Who Is Marvel’s Starfox (Eros)? Thanos’ Eternal Brother Explained!
Harry Styles has officially been confirmed to star in Marvel’s Eternals. He will be playing Thanos’ brother, Starfox.
In comics, Starfox or Eros Nikeed’r (his real name) is depicted as a member of a derived human race Eternals. He was born on Titan, where he is the son of Mentor. Where Eros serves as the superhero Starfox, he is opposed by his insane brother Thanos, just like the rest of the universe.
But what about Starfox in the MCU? How will he connect to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
This article is going to be dedicated to Starfox, Thanos’ brother. We’re going to analyze and depict several different aspects of the character, including his origins, his family relationships, as well as his powers and abilities. We’re also going to explain how Starfox could fit in the current constellation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
The Origins of Starfox (Eros) in Marvel Comics
The exact origins of Starfox are actually easily explained by his birth, but in order to fully comprehend his story and his role in the comic book narratives, we have to tell you a bit about the character as well.
Eros is a member of the Eternals, a genetic offshoot of humanity, who left Earth’s deep space years ago and settled on the Saturn moon of Titan. Eros is the youngest son of A’lars (aka Mentor) and Sui-San, and grew up on Titan to be a carefree, fun-loving womanizer and adventurer, in contrast to his brother Thanos, a power-hungry nihilist and conqueror.
It was only when Thanos launched his first major attack on Titan that Eros began to take life a little more seriously. Years later, in a subsequent campaign of terror by Thanos, Eros fought alongside the handful of survivors from Titan. Eros joined the alien Captain Mar-Vell in the fight against Thanos’ minions.
Eros was held captive by Thanos, who revealed that he had killed his mother. Eros was released from captivity and encountered Iron Man and Moondragon, and aided Mar-Vell and the team of Earth heroes called The Avengers in Thanos’s first major defeat. Eros later met Pip the Troll, and his relationship with Heater Delight was revealed.
Eros was later held captive by ISAAC, but was eventually released. No longer bound by duty on Titan, Eros left the war-torn moon, seeking pleasure and recreation on worlds inhabited by humanoids. Eros returned to Titan to help comfort his cancer-stricken friend Mar-Vell when he retired to Titan to spend his last days. Just before he died, Mar-Vell made Eros promise to take care of his fellow Titanian, Elysius, after he left.
Eros kept his vow for several weeks, until Elysius, realizing his wanderlust, released him from his promise. He left Titan and Elysius to Earth. He arrived on Earth, where he sought out and joined the Avengers as an apprentice. They admitted him into his training program and Wasp gave him the name Starfox, as they felt Eros was a misnomer.
He then performed his first mission with the team, against Annihilus. He helped the Avengers defeat the Wizard. He helped resurrect Vision with the help of ISAAC, and later became a full Avenger. While on the team he had his first encounter with the Eternals of Earth.
Eventually, he revealed his stimulating powers of pleasure to the assembled Avengers, and helped them defeat Maelstrom. He traveled to another dimension with Spider-Man. He later helped the Avengers defeat Terminus. He fought the space pirate Nebula, and learned of her claim to be Thanos’ granddaughter.
He left the Avengers with Firelord to hunt down Nebula. He was eventually found and defeated by the villainous Xandarian Supernova, who blamed Nebula for the destruction of her homeworld. He finally found Nebula.
He is held captive by Nebula, but freed himself, and helped the Avengers and the Stranger against Nebula. Eros returned to a hedonistic life of adventure, preferring to wander through space in search of romance and adventure. He often returned to aid the Avengers on their adventures, serving during cases such as the Terminus crisis, Operation: Galactic Storm, and the Nemesis case involving the Infinity Stones and the Ultraverse.
When Thanos had won the Infinity Gauntlet, one of the first things he did was capture Starfox and place him under various torments. Starfox was forced to witness various cosmic murders, power plays, the personal deaths of heroes he knew, and other atrocities. He tried to charm Thanos out of his plan but neutralized his mouth for his effort.
Starfox spent time with Mar-Vell’s son, Genis-Vell, and repeatedly tried to help him and steer him in the right direction. Once, he came up with a device that would block telepathic transmissions during sexual activity. Starfox was part of an Avengers reunion when Morgan Le Fay attacked all current and former members.
After an adventure in an alternate universe, Starfox left Earth with Tigra, planning to head to a well-known planet of pleasure. Eros and his brother Thanos have a custom, where each Eternal Year (Eternal Year = 1000 Earth Years) they bury the ax and gather in a neutral place, usually with gifts.
This was an initiative of his father, who demanded that the two meet each year as a reminder of the blood that runs through both veins. The meeting is called The Truce and the two find themselves alone, although the hero Quasar was present at one of their meetings, and they refuse to fight each other.
Starfox was tried for sexual assault, accused of using his powers to seduce a happily married woman. He was defended by attorney Jennifer Walters, She-Hulk. The law firm that employed her, Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway, was hired by Mentor to defend her son from the allegations.
In the course of the trial, Ms. Walters came to suspect that Starfox had used her powers on her during her time in the Avengers, resulting in a brief sexual interaction. At this time, Starfox had been kicked out of the courtroom after it was determined that he was using his special abilities to influence witnesses.
When Jennifer Walters confronted Starfox with her suspicions via a closed-circuit video link, she evaded her questions and then cut the video. Walters stormed out of the courtroom, transformed into the She-Hulk, and caught Starfox when he was trying to escape Earth. She-Hulk gave Starfox a savage beating, without giving him a chance to defend her actions, knocking him unconscious.
He finally taped his mouth shut to make sure he couldn’t use his abilities to evade punishment. However, Mentor, Starfox’s father, affected the liberation of his son by teleporting him to Titan. Mentor eventually organized a Native Titanian trial in hopes of clearing his son’s name.
The Living Court, interested in the fairness of the process, called She-Hulk as a prosecutor. Jennifer Walters, in an attempt to get to the bottom of the matter, accepted a mental investigation from both Starfox and herself.
She discovered that Starfox did not use his abilities to influence her decision to sleep with him, but that he was deliberately responsible for his sudden infatuation and marriage to John Jameson. An enraged She-Hulk once again lashed out at Starfox for gambling with her life, stopping legal proceedings.
Thanos now appeared at trial and testified that his brother Starfox inspired his obsession with Death as children, when he was attempting to make young Thanos accept the death of an animal that he had inadvertently killed with the enormous force of he.
Under Titanian law, Eros would take full responsibility for all genocides Thanos had later committed. In the next issue, it was revealed that this was a fake memory that Thanos implanted in Starfox’s mind and that he shared a Thanos clone sent by the real Thanos.
Thanos’ implantation of memory is what caused Starfox to briefly become mentally unbalanced and use his power in this way for the first time. Starfox agreed to have Moondragon turn them off entirely rather than risk harming more people.
Later, Starfox is seen living on Titan, with his abilities restored. He is shown flirting with various women, but claims that he will not use his powers to woo them. Ultron soon attacks Titan and assimilates the entire population (including Mentor) through a robotic virus, transforming the moon into Planet Ultron.
Starfox flees to Earth and encounters the current team of Avengers (now led by the new Captain America), and joins them in liberating the world from him. He plays a key role in the Avengers’ victory, using his powers in the semi-organic Ultron to force the villain into an emotional breakdown.
Starfox’s (Eros) Powers and Abilities
Starfox is a member of the long-lived branch of humanity known as the Eternals. His body has been empowered by cosmic energy to the point that he ages much more slowly than most humanoids and is superhumanly strong and resistant to damage and immune to earthly diseases.
He can withstand impacts, such as falling from a considerable height or being repeatedly hit with superhuman force, that would seriously injure or kill an ordinary human with little or no injury to himself.
However, he is far from invulnerable and can be wounded by weapons, such as bullets or knives, made up of conventional materials. His overall resistance to injury is somewhat lower than that of the average Eternal, but, like any Eternal, he possesses exceptional healing abilities and, as mentioned above, an immunity against any earthly disease.
Starfox can psionically stimulate the pleasure centers in the brains of close people, making them calm and open to suggestions using his persuasion ability. It has been suggested that when in physical contact, and there is a direct line of sight between the subject and the target, Starfox may use this euphoria effect to cause a person or persons to fall in love with him, objects or persons of his choice or simply to make others feel good in your presence.
Notably, the power of euphoria doesn’t work on his brother Thanos. His psionic powers are possessed to some extent by all Eternals, but he developed them in his own unique way. Starfox’s mental powers do not work in beings whose brains do not have pleasure centers.
These powers were later shut down at the request of Eros to prevent them from being abused. In the Captain Marvel series, Starfox also displayed the ability to manipulate gravity, simulating psychokinesis. Starfox has a limited command of 500 alien languages.
Although he is an Eternal, Starfox is not as powerful as his Earth-born cousins because the original Titanian Eternals parted ways with their Earth brothers before Kronos ‘experiments increased the Eternals’ energies. Starfox, at the very least, can join an existing Uni-Mind with the other Eternals, 36 even though the Titanium Eternals have thus far proven incapable of forming their own.
