Eternals: A History Written in Blood

Eternals (2021)

by Kieron Gillen (Writer), Dustin Weaver (Illustrator), Kei Zama (Illustrator)

As Thanos rises to threaten everyone’s future, learn lessons in history from the mythic past of the Eternals! Eternals are created, not born. Some of them thought they could find a better way. They were terribly, terribly wrong. Now that the truth of their existence is revealed, Ajak and Makkari must try to find a road forward…no matter how terrifying it will be. And, believe it or not, Thanos is not actually the worst leader that the Eternals’ society has ever seen. That honor belongs to someone even more horrific. Meet Uranos the Undying. And may the Celestials have mercy on your souls. Plus, a classic exploration of Chronos, Uranos and the hidden origins of the Eternals!

COLLECTING: Eternals: Thanos Rises (2021) 1, Eternals: Celestia (2021) 1, Eternals: The Heretic (2022) 1, commentary; material from What If? (1977) 24-28

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2023

About the author

Kieron Gillen is a comic book writer and former media journalist.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why these three issues weren't just included with Eternals, Vol. 2: Hail Thanos where they belong. I actually suggest reading these first as they will add clarity. There's also some filler from the backup stories of some 45 year old What If? comics that I didn't bother to read.

Eternals: Thanos Rises by Keiron Gillen & Dustin Weaver
Dustin Weaver delivers some Kirby-inspired art for this story of Thanos's parentage. It ties in well with Jason Aaron's Thanos Rising series of 10 years ago.

Eternals: Celestia by Keiron Gillen & Kei Zama
Ajax is a priestess of the Celestials. She is having a crisis of faith because the Celestials have not talked to her in eons. This was really boring and didn't add much to what was in the regular series.

Eternals: The Heretic by Keiron Gillen & Ryan Bodenheim
Believe it or not, there was another Prime Eternal, Uranos, the Undying, who may have been worse than Thanos. This is his story as related to Thanos.

[Willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid set of 3 oneshots detailing (and mildly retconning) important dates and events from Eternals history. Nothing wrong with any of them, and they're enjoyable reads, but part of my lower rating is an economic one - I despise when Marvel throws 3 issues into a trade and then pads it with old, semi-relevant, stories to justify the $15.99USD pricetag. Which is $5.33/issue - more than cover price! (Which, for the record, was $3.99/issue). Compare that to Defenders Beyond TPB which came out within a week or two of this book - 5 issues ($3.99 cover price) of new content PLUS old material for the same $15.99USD cover price. That makes the TPB a small savings (80¢/issue) over the floppies. How it's supposed to be. Collections like this one just make me mad. Charging me a premium just because they can. Realistically, these oneshots should have been included in vol 1&2 of the series TPBs for Eternals by Gillen. But that makes Marvel less money, and we can't have that.

So, yeah, stories great. The oneshots are well written and drawn, and give some great context and history to the characters. But charging me for 5 issues and giving me 3 plus 5 paragraphs of intros to stories from the 70s? Loses you marks.

[jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eternals: Thanos Rises - This was a good story showing how A’Lars and Sui-San, Thanos’s parents, fought to give birth by natural means as opposed through the Machine. The message “Eternals should never reproduce” was so haunting. You can tell Thanos’s parents really thought his birth was a mistake as they accepted the consequences without protest.

Eternals: The Heretic - This was also a great story detailing the history of the most terrifying Eternal, Uranos the Undying. How he was even more gigantic and genocidal than Thanos was insane. He was probably like 10 feet taller than Thanos! It’s the way he thought his genocidal way of thinking was better than the other Eternals that was scary. So many real-life demagogues with that sort of thought process in the world..

Eternals: Celestia review here 👉 - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Devero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, tra questo albo e il primo della serie Eternals, Vol. 1: Only Death is Eternal me ne sono perso uno che recupererò prima o poi.
In realtà l'acquisto di questo cartonato è stato spinto dalla ristampa italiana di storie d'appendice degli anni '80 in cui si narrava l'evoluzione degli Eterni di Kirby, ma devo dire che la rivisitazione moderna di Gillen dei personaggi, delle loro motivazioni e della narrativa è più che ottima, è eccellente.
Gillen riesce a rispettare la continuity riscrivendola completamente e cambiando le basi dei personaggi. Il suo approccio riscrive totalmente quanto Kirby aveva scritto, ma senza rinnegarlo o tradirlo. Gli speciali su Mentore, sulle nuove Makarri e Ajak, la riscrittura delle storie classiche, sono veramente un pezzo di bravura.
4 stelle e mezza perché la colorazione non è sempre ottimale.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should have been tacked onto 'Eternals' vol. 2. They're isolated stories that are mentioned in passing in the series itself.
----
Quick rundown:
*What If? (1977) #24-28 - a quick (or maybe not so) history lesson on the origin of the Eternals
*Eternals: Thanos Rises - the origin story Thanos has been killing for
*Eternals: Celestia - Ajak and Makkari go on a pilgrimage to Avengers Mountain aka The Proginator
*Eternals: The Heretic - Thanos gets a chance to talk to Uranos. You thought Thanos was evil?

The only one that feels out of place is the 'What If?' history lesson. That's probably because it's the one written 45 years ago. The rest are all Kieron written/influenced and fill out pieces of the Eternals history that he's rewriting.

Bonus: The Quantum Bands are/were wedding bands??
Bonus Bonus: Go back too far and you'll hit weird Jack Kirby history. Is that a bad thing?

[Alex Sarll]

Gillen's Eternals specials; with the run of the main book terminated after two volumes, it doesn't entirely make sense to have them hived off in their own volume as the specials for his last series about bickering immortals were, but here we are. Nor does it make commercial sense to have such a slim volume, so they're padded out with some old What If? stuff I make no apology for not having read. The specials themselves, though? Those were good, especially when they concentrated on Thanos, and I say that as someone who normally finds the comics version of the character fairly tiresome.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A History Written in Blood offers a series of one-shots tangentially related to Kieron Gillen's main Eternals series. I loved that series, with its needlessly dense world-building and chaotic jockeying for power. These shorts don't really add much to the series itself besides fleshing out Eternals history, Ajax's whole deal, and Uranos's biography. Gillen also handpicks some old-timey Eternals tales that inspired his current take.

It's all quite fine and engaging, if still very dense like the main series. I would consider these inessential reads, but I liked them if only for how they added to the already-robust world-building of the main series.

[Christian Zamora-Dahmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed these 3 stories. Maybe I’m loving more the potential of what the Eternals can be, that I’m rating this book with five stars, but then again, these stories really take me into this epic universe of gods, and feuds, and power.
As I mentioned somewhere else, the Eternals really make me think of The First (from CrossGen), and I do know that the Eternals are way older, but The First hit me first. Anyway, it’s a love for a concept that so easily translates into this setting.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanos is the only Eternal that interests me. The primordial Avengers were well done as well. The epic scale of some of the scenes were good to look at.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

World building shorts and Gillen reflects on some classic Eternal stories that inspired his run. Pretty interesting but not crucial to the most recent story arc, this felt like an add on- but the shorts are good.

[Brian Raudenbush · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that these were great one-shots and were actually engaging and needed in the story! it was great to set this up before the 2 part of the issues and I feel like it gave a much needed detailed backstory.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Billed as supplementary material, these issues of Kieron Gillen's Eternals run are far more important than Marvel would have you believe. Thanos Rises, Celestia, and The Heretic check in with characters that the main Eternals series doesn't have space to deal with, bringing them into the spotlight just in time for AXE: Judgment Day.

Although, there are also some What If? bits included here as well, which I've not read, but presumably are included for context and because three one-shots aren't really enough for Marvel to justify a whole trade, so they're here too.

A little like the AXE Companion book, this is basically essential reading if you're reading the rest of Gillen's books - the fact that he wrote (almost) everything here should really be a giveaway.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great trio of one shot issues exploring expository angles of the main plot of Gillen’s Eternals. Each issue tells a contained, interesting story while also filling in key information for the ongoing epic already in progress. I miss Ribic’s internal art, but the new artists are still solid and it’s neat to see their alternate presentation of the same setting.

“Why should we care about these specks in time? Why care about dust? Why should beings as grand as we be chained forever to sweeping up dust?”

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Gillen stories are all excellent little one-offs, offering fairly vital background material for the events of The Eternals v2 and Judgment Day. That these stories weren't included with those is another major organizational mistake in what was a really horrible collection strategy for Gillen's excellent series.

The What If? stories are just about unrecognizable for Gillen's modern, rebooted Eternals.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a big fan of the first two volumes in this series, but this volume access sort of a prequel and ancillary story and somewhat weaker as a result. The art is difficult to navigate with muddy colors confusing the various characters and their difficult to distinguish costumes, and the three stories are very different tonally. The Heretic is the Best of the three by quite a bit.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

A real mixed bag of stuff here. Three disconnected issues written by Kieron Gillen, combined with a bunch of "What If?" stories from the late 70s. Lots of different art styles throughout. The narration, which consists of dark blue lettering against a black background, is almost impossible to read. I'm not really a fan...

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Necessary reading for Gillen's Eternals run? Hmm, there are some tidbits that might get lost such as Uranos' armory, but you could probably survive without. It is definitely helpful and told well enough.

[Jason Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very lore-heavy. These stories seem to exist mostly to tie up some threads forming a coherent modern interpretation of the Eternals and to set up the future clash with the Avengers and X-Men. But they were well-written for what they were.

[Brianna · Rating 2 out of 5]

These shorts could've been included with Eternals, Vol. 2: Hail Thanos. Also, The Machine is so sassy, I love it.

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And a priest sits on the throne and plans a war as an act of prayer with her friend who plans to piece together parts of old gods into the new.
This will and well, I'm sure."

[Chris Aylott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strikes just the right balance between serious comics narrative and goofy Marvel madness.

[Jackson Androski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it , but some boring parts