Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is the Eternal who walked among humans so often that they wrote him into every heroic epic they had. Kirby called him the Forgotten One, an Eternal punished by Zuras for excessive interference with humanity and left to wander, and the implication is delicious: the Sumerian Gilgamesh, Hercules' labours and half a dozen other legends were the same immortal strongman doing what he could not stop doing.

He is the physically strongest of the Eternals, a straightforward warrior in a species full of schemers, and he joined the Avengers in Avengers #300 in 1989 during a period when the roster had been gutted. Don Lee's performance in the 2021 film made him the team's warmest presence, a fighter living in exile with Thena and looking after her through Mahd Wy'ry, and his death at a Deviant's hands is the film's real emotional turn.

Kirby introduced him as the Forgotten One in the back half of The Eternals, an exiled champion whose interference in human history had made him a legend and a liability. Later writers folded him into the mainstream, most notably when he joined the Avengers in Avengers #300 in 1989 and served through a difficult stretch for the team.

He has since appeared across Eternals revivals as the pantheon's muscle and its most human-facing member, and his 2021 film appearance introduced him to a much larger audience as the Eternal who cooks, jokes and stays behind to look after a friend.