Imagine a world in which President Obama and Queen Elizabeth get into a big fight over the president's previously unknown illegitimate son. And then imagine that the Queen blows up Buckingham Palace in a last ditch effort to defeat Obama. And then imagine that both the Queen and the President survive the accident because of the Queen's teleporting corgis. And then imagine that the energy from the bomb that blew up Buckingham Palace caused thousands -- if not millions -- of previously unknown sleeper Brits to mutate throughout the planet. Suddenly, men and women on all nations and from all backgrounds began sprouting bowler caps, craving tea, and enjoying universal health care.
That's pretty much what happened in recent issues of the Marvel Comics comic book INFINITY, except we're dealing with
Thanos,
Black Bolt of the Inhumans Royal Family, Thane, the City of
Attilan, the
Terrigan Mists,
Lockjaw of the Pet Avengers, and a whole bunch of secret
Inhumans!
The Inhumans are a kingdom of super-powered people who have been hidden away for thousands of years in the city of Attilan. Each new generation of Inhumans are exposed to the Terrigan Mists, causing them to develop crazy physical and mental mutations. The Inhumans have been governed by the Royal Family: the loud-mouthed Black Bolt, his crazy-haired wife
Medusa, his crazy-minded brother
Maximus, their teleporting dog Longshot, and a bunch of followers.
As noted earlier, Thanos recently learned of some secret son descended from the Inhumans. He demands the death of all Inhuman children between a certain age in an indirect attempt to kill his unknown son. Black Bolt tries killing Thanos with a giant bomb fueled by the Terrigan Mists. Both men survive, but the Terrigan Mists cover the planet and begin mutating tons of people who never knew that they possessed Inhuman DNA deep down in their genes.
Thus, tons of new Inhumans have now been introduced to the Marvel Universe. These creatures promise to be the mutants of tomorrow.
The mutants and the X-Men no longer cower in the sewers underneath Manhattan. Instead, they attend posh private boarding schools in upstate New York.
The new Inhumans don't have the benefit of upscale schools or mutant Brotherhoods or even Inhuman kingdoms. They are people who suddenly discovered that they are descendants of mutating aliens. People have been getting used to the mutants for years. Now they have a new group of bogeymen to fear. Inhuman monsters.
Even better, there is the potential for a little Inhuman in all of us. I've already seen one previously human super-villain, Blizzard, discover his secret Inhuman heritage. Fortunately for him, it caused him to develop ice powers. That's convenient because he can keep his old code-name. But any number of old characters who need a bit sprucing up are now fair-game for Inhuman upgrades!
It has been suggested that Marvel Comics elevated the Inhumans' profile so that they and Disney could have access to outsider mutant-like characters at the movie box-office. Fox Studios owns the rights to the X-Men and the assorted mutant characters. That prevents them from doing movie crossovers with the Avengers and Captain America and Iron Man and Thor and the Hulk and the Guardians of the Galaxy and pretty much anyone else. But the Inhumans --
who have been rumored for their own future movie project for years -- could cross-over with that whole lot.
Anyway, there are already two Inhumans-related comic books being spun out of INFINITY: INHUMAN and INHUMANITY, which will introduce readers to new characters and previously unrealized incidents of anti-Inhuman prejudice and bigotry. It is unclear how connected these characters will be to the Royal Family or how similar their tragic tales will mirror those previously monopolized by Marvel's mutants. Depending on how well received these new Inhumans are by Marvel Comics' readers, it's just a matter of time until we see new books with titles such as "Uncanny Inhumans" or "Astonishing Inhumans" or "New Inhumans" or even "Wolverine & the Inhumans!"
Oh, the inhumanity!
