Avengers vs Eternals is Settled by One Game-Changing Superpower
The Avengers and the Eternals are set to square off in this summer’s Judgment Day crossover event, but one comic from the past may have already settled this particular brawl.
Created by Jack Kirby in 1976, the Eternals took the gods of classic mythology and represented them as super-powered alien beings, acting at the behest of the divine Celestials to protect the humans of planet Earth from the monstrous Deviants. The most notable of the attempts to restore Eternals to the spotlight was Neil Gaiman and John Romita, Jr.’s seven-issue limited series The Eternals, the 2006 revamp that reintroduced the classic characters back to the Marvel Universe. Explaining their absence with via memory loss, leader Ikaris is the only one who knows the truth, and proceeds to travel the world to “reawaken” his Eternal comrades and remind them who they are.
It is the Eternals' own Sprite behind his team-mates memory loss, rewriting reality, and taking control of the Dreaming Celestial, who had gone dormant beneath the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. When Sprite tries to wake the Celestial, Ikaris, Sersi and Thena rush to the scene prevent that from happening. Once there, they run into conflict with Avengers Iron Man, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. Not wishing to engage in a prolonged conflict, Ikaris immediately uses mind control on the three heroes to prevent them from approaching the Celestial, rendering them all motionless while the Eternals figure out what to do.
The moment goes to show that the Avengers are truly out of their league when dealing with the god-like Eternals. With little more than a thought, Ikaris stops the world’s greatest super-team in an instant. More crucially, it shows the difference in the scale of conflicts the two groups face. This is best exemplified when Iron Man later asks the Eternal Zuras to register his powers with the U.S. government. At this point in the Marvel Universe, the heroes were divided over the Superhero Registration Act, which led to the 2006-2007 mega crossover Civil War. Showing just how insignificant the conflict was to the Eternals, Zuras replies: “If you saw two groups of children arguing over which of them could play in some waste ground, would you choose sides?”
Given their extraordinary life-spans, that’s all superheroes like the Avengers will ever be the Eternals: little more than unruly children. Whatever happens in the coming Judgment Day event, one thing’s for certain: the Avengers will have their hands full in dealing with the god-like Eternals.
Source: Screenrant
Post a Comment