Ever since they announced that Eternals was heading to the silver screen, we’ve wondered how they’d adapt these iconic characters. While they aren’t the most famous among Marvel’s long list of heroes, they did have some similar designs. Among them is Richard Madden‘s Ikaris, whose core ability to shoot lasers from his eyes is awfully similar to that of DC icon, Superman.
Some of us thought they might shy away from the ability but a teaser revealed they still kept it in. Not just that, there’s even a cheeky reference to someone claiming they saw him with a cape. There’s also the way they designed his lasers that are similar to recent appearances of the character. Well, it looks like that was an intentional node to the iconic DC hero, as director Chloé Zhao reveals in an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com.
I take some responsibility for that. I think we’re in the business of telling stories about mythology, and Superman, for example, comes from origin of mythology. In many different cultures, there’s a form of Superman. And the people that created Superman and the brilliant filmmakers [who] brought Superman to screen, their movies are basically, in my opinion, doing a modern interpretation of that mythology
Chloé Zhao
A week ago, producer Nate Moore did highlight that there are many similarities, but the basis of his “eyebeams” is the same cosmic energy we’ve seen from the other Eternals members. So, while they play on familiar elements, it’s still given a unique spin. Zhao joked that she sees no reason why they can’t pay tribute to others, which is true.
There have been numerous callbacks to DC in Marvel comics over the years. So, there’s no reason the films can’t do something similar. Plus, both comic companies share heroes with a variety of similar power sets. So, a comparison will be unavoidable at some point.
Source: ComicBook.com, ScreenRant
