Eternals’ Superman, Batman references break the Marvel and DC universes

It’s not a secret Eternal has many characters – some are expected, like the 10 Best Billed Eternals, some hidden, and some completely unexpected.

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

They don’t appear in the film, but they are mentioned by name, and it’s an absolutely outrageous piece of world upheaval. Writer and director Chloé Zhao went one step further, as if giving Richard Madden’s Ikaris laser eye surgery wasn’t enough.

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

Batman and Superman ???

Image: Marvel Studios

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

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

As if that weren’t enough, when Sersi and Ikaris arrive at Phastos ‘house, they call Superman in the same tone and compare Ikaris’ ability to fly and laser vision to the man of steel.

if Eternal If it’s serious we have to assume that in a world where Captain America has been a true superhero for decades and people like Iron Man, Thor and Spider-Man have been roaring around since around 2008 …

This world is also a world where DC Comics characters Batman and Superman – No, Alfred Pennyworth and Superman – hold a cultural seal of approval?

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

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby / Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics has a long history regarding the existence of superhero comics in a world full of superheroes. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby began to occasionally turn themselves into the pages of. to write Fantastic Four in 1963. Since then, it has been a little known fact of the Marvel Comics canon that a version of the Marvel Comics publisher exists in the Marvel Comics universe, where legally licensed reports on superhero adventures are printed.

Marvel Comics was never over cheeky allusions to its reputable competition (and, to be fair, DC, too). But the idea that Batman or Superman comics stood next to editions of at kiosks in the Marvel Comics universe Fantastic Four has never been on the table.

Blockbuster films don’t seem to worry about that, and Eternal isn’t the first modern Marvel film to make reference to DC Comics. This crown goes to 2018 Poison, for a scene in which Anne Weying discovers that a certain frequency of noise can harm Eddie Brock’s extraterrestrial parasite.

“What, so, sound like its kryptonite?” She says a word and concept that came from the Superman radio series and first appeared in comics in 1949 – although she might as well have said, “Sound is like his Achilles heel?”

Eternals, you must be careful with such things!

With the name dropping of Superman I can buy the excuse that the makers of Eternal wanted to hang a lampshade that Ikaris’ power set will at least remind some viewers of Superman. By mentioning the Man of Steel, they hold out a soothing hand to the audience as if to say, “Yes, yes, we know. But these are only his powers. ”

But that certainly doesn’t explain the Batman reference. And it still opens a huge can of worms. This is how we get orcs with restaurants. So we get fan theories about how cars and Wall-E are in the same timeline.

So I miss a whole scene from Eternal while I kept mumbling “what the hell” behind my mask. This way, I get lost in the implications of the Superman and Batman movie franchises that exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and mentally twist myself out of it. Did DC Comics incorporate the snap into the canon? What impact does the proven existence of extraterrestrial life have on the blockbuster superhero movie scene? Has anyone ever said that Carol Danvers is “like a real Wonder Woman”?

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