Posted in: Comics, Valiant | Tagged: eternity, matt kindt, Trevor Hairsine, valiant entertainment

Eternity #2 Review: Intimidating but Becomes Engrossing

An alien ritual anointing a "New Observer" is interrupted by a humanoid being called Krakar and a group called the "Sky Bolts." Dr. Tear is examining the body of the previous Observer while this happens. He is also informed that people from Earth have arrived on their world.

We see those humans, the cosmonauts Abram and Myshka, on the strange world. They are greeted by an intimidating red brute who leads them to the City of the Gold Virus and a man named Atom-13. From here, they learn of the world they are on while searching for their lost child.

Eternity #2 suffers from some of the same shortcomings as Giantkillers #0, which I reviewed yesterday, albeit to a far lesser degree. Eternity throws you into the deep-in of its mythology and ideas without so much as a life raft, leaving you to wonder if this series has been going on for a lot longer than two issues.

However, Eternity recovers from this with its cast of colorful characters who are willing to explain some of what the hell is going on while having personalities. The cosmonauts are oddly aloof and charming for it. The aforementioned red sentinel is actually pretty friendly and has a great work ethic. Atom-13 is a fun warrior type.

It also explains what a lot of this is about, which are themes of destiny, prophecy, and the nature of freedom in the face of the knowledge of such thing.

All told, Eternity is actually pretty accommodating if you can get past the opening salvos of weird planets, being unsure of the "rules" of this sci-fi story, and occasional exposition dumps. That being said, I wouldn't blame anyone for being left confused and reeling from said opening scenes.

The art is quite good. Trevor Hairsine brings this strange world to life in an eye-catching fashion, and the designs of the aliens, the spacesuits, and the landscape is all creative, interesting, and just plain cool. Dave Baron does some excellent color-balancing, keeping things bright and popping while still maintaining a strong presence of darker shades. This actually helps balance the visual tone very well.

Matt Kindt certainly has an ambitious project on his hands with Eternity. This issue is pretty intimidating, even for those who may have read the first issue. However, once you can get through to the heart of it, it has a lot to offer from colorful characters to interesting themes about destiny and free will. I can recommend it to anyone who is willing to dig into some heavy science fiction.

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