Warning: full spoilers for Marvel’s Eternals!
The mid-credits scene for Marvel’s Eternals movie introduces the brother of Thanos, Eros, aka Starfox, played by Harry Styles, along with his teleporting pal Pip the Troll, voiced by Patton Oswalt. While these eccentric characters may feel a world apart from the more stoic Eternals we met in the movie, they have an extensive shared history in the comics.
Here’s everything you need to know about Starfox, from his origin and powers to his connections to the Eternals, the Avengers, and the Mad Titan himself.
Starfox’s Origin
Starfox may be brother to Thanos in the comics, but they couldn’t be more different. Whereas Thanos is a genocidal, power-hungry warlord, Eros is a carefree lover, not a fighter, who spends his days as hedonistically as possible. What else would you expect from a cosmic being who shares a name with the Greek god of love? In fact, according to Marvel lore, he inspired Earth’s myths about Eros and was given a new superhero name by the Wasp, Starfox.
Starfox made his comic book debut right alongside his big, purple brother in 1973’s Iron Man #55. He was born an Eternal on Titan, the moon of Saturn where a splinter group of Eternals made their home. Starfox lived a life filled with fun and pleasure with little in the way of actual responsibility, but that all changed when Thanos emerged as one of the greatest threats the Marvel universe has ever seen. It’s worth pointing out that Thanos is technically an Eternal, too, but a recessive Deviant gene caused him to appear monstrous compared to the beautiful, god-like Eternals.
It wasn’t until Thanos hatched a plan to destroy their home of Titan that Starfox snapped out of his lackadaisical life and joined the hero Captain Marvel in saving the day. While not exactly the universe’s next greatest defender, Starfox finally took on actual responsibility and fashioned himself a hero. When Thanos enacted his master plan to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet, Starfox joined the Avengers in their fight to stop him.
Even though Thanos proved himself to be a monster, Starfox maintained a rocky relationship with his brother — a relationship that was frequently pushed to the limit, like when Thanos revealed to Starfox that he killed their mother. And you thought your family had drama!
Starfox’s Powers
Starfox has the same basic attributes as the other comic book Eternals: longevity, flight, accelerated healing, and super strength, speed, and endurance. The special ability that sets him apart is his psionic power to control people’s emotions. He typically uses this power to make a person feel intense euphoria–a sense of love so strong that they’ll do whatever he says. Unfortunately his power does not work on Thanos, otherwise instead of the Mad Titan he’d be the Glad Titan, and we never would have had that whole Snap thing happen!
As you can imagine, Starfox’s reputation as a womanizer combined with his power to cast a love spell has made him the subject of controversy. For example, after a one night stand, She-Hulk beat the hell out of Starfox because she thought he may have used his power on her. But it was later revealed that he did not, and has never, used his power like that, and She-Hulk went so far as to defend him in a court of law to prove it.
That’s the long and short of Starfox’s adventures in the comics, but what’s he going to be up to in the MCU?
Starfox’s MCU Future
As for what role Starfox will play in the future of the MCU, we already have a good idea. After teleporting onto the Domo with Pip, he reveals he’s in possession of one of the Eternals’ communication orbs (the one Ajak and Sersi used to communicate with Arishem). He tells Thena, Druig and Makkari that their friends are in big trouble and he knows where to find them. Given that Arishem scooped up Sersi, Phastos, and Kingo and made off to parts unknown to judge them for their actions on Earth, it seems Starfox is uniquely poised to help rescue them.
That said, one has to wonder, what is Starfox’s motivation for helping them? While Starfox in the comics has long proven himself to be a hero, this Starfox may be at the beginning of his character journey and may still be in a self-serving mindset. After all, what kind of “hero” has a lackey run ahead to announce their arrival by listing off numerous titles like “The Knave of Hearts”? Well, if the comics are any indication, it could be that his plan has to do with Thanos. That’s right: Starfox could be on a secret mission to resurrect his brother.
Now, it’s hard to say whether MCU Starfox is actually Thanos’ brother like in the comics. After all, Starfox is supposed to be an Eternal, but MCU Eternals are a big departure from the comics because they were revealed to be cosmic robots, whereas comic book Eternals are living beings. So if Thanos was a real being, as we know him to be, then how could his brother be a synthetic Eternal? Perhaps MCU Starfox isn’t an Eternal at all, but a flesh-and-blood alien with a different origin than the comics. We’ll have to wait and see.
But either way, even though comic book Starfox often fights against his brother, he still has a soft spot for him. After all, Starfox is all about love. In fact, when Thanos was killed in the comics, Starfox proved to be the key to bringing him back to life. Given there’s a precedent in the comics, it could be that MCU Starfox may be how Thanos makes his grand return. But would Starfox even be able to redeem his brother? If our theory comes to pass, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Be sure to check out IGN's Eternals review and an explainer on the Marvel hero teased in the Eternals post-credits scene played by Kit Harrington, the Black Knight.