Eternals' Kro Redesign Works (But The Deviant Changes Don't)

The MCU Eternals movie has given Kro and his Deviants a visual overhaul, but while one change works, the other could be contributing to Eternals' mixed reviews. Bringing Eternals to the big screen is arguably the Marvel Cinematic Universe's biggest challenge yet. Jack Kirby's all-powerful cosmic creations aren't your standard superheroes, and Chloé Zhao faced a daunting task translating the Eternals' comic mythology into established MCU tone and continuity. Gender-swaps and power descaling aside, the Eternals themselves are relatively true to their source material. Eternals real deviation, however. comes via the live-action Deviants, as well as their leader, Kro.

In the Marvel comics, Kro is typically a humanoid Deviant with striking pink skin, a magician's goatee, and pointy ears. The warlord rocks a rimless pair of futuristic visor shades, and usually dons some kind of armor that compliments his salmon pink skin. Not even Kro's mother would recognize her son in the MCU. Alien-esque in design (not entirely dissimilar to a Chitauri, in fact), Eternals replaces Kro's neon skin color with a gray, marble effect, adding an extra pair of eyes and long tendrils for limbs. Even more drastic alterations are made to Kro's MCU underlings. Whereas the comic Deviants are often depicted as brightly colored humanoids or mutated, monstrous hybrids, Eternals reinvents them into silvery beasts based on animals or mythological creatures - a griffin type, a dinosaur type, an amphibian, etc.

First impressions indicate Eternals' Kro-volution has worked wonders. Not even the mighty Marvel could make a bright pink warlord wearing Bret Hart sunglasses seem menacing, but Chloé Zhao's live-action Kro looks truly otherworldly, bringing an artistic quality MCU aliens have rarely shown previously. Kro's tentacles and sinewy body, meanwhile, elicit a creepiness that feels deeply unsettling as an unconscious Thena is lifted helplessly into the air. The MCU has featured plenty of militaristic warlords over the past 10 years+ of cinematic dominance, so emphasizing the cosmic elements over the warmongering helps Eternals' revamped Kro stand out from the MCU's antagonistic pack. Better known villains (the likes of Thanos, Kang, Red Skull, etc.), could never get away with such a radically fresh live-action design. Fortunately, Kro isn't remotely close to a mainstream Marvel character, meaning Eternals can pretty much ignore what the Deviant leader should look like.

Sadly, Eternals' Deviant upheaval isn't quite as successful. One of the group's comic book strengths lies in their diverse appearances and characteristics. Just like their Eternal counterparts, the Deviants each look unique and bring their own quirks, preferences and styles to the evil alien rock band. By contrast, Eternals boils the Deviants down into visually impressive but personality-free monsters with little differentiation other than a wing here, or a rogue spike there. The monsters are closer to Pokémon than Marvel's comic book Deviants, and this is to Eternals' detriment. Most MCU fans would be far more excited if the live-action Deviants were humanoids presented as proper characters, rather than interchangeable animals.

It's easy to see why the MCU has devolved the Deviants. One film simply isn't big enough to introduce 2 separate ensembles, and developing the likes of Ikaris, Sersi and Gilgamesh obviously takes priority. Understandable though it may be, Eternals' Deviant changes risk regurgitating the MCU's long-standing problem building memorable villains, and this has already been noted in some early reviews. The BBC, for example, refer to the Deviants as "the most generic of slavering digital baddies." Would this have been the case if Eternals had retained the individual, humanoid aspects of each separate Deviant to match their improved chief, Kro? Perhaps not.

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