Inhumans Attilan Architecture

[Mike Murdock]

There's a lot of discussion about set design. People have pointed out that it looks generic or simple. I thought I'd post some examples of how Attilan appeared throughout comics history.

This is part one, focusing on earlier Attilan history. This will be the early FF appearances through the 80s or so. Then I'll do another one starting with Marvel Knights up to modern times. Finally, I'll take some screenshots from the trailers for comparison. We're obviously missing a lot of Attilan right now and don't have any idea about the city itself. Part of what I want to show is how diverse its appearance has been from Kirby-esque craziness to complete simplicity. But I'll also point out that simplicity in a comic doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as on screen because, often, it's stylized to only convey necessary information (and save the penciller and inker work), so the background drops out.

First up is Jack Kirby. This is drawn from the first appearance of Attilan in Fantastic Four and from the Thor backup stories (the scenes of Black Bolt swooping). Kirby is a fan of his complicated machinery. But I'll also point out the simple throne room. The tile motif is a big part of this:

Next up is George Perez, who drew Attilan for the Inhumans solo series (the second solo series after their Amazing Adventures run). I chose this one because you have another shot of the throne room. Perez goes for an almost medieval look with stone and torches. But there's also the more complicated machinery of the Terrigen Chamber on the bottom left and a shot of the city on the top left.

I probably could have looked for more of John Byrne. I ended up drawing from a single issue - #240 (Exodus). This is the issue where the Inhumans go to the moon. The top is the exterior with a sort of Russian St. Basil's Cathedral look for the buildings. The bottom is the interiors with fairly simple, smooth hallways, but a little more texture on the door leading into a vast multistory great hall.

Finally, some of my favorite art is by Bret Blevins from the Inhumans Graphic Novel (collected in By Right of Birth). I think the first shot is either the royal bedroom or the throne room, but it's what I was talking about early by stylistic simplicity. But I just love that shot of a saddened Medusa with the Attilan skyline in the background. I also included a shot of the hallway (again, fairly bare and simple) and two pictures of a statue in the courtyard (I noticed the show uses statues, so I wanted to draw the parallel. I also wanted to point out the tile designs that Kirby had used being mirrored here). Finally, there's a double page splash of Attilan that was just too good not to include.

Anyway, feel free to post some of your favorite examples of Attilan design work. This season is already filmed and the CG designs have probably been settled on, but there's always room for improvement for season two. Are there any specific takes on Attilan you think would be best to take inspiration from?

Next up: Jae Lee, Roy Allan Martinez, Jim Cheung, Joe Madureira, and probably others.

 

[psylockolussus]

The set design of the show lacks color.

 

[TheVileOne]

I think I'm disenchanted because based on what we've seen, Attilan looks so sparse and static and just overly clean.

 

[Mike Murdock]

The set design of the show lacks color.

I'll circle around to it when I get to the show (I am returning to modern interpretations, I just haven't had time recently, so hopefully this weekend). I think the Blevins pictures I posted earlier are fairly monotone and steel colored, except the exterior buildings, which had more vibrant colors. FF #240 by John Byrne also tended to focus on gray with the exception of that gold door.

I attached another picture of Attilan from that issue to see it more clearly. Once again, keep in mind that comic conventions could be a reason to color a comic one way and not replicate it in the show.

Hopefully Saturday I'll get to the more modern versions.

 

[metaphysician]

The architecture on the show seems to be a big fan of "just barely disguised concrete rooms". Which. . . would be a very different take on Attilan, I admit.

 

[Mike Murdock]

Sorry about the delay in posting the update. These are more modern takes on Attilan. I think I'll do a third post for New Attilan since I think I had a lot to choose from here and I think this is enough for now. As a side note, I will point out that I think artists were much more consistent in the John Byrne era than any time before or since.

I started off with the Marvel Knights Inhumans (Inhumans Vol. 3) by Paul Jenkins drawn by Jae Lee. It's on the top row of this image. As you can see, there is very much a stone barbarian vibe going on. There are a lot of open spaces, stoney steps, and torches. It's possible this is because Attilan was on the ancient resurrected island of Atlantis at this time. It's also possible it's just an Attilan motif since George Perez drew it approximately the same way. I included one of my favorite shots, which is a giant stained glass or mosaic depiction of something from Attilan history.

The bottom row is from Vol. 4, drawn by Matthew Clark. There's also a stone motif here. I also included the bedroom because I was struck how western it looked, the very futuristic skyline, and the Royal Palace (I couldn't find the palace, so I thought it was an adequate substitute). There's definitely a medieval full on Gothic vibe to that.

I'm hoping the size didn't get shrunk down for this second set. I'm including two other stories. The first is Son of M, drawn by Roy Allan Martinez. I included Crystal's bedroom (once again, I was struck by how "normal" it looked), a throne room, and a sort of central square/piazza. [ETA: The picture does look smaller than expected. Of the top set of images, Crystal's bedroom is the bottom right, the throne room are the second and bottom left. The piazza is top right.]

I was going to include Silent War until I realized how ugly the art was. What's not ugly is Jim Cheung's art in Infinity. I included the skyline, a sort of outside shot to show the architecture (stone and torches again), and the throne itself.

I hope to return in a third post where I'll post shots from Inhuman and Uncanny Inhumans before finally showing some of the stuff that they did from the show. I posted a recent Slashfilm article in another thread that I'll probably quote from.

 

[TheVileOne]

The architecture on the show seems to be a big fan of "just barely disguised concrete rooms". Which. . . would be a very different take on Attilan, I admit.

Realistic for moon architecture I guess

 

[Mike Murdock]

If you guys have specific looks you liked (either from these or elsewhere, let me know). I realized my other post was accidentally in the wrong thread, so I'm reposting it. A few more:

The first is from Secret Invasion: Inhumans. I knew this was a story whose art I liked, but I couldn't quite recall. Art is by Tom Raney. There's a couple things I wanted to draw attention to. One of my favorites is the stain glass windows in the first picture. Second, it's the common use of statues. They seem to go between stone and steel here. Third is the skyline. Fourth is Medusa's room which, once again, looks fairly western to me.

I also wanted to post this picture of the Throne Room from Issue #2 of Infinity because it's badass:

I'm hoping others find this at least somewhat useful and it isn't just me doing a love letter to my favorite Inhuman designs. My goal was to give context of what's in the comics so there's a fair baseline to compare it to what we can see of the show, for better or worse.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I decided to finish up the comics with New Attilan real quick

Six images. The firs three are from Inhuman. There's a room with gray walls drawn by Joe Madureira in Inhuman 3. There's a street view (I quite like this shot, which has the iconic recovered techno thing in the background, but shows there's more to the city) by Ryan Stegman in Inhuman 4 and there's the throne room by the same penciller in Inhuman 5.

For Uncanny Inhumans, Steve McNiven drew a room with the now standard gray paneling (metal?) in Uncanny Inhumans 1 (you can also see some sciencey medical stuff in the shot with the electronic equipment in the corner), a corridor with more scientifically advanced looking torches in Uncanny Inhumans 2, and the War Council Room in that same issue.

I've avoided Ancient Attilan, but Uncanny Inhumans has a shot from 13,000 years ago, which apparently involves Pterodactyls.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

Thanks for all your hard work in collecting those images.


I looked up Russian Brutalism to see what they were drawing from. They should be ashamed. That stuff looks unique, weird, and interesting. How they took that and the fact comics exist in no reality and got those bland IKEA interiors is beyond me.

 

[TheVileOne]

I'm disappointed that they didn't use the likes of Jack Kirby or any of the more iconic artists who created the most iconic versions of Attilan.

Nothing against Brutalism, but using that as your basis for a live-action version of Attilan is incredibly disappointing.

 

[Mike Murdock]

So the plan was to wait until screencaps of the entire episode appeared online. I haven't seen that yet. I did find this youtube video, though, that I thought was worth sharing. It's the set designer who talks about all the design choices he made. While there are parts that look cheap, it is amazing how much of it was created completely from scratch. He definitely put a lot of thought into everything.

I'd suggest skipping ahead through the first 30 seconds.

 

[2kt09]

It seems the design of Attilan is a result of 2 things:
-class difference of a recluse Moon colony
-Royalty is more science oriented to the point of having more functional yet still somewhat decorative interior spaces

 

[Mike Murdock]

I think they're going for the look of many futuristic societies without anything overtly technological while still also showing some nods to ancient culture through things like statues. I think the biggest issue, to me, is the lack of color. While paint obviously isn't free, that feels deliberate rather than a budget issue because futuristic societies tend to have a more plain look. But it does make everything fairly dull. Sparkly moon rocks don't make up for that unless the effect is over the top and filled with JJ Abrams lense flares.

BTW, I love it when the comics and the show have things that overlap. In this case, I found a hall of statues from Daredevil #272 by Ann Nocenti and John Romita Jr. Unfortunately, it's not on Marvel Unlimited, so I can't screenshot it.

 

[misjuevos]

As far as the city goes I think it is fine. If you can watch any scene and tell the difference between when they are on the Moon or Earth,then I think they got it. They have a chance now though to redesign and upgrade the sets going forward, I would like to see more history in the city that shows more of their culture.

 

[Mike Murdock]

I do want to pull up a couple shots, but I'd like to find some online screencaps. One thing I do want to find is the hall of statues from the comics. The only place I'm aware of it existing is in Ann Nocenti's Daredevil run. Given its relative obscurity, I'm not entirely comfortable saying it was a deliberate homage but it's very similar either way.