Why Did 'The Inhumans' Fail?

Marvel

Apr 13

The world of Marvel is possibly the most extensive and profitable franchise in recent popular culture. From Iron Man to the Avengers and then the massive success of the X-Men, Marvel is a powerhouse and staple for the superhero genre. Given Marvel’s tried and true formula, they decided to take a new initiative to create a new group of superheroes.

According to Marvel’s website, the Inhumans were “an advanced sub-species of the human race who gain their powers through exposure to Terrigen Mist” resulting in the activation of “augmentations in their DNA”. A strong parallel to the X-Men, the Inhumans’ characters had plenty of source material to translate into a film or a live-action television series which came to fruition on September 29, 2017. Despite an IMAX two-week run showcasing the first two episodes, The Inhumans was met with lukewarm favor.

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According to IMDB, their highest rated episodes only made it to six stars out of ten. For reference, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law’s highest rated episodes are 6.5/10 and 7/10. Nonetheless, Marvel’s attempt to replace the magic and chemistry of the X-Men back when Fox owned them only lasted for eight episodes as the series was cancelled on May 18, 2018. This decision for Marvel’s former CEO Ike Perlmutter was not an easy one considering the effort spent to push the Inhumans team in the MCU to eclipse the X-Men in popularity. Given this unsuccessful attempt, deeper reasons for this need to be explored.

*Triton, Maximus, Karnak, Black Bolt, Medusa, and Crystal.*
Image Source: comicvine.gamespot.com

How The Inhumans Came To Be:

Looking into the history of Marvel and The Inhumans as characters and as a standalone story, they are the product of original Marvel creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. However, both creators did not have plans to expand on their respective stories.

Making their debut in Fantastic Four #45, the Inhumans were given more attention and the chance to have more in-depth stories because Stan Lee and Kirby enjoyed utilizing Gorgon, the villain they created within the Inhuman universe. According to Stan Lee,

“These things aren’t always planned.….We decided, well, there was no need for them all to be villainous. […] I think we did have in mind that Black Bolt would eventually be a heroic type. And again, we always try to give a character a hangup so his hangup is he doesn’t speak. Now, I’m quite sure he’s the first non-speaking superhero or supervillain, we don’t know quite yet, in history.”

Over the decades, the Inhumans had their origin story; gifted their superhuman abilities through scientific experimentation in an effort to become a superhuman army for the scientists who made them to forget about them. With no one else, the Inhumans created their own society, culture, and rituals including one that grants Inhumans “unique powers”. Their leader, Black Bolt was given most of the attention in the comics as his power to create destructive shockwaves with his voice, resulting in a stoic and dangerous leader where his silence is “both a power and a burden”.

The Inhumans became another super-powered family: psychokinetic Medusa, Black Bolt’s “mad genius” brother Maximus, Medusa’s sister and substitute member of the Fantastic Four Crystal with the ability to manipulate the elements, cousin Gorgon gifted with “immense strength” and hooves for feet, the aquatic Triton, and “formidable strategist” Karnak who detects weak spots in anything who didn’t undergo the Inhuman ritual of Terrigenesis, and lastly their teleporting dog Lockjaw.

Given this eclectic set of characters, the foundation for another X-Men-style group was there. A similarly dark beginning and potential for Marvel, but problems began to take shape. The main source of the problem was Fox and Ike Perlmutter creating and backing them with the intention of the Inhumans (and by extension The Inhumans) to replace and become the new X-Men.

*The Inhumans title card*
Image Source: cloudfront.net

What Went Wrong:

Marvel spent the 2010s focusing on the Inhumans and The Inhumans replacing the X-Men rather than giving them a separate identity. Unfortunately, the superhero genre pendulum was swinging in the darker direction; satirized and criticized a la the 2009 adaptation of Watchmen and the 2019 release of Amazon Prime’s The Boysto name a few. While Ike Perlmutter and Marvel owned the rights of The Inhumans and were free to turn them into the next great superhero family, the media giant forgot what made the X-Men (and the X-Men franchise) last as long as it did. X-Men was an allegory of the Civil Right movement taking place via the oppression of the mutants just as racial tensions were reaching another peak in history. The Inhumans weren’t mutants. They were a superhuman race born into and given their powers. In essence, the Inhumans had control in getting their powers while the X-Men’s powers were born from trauma, unfortunate circumstances, or didn’t manifest until “the right moment”.

Yes, mutants were born with powers through the mutant gene, but having their powers didn’t equate to them honing and mastering their gifts. On the other hand, the Inhumans and the subsequent television show made it clear that on top of living in hiding, there was the strong possibility of a mutiny rising between Black Bolt and his brother Maximus. In the official trailer aired during San Diego Comic Con in 2017, Maximus (played by Iwan Rheon made famous by playing Ramsay Bolton in Games of Thrones) is set up to be a mirror of Magneto with the goal of becoming “the new king” of the Inhumans race. A great premise, but this move for the series “gave the public a misleading image of this superhuman race, which is not comprised of mutants.” This shifted the attention to Maximus. As a result, the attention was on Rheon and his storyline rather than the rest of the cast and stories focusing on them.

<EMBED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU9Z6cKsbY0>

*The Inhumans in their comic form.*
Image Source: wallpaperbat.com

Conclusion:

The Inhumans and The Inhumans had all the pieces to become its own chapter in the MCU with its own identity. The cast looked just like their comic counterparts and Black Bolt’s silent and tense presence in the trailer was strong enough to make a lasting impression. However, Fox and Ike Perlmutter’s need to prove themselves through their position at Marvel superseded having a new family with a cast eager and willing to portray their characters.

It wasn’t enough to be a part of the media giant, but there wasn’t any call needed to prove they were worthy of the job title. X-Men and their franchise had been around for decades just as the Inhumans, but the difference lay in how X-Men was handled by their creators. Holding a mirror to history, launching careers, and gaining the chance to create origin stories faithful to the comics, X-Men (and X-Men) were beloved. Not everyone is granted X-Men Treatment just because they are a superhero family. Each hero and villain are worthy of a separate identity with higher ups who will handle them with care.

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