Eternals: Celestia
Ajax has a crisis of faith in Eternals: Celestia, by writer Kieron Gillen, artist Kei Zama, inker John Livesay, colorist Matthew Wilson, and letterer Clayton Cowles. Gillen opens up another front in his Eternals saga, focusing on Ajax and Makkari.
In Celestia, the Eternal city built to house the Celestials when they come to Earth and the center of their faith, Ajax and Makkari speak of what to do next. The Celestials have stopped speaking to Ajax, and the Dreaming Celestial who spoke to Makkari is long gone, taken apart by the X-Men’s enemies. Ajax decides they need to go on a pilgrimage to Avengers Mountain, the home of the team housed in the corpse of the Celestial, the Progenitor. On their way, Ajax thinks back to her first encounter with Avengers, the Avengers of one million BCE, and how she didn’t kill them then. When they arrive, Ajax loses it, seeing one of her gods desecrated in such a way. Ghost Rider comes out, and Ajax finds out that the Celestials allowed the Avengers to take over the corpse, something which drives her insane with rage. Makkari takes her away, and the two fight before returning to Celestia, each with a new mission in mind.
This is a great comic even though it contains one of modern Marvel’s worst ideas, the Avengers of one million BCE, are in it. There’s something that is so ridiculous about this idea because humans, as they are known today, did not exist one million years ago, and there are members of the team who are definitely human. Yes, this is a superhero universe, and amazing things happen, but the Avengers of one million BCE are just a terrible idea that stretches credulity too far. All that said, Gillen uses them expertly, as Ajax’s encounter with them plays into a decision that she makes at the end of the book that is very interesting and too good to spoil.
The gist of this comic is about faith and how losing it affects people, in this case, immortal people. The Eternals always knew their creators. They knew they existed and communed with them. Ajax is one of the few priests in existence who actually knows that her gods are real beyond a shadow of a doubt. The fact that they’ve stopped speaking to her devastates her. Makkari is dealing with something different. Her god is gone, and she wants to make a new one, something to replace it. Their approach to divinity is very different from any other being, as to them, it’s a matter of pragmatism. Makkari saw her god taken apart and wants to make a new one. Ajax has saw her god taken by beings she thinks of as vermin, and what’s worse, they spoke to that vermin. These reactions are fascinating, and where Gillen takes them is anyone’s guess.
Zama’s art is gorgeous. She does a fantastic job on everything. Celestia looks terrific, taking the Aztec motif that has always informed Ajax and transforming into something extraordinary, writ large. The fight scenes in the book are epic, detailed, and well-choreographed. Zama’s page layouts and panel borders are interesting as well. This book is a joy to look at, a visual feast.
Eternals: Celestia is yet another brilliant piece in the Eternals saga that Gillen is crafting. Ajax and Makkari react to their circumstances very differently, and Gillen does a fantastic job with each character. Zama’s art is breathtaking, bringing the script to life. This book takes the story to some interesting places, and it will be great to see how Gillen pays it all off.
