Previous Post Quote: I always wondered why Eros ended up as such an ineffectual character in Starlin's stories. The whole Eros/Thanos naming scheme is a big Freud reference to the opposition of the sex drive and the death drive. In theory, Eros is a balance for Thanos. I wonder if Starlin just couldn't make a swinger superhero work, or what? Speaking of Eros, his whole "love power" is another post-Starlin idea. Starlin just showed Eros as a happy-go-lucky/happily-get-lucky type with some generic super-strength. Also, Mentor seems like kind of a crappy father, doesn't he? One of his sons turns out to be a genocidal or omnicidal maniac, the other is a hedonistic slacker with the world's creepiest super-power. "Love power" doesn't really work well in an action-oriented medium. Thanos was born bad. Nothing Mentor could have done would prevent the monster. And there's nothing at all wrong with being a hedonist. Right, Sersi?

Ah, but recall, Eros didn't start out with any such power. Under Starlin, he was super-strong and possibly was meant to have the same energy powers as Mentor. More broadly, since Starlin was riffing on the Fourth World stuff, Eros could have been something along the lines of Lightray.

But it's true that Eros's power as later established wasn't much, especially not against a villain who's whole *problem* is that he has for many a time been way more than half in love with less-than-easeful Death.

And while there's nothing wrong with being a hedonist superdoer, it helps if, like Sersi, you can bring it against party crashers, space pirates, and would-be world-enders. Eros, as you note, can't.