Eternals: The Herod Factor, November, 1991
"The Herod
Factor"
Writers- Roy
and Dann Thomas
Art- Mark
Texeira, Bob McLeod, Chris Ivy, Mark McKenna, Ian Akin, Sam DeLarosa
Editor- Terry
Kavanagh
SUMMARY
In Olympia, the Eternals watch a television newscast in which a monstrous creature attacks a high school prom, killing a pair of twins. Noting the creature's resemblance to the Deviants, Ikaris wonders if this is some new plot by their old enemies. Just then, Phastos enters the room, bearing a scroll which bears this information:
"In the days when the One Awareness has departed Earth a second time, the Ordained Ones-- twin offspring born of the mating of Eternal and Deviant-- shall reach their eighteenth cycle, and their vast power shall be made known...and they two shall overthrow Eternal and Deviant and Human, and shall rule the world for all time to come!"
None of the assembled Eternals- Ikaris, Thena, Makkari, and Sprite- or the two Deviants Karkas and Ransak have ever heard of an Eternal/Deviant hybrid, but they decide to investigate, knowing full well that the mastermind behind the "Ordained Ones" could be a renegade Eternal.
In Lemuria, a green-skinned Deviant is led by a crowd to a device called "the slicer" that, like a guillotinne, is set to decapitate its victims. The Deviants call the green-skinned woman a "leader", and following the poor leadership of Kro and Brutus, the Deviants have been united against leaders by Brother Visara. Ikaris, wearing a robe, hears Visara read from a scroll, and is surprised to hear the same words from Phastos' scroll. After the woman is killed, Ikaris follows the men who carry her body, planning to obtain retribution for her, but instead he finds himself within the workshop of Khoryphos and Yrdisis! The two lovers have been using their artistic talents to fake the deaths of the "leaders", and re-cast them into human forms, then smuggle them to the surface world. Ikaris asks the two of them to look for any additional details on the mystery monster.
In Manhattan, Thena arrives at Sersi's Loft, and makes a startling confession- the twins everyone is looking for are hers!
In the City of the Space Gods, Ikaris seeks out Dr. Daniel Damian, who is still watching over the machinery there while Ajak is away. Damian is not able to help him.
Meantime, Thena tells Sersi all the sordid details of her love affair with Kro. In flashback, she tells how she first met Kro 2500 years ago in Babylon. He could have killed her, but chose to spare her life, and they fell in love. Centuries later, during the Vietnam War, Kro and Thena each found themselves in the midst of the war, and reignited their romance. Afterwards, Thena found that she had become pregnant. By chance, she found a woman who could not have children, and transferred her two twins to her, to be raised as humans. Now the two of them, Donald and Deborah, have turned 18, and the monster is surely after them!
Sersi and Thena alight from the sky and greet Donald and Deborah, then pick them up in order to bring them to Olympia. But before they have traveled far, Makkari appears in an advanced flying craft, and brings them all to Olympia. Upon their arrival, Thena leaves Donald and Deborah with Karkas and Ransak, while she tells the others what she has told Sersi. Just as Ransak is showing them around, the mystery monster attacks! Though Karkas and Ransak put up a great fight, the monster defeats them, and makes off with the twins!
After learning of the twins' capture from Karkas and Ransak, the Eternals determine to head off to Lemuria, presuming that the twins will be found there. Ikaris, Makkari, Sersi, Phastos and Sprite fly off to Lemuria, while Thena is ordered to locate Kro.
Upon their arrival in Lemuria, Sersi disguises the others as Deviants, and they make their way to Khoryphos and Yrdisis' home, but upon entering, they are ambushed by Brother Visara, who attaches Brain Mines to their heads, making them all helpless!
Not far from Polaria, Thena, Karkas and Ransak fly an Eternal craft to the site of the Pyramid of the Winds. Thena has correctly guessed that Kro has chosen this place to hide, but they find that he has changed since they last saw him- he is now horribly old!
Back in Lemuria, Brother Visara prepares to slay the captured Eternals before the Deviants, using a molecular disperser, but he is confronted by Kro- accompanied by the twins! Kro attempts to talk down the crowd, but Visara's power of speech is much stronger! But then, Karkas attacks, and soon the Deviants turn upon Visara, realizing that he too is a "leader". Karkas throws Visara to the crowds, and they tear him asunder. With Visara dead, and the Eternals free, it is revealed that the twins are actually Ransak and Thena in disguise- Donald and Deborah have not yet been found. Kro tells Thena that he had made himself appear old to her in hope of driving her away. He now intends to reclaim leadership of Lemuria, while the Eternals continue their search for the master of the mystery monster- and Ikaris thinks that he knows who that is.
The Eternals fly to the City of the Space Gods, where they find Dr. Damian waiting. Ikaris confronts him with the scrolls, and accuses him of planting them in hopes of turning the Eternals and Deviants against each other. Damian admits to this, claiming that he did it out of anger because of the death of his daughter Margo. He tells them how Ajak taught him how to operate the machines within the City of the Space Gods, and how, by accident, the machines briefly granted him the powers of an Eternal. With these powers, he sent his forged scrolls to Brother Visara and Phastos, and then he created a monster with which to seek out Donald and Deborah Ritter and kill them!
As if on cue, the monster appears, and attacks the Eternals! The battle seems hopeless, until, on a hunch, Sersi uses her transmutation powers on the monster- and it transforms into Ajak!
Thena is then joyfully reunited with her children, who do not appear at all shocked to learn that she is their real mother. Ajak, however, is in sorrow over what Dr. Damian did to him, and claims he cannot go on. Taking Damian in his arms, he causes himself to disintigrate, killing them both.
As the Eternals leave the City of the Space Gods, Ikaris destroys it, to keep humans from ever discovering it. Then, Thena takes Donald and Deborah to a remote location, and introduces them to their father, Kro.
First of all, it's important to note that this 64-page comic was originally meant to be told as an 8-chapter story in Marvel Comics Presents, just like the Soviet Super Soldiers and Master of Kung Fu: Bleeding Black one-shots. As a result, the story does not flow very well. Every 8 pages ends with a startling proclamation, but is then followed on the next by a let-down.
Before I criticize the story itself, I do have to compliment the artwork by Mark Texeira. It's not his best work, but it is certainly good work. His Sersi is especially well-drawn, though his Deviants are disappointingly generic.
Okay, let's see... First, if Thena and Kro kept their romance secret, how did Dr. Damian learn of the twins? In his flashback, he says that when he gained the powers of an Eternal, he'd already written the scrolls. Why would either Kro or Thena tell him about their kids?
Next, what was the point of Ajak the monster? Damian knows that he's after Thena and Kro's twins...why does the monster kill every set of twins that it finds? It'd take it a very long time to find the two its after. And when it finally does find Donald and Deborah, why doesn't it kill them? When it hands them over to Dr. Damian, why doesn't he kill them? Who wrote this crap anyway?
And why aren't the twins at all shocked when they learn that Thena is their mother? The two of them are written as a couple of bubble-heads. And why do we never hear of their surrogate mother again? Ever?
And I don't think I could not talk about this comic without mentioning its use of Dr. Damian and Ajak. First of all, there's the briefly-mentioned information that Ajak had returned to Earth. How? How did he just "leave" the Uni-Mind? If the Uni-Mind that left Earth broke itself up, how did all those hundreds of Eternals re-form again? Or are they travelling separately now? And how could Dr. Damian, no matter how grief-stricken he may be, just turn on Ajak? Ajak wasn't on Earth at the time Margo was killed. He was Damian's best friend. And Damian turned him into a monster and sent him out to murder children indiscriminantly. Buh?
The stupidest moment though, hands down, is the non-revelation that Kro is now really old. As I said above, this is one of those 8th page revelations that's meant to be a cliff-hanger. But honestly, it's just plain bad writing. "Uh, let's see...they arrive at the Pyramid of the Winds...find Kro...whoa, that's the eighth page. Uh...let's say Kro's like, old or something." When Kro finally does explain why he appeared to be age, anyone who cared will likely have fallen asleep.
It's also worth noting that Makkari is drawn in his crash helmet here without any mention of his then-current status in Quasar. And that the Pyramid of the Winds is suddenly in mint condition, despite being melted down by "the Weapon" in Eternals#19. I guess Kro re-built everything. Or something.
Finally, the Deviants are written as a band of simple-minded idiots. Based on this comic, you'd have a hard time believing they once ruled the entire planet, and managed to successfully wage war with the Eternals for centuries. If you want an honestly amazing look at Deviant culture, go read Peter B. Gillis' Eternals limited series.
