WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Eternals, in theaters now.
In teaming up all of their world's greatest heroes, Marvel and DC always had a direct comparison with the Avengers and the Justice League. It is only natural for fans to want to pit the two teams against one another in an all-out brawl. As those teams found their way into film with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe the gap between them became all the clearer as DC's more mythic take lent itself toward more powerful characters.
However, with the Eternals the MCU gets its own team of gods-among-men that are a far more direct comparison to the DCEU's Justice League. Just how do the two teams stack up against each other, and which would would really win a battle royale?
Eternals features various callouts to the Justice League's most prominent members, and given the evident similarity between the teams, it's easy to see why. Both are led by super strong high-flying, laser eye-wielding heroes (Superman and Ikaris), and both have fierce weapon-wielding warrior women (Wonder Woman and Thena), world-rounding speedsters (Flash and Makkari) and gadget-wielding super geniuses (Cyborg and Phastos). With so many characters who are comparable, it becomes far easier to contrast the teams against each other to imagine a theoretical fight.
Across those comparison points, the most evident fights seem like they give the DCEU an edge. Superman is simply stronger and faster than Ikaris; although, there's something to be said for Ikaris' far more frequent and effective use of heat vision, as he even shears a titanic spaceship in half. Wonder Woman also has far more well-rounded physical stats than Thena, as the former deflects automatic gunfire and shatters concrete, whereas the latter seems to operate on a far more human scale. However, when the comparisons go beyond that, it seems like the Eternals are the ones with the edge.
Whereas The Flash was all but useless in a battle against Superman, Makkari ably held her own against Ikaris. She managed to drive him through miles of stone and even takes a few direct hits herself, indicating there is little Flash could do to hurt her. Meanwhile, Cyborg features in the action of Justice League more than Phastos does, but it's worth remembering that it was Phastos whose inventions and mastery of machinery managed to ultimately restrain Ikaris. Utilizing technology vastly superior to any shown in Justice League, it's possible that Phastos could dismantle Cyborg and render Batman's gadgets useless.
The real clincher for the Eternals are in the metrics where there really is no point of comparison. While Aquaman may be able to go toe-to-toe with Gilgamesh, there is no response the Justice League would have against Sersi, Sprite or Druig. Sersi's mastery of matter manipulation could pull Aquaman right out of his element, Sprite's illusions would only further confuse the Justice League's efforts in battle, and Druig downright has a capacity for mental domination that far exceeds any on the Justice League's ability to resist it.
In Eternals Druig stops an entire city from fighting, and he says at one point that if he really wanted, he could take control of the entire world. The handful of minds on the Justice League would be child's play.
Fan opinion may vary on how the films themselves stack up, but when it comes to a question of prowess in battle there's little question of the Eternals' ability. While the Justice League may seem mythic in comparison to the more grounded Avengers, the Eternals are actual immortals with thousands of years of experience who were worshipped as gods in different eras of humankind.
It seems like the Eternals have the real edge when it comes to matters of might, and they only have a single film under their belt in the MCU thus far. Future installments will doubtless only expand on their powers further, and if the Justice League were to ever catch up, they would need to grow a lot more godly a lot more quickly. They may be the biggest heroes of the DCEU, but the Justice League would need a few eons before they're ready to stack up against the Eternals of the MCU.
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