Review - Eternals: The Heretic #1 proves Marvel isn't done exploring Thanos

One could almost argue that Thanos is the main character of Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic's recent Eternals saga. 

Since their story started in the Eternals series and related specials in 2021, readers have learned about Thanos' heritage as an Eternal, seen how his father split from the Eternals on Earth, and watched as Thanos has cut a bloody path back to Earth to reunite with them. With the release of Eternals: The Heretic, a one-shot follow-up to the series, Thanos will take on a new role entirely in his relationship with the Eternals.

He'll be their king.

Eternals: The Heretic is written by Gillen and features art by Ryan Bodenheim and Edgar Salazar, colors by Chris O'Halloran, and letters by Clayton Cowles. It finds Thanos in the position of Prime Eternal, essentially Lord of the Eternals and, by extension, the Earth. Thanos is trying to decide what to do with this power, so he seeks out his grand-uncle Uranos, a kind of proto-Thanos who some may argue is even more dangerous. Uranos has been imprisoned for 600,000 years, and when Thanos dares to visit and speak with him (Hannibal-Lecter-style), he will learn why.

It's difficult to create a Marvel villain that might actually be worse than the Mad Titan, but in Uranos, Gillen may have just achieved this goal. From the moment we meet him, we know that the brother of Thanos's grandfather Kronos is slightly worse than his grand-nephew. 

"You killed half the universe, boy," he says upon meeting Thanos, "What a lack of commitment. Do something or don't." From then on we learn what Uranos did to get him locked away by the Eternals, which has been hinted at but not explained throughout Gillen/Ribic's run. We're not going to spoil what that was or how Thanos takes in the information, but we will say that it makes for a challenge, and forges a relationship that Thanos has never experienced before.

As with any Thanos story, there's going to be some emphasis on a new and terrible doom that's headed for the Marvel Universe. 

With Thanos as Prime Eternal, that threat is magnified, and that becomes clear to the reader through the work that colorist Chris O'Halloran has done for the comic book. There's a palpable sense of dread that courses through this book, or rather, two senses of dread, split between the different characters. Uranos's history is told in bleak grays and desert tans, like the color of a post-nuclear war sky. 

Thanos, on the other hand, is constantly surrounded by deepening blues, like the last bits of twilight before full dark. Assigning these colors to the two different big bads of this story not only increases its apocalyptic tension but also tells the reader something important. That is, just because Thanos and Uranos both have plans for destruction does not mean they're on the same side.

However, they do look similar. There's certainly a familial connection. And we can tell that because of the design from artists Ryan Bodenheim and Edgar Salazar. Just like Gillen's dialogue tells us who the character of Uranos is from the moment we meet him, so does his appearance. Uranos sports an alien scar on the right side of his face, more cracked stone than torn skin. He wears a minimalized version of Jack Kirby's famous Eternals armor, walking a satisfying line between medieval warlord and alien entity. 

Other character designs stick pretty close to what Esad Ribic has done with the Eternals cast, but that's not a bad thing. It might not satisfy fans looking for something new, but it fits perfectly with the rest of the series.

And speaking of cohesion, it is veteran letterer Clayton Cowles who keeps the story of Eternals: The Heretic together. Cowles creates the dialogue of the "Machine," the AI within Earth's structure that the Eternals must protect and that narrates our story. The Machine also provides several pages of purely textual explainers, giving us important backstory and family info. There's a lot of lore that The Heretic is working with, and without Cowles's lettering, a reader might get lost.

It's easy to believe that a character as popular as Thanos has already been fully explored, especially if you know him from his era-defining role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eternals: The Heretic proves that there is plenty more exploring to be done with the character and that the evil within him truly knows no bounds. Uranos's comment about "doing something" or not might be more than just his way of belittling Thanos; it might be a prediction of what he does next.

Eternals: The Heretic #1 is on sale on comic shop shelves and digitally March 16th.

Did you know that Marvel’s Thanos and DC’s Darkseid actually fought once? To find out who won, check out Newsarama’s look back at their encounter.