When Eternals dropped back in 2021, it was Marvel Studios’ first proper critical and commercial misfire. So, could anything have saved this ill-fated MCU blockbuster?
Related: Marvel Scrapped an Eternals TV Show From John Ridley
Yes and no. The global pandemic raging at the time was always going to take a sizable bite out of Eternals‘ ticket sales. But even setting that aside, co-writer/director Chloé Zhao’s film didn’t necessarily have the strongest source material to draw from. Don’t get me wrong: the perfect comic book template for an Eternals adaptation exists. It’s just that Zhao couldn’t use it. Why? Because it didn’t exist yet.
Indeed, writer Kieron Gillen and artist Esad Ribić’s Eternals run didn’t hit stands until January 2021 – far too late to rescue the Eternals movie.
Where Did Marvel Studios’ Eternals Movie Go Wrong?
And all but the staunchest MCU apologists would agree Eternals did need rescuing. It’s overstuffed with characters and concepts, and sluggishly paced (especially the middle act). What’s more, it’s tonally uneven, regularly crunching gears between moody operatics and the MCU’s signature light-hearted vibe. But worst of all, the big-screen Eternals don’t really stand out all that much from other MCU superheroes, even as their place within the wider shared universe is vague, at best. Eternals ushers in a bunch of new cosmic lore, yet paradoxically feels utterly inconsequential.
This last complaint is at least partly the comics’ fault. The original Eternals comic wasn’t exactly Marvel co-architect Jack Kirby’s finest creation. Kirby had already developed two other pantheons before – Marvel’s Asgardians and DC’s New Gods – so there’s a sense of fatigue to the Eternals’ lore. Kirby also meant for his Eternals comics to be a standalone affair, which is why these heroes and villains rarely mesh well with the wider Marvel canon. Many of Kirby’s peers and successors (including the likes of Roy Thomas, Neil Gaiman, Walter Simonson, and Chuck Austen) have tried overcoming both these problems, with limited success.
But most importantly of all, the comic book Eternals’ hook – their immortality – is a tension-killer. If they can’t truly “die,” why should we care if they’re in a dangerous situation? In fairness, the Eternals movie sidesteps this dramatic pitfall by downplaying its titular ensemble’s unkillable nature. The MCU’s Eternals don’t churn through World Forge-fabricated bodies at anywhere near the same rate as their comics counterparts. This is a logical creative choice, however, it’s also why Eternals is saddled with a roster of same-samey superheroes. We’ve already seen plenty of quasi-deities who can nevertheless croak – what makes the Eternals so special?
Related: The Fantastic Four: Are We All Wrong About the MCU Reboot Being a Period Piece?
The Gillen/Ribić Realized The Eternals Hidden Potential
By contrast, the Gillen/Ribić Eternals run leaned hard into Ikaris, Sersi, Sprite, and the rest of the gang’s deathlessness. In doing so, they unlocked the property’s hidden potential. Gillen and Ribić established early on in their 12-issue long tale that – spoiler warning – whenever an Eternal is reborn, a random human dies. The upshot of this is that there’s a cost to the Eternals’ immortality – and stakes. Whereas before they could blithely rush into battle, now they have to weigh up the consequences their dying will have for other people. It’s a brilliant plot device that sets the Eternals apart from Marvel’s other “gods,” and Zhao could’ve got plenty of mileage out of it.
The Gillen/Ribić Eternals run didn’t just give the Eternals a USP, though. It also figured out how to make their somber sensibilities gel with mainstream Marvel’s more quippy antics. These Eternals are still a largely self-serious bunch, however, Gillen still worked plenty of wry banter into proceedings. There was even a heft dose of contemporary snark, via Eternals‘ increasingly erratic AI narrator, the Machine. Admittedly, some of this comedic material would be hard to translate directly into live-action, but it would’ve given Zhao a rough guide of how to go about things.
The same goes for how the 2021 Eternals comic approached the overarching Marvel canon. A like-for-like recreation wouldn’t have worked, as in the case of Thanos’ involvement throughout the run. Yet the way the Mad Titan and his backstory come into play in the comics nevertheless proves that organic overlap between the Eternals and Marvel’s wider stable of characters is possible. They don’t have to remain on the rails of their own private history with the Celestials, as they do in the MCU.
Related: Robert Downey Jr. Would Happily Return to the MCU
There’s Still Time to Save the MCU’s Eternals
But like I said up front, the Gillen/Ribić Eternals run arrived too late to benefit the MCU movie. That’s hardly a surprise, either: its debut was meant to coincide with the Eternals‘ theatrical release. Of course, Zhao and Marvel Studios couldn’t recycle ideas from the comic in their film – they’d already wrapped filming almost a year earlier. Not even a speedster like Makkari could make those timeframes work! And that’s a shame, as Gillen and Ribić’s take on the Eternals really could’ve saved the movie. But who knows: maybe it could still save Eternals 2 (if it ever happens)?
Eternals is currently streaming on Disney+, as part of the platform’s Marvel collection.
