Agents of SHIELD season 3 promises us an Inhumans heavy storyline.

We trace their road to Marvel movie stardom.

A talking tree and a raccoon in space?

But Marvel knew what they were doing.

The Guardians of the Galaxy appeared on the Avengers cartoon a year or so before the movie hit.

Rocket Raccoon was shoved intoUltimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3at a time when the character was in limbo.

Marvel even gave the previously obscure property to their top writer at the time, Brian Michael Bendis.

And now its theInhumans turn.

These previously obscure characters are getting the Guardians of the Galaxy treatment from Marvel at the moment.

Lets see if all this is going to work…

The big difference is how their debuts worked.

Its no wonder, really.

The thing that really separates them is how werelateto them.

The X-Men and mutants in general are part of society.

They might even beus.

Meanwhile, the Inhuman race is off in its own corner.

They live on the moon or on a flying island or whatever.

They have their own specific culture and their king wears a mask for no reason whatsoever.

The X-Men are Clark Kent while the Inhumans are General Zod.

If anything, it makes me wonder how the Inhumans have lasted so long as a concept.

Dont get me wrong, Black Bolt, Medusa, and Maximus are cool as hell.

was a statement that he and his people by extension is a critical piece of the Marvel Universe.

Bolt instead evacuates Attilan of everyone but himself, Maximus, and Lockjaw.

Infinityalso introduced an important wrinkle to Inhuman lore.

Many years ago, a group left Attilan to venture out into the world.

Random people are locked in cocoons, undergoing transformations.

People are popping up with new powers all over.

Black Bolt is presumed dead.

Inhumanitywas a pretty big misfire, all things considered.

Then Fraction dropped out and made it apparent that once Hawkeye finished up, he was leaving Marvel.

Several months afterInhumanityfailed to set the world on fire,Inhuman#1 finally hit the stands.

Then there was another few months in-between issues #2 and #3.

Inhumanhas mostly centered around Medusa and new character Inferno.

Inferno (real name Dante.

Yes, really) is one of the citizens whose powers were recently unleashed.

Like the new readers, he tries to make sense of this new world.

Think back to nearly every introduction of the X-Men across media.

The first issue ofUncanny X-Men.

The first episode of the various animated series.

The awfulGeneration Xlive-action television movie.

The first Bryan Singer superhero movie.

Other interesting new characters are brought in.

While this is all going on, Marvel is championing their new seriesMs.

Marvelby G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona.

Meanwhile,Secret Warsshows more of a presence from the Inhumans, with the comicAttilan Rising.

Then you have Inhumans in the pages ofMs.

Marvel,Uncanny Avengers,Agents of SHIELD, and so on.

All while the amount of X-Men titles have been cut down.

Even though itll be several years untilInhumanshits theaters, Marvel is already planting seeds (Terrigen bombs?)

in theAgents of SHIELDtelevision series.

Yes, the Nazis drove her to hate humanity in the name of protecting her people.

If the Marvel Cinematic Universe couldnt have Magneto, they would just make their own.

Lash will be a major villain, which makes sense.

This new direction for Inhumans isnt the worst idea.

By eating the X-Mens lunch, Inhumans become relevant to todays society.

But with Inhumans, its different.

By establishing Attilan first, it gives them a realculture.

Their genetics liken them to not only other members of the Inhuman race, but to a nation itself.

Theres more teeth to the prejudice than just being different.

Plus the story is a bit easier to swallow, at least in a cinematic way.

I mean, X-Men is one of those concepts thats just weird the closer you look at it.

Why does this professor have all this futuristic, super expensive technology all over the place?

The Danger Room, Cerebro, the jets, etc.

But with Professor Xavier, well, we just dont pay teachers that much in this country.

  • this article originally ran in March of 2015 *