Cover: Jack Kirby & Frank Giacoia

The Eternals #17

Nov 1977 · Marvel · 0.35 USD

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“Sersi the Terrible”

About this Issue

The Eternals #17 is the first appearance of Sigmar, an Eternal whose knowledge of a Celestial super-weapon becomes the engine driving the series to its conclusion. More importantly, the issue is the creative showcase for Sersi — here still going by her alias Circe — whose matter-manipulation powers carry the entire battle against the Deviant mutate Dromedan while her male teammates lie helpless. Kirby explicitly has Ikaris execute Dromedan rather than capture him, a deliberate break from the superhero norm of 1977 that treats the Eternals as mythological warriors operating by the rules of war rather than the Comics Code. The issue also plants the Druig subplot that seeds the two-issue finale of Kirby's run.

writer, artist Jack Kirby · inker, letterer Michael Royer · colorist Glynis Wein · cover Jack Kirby, Frank Giacoia

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History

Written, penciled, and edited by Jack Kirby — with Archie Goodwin serving as Marvel's consulting editor — the issue shipped August 10, 1977 under a November 1977 cover date, placing it two issues from the end of the original nineteen-issue run. Kirby had retained editorial control over the series, which was deliberately kept separate from the wider Marvel Universe, functioning as a self-contained mythological saga. The entire Kirby run, including this issue, was later reprinted across a Whitman variant edition, an Italian edition (Gli Eterni #16, 1979), a French edition (Etranges Aventures #63, 1979), the 2006 Eternals Omnibus hardcover, and Marvel's 2020 Eternals by Jack Kirby: The Complete Collection.

Trivia · 7 facts

First appearance of Sigmar, an Eternal whose knowledge of an anti-Celestial weapon becomes central to the final arc of Kirby's run.
Story titled 'Sersi the Terrible'; written, penciled, and edited by Jack Kirby, with inks by Mike Royer and consulting editing by Archie Goodwin.
Sersi (cataloged under her alias Circe) defeats the Deviant mutate Dromedan by using molecular illusion to create dozens of duplicate Ikaris figures, overwhelming his telepathic targeting ability.
Ikaris kills Dromedan with his optic beams — the story text is explicit that this is a lethal act, an unusual narrative choice for a Marvel superhero comic of the era.
Druig appears in a closing subplot attempting to extract the secret of an ancient super-weapon, directly setting up the storyline of issues #18 and #19.
The issue exists in a Whitman variant edition (per League of Comic Geeks and Key Collector Comics catalog records).
Reprinted in: Gli Eterni (Editoriale Corno) #16 (1979), Etranges Aventures (Arédit-Artima) #63 (1979), Eternals by Jack Kirby Omnibus (Marvel, 2006), Les Éternels (Panini France, 2007), Eternals by Jack Kirby vol. 2 (Marvel, 2008), and Eternals by Jack Kirby: The Complete Collection (Marvel, 2020).