I reviewed the core Judgment Day TPB last week, and was adamant that you can have a great time reading just that, and you don’t have to hunt down the 30-or-so comics that lead up to it, or the 50-or-so comics that tied into the event.
This is the book where you should probably do the former, but, good news! This is the book that is the latter, so don’t worry about the other 41 comics, those ones don’t matter, and you really only have to read two thirds of this one!
Marvel Comics
Now, the secret of Judgment Day is that it’s really just an excuse for Gillen to get to write a finale to he and Ribićs Eternals run. There’s some stuff in the main event that’s core to it all, but mostly, Gillen seems to have bought himself six issues of tie-ins that serve to bring his run to as satisfying a conclusion as possible.
The Death to the Mutants mini would probably be my favorite arc of Eternals if it were part of the main series. It let Ikaris take the spotlight back, and as the heroic ideal of the Eternals, he really doesn’t disappoint. His arc was the one I was most interested as a throughline of the book, and he had room here to be shown to have grown, which highlighted the strengths of both Judgment Day and Eternals.
Marvel Comics
Similarly, Starfox is maybe the single best superhero comic Gillen has written, barring maybe Peter Cannon, but it’s certainly in conversation. It’s a similar look at a certain brand of heroism, and the sacrifice inherent to that ideal. Starfox is a hero. He is powerful, and nice, and good. But when you’re that powerful, and nice, and good, can you actually ever be enough? It’s an excellent discussion of what that ideal is and what it looks like – just an excellent comic all around.
Marvel Comics
I do have some quibbles here. For one, wow were those Fantastic Four issues dull. Offensively sentimental, with some of the worst narration I’ve ever read. Just the absolute worst idea and treatment of every character involved, left a terrible taste, brutally ineffective in every way aside from the beautiful art.
Also: Marvel, please find a better way to print blue letters on black captions; the Earth’s narration was almost unreadable. I’ve read all of Eternals digitally, I’ve not had a problem reading that way, but I had to tap out with the print version. Team digital all the way in this case.
Marvel Comics
Most importantly though, I just wish this was collected better. There’s no reason this couldn’t have been titled “Eternals Vol. 3: Judgment Day” like “Immortal X-Men Vol. 2” will undoubtedly be labeled. Moreover, this is much more an Eternals comic than it is a Judgment Day one, to the point that I’d recommend it to fans of the former more than I would fans of the latter. It’s not something that makes me dislike this comic, but it is something that just doesn’t have a good explanation aside from marketing. Which is to say; there is no good reason.
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