WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Eternals #3 by Kieron Gillen, Esad Ribic, Matthew Wilson, and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Immortality can be a curse, especially when it comes to love. The Eternals know all about immortality, with their endless lives and their ability to reincarnate upon death, but not many Eternals can speak on the matter of love. This is exemplified in the latest issue of Eternals through the eyes of Thena, but the Avengers comics of the 1990s also have something to say about the subject.
In Eternals #3, Thena has moved in with her lover, a member of the race of the Eternals' sworn enemy, the Deviants, and sees Thena's mind briefly linger on the fact that they have only 10-40 years left together. The Eternals may be immortal, but the Deviants are not. Thena's fellow Eternals are aware of this and confront her about it.
Most vocal among her comrades about Thena's unusual relationship is Sersi, who views it as a reason for Thena to have committed murder. This takes the narrative of the issue back 100,000 years, to a similar incident of Thena's love for a mortal deviant, and explores Sersi's disgust for the love in greater depth.
Sersi tells Thena she has discovered that her fellow Eternal has taken another Deviant lover (meaning that even 100,000 years ago she had already loved mortals) and wishes to make a point that this is foolish. Sersi takes Thena to see the horrible experiments her lover has made in an attempt to gain immortality like her, to prove her point, but not before Thena points out a certain hypocrisy in what Sersi is saying.
Thena points out that Sersi has taken human lovers in the past, to which Sersi gives a surprisingly cold answer. She states that the love she has had with humans is "a weakness of character, not a strength" and, most importantly, that her love is in the act itself, not the heart. Sersi is suggesting here that her relationships with mortals are physical rather than emotional, but 90s era Avengers comics suggest that Thena still has a point.
In the 1990s Avengers series, Sersi became romantically involved with the Black Knight, Dane Whitman, and evidence strongly supports the idea that the feelings between the couple were much more than a mere act. When Sersi's life was put at risk by an incurable disease that affected Eternals, Eternals' leader Ikaris mentally bonded Sersi with the Black Knight. This intimate bonding of minds was not just because it would save Sersi's life though -- she specifically asked to be bonded with him.
Even when Sersi feared that she would lose her mind and banished herself to the Ultraverse, she took Whitman with her. After spending an inordinate amount of time in the Ultraverse, as well as taking a few trips through time, the pair returned to their own universe. Upon learning of the apparent death of the Inhuman Crystal, whom Whitman had feelings for before being bonded with Sersi, they agreed that they needed to rethink their relationship and separated.
Though the pair eventually separated, it's hard to see this as the "simple act" that Sersi describes. She was the one who insisted on being mentally bonded to the Black Knight who, at the time, struggled between his feelings for Sersi and Crystal. Therefore her chastising Thena's love, both 100,000 years ago and in the present, comes across as very hypocritical.
With Sersi saying such things to Thena but doing them herself, the reason behind her statements comes into question. With Deviants being the enemies of the Eternals it makes sense that Sersi would wish to dissuade Thena from having a relationship with one of them by any means necessary, even at the risk of sounding like a hypocrite.
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