The Inhumans were promised to have a big role in Infinity, and it appears that we’re about to get an idea as to what that is. Matt Fraction has been announced as the writer for an Inhumans ongoing series in December, which will launch off the back of a storyline in Jonathan Hickman’s big Marvel event. Spoilers for Infinity after the jump.
This Steve McNiven image accompanies the announcement, made on Entertainment Weekly. And it’s… super-unusual.
Super-weird because it only features two of the Inhumans characters, alongside a redesigned Wolverine, Winter Soldier, non-superior Spider-Man, Angela and – whatnow? – Nightcrawler. Who is meant to be dead. It’s a really unexpected line-up of characters. Is Nightcrawler coming back to life? Is this something else?
One of the other characters on the book appears to be Yonda Udonta, who is rumoured to be one of the cast members in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy series.
The premise is that in the aftermath of Infinity, it appears that the Terrigen mists – which grant The Inhumans with their powers – will be set loose on the World, meaning anybody with Inhuman ancestry are suddenly going to gain powers. As the X-Men aren’t allowed to be a minority metaphor anymore, it appears that Matt Fraction’s subsequent series Inhuman will be taking on that role instead. Again – an interesting, odd choice from Marvel.
We’re telling science-fiction stories, but really it’s about race, gender, sexual equality. It’s a very relevant, pertinent metaphor
I trust Fraction with that metaphor, even if I do think it fits the X-Men better. This seems to be more in line with the ‘one drop’ theory. No artist has been announced for the series yet, although Steve McNiven would be the frontrunner, given this cover. Apparently we’ll find out more tomorrow from the EW website, so hold onto your hats for that one.
I don’t see Gladiator. Maybe you are looking at Yondu? He is from the original GOTG team.
There has been a Nightcrawler running around in Marvel books for a couple years. I believe he is from the Age of Apocalypse universe. This is probably him.
I spotted my mistake just a second before you did, Rich – I’ve made the correction.
Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler is also dead now. He died a few months back. So this seems like it HAS to be the 616 version?
I’ve never really squared away Wolverine sneaky stealthiness with him dressing as a banana but that’s just me…
Ah, didn’t realize they killed the extra Nightcrawler.
Nightcrawler!
“As the X-Men aren’t allowed to be a minority metaphor anymore,”
Yeah, remember when Marvel decided that there were too many mutants running around and that just adding new mutants was making writers lazy? And when after decimating the mutant race, they almost immediately started adding a million new characters through the Initiative? Now the mutants are returning, so best overwhelm them with new non-mutant superpowers.
Speaking of the Decimation, didn’t Quicksilver already try releasing the Terrigen Mists on non-Inhumans, and didn’t that have horrific results?
Maybe the Terrigen Mists will evolve one (or all) of the Bamfs in Nightcrawler? They could also clean Peter’s brain from Octavius presence and give back Wolverine his regeneration abilities while they are at it.
Judging by his costume, I’m pretty sure that’s the Universe 325 version of Nightcrawler.
The Inhumans have always been problematic: an alien (inhuman) royal family with a bunch of neat-looking guys with neat powers–but nothing to do, no problems to solve, unless they were targeted by outsiders or Maximus the Mad, the Inhumans’ Loki analogue, caused problems.
So now Marvel seems to be trying to use the Inhumans brand name, but fewer of the Inhumans.
SRS
“So now Marvel seems to be trying to use the Inhumans brand name, but fewer of the Inhumans.”
Maybe. Hard to draw that conclusion from one promo image. The GAME OF THRONES style description above certainly indicates lots of Inhuman characters in the mix.
I’m going to take a wild guess and say that is not the cast of the new INHUMANS series, but is a promo image of all of the new series and revamped/relaunched series/characters.
As for the premise of the new Inhumans series itself, it sounds like a generic movie plot and is also very redundant (it’s basically ripping off the X-Men premise). First AVENGERS AI rips off the X-Men gimmick, now this crap.
This feels like another of Marvel’s “diluting of the original concept of the character” thing (if that makes sense). In this case, don’t bother just introducing the Inhumans as a unique people (like Paul Jenkins did), instead give their uniqueness away just to make a pointless event/dilemma out of it, which in turns lessens the impact of the original source character (this make sense?) So another example is Red Hulk and Skaar diluting the original Hulk. And Scarlet Spider wrecking Spidey.
What happened to just introducing characters as just that – letting the characters do the work? Inhumans are strong enough by themselves.
It’s sad to see them fill the role that belongs to the X-Men (of alienation). Then again, what’s the X-Men now? Just soap opera now. It’s not about learning about mutant powers anymore.
Is this all Marvel’s got?
Vertigo and Image announce new stuff, Boom and Archaia join forces and Marvel? What new thing has Marvel got to offer?
Another event (Inhumanity, coming after Infinity)! Complete with their usual hype.
What shite.
Because to the corporation, the characters are products. If brand extension works with cereals, why not the characters? Introduce slight variations on the original characters, let other writers work on them–the results might be as good as introducing Honey Nut, Frosted, and Fruity Cheerios to the public. Brand extensions can cause the same problems as diluting the concept does–the market for the original concept is weakened–but the market for the original concept/brand has a ceiling anyway.
SRS
There’s nothing remotely unusual about a preview image featuring characters designed to make the audience wonder about the series, let alone “super-unusual”, whatever that means. In fact (other than being well-drawn) this image looks like any other random posed cover of a bunch of Marvel characters: some household names who won’t change at all, some second-tie characters around whom the book is built because they can change at least slightly, and some third-tier characters who Disney/Marvel has a vested interest in promoting.
Oh, and they’re running toward the viewer shooting their weapons, woo.
I’m a huge Nightcrawler fan–could take or leave most of the rest of the X-Men. Bringing him back after his pointless death, would really make my day. As long as they don’t do something stupid like make him Angela’s herald or priest or something…
Marvel and DC have nothing to offer to several of us these days.
I’ve come to accept this and moved on to Image, Oni, Boom!, DH etc.
It’s not that I wouldn’t like a good storyline with my favorite X-Men of old, but all good things must end at some point.
I just pity the new kids that are being introduced to Spider Man with the current Superior Ock crap :(
That’s a very ugly Wolvie costume. Ditto for that Iron Man armor.
Will be very cool if Nightcrawler comes back. He’s one of my very favorite characters and his death was pointless, as said above.
Why would they make the Inhumans take on The X-Men’s schtick? Easy. Disney/ Marvel Productions can make and market Inhumans movies and stuff that they can’t with the X-Men because of Sony.
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