Characters from El Eternauta
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The Salvo house
Juan Salvo
- Character Narrator: The narration of the first story is all his. It is, literally, the narration he gave to Oesterheld at his house.
- I Have Many Names: Juan Salvo got many names during his journeys across space and time. "El Eternauta" was given to him by a philosopher at the end of the 21st century.
- Papa Wolf: Everything he does, is to protect his wife and daughter. And when he feels lost, the memory of them gives him strength to carry on.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: In the first story he is a loving father and husband, surprised by the sudden disaster, and regrets every death he faces. In the sequel he's a hardened caudillo that barks orders, uses others as bait (including German, several times) and leaves companions to their fates without a second thought as long as it helps the greater goals.
Elena
Elena is the wife of Juan Salvo.
- Damsel in Distress: She stays at home during the war, and Juan is always worried about her fate.
- Stay in the Kitchen: The role of Elena, Juan Salvo's wife and the only significant woman in the story, is pretty much just to prepare food for the male protagonists and take care of her and Juan's daughter, Marta. When the male characters join a group of surviving soldiers, no one seems to even consider Elena and Marta could leave the house with them, even though the 12-year old Pablo is apparently mature enough to do so. There doesn't seem to be any other women in the group of civilians who've joined the soldiers, which suggests other female survivors were left in their homes as well.
Martita
Martita is the daughter of Juan Salvo.
- Ascended Extra: An adult Martita was the main character of "El Eternauta: El Regreso"
- The Load: She never, ever, does anything remotely useful for anyone. She's only there for his father to anst over her.
Favalli
- Art Evolution: Favalli starts as a fit - if quite bulky - character, only to become fatter as the story advances. His increased belly even becomes relevant to a minor plot point.
- The Professor: He's an actual professor, and provides scientific insight to the resistance. Not that it helps much, as everything the aliens have is so alien he can barely guess how it works.
Lucas
Polski
Raise, you said?
Polski is the first casualty of the series. When the snow began he ran to his house, to protect his family. He only lasted for a couple of steps and fell dead.- Big "SHUT UP!": His most memorable scene is when he interrupted Favalli and Salvo, who were discussing their Truco cards, to point the sudden silence.
- Papa Wolf: There is deadly snow falling out there, but Polsky ventured outside anyway. His wife and kids are all alone!
- Red Shirt: He dies at the very start of the story. His role is basically to show in detail how deadly the snow is.
- Skilled, but Naive: He knows how to build violins, but he's easily fooled in Truco.
Resistance
Franco
Franco was a factory worker, who met Juan Salvo in the resistance. He performed several acts of bravery and badassery.
Pablo
Pablo is a kid who worked at a nearby shop. He got saved because the owner locked him in the basement.
- Tagalong Kid: Pablo in the first part.
Mosca
Mosca is a historian, and considered the events taking place with the perspective of future historians. He kept writing down notes of everything that happened, for future generations.
- The Load: Mosca the historian makes no attempt at making himself useful, concerned only with writing everything down for posterity. No wonder he becomes the Butt-Monkey on a couple occasions.
Aliens
Cascarudos
Big, creepy aliens that look like oversized beetles.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The "cascarudos" (beetles) are almost exactly that, only the size of an adult human, deadlier, and mind controlled.
- Faceless Goons: Played straight with the "cascarudos", as they have not any recognizable or distinctive feature from one another
- Insectoid Aliens: The Cascarudos, of course.
Gurbos
The Gurbos are giant animals who can demolish whole buildings just by walking.
- Giant Mook: partially straight; the Gurbos are giant, Made of Indestructium mooks, but they lack any intelligence of their own, and are controlled by the Manos. But they are really, really dangerous, maybe qualified as Elite Mooks.
- Kill It with Fire: The "Gurbos", giant creatures with hides Made of Indestructium, can be killed with the BFG heatrays the aliens have. In the Second Part, a good ol' flamethrower is not enough to kill them, but you can hope it will keep them at bay.
Manos
The visible leaders of the invasions, they control the cascarudos, gurbos and robot-men with their keyboards. They are actually slaves of the real invaders.
- Apologetic Attacker: The Manos ("Hands") race are enslaved via a "terror gland" that secretes venom whenever they feel fear. This way they cannot even think of rebellion, since just thinking of it would cause them fear, ending their lives. However, once the gland has been activated, they are finally "freed" (at least for a few minutes until they die) and usually they regret bitterly their evil doings.
- Ditto Aliens: All the Manos look alike.
- Elite Mooks: The Manos are this, as they are intelligent, skillful slave opponents.
- Named by Democracy: Initially, Juan and Franco just saw a weird hand with several fingers on a keyboard, they couldn't take a full look of the alien from their position. It was, however, enough to be sure that wasn't a human hand, nor a "cascarudo" (the only aliens met so far). They named the alien "Mano" ("hand") for lack of a better name. It eventually turns out that those aliens are called "Manos".
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: The Manos, being completely humanoid except that they have enormous hands with dozens of fingers... and large foreheads.
Ellos
The real invaders. They are hate, the cosmic hate. They want for themselves the whole universe.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: We never get to see how do the "Ellos" look like. Even the name keeps the aura of mystery.
- Named by Democracy: The Mano that first talked about his masters never said their names. He simply referred to them as "Ellos" ("They" or "Them" in English, according to the specific sentence), by using Speak of the Devil speech. This led to some gramatic nightmares when it became their actual name, as characters began talking about "Los Ellos" (which is as nonsensical as saying "The They" in English). And let's not even get started on the sequel, when it turns out that there is only one, and he is referred to as "El Ello".
Other
Héctor Germán Oesterheld
- Note: Only tropes about Oesterheld as a fictional character within the series. For info about the real-world writer, see Héctor Germán Oesteheld
- Author Avatar: The Eternaut tells his story to Oesterheld after materializing in his studio.
- Character Narrator: In the sequel he's an active character, taking an active role in the stories (and even risking his life at some points). The narration is fully from his point of view, even when Juan is somewhere else.
- Direct Line to the Author: At the end of the first part, he decides to turn the Eternaut's story into a comic to warn the world about that Bad Future.
- Loner-Turned-Friend: He used to be a lonely guy, but suddenly found many friends in the people that lives in the caves.
- Middle Name Basis: He mentions his full name early on in the sequel, and concedes that he has a difficult last name. He asked to be called "Germán", as his friends usually do.
- The Night Owl: Oesterheld likes to work late at night, with the windows open, as watching the stars rests and calms the spirit. And it was in one such night that Juan Salvo suddenly appeared in his chair.
