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Hello everyone, and welcome to another week in Ye Olde School Cafe’! This week will render the mighty conclusion to The Eternals, by Jack Kirby! We’ll see the evil Dromedan battle the Eternals, and also the fate of Earth as well. Let’s jump right in and finish off this great story from the bronze age!

When we last left off, Zuras, Ikaris, and Makarri were face to face with Dromedan (an evil creation of the Deviants, deemed too powerful and exiled beneath the Earth). Zuras has a helmet that when fastened to Dromedan, will negate his mental powers. In the meantime, though, Makarri tries his luck, but gets put in his place. Next, Ikaris bolts at him, but gets the same beat-down that Makarri was dealt. Great Zuras can’t even resist the power of Dromedan, as he falls to his knees as well! The three Eternals struggle mightily, but cannot resist the fantastic mental powers of their foe. Just as things seem hopeless, Dromedan is attacked by three giant serpents, courtesy of Sersi. As she then listens to her friends tell her that Dromedan is too powerful for even mighty Zuras, Dromedan battles the beasts until he is victorious.
He then confronts the foursome, who counter with Sersi’s power of molecular rearrangement. She sends four duplicates of Ikaris at Dromedan, who fairly easily smashes through three of them. When he gets to the fourth however, he realizes it must be the original Ikaris and really turns up his powers to destroy him. It appears as if he has, and then tells the remaining three that they should surrender. They tell him to give up or else, and Dromedan laughs at them. Just as he is about to speak, Ikaris leaps out from behind a stone and uses his disintegrator eye beams to seemingly destroy Dromedan, or at least bury him alive. At that very moment, atop the high mountain where the Eternals live, Druig has found a device that was long since put in storage because of its destructive ability. Druig then orders his lackey to start the device, even after he’s warned.

Next, we watch as Druig commands his assistant to show him the video records of the second host on Earth many years ago. He sees the Celestials fighting amongst each other and one of them even being destroyed. Druig then questions Sigmar again about the machine and Sigmar tells him that he tried to construct one of his own, but Valkin forbade anymore tests. Druig then tortures Sigmar until he reveals that Ikaris knows where the machine has been hidden. Druig then makes his plan to use Ikaris to find his doomsday device.
As Zuras, Thena, and Makarri are hanging out with some humans, Ikaris is flying around, but suddenly gets zapped by a mysterious beam. The beam is from Druig and Sigmar, and it transports a now unconscious Ikaris back to their clutches. Ikaris wakes up and is strapped down to a table, and also finds out about Druig’s mad scheme. He even goes as far as to bite Druig when he comes near him! Druig then uses one of his Neural Beasts (see cover scan above) on Ikaris to torture the answers out of him. The beast attaches itself to Ikaris’s skull, and the mind numbing pain ensues. Ikaris screams in pain until he simply blacks out. Druig then removes the beast and sees an imprint on his forehead. The imprint is of a pyramid that Druig knows well, and then he cries out that he has won.

As Ikaris is being lowered into a prison cell, Druig slaps around Sigmar some more. He then laughs at Ikaris’s words of warning, and leaves to find the pyramid. Druig gives himself a pep talk about how great he is and that this plan of his will work undoubtedly. After flying around for a while, Druig finally reaches his destination. He goes inside the pyramid, only to see many doors that the weapon could be hiding behind. Back in the prison, Ikaris is contemplating what has transpired and feels his strength returning as well. He then makes a break for it, and as Sigmar tries to confront him, he slaps the little dude around until he realizes that they are running out of time. The two then fly off together towards Druig and the pyramid.
As the two pass by Ziran, and can only think of the destruction he and his fellow behemoths might cause if Druig is successful, they finally enter the pyramid. Once inside, it doesn’t take long for them to find Druig. Immediately Druig and Ikaris start to brawl, but Sigmar lays back and watches. Ikaris seems to have the upper hand, but then Druig fires back with his fiery bolts. He initially stuns Ikaris, but only momentarily. Ikaris then shrugs off Druig’s attack and takes aim at the device. As the machine explodes, Druig disappears in the flames, but Ikaris and Sigmar are heading for the surface. The device unleashes a powerful blast, and then heat. Enough heat that it starts to consume everything within miles. Ikaris and Sigmar stand atop a mountain and look down and wonder how they are going to stop this molten lava that now flows towards civilization. The two Eternals look skyward as Ziran, with just a wave of his hand, turns all of the lava into rock. Ikaris and Sigmar stand below the Celestial dumbfounded from the display of power by the towering enigma.
Well folks, that’s it for this great series from one of the greatest minds and pencils to ever grace the world of comic books, Mr. Jack Kirby. For me, this series was great in its time, and still is a good read until this very day. Reading back over it again has brought some things to my attention, though. Often, Ikaris is spelled differently throughout the series (Ikaris, Ikarus, etc.), and even on the cover of issue #16, Ikaris yells to Makarri and Sersi, yet it reads “Thena,” who isnt even on the cover. Not anything that would put me off enough to not recommend this title, mind you, but some people are very picky, so I just thought I’d point it out! This series also had an Annual (pic below), but it was a stand alone story with Thena, Reject, and Karkas, and didn’t add anything to the series. Thanks for tuning in, and be back here next week for a new beginning of a classic story line!