At the time of this writing, there's one element of Marvel's comics that's just out of reach of becoming part of their cinematic universe: X-Men, and by extension mutants, due to their film rights being owned by 20th Century Fox. However, Marvel has one property that can fill that void: the Inhumans. For those who don't know, Inhumans are super powered beings who are descended from primitive humans that were experimented on by the Kree alien race, who have for the most part secluded themselves from the rest of the world in the hidden city of Attilan ruled by the Royal Family. Inhumans are born normal until they are exposed to Terrigen mists, which triggers a process known as Terrigenesis that activates their Inhuman abilities. However, it is a very selective process and not everyone is allowed to have powers. As you can tell, there's quite a few differences between Inhumans and mutants. While an Inhumans movie is in the works, they have already been introduced in the MCU on the "Agents of SHIELD" TV show. I really enjoy what they're doing with this concept, even though in some instances you could easily swap out "Inhuman" for "mutant".
But in the comics, Marvel still has mutants, but they have been pushing the Inhumans into the mainstream in recent years. During the "Infinity" event in 2013, the Inhuman King Black Bolt set off a Terrigen Bomb which dispersed Terrigen Mists into Earth's atmosphere, causing any human with Inhuman DNA to go through Terrigenesis and gain powers, leading to a slew of new characters and books focusing on these new Inhumans dealing with the big change they've gone through and what they do with their new gifts.
Now, I don't mind the Inhumans getting the spotlight shown on them, because Marvel is known for doing this when it comes to characters becoming part of the MCU (see Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Black Panther). My problem is that the X-Men appear to be getting the shaft in the process.
There has been much bad blood between Marvel and Fox over the years over the rights to certain characters. Over the years, Fox has owned the rights and produced films based on not only X-Men, but Fantastic Four and Daredevil as well. When Fox was about to lose the rights to Daredevil for not producing a film before the deadline, they asked Marvel for an extension only to be refused; Daredevil's rights returned to Marvel, which later lead to the critically acclaimed Netflix series. While this is not the root cause of their feud, it's one example. Others have included Fox using Quicksilver in "X-Men: Days of Future Past" (in a scene that had originally been written for Juggernaut) before he appeared in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" (the character is in a gray area that allows both Marvel and Fox to use him). In addition, Marvel also cancelled (or at least put on hiatus) the long running Fantastic Four series some time before Fox's "Fant4stic" was released (honestly though, would you want to be associated with that movie?). But just before that, in an issue of The Punisher, the cast of said film was apparently blown up.
Immature? Probably. Funny? Well I know I laughed when I saw that.
Because of this bad blood though, this has lead to a number of conspiracy theories that Marvel has been slowly killing off the X-Men franchise. For example, some people actually believe that Marvel ordered that no new characters be created in the X-Men books because that would mean Fox would gain their film rights; that is pure crap though as new characters are still being introduced. For example, there is a new young mutant Sapna being mentored by Magik. In addition, the fact that Marvel doesn't immediately announce any X-Men books in the aftermath of an event like "Secret Wars" and "Civil War II" leads to the belief that Marvel is cancelling the books like they did Fantastic Four.
Despite a part of me that worries, I never believe rumors like this. The X-Men and mutants have been around for over 50 years and are such a pivotal part of the Marvel universe for them to be just gotten rid of. And besides that, the idea that they would cancel to the comics to try and hurt the movies is ridiculous as what happens in the comics has little bearing on whether or not people will see the movies.
But even if they are still part of the comics, what's happening in them does seem to show Inhumans overshadowing the X-Men. As the Terrigen Mists becomes integrated in Earth's atmosphere, this has resulted in a side effect in mutants, killing them, striking them with a disease deemed "M-Pox", and making them sterile. In summation, mutants are (once again) facing extinction as the Inhumans thrive.
As I said, I enjoy that Marvel is doing with the Inhumans on TV as part of the MCU. In the comics though, I just don't care. I'm sure they're finding an audience and that's good for Marvel and fans, but it's just hard for me to be interested. Part of it is that I find Inhumans, particularly the Royal Family, to be too uppity and don't seem to work well with other heroes, easily taking offense. They're "super people with attitude" as Hulk once described them on an episode of "Avengers Assemble." But I think the fact they have a hierarchy is what makes them less relatable than mutants. The only aspect they share are that they have powers due to their genes. Mutants however have always been a metaphor for puberty, with the changes teens go through and having to deal with them, and bigotry, that people hate others for something that have no control over, in this case having powers in place of race or sexual orientation. Even though mutant villains like Magneto have global aspirations, they're still, in a way, normal people.
The main part of my trouble with Inhumans though is the fact that WE STILL HAVE MUTANTS IN THE COMICS. I and many others have grown up with the X-Men and they are well known in pop culture. Not everyone would want to read the apparent 'knock-off' while the original is still around. The only X-book I have on my pulllist at the moment is "Extraordinary X-Men", which is the current flagship book of the X-line, and I enjoy it for the most part because of the character line-up, even if they are dealing with the threat of extinction due to the Terrigen. The best way to describe it is that the Inhumans are the stepdad of the Marvel universe; no matter how hard they try, the Inhumans will never have the same impact as the X-Men, even if you do take the X-Men's trademark "Uncanny" adjective for the main Inhumans book. (Note: I don't mean that to be an insult to stepdads; I'm just using that whole "you're not my real dad" line some kids say for a comparison.)
In a few months time, Marvel will begin the "Inhumans vs. X-Men" miniseries, where the tensions between the two finally explode as the Terrigen is about to saturate the Earth to a point where it will be uninhabitable for mutants. I was planning on reading this, but the solicits for January were released and left a bad taste in my mouth:
• New Attilan is conquered. Medusa and her generals are being held prisoner as the X-Men prepare to cleanse the world of the Terrigen Cloud. • Could this be the end of Inhuman progeny? • Now, the only hope for the Inhuman legacy rests in the hands of an unlikely crew of young Inhumans.
It was at this point I realized two things. The first is my already indifference to the Inhumans, that I hardly know any of the characters of their side, let alone these young ones. I mean, in the image at the beginning of this post, I probably know only half the characters on the Inhuman side. But the most damning thing is that they're portraying the X-Men as the villains, when they're the ones fighting for their lives. While I'm just going by the solicit info, even if the X-Men do cleanse the Terrigen in the atmosphere, I don't think that would do anything to the already existing Inhumans who have powers. The only problem I could see is if they no longer have any Terrigen Crystals, which probably would end the Inhuman lineage (if anyone knows what the deal is with that, feel free to let me know). My point remains the same though that Marvel seems to be playing favorites again with Inhumans defending themselves against the X-Men, even though they have every reason to fight. And this isn't the whole "their existence could lead to our extinction so we have to strike first" argument humans in any X-Men story use; the threat to the mutant race is clear and present. At least back in 2012's "Avengers vs. X-Men" event, the real antagonist was the Phoenix Force with the two teams arguing over how to stop or use it. The conclusion I reached was to skip "Inhumans vs. X-Men" all together, even the "Extraordinary X-Men" tie-in.
But there is a light in the distance. Last week, Marvel announced "ResurrXion", the post-IVX revitalized line of X-Men titles:
Well things are obviously going to work out for the X-Men at the end of IVX, and I couldn't be happier. Not only have they admitted the X-Men haven't gotten the best treatment, but they're about to flourish again, and I haven't been this excited for the X-line since "Regenesis" back in 2011. I have a feeling this will accomplish what "Rebirth" is doing for DC. While very little is known about these titles at this moment, the ones I'm looking forward to most are the Blue and Gold books.
I hope that this news will finally put to rest the conspiracies of Marvel killing off the X-Men. In fact, this actually fuels reports of Marvel and Fox patching things up. Not only are they working together on the "Legion" TV series coming to FX in February as well as another series coming to Fox, but there's rumors that Fox will be seeking Marvel's consultation on future films. Will this lead to a deal similar to the one with Sony over Spider-Man? We can only hope; just keep Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool.
So if you like the Inhumans, good on you. As for me, I'll be waiting for "ResurrXion."
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