Eternals, Thor, and What If?

I wasn't entirely satisfied with how things wound down in Jack Kirby's Eternals series and I've been doing a little research. I knew that there was an Eternals story that ran for about a year in the pages of Thor. I started to read Thor 283 because I thought that was where it began. It was and it wasn't.

The year before in Thor Annual 7 there was a story that also featured the Eternals. That story was mentioned in Thor 283, which was how I found out about it.

Thor Annual 7 (1978)
Thor 283 (May 1979) - 293 (Mar 1980)
Thor 300 (Oct 1980) - 301 (Nov 1980)

It is hard to tell (based on my research) how big a role the Eternals play in these issues. It is possible that they just appear in flashback in some of them.

Thor 294 (Apr 1980) - 300 (Oct 1980) is a retelling of the Ring of the Nibelung series of operas by Richard Wagner. The Norse Gods feature prominently in Wagner's operas. In the collected edition this is considered to be part of the Eternals Saga that ran in Thor even though they only appear in Thor 300.

Also mentioned in Thor 283 was a similar story that ran in Thor 274 - 278. It was similar in that it was also about Ragnarok and also written by Roy Thomas. The earlier story opens with Balder getting killed and Thor getting replaced by Red Norvell. It is also relevant to the run of Eternals stories in Thor because the framing sequence in Thor Annual 7 takes place between Thor 274 and Thor 275.

I looked a little further and found that about the same time the Eternals were appearing in Thor there was also a run of Eternals backup stories in What If 23-28. All but one of them were written by Mark Gruenwald. They are each 6 pages long. I used to have some of these issues but I have no recollection of these backup features.

What If? 23 (Oct 1980) - 28 (Aug 1981)

All of these issues of Thor and What If plus Kirby's run on Eternals are available through Marvel Unlimited.

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MCS: http://www.mycomicshop.com/search?SeriesID=42612896