apart from being a pretty rocking piece of Kirby design (Arishem's kettle-head aside), the Celestials have been the breakout stars of Eternals.

[cainofdreaming]

Well, not from other side of the planet since most of the Eternals were actually based near Olympus. And, well again, nowadays they think that the flood, Biblical or Gilgameshian, is based on the collapse of the landmass that separated Mediterranean from the Black Sea and the following flood when the Black Sea's level rose to match the Mediterranean. So there's actual events that inspired the story.

[donnblake]

Isn't the Flood more of an older story that Gilgamesh's calls back to, though, rather than the driving incident of Gilgamesh's tale?

[vagabondprince]

Yes, the flood is recounted to Gilgamesh by Utnapishtim, the builder of the ark who was granted immortality by the gods. I'm unclear as to how long before Gilgamesh's life the flood occurred, but it was long enough ago that while Gilgamesh is aware of Utnapishtim, he isn't familiar with all the details of the flood itself.

[thehood]

Sersi was arguably a breakout too since she got to join the Avengers.

[mistersandman]

You're right that Sersi is the only actual character in this series to have any kind of staying power, though Sersi's time on the Avengers seems pretty unremarkable. I just remember seeing her in Operation: Galactic Storm?

[starwolf_oakley]

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #23 covered some of this in a back-up story drawn by Mark Bagley.

[samz93]

Honestly I'm okay with the whole ancient aliens things as long as it's "this inspired mythology/folklore" and not "aliens bulit the pyramids", as the former doesn't take away form anyone's acomplishments

[lordultimus]

Same here. Plus at least here they don't seem to have inspired literally everything.

[leahandillyana]

In 99% of cases one leads to the other. Even those very benign conspiracy theories end up with a basketful of unfortunate implications.

[agharta75]

This is so Kirby. :-)