It's been the better part of two years since Neil Gaiman's Eternals series, but Marvel have finally got around to launching an ongoing title on the back of it. 

I'm a little surprised it's taken them so long; Gaiman's series plainly set out to give the Eternals a new status quo that would be a springboard for future stories.  The premise, if you've forgotten, was that the Eternals had been banished to live among mankind as normal humans, but that some of them had got their memories back.  So, the revived Eternals now have to find all the others, in time to defeat something called the Horde when it shows up.

Now, in the interim, a rather similar idea has been used prominently in Thor.  Perhaps the delay in launching this series has something to do with Marvel not wanting the books to tread on each other's toes.  Or perhaps they just weren't terribly sure whether the Eternals miniseries - which did okay, but was hardly a blockbuster success - had actually generated enough interest to justify an ongoing series.  Mind you, if that was the concern, the delay won't have helped any.

The new series is written by Charles and Daniel Knauf, coming off a decent run on Iron Man.  In theory, this book goes off in a different direction altogether; it's cosmic characters in the real world.  But they're taking a fairly down to earth approach.  There's a lot of Eternals making their way in the real world, and not much of people flying around in Jack Kirby costumes.

It's not bad.  It sets up the premise efficiently enough, and it makes sure to focus on a core cast.  But there's something missing.  I don't find myself caring all that much about whether the Eternals find each other, perhaps because none of the characters are particularly strongly defined.  The only real threat here is the possibility that the Horde are going to show up and destroy the planet, but we all know that's not going to happen.  For this to work, I need to root for Ikaris, Thena and Makkari to succeed... but they're rather watery characters who don't much interest me.

So it's one of those awkward books that doesn't really do anything wrong - in fact, it gets most things right - but falls short in giving me a reason to get involved.  It's fine for the most part, but it doesn't draw me in.

Rating: B-

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