Marvel Comics’ latest blockbuster crossover event has fully reintroduced Uranos – a forgotten Eternal with familial ties to cosmic big bad Thanos the Mad Titan. However, Uranos is no carbon copy of the Infinity Gauntlet villain, possessing his own terrifying tactics and a fascinating view on the world that motivates his evil.
In A.X.E.: Judgment Day #1, Uranos was unleashed for a single hour on Mars, aka Arakko, decimating the mutant population who have made their home there. X-Men Red #5 reveals how Uranos was so effective in so short an amount of time, as he unleashed his ancient arsenal of bizarre weaponry on the planet while taking care of the most powerful mutants – including heavyweights Cable and Magneto – personally. Magneto is outraged by Uranos’ attack, and it turns out he’s right to see the villain as not just a major threat, but his ideological opposite.
In an interview with AIPT, Gillen shares a description of Uranos, stressing that his extreme philosophy of opposing all non-Eternal life emerges from his core hatred of the new. Uranos hates any degree of change from the Eternal norm (the species are both immortal and unchanging, with even their relationships dictated by Celestial will.) In contrast, Magneto is a champion of change, doing everything possible to promote the rise of mutantkind in all its staggering variety. Gillen explains:
Uranos is the living embodiment of the world’s worst grandparent, hammering on the ceiling, shouting “TURN IT DOWN! ALL MODERN MUSIC IS JUST NOISE!”
Though Uranos may be the other way around. He doesn’t want tunes. He just wants white noise. He would have nodded appreciatively when Atari Teenage Riot used to encore with 45 minutes of static.
Thanos may be a formidable villain, but his emotional attachment to Death is a difficult motivation to translate into real-life relevance, being a cosmic expression of his nihilism. While many stories have of course managed this, Uranos’ loathing of the new and different is more palpably relevant. This is given even more nuance in writer Al Ewing and artist Stefano Casselli’s coinciding title X-Men Red #5, where Magneto brands him “everything I have ever fought against!” Given Magneto’s experiences in Nazi Germany, it’s apparent that Uranos is being positioned as a fascistic force opposed to the diverse future mutants are trying to build.
While Thanos is a complex and fascinating character, his creator Jim Starlin has tended to treat him as an evil protagonist rather than the villain in someone else’s story – a deeply flawed genius probing the mysteries of the universe. A love of death is a grand motivation, but Uranos’ hatred of change and difference is far more compelling as something for heroes to oppose. Hopefully, Thanos‘ brutal uncle will continue to plague Marvel’s heroes, as Uranos‘ motivations make him a character with a lot to say about how Marvel frames modern ideas of heroism and evil.
A.X.E. Judgment Day #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.
