Eternals #17, November 1977

"Sersi the Terrible!" [gotta love it, don't cha?]
Edited, written & drawn by Jack Kirby
Letterer & Inker- Mike Royer
Consulting Editor- Archie Goodwin

SUMMARY

Zuras staggers, [for some reason] and so Makkari rushes forth to battle Dromedan, but Dromedan's mind is faster than him, and Makkari falls to the ground. Ikaris launches an attack [rather than clamp the helmet on Dromedan's head himself. *sigh*] and Dromedan responds by making him pound away at the ground rather than at him.

Dromedan:"The BRAVEST of the brave have learned to CRAWL to me for mercy! I've made them WEEP like children before I gave them release!"

Suddenly, a thunderbolt strikes him, and the ground becomes a molten lake! Dromedan sinks below, until only his head is exposed, and Zuras steps forward to place the helmet on, but Dromedan makes him hallucinate, and he collapses. Dromedan then forces Makkari to free him from the ground. The three of them completely in his thrall, Dromedan plots of conquest...

Suddenly, a huge snake attacks him, and he loses control! Sersi has arrived! The others try to make her run, but she insists on aiding them! There is an explosion, and Dromedan steps forth, having turned Sersi's creature into ash. Sersi tries to turn him into a boar, but he erases the knowledge of that power from her mind!

Sersi has a plan- she cries out to Ikaris for aid, and with him come conjured replicas- Dromedan cannot detect the original! He destroys them one at a time, until only one remains, who must be the original. Dromedan blasts him into atoms, then turns to the others for similiar treatment- when all at once, the REAL Ikaris leaps out from behind a rock and destroys Dromedan with his eye-beams! The explosion collapses the entire crypt, and the Eternals flee.

Sersi:"I'm glad to see this party END! Dromedan was not the kind of entertainment I EXPECTED to find here!"
Zuras:"I can't help wishing that we could have DEALT with him on more REASONABLE terms!"
Ikaris:"This was the ONLY answer! He was TOO dangerous to live!"
Makkari:"Ikaris is RIGHT! That monster had to be stopped HERE-- in this crypt!"
Zuras:"This is a SORRY day. Dromedan was UNIQUE! Had he worn the helmet, it would have isolated his powers and KEPT him from madness!"
Sersi:"Great Zuras could have UNLEASHED his mighty bolts, but his compassion was GREATER than his fear!"
Ikaris:"Polar Eternals lack this ALL-CONSUMING faith! We kill when we MUST! I say that with due RESPECT for the WISDOM of Great Zuras!"
Sersi:"Don't apologize for your FROZEN-FACED family of toughs! They did spawn YOU, Ikaris!"
Makkari:"By the gods, you're the BEST of that surly clan! I'm PROUD to call you 'FRIEND'!"
Ikaris:"You do me HONOR, Makkari!"
Zuras:"Despite their STRANGE ways, the Polar Eternals have always shown GREAT valor!"
Ikaris:"My father VALKIN would have nothing less of us!"
Zuras:"Mighty Valkin and his SONS are forever welcome at my side!"
Sersi:"You forget DRUIG, Sire! I wouldn't invite him to anything but a HANGING!"

Off in the realm of the Polar Eternals, Druig bullies a scientist named Sigmar. Sigmar knows of a powerful weapon, abandoned by Valkin, and Druig intends to revive it!

COMMENTS

Okay. That does it. The cover says "Ikarus". Again. I am now convinced Kirby was not involved with the cover production.

This is the first time Valkin is called Ikaris' father rather than uncle. Roy Thomas later made Ikaris both, showing that Valkin "adopted" Ikaris after his brother Virako was killed. [a story that involves Dromedan, strangely enough]

As you no doubt noticed, I have little regard for the way the Eternals handled themselves in this fight.

Next issue starts the final storyline, in which the Celestials finally return!