Eternals is introducing an entirely new mythos to the MCU, bringing one of Jack Kirby's greatest creations to the multiplex. The Eternals have a rich history in the Marvel Universe, and one of the most well-known to comic fans is Sersi. Sersi made a name for herself outside of the group in a way that few other Eternals were ever able to.
She was a big part of the Avengers in the '90s and is also one of the most powerful Eternals of them all. The comic version is very different from the movie one. There are lots of things about her that only comic fans know.
10 She Wasn't Always Asian
In the movies, Sersi is played by British-Chinese actress Gemma Chan. In the recent Eternals comic, many of the characters have been changed to appear more like their film counterparts. This is a recent change, as Sersi wasn't always Asian in the comics.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Eternals in the comics is Machine, a piece of Celestial tech that allows the Eternals to resurrect after death and can also be used to transform who they are. So, Sprite becomes a girl, like in the movie, Makkari is a deaf woman, Ajax is a woman, and Sersi is now Asian.
9 She's Not From Another Planet
Eternals lore in the comics is quite rich but the MCU kind of disregarded a massive part of it. In the movie, the Eternals are from another planet, which is named after the Eternals city of Olympia from the comics. In the comics, the Eternals were primitive humans that the Celestials genetically engineered into perfect beings millennia ago.
The Celestials imbued them with amazing cosmic power. while they evolved into a very different society, they are still human. Sersi, like the other comic Eternals, was born on Earth and is basically human.
8 She Has Way More Powers Than Just Matter Transmutation
All of the Eternals are quite powerful, but Sersi's powers go the extra mile. She has the normal Eternal abilities of super strength and durability, a regenerative healing factor, and immortality, as well as the matter transmutation abilities that set her apart from the others. Those aren't the only powers she has in the comics, though.
For example, she has amazing telepathic and telekinetic abilities. She can teleport across vast distances and can project images from her mind. These extra powers have made her one of the toughest Eternals out there.
7 She Is The Longest-Serving Eternal In Avengers History
Sersi wasn't the first Eternal to join the Avengers, but she was on the team the longest. Sersi joined just as The Avengers were hitting their disastrous '90s slump, but she made an impact on the team as it faded. As members like Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and other well-known Avengers left, she became a rising star and one of its most powerful members.
Sersi played a huge role on the team for years, dating team leader Black Knight and getting enmeshed in the Proctor Saga. While it's one of the least popular eras in Avengers history, she is the most important Eternal to ever join the team.
6 She's Had A Relationship With Iron Man
For MCU fans, Sersi is either with Dane Whitman, Black Knight from the comics, or Ikaris. While both of these relationships come from the comics, they aren't the only ones she had. Like a lot of Marvel women, Sersi has been with Iron Man. It's mostly been played for laughs over the years and is a retcon established in the 2006 Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr.'s Eternals reboot.
It's actually been a good source of humor and has been picked up by the newest Eternals comic. It's also a relationship that can't be replicated in the MCU, although they may be able to retcon it for joke purposes.
5 She's Had A Relationship with Makkari
The Eternals hasn't been the most popular Marvel group over the years. After Gaiman and Romita Jr.'s popular stab at the characters ended, Marvel tried to make the book work again. They released another Eternals comic and used Gaiman's book as a blueprint for it, with the old relationships between characters ending, mostly because they didn't remember their previous incarnations.
The comic put her with Makkari, who was still a male at this time in the comics. The two had been on and off for millennia, so this book tried to bring them back together. The relationship ceased when the book ended, as fans didn't exactly flock to that incarnation.
4 She's Known As The Eternals' Party Girl
The Eternals are pretty serious, as their battle against the Deviants has consumed them for millennia. Sersi is very much unlike her fellow Eternals in that regard. While she has no problem fighting and protecting the Earth, as proven by her time with the Avengers, she also likes to party. Sersi has spent years and years traveling the Earth and indulging in things that her fellows won't.
Sersi is the Eternals' party girl. This reputation hasn't really hurt her standing among her fellows but they still know that the best place to find Sersi is wherever there are some humans having fun.
3 She's A Great Fashion Designer
The Wasp is usually known as the Avengers' top fashion designing hero, but Sersi has given her a run for her money in that regard over the years. For millennia, Sersi used her matter alteration powers to create all kinds of great clothes for herself and others. In Gaiman's seminal Eternals miniseries, one of the best Eternals comics, she worked as a fashion designer when her memories of her time as a superhero were erased.
Most of the Eternals pretty much just do superhero stuff, fighting the Deviants or posing as gods. In the movie, she works for a museum, so Sersi as a fashion designer is pretty unique.
2 She Died In The Snap
The Snap is one thing that MCU and Marvel's comics have in common, but who was affected and who wasn't is one of the differences. In the MCU, the vast majority of characters that fans knew were affected, but in the comics, it was much less. One character who was affected was Sersi.
She and Hawkeye both died right before Captain America's eyes shortly after the Snap happened.
1 She Was Inspired By the Greek Myth Of Circe
The ancient alien theory has been around for longer than the History Channel show, and it was one of Kirby's inspirations for creating the Eternals. For example, Makkari was where Mercury came from, Ikaris was the beginning of the Icarus legend, Zuras was Zeus, and the Eternals city of Olympia inspired Olympus.
Thena was the origin of Athena and even Sersi got in on the action. She was inspired by the myth of Circe, the daughter of Apollo who transformed men into animals. It was a cool little factoid that enmeshed Eternals lore in the legends of the real world and was an example of how Kirby liked to use mythology in comics to create something truly special.