Druig

Druig
Druig
	Druig.; Art by Daniel Acuña.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Eternals #11 (May 1977)
Created by	Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter ego	Druig
Team affiliations	Eternals; Vorozheika
Notable aliases	Ivan Druig, Druig of Nightmares
Abilities	Superhuman speed, strength and physical resistance,; Accelerated healing,; Cosmic energy manipulation,; Energy blasts,; Flight,; Illusion generation,; Matter transmutation,; Teleportation.

Druig is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in The Eternals #11 (May 1977) and was created by Jack Kirby. He is depicted as a member of the superhuman race, the Eternals.

Druig was portrayed by Barry Keoghan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals (2021).

Publication history

Druig first appeared in The Eternals #11 (May 1977) and was created by Jack Kirby.

Fictional character biography

Druig is the son of Valkin and cousin to Ikaris.^[1]

In modern times, Druig served as an agent of the KGB in Russia and found he enjoyed torturing people. When Ziran the Tester came through Polaria, Druig planned to slay him using "the Weapon" which he learned of by torturing his cousin Ikaris, but Ikaris disintegrated Druig before he could fire the Weapon.^[2] His body was recovered by the Celestials and put into everlasting containment at the Desecration Annex.^[3]

Eternals (2006)

Much later, Druig is now deputy Prime Minister of Vorozheika (a fictional country to the northeast of Chechnya, formerly part of the USSR) and is currently using the name Ivan Druig. Druig hires Sersi to organize a party at the Vorozheikan embassy, asking her to invite wealthy guests and prominent scientists. He then arranges for armed men to storm the party, kidnapping the scientists and manufacturing a hostage situation—however, his troops betrayed him, and he swiftly lost control of the situation.^{[volume & issue needed]}

At this point, like Mark Curry, Druig's powers inexplicably "kick in". Unlike Mark Curry, he immediately gains control over his powers. He has displayed a limited form of telepathy, allowing him to view a person's most traumatic memory and immobilize them by forcing them to face that memory again. However, he does not appear to be able to read other memories from a target's mind. Druig also seems able to conceal his presence, by influencing the minds of others so that they do not see him - so far, the limits of this ability are unclear.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Returning to Vorozheika, Druig then seizes control of an army unit and rounds up all heads of the government. He then has all the people involved in the betrayal at the embassy dragged before himself and the government heads, giving the heads a choice: they either kill a betrayer or kill themselves. After one government head tries killing Druig and is forced to kill himself, the other heads turn on the betrayers.^{[volume & issue needed]}

He then leaves to find the other Eternals and help them prevent the Dreaming Celestial from destroying the Earth. In the end of the series, he remains absolute ruler of Vorozheika. While he despises the people of Vorozheika, seeing them all as beneath him, he uses his position to send out people in his intelligence services to find other "unawakened" Eternals before Thena and Ikaris, so as to mold their mind in their weakened state into following him, and using their combined forces to become the leader of the Eternals.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Powers and abilities

Druig possesses the conventional abilities of an Eternal. He can manipulate all forms of matter and energy, including the atoms of his own body, teleport, control the minds of others, project energy from his body (usually from the hands or eyes), and manipulate gravity to fly.

Reception

In 2021, CBR.com ranked Druig 15th in their "15 Most Powerful Eternals" list.^[4]
In 2021, CBR.com ranked Druig 9th in their "10 Strongest Characters From Eternals Comics" list.^[5]

In other media

Television

Druig appears in Marvel Knights: Eternals, voiced by Alex Zahara.^[6]

Film

Druig appears in Eternals, portrayed by Barry Keoghan.^[7]^[8] This version is more heroic than his comic counterpart and is implied to be in a relationship with Makkari. He thought of using his mind control powers to control the world, but realized that it would have made humanity less free, and instead chose to control a small community.

References

^ Hayes, Jackson (August 25, 2019). "Eternals: Who is Druig, the MCU Film's Presumed Villain?". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on August 25, 2019. Retrieved August 25, 2019.
^ The Eternals #11
^ The Eternals #6
^ Lealos, Shawn S. (2019-07-27). "The 15 Most Powerful Eternals, Ranked". CBR. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
^ Harth, David (2021-11-13). "The 10 Strongest Characters From Eternals Comics". CBR. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
^ "Druig Voice - Eternals (Show) | Behind The Voice Actors". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 17, 2017. Check mark indicates role has been confirmed using screenshots of closing credits and other reliable sources{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
^ Keane, Sean (August 24, 2019). "Kit Harington, Gemma Chan and Barry Keoghan join Marvel's Eternals". CNET. Archived from the original on August 24, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
^ Keane, Sean. "Eternals' Barry Keoghan hails Marvel movie's diversity, in his own accent". CNET. Retrieved 2022-04-22.