24 Hour Comics Reviewing Day, Hour Five: Eternals #4

ETERNALS #4: This comic is sorta fun. It's prob'bly the price you usually pay for a miniseries: at least one of the issues just past the middle slows the pace down in preparation for bringing everyone on stage for the big finishing Cossack number. Eternals #4 suffers a bit from having to serve as a massive infodump for the series: a large majority of this issue consists of Sprite explaining the backstory. It's still beautifully drawn (golly, I really do enjoy John Romita Jr.'s work), and as usual, Neil Gaiman could make a retelling of the phone book lyrical and subtle, but what might read as a natural ebb in a trade paperback's story arc is, in a single pamphlet issue, a kinda screeching halt to one of the more inventve modern twists on Jack Kirby's classic characters. Check back next month to see if the pace picks up again: I have the feeling issue #4 is best read as part of a whole, so I'll give this a cautious look and a "can do better" grade. Certainly the last page seems to suggest more action and less picnic talk for issue #5.