First of all, not every comic book reader needs to like Jack Kirby. I can totally understand other comic book readers not liking his work. Yes, it's foundational in terms of the Marvel Method, but it's also intentionally weird, sometimes less "socially progressive," and at other times downright obscure.
If, however, you like weird ideas and weirder art, Kirby's your man. At this point in time I've read through a lot of his early Marvel stuff, most of the Fourth World comics he did at DC, and the entirety of his Eternals run. I feel that I can attest to his originality as a comic book creator, and I don't think he earned the title "King Kirby" for nothing.
He was involved in comics from 1936 all the way to 1993, the year before his death. During these years he created countless characters, concepts and storylines, many of which are still referenced today. The Eternals comes a bit later in his career, after his work on the early Marvel titles and his (temporary) move to DC, but in the mid- to late- 70s he was still firing on all cylinders, still ready to challenge whatever younger upstarts the industry had placed in his path.
One of the things I like about this series is that it pretty much ignores the rest of the Marvel Universe. Other writers and editors would have been in a hurry to introduce Spider-man into the narrative, but Kirby couldn't have cared less. Yes, he does introduce a "Cosmic Hulk" about halfway through the series, but this version of the Hulk is a robot imbued with "cosmic energy," not another monster out to fight either Bruce Banner or his alter ego.
There's also The Eternals' batshit craziness. Kirby was never afraid to paint pictures with a big brush, and The Eternals is just further proof of this tendency. In his Marvel work (especially with regard to the Inhumans and Asgard), in his Fourth World mythos and in The Eternals we see repeated attempts to create a pantheon upon which future comic book stories and comic book series might be built. Kirby was all about the idea of godhood, perhaps in part because he felt that sense of godhood when he was immersed in the creation of comic books.
The pantheon introduced through The Eternals begins with the Celestials, an inscrutable race of cosmic beings whose origins and purposes are never quite explained. From the hands of the Celestials come the Deviants, the Eternals and humankind itself, the third of these races previously unaware of the existence of the other two. In the Deviants and the Eternals humanity is confronted by both the gods and monsters of its own mythology, and what we do with this knowledge remains something of an unanswered question at the end of the series.
Sounds impressive, right? Just be warned that The Eternals is also a series of false starts. Kirby plays so fast and loose with his ideas that he often fails to follow many of them to their logical conclusions. A kind of star-crossed romance is introduced between Thena and the Deviant Kro and then quickly abandoned. The Eternals do... something with their collective consciousness (Uni-Mind), but this something is never adequately explained. The Celestials stomp around and look threatening, but never do much.
Lots of WTF moments to be sure, but with Kirby you have to enjoy those moments. They're not unlike the miniature vampire planet seen and then dismissed in his Fourth World mythos, or countless other comic book series that he created and then abandoned. Kirby was ever ready to move on from a failed or less productive idea, and his eagerness to do so could be seen as both his one weakness and his greatest strength.
All of the above stated, I found the quote from Kirby appended to the end of Fantastic Four: First Steps very gratifying:
"If you look at my characters, you will find me. No matter what kind of character you create or assume, a little of yourself must remain there."
...and it's worth noting that the Celestials could have said the same about the Deviants, Eternals and humans they created, just as Kirby himself could say the same about the Celestials, Deviants, Eternals and humans he created. It's somewhat comforting to imagine gods thinking thus. It goes a long way to making them seem more human.
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