Marvel Acknowledges Eternals' Sexism (& Has the Best Solution)
Warning: contains spoilers for Eternals: The Heretic #1!
In the new one-shot comic Eternals: The Heretic, Marvel introduces a new detail which addresses the franchise's former sexism in the ideal way. The Eternals are immortal beings created by the space gods known as Celestials, with the purpose to watch over humanity and ensure its continued survival and evolution. The Celestials created only one hundred Eternals on Earth, and they are unable to reproduce, placed into 'families' according to useful social structures rather than actual relation. The current Eternals ongoing series has established the idea that the Eternals are gender fluid (just on an immortal timeline, explaining why gender appeared fixed in prior stories.)
However, since their appearance in the mid-70s, Eternals stories have commonly revolved around male heroes, especially in regards to the ultra-powerful elders of the species, who rule over the rest. While Kieron Gillen and Esad Ribic's ongoing Eternals addressed this by having multiple characters resurrect with new gender presentations, the lore of Eternals' power structure remained solely focused on its mighty Patriarchs, the 'grandfathers' of the other Eternals. Marvel's Eternals: The Heretic addresses this in a creative and intriguing way.
Related: X-Men And Eternals Are Going To War in Marvel's Universe
The first issue of the series explains the importance of the Three Patriarchs, incredibly powerful Eternals who preside over a «dynasty» of their descendants: Uranos, Kronos, and Oceanus. It is revealed that their greatest power is that, when they enter the Uni-Mind (the godlike construct the Eternals use to come to take collective decisions), the Patriarchs control the votes of their whole
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