New Eternals #1, February, 2000

"APOCALYPSE NOW"
Writers- Karl Bollers and Mike Higgins
Art- Joe Bennett and Scott Hanna
Editor- Ralph Macchio

SUMMARY

A United States submarine, the U.S.S. Daring, finds itself off-course underwater, and very near to Deviant Lemuria. Unexpectedly, their missiles launch without them firing.

Within Lemuria, Ghaur, still a statue, is preparing the Deviants for an assault on the surface world, but an army of rebels, including Ransak and Karkas, burst in, and a battle begins! The fight is cut short when the missiles penetrate the city, and everyone begins to drown. Ransak tries to save Karkas, but he cannot. Karkas is swept away. Ghaur destroys the submarine in anger as Ransak swims to safety. At the same time, someone is observing of all this (three guesses who).

At U.C. Berkeley, a Professor King is educating her students on Magneto and his recent take-over of Genosha. Her Liberal posture leads the students to brand her as a "mutie-lover". After class, three of the students try to beat her up, but she has a suprise for them- she's an Eternal! Frightened by her sword, they run away. Just then, she is mentally contacted by someone and flies away.

In New Mexico, Iris Devereaux is bringing a client to meet her father, sculptor Thomas Hawk via helicopter, when suddenly, foreign winds nearly dash them out of the sky! Hawk brings a statue to life, and uses his control over the elements to calm the storm. Telling his daughter that the wind came from the pacific, he transforms into his garb as Ceyote, and flies off.

In New York City, a young woman enjoys watching some men fight over a girl in a nightclub, until she receives a telepathic message. Changing into her form as Aurelle, generating intense light, she flies away.

In Toronto, police negotiator Ronnie Sykes is facing a gunman in the CN Tower. The gunman is unwilling to yield, so Sykes uses his powers to take over his mind and shoot him in the leg. His work finished, Psykos assumes his Eternal form and flies off to answer the mental summons.

In Washington D.C. a mysterious man named Campion learns of the USS Daring's destruction, and the discovery of Lemuria. He believes that the Deviants could cause even greater panic than the Mutant menace.

Somewhere else (enough scene changes already!), Apocalypse is talking to himself. He reveals that is the one who made those missiles fire earlier, and that he intends to re-start the human-Deviant war as part of his plan to test the strong.

In Olympia, Ikaris and Thena greet the arriving Eternals, and inform them of why they have been summoned. Phastos has discovered a strange energy spike that they believe to be an Eternal returning from the dead. As he continues to work on re-assembling the Eternals' atoms, an intruder suddenly arrives in Olympia, and the Eternals leap into battle! He manages to beat most of them with his staff, until Sersi destroys it. Demanding his surrender, Thena is shocked to recognize the misshapen attacker... 

Meanwhile, Campion and his men have recovered Ghaur's statue from beneath the sea, but have been attacked by the Deviants, who are even more monstrous than usual. In a very unsubtle piece of dialogue, a general says, "These creatures don't THINK like us. They don't ACT like us. When all is said and done, we have absolutely NOTHING in common with these monsters from the deeps!"

Another scene change. Some scientists have frozen a Deviant who is utterly massive, and bears two horns upon his head. Is it Kro? Why should this comic answer any questions?

Another scene change. Apocalypse says more of the same survival of the fittest stuff. Yawn.

Back to Olympia (and the story). The Eternals (don't blink or you'll miss Makkari) have re-created the returning one. It is...Virako, Ikaris' father!

Another scene change. (at least we're still in Olympia) Ransak, healing of his inuries, recalls being chased by Campion's soldiers through Lemuria. He is looking for Karkas, but when he finds him, he is shocked.

Back to the others. Ikaris and Virako have a heart to heart. Virako notes that most of their kind have left the Earth, but is glad to see that Ikaris has retained his "regal bearing". (since when is Ikaris from a royal family? he only became Prime Eternal because he chose to fight Thena for the title) He also insists that he won't take away Ikaris' role as the Prime One (how the h*llfire could he?). Just as Ikaris begins to press his father for information on the "other side", Thena interrupts him (wow, how cliche). She says that Ransak demands their audience.

Wow, two pages without a scene change! Ransak tells the Eternals of Lemuria's destruction, and Phastos explains that radiation had caused Ransak- and all other Deviants- to mutate. He also believes that the radiation is responsible for Virako's return, and that more dead Eternals may soon be resurrected. Thena agrees with Ransak that they should go to the Deviants' aid, but Virako disagrees. He thinks they should help the other dead Eternals come back to life. Virako is shocked to learn that a human-looking person like Ransak is a Deviant. Believing that his people have lost their way, Virako leaves, angrily.

Characterization moment (well, the book had to have at least ONE such moment). Ikaris recalls how his son was slain when he flew too close to the sun, and that he might have saved him had he been there. Realizing that with great power comes great responsibility, Ikaris requests that the other Eternals follow him to... uh...do stuff.

Apocalypse launches an obelisk into San Francisco, and from it emerges an immense monster! Fortunately, Ikaris, Sersi, Phastos, Aurelle, Psykos, the nameless asian Eternal, Thena, Ransak, and Ceyote just happen to be here (ahhh...Ikaris predicted that someone was going to attack San Francisco. That must be it) Ransak identifies the Godzilla-beast as Karkas! Zoiks!

Making a mental scan of Karkas, Psykos learns that he is under mental control. From afar, Apocalypse is pleased. Don't ask me why. He just is. He does something to Karkas that makes him howl in pain, so Phastos takes a scan, and finds the device controlling him, and is able to guesstimate the location of the ship powering it. Ikaris flies off to deal with the sinister being behind all of this.

Ikaris flies into Apocalypse's vessel, which permits his entrance. Ikaris has fought Apocalypse before, as En Sabah Nur. Suddenly, all falls into place- 'Pocy is behind all of this! And why? Cause he's evil! Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Ikaris and Apocalypse duke it out, argue some philosphy that doesn't actually mean anything, and 'Pocy reveals that he did all of this to keep the Eternals from getting involved in his scheme with "the Twelve". (yeah. right. because the Eternals are ALWAYS getting involved in X-Men cross-overs) An explosion knocks both Ikaris and Apocalypse into space, and 'Pocy flies away, apparently happy that his vessel has been destroyed, and that Ikaris knows his plan.

Back in 'Frisco, Ransak decides that the only way to stop Karkas is to hit his vital spot behind the neck, and does so. Big explosion. Karkas falls over, and everyone promptly forgets about him. For some reason, Ikaris can't go back to Olympia. Why? Well, not for me to ponder. Ikaris decides they have to "allay the fears of the mortals", and Aurelle suggests they present themselves to the news media as super-heroes. So, with a set of pathetic code-names, Ikaris announces themselves as "the New Breed". And from afar, Mr. Campion is watching.

COMMENTS

Oy, where to begin? How about coloring errors? Throughout this comic, Karkas is colored green, even though dialogue refers to him being red. Or how about art errors? Ghaur is drawn as stone instead of gold, and Virako- who in his sole previous appearance, Thor Annual#7, was clean-shaven, returns from the dead with a beard.

Speaking of Virako, man, is his character screwed. In Thor Annual#7, he was basically a mature Ikaris. In this comic, Ikaris is the mature one. Before, Virako was concerned with the development of the human race...now he suddenly only cares about his own kind. It's interesting to note that since Virako has been dead for 1000 years, Ikaris may now have been alive longer than he has.

In this story, Virako is meant to represent the "old ways" of the Eternals, to create friction so that Ikaris can have this artificial decision to make (he's Prime Eternal! he doesn't have to listen to his father!). Honestly, someone should have done their research, and resurrected an Eternal who could have fit that mold. Between Virako having a beard and acting as though he's the boss of the Eternals, I really wondered if someone confused him with Zuras. Dreadful writing, by any standards.

Then we've got our "New Eternals". Whoop-de-frickin-do. Now, I do like Psykos, because we can never have enough arrogant bastards in the comics- or Canadians, eh? But the others...well, they're just bad stereotypes. Heck, the Professor King/Chi Demon character doesn't even have a name! (given the "King" alias and her being Asian and all, I wondered if the original outline had Kingo Sunen in her role) All these guys do is raise questions- like where they were the last few times the Eternals had a major crisis. How did Aurelle avoid seeing Ikaris for 200 years, anyway? And where were Arex, Sprite, Cybele, Argos and Khoryphos? Why create new guys when those five go un-used? Not to mention the under-utilization of Makkari and Kingo Sunen, who just cling to the background.

Then there's Kro, who doesn't appear at all, unless he's the big Deviant with the horns. The writers put Kro in mortal jeopardy, and leave him there! Is that any way to treat the best-written of all the Deviants?!

Then we've got the art, which is really hard to follow. In several places- especially during the submarine/Lemuria scenes- it is unclear exactly what is going on. Horrible stuff.

And, hey, we've got the Eternals taking super-hero names! Good thing everyone forgot that the human race knows all about the Eternals and Deviants, ever since Eternals Vol.1 #6, or this comic couldn't have existed! And boy, I just love those names! "Ceasefire"? Brilliant! Why didn't Peter B. Gillis think of that?

Finally, who the heck is Mr. Campion, and why should any of us care? Ooh! Another evil government team! Very 90s! If they're supposed to be our eyes and ears into the world of the Eternals & Deviants, they ought to be a lot less cliche. But cliche perfectly describes everything about this comic. There isn't one original concept in the entire book, and absolutely nothing is pulled off well or believeably, from the awful new costumes and code-names, to the end of the Deviants as an intelligent foe, to the shoe-horning of Apocalypse to sell more copies.

This comic originally shipped only two weeks before Christmas, but for Eternals fans- the only people who really wanted this comic- it was a pretty bleak holiday.

Merry Christmas, Eternals fans. Go to h*ll Higgins & Bollers.

Michael Hoskin, Prime Eternal