THOR AND THE ETERNALS: THE CELESTIALS SAGA

Thor: The Eternals Saga #1-2

by Roy Thomas

Prepare - the Eternals are coming! Roy Thomas brings Jack Kirby's Eternals into the Marvel Universe in one of the greatest THOR sagas of all time! The Mighty Thor confronts Odin with questions about Ragnarok his mother, and the threat of the towering cosmic beings known as the Celestials. Odin refuses to reveal the truth, instead sending Thor on a quest for answers. Thor's journey will bring him face-to-face with the Eternals -and reveal the long-hidden secrets of the Marvel Universe! Thus is the stage set for an unbelievable war between gods! Before the dust settles, the Fourth Host of the Celestials will descend on Earth to lay down their judgment...and both man and god may be found wanting.

Collects Thor (1966) #283-301, Thor Annual (1966) #7.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Fantasy, Mythology

424 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1980

About the author

Roy Thomas was the FIRST Editor-in-Chief at Marvel--After Stan Lee stepped down from the position. Roy is a longtime comic book writer and editor. Thomas has written comics for Archie, Charlton, DC, Heroic Publishing, Marvel, and Topps over the years. Thomas currently edits the fanzine Alter Ego for Twomorrow's Publishing. He was Editor for Marvel comics from 1972-1974. He wrote for several titles at Marvel, such as Avengers, Thor, Invaders, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and notably Conan the Barbarian. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes — particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America — and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Also a legendary creator. Creations include Wolverine, Carol Danvers, Ghost Rider, Vision, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Valkyrie, Morbius, Doc Samson, and Ultron. Roy has also worked for Archie, Charlton, and DC among others over the years.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

So Jack Kirby created the characters and concepts that appear on the pages of The Eternals Omnibus. Fun stuff. But he never intended their story to be part of the Marvel Universe. So after the King has left, and moved onto other things, Roy Thomas decides to spend over a year attempting to make sense out of something that was never intended to be connected. On the plus side are such things as Thor confronting the Celestials (utterly laughable), Ikaris meeting Thor, Ajak meeting Thor, Sersi mee… oh you get where I’m going with that, okay moving on, Thor battling Hero (aka Gilgamesh) … sigh (sorry, I just had to add that one) … and more of the same. This book attempts to explain away all the inherent complications arising from having the Eternals shoehorned into a world that already has the gods of ancient cultures of Asgard, Olympus and Egypt (among others) coexisting with mankind. It’s a mess. It’s nonsensical. And above all … it’s badly written. Very badly written. Basically, Thomas portrays each and every character as a bawling angry toddler that’s upset they’re not getting their own way. And they thoughtlessly attack anyone and everyone without a single person trying to understand someone else’s point of view. It’s pretty much a disaster. And please, please, please, don’t get me started on El Toro Rojo. I’ve read this collection twice now, and it doesn’t get any better the second time through. Okay, okay, to be fair this collection isn’t all bad. Tasked with making sense of all these diverse concept, Thomas took on the job with gusto. And on some levels he didn’t do too badly. Considering how virtually impossible the task is, he definitely achieved the end goal. It’s still a mess. But he did achieve the goal of incorporating the Eternals, the Celestials the Deviants into a world with multiple god realms, Inhumans, mutants, superheroes, magic, pseudo-science and even enigmatic entities of conceptual embodiment. How well does he pull it off? I’ll leave that to each and every individual reader. But for myself, I think it’s a mess. But there’s another problem with this collection, most of the second half doesn’t even deal with the Eternals at all. In fact, it deals with some of the weirder aspects of Norse mythology and an absurd and overly complicated attempt to insert an adaptation of the legends depicted in The Ring of the Nibelung and incorporating Marvel’s Thor and Valkyrie into the stories of Seigmund, Seiglinda and Siegfried. And, oh my, these parts are even more of a mess. To be perfectly honest, I’d only give this part of the volume a single star, except the closing chapters of this sprawling and ambitious epic do really pull everything together (except perhaps the overly convoluted and contrived adaptation of the Ring Cycle). This is certainly not the greatest Thor epic, nor is it a satisfying conclusion to Kirby’s work from The Eternals, but it is what it is. Read it if you must, and then please move on. Please. Move on. I feel I should also mention that the material from this volume was originally collected in two smaller volumes: Thor: The Eternals Saga, Vol. 1 and Thor: The Eternals Saga, Vol. 2. And as an aside, if you want to read a wonderful and inspired graphic adaptation of the Ring Cycle, try The Ring of the Nibelung, P. Craig Russell truly delivers the goods. Thomas even does another attempt at the Ring Cycle with artist Gil Kane in The Ring of the Nibelung which is far superior to the butchering he does here. Although the adaptation by Russell is even better than the Thomas/Kane one, but all that is beside the point. Now it’s time to move to Eternals: The Dreaming Celestial Saga.

[Jordan Risebury-Crisp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mythological, continuity redefining hijinks from the late 1970s.

I wanted to read this because it ‘concluded’ the Celestial ‘fourth host’ storyline Jack Kirby introduces in the original Eternals series. The great, giant space-gods, the Celestials have arrived back on Earth after 1,000 years to pass final judgement on all life on the planet. For some reason, Kirby insisted that the judgement will take 50-years to deliver, meaning, if the series progressed in real time, the conclusion would be due around 2026 (and I predict Marvel will be planning something for that date too!). But in the late-1970s, once the Eternals series was cancelled, Roy Thomas decided to pick up on the storyline and conclude it in Thor.

The Eternals guest-star in a number of issues here, but the later half of the collection is a wild-ride through Norse mythology, redefining Asgard’s place in the Marvel universe and seemingly wrapping up some lingering plot points from the last 130 issues of Thor!

Overall, this 19 issue collection (#283-301 + annual) is a bit random, but fun, a big departure to storytelling today. Thomas’ early issues too have very dense dialogue, which make them long reads! But if you’re looking for some background on the Eternals, Celestials and how different pantheons exist in a share universe, this is a good read.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the initial introduction of the Eternals into Thor’s issues comes out as a bit convoluted, I do love seeing the abandoned plot threads from Jack Kirby’s run being resolved. However, when a large section of issues become dedicated to a backstory that interrupts the Celestials’ judgment of humanity, I lost some of the good will the book had earned from me. Ideas from this backstory regarding Ragnarok are interesting but lack the character-driven motivations that are at the forefront of the title’s present timeline.

[Rod DiManna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off fine but quickly went off the rails when Roy began to shoehorn Wagner’s Ring Cycle into Marvel mythology. Ugh. Roy left Marvel before he could finish what he started and the last few issues were wrapped up by Ralph Macchio and Mark Gruenwald. Ending felt rushed and scattered. Nifty Buscema and Pollard art!

[Mmiller400m · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Thor often times feels like reading the Silmarillion of the Marvel Universe. There's lots in it about the creation of the universe and 'cosmic' entities. Sometimes it's a bit much. I like things a bit easier to comprehend. That's not saying it's not good. I liked it quite a bit. This is a collection of about 21 comics all in one that tells a huge over-arcing story. It helps me understand Thor a lot better and think it adds a bit to my viewing and reviewing of the Marvel U movies and shows.

[Kyle Burley · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was a kid this story seemed like the most amazing epic ever so I was curious to see if it would hold up.
Well, yes, and no, as it turns out. The writing style is dated ( so much awkward exposition!) and it’s at least 4 issues too long but, it is an ambitious attempt to deal with the issues raised by Kirby’s Eternals and how their convoluted history fits into Marvel continuity.
Truly cosmic in scope, with a section inspired by Wagner’s “Ring Cycle”, you certainly can’t fault Roy Thomas for not thinking big.

[David Waweru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eternal No More

A valid attempt to bring the children of the King (Kirby), into the mainstream of Marvel. Thor's quest for answers takes use on a journey of enlightenment in regards to the pantheon of the Gods of Marvel. This book has everything, War between the Gods, Celestials, dwarfs and man. With the Eternals new movie coming out soon. This will give you some insight into where the MCU maybe heading.

[Clinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into this wanting a continuation of the Eternal comic series started by Jack Kirby. What I got was a story told to Thor by a giant eyeball about the origins of Odin and Asgard that contains layers upon layers. I learnt a lot about the lore of Thor reading this epic yarn. I'm impressed with the amount of twists and turns they manage to fit into this, though it is very long. And very convoluted - but impressively so!

[Rob Schamberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Eternal and a Deviant are revealed to be luchadors in LA. Later, Thor hits his dad’s plucked-out eye with a hammer until it tells him secrets. It reveals that the fires of Ragnarok were the star that led the three wise men to the manger. Then Thor hits the eye with his hammer for several more issues. Thor stabs a space god robot with a giant sword. It’s pretty wild.

[Andrei · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Can't bump this higher because I found this book difficult to read through, especially in the first part. I liked most of stories though, and the way Roy Thomas tried to link the mythology of the Celestials with that of Asgard, and the other connecting parts to the Marvel Universe. The adaptation of the Nibelung Saga was also interesting.

[Nipun Fernando · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book continues where Jack Kirby’s Eternals series ended, but introduces the titular characters into the Marvel Universe.
What I didn’t like was that the majority of the book sees Thor delving in on his past, which in my view deviates from the Eternals story. Despite this, I found this book to be a good read.

[H. Givens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every time yet another issue ended and we were still in the interminable Ring Saga flashback that didn't have anything to do with anything, I died a little more inside.

CN: Odin is a misogynist who trades women like property and forces them into marriages they don't want.

[G Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a test in endurance. and on this one, you really have to pay attention.

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was a pulse-pounding, rip-roaring adventure.

[The_J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some pleasant moments, but too many misses to have created a masterpiece.