Marvel's Eternals Throws Shade at the Snyder Cut

It's been almost one year since Zack Snyder's Justice League arrived on HBO Max and though the film continues to veer into the trending topics on Twitter it didn't exactly reignite certain fires at WarnerMedia. The film has found itself the target of mockery and praise in the past but now a shot has come from DC's competition over at the House of Ideas in a surprise place, the pages of Eternals. In last week's Eternals #10 is a gag that clearly references Zack Snyder's Justice League, albeit without actually saying that's what it's about.

In the sequence, Kingo, Sprite, and other Eternals are spying on Sersi and Namor. While handling the controls Sprite mentions that they're perhaps about to see somethign taht isn't age appropriate for them (Sprite is trapped in a child's body as you may recall), prompting Kingo to mention how he previously snuck into the premiere of the film "Evisceration Samurai: Blood Katana." When asked if the film was any good, Kingo replies: "Absolutely not. The Director's Cut is even worse. It just adds a lot of slow motion to turn a two-hour movie into a four-hour movie." As fans of Snyder's material no doubt recall, these things were specific points about the film that drew the ire of some viewers.

What's perhaps the most ironic thing about this though is that when the Eternals movie was released last year it was almost immediately compared to Zack Snyder's Justice League. Not only did the grand scale and extended runtime of the two films remind viewers of each other but there's also the power set presented in the movie. Lauren Ridloff's Makkari moves at super speeds, not quite like The Flash but clearly similar. Plus Richard Madden's Ikaris flies around and has heat vision, a clear analogue to Superman. Not only that but Eternals director Chloe Zhao notably shouted out Snyder's version of the Man of Steel as influencing her take on the character.

This marks just the latest instance of a reference to the Snyder Cut appearing in printed comics. Earlier this year DC Comics' own Aquaman title made a key piece of the extended cut officially canon within the DCU. In the final issue of Aquamen: The Becoming, the Icelandic village that Aquaman visits is given an official place in the DC Universe forever.