Favorite Characters: Makkari (Eternals)

*Makkari-related spoilers.*

Given the sheer number of characters in Eternals and the magnitude of Marvel stuff coming down the pipeline, who knows how long it’ll take me to get through write-ups on all of them, but I’d better make a start. And who better to begin with than Makkari? Although she’s probably one of the Eternals with the least screentime, that can’t dampen my love for her.

So much of what the Eternals are about relates to rules, duty, and restraint. They have strict orders from the Celestials to protect humanity from the Deviants, and while they get invested in the progression of the humans and want to help them to a certain extent, they’re limited in what they can do. Phastos can’t guide BCE humans to create an engine, Druig can’t use his mind-controlling powers to keep them from hurting each other, and once their mission is seemingly over, the Eternals can’t even return to their home planet until they get the say-so from the Celestials. A good deal of their existence is spent in a holding pattern, waiting to be told what to do and then doing nothing but that.

This kind of life isn’t very well-suited to Makkari. Like most speedsters, she’s impulsive and action-oriented. She wants things to happen now, and she’s not overly-beholden to Ajak’s rules. Her vice is stuff, all the accumulations of humanity. From rare artifacts to stacks of books to everyday baubles, she wants to find things or swipe them or barter for them, and she chafes when Ajak lectures her on the limits of their place on Earth. She quasi-behaves while the Eternals are still together, but after they part ways, she gives herself over to her collecting(/hoarding?) tendencies, getting her hands on everything she could ever want and squirreling it away on the Eternals’ hidden ship. Many of her friends get involved in humanity in different ways, living among them, but Makkari just relates to them through everything they’ve created as she waits for the day she and the rest of the Eternals can return home.

That’s the extent of the really concrete characterization/plot we get for Makkari in the film, but as I said in my review, the acting still brings the supporting Eternals alive despite limited screentime. Lauren Ridloff just plays Makkari with this spark that’s infectious to watch onscreen. She enjoys herself, she’s a bit mischievous, she’s fiercely loyal to those she cares about, and she’s not about to take crap from anyone. It’s a subtle portrayal built from a lot of in-between moments, but Ridloff shapes them into a character that feels whole, well-drawn, and infinitely rootable.

Also, she gets some of the best speedster action I’ve seen in a comic-book franchise. For all that I’ve enjoyed both the MCU and X-Men takes on Quicksilver, I am so here for her contributions to the third-act battle. She is just this unstoppable force, overwhelming her opponent with nonstop punches from every direction and grinding him into the side of a mountain as she barrels into him and never stops running. These scenes are really well done in the film, so visceral and adrenaline-packed. They allow her personality to come through too, as that impulsivity combines with a bit of a beserk button to make her throw herself headlong into pummeling someone who’s threatening her family.

Eternals is very understandably touted for its diversity, and Makkari certainly exemplifies that. A white male comic book character becomes a Black Deaf woman in the movie. Going the racebent and genderbent route is already cool enough, but I love that Makkari is Deaf and there’s not a “reason” for it. She just is. She’s a fun, badass character who’s also Deaf, and everyone is cool with that.

That said, I do kind of roll my eyes at the trope of the hearing people in her life mostly just talking to her, sometimes not even ensuring that they’re looking directly at her, and she still appears to understand everything that’s going on. That always feels a bit like lipservice representation to me, like the film/show/whatever wants the “flavor” of including a Deaf character but ignores what true inclusion for them would really look like. All the other Eternals understand Makkari’s signing, so they clearly know ASL, but most of them choose not to sign back to her. Only a few Eternals sign to Makkari—if I’m recalling correctly, it’s just Druig, Kingo, and Phastos. Druig and Kingo appear to be closer to her than any of the others are, so their signing might be a mark of that closeness, but even then, it’s still only sometimes.

Now, from a real-world standpoint, I get that Lauren Ridloff probably wouldn’t have been cast in the role if it meant that nine other actors had to learn all their lines in ASL for every scene they had with her, and I'd definitely rather have her in the film than not. But it stills feels like a bit of a cheat to have these big group scenes where a bunch of people are talking, sometimes in low light, and Makkari seems to catch everything they’re saying. In future movies, hopefully they’ll work more to make her really feel incorporated into the group.