Meet the Eternals: As Marvel lays its bets on next phase of superheroes, here's a look at the Avengers' successors

It’s fair to say that the Eternals probably represent the biggest challenge that the MCU has faced yet, when it comes to endearing a group of minor and vastly unknown characters to an audience that, at this point, absolutely must be experiencing at least some superhero movie fatigue Editor’s note: The characters — and story-lines — that inhabit popular comic books can be expansive, multidimensional, and often, just plain bewildering. The Eternals, like the Guardians of the Galaxy, are linked to Marvel’s ‘Cosmic’ range of comics and appear to be part of an effort to expand the MCU in that direction, as it introduces more alien races and otherworldly heroes and villains into their film roster. Origin and powers Like so many of Marvel’s heroes and villains, the Eternals are the result of enigmatic alien shenanigans; specifically, genetic experimentation conducted on primitive humans by the ancient and mysterious Celestials. But it’s certainly fair to say that the Eternals probably represent the biggest challenge that the MCU has faced yet, when it comes to endearing a group of minor and vastly unknown characters to an audience that, at this point, absolutely must be experiencing at least some superhero movie fatigue.