Contains spoilers for A.X.E.: Death of Mutants #2!
Starfox is back in the pages of Marvel Comics, and the Eternal Harry Styles portrayed in the MCU is getting a raunchy nickname that is quite inappropriate. In A.X.E.: Death of Mutants #2 by Marvel Comics, Sersi frees Starfox from exclusion from the Eternals. When he's released, the Machine, the book's narrator, refers to Eros as "space slut."
Starfox, whose birth name is Eros, is one of the Eternals' most recognizable faces, as the hero has spent time with the Avengers and been involved in some controversial storylines during his time in the pages of Marvel Comics. The brother of Thanos has made a surprise return during the current A.X.E.: Judgment Day event, where he will seemingly play a key role in helping save the Earth. In accordance with the Eternals' ability to reinvent themselves every time they're reborn, Starfox was recently redesigned following Harry Styles' portrayal in the MCU, where he appeared in a post-credit scene in the Eternals.
In A.X.E.: Death to Mutants #2 by Kieron Gillen, Guiu Vilanova, Alex Guimaraes, and VC's Travis Lanham from Marvel Comics, Sersi convinces Jack of Knives to help her break Eros from exclusion as the war between the X-Men and Eternals continues. Thanks to Starfox not being considered the same kind of threat as Uranos, breaking him out of the Eternals' version of jail ends up being surprisingly easy. Greeting Starfox, the Machine (another name for the planet Earth), greets him, "Why, hellllooo Stargox -- space slut, slack, and sometimes Avenger." Rather than an insult, the Great Machine appears to be using the term in its reclaimed sense of sexual empowerment, as Starfox seems to be returning to his swashbuckling, libertine portrayal as a hero who loves life and the pleasures it has to offer.
The nickname is undoubtedly inappropriate, but it's also tied into Starfox's personality and powers. Eros, who Harry Styles plays in the MCU, is a hedonistic hero with the ability to influence others' emotions, specifically the pleasure centers of people's brains. Eros uses this power to cruise the cosmos, the most welcome and beloved guest of whatever planet he happens to come across (and, to be fair to the hero, usually save.) Named for the Freudian concept of the drive to live (as opposed to Thanos' death drive), Starfox is a vivacious hero who recently went through a darker phase while attempting to prevent the resurrection of Thanos - something he sadly failed to do.
It's unlikely that the "space slut" nickname for Eros will be used in the MCU or other media outside the comics, but it's hilarious that even the Machine seems to have something of an attraction towards Starfox (whose hero codename is a synonym for the new nickname.) Starfox is known for his pleasure-seeking and hedonistic ways. It will be interesting to see if those traits make their way into Eternals. Readers can see Starfox freed from exclusion in A.X.E.: Death to Mutants #2 by Marvel Comics, which is in stores now.
