The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s next cosmic gods are looking for one of their own, who even served on the Avengers.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Eternals #4 by Kieron Gillen, Esad Ribic, Matthew Wilson and VC’s Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Marvel’s Eternals have been facing one of their most difficult times in eons. These cosmic demigods, who are eternally kept alive thanks to a resurrection machine, are currently unable to resurrect themselves, while Thanos, the Mad Titan hunts them down. Thanos, a genetic Deviant has come with a vengeance for the Eternals, and he has proven capable of breaking every principle they thought they understood along the way.
And in Eternals #4, they think that there is a traitor in their midst, and the prime suspect is none other than the former Avenger Gilgamesh, the Forgotten One.
The Eternals have been reeling since the killings began. Thena and Kingo meet Druig in the Arctic Circle, choosing to travel into the city of Polaria through conventional means rather than transporting themselves in instantly, hoping that by cutting off that access they will be avoiding an attack within Polaria’s walls. Druig, long an untrustworthy member of the Eternals’ society, is a prime suspect for the traitor, but Kingo is well aware that he is not the one that has been helping Thanos. Mostly, Kingo knows this because Thanos has just appeared behind him, somehow emerging from and disappearing back into the nonexistent quantum space within the Machine that is their world. There is only one Eternal in recent memory who has proven capable of deactivating the Machine, and he has a history of killing other Eternals, so their attention is turned to the Forgotten One, Gilgamesh.
In ancient times, Gilgamesh was revered as a king and hero, often being mistaken for other mythical figures such as Hercules and Samson. Somehow, throughout his thousands of years on Earth, Gilgamesh remained entirely unaware of his Eternal heritage, at least until his introduction to the Marvel Universe in 1977’s Eternals #13 by Jack Kirby. For the sin of his own pride, Gilgamesh was supposedly exiled to a deep sector of the Eternal city of Olympia, shunned for centuries by his brethren until he was called upon by Sprite to save them from an attack by the Deviants. This attack saw Gilgamesh ripped away into space, and upon his return he was given the name of Hero by the very same Eternal who had sentenced him to his exile originally.
Not long after these events, Gilgamesh joined the Avengers after helping them to rescue the young Franklin Richards. Gilgamesh had several adventures with the team, up until Immortus kidnapped the Eternal and watched as his own underling ended Gilgamesh’s life.
As all Eternals are, Gilgamesh was soon after reborn in a new body. Unfortunately, Sprite had stripped the Eternals of their memories by manipulating the power of the Dreaming Celestial. Ajak was the first to recall his true identity, and when he found Gilgamesh in Brazil, Ajak liberated his mind as well during 2008’s Eternals #3 by Charles and Daniel Knauf and Daniel Acuna. This didn’t work out as well as Ajak had hoped, sending Gilgamesh into a homicidal rage rather than bringing him around to help his brethren as hoped. Not only did Gilgamesh end the lives of several other Eternals during his rampage, he also destroyed the entire Activation Chamber where Eternals are reborn upon their complete destruction.
In the years since then, Gilgamesh has returned to a much more heroic form of fighting. Still, the scars left on his mind and soul by centuries of distrust and misplaced judgment has left the Forgotten One with an understandable grudge against his own kind. Whether or not he would go so far as to align himself with Thanos to murder his fellow Eternals is still to be seen, but the assumption that he could be the traitor in their midst is at the very least a reasonable one to make. But if the killings continue, there might not be enough Eternals left alive to regret their decision.
About The Author