Series | The Collective Hero

In Argentina, Eternauta is a legend. This comic-book character is a symbol of the "collective hero," and even school classes there are studying it. Now Netflix, which is currently busy adapting important literary works from Latin America (including "100 Years of Solitude" and "Pedro Parámo"), has ventured into a film adaptation of the famous graphic novel, first published between 1957 and 1959 and telling the story of an alien invasion of Buenos Aires, a gloomy Buenos Aires engulfed in a toxic blizzard. Four friends, sitting together playing cards, are surprised by this summer snowfall. Lightning flashes across the sky, strange noises are heard, and suddenly there are corpses everywhere on the streets.

How do I find allies when the world seems to be ending?

The graphic novel by Hector German Oesterheld (text) and Francisco Solano López (graphics), first published in Germany in 2016, is now considered a prophetic allegory of the military dictatorship of the 1970s. This is partly due to the fact that the author, Hector German Oesterheld, became one of the most famous "disappeared" of this military dictatorship. His four daughters, who, like their father, went underground in 1977 and fought against the fascist junta as Montoneros, were also likely abducted, tortured, and murdered. Oesterheld's wife became one of the leading figures of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, who fought for years in Argentina to uncover the crimes of the dictatorship.

The Eternauta is an aging man armed with a gas mask and a rifle, wandering through apocalyptic Buenos Aires, trying to figure out what's going on. The alien invasion begins with a murderous environmental poisoning, then strange monsters appear, and finally, numerous inhabitants are transformed into the invaders' willing servants. The invasion is a complex system of oppressive dependencies; even the Eternauta doesn't encounter a hostile ruler. This is realized in the series as an atmospherically dense narrative, set not in the mid-1960s like the original, but in the here and now, including the social protests typical of Argentina, with people banging on pots and pans, which dominate the streets.

But soon, the metropolis of Buenos Aires is submerged in a deep, poisonous snowstorm, and countless corpses line the streets. What happens in the face of such a catastrophe? How do people react? The initial "every man against all" soon gives way to attempts to organize themselves. The interpersonal dramas are the real theme: How do I find allies when the world seems to be ending?

In the foreword to the 1976 comic, Oesterheld emphasized the aspect of the collective fight against an impending danger: "The true hero is a collective hero, a group of people." This series, which translates the elusive magic of the graphic novel into television images, tells the story of how these people then defend themselves against the aliens and how the Eternauta ultimately travels into space and through time. "Eternauta" has often been considered for film, but Oesterheld's heirs have always resisted a Hollywood version. They wanted to see the story filmed as an authentic Argentinian story, which is what the Netflix version now offers.

“Eternauta” has been available in six parts on Netflix since April 30th.