Eternals Reveals Phastos Used Batman's Plan To Defeat The Justice League

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Marvel's Eternals.

In Marvel's Eternals, it's revealed that Phastos possesses similar contingency plans for his teammates as Batman does in the event of a Justice League member going rogue. As the film progresses, the Eternals become divided over the coming Emergence, the birth of one of the MCU's Celestials they've long served with Earth's destruction as the cost. However, it seems as though the Eternals' inventor Phastos had been preparing for an Eternal conflict for a long time, apparently having the same levels of preparedness (and borderline paranoia) as the Dark Knight himself.

In Marvel's Eternals, Brian Tyree Henry's Phastos is one of the final Eternals to be recruited to stop the Emergence. Because he had settled down with his husband and their son, the Eternals' resident inventor was reluctant to rejoin his old family, though he eventually agreed to ensure the survival of his new one. That being said, things become much more complicated when Richard Madden's Ikaris decides to betray his fellow Eternals, wanting to continue serving the Celestials as they always have (even if it means the end of the Earth). This results in Kingo leaving before the final confrontation while Sprite joins Ikaris' side.

As a result, this leads to Thena, Makkari, and Phastos keeping Ikaris busy while Druig and Sersi attempt to stop the Emergence. During the battle, Phastos unleashes a powerful snare device that keeps Ikaris contained and unable to fly away (temporarily). Phastos also taunts Ikaris as their former leader and strongest member struggles to free himself, saying, "I've been wanting to clip your wings for a long time." In this way, Eternals reveals Phastos and Batman share a similarity when it comes to planning ahead, the implication being that he had built the snare in preparation for Ikaris potentially going rogue one day, just like Batman's plans to defeat the Justice League as seen in JLA: Tower of Babel or the animated adaptation JL: Doom.

Phastos uses his powers to throw projectiles in Eternals

While Batman respected his Justice League colleagues, he was also well aware that if they were ever to become corrupted or go rogue, the damage they might do would be immeasurable. Bruce Wayne adopted a mentality of "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" and had contingency plans in place to neutralize his teammates should the need ever arise. Batman created a special Red Kryptonite that would harm (but not kill) Superman, and built a virtual reality for Wonder Woman where she'd face an opponent so evenly matched she'd pass out from exhaustion. Similarly, Phastos' snare is a device made specifically to incapacitate Ikaris should he ever become a traitor or get out of control. Furthermore, it also stands to reason that Phastos would have other devices/traps created for the rest of the Eternals as well, ready and waiting as contingencies should they ever be needed.

While Batman was heavily criticized for his lack of trust by his fellow Leaguers (especially after his contingency plans fell into the wrong hands), Marvel's Eternals doesn't dive deeper into the trap made for Ikaris and what that might suggest about anything else Phastos has forged just in case. While it could certainly serve as a point of contention in future Eternals sequels, it's unable to be argued that Phastos' preparedness was the only thing that significantly slowed down Ikaris in the film's final battle sequence.

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