Marvel's Inhumans
What's up part people? This is the word from Planet-M!!
Now to get started when I first came across Inhumans they were an odd creature that I couldn't quite put my finger on when it came to finding out what they were, they didn't get their powers through any form of accident and they weren't super-powered aliens or even mutants so after that I decided to look up what they were in a marvel encyclopaedia and watched a few episodes of the fantastic four 1990's animated series (Which I by the way recommend the inhuman episodes they have Mark Hamill as Maximus The Mad.)I had a full understanding of what they were and what they were about and this was long before Inhumans got their own books, before they were brought up on Marvel's Agents of SHIELD or before the events of infinity and Inhumanity, but I'll get to that.
Origin:
Now anybody who thinks that they are just an offshoot of the X-men or Mutants in general I will now tell you what they are about, there are a lot of details involved so I'm just going to give you the short version of this story. Millions of years ago the Inhumans were originally apart of mainstream humanity, but one day an alien species known as the Kree began to experiment on a large number of people in order to create weapons for their war against another alien race called the Skrulls. When the experiment was finished and millions of the newly altered humans left behind on earth, they then began to build a city, a society and a culture because of their heightened intelligence and advanced technology they were able to build.
It was later that the Inhumans would have to go into a self imposed Exile as Mainstream humanity began to grow in numbers, fear the Inhumans and then attack them as well. In they're Exile the leader of the Inhumans Randac discovered the catalyst to trigger the Inhumans Kree implanted mutation and they're super powers, Terrigen crystals which produce mist triggering the mutation. This usually causes the inhuman to lie dormant in a cocoon before they emerge and they're powers are usually unpredictable when they emerge as they mutate into their own highest genetic potential which in some cases can be a blessing or a curse as many of the powers can come with a physical mutation that changes the Inhumans life, But they are trained for what happens after the Terrigen and in some cases are the better for their mutations. here's an example below.
Current Events:
Its later revealed in Marvel's Infinity that Black Bolt the current king of the Inhumans set off a Terrigen Bomb which intern created a giant cloud of Terrigen mist that in the current Marvel universe is changing potential Inhumans all over the world. During the events of Infinity, Inhumanity and Inhuman Black Bolt is missing leaving his wife in charge of rebuilding and maintaining the Inhuman Empire and race, which has been all the better for it.
But as the Inhumans begin to flourish throughout the world the same cannot be said for the mutant population of earth as the mist that gives the Inhumans their powers is also sterilizing Mutants and killing them off on a global scale which kind off makes the mist a sort of death cloud.
At the moment the mutants are staying away from the mists as hard as they can, which is hard considering they are all over the world and the mist is spreading globally in one big cloud. At the moment mutant scientist Beast of the X men is currently working for the Inhumans, but during the 8 month gap between secret wars and All New All Different Marvel some mutants such as Sunfire, Cyclops and many others revolted against the Inhumans as they refused to destroy the cloud which lead to an unknown event in which Cyclops is believed to be dead at the and with Inhumans VS X-Men coming it only seems to be warming up, I wonder what will be the spark that finally sets off this powder keg.
The Good And The Bad:
Now that all the complicated stuff is out of the way now we can talk about the good and the bad that the Inhumans as a species have brought to the Marvel universe, one of them being The right to choose.
The Right to Choose is shown from the beginning of the Inhumans as many of the Inhumans choose to go through the Terrigen Mist and embrace the power they were left with, for some Inhumans this is a blessing as they are brought up with the idea that with power they can better serve the kingdom and are trained all of their lives to properly adapt to what powers and what physical mutations they will receive, in they end they choose if they want said power or not and that is probably the best part of the early Inhumans and it is always shown as bad when that decision is made for them such as in Son of M when Quicksilver exercises his right to force his daughter to go through the mist which is what causes her to reject him and hate him for taking that choice away from her.
This loss of choice is presented even with Black Bolt himself the King of the Inhumans who's very power is that his voice can destroy everything around him even with the slightest whisper as his father put him through Terragenisis while he was still in the womb and even after that Black Bolt himself sets the Terragin Bomb off and changes the lives of thousands if not millions of people everyday forcing them into something they did not want or even know about.
Even when someone is forced to change with good intentions in mind it can have sequences to these actions such as in Inhumanity issue 1 Gorgon changes his youngest son so he would survive the collapse of the kingdom, which we later discover in All New Inhumans issue 14 that his son is suffering in a coma from the effects of going through the transformation to young. And if you want to see what he became his image is the first below.
Now don't get me wrong even if you didn't choose Terragenisis it might not ruin your life, but you would be causing a huge change in the state of the world which would open the flood gates for many positive and negative consequences. The positive of the Inhumans is presented in the form of Ms Marvel who when she received her powers decided to put it to good use and characters like grid who even though he lost his hands to his transformation he still feels the need to help people with not just his powers, but with his scientific skills as well as he is more a thinker than a fighter and with many Inhumans popping up all over the world the people are given a chance at a new life in a highly alien-like advanced civilisation as Medusa offered sanctuary in New Attilan for all who were effected by the mist and their families as well.
As despite the Inhumans being mighty they do not wish to kill or even harm there own people and even work well with different governments in order to achieve this goal.
Now with the negative consequences they are changing people all around the world and to some governments that can be an opportunity to increase their military power with such people whether they have a choice or not and can also lead to some groups around the world discriminating and oppressing Inhumans which can lead to the new Inhumans resorting to leaving their country in fear which is one of the points brought up in All New Inhumans.
Fearing the Inhumans is what will probably come first as in the Agents of SHIELD television show they say "Its bad enough when someone gets a gun, but now people have the ability to become their own guns". Something like this can't be managed by some countries and some Inhumans are irrational with their gifts and can go onto to use them for some what evil purposes, such as Characters like Lineage in Inhumans Issue 2 where he was once a member of the mafia and is now using his new powers to attempt to take control of the royal Inhuman family.
Now not all Inhumans may mean to harm people as well as some may not be able to control their abilities at first like Inferno who was always in danger of burning himself out or Thane who's two hands cause Death or trap a person in a Status of living Death.
And finally the biggest Negative consequence from the Inhumans is not only the fact that they are killing Mutants, but they are also killing their own species as well, what not many people know when the Terrigen was released that some people who have Inhuman DNA might not have the genetic potential to survive, Flint in the Inhuman series was the only survivor out of a few hundred, his entire family dead, Inferno's mother died in the cocoon as she had not the genetic potential due to her age, so not only do the Inhumans know this, but they haven't taken any precautions to prevent it from happening to anyone else, in fact they've only got one scientist working on the Terrigen cure for the mutants and that would be beast another mutant. So not only are they responsible for the deaths of probably thousands at this point, but they don't take responsibility either as shown in these examples.
Conclusion:
In conclusion when ever I think of the Inhumans I am often reminded of Jeff Goldblum's speech from Jurassic Park "You stood on the shoulders of genius's (The Kree) to achieve something as fast as you could (Evolution)...You didn't earn the knowledge for yourself and thus you don't take any responsibility for it".
I always thought that this ethical speech can best apply to the Inhumans as they are unlike Mutants or other heroes in the Marvel Universe they didn't achieve their powers through their own means of evolution or genetic manipulation, it was all handed to them and through that they created an empire and an advanced civilianisation and also unlike mutants and some characters in Marvel they are aspiring to the oppressed and the victims as shown in the Inhuman Books, but unlike Mutants and many other characters they have the necessary means of a fresh start where they can join the Inhuman race from any country in the world are given a better life in an advanced city where as some characters don't have that easy way out.
I find the Inhumans are great comic book characters and they are an excellent way to create more characters in the growing Marvel Universe, but when I read about them it feels like reading about the privileged, yes I will admit that some Inhumans are oppressed due to their appearance and in some cases due to intersectionality, but all and all like I said they get a fresh start amongst a race of their own people that is far more advanced then anything on earth.
But in the end it still feels like an offshoot and its trying to recapture the concepts that X-Men, Spider-man and many other characters have done so well, unlike them the Inhumans are not the under dog, the Inhumans are in some cases seen as celebrities and even some celebrities in the comics become Inhuman as shown in Uncanny Inhumans Annual #1. The Inhumans do have there problems but in there early issues they were internal struggles with Maximus the Mad and many other Inhuman Enemies, it just feels at the moment hat they've lost their medium at the moment and I will continue to read to see if they can get it back and I really hope to see an internal Inhuman struggle in Marvel's Inhuman Movie when ever it is made.
Don't get me wrong I really like Inhumans, but I feel that they will not grow beyond what they are now if they continue to use concepts and even title names that are used by the X-Men as they are the powerful empire that everyone loves and Mutants are the beings that everyone hates and it is time that some of the staff at Marvel learned to tell the difference, because the Inhumans aren't Mutants, they are two completely different things. Thank You for reading.
