THE ETERNALS #3

Cover shows strong gloss and vivid color with sharp corners and a tight spine; no visible spine ticks or stress lines. Minor handling wear is visible at the extreme corners and a slight bend near the bottom left edge. The book is protected in a clear sleeve, which limits full assessment of edge wear and surface scuffing. Interior pages and back cover were not visible for grading.

The Eternals launched in 1976 as Jack Kirby's post-Fourth World return to Marvel, an ambitious mythology built around a hidden race of god-like beings, their monstrous Deviant cousins, and the towering, silent Celestials who periodically judge Earth. Issue #3 continues the series' foundational arc, with Kirby handling writing, pencils, and cover in his signature blend of cosmic scale and blocky, machine-like design work. As with much of Kirby's mid-1970s output, the book's importance rests less on a single first appearance and more on its place within a self-contained epic that has grown in critical estimation over the decades, particularly after elements of the Eternals mythology were folded into the broader Marvel Cinematic continuity.

Market data shows a typical Bronze Age demand curve for a well-collected but non-key issue: raw copies in low and mid grades trade in the mid-to-high single digits and low teens, reflecting large surviving populations and steady but unspectacular collector interest. Value accelerates sharply only at the top of the grade scale, where CGC 9.8 copies command roughly seven times the mid-grade price, driven by relative scarcity at that tier against a large graded population and continued interest in Kirby's late-career Marvel work. The absence of any 10.0 or 9.9 census copies further concentrates demand at 9.8, which functions as the practical ceiling for the issue.

This is a book bought primarily by Kirby completists and Eternals series runs rather than by first-appearance speculators, so it trades as a