The universal adventures of a new Marvel heroes will span space and time in the publisher’s April release
“Eternals” is the latest project to come from the producer and director of Captain America: The First Avenger and the stylist behind Avengers: Infinity War. This cosmic adventure will span 16 comic books from March to July, following on from their movie introduction last year.
“Eternals is a culmination of everything I have enjoyed in the comic books for the past decade,” writer Charles Soule told Entertainment Weekly. “It will reveal new territory for the New Avengers, the X-Men, the Avengers, and every other team on the planet, like Doctor Strange, Thor, Silver Surfer and Drax.”
Robert Downey Jr poses for a portrait at a Barnes & Noble book signing for Captain America: The First Avenger in New York on 18 April 2011. Photograph: Melissa Moseley/AP
The New Avengers are reconstituted superhero team featuring Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor and the X-Men, which is joined by “an assortment of superhuman beings called the Celestials”.
“They, or these missing subjects, have been stuck in stasis for a trillion-billion-billion years,” Soule said. “That means that they’ve never had an Earthly environment to call home, but they’ve been busy growing across time and space. I’ve been fascinated by this idea of a space-aged race of cosmic criminals, archers, and wizards with enhanced strength and endurance, but a Vulcan code of conduct that has prevented them from allowing themselves to become quite human in our time.”
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Soule said he expects the adventures to work towards connecting the Marvel Cinematic Universe storylines.
“The idea of the Celestials is so much more important than Earth, to the New Avengers, Iron Man, and the Avengers,” he said. “If we lose the space dimension, then none of the subplots that are needed to connect what’s going on on Earth are actually going to exist. All that is missing is the special energy that brings everything together. The Celestials are a big part of that.”
“It’s the exact type of story that the characters in the comic books like Captain America and Winter Soldier and Captain Marvel need to be reading,” said Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios. “It’s about the same idea that the Avengers group as a whole is: to hold the bridge between a God-like race that, in our time, is going to have to appear on this Earth.”
“It’s too good not to be watched,” Taika Waititi, director of Thor: Ragnarok, told Comic Book Resources, “because it’s kind of amazing that it was allowed to exist. So, it has to be watched, so it will be constantly being scrutinised by the universe.”
