Eternals Superman and Batman references tear apart Marvel and DC universes

It’s no secret that Eternal It has many characters, some expected, such as the 10 Eternals most billed, some hidden and others completely unexpected.

But there are two superheroes in Eternal They go beyond the “unexpected” to melt the mind.

They don’t appear in the movie, but are mentioned by name, and it’s absolutely outrageous to break the world. Screenwriter-director Chloé Zhao went the extra mile, as if giving Richard Madden Richard Madden’s Ikaris eye lasers wasn’t enough.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Eternals.]

Batman and Superman ???

Image: Marvel Studios

Characters in Eternal Namerop is not the greatest, but the two greatest superheroes in DC Comics, Batman and Superman. This would imply that the Eternals are familiar with the fictional characters of Batman and Superman.

First, upon meeting Karun, the human character is described as Kingo’s valet. “Like Alfred?” another character jokes, referring to Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s loyal butler. It is not a cheeky joke for the audience, it is simply a conversation.

As if that wasn’t enough, when Sersi and Ikaris arrive at Phastos’s house, they named Superman in the same vein, comparing Ikaris’s powers of flight and laser vision to the Man of Steel.

Yes Eternal takes this seriously, we must assume that in a world where Captain America has been a bona fide superhero for decades, and the likes of Iron Man, Thor, and Spider-Man have been around since roughly 2008 …

That world is also a world where the DC Comics characters Batman and Superman – No, Alfred Pennyworth and Superman – do they have cultural prestige?

It’s not impossible, I’m just crazy about it

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby / Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics has a long tradition of making references to the existence of superhero comics in a world full of superheroes. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby began to write from time to time on the pages of Fantastic four in 1963. Since then, it has been a little known fact in Marvel Comics canon that a version of the Marvel Comics publisher exists in the Marvel Comics Universe, where it prints legally licensed superhero adventure stories.

Marvel Comics has never been above making blatant references to distinguished competition (nor, to be fair, DC). But the idea that Batman or Superman comics were on newsstands in the Marvel Comics universe along with themes from Fantastic four It was never on the table.

Blockbuster movies don’t seem to care about this, and Eternal It’s not the first modern Marvel movie to reference DC Comics. That crown goes to 2018’s Poison, for a scene in which Anne Weying discovers that a certain frequency of sound can harm Eddie Brock’s alien parasite.

“What, then, is the sound like its kryptonite?” he says, a word and concept that originated from the Superman radio series and first appeared in the comics in 1949, even though he could just as easily have said, “Is the sound like your heel? Achilles?”

Eternals, you must be careful with this kind of thing!

With the name of Superman, I can buy the excuse that the creators of Eternal wanted hang a lampshade about the fact that Ikaris’s power set will remind at least some viewers of Superman. By mentioning the Man of Steel, they are extending an appeasing hand to the audience, as if saying “Yes, yes, we know. But these are just his powers. ”

But that certainly doesn’t explain the Batman reference. And he still opens a giant can of worms. This is how we get orcs with restaurants. This is how we get the theories from fans on how Cars and Wall-E they are on the same timeline.

This is how I miss a whole scene from Eternal as I mouthed “what the fuck” over and over behind my mask. This is how I get lost in the implications of the Superman and Batman movie franchises that exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and mentally turn. Did DC Comics incorporate the Snap into canon? What effect has the proven existence of alien life had on the scene of the blockbuster superhero movie? Has anyone ever said that Carol Danvers is “like a real life Wonder Woman”?

I don’t need this stress in my life, man.