Marvel Studios setting up Inhumans as substitutes for Mutants?

[Mr. Dent]

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly prior to the release of IM3, Kevin Feige mentioned using the Inhumans as a way to explore "social drama" and directly referenced FOX's X-Men series. Intoducing "born that way" superheroes into the MCU would almost certainly include elements of fear, isolation and discrimination as well. This would fit in well with the "alien sleeper cell" plot rumor rather than the "Game of Thrones" version, which to me is too similar to Thor.

Though Marvel wont be cancelling their X-Men titles anytime soon, film rights issues will likely have all new non-cosmic/gamma/radioactive insect/alien bio weapon created superheroes to be Terrigen rather than X-Gene in origin.

I never took that to mean they'd be doing the exact same social commentary as the X-Men movies. The Inhumans have social themes of isolation and being misfits, that's not the same as the racial allegory that the mutants are.

And, again, Inhumans are NOT "born that way" characters. They only receive powers when they go through Terrigenesis, which is a forced process. And not even all of them can successfully go through Terrigenesis anyway. If they don't go through Terrigenesis then they're ordinary humans their whole lives. It's not the same thing as mutants.

I took your advice to heart and read the interviews. I'm even more convinced they're being positioned as a substitute for the X-Men now.

If the goal is Game of Thrones, why are we finding out about tons of Inhumans on Earth who don't know they're Inhumans at all? Inhumanity is basically an origin story anthology... it ties into Game of Thrones but why is the best way to tell a Game of Thrones story mirroring the mutant explosion phenomenon. The answer: It's not.

Why is the Inhumans, generally a group of people who have been quite content and often very successful at telling everyone else in the universe to bugger off... why are they the vehicle for a story about alienation and disenfranchisement?



So the schtick is the same. Further, there's not a big difference between being hated for being a weapon designed by the Kree and being hated for being the next step in evolution that wipes out humanity. There's not much different from the soap opera of the X-Men mansion and the medival politics of the Inhuman Royal Court either, for that matter.

Now, if you really want to place bets that this won't be implemented in the MCU as it is a 100% perfect substitute for mutancy, be my guest. But I'm not taking that action.

Because they wanted to find a way to expose the Inhumans more before their movie comes out/is announced to mainstream comic readers. How do you do that? By bringing them to the forefront of the Marvel Universe and to that end they took inspiration from the Earth X storyline where Terrigen Mist is spread all over the world. It's Game of Thrones-ish because it's about a splintered kingdom breaking up into different factions competing to bring in all these new Inhumans. Being "outcast and freaks" is not the same as saying they're going to be dealing directly with the same X-Men themes of racial discrimination. Again, that's not the point of Inhumanity. People are taking this and making it out to be that the ONLY thing this event is for is Inhumans supplanting mutants and basically doing the same things as the X-Men. It's not like that at all and just because it's a storyline involving normal people suddenly getting powers does not make it an attempt by Marvel to replace mutants in the Marvel universe with Inhumans.

As for the movie, I'm going to assume people will fear the Inhumans as things that were planted by aliens when they come into light. That being said, it's still an entirely different thing. There aren't a bunch of Inhumans in the world, they're a small group that stay hidden and only receive powers through Terrigenesis. It's not the same as being the next evolution of humanity and any given human could be a mutation. Marvel JUST retconned it to where the Inhumans spread out eons ago thus allowing for their to be people with latent Inhuman DNA and not be a part of the Inhuman community.

My main point is, Inhumans can't be the same as mutans because they're NOT mutants. They don't just pop up and have powers. It's an entirely different type of concept and the only real similarity is that the characters get powers...and the method of scope of that is completely different as well.

aren't the inhumans part of the FF package held by fox?

No.

 

[Zarex]

I never took that to mean they'd be doing the exact same social commentary as the X-Men movies. The Inhumans have social themes of isolation and being misfits, that's not the same as the racial allegory that the mutants are.

And, again, Inhumans are NOT "born that way" characters. They only receive powers when they go through Terrigenesis, which is a forced process. And not even all of them can successfully go through Terrigenesis anyway. If they don't go through Terrigenesis then they're ordinary humans their whole lives. It's not the same thing as mutants.

I understand that the Inhumans and the process for obtain their powers is quite a bit different than the comic book mutants. I just think that the MCU Inhumans are going to be much closer to the X-Men in function and style than their comic book counterparts. I'm thinking they'll follow the "alien sleeper cell" plot rumor with Black Bolt, Medusa and Lockjaw, along with the rest of their extended family, happily living among us until Ronan and company come to earth to extract them.

 

[bubbadoom]

The Inhumans have always been a Mutant substitute at Marvel.

Not long after Kirby's last issue of X-Men [#18] he introduced the Inhumans in the FF [#44] so clearly he was not finished with that concept.

Kirby has shown us in the past how he likes to continue to explore certain ideas - [Challengers ~ Fantastic Four, Thor ~ New Gods, etc.] and X-Men ~ Inhumans is just another example of that.

 

[Destructus86]

I'm totally fine with the Inhumans being the "Substitute" for mutants...because let's face it. We will never get the major mutant characters into the MCU. Those rights are not going to Marvel anytime soon.

 

[jonathancrane]

I have no problem with them pursuing this route. As posters above me have noted, they are two different animals, with one group acquiring their powers, and the other being born with them. Additionally, Marvel Studios has a good track record - excluding the Crimson Dynamo - of adapting their properties to the screen.

 

[DrCosmic]

Because they wanted to find a way to expose the Inhumans more before their movie comes out/is announced to mainstream comic readers. How do you do that? By bringing them to the forefront of the Marvel Universe and to that end they took inspiration from the Earth X storyline where Terrigen Mist is spread all over the world. It's Game of Thrones-ish because it's about a splintered kingdom breaking up into different factions competing to bring in all these new Inhumans. Being "outcast and freaks" is not the same as saying they're going to be dealing directly with the same X-Men themes of racial discrimination. Again, that's not the point of Inhumanity. People are taking this and making it out to be that the ONLY thing this event is for is Inhumans supplanting mutants and basically doing the same things as the X-Men. It's not like that at all and just because it's a storyline involving normal people suddenly getting powers does not make it an attempt by Marvel to replace mutants in the Marvel universe with Inhumans.

As for the movie, I'm going to assume people will fear the Inhumans as things that were planted by aliens when they come into light. That being said, it's still an entirely different thing. There aren't a bunch of Inhumans in the world, they're a small group that stay hidden and only receive powers through Terrigenesis. It's not the same as being the next evolution of humanity and any given human could be a mutation. Marvel JUST retconned it to where the Inhumans spread out eons ago thus allowing for their to be people with latent Inhuman DNA and not be a part of the Inhuman community.

My main point is, Inhumans can't be the same as mutans because they're NOT mutants. They don't just pop up and have powers. It's an entirely different type of concept and the only real similarity is that the characters get powers...and the method of scope of that is completely different as well.

Is it normal people suddenly getting powers or not?

Are Inhumans all over the world or aren't they?

The method of discovering you have powers and scope are no longer different post-Inhumanity. When you try to say they are based on how Inhumans used to be while at the same time describing Inhumanity accurately, you contradict yourself. You even described people being outcasts and freaks because of their race and tried to explain that it was not racial discrimination, and totally ignore that defining aspect of mutancy as a similarity. No one in this thread is saying it will be exactly the same or that the mutants will be go away in any way shape or form. But it is very similar, which is really odd, because as you observe, the Inhumans were absolutely nothing like that until now. That's a strong coincidence. Now it turns out that the MCU is in need of mutants, or a mutant-like origin, and they have the rights to the Inhumans and they want to make an Inhumans film and they've shown previously that they will push future films as comics. That's a lot of coincidence to shrug off, too much for me, personally.

The only difference is one was evolution and one was genetic engineering by an alien race (which marvel evolution is sometime described as anyway). It's purely an academic distinction. The effect, on the individuals especially, but even on the elite of that race and on society as a whole is almost exactly the same.