One of thebest thingsaboutThe Eternautis the feeling of insecurity it conveys. Much of it comes from the excellent writing and directing of series creatorBruno Stagnaro, of course, introducingdifferent threatsand still managing to keep it from feeling repetitive. There’s more to this feeling, though, with an unseen layer that is barely perceptible to people who haven’t read the original comics byHéctor Germán OesterheldandFrancisco Solano Lópezor are unfamiliar with South American history. More than agreat sci-fi story,The Eternautis actually the tale of a country and a people who faced countless hardshipsand still can’t have the luxury of taking anything for granted.
‘The Eternaut’ Was Written During One of Many Periods of Turmoil in Argentinian History
Everyone is familiar withMadonnaas Eva Perón telling the people of Argentina not to cry for her inEvita. This is iconic for many reasons, giving the impression that Argentinian history is overly dramatic, butthat particular moment was indeed complicated. Evita and her husband, PresidentJuan Domingo Perón, were extremely popular, and her death was the beginning of the end of his first tenure as president. Perón’s popularity wasn’t gratuitous: he was a controversial figure, but enacted many populist policies, focusing especially on social welfare and workers' rights. However, he was ousted by a military junta in 1955, which would rule until 1958.
That’s exactly whenThe Eternautfirst came out, released weekly between 1957 and 1959. Despite being called Revolución Libertadora, this period was the opposite of liberating,with military rule mercilessly targeting the opposition, unmaking most of Perón’s policies, and thwarting democratic institutions. That’s whenThe Eternautis set, as well, and it’s easy to seehow it connectsto that political landscape — four friends are enjoying life and casually playing truco when, all of a sudden, a mysterious snowfall kills most of the population, followed by overpowering attacks from giant bugs and humans being turned into mind-controlled automatons. As if it weren’t clear enough, there are even panels where “Vote Frondizi” can be read, a direct nod to Arturo Frondizi, who would be elected president and take office in 1958.
The instability and oppression of that period inspired Oesterheld to challenge his own beliefs and worldview. InThe Eternaut, he ponders how society behaves both objectively and ideally in the face of such a collective threat, basing Juan Salvo’s (Ricardo Darín) journey on works likeRobinson Crusoeand contractualist philosophy. Oesterheld’s conclusion facing oppression and authoritarianism is thatonly the collective can survive, leading to thelogline"nadie se salva solo" (“no one is saved alone”)— unless everyone bands together to fight against tyranny, everything is lost. This guides the whole story ofThe Eternaut, with the aliens being a clear allegory for authoritarianism and dictatorship, and the fledgling human resistance being about putting collective survival above individual interests.
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Héctor Germán Oesterheld and His Family Were Victims of Argentina’s Bloody Military Dictatorship
The Eternauthad to go a long way between its initial release in the late 1950s and its first season on Netflix, including many copyright issues and some failed sequels. Its popularity helped comic books in Argentina flourish in the period between 1958 and the 1970s (Quino’sMafaldais from this period, for example, and is still mandatory reading in schools). In 1966, another military coup took place, with another military dictatorship following until 1973.The Eternautremainedpolitically relevantin this context, withOesterheld releasing a remake in 1969 and getting even sharper; this time, the great international powers handed South America to the aliens to save themselves.
Later on, when a final military dictatorship took over between 1976 and 1983,The Eternautgot a sequel from Oesterheld and Solano López, but this time, it would be the last story released by Oesterheld. TheDirty Warin Argentina is one of the darkest periods in South American history, consolidatingUS-backed authoritarianismon the continent with bloody dictatorships in Brazil,Chile, and more. During that time, Oesterheld joined the Montoneros, a left-wing armed group opposing the Argentinian dictatorship. He lived his final years off the grid, working as a spokesman for the Montoneros without interrupting his work as a writer.In 1977, however, Oesterheld was kidnapped by the military along with his four daughters— two of whom were pregnant — and two sons-in-law. They have been presumed dead ever since.
The only family members left were his wife, Elsa Sánchez de Oesterheld, and his two grandsons, Martín and Fernando Oesterheld — the formerbeing a produceron the Netflix series.The scope of how brutal and cruel the Dirty War was often escapes people, but the scars remain like open wounds. With the series out, one of the most active organizations to preserve the memory of those lost, the Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo,launched a campaignlooking for information on the two Oesterheld children who might have been born during their mothers' captivity. It may be easy for those who have never experienced something similar to dismiss cases like these, which is why it’s extremely important to keep this memory alive andhold the culprits accountable, especially when the aggressor is the state itself.
Netflix’s ‘The Eternaut’ Updates Many Political Beats in the Original Story
Ever since the Dirty War ended, Argentina has continuously enjoyed a long democratic stint, but that doesn’t meanThe Eternauthas lost its relevance. In the 1990s and 2000s, political turmoil became directly connected to the country’s economy, with an ever-increasing foreign debt and a near-permanentstate of recession, with the population bearing the bulk of it, of course. In moments like this,Juan Salvo is often seen on walls and in street art, a symbol of resistance and a reminder of unity; Peronist politician Néstor Kirchner even used this imagery for personal gain, creating the figure of the “nestornaut,” for example.
One of the best things the Netflix series does in this sense is toupdatemany of the political beats Oesterheld wrote intoThe Eternaut, although his sharpness is impossible to replicate. Subtle touches, like the River Plate stadium becoming the aliens' headquarters, are nods to this history of resistance in South America —in Chile, for example, the Estadio Nacional was used by their dictatorship as a center of detention and torture of the political opposition. Other moments, like Favalli (Cesar Troncoso) mentioning that “old things always work,” are nods to how newer things, from technological innovations to political movements, can’t be fully relied on, given the country’s own history.There are countless other nods to this legacy, something that weighs on the shoulders of most South Americans, but that they often forget or wave off as not that important, but that makes us (and Argentinians, especially) such resilient people.
Even now, as Argentina faces another period of political turmoil (just like the rest of the world, really), it’s nearly impossible to read or watchThe Eternautand not identify at least a little with the story. We’ve barely survived a pandemic that, like the toxic snowfall, killed many people close to us, only to deal with the rise of authoritarian governments that put personal gains and segregation above all else.In times like these, stories like Juan Salvo’s are the most urgent. Thankfully, now the whole world can not only enjoyThe Eternautfor the great sci-fistory it is, but also for the social and political awareness it inspires. No one is saved alone, much less the whole world.
The Eternautis streaming on Netflix.
The Eternaut
