The series is part of the wider Judgment Day (Marvel Comics) event, a Crisis Crossover that begins with a conflict between three of the Marvel Universe's established groups: the Eternals, the X-Men and the Avengers). It also directly follows on from events in Gillen's Eternals (2021) series, using the same Lemony Narrator and focusing on many of the same characters.
The Eternals are a million years old, a hundred beings with Resurrective Immortality who were created by the Celestials and set to watch over the earth. Their free will is limited by the Principles - one of which is that they must "Correct Excess Deviation".
Historically, this has led them to fight and kill the "Changing People", the Deviants. But now the Krakoan Age has dawned, Earth's mutants are ascendant, and a new interpretation of the Principles has defined mutation as another form of deviation.
The Eternals are about to go to war against the mutants. And some of them want it to be a war of extermination.
But that's not true of all Eternals. Some of them disagree, and this series focuses on that schism, and those who are desperately trying to stop the slaughter - even if it means fighting the programming in their own head.
Death to the Mutants contains the following tropes:
- Antagonist Title: Played with. The series centers on the Eternals, who are trying to exterminate the mutants. But it also focuses on Ikaris and the other Eternal heroes who are trying to halt Druig's war and help the mutants.
- Death Seeker: Ikaris asks the Celestial Progenitor to kill him, and all of the Eternals, as they have outlived their purpose and are harming the people of Earth.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Justified. It's the endangered narrator variant - the Machine that is Earth is the near-omniscient Lemony Narrator for Death to the Mutants, as it was for the previous Eternals series. It exists in-universe and was created by the Celestials, a million years ago. It's still not expecting the Progenitor to interrupt its narration and threaten it with judgment, though.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The Machine helps Phastos hard-reboot it to delay the Progenitor from using it to destroy Earth. To Phastos' dismay, this causes the Mind-Reformat Death of the Machine.
- Mind-Reformat Death: Faced with the Progenitor's intent to seize control of it and destroy the Earth, the Machine opts to annihilate its own personality to expel the Progenitor from its programming and buy Earth's heroes more time to stop it.
- Prevent the War: The series is focused on the more benevolent minority in Eternal society - the core cast of the Eternals (2021) series - and their attempts to stop the war.
- Rage Against the Heavens: The Deviants have a complicated relationship with their creators, the Celestials. Kro discusses this with Emma Frost as the Progenitor prepares to judge Earth - and he does not hold back.Kro: There's an ancient Deviant proverb I often find useful to meditate upon, which I'll share. Hopefully it'll be useful to you... ..."The Celestials can go £&#$ themselves."
- Remember the New Guy?: Kalos the Destructor makes his first appearance in issue one. He's a million years old, like all of Earth's Eternals, and all of the others know him. But he was never even mentioned prior to the 2001 series.
- Sequel Series: It's effectively a sequel to the Eternals (2021) series, with the same writer, one of the same artists and the same core cast. It even has the same Lemony Narrator.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Every Deviant passes the Progenitor's test to justify themselves by standing by others who are in the same predicament they are. The Machine points out that after a million years being hated by their gods, the Deviants have finally known what it feels like to be loved by one.
- To Be Lawful or Good: The more benevolent Eternals are caught between their own morality and the Principles, leading to some Exact Words exploitation of loopholes.
