By Kelly Gaines
I hope that Eternity Girl, in whatever plane of reality she exists, understands that I am in no way trying to come at this from a place of judgment. That being said- is she out of her fucking mind? Caroline, a.k.a Eternity Girl, a.k.a the world’s most reluctant immortal, has continued her nihilistic parade of self-hatred into issue #2 and wrapped the issue up with a nonsensical and unproductive display of power. It’s 2018, so most comic readers no better than to expect a clean cut hero against villain narrative. We’re wading through the age of the anti-hero. That’s not a complaint; I do believe that heroes with a grey morality can teach powerful lessons about personal responsibility. I’m not sure yet what sort of lesson Eternity Girl is trying to teach and to be fair; no one said readers should expect her to be a superhero. Eternity Girl #2 has tumbled from the shades of grey between good and evil and landed firmly in pure not okay, what the fuck are you doing, evil.
When we last saw Caroline, the new superhuman was struggling with the cost of the accident that gave her super abilities. Unable to die, and unable to carry on her normal life, Caroline fell into a deep and well-deserved depression. An emotional appeal to her boss (who is in some ways responsible for Caroline’s condition) was unfruitful, confirming Caroline’s worst fear: the company she risked everything to serve has deemed her useless in light of the change that they caused. There’s no arguing it’s an unfair turn of events. Depression? Makes sense. Nihilistic new worldview? Sure, that’s fair. Cold blooded murder? Well, hold on a fucking second. The second issue follows Caroline through her self-imposed isolation, the deterioration of her only remaining friendships, and on another plane of reality - the debate of whether or not to end all existence to guarantee the end of her own. That’s not okay. No amount of poetic lines about human souls being lambs to the cosmic slaughter and puppets for a higher consciousness can make the literal annihilation of all existing souls okay. And yet here we are, standing in an in-between with Caroline and her instigating possible hallucination, debating the pros of the absence of existence. This is a darkness even the Joker hasn’t touched. This is the highest form of murder and is the reason I believe Eternity Girl has the makings of one of DC’s most terrifying villains yet. She’s so tortured by her personal pain- which, again, is justified pain- that she’s willing to overlook the entirety of humanity and assume everyone’s life amounts to the same emptiness. She may think it’d be doing us a favor, but that doesn’t make the idea any less evil.
The shocker of the issue isn’t even this potential quest. After a comedy show fails at cheering Caroline up, and her frustrated friend says some harsh words that she immediately regrets, Caroline takes a cab out to the suburban home of her former boss. There, she confronts him in front of his terrified family and levels his house (and presumably everyone inside) in one blast. That’s murder. Showing up at someone’s home in the middle of the night and blowing it up is NOT OKAY. I’m not saying I dislike Caroline now, and I’m still on the edge of my seat to see where the title goes next, but Eternity Girl has just ensured that she has a solid supervillain backstory, and the writers are going to have to pull one hell of a rabbit out of their hats if they ever plan to make this right.
I’m hooked. I love Eternity Girl thus far, and I’m excited to see what comes next. I can also say wholeheartedly that this book took a turn I did not see coming. I guess I was expecting more of a ‘saves a little kid and sees life as worth living’ or ‘decides revenge is not the way at the last second’ sort of thing, and #2 took a HARD left. Bravo, I’m into it. And if there is anyone out there debating whether or not to just erase all of human existence as a favor to us- maybe take a vote first? Maybe don’t do that. Please. Sure, life is hard and most of us suck, but there’s good in us too. The fact that that’s coming from me is another twist I didn’t expect this week- so once again, bravo Eternity Girl. This is a fun ride.
Score: 3/5
Eternity Girl #2
DC Comics