5 Times The Inhumans Were Not Heroes

At the time you are reading this, The Inhumans special will probably have already debuted in IMAX. The Inhumans are a complex group of characters which I’ve talked about here and here. If you know nothing about the Inhumans, I suggest you read these for a brush-up on the characters.

While the X-Men tackled issues like racial inequality and gay rights, teaching people that people aren’t freaks just because they’re different, The Inhumans came more from an angle of respecting and cooperating with others even if they are from a completely different society – even if you don’t get along. And boy, do the Inhumans and humans not get along.

Lets take a look at some of the most… questionable… things that the Inhumans did, all for the perceived betterment of their people.

5. Genocide and usurping

Secret Invasion had just happened, and Black Bolt was replaced with a Skrull look-alike. The Skrulls tried to kill the Inhumans, and had kidnapped Black Bolt and his son Ahura, torturing the king while his son watched. They were mad. I get it.

Deciding they would remain a neutral party no longer, the Inhumans went against Crystal’s wishes and decided to become what their Kree creators intended them to be: a weapon. Amplifying his voice, Black Bolt almost single-handedly wiped out all the Skrulls remaining in the galaxy after the invasion. That’s an entire race of an aliens. They then destroyed Shi’ar fleets before deciding to fly to Hala, the homeworld of the Kree, and attacked them until the Kree leader Ronan the Accuser bent the knee and allowed the Inhumans to rule them.

4. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the T-Bomb

The Inhuman-led Kree got in a war with the arguably worse Vulcan-led Shi’ar, aptly titled the War of Kings. Keen on ending the war, Black Bolt, Medusa, and Karnak devised a plan (one that Crystal again opposed). Remember on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. when the villain Hive tried to detonate a Terrigen bomb that would turn everyone into Inhumans so there would be no more fighting? That’s exactly what the so-called heroes tried to do to end the war, even though the Guardians of the Galaxy warned them that doing so would tear a hole in time and space.

Crystal was able to deactivate the Terrigen dispenser and escape in time, but the bomb still detonated, killing Black Bolt and Vulcan and – who would have guessed? – tore a hole in time and space, causing mutated monsters to pour out of a dimension called the Cancerverse, ultimately leading to the death of Nova, Star-Lord and Thanos while closing the rip.

3. The T-Bomb… Again

Never learning his lesson, the resurrected Black Bolt tried to kill the resurrected Thanos (remember kids, no one stays dead in comics) by detonating another T-Bomb on Earth. Doing so failed to kill Thanos, but it did coat the world in Terrigen mist, activating new Inhumans all over the world (nicknamed Nuhumans) including Ms. Marvel and Thanos’ son Thane.

The mist eventually formed into dense clouds toxic to mutants, killing Cyclops and Multiple Man and infecting others such as Rogue and Dazzler. When the X-Men destroyed one of the clouds to save their species, the Inhumans retaliated in another full-scale war, the Inhumans vs. X-Men (or IvX).

2. Writing their enemies out of history

The just and respected former king of the Inhumans decided that the ancient tool the Slave Engine was too dangerous and terrible for Inhumans to have, and hid it on Earth so that they could never use it again. Unhappy with this development, Black Bolt took the throne by duel and banished the king. His final wishes were that his deeds be remembered, but Black Bolt instead proceeded to write the king and everything he accomplished out of history books forever.

The former king, now known as The Unspoken, wandered Earth plotting to reclaim Attilan, before snapping and decided to use the Slave Engine to try and take over the world. On Attilan, he is all-but-forgotten and is merely a bogeyman used to frighten Inhuman kids.

1. Slavery

What is this Slave Engine that Black Bolt fought to keep, you ask? Well, exactly like Hive’s weapon on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Engine would turn regular humans into Alpha Primitives, mindless ape-like monsters to be used as slaves.

Alpha Primitives are still used on Attilan as slaves, something advocated for by Black Bolt, and have attempted to revolt against the Inhumans several times before being beaten down.

How morally grey do you think the new series will get? Do you prefer something where the heroes and villains are clearly defined? Let us know!