The Eternaut 1969

The Eternaut 1969 is a reboot of the Argentine comic book The Eternaut, by writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Alberto Breccia.

Publication history
The Eternaut was a comic published by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López in 1957. It was a comic about an alien invasion in Buenos Aires, and had no specific political tone. Oesterheld himself was largely apolitical at this point. By 1969 the Cold War was in full effect in South America, with several armed guerrillas promoting rebellions and uprisings. By this time, Oesterheld had turned to the left, influenced by his daughters, who had joined Montoneros. Some of his recent works were the biographies of Che Guevara and Eva Perón, Vida del Che and Evita, the life and work of Eva Perón respectively, and also "El Astrón de La Plata", which used an alien invasion as an allegory of military dictatorships.

The new comic, also named "El Eternauta", was a reboot of the original. The story was mostly the same, but with an anti-imperialist tone: instead of a worldwide disaster, the aliens only invade South America, after negotiating with the world powers a portion of the world while sparing them. The kid Pablo is replaced by Susana, a woman that joins the resistance with the male characters; the female characters in the original had no noteworthy roles in the story. Mosca, the comic relief character, is killed shortly after being introduced. And, whereas the art of Solano López was realistic and detailed, Alberto Breccia turned it into an horror comic, starting his shift to the horror genre.

The comic was disliked by the regular audience of Gente, so the editor requested Breccia to change the arts. Breccia refused, so the comic was canceled. Oesterheld then negotiated to have a few extra pages, so that the story could be concluded, even if it meant rushing it. The editor explained with apologies to the creative team.

"In the magazine we had a great chance with The Eternaut, a story that, as you remember, we saw it and that's why we published it. Apologies to Breccia, a great penciller and dare I say artist, but us, in our mission, should not have given ourselves to the esthetic nature of his drawings, which is for moments unintelligible"

The comic was published in Italy and Spain in 1970, in El Globo, and became a success. The first republication in Argentina was in 1982, by Ediciones de la Urraca. Fantagraphics released the first edition in English in 2020, translated by Erica Mena. It is part of "The Alberto Breccia Library".

Plot
Héctor Germán Oesterheld is at home at night, when a man suddenly appears and narrates his story. This man, Juan Salvo, was at his own home with his friends, Favalli, Lucas, and Polski, playing Truco. Salvo's family, his wife Elena and his daughter Martita, were also at home. The lights go out and they notice a snowfall that kills people. Polski leaves the house anyway to return with his family, and dies only a few steps away from the door. A radio broadcast explains that the snowfall is the first attack of an alien invasion, and that the world powers surrendered South America to the invaders to avoid being attacked. Favalli, Salvo, and Lucas prepare home-made hazard suits to be able to leave the house and get supplies. Salvo rescues Susana, a young woman trapped in a basement, and Lucas is killed by another survivor who later attacks the house. Although the attacker is killed, they decide that the city is too dangerous because of the anarchy and that they should flee. Before doing so, however, the army shows up and recruits them for the resistance. Juan Salvo, Favalli, and Susana go with them, while Elena and Martita stay at home.

The army faces the invaders, giant beetles, near the General Paz highway, and manages to seize one of their weapons, a giant lightthrower. The march is difficult because buildings fall down and block most streets, so the army sets a temporary base at the River Plate stadium. The army is attacked as well by robot-men, survivors under control of the invaders by devices in their necks, similar to those of the beetles. Franco realizes that the robot-men and beetles came from somewhere in Belgrano, so he scouts the area with Salvo. They discover the "Hand", the alien who manages the military operations, but he turns out to be yet another alien under control of the actual invaders, that he simply called "they". Most of the army is killed in an ambush at Plaza Italia, and only Salvo, Franco, Susana and Favalli manage to escape. They destroy the main headquarters of the invasion at Plaza del Congreso and flee from Buenos Aires. They are attacked again, Franco, Susana, and Favalli are turned into robot-men, and Salvo manages to turn on the time machine of a flying saucer, being displaced to another dimension. After several years of interdimensional travels seeking his wife and kid, who got displaced elsewhere, he appeared at Oesterheld's house.

Then he realizes that he is in Buenos Aires, two years earlier. He runs home, reunites with his family, and forgets everything. The arrival of Favalli, Lucas, and Polski to play truco confirms Oesterheld that the story was true, and he decides to make a comic book version of it, to warn about the danger.

Reception
Hernán Ostuni and Fernando García from Comiqueando consider it a literary classic, defining it as "a work that people talk about even if they haven't actually read it". They praise both the higher political tone of the story, and the dark and experimental style of Breccia, which they define as lovecraftian horror. They consider it an up-to-date comic, even despite of the years passed since publication.